So I've read a lot of stuff about how the Halo 3 respawn system works: Enemy Position, Dead Teammates, Teammates Positions, everything that influences a respawn. So I go ahead make a map, get to doing the spawning on the map. So I place a respawn area in each base and in each of the two rooms. I do a little local test run and lone behold, all my guests only respawn in one of two respawn areas. Not only that but only 4 actual respawn points are used. I try tinkering with spawn order, replacing the respawn areas, nothing changes this occurance. So I remove the spawn areas and publish the map with mediocre spawn placement. So before whining to the forums I try testing the halo 3 spawn system. I made 3 respawn areas, all with a marker such as a dumpster or barrier in each corner to show where the respawn area is. There is also 8 respawn points in each respawn area. So with 3 controllers I go into my map, heres what I found. Halo picks 2 main respawn areas, sheds the rest as emergency. In the respawn area 1 respawn point is picked as a main, another as a backup, and the rest are all placed on the same very low weighting back up. Halo also only takes into account grenades, enemy and teammates position, not all this dead teammates, or looking at hoopla. So I tested further and placed 4 respawn points outside of the respawn areas. I also tried placing a respawn area that covered all of the map Another thing I tried was messing around with the respawn orders. 1 respawn point was given priority over 1 respawn area. Another respawn point was given as a back up if the prioritized respawn point was blocked by a player. Everything else made no impact on respawning. Am I doing something wrong or is halo's respawn system this terrible and hard to work with?
Have you made sure to sink the respawn area into the ground? When first spawned they hover just slightly above the ground, which makes any spawn point on the ground sit just outside of the spawn area.
Hard to work with? Absolutely. Terrible? I'd say no, because it would imply that we know all there is to know about it. It's painfully obvious that we don't. It's a real shame that Bungie hasn't provided us with more information on this subject, which really will make or break a map. Shishka has made more than one comment about writing something up, but seeing as he's a busy man I won't hold my breath. The spawning system really needs to be tailored to the specifics of your map, so it's tough to give any kind of advice without knowing what your intent is. Is it meant to be a Matchmaking style map? If so, my recommendation would be to look for a default map that is similar in style to what you've made and study the spawn/respawn area placement very carefully, down to where you would know where to place points on a blank canvas. As you may already know, not all of the gametypes use respawn areas and the reason depends on the gametype. Non-objective gametypes like TS, Oddball and KOTH don't use respawn areas at all; the reason being that you should spawn around teammates based on their location, if they have a power weapon, and the amount of perceived danger they are in. I'm of the current opinion that respawn areas were offered in these gametypes anyway for more custom gametypes, and not for Matchmaking-grade maps. Sorry if I rambled on and not offered any more information than you already knew. If you can give more specifics to your map then I might be able to give better help.
@ Draw the Line: Wow I never knew that and could in fact be my problem. Especially seeing how the 2 spawn areas that were working in my real map had their bottom's adjusted because they sat on top of objects. @ squidhands: This question isn't really map specific, it was more a question about the respawn areas themselves. EDIT: Ok, I tested it out. That was the cause of my problems. Also learned many new things. Respawn areas have the same AoE (area of effect) around them that respawn points do. So if you place a respawn area a few feet away from another one they will still effect each other. This explains why respawns in my middle area were so rare. Another thing, a players position counts many more times then a teammates dead body, and they in fact have very little weighting in comparison.