Project Reality Mapping Guidelines: Vehicle Spawn Times

Stu007 · Post by **Stu007** » 2006-02-12 14:29

yes I like this a lot

but scratch the idea that vehicles magically "dissapear" if you step out of them, I think they should only dissapear if destroyed.

Undestroyed vehicles should be where you left them.

Remember what your mother would say, "where did you have it last?"

Peter-SAS · Post by **Peter-SAS** » 2006-02-12 14:37

I'd pretty much agree with all of those times. I think this is a good idea to set out guidlines and mapping standards for PRMM.

Might get out the old editor again and have a go myself. I think its easier for me to think up maps that are suited to AAS.

Post by **JavaMoose** » 2006-02-12 14:39

Yes please! That is the type of thing us mappers need.

Post by **Saobh** » 2006-02-12 14:47

Stu007 wrote:yes I like this a lot
but scratch the idea that vehicles magically "dissapear" if you step out of them, I think they should only dissapear if destroyed.

Undestroyed vehicles should be where you left them.

Well the problem with that is , somone takes a tank is very sneaky and takes the long tour to flank the enemy , gets disconneted / mom calls him for dinner / girlfriend is pissed of ...
your left with a nice healthy tank lost in the middle of nowhere not decaying thus not respawning at your base.

But it could be a good idea to piss off all the people fighting to get to ride the littlebird
( Lol well it already happened in Mashtur when a lone guy flew the LB to the top of Hotel and sat there shooting the enemy, being in the 'safe' distance of it -> no decay -> lots of angry people in a line at a certain base )

Post by **NikovK** » 2006-02-12 15:08

Fixed MGs cannot be destroyed to my understanding. I'll see about changing the vehicle self-destruct numbers a bit, but I'm happy with my spawn times at the moment. Really these numbers come down on a map-by-map basis, what works on a map of my size and pacing might not work on something larger or smaller. Also my light and heavy jeeps are on the same spawn time and the attack helo respawns faster than the transport helos, due to there being more transport than attack helicopters.

Campez · Post by **Campez** » 2006-02-12 15:16

Good idea that would stop all that fighing about a tank, cuz some wuld run away as inf instead

Post by **eggman** » 2006-02-12 15:19

NikovK wrote:Fixed MGs cannot be destroyed to my understanding. I'll see about changing the vehicle self-destruct numbers a bit, but I'm happy with my spawn times at the moment. Really these numbers come down on a map-by-map basis, what works on a map of my size and pacing might not work on something larger or smaller. Also my light and heavy jeeps are on the same spawn time and the attack helo respawns faster than the transport helos, due to there being more transport than attack helicopters.

Agreed there's some map specific context that may require latitude on these values. Not suggesting to restrict anything, more thinking of some guidelines as a starting point and to communicate to players and mappers that vehicle respawn timers in PR are typically going to be very long (relative to Vanilla BF2).

egg

beta · Post by **beta** » 2006-02-12 16:45

Stu007 wrote:yes I like this a lot

but scratch the idea that vehicles magically "dissapear" if you step out of them, I think they should only dissapear if destroyed.

Undestroyed vehicles should be where you left them.

Remember what your mother would say, "where did you have it last?"

I DEFINATELY agree on this.

Well the problem with that is , somone takes a tank is very sneaky and takes the long tour to flank the enemy , gets disconneted / mom calls him for dinner / girlfriend is pissed of ...
your left with a nice healthy tank lost in the middle of nowhere not decaying thus not respawning at your base.

But it could be a good idea to piss off all the people fighting to get to ride the littlebird
( Lol well it already happened in Mashtur when a lone guy flew the LB to the top of Hotel and sat there shooting the enemy, being in the 'safe' distance of it -> no decay -> lots of angry people in a line at a certain base )

This could be a problem, but if your team REALLY needs that tank, why not work as a TEAM and get a guy to escort the tanker to his long lost tank?

I like the times, except for the jet times. I think the jets should take LONGER to respawn than the tanks ... considering the jets kill (depending on the pilot) at least 5 tanks per life ... perhaps 3 minutes for the Fighter, 7 minutes for the Fighter Bomber (arguable the most deadly vehicle on the map).

Post by **eggman** » 2006-02-12 16:49

Did some testing on this and I think the "distance" value needs to be smaller, so I've got it set to 20 meters. and have edited the above post.

egg

Heydude235 · Post by **Heydude235** » 2006-02-12 17:29

good idea i like it

Post by **fuzzhead** » 2006-02-12 23:04

agreed solodude, i would be all for 7 minute respawn times on the 'heavy duty' vehicles.

also, i like a decay timer like you said eggman, although i would up the timer to be about 8 minutes before it explodes... but 20 meter radius sound good.

Post by **eggman** » 2006-02-13 00:51

Hey Gents,

I'll propose a bit of a compromise of some of the ideas posted here. How about the following:

7 MINUTES
Tanks
Attack Helos
Fighter Bombers

4 MINUTES
APCs
AAVs
Transport Helos
Fighters
Fixed AT
Fixed AA
Fixed MG

1 MINUTE
Light Jeeps
Heavy Jeeps
Boats

All vehicles have a "decay" timer of 4 minutes
----- meaning if you abandon a vehicle it will remain on the map for 4 minutes; note that another vehicle will NOT respawn until the 4 minutes is expired

All vehicles have a decay distance of 20 meters
----- meaning the decay timer will not start until a friendly player is more than 20 meters from a vehicle; note that if I am USMC and I stay within 20m of my Hummer, the decay timer will NOT start

Tanks, APCs, AAVs, Helos and Planes are team specific; Light and Heavy Jeeps and Boats are NOT
----- meaning anyone from any team can operate a light jeep, heavy jeep or boat; only players from the same team as the vehicle can operate Tanks, APCs, AAVs, Helos and Planes. I know that most maps are already like this, just want to check in on feedback on "standardising" this as a PR mapping guideline.

How does that look?

egg

beta · Post by **beta** » 2006-02-13 00:54

Sounds good.

I'm still one for the vehicles only respawning after being destroyed (no decay timer), but you can't please everyone

.

Post by **TheRealFritz** » 2006-02-13 04:58

I would suggest to increase the decay time even further.

Post by **fuzzhead** » 2006-02-13 10:02

'[R-DEV wrote:TheRealFritz']I would suggest to increase the decay time even further.

Agreed

6 minutes perhaps (i suggested 8 minutes)

The spawn times sound great though! need to play test however, to see how it will 'flow'

Post by **eggman** » 2006-02-13 16:24

Well I know this will sound lame, but I was trying to keep it simpler than the original post... so as it is now there are 1, 4, 7 minute timers that are relevant.

Almost everything is in the 4 minute category so uh.... to keep my lil brain happy, I went with 4 for the decay timer. If I were to change it, along the lines of simplicity... what about a 7 minute decay timer?

Note that we're pretty dramatically reducing the vehicle availability here... needs play testing, but these are purely server side fixes so this is easy to adjust later.

Also note that we need to specify artillery, UAV and Radar respawn timers. Although we don't use it now, you never know. Personally I don't think these assets should respawn or repair on their own ever. So the respawn times would be something like 3 hours (I've been working with 10,000 seconds).

When I look at this, I think PR needs to consider revamping the scoring mechanism. Vehicles should be worth more to the team and enemy and I think we need to reflect that in the scoring.

egg

Stu007 · Post by **Stu007** » 2006-02-13 17:18

do you really need decay timing?

defeats realism imo

Post by **JavaMoose** » 2006-02-13 18:27

Stu007 wrote:do you really need decay timing?

defeats realism imo

I think it depends on the map design. The map I am working on now could live without decay - just because you can't dump a vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

But, it is helpful on large maps where someone might spend 5 minutes trying to flank the entire map, only to dump a vehicle and go running somewhere to his death. In that case, it is needed.