TF2 Spawn Time Preferences (Take 2)

[Stevo]

This is a new poll to gauge the community's preference for spawn times in TF2. Please answer honestly and only once.

Currently the majority of our servers have fast respawns. This is because it was the most popular preference when the servers were established, and continues to be as of the last time we checked. It is possible that the popular opinion of the community has changed (just as the game itself has changed drastically). So that's the reason for this poll.

Fast repawns are manually configured on a per map basis to try to keep the game as balanced as possible while reducing wait times. A common misconception is the both teams always have the same spawn times, which ruins attack and defend maps. The truth is that offense always has a much shorter spawn time than defense, which is the case with stock respawns as well.

However, valid arguments for stock respawns are that they adjust based on the current situation to control game flow and they spawn players together in waves to promote teamwork.

[Peahats]

i prefer fast respawn, but i believe that it should be just a bit longer

[Jesus_Faction]

I value every spawn I take and do my best to maximize my survivability, and I think stock respawns would help enforce that behavior into others. Fast respawns encourage more reckless behvaior for better or for worse. Fast respawn typically also makes it a lot harder for the attackers to win since their window of opportunity after clearing the defenders out is a lot smaller.

[MateoTheBold!]

I also prefer stock respawns, but I can see why we use the fast respawn times. It makes sense to use the community preference (which is fast).

[Bronze Fox]

I'm with Jesus, stock actually let's the attacking team win A/D.

[Eggers]

I don't really see an imbalance considering the spawn times defeating to offensive team. I normally play on the Dustbowl server and I would say the attacking team wins at least 50% of the time. I think that the respawn times now balance boredom of spawning and fair play

[Plinko]

I've always preferred stock spawns, about a quarter of the reason I play on TV8 is because the massive walk time after the spawn time to get to the front is a sort of de facto stock spawn.

I voted for stock, but I think sincerely if we implement them it should be on one more server and see how it goes. I've been playing on TV3 here and there and enjoying the stock spawns. It might be worth considering converting TV1 to a server that has 24-player stock again and see if it also draws in players the way TV3 has.

[jav]

i prefer stock over fast respawn, but i don't think it changes personal playstyle at all. i am an aggressive player, no matter the spawn times. there's nothing i'd do in fast respawn that i wouldn't do in stock respawn.

stock respawn definitely provides a better flow to the game. coordinating offenses is harder when people are trickling to the front lines one by one. defensively, it downplays the importance in keeping a sentry up since you can quickly rebuild with little disruption to your team's overall defense (assuming your average ranged sentry destruction).

also, fast respawn can definitely be a turn off to your average server-goer. i dont touch any 32 player server and i know people treat fast/instant respawn servers the same way.

[black_and_blue]

I explained how stock respawns work and will again because there's new people here since then.

With stock respawns, players spawn in waves. The map creator configures how often a respawn wave occurs.

When a player dies, the player is assigned to the second wave after the player died. This means that the player will wait, at a minimum, the amount of time configured by the map creator. At a maximum, the player will wait just under double the respawn wave timer.

For example, if spawn waves are configured to occur every 10 seconds and I die with 7 seconds to the next spawn wave, I will wait 17 seconds to respawn.

Our accelerated spawns do not work in waves. They set an exact amount of time that a player waits to respawn. If we configure it to 12 seconds for a team, a player who dies will wait exactly 12 seconds for the next respawn.

In both cases (stock and default), the clock starts immediately upon death; it includes the time it takes to show who kills you.

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Because of the different way that the spawn systems work, it may actually be reasonable to set our fast respawn timer to a value higher than those of the spawn waves. In such a scenario, our accelerated timer would serve as a guarantee that the player would wait no more than a certain amount of time, but the player could still respawn earlier if the respawn wave happened first; the player will respawn based on whichever timer hits zero first.

For example, spawn waves are set to 10 seconds and our accelerated respawns are set to 15 seconds. If a player dies with 7 seconds to the next spawn wave, so stock respawn for that player would be 17 seconds. Our accelerated timer is 15 seconds, so the player spawns after 15 seconds.

In another example, the player dies with 3 seconds to the next spawn wave, so a stock respawn would take 13 seconds. Our accerated timer is 15 seconds, but stock respawn occurs first, after only 13 seconds.

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I voted for fast respawns, but my preference really is map dependent. I usually find that my patience is starting to run out after about 15 seconds. As such, my preference is to find a nice balance where we can guarantee that nobody will ever wait more than 15 seconds to respawn. For maps with spawn waves every 8 seconds or less, we do not need accelerated respawns at all.

For maps with stock respawns of 9 seconds or more, set the defending team to accelerated spawns of 15 seconds and reduce the attacking team as necessary to maintain the balance. If it's not attack/defend, set both teams to 15 seconds.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

I prefer the stock spawn system if possible, and voted for that. I understand why fast spawns are used to keep people from getting bored between deaths.

I think spawning people in waves is better for teamwork, though, as most of the time people don't wait around on individual spawns, instead immediately returning to the front lines alone.

[crimsonshootingstar]

I think faster respawns are better. They give lower skill players who die a lot more chance to play and a better chance of overcoming higher skill players since they don't have as much time to recuperate and set back up after each assault.

[Flash]

I have no complaints with our current system. However, since I've never played TF2 anywhere else I really have no experience with stock respawn timers.

[Boss Llama]

My preference in non-competitive settings, where you almost assuredly have dead weight on your team, is fast respawns. Long respawn times on a pub are like punishment to those who endanger themselves to help the team, while allowing those who sit back and hide to continue playing and padding their meaningless stats. It is hard enough as it is to convince the legions of new folks and death-matchers to join a push, and will be even harder if every death means waiting 20-25 seconds to get back in to the action. People who help the team already spend half their play-time returning from spawn. Having a longer spawn time would be torturous.

[Guardian]

I perfer stock respawn times. Jesus covered all the reasons why.

[abiscuit]

Fast respawn. Because, fast respawn.