chaosTheory wrote:
The spawn system in halo CE, while always known fairly well by seasoned players, has never been FULLY explained. I've always understood a little more than the average player, but never really took the time to do any real tests and experiments. However, while testing for insidious' new map project, he and I set out to finally figure it out completely. We actually did and this thread is to present what we found, complete with numbers and a very specific educated guess about the process by which the spawn is determined. Insid also helped with some of the wording of this thread, and provided 3 of the 4 included pictures.
The system is pure logic, based entirely on a distance measurement, and then a percentage depending on certain criteria and variables. When a player dies, his next spawn will be in the point closest to his living partner. If there are no spawn points within a specific distance (the game cannot find a spawn close enough), it gives him a random spawn. Using the oddball, we were able to find the exact distance. That magical number is 17.5 meters.
Heres an idea of just how far that is.
We did still have a question - whether or not this distance was static, the same in every map.. Level geometry (walls, ramps, barriers) made it difficult to determine distances, vertically and horizontally. But through testing, we proved that it was not only static, and consistent in each map, but it also goes in every single direction. There are two methods to visualizing this. You can imagine every spawn point on the map as having its own zone, a bubble around it that when penetrated by MC, his partner can spawn there. Or, you can imagine a giant bubble around the living MC, and if that bubble touches any spawn points, his partner can or will spawn there.
For the sake of explanation, I believe it's better to think of each spawn as having a perfect sphere around it. And things start getting tricky when those bubbles overlap. insidious scaled the bubble to the proper size, and as you can see, it is HUGE.
Imagine one this big on every one of the 25 spawn points in prisoner. That is why there are no randoms in priz, there isnt anywhere you can stand that isnt touching one of the "spawn zones." It comes down to which are you closer to.
This is a better picture for the size of the zone because the scale of Hang em high is quite different than priz.
The game doesnt see it as bubbles and zones, it's simply measuring distance. At approximately 1 second before the player spawns (the count starts at Rejoin in 4 so, for normal 5sec spawn games its somewhere between "Rejoin in 1" and "Rejoin in 0"
, Halo begins a search for spawn points within 17.5 meters of the living player. It finds all that meet the criteria, assigns each a percentage based on proximity, and picks its favorite. Then determines a second choice (usually the next highest percent), which is to be used if choice #1 is blocked. Usually, this second choice is another close spawn, because zones overlap everywhere, but can and will be a random if the first choice is the only spawn in the map within the magic distance. If you are dead center between two points, it's pretty much a dice roll. However, if you are even 1 or 2m closer to one than another, the chances increase rather drastically.
Once it has 2 options for a spawn, it searches the first choice for a problem, you see this as "waiting for space to clear." If there is a vehicle or something blocking that point, it goes to the 2nd choice. A more common scenario is an enemy nearby. At about 14 meters away from a spawn point, an enemy has basically no influence on a spawn at that range. However, as he moves progressively closer to the spawn point, that spawn becomes less and less likely. It becomes, for all practical purposes, impossible to spawn if an enemy is 9.5 meters or less from the spawn point. We saw it once in about 40 kills, and never when the enemy was any closer than that. It was about 50/50 in the 12m range. *note, if the enemy is running, he can be much closer than 9.5 meters when the spawn actually takes place, but it is because when the game finished the calculation, he was far enough away. If there isnt another close spawn and the enemy is blocking the only available spot, the 2nd choice that the game determined is a random. This happens a lot in priz, if an enemy blocks a forced spawn, (like bottom to top OS corner, about 12meters) the dead guy gets a random. However, if you're in two or more zones, whichever you are closest to, in any direction is the most likely.
This explains literally every forced spawn, every spawn trick and every random spawn in the game. If you stand on a spawn point to block it, there is often only one close enough and you can force your partner to certain advantageous positions. Once you get this and really get a feel for how and why it works, you can understand it at at new level. Learn the spawn points (there are less than 30 in every map) and start to get a feel for the way it works.
So, as a recap, the game uses logic to pick a spawn point. That logic, in words, is this:
Is the living chief within 17.5 meters of any spawn point?
- Yes, one point. Ok, 100% chance he MUST spawn there.
- Yes, three points. (a percentage value gets assigned to each of the three possible points, heavily favoring a spawn point that's even just a little bit closer). Pick one based on this percentage.
- Yes, two points, but one is being blocked by an enemy. Ok, player MUST spawn in the remaining point.
- Yes, one point, but it's being blocked by an enemy who is 6 meters away from it. Ok, too close, can't spawn there. Randomly choose a spawn from anywhere else in the map.
- No, none are within the range. Ok, pick a spawn at random. (The game chooses from every spawn point on the map that is not being blocked, which explains some randoms that spawn you in a nearby spawn anyway)
