We are all guilty of this blight called Spawn Camping or as Az called it Spawn Trapping. Even the Puggiest of PuG has been on the trapping or camping side at least one time. It’s ugly, it’s not fun, and it’s in dire need of a fix.Azarael wrote:The intent of adding siege to the spawns in scenarios was to prevent spawn trapping, which would give the losing realm absolutely no chance against a winning realm. Siege has been present at the spawns of most if not all scenarios for a long time before now, to deal with that issue. A properly designed game gives multiple exits to the spawn specifically to avoid the spawncamp problem - since Warhammer generally does not, we have to push the campers back with AoE siege.
Siege in scenarios is not movable and never will be, nor should it ever have a range which goes beyond that necessary to prevent spawn :|. I don't think a realm which has such a huge advantage that they are spawn :| should ever come to complain that they are not allowed to spawn :| because of siege cannons.
All of the scenarios offer fast ways to win when you control the map.
Why Cannons in the SC(s) do not work.
The idea of adding more cannons to the spawn points of SCs is a good idea in theory, but horrible in practice. In my experience, even with the cannons blazing away, an organized SC group can withstand the onslaught and simply position and heal through the damage.
Pushing the not-so-organized spawn trapping group out away from the spawn simply delays the inevitable killing spree by a matter of the range of the cannons. Yes, the “underperforming” team can leave the spawn, but they are soon faced with the same group pushing them back to spawn either by respawning or running. We’ve all seen this done back in the old SC days when Kills mattered as much or more than taking the objectives. Let them out, kill them, rinse-repeat.
Currently, the Spawn Trapping is done while one or two players actually run the flag/bauble/etc. to end the SC. Only exceptions are Tor Anroc, Mourkain Temple and Khains Embrace. In TA and MT the Bauble eventually kills the handler. This is a slight inconvenience to an organized group and provides excellent healing numbers for any healer spamming to keep the bauble holder alive. Rezzing the bauble holder and or switching from tank to tank is easy when you have the other team penned in.
Khaines Embrace is different. Its mechanic of the “White Bubble of Death” actually almost resets the scenario so that the underdogs have a chance to get the ball rolling again and score some locks. It’s a soft reset at best if the team outperforming takes up residence in the cave, but a reset of sorts none the less.
I suggest that all objective-based scenarios "Soft Reset" if the following conditions are met:
1. If 80% of one team is within the spawn at the time the opposing side “Caps” both teams are reset, in their entirety, to their respective spawn points and the scenario continues.
a.“Caps” could mean any or all of the following
i. Delivers the item to their own delivery point for points
1. In Black Fire Basin, for example, the “leading” team caps while 80% or more of their opposition is stuck back at their spawn point. The Scenario “soft resets” points are kept, but both teams need to ride back to the center form their spawn points to a neutral flag.
ii. Has taken and held the main objective/bauble and held it on their side for over 2 minutes while 80% of the opposition is within spawn point.
1. In Tor Anroc, for example, the “leading” team holds the bauble while their opposition is stuck fighting back at their spawn point for over 2 minutes. The Scenario “soft resets” points are kept, but both teams need to ride back to the center from their spawn points to a reset Bauble.
2. Same principle applies to “Capping” both points in Cemetery or holding all 3 flags in Nordenwatch.
I do not know if changes like these are even possible, but if they are, this soft reset could end spawn trapping for good and allow even underdog teams a chance to pull off a win against stronger opposition.
The alternative "soft reset" would be to allow the cannons at the SC spawn points scale up in damage and range in relation to the amount of time that 80% of the SC groups were stuck at spawn. If after 1-2 minutes of spawn trapping, the cannons hit so hard as to wipe a group, this would be another way of “soft resetting” the SC.
