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Summary: spawncamping can mean different things to different people, and different forms of spawncamping has different attitudes from different people. Fortunately, the diverse nature of Enemy Territory internet gaming servers complements the diverse nature of opinions - although all of the players cant have all of what they want everywhere, what they want is at least available all of the time (perhaps with a little compromise). The key for admins is to run a server with a policy enforced through both settings and adminning, and for players to use a server with a policy suited to their own preferences. This allows all players to have more or less what they want, desipte the variety of views.

Multi-Player Gaming Ettiquette: Enemy Territory & Spawncamping

"Spawn camping" is a topic few can agree on. Not only wether or not spawncamping is acceptable practice, but also what actions is spawncamping, and what is normal play. There are even various names for it: spawncamping, spawn killing plus spawnraping - and I like to add 'spawnspamming' as a subset. Although the specifics of spawncamping may vary, it is an issue that crops up in multiple games, not least in Enemy Territory, and search of an Enemy Territory forum is certain to find a thread - or dozens of them.


What Is Spawncamping?

It is generally easier to determine what is spawncamping when it is happening to you - or at least, it is easier to decide something is spawncamping; players have a habit of deciding something is spawncamping based on how badly it affects them personally. Spawncamping can probably be defined in a nice dictionary type defination*1, something like "staying around an enemy respawn area in order to attack respawning players". That merely tells you what it is on the most basic level, and does not really help explain much - specifically why it is such a contentious issue. I would loosely define the spawncamping problem as being 'when players have little chance to do anything but die immediately after respawning'.

Determining more exactly wether something is spawncamping (or rather, when it becomes unacceptable, an issue, a problem that may require intervention) in practice is not simple, it varies with: the observer, the map, the players, the team balance, the level of XP, how often and effectively it is performed, even the gametype or the status of the game...

This is still overly simplistic however, as a route through the enemy's spawn is often totally valid (e.g. on Goldrush) and often a totally necessary objective of the map (i.e. a flag). Should players not be allowed to shoot back when making a valid journey? This highlights the camping element, suggesting that the issue is when player(s) are specifically trying to attack respawning players, rather than when trying to dash through and actually hoping that they wont be having to defend themselves from the enemy respawning.

This also brings us onto spawncamping not requiring the attacker to actually be near the spawn. In fact, spawncamping is more of a problem when they are not. Area-effect weapons such as mortar fire, artillery or airstrikes being used on spawns is where the biggest problem associated with spawncamping, especially since it can be done in a way that has massive affect and yet removes the ability of the respawning players to deal with it. This is why many players consider it 'cheap', and find the near-impossibility of dealing with it so frustrating. A few players standing in or near the respawn using SMG's offers an ability for players to deal with it, so it approaches being somewhat fair, if still arguably 'ghey'. Cowardly spamming respawns from afar does not, so I find this "spawn spamming" to be key to the spawncamping problem.

I'm going to distinguish slightly in defining the aforementioned terms for spawncamping, mostly for convenience since in general use they tend to be interchangeable:
  • Spawncamping - the catch-all term for all forms of killing a respawning player, also can imply intent to do it continutally.
  • Spawn killing - killing players respawning, but implying it as a once off.
  • Spawn raping - very heavy spawn camping, to the point where and with the intention of preventing the entire enemy team from leaving their spawn area.
  • Spawn spamming - using area-effect weapons, particularily from afar. In Enemy Territory usually this is through use of artillery or mortar, although also panzer and airstrikes if used repeatedly.


    Is Spawncamping OK?

    This is totally dependent upon the rules of the server - wether these are rules that are written down, set by the admin or simply the way things are done there.

    Gaming is all about entertainment, yours and everyone else on the server. All players have equal 'right' to determine what is aceptable behaviour in the social activity that is online multiplayer gaming, wether they be the "stupid n00b" the "arsehole clannie" or whatever inbetween. That is, up to a point - the admins pay for the server and/or have been given authority by those who do, so actually they are really the only ones who have 'rights' in this respect.

    However, in principle player's views count - and, thankfully, in practice most admins (of good servers anyway) do largely take on the views of players, especially the ones who regularily play there. Taking on the responsibility of managing an environment for people's entertainment does involve some kind of democratic element, and that does mean trying to balance the demands of all views, both those of the majority and the minority. If that sounds a bit poncy, an alternative way of thinking about it is from a business perspective - your server is your 'product', and yes you can do what you like with it but you'd better attact and appease some sort of market or you wont have any buyers. Likewise, if you join someone else's server and then are not happy with the way the game is played there,but most other people generally seem to be, accept that this server is serving a niche market that does not attract you, /quit and move on to one that does.

    In short, respect your fellow man's views, and understand that it is the admin's server.

    Moving away from principle and towards practise, the usual arguments in favour of spawncamping center upon the fact that spawncamping is fine basically because it is possible for anyone to do it within normal play. Further, both teams can do it, so it is a fair tactic. A third point is that if the spawncamping is really so bad, the real fault must be with the team balance since you should be able to fight them off when so close to your own spawn.

    These points are all true at least to an extent. The weaknesses of them however is that both teams cannot necessarily do it, at least not so effectively. Some spawnpoints are vastly easier to camp than the other team's one on the same map - and trying to do it while your own spawn is already being camped is unlikely to result in any success. The team balance point ignores the fact that teams are hardly ever well balanced on public servers, and even if the campers arent voting no to a shuffle, they have a habit of all going back to the better team straight afterwards (note that on votes, players who do not vote are counted as a vote for no, so if a vote requires 51% to pass then you need more than half of all players on the server to actually vote in favour). Further, once a team is being heavily spawncamped, it is very hard to break out in sufficient numbers to really put down the campers and take control of the area before camper reinforcements arrive - especially when there is artillery and mortar fire raining down so players are killed before even having anyone to shoot back at. Players tend to start leaving teams that are being camped, so not only do the player numbers get unbalanced but even with new players joining, there is still an ever increasing gap in experience points - very few players are willing to switch from a strong side to one that can barely make it out of their spawn. Hence, teams that are not badly unbalanced rapidly become so due to heavy spawncamping.

    The key thing to take away from this is that almost every server has different views on spawncamping, which reflects the wide variety of player's opinions on what is spawncamping and wether (or how much of it!) is acceptable. It would be true to say that overall, campaign servers tend to be much more restrictive on spawncamping than stopwatch servers, partially due to the gametype and partially due to the typical player of each - however, never assume either way since servers have wildly differing views.


    Admins: Dealing with Spawncamping/Spamming

    There are several methods for an admin to reduce both the occurance and the effectiveness of spawncamping, especially spawn spamming which I suggested is a key actual problem. Of course, these are merely suggestions of options you can implement to try and tailor solutions to whatever it is you consider to be a problem.

    Firstly there is the obvious, state the rules and try to enforce them. A simple "no spawncamping" or "no spawnspamming" in any of the MOTD, campaign description or rotating banner informs players that there is some form of anti-spawncamp policy on the server, which is effective in itself and anyway it is only fair to give warning. It also adds some authority to players complaining about it, so offenders are more likely to stop when asked to. Similarily, when asking/threatening players to stop or be removed, they will be more aware this is a standard policy of the server and not feel victimised. Note that asking nicely and warning does tend to work better than being aggressive or just kicking players, you can do it with a server message which still hints at you having the authority and the ability to deal with it in a way they would like less (e.g. with rcon: /rcon say "spamming spawns is not allowed on this server, please refrain or you will be kicked. thank you" - spam it in the console a bit to make sure it's not missed during the distractions of combat).

    Secondly there is providing players with some ability to deal with problems via server settings; votes to shuffle teams (vote_allow_shuffleteamsxp "1") might not be passed very often, but they can be the best way to resolve a bad spawncamping situation. Allowing votes to kick players (vote_allow_kick "1") is a mixed bag, since some people abuse it, but can be a resolution for not only unpopular spawncamping but other unwanted behaviour when there is no admin around. Forcing balanced team player numbers is a setting that all public servers should use (g_teamforcebalance "1").

    The third method is to restrict heavy weapons and support fire through server settings, which is a hugely popular method to limit the effectiveness of spawncamping even for servers where it is approved of. Careful consideration also generally increases the fun of the game throughout play. If the server is running 'vanilla' Enemy Territory (etmain, no modifications), the only option available is g_heavyweaponrestriction, which is something of an all-in-one and hence useful, but not very flexible.

    If the server is running ETPro mod however, the g_heavyweaponrestriction function is broken down into 5 seperate commands for much greater flexibility, plus you can limit mines and riflegrenades, although this is less related to spawncamping or spamming. An 8th ETPro command is a very useful one, which can be set to make dead players continue to charge the powerbar normally - instead of automatically filling completely upon respawn (some players would suicide simply ro refil the bar so they can spam more). This setting can both limit spawn-spamming (especially on maps like battery where you can see the enemy spawn almost from your own), but also limits the powerbar available to those being camped, so be careful. The vast majority of ETPro servers tend to use either b_stickycharge 1 or 2.


    Players: Dealing with being Spawncamped/Spammed

    Players have rather less options available, largely they involve carrying out the abilities given to them by the server settings - calling a vote to shuffle, vote to kick and so on. Again though, just asking nicely (or even whining) can tend to work best if there's no way to fight it out, and also ensures the admin is aware of what is happening. Remember that if nobody else on your team seems to be having a big problem with it, perhaps it's just the way it's played there and so really it's just a case of trying to fight it out without whining, or time to find a new server.

    Fighting it out is a player-guide type consideration, so outwith the scope of this document, although I will say this can be surprisingly successful with a bit of luck and team co-ordination (a sceptic might count that as luck also). Accept you're probably going to die, so dont be too bothered about just trying to take with you as many of the campers as possible - airstrikes in particular can not only kill, but force the attackers to move out of comfortable positions and thus provide an opportunity to break the hold.

    Remember to gib dead players! The chief advantage you have while being spawncamped is that you'll respawn in the same place pretty soon, whereas the enemy you gib have to respawn and then take the time to travel there - dont throw that away by letting players be revived, one gib is worth more than 2 kills when there's a medic to revive them.

    Sneaking, or going nuclear and then hiding to sneak the rest, can occasionally provide for completing the objectives while the enemy is too busy at your spawn to notice. Good luck!



    The areas I tend to admin against being spammed on the campaign server can be found here. It is intended just as an example of the rules of one server, based on both my own opinions and trying to balance those of the regular players there. It should not be taken as prescriptive even on that server.



    *1: Indeed, there are some Urban Dictionary definitions: spawn camping, spawn killer and spawnrape. Also there's a Wikipedia entry. (back up)

    • Enemy Territory Advanced Server Guide
    Enemy Territory & RTCW UK