Spawnkilling

Spawnkilling — is a term used to describe killing (fragging) someone inside a spawnroom. Even though Deus Ex has a protection against spawnkilling, which is called "immunity effect" (or "blue shield"), many players still complain about spawnkilling as this effect doesn't give enough time to pick weapons and resist. At the same time many players don't believe in such thing and consider it an excuse to justify slowness of their victims. Some admins ban for this and some publicly allow it. 

The authors of Knowledge Base don't thrust anyone's opinion on this subject and below you will see arguments of players from both parties.

Is spawnkilling a "sin"?

• It is extremely frustrating if you are the victim and very boring if you are the comitter. —Baleout
  
  
• Seeing as not everyone can counter spawnkilling effectively, I see spawncamping as a sin. Spawnkilling however happens all the time, and usually isn't done on purpose. —Clix
  
  
• I don't see spawnkilling as a sin because almost in all the cases any player could avoid being killed and even successfully resist to an attacker. Blue shield gives enough time to take weapons and even to run out of the spawnroom to find. Moreover, in many cases the attacker is weakened before he or she reaches the spawnroom, while the potential victim of spawnkilling has a medkit when he or she spawns there. Yes, it may require faster thinking, just like every aspect in multiplayer. Newbies won't really suffer from spawnkilling if the teams are balanced (accordingly to scores, of course).  —Daedalus
  
  
• Under certain circumstances. Like if it was done repeatedly. —Kaiden
  
  
• The blue protection thing should give you enough time, so for me there is no such thing as "spawnkilling", spawncamping however is a whole different story. —MastaKilla
  
  
• If you're good enough, you can avoid sk'ing (except in Iceworld with a lot of people). However, it's not good for the newbies starting out, they'd just get pissed off and leave, a longer shield time would be better methinks... —Klepto

• I can't really say it's a sin. It's an annoyance, but not a sin. —Cataclyzm

• Unfortunately players seek high scores not high honour, therefore spawnkilling, excessive use of force, using LAW against spawnrooms, planting lams in spawnroom doors and exits will always exist.
  One point people should consider — maps like Tunnel Network, Damnation Alley and Galaxy are designed to encourage spawnkilling. Each team is given a small base with everything they need, a turret, nades, bio, med etc...
  Therefore it is perfectly acceptable to attack the enemy base. But remember, in real life too, the victor knows when to stop killing, like on the Basra road in 1991, but in Deus Ex unfortunately there is no team objective and people chase high scores...therefore there is no reason to stop a spawnkilling.
  I prefer to gain respect than the highest score, however I have been spawnkilled so many times that I do as I have been treated and I am a spawnkiller until further notice.
  The important thing to remember is that the new player has not probably even fired one shot. He left the spawnroom and got sniped immediately, he is wondering how he is ever going to improve unless he can get into a fight and duel and see the effect of his aim and tactics, etc...
  There's spawnkilling and spawnkilling... I never kill anyone in their spawnroom who is:
  1. Not aware of my presence.
  2. Not in posession a weapon.
  3. Asked me not to.
  So spawnkill all you like, but give the guy a chance... wait until he has noticed you, got a weapon, has prepared to fire, fired a little or a lot at you... Then rip his head off... —ShadowRunner

Is "blue shield" a good enough protection against it?

• Sometimes you don't have enough time to get your weapons before it disappears (Iceworld / teammates standing in way / lagging). Also, if the person is streaked on augs or he is getting a medkit from your body each time, it becomes almost impossible to kill him whereas if you had a chance to go get a lam or whatever you get a chance to stop him. —Baleout
  
  
• Yes, it stays on for 8 seconds or something, long enough one would say. Problem however is, that when you take out a gun, the blue shield vanishes, usually rendering new people useless against spawncampers. This would be hard to fix though, seeing as you can't just let the blue shield go on when someone takes his gun out, that would be completely unfair, as there's a big chance someone's less than 8 seconds away from your spawn. —Clix
  
  
• Blue shield gives enough time to take weapons and run out of the spawnroom. —Daedalus
  
  
• It depends if it's been altered. The time of it can be changed. 8 seconds is ok, but as you usually spawn right next to guns, the shield disappears instantly really. —Kaiden
  
  
• I'd say that the blue protective shield is a fair defence, but when someone's camping a spawn with a GEP, just waiting for that shield to drop, to pull whatever trigger the GEP has, that's just really annoying IMO. I'd say that's spawnkilling, else, the shield is adequate protection. —Allan
  
  
• The spawn protection shield doesn't protect you at all really, all you need is some ass standing behind you with a shotgun ready to blow your brains out. —Gishank

• Hey, you got like 20 seconds of invulnerablity. Use it. —Cataclyzm

• I don't understand the question about the shield. It lasts 15 seconds and then you are fair game. If you happen to be still standing in your spawnroom without a weapon, then you are still fair game. —ShadowRunner

Would you ban for spawnkilling if you were admin?

• If someone was doing it repeatedly then warn, if he doesnt stop then kick, if he comes back again and does it more bancake. —Baleout
  
  
• Only if the current players in the server aren't good enough to avoid it. Of course I'd warn the guy before a ban obviously, and probably even a kick, to show I meant it. —Clix
  
  
• I wouldn't ban nor for spawnkilling, nor for spawncamping. Spawncamping is definitely a "sin", but such thing never occures when the teams are balanced. In a certain sense it's admin's fault. —Daedalus
  
  
• Warn-kick-ban. —Kaiden
  
  
• I wouldn't kick someone for spawnkilling because I agree with those who said that blue shield thing should give adequate protection to get out of the spawn area. —Psychotic

• Nah. Spawnkilling isn't something that's worth a ban. Kick the spawnkiller if he annoys you. —Cataclyzm

• At the end of the day, I agree with Clix and Kaiden — it needs to be moderated. But don't get silly, are you gonna kick people for shooting people who are lying down? Are you gonna kick someone who uses only plasma repeatedly? Are you gonna kick someone for winning, being a threat, deceiving the enemy, exploiting enemy weakness?
  No I wouldn't ban it, assuming the map is Smuggler. It's asking for trouble to do that, sometimes it is necessary to spawncamp, or be near the enemy spawn, you can't ban spawnkilling as long as teamkilling and unbalanced teams exist. If the rest of my team is AFK ("away from keyboard") or teamkilling and I am the only one giving a serious fight, and let's say the enemy team has an elite player doing all the killing, while his team chat, why should I not be allowed to catch them with their pants down? It's part of war... Do you think Hitler said: "No, we won't bomb the RAF in their bases, we'll wait till they have dropped their bombs on us!" Don't make me laugh... ban? how? —ShadowRunner

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