Favorite spawnrooms

Deodorant

L6: Sharp Member
Oct 31, 2011
263
214
Story is perhaps the wrong word. Thundermountain has such a strong sense of place, to me.

Gameplay-wise, splitting teams up too much is generally not good, particularly when it happens at spawn.
Ah, I thought you meant something like the bomb cart conveyor room on.. Gold rush? Right? Hm, embarrassing.

Moving on, it doesn't really have to split up the team. Look at nucleus, for example. There's one obvious main exit which most people use by default, and then there are two side exits for leaving stealthily and bypassing spawncampers.
 

Aki

L4: Comfortable Member
Nov 2, 2009
155
8
I feel like this is a wonderful thread about favorite spawn rooms, that you might try and emulate in your own map.

That was what I was looking for a discussion of. Maybe I should have made that more clear first post.
 

oolibokee

L1: Registered
Jun 17, 2011
25
2
I think plr_hightower has a really interesting spawn layout. One spawn room, with a main central exit and two long hallways before side exits, and team-specific doors at the end of each. The way the last point plays out the winning team MUST "control" the main spawn entrance, and preferably the sniper deck entrance as well, but the team-specific doors and the third exit prevents it from feeling campy.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Why don't you guys like the spawns at 2fort? The spawns aren't placed very well but they look good. The vents look really gorgeous.

If you ignore the animated doors that still have their dynamic shadows turned on. *sigh* And the detailers were doing so well, too.

And speaking of Capture the Flag, Doublecross has pretty good spawn rooms. Well detailed, rare use of a two-story design, direct access to the underground route, and one-way windows to allow the team to get their bearings and prevent spawncamping — not just the door, but the huge windows on the wall as well.
 

C00Kies

L3: Member
Sep 20, 2009
132
58
Aesthetically, I like it when the spawns look like they have a job, the're meant to be there as part of the story the map is telling. Some spawn rooms look like they were obviously just just 4 walls, a ceiling, and a floor tossed in there for the need of a spawn and then, maybe if there lucky, get detailed.

I also like when the details inside the spawn tell a story themselves. For example, Upward's spawn with the gondolas (i guess you'd call them) bringing up the bombs from the blu cargo ship down below -- how else are you gona get a war head up a steep cliff face without anyone noticing? A more subtle example is, like what I said before, the resupply locker on the hand truck in Frontier. Obviously that little cave is just a dump for some unwanted dirt dropped through a hole in the ceiling. But blu decided to wheel a resupply locker in to it and use it as a spawn room. This goes along towards many other ideas, the ambulances, the air boat in Mt. Lab, the blu box car in junction dropping off troops, and many more.

This obviously has nothing to do with game play, but its just these nifty little gimmicks that make me laugh and appreciate the gumption of the mappers who come up with them.
 

oolibokee

L1: Registered
Jun 17, 2011
25
2
Aesthetically, I like it when the spawns look like they have a job, the're meant to be there as part of the story the map is telling. Some spawn rooms look like they were obviously just just 4 walls, a ceiling, and a floor tossed in there for the need of a spawn and then, maybe if there lucky, get detailed.

I also like when the details inside the spawn tell a story themselves. For example, Upward's spawn with the gondolas (i guess you'd call them) bringing up the bombs from the blu cargo ship down below -- how else are you gona get a war head up a steep cliff face without anyone noticing? A more subtle example is, like what I said before, the resupply locker on the hand truck in Frontier. Obviously that little cave is just a dump for some unwanted dirt dropped through a hole in the ceiling. But blu decided to wheel a resupply locker in to it and use it as a spawn room. This goes along towards many other ideas, the ambulances, the air boat in Mt. Lab, the blu box car in junction dropping off troops, and many more.

This obviously has nothing to do with game play, but its just these nifty little gimmicks that make me laugh and appreciate the gumption of the mappers who come up with them.

The ability to consciously notice this type of little detail is the best thing I have gotten out of the time I have spent making maps. I fully realize that I may never even finish a map, let alone have one go official, but I now notice and appreciate the details of maps like never before. Both for gameplay (cover, sightlines, high ground, alternate routes) as well as the aesthetics.
 

3Dnj

Ducks
aa
Dec 21, 2008
288
638
Aesthetically, I like it when the spawns look like they have a job, the're meant to be there as part of the story the map is telling. Some spawn rooms look like they were obviously just just 4 walls, a ceiling, and a floor tossed in there for the need of a spawn and then, maybe if there lucky, get detailed.

I also like when the details inside the spawn tell a story themselves. For example, Upward's spawn with the gondolas (i guess you'd call them) bringing up the bombs from the blu cargo ship down below -- how else are you gona get a war head up a steep cliff face without anyone noticing? A more subtle example is, like what I said before, the resupply locker on the hand truck in Frontier. Obviously that little cave is just a dump for some unwanted dirt dropped through a hole in the ceiling. But blu decided to wheel a resupply locker in to it and use it as a spawn room. This goes along towards many other ideas, the ambulances, the air boat in Mt. Lab, the blu box car in junction dropping off troops, and many more.

This obviously has nothing to do with game play, but its just these nifty little gimmicks that make me laugh and appreciate the gumption of the mappers who come up with them.

you just write my thought :)

And I think Blu spawn in attack map like dustbowl, gravelpit, etc... need to have a good looking and, why not, a bit of gameplay (some space you can jump or shoot) because players have to wait more than one minute and they need to do something during this time.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Why don't you guys like the spawns at 2fort? The spawns aren't placed very well but they look good. The vents look really gorgeous.

I agree, but most people don't notice because most of the detail is on the ceiling, which is the last place people pay attention to. Many of the details are way more subtle, like the locker room mist, the shower head ambience that plays every now and then, the secondary doors that protect spawning players from stray projectiles that makes it through the first door. They may not have a detail room through a window, but they're just about right in many ways.

Other than that, goldrush's first stage for blu is good, yes.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Speak for yourself. I had to go into Upward myself to see what you were all talking about with the gondolas. I literally never noticed that before, because of all the other detailing distracting me. I also had to look at Junction because I'm pretty sure it's been several lifetimes since I've actually played it at this point.
 

Crash

func_nerd
aa
Mar 1, 2010
3,315
5,499
Not to mention these types of conversations are very valuable to new members who haven't noticed all these things before and have screenshots to back them up.

Not everyone knows everything about the maps.
 

friken_chiken

L1: Registered
Apr 9, 2012
3
0
I personally think that cp_manor has the worst spawn rooms, but I think the complexity of the map itself makes up for the spawning areas... Also Aki, if you want I can make you a few spawn areas, you can just message me and I will make them to your standards, plus you can take all the credit for them!
 
Mar 20, 2012
391
806
pl_upward BLU spawn and the BLU spawns in Thunder Mountain are my favorites. While spawn rooms don't need to be miraculous works of mind-blowing architecture, I do enjoy a bit of storytelling and detail work. If players have, say, a minute to a minute and a half to spare as they wait for the map to begin, why not give something worth smelling the roses for?
 

Miauw62

L1: Registered
Aug 26, 2011
29
8
The BLU thundermountain spawns are just plain awesome.
There is no discussing that.

EDIT:

Upward first blu spawn comes at my second, its a really neatly made map, with some balcony's (not balconys, but you know what i mean) that dont really serve a function, yet they make the spawnroom so much more intresting.
 
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