The Spawn Point, often spelled Spawnpoint and sometimes referred to as the Start Point, is a simple logic object that determines where players can spawn within a game and where builders can spawn within a project. Every project requires that there be at least one spawnpoint present.
Usage[]
Basic Spawning Mechanics[]
Spawnpoints dictate where players spawn within a game and where builders spawn within a project. Players and builders can only spawn where there is a spawnpoint.
Upon entering a game, a player must spawn (or "start out") at a spawnpoint. It is at a spawnpoint that a player first appears upon entering a game. The same goes for builders in projects: a builder initially appears at a spawnpoint upon entering a project.
After first spawning in a game, a player may have to respawn in the future. Upon death, the player is sent to a spawnpoint, where he or she remains invisible until he or she decides to re-enter the game by clicking "Play." Upon clicking "Play," the player reappears at a spawnpoint, and thus "respawns." A player may purposefully respawn by intentionally dying, by clicking the 'Respawn' button in the GUI menu, or by simply pressing the 'K' button on his or her keyboard. Builders may also press 'K' to respawn.
If there are multiple spawnpoints of the same color in a game, the player will be sent to a randomly selected spawnpoint each time he or she spawns. This is likely based on the same pseudorandom seed as is used by the randomizer, but this has not yet been verified through testing.
Teams[]
Every project starts out with one blue spawnpoint by default. However, there are three other spawnpoint types available in the inventory: red, yellow, and green.
When two or more spawnpoints of different color are present in a game, teams are enabled. That is, players are divided into teams of different colors; the teams available depend on the spawnpoints present. For example, if there are only red and blue spawnpoints in the game, then only the red and blue teams are available. There may be up to four different teams: blue, red, yellow, and green. Teams are used for many things. The following are some characteristics of teams:
- Spawnpoint exclusivity: Players can only spawn at spawnpoints of their team color. For example, a player in red team can only spawn at red spawnpoints.
- Name tag color: Players' name tags are colored to correspond to their team color. For example, a player in blue team has a blue name tag above his or her avatar.
- Protection from friendly fire: Players cannot harm, or be directly harmed by, members of their team through use of weaponry. For example, if a player in green team is shot by another player in green team, the player shot will not sustain any damage from that shot.
- Separate scoreboards: Teams have separate scoreboards, and entire teams share their individual members' victories. If a player in yellow team wins a game by, for instance, capturing a flag, the entire yellow team is credited with the win.
- Private in-game chat: Through use of commands, players may send private chat messages in-game that only other members of their team can read.
If there are no teams, then the above characteristics are removed. All name tags are white, only one scoreboard is used, there is no team-specific chat, and players can directly harm other players through use of weapons.
If there is only one color of spawnpoint present in the game, then there will be no teams in the game. This is true even if the spawnpoints present are not blue.
Advanced Mechanics[]
Orientation[]
Upon creation, a spawnpoint always faces positive blue (in regards to the drawplane tool). If the spawnpoint is rotated, then so will the respawning player. The death screen behaves differently, however. If upon respawning, the player is in the death screen and has not yet clicked "Play," their camera will face positive blue regardless of the spawnpoint's orientation. Upon clicking "Play," the player will be rotated to face the same direction as the spawnpoint.
Team Hierarchy[]
Their is a hierarchy when it comes to handling teams in projects. When entering a project with teams enabled, the builder is always assigned a team by default. There is a natural hierarchy, as evidenced by the fact that the builder is always assigned to Blue Team first if Blue Team is present. This order also comes into play when the builder destroys the last spawnpoint for their team and the system needs to switch them to a different team: if the builder deletes the last blue spawnpoint, he or she will be assigned to Red Team if present. The full order is as follows:
- Blue
- Red
- Green
- Yellow
Since Yellow Team places last, the builder will generally never spawn as a member of Yellow Team: because if Yellow takes over, there won't be any teams at all.
The hiearachy takes precedence in the initial loading of a game or project, and a newcomer will see his or her presence counted toward the member count for the default team. (If the player is alone in a game, before he or she even chooses a team, the system will say there is 1 player in Blue Team.) Despite this, a new player in a game will be asked to choose a team. Also, once a builder enters play mode for the first time, he or she will be asked to choose a team.
Initial Project Spawnpoint[]
There is a bizarre case in which a builder may initially spawn at a Yellow Spawnpoint despite being assigned to Red Team upon entering a project. Upon respawning, the builder will then appear at a Red Spawnpoint. This can occur in two steps: 1) delete every spawnpoint except for a yellow spawnpoint, then 2) create a red spawnpoint. The yellow spawnpoint will remain the default spawnpoint for builders just entering the project, while the Red Team will remain the default team because Red places higher in the hiearchy than Yellow.
The same effect will occur if a Green Spawnpoint is created instead of a Red Spawnpoint: Yellow will become the default spawnpoint, while Green is the default team. If the two teams are Red and Blue, the same can occur: Red will become the default spawnpoint, while Blue becomes the default team.
Strangely, if the above steps are repeated with Green and Red Spawnpoints, Red always takes priority as the default team and spawnpoint. Also, neither Green or Yellow Spawnpoints can take priority over a Blue one.
If class blueprints are used instead of spawnpoints, any team can override a higher team in the hiearachy to become the default spawnpoint in a project.[1]
History[]
- Spawnpoints were likely a feature since Kogama's earliest alpha testing.
- Red, Green, and Yellow spawnpoints were implemented in Version 0.7.7 on May 17, 2012.[2]
- Friendly fire for teams was disabled at some point afterward.
- Friendly fire was later further limited to block any interaction between teammates via weapon.
- A "clone" option was added to spawnpoints on September 30, 2019.[3]