LESSON #3
Stopping Rocket Spam - Part 1Rocket spam is something that can really break your map and sap all the fun out of it. It means there's one rocketman standing in a certain location, shooting in one direction, where he not necessarily sees, but predicts his enemies to be. This is a very effective tactic because of multiple factors: Lag makes it sometimes impossible to avoid rockets, not to mention that many people just plain suck at dodging. But even if there's no lag and you're good at dodging, there's a big chance that there is another enemy and fighting an enemy while dodging rockets can be quite difficult.
So you want to design your map in such a way that rocket spam doesn't become too effective. Ask yourself the following questions to determine the effectiveness of a certain rocketspam position:
- How long will the rockets fly while they are still close to the ground?The longer the rockets travel the likelier it is for them to hit something. However if the rockets are too far away from the ground, then they can't hit people. So don't just look at the pure distance.
- How much room for evasion is on the spammed path? How much cover is there? The rocketlauncher is balanced, because normally you'll be able to avoid many rockets. If the area doesn't leave room to dodge the rockets, said weapon becomes overpowered. So avoid tight passages!
Cover is important because it gives the player time to breath and recover.
- How populated is the spammed path?If almost nobody takes that path, then spamming it won't really yield satisfying results.
- How easy is it to just take another path to the objective or to the rocketman?You won't see much spam in the middle of waterway because it is so easy to avoid.
to be continued
