This is a long read. Excuse the loquaciousness. So you're off fighting the good fight, pushing back fascists/rebels/xeno scum. You open up your map to check the surrounding areas, and see there's an adjacent or nearby hex that the enemy is taking- oh no! Thankfully, you caught them in time, so they've only just taken your point and started flipping the hex. Sure that your comrades can keep the defense up, you hit the Redeploy button, wait the few seconds, and get ready to drop in on the hex under attack, take out the few enemies who thought they'd be sneaky and keep the influence. But wait, what's this? You can't spawn there, for no real reason other than "the game says you can't." For those of you who are too slow to figure out the point I am making, I have put together a handy reference image, compiled in three hours in Paint.Net using a screenshot I took and a text overlay. Fig. 1. 'But what do the letters mean? Hurr duurrr wait I can't read.' Well listen up, son, 'cause I'm about to tell you. Now, in the above image, I was fighting to the northwest when I saw the enemy (in this case, TR cronies) taking Scarred Mesa Skydock. The base was almost captured already, and I knew I wouldn't reach in time, so I instead chose to spawn at Tawrich Tech Plant's southeast outpost (A). I again opened the menu and redeployed, ready to spawn at Red Ridge Communications to cut off the enemy. Oh, I can't. To sum this up: A is where I currently am, or at least where my spandex-clad body lies, with the redeploy screen open. B is the location of Scarred Mesa Skydock, which the TR have just taken. C is Lost End Outlook, a base that I can spawn at. D would normally be Red Ridge Communications' spawn room. Instead, in this scenario point D isn't anywhere in particular, it is just a convenient point a very short way from points A, B and C. In fact, it is closer to point A than C is! E is another hex that I cannot redeploy into from my current location. E could also appear further north at Blackshard Iridium Mine, as much like Red Ridge and S-O Training Camp, it is unavailable yet there are nearby hexes that are a greater distance away that can be spawned at. So what's the deal? What is the bases for redeploy availability? I thought it was distance, but the above example obviously disproves that. I thought it might be enemy activity, but then why is Blackshard unavailable despite having a [NO ACTIVITY] tag (along with other testing showing this isn't the case). Perhaps it is based on adjacent hexes? That can't be it, or both Red Ridge and S-O Training would be available while Lost End Outlook wouldn't be. I'd just like to know what, exactly, governs if a base is 'available.' All too often my cross-map redeploying makes me ask, 'Can I spawn there?' instead of, 'How long will it take me to get there?' tl;dr: The map on the Redeploy screen makes little sense when attempting to figure out where one can redeploy, and I'd like to know why it uses such a mysterious and unknown system.
I've heard people say you need a PhD to play Eve-online. I think if ever you needed a PhD it was to understand the spawn mechanics in this game. I can't tell if it's making some sort of sense or largely luck/randomised. A week ago, I hacked a vehicle terminal as an infiltrator, spawned a sunderer and parked it behind a building a little north of the tower. I re-equipped and went back in, killed a few guys then died. On the deployment screen, I couldn't spawn at my own sunderer (yes it had AMS and was deployed). Despite dying 100-150m away from it. Earlier today, I was defending the Stronghold, having to make suicide engineer AT runs to stem their assault, but when I died, not 100m from the spawn room, I couldn't re-deploy there. I just stared at the screen for a solid 10 seconds expecting it to go 'only joking, you can spawn here really' when I realised it wasn't going to happen, and to just let the enemy take it. If ANYONE can make sense of the spawn mechanic, dev input or just some clever clogs who happens to have figured it out, please for the love of human progression/terran rule/freedom explain it to us.
I literally agree with every point you have made. I have an analytical mind, which immediately set itself to figuring out the redeploy map and its rules when I first started playing the game. Obviously I now know better. After tearing my face off with frustration I came to realise there is very simple rule behind it all. It's called inconvenience. The green dots appear where you don't want them to. The trick is to pretend you don't want to go to scarred mesa skydock. And Ta da. A dot will appear. Your welcome. Oh and if anyone does actually know, I promise never to c4 your sundy again.
I agree as well - the spawn system is bugged I think. There are even times I can't redeploy to the warpgate (really?). The most common annoyance is deploying a sundy up on a cliff overlooking a building, only to find out after you die that you can't spawn there for some mysterious reason.
Pesky useless incomprehensible redeploy mechanics... makes as much sense as the auto-resupply "feature"!
I don't have time at the moment to read the whole post, but do know redeploy is affected by at least two factors, one is where you died and the other is where your squad/platoon waypoint is set. Not sure about instant-action deploy. My guess is areas that are being attacked/defended and possibly spawn beacons in that area.
Also why don't locations show up until you scroll down the list if there are too many locations to fit in the spawn window? Often I hear people asking "why cant I spawn at the warpgate?!" friggen stupid.
I've died 100-150m from a spawn point, and it's not been on the window or list. I could spawn at an adjacent base (that was on the other side of wall seperating the canyons or somewhere 2.5km away.
Hmm.. I'm sure part of it is where you died. Maybe it has something to do with how long its been since someone from your team has been there? I'm thinking maybe there's some kind of timer when if someone doesn't visit/spawn at the base for a certain amount of time you can no longer spawn there. Just a guess.
It is on these forums, where most thread OPs are about four sentences max asking for something to be nerfed, buffed or removed.
Then there's those times where you've clicked a location on the spawn map, seen it selected in the list... 4 seconds later you click to spawn and... oh, you've spawned at a completely different location, because the spawn list updated just before you hit spawn (EVEN THOUGH the spawn point you wanted IS STILL AVAILABLE).
About the warp gate spawning, that should never happen. Sometimes your factions owns so much territory that you need to scroll down the list of available points and the WG will pop up as available.
