Spawning

Where a player appears when they join a match and every time they respawn. Server only; all of it lives in ASLGameModeBase and the world-free SLSpawnSelection.

#1. Why we don't use the engine's pick

• AGameModeBase::ChoosePlayerStart picks a random free PlayerStart and ignores where anyone is.

• Worse, AGameModeBase::ShouldSpawnAtStartSpot is true whenever the controller has a StartSpot, which it

always has after joining. So every respawn went back to the player's first start for the whole match, and an enemy soon learned to wait there.

#2. How a start is chosen

1. Respawns clear StartSpot (ASLGameModeBase::RespawnAtNewStart), so FindPlayerStart asks

ChoosePlayerStart again each time.

1. Free starts only. A start a pawn can't stand at is skipped, as the engine does. A "Play from Here" start

in PIE, or a level with every start blocked, falls back to the engine's pick.

1. Each free start is described (DescribeStart) from the living pawns:
• distance to the nearest enemy
• how many enemies have a clear line from their eyes to the start's eyes or body (ECC_Visibility)
• teammates within TeammateRadius
• whether it is near where this player last died
• how long since anyone spawned there
• whether it is where this player spawned last time

1. Scored (SLSpawnSelection::Score), then picked at random among the best: every start within

PickTolerance points of the top score (SLSpawnSelection::GetBest). Random so nobody can learn where an enemy will appear.

An enemy is anyone not on the player's side (SLTeams::AreTeammates), so a free-for-all needs no special case. Dead pawns count as nobody.

#3. Tuning

FSLSpawnScoring on the game mode, under **SystemLink	Spawning**. Every term is in points:

Setting	Default	Effect
EnemyDistanceWeight / SafeEnemyDistance	100 / 3000 cm	Points for distance from the nearest enemy, full at the safe distance
EnemySightPenalty	200	Per enemy who can see the start; outweighs any distance on purpose
NearbyTeammateBonus / TeammateRadius	25 / 1500 cm	Per teammate nearby, so a team respawns together
LastDeathPenalty / LastDeathRadius	100 / 1000 cm	Come back somewhere other than where you died
RecentSpawnPenalty / RecentSpawnSeconds	150 / 3 s	Two players dying together don't share a start
RepeatPenalty / RepeatMemorySeconds	60 / 30 s	A used start loses points that fade to nothing over the memory, so the same few starts aren't reused
OwnLastStartPenalty	40	A player doesn't come back where they last spawned
PickTolerance	25	How close to the best a start must be to be picked

#4. Joining

A player's team is assigned before Super::InitNewPlayer, which picks their first start, so in a team game it can already favour teammates. At the start of a lobby match the countdown holds everyone still, so a first spawn in sight matters less than a respawn.

#5. Testing

• SystemLink.SpawnSelection.* automation tests cover the scoring and the pick.

• Sight lines and distances in a real level need a LAN or split-screen match: respawns should land at

different starts, and never in an enemy's view when a hidden start exists. A "Play from Here" start bypasses all of this.