Lincoln Li - Game Designer
  • Shipped Products
  • Resume
  • Work Samples
    • Vicious Circle - Characters (password)
    • Vicious Circle - Sandbox (password)
    • Vicious Circle - Progression (password)
    • Untitled - Mission Systems (password)
    • H2A Sandbox / Combat
    • H2A Game Modes
    • Doom MP Spawn System
    • MWR Improved Destruction for AC130
    • MWR Audio Scripting
    • Hobby Project - Slacky's Command
  • About Me
    • Design Philosophy
Picture


Overview:
"I also find DOOM's spawn system to be far more intelligent than some shooters – I can't think of an instance where I've spawned and gotten immediately shot in the back." - Jez Corden, Windows Central
http://www.windowscentral.com/doom-review-id-software-reclaims-its-heritage-fps-royalty

Design Goals:
Doom uses more traditionally designed randomized live-spawning systems similar to Unreal Tournament and Call of Duty for their multiplayer matches.

This kind of system has to prioritize:
  1. Reasonable Time-To-Action (seconds) upon Spawning
  2. Balancing Influencer Strengths + Spawn Locations to minimize abuse and unfair spawn placements
  3. Preserve and complement the pace and flow of Level Design movement

Systems Implemented:
- Balancing of spawn influencer values
- Placement of spawners based off influencer strengths
- Use Excel simulations to test out values from live matches using exported data (json)
- Use Excel simulations + Test Values to narrow "problem" spawners 
​
Accomplishment:
  • I spent 3-4 months learning excel and developing this simulation with Engineers and other System Designers to create the optimal way to balance influencers and polish the spawn system
  • Doom ended up with a very polished and balanced spawn system:
    • It has been praised by reviewers and players
    • It has not been a negative experience for those who paid less attention

design considerations

For Spawning: 
  1. Spawned players should be relatively close to their allies in proximity​
  2. Players should have, optimally, a 2-3 second window before encountering enemies upon spawn
    1. The general speed in which humans reorient to new surroundings is 1-1.5 seconds
  3. 1 vs 1 encounters are ideal. 2 vs 1 encounters are okay. 3 vs 1 encounters are bad.
  4. It's better to spawn players behind allies, rather than between friends and foes.
Picture

Tool Explanation

Importing Json File: 
Each match in Doom, regardless of mode variant, allowed us to export json files that contained the spawn data of that match.

I imported these json files into Excel and it was parsed into the key data needed to make informed decisions and simulate events:
  • Reference player
  • Influencer Strength (weighted value)
  • Server Time
Picture
Server Time:
Server Time was important for us to track, because we needed to know several events:
  • When did someone die?
  • When did someone respawn?
These variables allowed us to determine what the pre-existing strengths of influencers were at those moments and track why the system chose certain spawners over others.​
Picture
Image Explanation:
  • Blue squares = allies
  • Red squares = enemies
  • Grey squares = allies that died
  • Yellow square = where referenced player spawned
  • Red/Black #'s = Influencer strengths on spawners
This gives a visual layout and numerical way to analyze the situation at the time of spawn.

In this particular instance, the newly respawned player shows up at the bottom right side of the map, close to his ally at the green arrow. There are several other locations that are viable, such as to the left and right of the corner. However, the spawn influencers helped us understand the best choice it took.
​

Copyright 2021 | Lincoln Li

  • Shipped Products
  • Resume
  • Work Samples
    • Vicious Circle - Characters (password)
    • Vicious Circle - Sandbox (password)
    • Vicious Circle - Progression (password)
    • Untitled - Mission Systems (password)
    • H2A Sandbox / Combat
    • H2A Game Modes
    • Doom MP Spawn System
    • MWR Improved Destruction for AC130
    • MWR Audio Scripting
    • Hobby Project - Slacky's Command
  • About Me
    • Design Philosophy