PlayerStart

UT – not been updated for 2k3 yet

The PlayerStart Actors are part of the path network of any Unreal map. Being a NavigationPoint, each PlayerStart also appears in the navigation point list in the game. Especially, the locations of the PlayerStarts are the location where players are spawned at the beginning of a match or respawned after being fragged.

Map Work

Adding a PlayerStart

To add a PlayerStart in UnrealEd, select it in the Actor browser; it is a NavigationPoint. Now right-click at the floor somewhere in the map where you want your PlayerStart. Chose "Add PlayerStart here" in the context menu. The PlayerStart will be placed 40 UU above the ground.

Number of PlayerStarts

One of the basic mapping mistakes is adding too few PlayerStarts to a multiplayer map. If more players want to start a match than PlayerStarts are available, some will be telefragged because other players are spawned at the same location. Always add more PlayerStarts to a map than players are supposed to play the map at the same time. Replacing some PathNodes by PlayerStarts doesn't hurt because PathNodes just are NavigationPoints which have a texture to see them in the editor.

Don't worry about telefragging other players by doing that; the engine takes care that that doesn't happen.

Properties

The additional properties of a PlayerStart and their default values are:

bCoopStart: (default True)
bEnabled: A PlayerStart is enabled by default; is this is set to False, players will not be spawned there. A PlayerStart can be enabled / disabled by being triggered. See "Triggering PlayerStarts".
bSinglePlayerStart: (default True)
TeamNumber: sets which team can spawn here. See team Number.

Triggering PlayerStarts

A PlayerStart can be enabled/disabled by triggering it. Triggering the PlayerStart just switches the bEnabled property. This is especially useful in Single player and Assault games. As the player advances in the level he will be annoyed if he has to run thru the whole map to get to the action spot each time he dies and respawns. Place the initial playerstart group at the beginning of the level but place additional groups at further parts of the level as well. Set the advanced playerstarts to bEnabled=False. The Tag of the playerstarts in each group should be the same. (eg 1-for the first ro, 2-for the second row etc) When a player reaches a FortStandard (objective) it should trigger a Dispatcher. Open the properties of the Dispatcher and set the OutEvents to the row of playerstarts that are needed to be disabled and the row which needs to be enabled. (1-2, 2-3, etc) So only one group of playerstarts will be active at once.

Alternative PlayerStart

When making a single player map ,you can replace the PlayerStart(s) with some PlayerPawn(s) actor.They will work the same.

This is an easy way to make the player have a distinctive skin or mesh, or other specific attribute.

If you want your SP map to be playable in coop mode it's a good idea to put one playerstart (the one used in single player) and several playerpawns where the coop players will spawn.
If you put several playerstarts ,then your single player would spawn randomly in one of these.

Jimbo: Is it possible to set up a playerstart in a UT2003 map that will only spawn bots at that location and not human controlled players? If so how?

MythOpus: A custom playerstart would do the trick

Foxpaw: I don't think it would. I believe all the player-start selection logic is in the gametype. Although I suppose you could hack it in so if a human player spawns at the playerstart, it would teleport them to a non-bot-exclusive playerstart.

Jimbo: Actually, I wouldn't need such a thing if I could figure out how to create a UTJump pad that can be deactivated temporarily by a trigger. A dispatcher should be able to handle this no?

Tarquin: TriggerJumpPad

Jimbo: You the man, Tarquin! Thanks... but how can I modify this script to have the jumppad switch back on after a specified time delay? Or should the trigger handle this?

Tarquin: You could use a dispatcher to trigger the TriggerJumpPad twice.

SuperApe: I knew that would come in handy. I use the TriggerJumpPad the way Jimbo describes in my map, [BaseIck]. I use a ScriptedTrigger that, among other things, triggers the TriggerJumpPads off and waits a while to re-trigger the them on again. It's part of the "big effect" whereby players shut off power to half the map.