I've been trying to figure out how spawning works in Black Ops multiplayer, but haven't had much success. I'm fairly new, so it may just be that I'm totally lost in the maps. In some maps (like nuketown) I can tell that I always respawn at the same place. In other maps, I feel like there's no consistency and that my respawn location changes (sometimes to all the way across the map) along the match.
How does it work? Is spawn location random in some maps?
Best Answer
Spawning in Black-ops tries to place you next to a 'passive team-mate'. Essentially it will find a player on your team that is currently not in battle and near one of the designated spawn points.
If both of those are satisfied it will spawn you there. You can see how this idea could be very very flawed (Example: an enemy is about to start firing at the 'passive team-mate' and your respawned right next to him... Easy double kill).
If there are no 'passive team-mates' it will attempt to spawn you in a "safe spot" away from other players.
In maps like Nuke Town its just not big enough for this mechanic to work, hence it feels like you spawn in the same place everytime (I believe theres only 2 spawn locations in NukeTown) where as a larger map with more spawn locations can actually begin utilizing the placement algorithm.
Hope this helps