Official forums for BZFlag.org

Author: Enigma and whoever wrote Phoenix, as I used Phoenix as a starting point for SpawnRecord.
Required API: Probably at least 2.0.8. Version 2.0.4 might work, but I don't know.

This is a small plug-in that adds the ability to save a spawn position. It is based off of the Phoenix plug-in but functions slightly different: it spawns a player at the last saved position rather than where he or she died. This is accomplished with the /savepos command, which sets the player's current position as the new spawn position for that player.

My motivation for writing this plug-in is influenced by maps that require players to finish some sort of obstacle course, as it gets frustrating having to restart at the beginning after every death. The Phoenix plug-in almost fixes this problem by re-spawning players where they died. There is, however, one extraordinarily large problem: it re-spawns people where they died. This is a problem because, on these maps, people are almost always killed by a world weapon, and the phoenix plug-in would re-spawn people on the same world weapon indefinitely. The only solution to this problem that I could think of is to give people the ability to re-spawn at a last saved position. This is what SpawnRecord does.

This would be a very useful tool, if used properly.

If used improperly, this could open up a host of problems such as spawn camping, flag camping, and the ability to spawn right in advantage places. However, as long as server owners don't blindly include it in every server, and you give them the appropriate warning, and what it really is for, I think it would be really cool.

With a little more work, another thing you could add is a "checkpoint" feature, which could basically be a zone that automatically updates the player's spawn position to that location. For obstacle courses, that might be another viable option.

Very useful Enigma. I modified it for our Jumping Skillz map where when you reach a certain platform, you can do /save and you can spawn at that box next time, so it's kinda like a checkpoint. Thanks alot for your work on this Enigma, very useful.

How do I make use of this plugin? How does one use the /savepos command in bzlag?

You use it on your server, and generally the map has to be designed to make sense to use it. If you are a player on a map, there will generally be instructions on the use of it when the plug-in is loaded on that map.

Updated to 2.4

Special thanks to allejo for helping me solve several issues I couldn't fix on my own.

SpawnRecord

-Zehra