Does anyone else have the impression that something just doesn't feel quite right about the way the spawnpoints are selected in Conflict (the DM version)? There's little variety and sometimes the spots are quite close to each other while a big part of the map stays empty. Compared with the gametype that inspired it, TAM, it feels way too static and cramped, which is quite a shame, because everything else about TAM sucks imo (especially the anti-camping stuff that just doesn't work with BW, where you have to stand still to be able to aim). Conflict on the other hand is really cool, except for these annoying little issues.

The most interesting thing about these issues is that the maps that suffer the most from them are the Runestorm maps, DM-DC-Beqach and DM-DC-Canal. In Beach, both teams spawn down at the beach and none of them up in the base, so those typical normandy-style battles can never take place (again, it works perfectly in TAM). And on Canal, one team always spawns at the edge of the canal and the other one in the middle of the map, completely ignoring the fortified places at the far corners of the map. Now, if this stuff would've happened on some stock or custom map I might have thought that the issue would lie in the map and not in the game mechanics (even though it does work properly in TAM). But if it affects the Runestorm maps, the ones which were optimized especially for BW, something defininitely needs to be fixed in the gametype code.

I really hope there'll be a small patch for that before the team abandons UT2k4 completely.

Try adjusting the spawn distance allowance, you might be able to get better results by adjusting that.

spawn points are selected by the furthest distanc apart.. so if they are close together, it could just be the map design..

By just reading what Doc Shock says, and how Beach looks like in the editor, I've found out that TAM spawns players not only on PlayerStarts, but also on pathnodes. Because all playerstarts are at the beach islands, there is no other explaination for people spawning up the bunkers with TAM.

I'm pretty sure that BW could make the same for Conflict, because where the players start in conflict in a map, is always the same.

Yes. And sometimes they don't switch sides between rounds, which can suck if the map is asymmetrical and one side has the advantage.

EDIT: Also, why a separate gametype for CTF maps? There are mutators out there that allow people to play some gametypes on any map, be it DM or CTF or BR, or whatever.

Since we're talking about changing minimum spawn location on a per map basis, you might find mapmixer (http://mapmixer.oceaniaut.com) useful. I think it can change game rules for each map