Can NOT seem to make info_player_start trigger anything!

I want to tie specific things to the player spawning/re-spawning in deathmatch. Most of which at the moment are effect related. I've tried all kinds of crap but I just can't seem to figure out how to make the info_player_start TRIGGER anything at all with its output. For instance, making it say something on the screen by having it output linked to a game_text entity. That's not what I actually want but at this point I'm just trying to make the act of spawning/respawning DO SOMETHING in addition to just spawning. Am I going about this the wrong way? Do I have to create some kind of brush or what ever and have it activate when the player touches it, such as falling slightly from an elevated respawn position? I can't even get THAT to work. This is driving me NNNNUUUUTTTS!.

If you can explain to me what I'm not understanding I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Btw, I realize (to some extent anyway) the difference between triggers and buttons and other stuff, etc. However, in my mind (and perhaps wrongly!) I assume the info_player_start SHOULD fire outputs when a player respawns there. If that's true then I just don't get what I'm missing to make it DO stuff when the player respawns.

I've never heard of info_player_start being able to trigger anything but you could have it located in some kind of other trigger entity so that when a person spawned they'd trigger the entity and that would trigger whatever.

An info_player_start entity doesn't really have any need to trigger
anything, as it will only occur when the player spawns at the start of
the map. In HL1 you would use a trigger_auto to automatically trigger
something on the map loading, its most likely the same in HL2.

An info_player_deathmatch is of course a different matter, did you mean
you are using this entity, or are you using the info_player_start?

Building off of what KungFu said, I'd make a trigger_multiple (or whatever other trigger you want) and have its OnTrigger output turn itself off, and the OnEndTouch turn itself back on...or maybe just a delay. I dunno, no easy or 100% way :/

As Reno said- info_player_starts are for single player. Load up the hl2dm FGD in Hammer and you'll have info_player_deathmatch entities. However, these don't have any outputs either, and I don't think there are any entities with a player-spawn output.

Obviously one solution would be to place the player starts a height above the ground, and encase them in a trigger (which targets the game_texts or whatever you want).

Ok I mistakenly had both info_player_start and deathmatch, thinking I had to have at-least one of the _start's in place. From the replies I gather I should completely stop using the info_player_start and use only (about 32...) _deathmatch. Np there.

BUMMER that the entitiy (_deathmatch) itself does not produce some kind of firable/monitorable mechanism when it is activated by the act of a player spawning! Considering the extremely interesting/complex ways things appear to offer I'm shocked that this one doesn't offer a simple way to monitor the act of spawning!

I will try to use a t_mult and see if I can get it to work. To me this is a very clucnky way of doing what I'm after because I'll have to take a number of things into account to make it ONLY activate when a player spawns there, and not repeatedly activate if the player keeps standing there, or walks out then back in to the spawn area, etc. For that the only way I can think of will be to pysically prevent the player from re-entering the "spawn" area once they leave, etc. Clunky

Yes, which is why I suggested you raise the spawn points off the ground (perhaps by 128 units or so) so the player drops out of it, and it's too high for anyone to jump into. Perhaps some kind of funky "spawn chute" would work :smile:

Unfortunately, what I have in my head (and fully built already) for the spawn mechanism doesn't allow (physically) the player to actually 'drop' like that for more than a few inches. However! Perhaps I could make it so the trigger area is at the very top, and incredibly THIN, so the spawning player model's head would initially be in the thin trigger to make it happen! As long as I (bummer : /) modify the spawn area architecture enough to prevent the player from being able to jump up putting their head back into the thin trigger this might just work. I'm trying to keep it simple while being still being cool because I have to duplicate it 31 times so... whew :biggrin:

I have the perfect solution!

Make them shoot out of the ground with a trigger_push (or similar) instead! That would be hilarious... :biggrin:

Whoa, crazy thought! May work great though, if it's done
right.. otherwise would there be problems with re-spawns,
especially when a player is standing directly above the _deathmatch
entity?

Another work around thought is that the trigger could be turned off
when a player approached it, but just long enough so that it'll be on
when a player automagically spawns there.

I agree: it's unfortunate if a work-around has to be used to get player
spawn to trigger something, especially if it causes a physical
restructuring of the map. I'm curious, is Adrenalin Gamer or
another DM mod likely to add this functionality? Reno? It's
certainly a feature that would make a lot of sense.

I suppose you could make sort of a doughnut shaped trigger around each spawn that would temporarily disable the trigger under the spawn point so that players just running through that volume of space would by not trigger your effects, but one who spawns inside the doughnut would

Then there is always the risk that a player might spawn inside that doughnut thing while somebody had already turned off the trigger by running through it, thereby stopping the effect occuring.

lol I like the push-from-ground idea however, again, the architecture (as currently exists in my map) doesn't allow that. However that's stilla very interesting idea and might be more entertaining than trying to top-down approach. In any event I appreciate all the ideas and feedback in this topic. The bottom line seems to be I will simply have to re-work the spawn mechanism, from a structural standpoint, to achieve the effects I'm after. Luckily (and intentionally) the design of the spawn structure does not (will not) allow a player to re-enter the physical space of the spawn itself, once the player has left it. I suppose with enough effort I could actually create some kind of push-pull trigger system that actually automatically moves the player out of the structure, but that would defeat one of the things I had in mind. There's a reason to stand there for a minute looking around after you spawn, if you want to. :biggrin:

I think an elegant final solution to prevent someone from being in the spawn-area when another player is brought there using my mechanism will be to fire off a nice plump explosion to incenerate anyone that might be hanging around to long

M O V E!...

How bout have spawn rooms that spawn the player, trigger whatever, then teleport you to the actual spawn location in the main map.

Good idea, you could just make it instantaneous so that nobody even notices :smile:

You'd have to do this for each spawn point you wanted right?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting thundercleese</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>You'd have to do this for each spawn point you wanted right? </DIV></DIV>

I'm going to have to do this anyway. What ever I finally decide to do has to be duplicated 31 more times to be consistent with what I have in my head. And I'm being stuburn and REALLY want to get what's in my head into the map so this is gonna take quite some time to implement. If possible, I'll try and design the peices in a way more easily suitable for duplication but there's no getting around that requirement in the end.
The teleport idea is interesting. If it's really instant then that might be the best choice. Plus, teleporters will auto telefrag someone standing there anyway, right?

I think this is probably the best way to do it...also, on a side note, if you want to having moving spawn points you have to have teleporting, too...say if you want to spawn on a train or something.

D'oh! Well, there goes my 'pop-up players' idea... Unless... :biggrin:

I imagine teleporter outputs would telefrag in the same way that info_player_deathmatch entities do.

If you don't want telefragging you could just put a trigger_push entity around the teleport destination...

Just wanted to let yall know I just got home and tried out the teleport as an alternate means to allow triggering 'things' when the player spawns, and it works great! So thanks for that idea. It's a real shame the _deathmatch spawn ITSELF doesn't provide a mechanism to fire things! This means every step/addition of the work around is multiplied by 31, which is gonna get painful FAST to make multiple interesting things occur during each spawn, for everyone. I'm still shocked that, considering the heavily object-oriented approach that seems to be the major flavor within Hammer map creation, that this single-most critical entity, without which there's no DM map in the first place, was left gutted like that. Oh well!.

Actually, that would be a flaw in HL2's entity system. Not hammer :razz: .

Good point.

Btw, I stupidly expected the teleport to have a delay option. Nope, so now I have to create even more 'stuff' to create a simulated (would make sense if you played the map) delay so a few things can be done before the player actually arrives at the target, including the creation of yet another teleport that will actually take the player where they're supposed to go. Guess I just need to hunker down and resign to the fact that, even though most things I can invision will probably be possible it will simply take a long, long time to finish. AHADD + this = a rough battle! But should be worth it, hopedully.

You could just make the spawn points inside your trigger_multiple but
slightly above the teleporter, so that they have to fall a little bit
(thereby getting you your time) to make your delay things work.

I tried that, and even though it was long enough to allow the "clearing" mechanism to clean the target of all debris, living or otherwise, it breaks the S.O.D.

I went ahead and took the time to implement the multi-teleport scheme and it's working out real good. It'll just take awhile, like everything related to the spawn-part, to actually get it all in place for 32 instances. It's worth the effort though from what I see of the results so far so... chug chug chug, here we goOooo..