Spam (Team Fortress)
Spam is repeated use of more than 1 grenade in one part of a map in the quake mod Team_Fortress. It also broadly incorporates overuse of the in-game messaging system and excessive setting of detpacks (large-scale explosions).
Common grenades used to spam a map
- Gas Grenade (Emits choking gas - lethal if exposed for more than 4 seconds)
- MIRV Grenade (Explodes and sends out a shower of 6 more grenades - deadly)
- Nail Grenade (Spins and emits showers of nails before exploding)
- Concussion Grenade (Causes a player's view to spin wildly out of control)
Maps succeptible to Spam
- Arenasix
Comprising of 6 arenas, Arenasix's first arena is just a large box. Into the arena is pumped a series of spam grenades and detpacks. Arenasix has been dubbed "Spam Arena" by its detractors.
- Gmskeet
Originally intended as a clan sniper practice map, newer versions of Team Fortress have allowed other classes to be played on the map. The result is an extremely small map ruined by spam.
- Engbat
Engbat was originally designed for only engineers to play. On certain servers, however, other classes were allowed to play. A sentry gun or tesla can be taken out by a single MIRV, and the respawns are open to gas spam on such servers.
The downsides of Spam
Aside from the obvious complaints that spam ruins a game and is used by non-skilled players, spam has more detrimental effects. When a nail grenade is thrown, for instance, the server must calculate the path of each nail, output it to each client (player) and continue to do this until the grenade explodes. If there are too many nail grenades, the server cannot cope with the amount of information it must compute. The server slows down and each player experiences lag.
Combatting Spam
Nowadays, newer versions of team fortress incorporate a certain amount of resitance to spam. For instance, each team can only have one frag grenade in operation at any given time. If a player tries to fire another one they get a warning message thus: "Your team already has a spam grenade in the world".
At the player level, however, there are a number of ways to combat spam. The first, and most obvious, is to kill a spammer as quickly as possible before he can launch a tirade of grenades. The second is to choose a custom class (if available) and buy an airfist. The airfist sends out a puff of air, which is perfect for blowing grenades and other objects away from the player. If done correctly, spam grenades can be blown back at the person who threw them. Finally, engineers can build field generators (if available) which are like forcefields that stop grenades getting through.