Okay, let's address this as to what
could be done (not necessarily what will be done).
It is a firmly accepted practice for cavalry to race to the enemy spawn and attack stragglers and afk'ers after they have spawned.
That is fine and will never change.You however describe enough of a difference for a rule application to apply here, but first a question needed to be answered.
Can you accurately predict where a player will spawn so that you can stand behind them with a swing cocked and kill them as soon as their avatar appears? I spent a few rounds trying this (without killing anyone).
The answer is Yes.
So now rules can be interpreted to apply to the situation I just described.
[General rules]
No exploiting of any kind.
Plain enough. But in case someone doing this thinks to bring out the full rule list, let me add this one as well.
If your common sense is not working, here are some more specific guidelines. This is not an explicit list, common sense always overrides disputes. Do not come crying "it's not prohibited in the rules" if you invent a new creative way to be an idiot and get punished.
So I would say that absolutely, being able to predict where a player will spawn and standing behind them and killing them as soon as their avatar appears on the map would be exploiting the spawn mechanic of the game.
Riding in circles around the spawn area is perfectly okay (as long as you aren't doing a tight circle on that specific next spawn point). You can definitely tell where the next spawn will be, so this isn't getting lucky. It is knowing ahead of time where the next avatar will materialize and killing that player before they may even have control of their avatar at all.
If a player is doing that (not simply charging the spawn or riding around the area waiting for someone to spawn in general), then I would suggest that the player receive the usual punitive progression of warning, kick, etc.
Will other Admins use this interpretation if they see this occurring? I don't know.
They would have to agree with the interpretation of what constitutes an exploit. In addition, they would have to watch to be able to be
certain this was being done. So just because you happen to be killed in spawn right after you appear, doesn't mean that it was done on purpose and an Admin will have to be absolutely for sure that such an exploit was being used. In other words, a single incident would very likely not be enough. It would likely need to be a consistent practice for us to be certain enough to take action.
Other admins, but most especially Developers are invited to weigh in. I've not seen anyone who was such a douchebag that they stand next to or behind the next predictable spawn point and kill someone before they can move as you are describing. People usually just race their horse through and opportunity kill and
that is perfectly fine. But it can absolutely be done and if I
were to see someone deliberately hovering over the next spawn point and kill the next player right when they appear, this is how I would interpret it. As an exploit.
