Unvanquished is an open-source FPS game featuring team-based strategy and RTS elements, pitting humans against aliens in a futuristic setting.
https://forums.unvanquished.net/
Unreliable defense and another anti-feature against new players. All other defenses work reliably, but spiker is like a Russian roulette. A new player might place a spiker and then wonder why it won't work. Placing an acid tube just a bit differently can put it on the path of a spike and block the spiker from firing. Can't spiker simply not fire the spikes that would bleed players / buildings?
Yes spiker is a bit weak. Maybe can we increase the damages it makes? Or make it literally impales humans on walls with their life slowly decreasing as their blood leaves their body.
I'd personally spend 10 bp on a more reliable defense like hive, trapper or acid tube instead of this Russian roulette spiker even if it's made more powerful.
You should learn to use it effectively before giving feedback. All structures need to be carefully placed – a spiker inside the base cluster or in the open is not much different from a floor trapper. If you place the spiker as you'd place a proximity mine in another game you'll find that it can be really powerful.
Also note that there's some randomness in the spray pattern, so enemies will sometimes get hit by multiple spikes and sometimes get away without a scratch. I'll improve the pattern in the future, since currently it's semi-deterministic (spikes are shot in a number of fixed "rows" with a random rotational offset in each row).
Placement ideas:
Tested them:
plat23 - step on = instant death
forlorn elevator - no damage, fires way too early
chasm - spikes give it away if you look carefully, frequently does only 20 or no damage even to unarmored humans
antares - if you don't run in after opening the door, they won't fire
yocto vent - can be easily seen before it fires if human looks down
perseus - frequently does 20 or no damage even to unarmored humans
parpax - if I place it like you did, which is quite difficult, frequently does only 20 damage. if placed so that all spikes face the opposite wall, instant death or heavy damage.
I should improve the spike distribution so that it's less deterministic and angle matters less (cf. parpax example). Can't do much about the fact that expected damage decreases cubically with distance though; If you react to a spiker from a distance it won't do you much harm.