I read this entire thread again. Most of it doesn't include anything really controversial. I didn't want to make a reply to these threads since they are too specific, and I have no problem reviving old but good threads. By the way, I rambled a bit.

I've figured a little while ago that most key ammo and powerups should be placed where they are least useful to discourage camping--this counters what I said in a previous post. I still think different types of ammo should go in different places though. If a powerup requires EBs to get it, I support placing those EBs on the other side of the level. I support any idea that encourages players to use the entire level.

I now want to bring up layout issues. Specifically narrow versus open. I used to like PurpleJazz's Condemned a lot more until I realized how frustrating it was to try to actually kill a specific person (on a side note, it would've been nice if Codename: Alliance was hosted on J2O so that I could've found the pack by searching "condemned"). The level plays a bit better than PurpleJazz's other epically big levels when only few players are in the server, but the gameplay isn't as good as I expected. It's too open for starters. And the bouncer powerup and nearby bouncer ammo is poorly placed--makes it easier to camp and shot opponents climbing to the top of the level; see previous paragraph. I've been pushing levels to be more open than narrow for some time now, but I'm now going back on this considering how much I still like levels like EvilMike's Evil Fortress and Abandoned Robotics Factory.

Secrets: don't make them impossible to find. In fact, make everything in the level easy to figure out the first time it's played. Pits: need to be more obvious. I may make JJ2+ help point out pits in the future, but I don't know how just yet. Here's something I don't see too often: using the same powerups on both sides of a CTF level. It shouldn't hurt to make gameplay even more balanced.

So most of us probably agree that spamming shots is a cheap tactic and shouldn't be rewarded. This is part of the reason why I decided to use less seeker ammo and no seeker powerups in my levels. I'm now thinking about removing seeker ammo entire and making seeker powerups take minutes to respawn in levels like E. Prime and Security Breach . And I plan on replacing the seeker powerup in Security Breach with a harder-to-access RF powerup. Tell me what you think of these ideas.

I'm still not sure how to punish spamming and reward ammo conservation further. I have no problems with making provisions to make a custom limit for ammo through JJ2+ (it would only affect JJ2+ users), though I wonder how much it would help. One way to reward ammo conservation would be to have less ammo in a level, but then spawning players will have a hard time getting ammo. To counter that, I may make a JJ2+ add-on so that players can start with ammo after spawning--some time after I fix JJ2's net code... Though you could just place ammo right next to start positions or make some ammo only accessible by spawning players.

Now, for some extremely late replies:
I'm finding pepper spray too awkward to fire and way too inaccurate. I'll take my noisy RFs any day.

I'm still blindly following this logic. It definitely depends on how many people are playing in the level if Quickz's Sandstone Ruins is any indication.