Hard to change this to everyone's satisfaction, AOs spawning close has pros and cons.
What I would like to see (if technicaly possible @Stanhope ?), is to create delay between red circle of new AO appearing on the map, and enemy units spawning there.
This would give pilots - and also drivers -- time to react to situation where AO is about to spawn under their very asses.
The delay should not be long - maybe like 30-45 seconds between circle appearing and units spawning - so it cannot be exploited by players for easy kills.
