Respawn armour

[Rapid12]

Very inconsistant lately IMO, anyone else noticed a difference or does change from server to server?
Also, is the respawn armour applied at the very start of a game? Because this morning a game started with several opponents in front of me, maybe 20 yards/metres away and you guest it, not bloody one of them died when shot at point blank range. I got knifed BTW. So, does respawn armour apply at start and can it be manipulated? It's the one thing that really pishes me off but without it I suppose the snipers would have a feild day. Anythoughts on this?
One more rant, when one is playing as a medic and you look at the big map, you can't tell what direction your facing unlike when your playing as a gunner/sniper because the gun barrel sticks out, it would be nice to have a little something to indicate your front, any thoughts?