There are only two game modes out, so I don't want to cast any major dramatic vote or anything... But so far this game seems to be lacking in the objective nature...

Ambush -
Everyone randomly spawns everywhere. No structure to the spawning unless it uses a skirmish map. Straight kdr fest, so this isn't exactly a bad thing, and the name "ambush" implies a certain amount of randomness to the match. All in all, for a base kdr mode, I think this one is okay.

Skirmish -
Each team has a base spawn. These are pretty removed from the battle though, and the battle it's self overwhelms them. Often I see the map reversed as to which team is controlling which objectives. I think a major contributor to this is the concept that every objective letter is also a spawn point... This means everyone is spawning everywhere... There is little feeling of zone control. When I play this mode I get super paranoid that everywhere I turn there is going to be someone, and when I go to hack an objective I often have an enemy spawn beside me before I've completed the hack. I feel this takes away from the objective feel. Capturing 1 objective usually means another is traded, and rather than turning into any strategic warfare it devolves into a core run n gun squad basically playing round robin on the objectives clearing them all in turn.

It just doesn't feel like an objective game. It feels more like a multi point king of the hill. Might as well play CoD if that's all we're gonna get...

I'm looking forward to their next game mode, but really they had better have at least 2-3 more planned...

MAG had 5 game modes.

Suppression was a basic kdr match, each team spawned on opposing sides of the match making it feel much more like a team defense / attack shooter rather than a random spawn kdr fest ala CoD. When you spawned you'd always see your team mates with you, and even though you couldn't chat with those blue dots, they were there, and you saw it.

Sabotage featured a multi point capture quest, there was A and B objectives, which the attacking team had to capture both of to unlock C objective. Capture C objective for 30 seconds and the attackers win. Defenders had to stop this, obviously.

Acquisition had a large base for the defense and within it were 2 vehicles. The attackers had to break through the defenses and get these two vehicles out in tact.

There were more, but I think this illustrates my point. I know that EVE is not MAG, and DUST certainly won't be. I'm not asking for DUST to be MAG.

I'm bringing these up because these all felt like team v team objective based warfare, not random spawn kda fests. When you spawned you'd see your team with you. Attacking team had a set of goals that made them the attacking team, defense was there to defend and stop them. In DUST it doesn't really make a difference who is O or D because they both have the exact same goals. The structure, especially with every letter being a spawn is also blown out. You can easily spawn with no allies in sight, you could even spawn amongst enemies. This blows the entire team warfare feeling out the window. When I play DUST I always feel like I'm fighting alone, and I feel there are no rewards for taking an objective, it will just be lost in a minute. It's all one big round robin clusterfsk.

My suggestions to fix skirmish:
remove spawning from letters. Add another clone point if you think it will help, but in general have the players spawn from their core spawn, or from remote spawn drops and drop ships. This alone will clean up a lot of the chaos that I feel holds this game back. It adds some predictability for where opponents will be coming from, and allows you to spawn with your own allies more frequently. It also enhances the importance of remote spawn points and nanite injectors in loadouts.


*******************
Disclaimer -> I firmly believe these changes will not prevent any ninja like shenanigans. In mag each game mode could be won through deceptive tactics that were well beyond the measure of kdr. This is what defines true objective game play. Killing did not it's self win a game. It was definitely the most direct and generally effective route, but the fact that you could pull victories in SPITE of team kdr proves the game truly is objective based.



*******************
another thing -> turn mics ON be default, and add proxy chat.
Really takes a genius to get these wrong <_<