There have also been major changes to Skirmish Mode. Players who have been with us since closed beta will remember that Skirmish used to involve a team escorting a Mobile Command Center (MCC) across a map while a rival team attempted to stop them, a setup now commonly called GÇ£Skirmish 1.0GÇ¥. Unfortunately, this mode was not as balanced as we would have liked. At the time it was deployed, the fittings and skills players could select, and the randomization of outposts in each battle, led to uneven gameplay between the teams.

Players let us know, so we created a version of Skirmish Mode (commonly called GÇ£Skirmish 2.0GÇ¥) with more symmetry among teams. Anyone who has played DUST 514 should be familiar with this newer setup. There are now two MCCs floating above a battlefield, launching barrages of concentrated firepower at each other. Players rush to capture NULL cannons to damage their enemyGÇÖs MCC as quickly as possible while preventing their rivals from doing the same.

I think Skirmish 1.0 would be something that could be added as a secondary Skirmish mode just as Ambush and Ambush OMS are set up. We could use a bit of variety and the Skirmish 1.0 game mode is a good setup to learn defense and offense on as it forces you to get better with either starting at an advantage or not. (Watch out for Proto Stomp QQ more on skirm 1.0)

Skirmish 1.0 may have been fun, but it was broken as ****.

My team pushes forward, takes out the defense relays, and rolls straight toward the outpost within the first 5 minutes.

The enemy team drops in a bunch of HAVs, and everyone else pulls AV weapons.

They shoot at the MCC.

They win.


That is just one example of how the mode wasn't the "God Mode" everyone says it was, and yes, I was there to play it.

Also, if you cleared the relays fast enough, massing AV to shred the MCC was the ONLY counter left to you, because the enemy team could just sit back in the canyons and laugh as all three null cannons failed to do enough damage to take it down before it docked with the outpost.


I'm not saying I didn't have fun with the mode, but it was far from perfect. There were threads about it being broken back during Replication, if you'll recall.

I can agree on that. But if Skirmish 1.0 were to be brought back the same way, it would be different given the current changes we have since the last time we saw it.

1. Dropships no longer act like aerial bumper cars that crush mercs like a hot iron on a roach.
2. Players can no longer directly damage the MCC regardless if they use installations or HAVs.
3. Forge guns and swarm launchers are no longer the OP weapons they once were during Replication.
4. There is a current limit to the number of clones you can use up before losing the match.

There are also some minor changes that can be made to the game mode.

1. Buff up defense relays to take longer to destroy or make them invulnerable until fully hacked.
2. MCC floor shield could not be shot through so that snipers in MCCs will be useless. Don't know why CCP allow this back in.

. . .So on behalf of all of the players on this community who want Skirmish 1.0, I ask CCP to please bring this game mode back. . .

If anyone here agrees, put a +1 in your reply and scream HOOAH!!!!

Only been around since early open beta, but would live to play Skirmish 1.0.
Seems like a logical fit for FW battles.

At Fanfest round tables there was a roaring demand to bring Skirmish 1.0 back. CCP Praetorian then said "Okay, let's bring it back".

Yeah there were definitely some major issues with it but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Setting sniper positions to cover your people running to make the hack, firing like mad from the last remaining rail gun trying to blow up the MCC before it docked, crossing the no mans land to get to the city, sneaking behind enemy lines and turning a blaster turret on them all.

Once again, thanks for the support. If you're in a player-run corp, let your buddies know so we can keep this discussion going. I want the Devs to see this as clearly as possible.

If CCP fixes matchmaking by then, the QQ part would be a non issue.

While CCP keeps saying they /want/ to bring back skirmish 1.0... What a lot of people don't bring up is that most of what made 1.0 fun was /not/ the mode (Even if the mode was much better than 2.0)

It was the terrain map or 'battleground'. Craterlake. Say it with me. Craterlake.

Crater F***** Lake.

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Dev Blog by CCP Frame:
http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/06/developing-game-mode-variations/



CCP, who were those players that let you know? Those players were just wrong. Skirmish 1.0 was a very balanced game. I never understood why anyone in the forums thought they were unbalanced. The game mode encouraged a lot of teamwork, we had to move with a purpose regardless of which side we were on, and it allowed the defenders a chance to regroup and mobilize without getting too redlined because they had an entire base to heavily guard and protect WITHIN THEIR OWN REDLINE WHERE THE NULL CANNONS WERE!!!

I do recall seeing a handful of players in the forums whining and QQing about the original game mode claiming that defending the objectives were difficult but they completely ignored the fact that they had every chance to establish a solid fortification while the attackers were busy trying to deal with the defense relays.

I also do recall similar players complaining about how hard it was to attack. But those players were wrong as well because they were just not working together as they should have. On top of that, there were plenty of places to flank the enemy but noooooooo they just wanted to run-n-gun like in CoD out in the open for snipers to shoot at and at the time snipers were crap so that's saying something about the unit cohesion of the players.

Let's also not forget that during this time in which Skirmish 1.0 existed, players were unable to squad up, unable to form corporations let alone group up with alliances and qsync, and there were no voice comms available. The only reason Skirmish 1.0 seemed unbalanced to some was due to the missing features I just mentioned. I bet you 500 million ISK (or one PLEX) from my Eve Online character that if the above-mentioned features were available at the time, then Skirmish 1.0 would have been loved by every player... even the whiners would have loved it because then they would rely on green dots rather than random blueberries. I bet this feature would also make PC battles more interesting.

So on behalf of all of the players on this community who want Skirmish 1.0, I ask CCP to please bring this game mode back. It was fun, it was balanced, I saw no reason why it had to go.

If anyone here agrees, put a +1 in your reply and scream HOOAH!!!!

EDIT:

Damn it. Once again it didn't make this week's update.