I have been playing Star Conflict for roughly over a month now. I consider myself to be a pretty veteran gamer, and while I am having a lot of fun with the game, I can’t help but to feel incredibly limited with the game modes available to us. The first problem that I see is the lack of being able to choose what game-type I prefer. After a month of playing I have a good idea of what gameplay I prefer, and I can say without a doubt that I absolutely hate beacon hunt and despise that game mode, unfortunate for me that it seems to be the most common game mode! Domination is fun at times on certain maps, however my absolutely favorite and preferred GameType at the moment is Combat Recon (I know a lot of people hate this mode because in some games it can turn into a turtle fest, or a mass suicide, but those are all tactics with counters).
- Beacon Hunt to me is just not fun. It consists of chasing beacons for short amounts of time and then trying to beat the enemy team to the next beacon, the fighting is clustered and boring. There seems to be limited tactics employed and everyone just flies around laying mine fields near the beacon capture zone. Totally boring and tedious, and why in the hell are people fighting for moving beacon locations? What the hell kind of space faring war has a fight over moving beacon locations, at least domination makes more sense.
- Domination can be fun as things are static and spread out over 3 beacons, so while clusters can occur they are more manageable and still fun, it feels more of a space war than a race to the next beacon. I don’t mind playing this mode, I just wish the games were a little longer.
- Combat Recon is probably the most fun, although due to the level of coordination required the game can be a little one-sided, especially if the team captain doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. The game mode involves team tactics on both offense and defense and definitely feels like 2 sides fighting a space war. It really sucks this game mode isn’t played more often, it rarely ever comes up with whatever random game mode choosing scheme is in place at the moment.
Anyway, now that I have talked a little bit about the current game modes, I want to discuss what I would like to see in future game modes. It’s very straight forward and after talking to many other pilots they all agree they would like to see:
- Team Deathmatch - Why in the world this wasn’t included from the get go is beyond me. It’s the most fundamental game mode and probably the most raw pure fun you could include in a game. The objective being, kill the other team. Pretty simple and the task of doing it is one that requires tactics and coordination. Sure there are some teams that might frigate ball up and cluster really tight, but at least it’s not at a beacon with a timer counting down. Snipers actually have a chance to be more useful as they can get into position to start weakening the ball. There aren’t any forced match-ups at a predetermined location- just two teams duking it out in space.
- Escort Scenarios - Instead of beacons which really seem rather meaningless and not anything to care about; how about escorting transport ships out of a hostile sector, or perhaps escorting some supply ships through a sector? This would not only make the action far more dynamic, it adds a sense of purpose and immersion. The scoring would be simple, the transport ships would have fairly high shields and HP, and the opposing team’s mission is to disable and capture it, or to straight up destroy it. Disabling and capturing the ship will provide more points than simply destroying it. The team escorting the ship would get points based for successfully escorting the ship and the health of the ship when it departs the system. Once a ship is destroyed, captured, or successfully escorted, the teams switch sides and repeat. At the end the team with the highest score wins. If switching sides breaks the immersion, then end it after one round.
- Capital Ships - So this is the only game mode I know is actually in the works, two juggernauts facing off- perfect, just make sure they actually move somewhat. Nothing is more boring than static ships just parked a certain distance from each other, at least have them circle each other to keep things dynamic and moving. Also, make them have significant weapons, I mean they’re capital ships! They should definitely pack a good punch, energy beams, significant flak, and torpedos that deal massive damage, but can be targeted and shot down. Holy crap will that feel like an epic space fight. Give the capital ships destructible sub-systems as well, this would be incredible and very reminiscent of FreeSpace capital ship battles, which were probably some of the best and immersive battles in any game.
So there is my wall of text with some simple suggestions that could really add some immersion, fun factor, and just plain awe to the game. The gameplay mechanics are already very solid, and the foundation is there. Just make it happen, I know I’ve already thrown about $50 your way, and wouldn’t hesitate to spend more given that more attention is put into the game modes.
Thanks for your time.