We did it because we wanted to make the captain-gameplay more fun, cause it was kind of boring before.
I kind of liked it before. There is a great challenge in being an active captain. There is a lot of hit-and-run, if you can manage it.
It is boring if you just hide and AFK 50/50 - But that’s not the game’s fault, but the acting individual. IMO
NO, it is a very bad idea!!! Being a captain requires being in a certain ship, for example gunship, ECM, guard (yuck). What if it chooses the poor LRF that is busy sniping from the spawn and has no idea he is about to be plasma arced?
Then spam his middle of screen with YOU! Are the captain! Maybe even warp them back to spawn or within some radius of it 
Then spam his middle of screen with YOU! Are the captain! Maybe even warp them back to spawn or within some radius of it
But that doesn’t allow him to change ship!
NO, it is a very bad idea!!! Being a captain requires being in a certain ship, for example gunship, ECM, guard (yuck). What if it chooses the poor LRF that is busy sniping from the spawn and has no idea he is about to be plasma arced?
Well no different than it was from before the change then, except you got a 90 sec match instead of a 30 sec match. :004j:
Your team should be given enough notice of who your captain will be before the 90 is up or all x amount of time after the 90 secs is up before the enemy knows who your captain is. A BIG flashing message should be displayed on the captains HUD to ensure that they know that they are captain. This should give you time to protect the ‘sniping lrf’ if they happen to be captain.
Problem is you can not change the fact that in some games you will get a total scrub as a captain that either flies straight at the enemy and dies, or hides at the back on their own and gets jumped with no support. It is up to the team to keep the captain alive.
It is only an idea though, that can naturally be improved rather than just saying it is ‘very bad’. There have been several possible ideas in this thread, so it may not be a bad thing if these got tested on the test server, then we will actually have a better idea if they will work or not rather than speculating.
EDIT: Maybe the captain should be the pilot with the highest pilot rating, at least then you will have a better chance if they are in a less than ideal ship.
EDIT EDIT: Also reward more synergy for destroying enemies within a certain range of your captain, like you do for protecting beacons, you get a bonus for protecting your captain.
EDIT EDIT EDIT: As Rennie suggested, maybe the chosen captains could be ‘teleported’ out of combat and get to choose their ship, though this would not be so good for the flow of the battle.
Ok another idea for the mode:
Put a beacon for each team near spawn, a spot where the captain will be ‘teleported’ to. At the 90 sec mark the player closest to their beacon has the captain bored their ship, in turn making them the captain. It doesn’t matter where on the map you are, the closest player becomes captain.
This could open up some nice strategic play. The enemy can not simply fly up and camp the beacon to get an early kill, as your team could be on the other side of the map if they so choose. or they could split up into 2 groups so enemy would have to split it’s forces too.
Some games could go south if all your team dies and the enemy manage to spawn camp, but hey, not a lot you can do about that no matter what you try. Some teams just crumble. Better MM maybe? Anyway I digress.