Flag Returned: Respawn Putting CTF Back In Titanfall

Graham doesn't get mad. If you cut him, he will bleed forgiveness, understanding, and reassuring smiles. Titanfall made Graham mad - not because it's bad (he adores it), but because it took something from him. His favorite game mode. And he wasn't alone. When Respawn realized two Titanfall modes, Capture The Flag and Pilot Hunter, had issues, they outright removed them from regular rotation instead of popping open the 20-foot-tall trunk and cleaning up the mess under the hood. Players were not happy, and fortunately Respawn listened.

Apparently less than one percent of the player base cared to capture flags or hunt pilots, which is why Respawn scrapped the modes in the first place. They've now realized, however, that romebots wasn't built in a day. In a massive post about matchmaking problems, Respawn wrote:

“With that few players attempting to connect, our matchmaking would just sit there, spinning forever, waiting to find a game to play. This is a bad experience for the user, and so we had to look at how we fix it. After that first step, though, it’s obvious that lots of people were upset – far more than the player counts on the removed modes led us to believe."

"So, what are we doing about it? Well, first, we’re bringing the CTF playlist back on PC. Furthermore, we’re introducing a test of even wider region searches. But this isn't the only change we’re making. We’re working towards all sorts of cool behind-the-scenes features to increase visibility and control over matchmaking."

These changes include better clarification on how quickly matches are filling up, a re-balancing function make sure matches don't have lopsided player counts, and means of pairing players who are more likely to stick together. Much of this is still a work-in-progress, however, so probably don't expect perfect matchmaking overnight. If nothing else, though, at least Respawn is trying to make up for its mistake.

So hurrah! I guess. Now that Respawn seems to be treating the PC version as its own entity, it sure would be nice if they considered adding a server browser or dedicated servers or anything like that. I don't think it'd clear up these issues entirely by any means, but options are good. Maybe someday? Please? Otherwise Graham might actually get angry. You won't like him when he's angry.