Do you agree or disagree? It's simply boring and not fun (most of the time) It involves the least amount of strategy possible...In theory this game mode may make sense but in practice it is illogical. The nodes are generally a nuisance. Escort game mode involves even less strategy than skirmish because in skirmish you can formulate any plan you come up with.. whereas in Escort, you MUST follow the VIP into the middle of an open firing zone and either overtake the enemy team when this happens or your team succumbs to the fact that the VIP walked (slowly) through the middle of an open field to the enemy team. The VIP inevitably becomes a sitting duck, so once your team exposes themselves to defend a sitting duck that doesn't even fight at all, your team now becomes the sitting duck(s) - and if your enemy is competent, they know when to stop shooting the VIP and when to shoot you and vice versa. If you're defending the VIP, you have to just stand in front of the thing until it arrives at its destination. Or, you can kill the enemy team. If you're attacking the VIP, you just simply kill the enemy team as you normally would UNTIL you kill enough of the enemy and can safely kill the VIP. You'll be in luck if the VIP walks through the middle of a giant open field right into your teams firing line. If this happens you may be able to kill the VIP regardless if your team is getting mowed down or not. How do you folks here at mechspecs feel about this?
IMHO is broken for 2 main reason: radars and briefing. * Radars are game breaking because they both jam and spot mechs, making ECM and sneaky maneuvers impossible or pointless if you are not in control of it, or anywhere near it. They probably need a nerf against ECM or they should not be able to spot mechs if there is no direct sight of the mech it should spot. * The briefing MUST show you if you are attacking or defending, and in the last case, you MUST see what the path of the VIP will be... If not in the briefing, at least once in game. Like in the other game modes, planning is crucial. For example, in crimson there were a couple of times where we faked a push on the saddle while the VIP was moving in the upper city on the other side of the island... And made it to the drop zone because our enemy knew that if they would have pushed the VIP, we were gonna eat their asses. A similar thought would be if the VIP will push saddle: defenders should try to take it immediately in the early game to allow a safe VIP passage and preventing the enemy to make the saddle that well known "death corridor". This mode has potential, but as is right now it is simply arranged badly.
I disagree that there's less strategy. Many times, the defending team will attack in a completely different area than the VIP is going and the Atlas just walks away unharmed. If both teams just slam together, at least one of them isn't playing the mode right. Scouting is important, making light mechs more valuable for both sides. Attacker needs to find the VIP and the defender needs to stop enemy scouts. Carlo is 100% right about the briefing. It's ridiculous that you can't see which side you're on in the briefing screen. And equally ridiculous that you don't know where the VIP you're supposed to be protecting is going.
Don't get me wrong, skribs, once in a while it's definitely fun and you can have a good match. I just think it's the weakest of the game modes for the reasons I've described above.
Its one of the hardes game mode for PUGs, thats one of the reasons no one likes it. The team that moves more coordinatet usually wins, it doesnt mather if attacker or defender. (Deathball ftw...). Another problem is, that you dont see the route of the vip (as the defender) but you have to move in front of it to kill enemys and draw damage of the vip. If you stand face to face with all attackers and the vip is in the middle of your group, you lose because everyone just shoots at the vip - and 12 mechs kill it pretty fast. On the attackers side there is the problem, that if the figt is equal and in the end all defenders are dead, only some attackers alive, you nearly cant kill the vip because the dropship rapes you.
I Don't Agree with the points in the OP. 1) it's sometimes not fun, because it's a bit more difficult/challenging, because Attackers can lose even if they can kill all Defenders but forgot the VIP. Defenders can lose easily if they are dumb enough not to make up a good Defense Plan early. 2) simply Not true. See 1) 3) Not true because you can't simply stand in Front of the VIP and it's a sure Win. Meatshields Tactics are the weakest Defense IMO. Distraction is way more effective. 4) wrong. I had several Rounds where the whole Enemy Team got killed but the Survivors of the Attackers couldnt kill the VIP Your complaints are based on Bad Experience. But its definitely not worse than the other Modes IMO. It's a broken Game Mode, but with some improvements it can make much more Fun than the other Modes imo, because in contrast to the other Modes the Players are somehow forced to communicate with each other -> more Tactics.
