My thoughts on the new Slaughter gamemode in Missions…it can be fun, and not having to worry about base capture AND getting respawns means that it’s a great gamemode to almost definitely guarantee getting a decent score. However, it practice, this has not been working so well, and here’s why:
The random spawn-points and complete randomness that each team is spawned in means that it is definitely possible for one blue team player to get randomly spawned in between 3 or more red team players, for example. They die instantly, and the three red players will then be able to travel as a group from blue player to blue player and basically not die once as they pick people off one-by-one. This makes it nearly impossible for the blue team to mount any kills on the board, and players end up getting frustrated and leaving after 30s. Slaughter also HEAVILY favors certain builds and weapons over others. It makes hovers and Gerrida spiders extremely strong, as well as shotgun dogs, but very seriously nerfs all reload builds besides Scorpions. Since you don’t know if you are going to get Slaughter or one of the base-capture missions when you queue, this means you can easily get loaded into a Slaughter match with a very ill-suited build, and get completely screwed over by no fault of your own.
My suggestions are as follows: When the match starts, all players of a similar team spawn together in the same place. Just use the normal spawn points for missions. That way, the team can decide to either go in one-by-one guns blazing, or travel as a unit together, or hold a camping position and wait for the opposition to come to them. Then, when a player respawns, they respawn one of three to four pre-set spawn points on the edges of the map. This minimizes the chances that they get spawned right in the middle of a fire-fight or right in between like four opponents, and gives them a chance to maneuver back into their team.
If some kind of change isn’t implemented, the Slaughter gamemode is going to become universally hated since players just leave right away so that they can play a gamemode where they actually have a chance to get consistent points and resources. I feel the above switch to a more consistent spawning system would make this gamemode much more balanced and allow a team to at least use some kind of strategy throughout the match.