Titanfall removed CTF and Pilot Hunter from PC version due to 'overlong wait times'

In the wee hours of the night on Thursday, Respawn made a stealthy announcement that they would be removing Capture the Flag and Pilot Hunter modes from the PC version of Titanfall. After allowing players some time to digest the news, the developer is offering an explanation for why the game modes were removed, while also emphasizing that more content is forthcoming.

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In the wee hours of the night on Thursday, Respawn made a stealthy announcement that they would be removing Capture the Flag and Pilot Hunter modes from the PC version of Titanfall. After allowing players some time to digest the news, the developer is offering an explanation for why the game modes were removed. Mainly, it's because the PC version's players are focused on other game modes, leading to extremely long wait times.

"We have an amazing and large PC audience with the vast majority of users predominantly playing Attrition and Hardpoints game modes," reads the Titanfall blog. "CTF and Pilot Hunter have not been widely used modes on the PC version. Players trying to access these modes had overlong wait times to find other users and it was making for a poor experience. We want to make sure that not only is there compelling content in the playlists we offer, but that the experience of joining a match works well. We're tracking what playlists players are choosing, and we’re going to continue to look at unpopular playlists and add new ones on both platforms."

Respawn adds that CTF and Pilot Hunter would return for future playlists, as they continue to tweak existing game modes and seek to add new ones over the course of Titanfall's life. They have also noted that CTF and Pilot Hunter will remain available in Private Matches, which were recently a focus of Titanfall's third update.

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Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 17, 2014 11:30 AM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Titanfall removed CTF and Pilot Hunter from PC version due to 'overlong wait times'.

    In the wee hours of the night on Thursday, Respawn made a stealthy announcement that they would be removing Capture the Flag and Pilot Hunter modes from the PC version of Titanfall. After allowing players some time to digest the news, the developer is offering an explanation for why the game modes were removed, while also emphasizing that more content is forthcoming.

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      May 17, 2014 11:47 AM

      Wasn't there a game breaking bug in titanfall ctf that wasn't fixed until... the patch that game out a day or two before they pulled it?

      poor decision making all around.

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        May 17, 2014 7:11 PM

        Eh, debatable about 'gamebreaking' or even a bug.

        You could be in a titan with the flag on CTF. It worked ok, but definitely could be a bit ridiculous if both carriers did it.

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          May 17, 2014 7:44 PM

          I've only played a handful of rounds of the new CTF, but a few of them were a lot more fun, and random people were actually working together to escort the carrier back safely. I've never really seen that in random matchmaking before in this game. A couple matches were super close and intense, beyond compare with anything I've seen in Titanfall up to that point. Had such a good time in Wargames CTF I wanted to jump into a CTF only playlist but obviously that's no longer possible.

          Having abused the titan drop to pick up and return flags back without any chance of being stopped many times in CTF, I'm really glad that's no longer possible. It definitely wasn't a bug, seemed very intentional to allow titans to carry and return flags. I'm not even sure I'd call it gamebreaking, but it did sort of ruin a classic game mode in various ways, at least to me, but it seemed like a widespread talking point since the game was first released. Not one I'd ever thought they'd address.

          I'm still curious to see if the masses end up liking it or not. They can always change it back if it's widely panned. I need to play some more but it's hard to with the randomness of variety pack. They could have waited a few weeks or even days after a major change like this before removing it, could get some people interested in CTF again.

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      May 17, 2014 11:51 AM

      They should also remove Campaign mode, too, then. The wait times there are atrocious.

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        May 17, 2014 8:09 PM

        I do hope they fix that, they're just fucking screwing anyone who picks up the game now. They shouldn't have locked the titan unlocks behind that wall.

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          May 18, 2014 1:29 AM

          I'm one of those, as I picked up the game last week and was amazed at how long it takes to get into a match and how short those matches were for the time you had to wait to get in them. I haven't played the game in a few days now and don't have any motivations to start it up anytime soon. I'm starting to wish I got the Diablo 3 expansion instead.

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      May 17, 2014 1:27 PM

      If they can't find enough players, let bots fill some of the holes!

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      May 17, 2014 1:37 PM

      Is the playerbase on PC that bad? I thought the game sold really well.

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        May 17, 2014 2:52 PM

        I am able to find matches with hardly if any wait time. So its hard to say what the reality actually is.

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          May 17, 2014 5:40 PM

          I've experienced 10 minute wait times. Thought it was due to crappy drm or poor match making services. Is it possible that too many players have been transferred to and playing on the cheating servers and leaving not enough players on the real servers?

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          May 17, 2014 7:28 PM

          Depends on the game mode, I think. I like Hardpoint Domination, but at times there's a real long wait to get going. I can jump into an Attrition game instantly at any time.

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      May 17, 2014 2:32 PM

      That's bad news. The game will only get more splintered as the other expansions are released, so I hope they do something drastic to increase their playerbase. I think Titanfall is a fun game, but I won't be buying any sequels at this rate.

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      May 17, 2014 5:34 PM

      Damn, and just yesterday in another thread I was stating how Halo is dead and Titanfall is the new king. How is it possible that this happened this quickly?

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        May 17, 2014 8:09 PM

        Not sure. I wish they had numbers next to the modes like COD so we could tell what the population actually is. I have to imagine also that the population on consoles (especially the 360) is way higher. I'm pretty sure Titanfall was the #1 selling 360 game last month or something like that.

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      May 17, 2014 8:04 PM

      RIP. You had a good run.

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      May 18, 2014 10:11 AM

      Instead of removing gametypes, why not add a feature that lets you select multiple gametypes with a priority? That way if you don't find a game in 10-30 seconds it kicks you to the next type.

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      May 18, 2014 12:00 PM

      Every game mode I try I have long wait times. I wait longer than a round takes. It makes me sad.

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      May 19, 2014 7:45 AM

      Reading about Titan Fall just makes me wish even harder for a new AAA Mech Warrior game. Glad I didn't buy it. Wish it was more Mech like, less COD clone.

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