I'm so happy that playlist is finally populated again! But...

As it stands, you can only play one playlist at a time resulting in what I'll refer to as the "3rd party voting" problem. If you know American politics, there's a saying that Democrats and Republicans are the only real candidates--nobody votes for 3rd party candidates because they'll never win, but they'll never win because nobody votes for 3rd party candidates. Frontline and competitive share that same problem.

It's helpful that now we can see the number of people queued, but that isn't helpful when the number of people playing is already low and the people who might have queued up decide not to queue up because the wait time is too long. As a result, people pick the quick and easy option in Push, which always has over 200 people playing (and instant-queues).

• One solution might be returning to the "checkbox" system, where you can pick multiple game mode options to queue for.

• Maybe have a ranked choice checkbox system so you can put your game modes in order of most to least favorite. The system then looks for the first game available in order of your favorites game types. If it can't find a game in 30 seconds, it moves to the next game type (while still keeping your higher-ranked choices as priority). Maybe include competitive in that list as well.

What DEFINITELY doesn't work is what we have now: pick ONE game type and ignore all others. It results in almost completely empty game types during peak hours. Let's make something happen.

Hello @tedeski,

Thanks for your feedback. I'll pass it on to the team!

@tedeski,

These are great ideas! Ranked choice checkbox would be ideal if it can be pulled off elegantly, though I suspect it might prove a little too complicated for people. Checkbox might be simpler.

Also, I don't see a reason why even if you choose one mode, you couldn't vote for another mode after the round. If I play 3-4 rounds straight of Push with a core group of players, eventually we might want to choose a Skirmish or Frontline game. I think the essence of what the community keeps asking of NWI is - give us the choice of what and how we want to play, what maps, what game mode, what server, what player group, what style of play. If their marketing and sales team succeeds, there should be thousands of people playing actively around the world for years to come.

RIP Skirmish I loved that mode, and I know a lot of players will be angry with merging Frontline and Push as though these modes seem similar in my experience most of the old Skirmish player base (Yes before 1.4 this was a regularly filled popular playlist) migrated over to Frontline. What they should have done is merge Skirmish and Frontline into one playlist. (and restore Skirmish map sizes, or have both to choose from).

Also I find it funny they removed the only mode where mines are actually useful (Skirmish) then added 3 new animations to mines and buffed the draw speed on them. Add insult to injury much?

And I guess I'll never be able to get the JR. 50 achievement now. Even the official guide for it on youtube suggests Skirmish as it's the only mode where once in a blue moon you'll have the chance.