Titanfall Introduces More Traditional FPS Mode for 16 Players Without Titans and AI

Xbox and PC shooter Titanfall's sixth major update will include, among other things, a new pilot-only game mode called Pilot Skirmish. Announced today in a post on the game's website, Pilot Skirmish is an 8v8 mode that features no NPCs or Titans.

Arguably the chief intrigue of Respawn Entertainment's new shooter is its pilots vs. mechs gameplay, so the introduction of this pilot-only mode is somewhat of a surprise. It's not entirely shocking, however, as the developer teased back in February that such a mode might be introduced to Titanfall sometime down the road.

Standard Titanfall matches are limited to 12 players. And because of this player cap difference, Pilot Skirmish will not be a featured game mode when playing the Variety Pack playlist.

Titanfall update six, which does not have a launch date yet (thought it might be September 6), also includes a range of gameplay tweaks and new features, including new options for colorblind gamers and faster matchmaking. A roundup of these changes, courtesy of Respawn, is available below. Looking ahead, Respawn says it will introduce even more new game modes, including Wingman Last Titan Standing.

The game is currently free to play on PC through Electronic Arts' Origin platform for a period of 48 hours.

Marked For Death is Now its own Permanent Game Mode! - When we first introduced Marked For Death, we were planning to rotate it out for another mode after a couple of weeks, but the enduring popularity of the mode convinced us to bring it on full-time. There will now be a Marked For Death playlist to choose from, along with custom Marked For Death loadouts to unlock.

Added Modes for Colorblind Titan Pilots - Three colorblind options (protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia) have been added. They affect IFF glows, crosshair colors, and names above heads.

Pssst...wanna buy a burn card? - Black Market Daily Deals now include the ability to buy individual Burn Cards from a limited, ever shifting stock. These items are in short supply, so prices may vary.

Gambling is for Winners - Roll the Dice is a new ultra-rare Burn Card that gives you the ability to tap into your entire deck from inside a match. It’s the Fabergé Egg of burn cards if you will.

Burn Card Auto Fill - Toggle the new Burn Card Auto Fill option in the Burn Card Menu and it will automatically fill empty Burn Card slots for you. Never fight empty-handed again.

Late to the Game - Joining late is no longer penalized. If you join a match that is more than half way over and your team is not winning, a loss will not be counted on your record. If the match is a win for your team, we’ll count it as one. We've also added a warning message noting you will receive a loss on your record by leaving a match in progress.

IMPROVEMENTS AND OPTIMIZATIONS

FX Optimizations - Optimizing effects processing and moving more effects rendering work onto additional CPU cores is a good thing. So we did that.

Matchmaking - Faster searching, improved team balancing, increasing the likelihood of being in full games, and drastically lowering the chance of having lopsided (e.g. 6v3) matches.

• The score is now shown in the center of the screen at the end of each Last Titan Standing round.
• New HUD Icons for team Titan counts and players using Burn Cards have been added. Last Titan Standing now shows the number of Pilots left alive on each team.
• New voiceover for Round Won and Round Lost events as well as noting whether the gap between the teams’ scores is increasing or decreasing.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

• Titans no longer show up on the minimap when they dash.
• Atlas and Stryder melee damage values have been switched to mirror their original design intent. The Titan melee damage order is now: Stryder, Atlas, Ogre from least to most. This is also consistent with the hierarchy of damage for the Big Punch mod.
• To stem the influx of Burn Cards at higher levels, the Bonus XP-to-Credits conversion rate for max level players has been adjusted.
• As part of the pan-galactic stimulus package, credits for selling rare Burn Cards have been increased from 200 to 400.

BUG FIXES (All Platforms)

• For the Black Market we slightly reduced the chance to get rare cards in the Standard Pack, and increased the number of rare cards in the Premium Pack from 4 to 5.
• The Auto-Titan vortex effect should no longer orient incorrectly.
• Fixed the shotgun, vortex fireback, and arc cannon bypassing Titan shields when used against a Pilot doing a friendly rodeo.
• The map Export no longer contains areas where you can shoot through covered windows.
• Grenades should now be better at predicting their movement at high frame rates.
• Fixed a rare crash bug on Demeter in Campaign mode.

BUG FIXES (Xbox One)

• Fixed issue where a user couldn't sign in to Titanfall if there is a second account on the system which has access to Titanfall DLC content which the first user doesn't.
• Fixed incorrect leave game dialog behavior when in a party.
• Connecting a SmartGlass device to the X1 while Titanfall is running should no longer cause a crash.
• You should no longer be able to get behind walls when rodeoing a Titan that is ejecting on Relic.
• Titan OS no longer says that you are being attacked by an Enemy Pilot when you are inside an enemy Dome Shield.

BUG FIXES (PC)

• Fixed incorrect leave game dialog behavior when in a party.