Starting with v1.19 of Demigod there won't be a "skirmish" option anymore. Few people used it. Fewer people liked it. And it had the effect of splitting the MP community.
The focus going forward is going to be on Pantheon and Custom games.
In Epoch 2, custom games weren't really counted for anything since the stat system was still premised on only skirmish and pantheon games. We are in the process of changing this for the remainder of Epoch 2. It probably won't be retroactively applied though (except for me - so don't worry about me, I'll be taken care of, I'll just be boarding my plane to planet win but I'll come back for the rest of you...).
The remainder of Epoch 2 on Stardock's end will be to make custom games better. With the Elemental beta going out, I've asked some of our key developers to take a look at what we can do for Demigod's overlay so that people in custom games can get user data within custom games.
My inclination on what data I would like to see include:
- Games Played (% win)
- Teammate Familiarity (% played together last 25 games with any player on their side)
- Player notes.
On player notes, the idea is to be able to see any notes you've put about that player. For example, let's say you had a horrible game because someone on your team was griefing or had a really bad connection or what have you. You would go to the pantheon page, click on that player, and enter notes there. Then, inside of Demigod, on the connectivity dialog, you could see any notes you've made on that player so that you don't have to remember every player you've played against.
So those are the 3 things Stardock will be working on during the next week (when they'll get into the game depends on QA -- we've had various builds of v1.2 in internal beta for 3 weeks for instance).
But the point is that we will no longer distinguish the type of game when it comes time to putting data into your Pantheon account. We'll still have rankings on a per game mode (Pantheon and Custom) but Custom games will be part of your overall account info.
As you will be able to tell, other than the experience rating is still messed up, it's much more complete now than the typical custom game player.
