I feel that I, like many of you, are currently dissatisfied with the current method of selecting scenes for normal skirmish mode. Skirmish mode was, to me, an integral part of CC, mainly because campaign was broken and useless. However, with the recent build (24), skirmish has been thrown into the backseat, forcing you to navigate through at least two more button presses to find it. This is unacceptable. I propose that Skirmish Mode be brought back to the main menu.

Additionally, I think the current method of selecting scenes for Skirmish is unnecessary. The world map gimmick works perfectly with campaign, since it gives you a sense of progress, and it's fairly important for the meta-game. However, for Skirmish, all you really want to see is what map you'll be playing on, and maybe some fluff text. So I drew up a different method for selection. Ideally, you'd have your list of maps that are eligible for skirmish. To the right you'd have a preview of the map. I couldn't figure out how to get the actual preview, so I used the terrain file instead, but you get the idea. Underneath the image could be the fluff text.

So yea, I was just wondering what you guys thought about it. Do you like that method? Or do you prefer the current?

Sounds good. I'll inform Data 'bout this.

I prefere your method, current activities selection can be also integrated in it as a tab between activities selection and map selection.
And the way to display what map you selected is very clever yet simple, what could you wish for more?

The way skirmish works now i find time consuming and uninformative.

Tomaster, awesome idea.

Totally true. I'd prefer your way, because there is a point where everyone has created it's own scenes, and when you set skirmish, the entire world is clogged up with a gazillion of glowy points, and sometimes some of them block part of others and bla bla bla.

Sometimes people put them in convenient places so you won't lose them. Like, I dunno, a big "T" in the middle of an ocean... maybe...

I see where you are coming from, but I like the current mode better. It shows the geographical correlation between the campaign and the skirmish itself. Plus, it is very creative to use the planet backdrop as a scene selection menu. Personally, I don't mind a few extra clicks. Besides, where will the extra activities go, such as harvester, prospecting, and the non-vanilla activities that other people (or yourself) make?

Um, Just had an idea while i was playing minecraft Why not have Scenes that can be randomly genrated>?

Because that's just silly.

See, now you're confusing the campaign with skirmish. If you're playing campaign, it's important to see where, geographically, the scene is, since that helps immersion, and gives a sense of progression when you unlock new scenes. Whereas when you're playing skirmish, it really shouldn't matter where on the "world" the map is, since it's a one time battle. As for the other activities, you could incorporate another drop-down box that allows you to select if you want to play anything other than the default skirmish mode.

I understood all of that, what I was saying is that it would show the geographical correlation between campaign and skirmish. It adds another level of depth to the game, and makes the game blend no matter what game mode.

I agree the current skirmish selection sucks, it needs both larger menus and more buttons so you can begin games faster.

I think the most annoying issue with the current system is that the scroll bar in the activity selection is too small.
Also, if you have lots of maps they will eventually overlap and you can't play some of them.
And the preview is direly needed.

Of course, if we really hated the menus so bad, we could always make our own.

Theoretically, you could just make a program that generated random terrain bitmaps and the end result would be the same.

Someone already made something like that.