Game Modes

Descent: Underground will ship with a variety of game modes.

Game Modes
Most game modes are designed to last for 20 to 30 minutes, with the winners getting extra resources as a reward. The list of game modes is being worked on, but they are taking inspiration from classic Descent modes. In some servers, game modes, or maps, there may be restrictions on ships. There might also be things dropped into the map that you're not aware of.

The new game modes being offered are designed to encourage more team play than the traditional Descent game types.

Single Player
A solo mode where you solve puzzles reminiscent of the original Descent. The game will ship with an engaging single-player campaign that servers as a prologue to the full game.

Cooperative
Fly the single player maps with friends. This mode is being developed alongside the Single Player campaign and may be released after Single Player. This will include bonus challenges that require teamwork.

Anarchy (includes Team Anarchy)
1v1, team matches, and free-for-all are developed. This mode is available for most maps.

Survival
Drone teams are pitted against waves of robots trying to take control of various areas within maps. As the level of difficulty increases, the number of areas your team must defend also increases. Survive as long as possible before the bots eventually overwhelm your team. This mode can be played in special maps designed for the gameplay.

Corporate War
The main training for ship types. Teams of different drones ally under custom corporations to get the most from a mine. Deliveries to a shipping center will be rewarded, as well as rewards issued for capturing minerals and ferrying them. This mode is under development.

Miner Mayhem
Teams race to deliver miners to their home station. But competing teams will try to find the miners first and steal them from you along the way. Fight back and be the team to find and deliver the most miners. Featuring the voices of developers and fans as the different miner personalities. This mode can be played in maps set up for the mode.

Capture the Core
Teams vie for control of a core and also use a mining laser on it to rack up extra points. The team with the most points in the end wins. This mode is under development and refinement. This mode can be played in most maps.

King of the Core
An anarchy version of Capture the Core. Every drone for itself.

Co-op vs. AI
Cooperate to destroy a set number of robots and drones spawning against your team. This gameplay can be played in most maps.

Capture the Asteroid
A domination-style map where you secure one or more beacons on the map.

Mining For Minerals
There is a special resource that must be mined and then returned to your harvester.

Servers
There will be global servers on the web for Internet play. These servers will track your progress, and may be divided into regions. LAN play will also be supported, where everything will be unlocked, but any progress on LAN will not count towards your global progress. An account will not be required for LAN play.

Queuing for a Game
You will be able to setup your ships in your hangar prior to joining a game. They are currently leaning towards having role-based queues.

Is it a MOBA?
MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, and is also known as an Action Real Time Strategy game, or ARTS. These type games tend to have players controling a powerful character who is on a team with other players controlling similarly powerful characters. Each team also has uncontrollable NPCs that tend to be weaker than the player's character, but are useful in helping the team capture objectives, such as destroying a defense tower. The ultimate goal is to eliminate the team's main structure to win the game, while battling both players and NPCs on the other team, as well as securing neutral objectives, such as killing a dragon for more power, or resurrecting a powerful undead monster to fight for your team.

Mistakenly or otherwise, Wingman frequently referred to the game as a MOBA prior to and up through the start of the Kickstarter campaign. This led to much confusion and concern that Descent: Underground would not be a Descenty game, and more like the traditional MOBAs such as DotA2, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, and Smite. Thus, references to Descent: Underground being a MOBA were quickly removed.

This does not rule out the possibility of a game mode for Descent: Underground having MOBA-like elements. However, as mentioned above, there are many other game modes that will be released that will not be MOBA style.

History of Game Modes
Initially, it was announced that the game would have a wide variety of modes, including single player, exploration, tunneling, team resource competitions, and something similar to "capture the ore".

Descent: Underground as an e-sport has frequently been discussed. There could be competitions pitting 3 or 4 teams against each other. In later builds, it was revealed that up to 8 team colors would be available, hinting at the possible existence of 8-team battles.

They want to have maps of varying sizes to support varying sized team games. Maps of 3v3, 4v4, 8v8, 32v32, and for 4 teams of 16 are desired. Not every map will be large in size.