Based on the constructive feedback provided by the community over the last weeks, we have decided to remove Airship Escort from Random Battles in Update 12.11.
We expected to see a shift in the Random Battles meta towards close-quarters combat-oriented and brawling ships, however, we did not see a significant and lasting impact in the results. We understand the preference of players wanting to pick ships that are more tailored towards the expected playstyle and realize the vastly different player experience in comparison to other game modes in its current state, and as a result, we have decided to remove this game mode from Random Battles.
This game mode is still widely popular, so it will see a return in 2024 as a standalone temporary battle type. We will update you about this on the DevBlog when we have more information about it.
Thank you to everyone who provided the feedback that informed this decision.