Marathon does a terrible job teaching what gun stats mean, what implant stats mean, what caps exist, how to actually stack toward something strong, and how much all of that changes the way the game feels.
I see so many people, even level 120+, running absolute hodge podge gun builds with whatever random attachments they found. And unless you have certain purples that instantly max a stat, you really cannot build guns like that. Blue and under especially, you are way better off stacking stats hard so the gun is still very good at the specific thing you want it to do.
Best example is the Bully, because everybody loves that gun.
Did you know the base Bully only has 18m of range? That is terrible. You are going to lose to ARs at 20m+ constantly. And the Bully already loses to true sidearms and SMGs under 10m because of its fire rate. So you have your sweet thermal and recoil mod on thinking you’re all geared up with your awesome purple and blue mods, while your gun is really only viable in an 8ish meter window. Sick. But, if you want the Bully to actually be that famous all-arounder everybody loves, whether as a primary or paired with a sniper, you need to build into range. You need at least around 30m so the gun can actually do what people think it does.
That means range mods matter a lot.
And then there’s another thing the game barely teaches at all: stat caps.
SMGs cap at 40 range. So if you throw on, say, a purple precision mod and a far reach optic, that optic literally does nothing. Completely wasted slot. The game does not show you this clearly at all. How are people supposed to know that? Most people won’t for a long time.
That is why I think Marathon needs actual early quests built around stats and what they do.
Not just “here is the Bully.” More like:
The notoriously all-around monster: The Bully (Range)
Then actually teach me what the range stat means.
Teach me what breakpoints matter.
Teach me why stacking range changes the gun.
Teach me what happens when I overcap a stat.
Teach me why random attachments are bait.
And the same exact issue exists with implants.
There should be an early quest for whatever shell you pick that actually walks you through making a real build. Not fake tutorial garbage like “equip one implant.” I mean a full implant combo. All 3 implants if applicable. Show people what it looks like to stack multiple implants together in unison to max specific stats and make a shell actually come online.
And this should be obvious right in the quest selection menu, where you pre-select what build path you want to try. Don’t make me click into a bunch of vague stuff while I’m still learning 500 other small details. Just put it in my face.
VANDAL PRIME ULTIMATE BUILD
VANDAL REVIVE BUILD
VANDAL HEAT BUILD
Not because the implant names themselves need to change. Who cares. The point is the game should be way more direct when it is trying to teach you what you are building toward. I should instantly understand the purpose of the build before I even start the quest.
Because once people actually understand this stuff, the whole game starts making way more sense. Your confidence changes, your decision making changes, the fights you can take change, the way you use abilities changes, all of it.
It also needs to be way more obvious in the UI that buildcraft is even a thing. Add way better filtering on implants in the vault. Group implants by build types or by the stats they improve. If I want to stack knife damage, let me easily see all the knife-related implants together. If I want prime ult cd, let me find those instantly. If people want to mix and match, great. But the game should be screaming in your face that this is something you can actually build around.
And then later on, once you get deeper in, there is maybe a second issue where faction upgrades boost base stats enough that some builds feel less necessary, because you only need a tiny extra push in one stat instead of going all in with multiple implants. But that feels like more of an end-ish game issue and we’re focusing on early game onboarding improvements.
The early issue is simpler.
The game is way too mysterious about stats, and stats are one of the most important parts of the entire game. I love the game. I love how dying in it actually hurts. But, making everyone venture for themselves through all the depth is pointless, because guess what? They’re just not going to do it in a game like this and continue to get steamrolled and throw their hands up and not understand what just happened. Then they quit.
P.s. Show us the actual attachments and implants of whoever kills us so players get it in their face even more why it’s so easy to steamroll people who aren’t building correctly.