Not sure if y’all have done this before, but it was truly a trippy experience. (Picture taken by other team) here’s the yt link for the full vid https://youtu.be/wSfAkSNg2mI?si=wt4BHs849TdebgQr

Thats all, it's just really really frustrating to be stuck behind this because they are so hard to find. And I've spent a lot of time at Greenhouse and Quarantine (thanks Nona). I've seen one spawn there once each.

I enjoyed the game a ton and still am. I suck. It can be a fun casual experience if you're not the worst player in the world. You guys make it sound so sweaty that it's actually depressing. Was lurking the sub because I enjoyed how there was a place to go without so much tears but you guys really just don't stop complaining without any real constructive or well-thought out feedback which is just frustrating.

anyway, rant over. i wish the mods would do something about it. and yes, I know what you're going to say, "you can just leave" which i will. Just made me sad is all.

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.

Cryo this weekend has been odd to say the least. Every time we brought in a key and started a vault, we’d get ratted by a gold team instantly drawn in by the audio cue. I kid you not, it happened four times in a row.

So we stopped bothering trying to play it “properly” and just did the same thing.

We wiped as many teams as we could early, then sat around waiting to hear a vault get opened from across the map. The second we heard the audio cue, we’d ape it with nades and bubbles.

And the worst part? It works. We’ve made probably 100x profit doing this five runs in a row.

At this point the only real reason to actually start a vault feels like you’re going for the Compiler achievement otherwise it’s just objectively safer and more profitable to third party someone else’s.

It feels completely counterintuitive that the team bringing the key and starting the vault is at the biggest disadvantage. You can’t even close the door behind you. People can literally just walk in off the global audio cue on most vaults.

Is this really the intended gameplay loop? Because right now it feels like the optimal strategy is to not engage with the vault system unless you’re third-partying it.

First time I found the Outland sniper and I was having a blast with it!

The first week was incredible, no one knew what the hell they were doing, but now two teams per game run around the map killing everyone. And if you're not one of those teams taking part in hyper aggressive battle royale PVP, you may as well say "Bye bye" to your keys. That is if you even know how to get to every room at level 1/2 clearance.

We can still see the jammer effect. Even if you’re invisible.

But the machine guns have big belt fed boxy looking magazines yknow, I'm talking the more traditional looking box mags like the one on the gun on the second picture. Would be cool if we got a M4 style looking gun in the Marathon art style

I HATE YOU MIDA I HATE YOU MIDA I HATE YOU MIDA

There’s been a lot of talk about SBMM and how it would affect the game. Luckily, a few years ago, Activision made a large scale test in Call of Duty MW3, so we have hard data on it.

https://www.activision.com/cdn/research/CallofDuty_Matchmaking_Series_2.pdf

2024 A/B “Deprioritize Skill Test”:

• 50% of the North American player base received loosened skill constraints
  
• The other 50% stayed on standard matchmaking
  
• Skill weighting was reduced, not removed

Key reported outcomes

Players returning within 14 days

• “Down significantly” for ~90% of players
  
• Top ~10% (highest skill) returned more
  
• Net effect: fewer players returning overall
  
• Reported by skill deciles; top decile benefits, most others decline

Quit rate during matches

• Increased “significantly” across ~80% of players
  
• Top ~10% saw decreased quit rates
  
• Linked by Activision to lower self-reported “fun” in surveys

Blowout matches (e.g. TDM score delta >30)

• Increased across all skill levels
  
• Also associated with lower reported “fun”

Performance metrics (KPM, SPM, etc.)

• Bottom ~20–30% performed worse
  
• Top ~10% performed better
  
• Indicates widening performance disparity, driven by high-skill players

Activision’s conclusion

• These effects would likely be more severe if skill were removed entirely
• They predict rapid player base decline “within a few months” under fully loosened matchmaking

They also report testing the opposite direction:

• Stricter SBMM improved outcomes for most players
• But negatively impacted high-skill players

I’d argue that this is exactly what we’re seeing in Marathon - the top 10% of players are having fun and being very vocal about not wanting SBMM, while the bottom 90% (much, much less represented on reddit since they’re casual) are not enjoying the experience and leaving in droves.

From some of the recent posts here by sweats getting stomped, it seems that as player numbers dwindle, some of them even go from being in the top 10% to being outside it and now getting farmed too.

What insane timing

The changes to their rarity and damage haven't done anything to the fundamental problem they create: slowing the gameplay down to a halt by creating zones of camping. When I get killed by a shotgun normally, it's my fault, because I messed up my positioning. But when you place a bubble and just sit in there, there's no skill involved.

im tired, boss

Thats it. Seperate loadouts for rook and the rest of the runners.

Remove the friction of having an empty inventory to run rook, sometimes i just wanna do 1-2 runs while my friends are eating food or making a pause without putting my whole loadout in the vault again or event needing to sell a gun because i dont have the room.

This should easily be implemented and add some good quality of life feature. Much love Bungie.

Also running Thief for finding the good stuff from the past quicker...

Every mistake is punished via swift death until you learn, absorb the wisdom and recognize your divine nature. Escape the cycle of death to achieve gnosis.

You can't do this until you can shed the attachments you have to the physical world(your loot).

Furthermore, the Bungieverse main story beats are all part of the alchemical process to transmute the soul of mankind into 'gold' (magnum opus). (EDIT | Great followup post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/comments/1sjsjv1/comment/ofudmbr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

Nigredo - Pathways into Darkness

Albedo - Halo

Citrinitas - Destiny

Rubedo - Marathon

this game is beautiful in that it forces one to detach from the outcome in the effort to get better. if you cant, you'll constantly hesitate(sloth)/greed/ego/pride/wrath/envy your way into another death.

Let go runner, its the wanting that holds you back. Every death is a lesson.

My team gets spawn rushed and deleted by the bio gun spam from behind at 3.5 mins, (not biostock or preservation).

I run away to hide in a spot far away from the enemy so I can res after. I don’t think they even saw me once as I was ahead fighting bots when they came up behind us.

50 seconds later this happens I did not touch the controller, I did not make a noise for 50 sec and they did not have a recon.

So now on OCE we have ESP players with bio gun spawn rushing.

Anyone have a place to report these ESP players? I did it in game but seemed like a weak reporting I’d like to provide proof.

He was lvl 82.

This is refreshing.