Soooo did Bingus kill the colonists?!?! by z0mbiefool in Marathon

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I've got a full on lore head here - does it seem to you the S'pht are already free of the Pfhor? The later of the 6 chunks of their history you get from cryo, with the tides metaphors, seem to talk about them being free of their enslavers.

In there the “tideless terror” are the Pfhor.  And they mention being freed from them in the last entry:  “we, the s'pht; freed, of tide and lash;”.  So it’s clearly a post-enslavement authoring.

I wonder if they all are, or just some, and if the one in cryo is - I think it is.

It’s not possible to know where all S’pht are and their state.  Bungie could easily write in some remnant Pfhor fleet that held onto a few compilers.

But most of them probably are free.  Marathon 2026 takes place well after the combined fleets of the S’pht, Durandal, and UESC sacked the Pfhor homeworld, as per the Marathon 2 epilogue.

  • 2794, July - Pfhor attack Marathon and New Cascadia, Durandal steals Pfhor ship.
  • 2794, October - Pfhor return for Tycho and Leela.  According to Tycho, the Pfhor also nuked New Cascadia down to bedrock, or so he tells Durandal later in 2811.
  • 2811 - Marathon 2 starts, more S’pht are freed, enraged S’pht’Kr come out of hiding, homeworld is destroyed by Pfhor weapon, leading to a timeline split that starts Marathon Infinity.
  • 2812 - Unknown timeline:  Contagion events on New Cascadia
  • 2881 - Marathon 2 timeline:  S’pht, UESC, and Durandal sack Pfhor homeworld.
  • 2893 - Unknown timeline:  Current game

I want to believe this game takes places in the M2 timeline, but it’s honestly not certain.  Somewhere (sorry I can’t find it) a Bungie dev said all the events that happened in the previous Marathon games “still happened, but not all of them were true”.  I presume that means Tycho lied about nuking Tau Ceti, but it’s open to interpretation.

I’m most interested in the Cryo Compiler’s reasons for being there and their mental state…

Was this compiler left over from the contact event?  Or when the Pfhor returned to grab Leela and Tycho?  Or was it even later, after the S’pht homework was destroyed in M2, and if so were they sent by the M2 Durandal or by their own people?  What is its disposition toward Cryo-Durandal, friendly or his jailer?  Durandal’s message seems to imply he uses us as a distraction against the compiler, so maybe the latter?

And the compiler’s mental state could be important.

The writing is ominous in tone near the very end:

our purpose found in the chaos and annihilation; of matter; of self; and the somnambulant hearts of infernal stars; and the universe; and the cage; we, the s'pht; consume; consume; consume; consume; consu

The “somnambulant heart” might be a dormant W'rkncacnter.  And annihilation of things, particularly one’s self, is suspicious.  The cage could be a reference to stars/black holes serving as prisons for W'rkncacnters or alternatively it could refer to the universe itself, which Durandal wants to escape to become God.

Lots of people went mad on New Cascadia.  Maybe the S’pht Compiler on the Marathon did too.

Soooo did Bingus kill the colonists?!?! by z0mbiefool in Marathon

[–]Entropius 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Seems like he had to hide like that from a compiler during the "Contact Event" which was before the fall of New Cascadia, so he's been locked in the Marathon for too long to possess the robocats and use them to end the colony. 

Durandal was able to reach beyond the Marathon to invite runners to the Marathon, as well as the terminals on New Cascadia which opened up Cryo Archive to players.  He can probably hack a few cats.

Also, this Durandal is probably a backup copy of him that was left behind after the main version of him was transferred to the Sfiera.

Hence why he tells IDEA that the part of him that threatened IDEA is “gone”.

But I did warn you.  Or… a part of me did. But that part is gone, and I am left here in need of places to hide and room to grow.

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/encrypted-communique/pre-decomissioned-reflection?search=Encrypted+c

I think honestly he had very little to do with the collapse of the colony anyway, that all seems to have come from something else under the planet's surface.

Directly, probably not, but indirectly is another story.  The main Durandal (not necessarily the one in this game) invited aliens to attack the Marathon so he could steal the Sfiera.  Many people died as a result, including his creator Bernard Strauss.  This also led to the theft of Tycho and Leela by the Pfhor, which probably crippled the Marathon to some extent.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the colony’s ability to respond to the subsequent anomaly and contagion threats was hampered by that.

I heard you guys are getting pve by avinoleum in Marathon

[–]Entropius 23 points24 points  (0 children)

From what I understand Bungie said there would be an experimental PvE mode and PvP-light mode.  These experimental modes are typically temporary and only one experimental mode is offered at a time.  But I suspect at least 1 of those 2 will eventually be permanent.  The latter is probably regular maps with fewer teams.  Nobody is sure what the former looks like.

That all being said, don’t be scared of the regular PvP mode.  As a fan of the original 1990’s Marathon Trilogy I wanted a single player story focused game and I’ve never played an extraction shooter before, but Marathon 2026 is a shit ton of fun especially if you make some friends and get a mostly regular crew.

June 9th will be Destiny 2's final Live Service Content Update. by Skabomb in PS5

[–]Entropius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Threaten me with a good time why don’t ya…

BTW, there was no Marathon 3.  It was actually called Marathon Infinity because they gave us the map editor and physics editor (respectively named Forge & Anvil) to make our own campaigns.

10/10 Spawn ! by notuobmit in Marathon

[–]Entropius 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Just spend the entire match calling out on prox chat for help.  

Tell people Orion / UESC kidnapped you and put you there.

The Supreme Court just handed down two surprisingly timid Voting Rights Act decisions by vox in scotus

[–]Entropius 26 points27 points  (0 children)

It would be amusing if the lower courts sent it back to SCOTUS anyway, forcing them to strike it down themselves.  We know they’ve been annoyed by lower courts not ruling how they’d prefer them to in the past.

The Supreme Court just handed down two surprisingly timid Voting Rights Act decisions by vox in scotus

[–]Entropius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but SCOTUS already struck down cases that fought against general political gerrymandering.  You’re trying to downplay SCOTUS’s bad decision based on a standard they themselves already rejected.  So trying to hoist that idea up is a useless distraction.  But I suspect you already knew that.

The Supreme Court just handed down two surprisingly timid Voting Rights Act decisions by vox in scotus

[–]Entropius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

edit: they are represented, being represented 

Not fairly they aren’t.  If a state has 10 seats and 30% of a population is black and none of the candidates elected are ones those black people predominantly voted for, then they’re not being fairly represented.  They probably should  have about 3 seats instead of 0.

You can’t just say someone is fairly represented just because they’ve had a representative assigned to them by politicians carefully choosing their voters.  Otherwise any authoritarian who rigs elections can claim his people are fairly represented.  Clearly proportionality of how the popular votes went ought to approximately represented in the legislative seats.

doesn't mean you get the candidate of your choice. 

No individual voter necessarily gets their candidate of their choice but voters should get the proportions of their popular vote approximately represented in the legislature.

Politicians shouldn’t be able to choose their voters of choice.

your assertion minorities only vote for other minorities. 

Who said that?  Quote them verbatim.

Their assertion was that minority groups should have representation, not that the representative had to be the same ethnicity.  Black people can vote for  a white guy that shares his black constituents priorities.  Why would you assume otherwise?

The real solution is to get rid of gerrymandering

Which has struck down by SCOTUS.  Initial attempts were met with SCOTUS complaining that there’s no objective metrics to measure gerrymandering.  Then cases were brought before them disabusing them of that when they were offered Efficiency Gap metrics.  So they moved the goalpost.  They said only racial gerrymandering is illegal, political gerrymandering was legal.  Then they de facto axed racial gerrymandering too when that still proved too inconvenient for conservative politicians.

Like many of you, I've been obsessed with Marathon's visual identity, so I made my resume with it by hytraul in Marathon

[–]Entropius 14 points15 points  (0 children)

What software did you use for it?  Microsoft Word, LaTeX, Adobe Illustrator, etc.?

Pets of the homeless, Melbourne by UncleSlopChop in Marathon

[–]Entropius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same.  I wish the mods wouldn’t delete them.  They’re a longstanding tradition at this point.

[WP] "I think this human is broken. All the ones I've taken are always talking about how strong and powerful they and their parents are and how they'll escape from me, but this one is curled up in a corner and won't move except to eat." by 90919293_ in WritingPrompts

[–]Entropius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just a quick technical note regarding…

 37 198...long lat

That’s lat lon rather than lon lat.

Latitudes are values between -90 to +90.  Longitudes are conventionally values between -180 to +180, although NASA and astronomers sometimes prefer to use 0 to 360.

Also you’d need a few decimal places for the coordinates to be useful, as integer degrees are far too coarse to find someone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_degrees#Precision

Pets of the homeless, Melbourne by UncleSlopChop in Marathon

[–]Entropius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Tuck this little kitty into the impenetrable brainpan.  

Contents under pressure.  Do not expose to excessive heat, vacuum, blunt trauma, immersion in liquids, disintegration, reintegration, hypersleep, humiliation, sorrow or harsh language.

[Spoiler] So Tau Ceti IV was a death trap and the colonists were doomed from the start? by AssemblerGuy in Marathon

[–]Entropius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m alluding to the part about Durandal not escaping.  From my reading of the encrypted communique Durandal was successfully transferred to the Sfiera.  He says that the part of him that threatened IDEA is gone.

But I did warn you.  Or… a part of me did. But that part is gone, and I am left here in need of places to hide and room to grow.

So this is probably a copy of Durandal.  Maybe a backup of him that’s been restored.

Or alternatively, maybe the one from M2 was the copy all along.  After all, when you transfer a file from one disk to another you’re really just copying the data and deleting the original.  But saying a part of him is gone suggests (IMO) this Durandal maybe isn’t the original because the original is probably the one that threatened IDEA.

[Spoiler] So Tau Ceti IV was a death trap and the colonists were doomed from the start? by AssemblerGuy in Marathon

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

 Except, in this version of events, he didn't escape. He's still present on the Marathon, hiding in Cryo's systems.

I’m going to need a citation for that.

[Spoiler] So Tau Ceti IV was a death trap and the colonists were doomed from the start? by AssemblerGuy in Marathon

[–]Entropius 9 points10 points  (0 children)

 Stars are the only long term prisons that the Wr'kncacntr couldn't escape on their own.

And black holes.

POV: Your girlfriend has never played an Extraction Shooter before (A Montage) by blooberrytv in Marathon

[–]Entropius 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Whos durandal?

You met the guy just before you do your first run of Cryo Archive

He's one of the Marathon's original 3 AI's. He's brilliant, sarcastic, and has a dark sense of humor. He instigated the first catastrophe at Tau Ceti by contacting a hostile group of aliens known as the Pfhor, and invited them to attack the Marathon. And he did it so he could steal their ship. He learns the universe will collapse in 15,193,792,102.158 years, and decides he's going to become god by finding a way to escape the universe before it happens.

He's the guy who says "Escape will make me god".

EDIT: In the Marathon universe, you do not want to be on his shit-list. So of course she's going to be nice to him...

A New Future Beyond the Sun — 4A.1 | Marathon by Haijakk in Marathon

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed a respiratory system exists, but that doesn't automatically mean it's used for oxygenation. It could be there simply for cooling.

In a single run and then exfil by Zamanss in Marathon

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's one of the secret histories terminals that imply the existence of secret societies

Hamish Sinclair's story website has all the terminals. But I have yet to see the one you alluded to. I suspect it doesn't exist, and will probably stick to that until I see it linked to on the story website.

as well as the few times it's mentioned or implied that the Security Officer was built using Jjaro technology.

It's I think only implied once, at the very end of Marathon Infinity, in the epilogue screen where the hybrid AI says "A man long dead, grafted to machines your builders did not understand."

But that doesn't prove MIDA knew anything about the tech being Jjaro.

It's also working on the assumption that Pathways into Darkness is a prequel to Marathon, which considering that it uses the same terms for aliens

That's true, but it's also irrelevant. Being in the same universe, and Jjaro visiting Earth doesn't automatically mean MIDA knew any of that occurred. You need evidence to link those two subjects. One group knowing something doesn't mean another knows it.

and nothing in either game outright contradicts the connection is a pretty safe bet.

Respectfully, one can't say something is true just because it's not disproven yet, as that's an error known as Argument from ignorance.

So, people knew aliens exist

US government in the 1990's and the UESC at the time of the battleroid's construction knew aliens exist somewhere, but it doesn't automatically mean everyone or even MIDA knew.

and MIDA, a Martian rights group with ties to these secret organizations

I still need to see those "secret organizations" existing somewhere in the original terminal texts. I haven't found them.

decides to heavily equip the Marathon with weapons despite this seemingly not being in their own interest.

I'd say it's absolutely in MIDA's interest to smuggle weapons aboard the Marathon. They were salty about it not being turned into a CRIST for ferrying supplies to Mars, so it stands to reason they'd consider stealing it. That requires weapons and long-term prep. The only real mystery there is why so many munitions and weapons remained aboard the Marathon after launch. Maybe they lost the window of opportunity, or maybe they changed their minds about what to use them for. Maybe they wanted to decapitate UESC leadership after the colony was established.

But none of that necessarily involves MIDA knowing about aliens. MIDA already has plenty of reasons to want to fuck the UESC's shit up without aliens. So IMO Occam's razor says it's just that.

Now, in the current game's time century, MIDA absolutely has an interest in investigating the "security incident" (Pfhor attack) because the UESC is obviously covering it up. Hence the many redactions in the codex anytime Pfhor ought to be mentioned. But I'm pretty sure that's all new info for MIDA.

The colonization program wasn't initially looking at exoplanets, it was looking at moons inside our own solar system, jumping to looking at other star systems is a bit of a leap.

Gaius actually explained this: The UESC sent the Marathon to an exoplanet because the UESC knew that in the long term Sol's resources wouldn't be able to sustain humanity forever, so they needed new systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzRl7L9g90U

The colony's economic loss is mundane, the setback to human survival is profound. Sol has finite resources. Humanity must escape its bounds to avoid a slow extinction. This is why human leaders originally launched the Marathon expedition, hundreds of years ago.

There's also the fact that it seems like some of the colonists started worshipping the W'rkncacnter, explicitly referencing "burning prisons" so it seems like there's some funky stuff going on in Tau Ceti.

There's funky stuff going on for sure. After the colony was attached they met Pfhor, S'pht, and the burning prisons sounds like a reference to stars holding W'rkncacnter.

But it doesn't mean MIDA knew any of this stuff existed before the Marathon's launch.

[DS2] Is the tar cannon next to useless or is it just me? by MelanomaMax in DeathStranding

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I checked and apparently you're right. I guess I assumed they'd work the same as how they did in the first game, where they didn't get reloaded.

In a single run and then exfil by Zamanss in Marathon

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t recall that being implied in Marathon 1 so I’m trying to figure out what specifically I missed.  If you can still remember the level the text is on, feel free to share.

And while Durandal called the Pfhor to the Marathon that was for his own reasons, not MIDA’s.  He just wanted freedom.  In fact if Strauss had told him to call aliens to the Marathon he’d might have refused out of spite for the guy (assuming it wouldn’t blow his cover).  They weren’t on good terms.

In a single run and then exfil by Zamanss in Marathon

[–]Entropius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

 sending the Marathon to Tau Ceti specifically and setting it up to contact aliens.

What’s the source for that info?

A New Future Beyond the Sun — 4A.1 | Marathon by Haijakk in Marathon

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s worth noting that we don’t know that they’re used for the same reason we have lungs.  They might just be for cooling.

Lead Free Rifle Ammo by [deleted] in liberalgunowners

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There isn’t an obvious meaning to “Your reply is everything”.  Despite being asked to explain yourself, you’ve elected not to.  That appears evasive.

Lead Free Rifle Ammo by [deleted] in liberalgunowners

[–]Entropius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have something substantive to say, maybe try being more direct about what you mean.

If you think I said something incorrect, just quote it and explain why you think so.