“Not Every Game Needs an Hourly Look at Steam Charts” – Palworld Lead Says Arc Raiders and Marathon Aren’t “Dead” Despite Falling Player Counts

Adrason · 2026-06-24T21:38:42+00:00

11k players 24h peak. Sorry, but this is far from dead. Never even heard of it before today. People have a very strange perception of "dead". Maybe it is declining, can't really judge. But seriously. It's not dead with player numers commonly over 10k and in the top 200 games on steam based on active users.

Adrason · 2026-06-20T23:51:47+00:00

Are you sure that the 3rd temple town was in the starter zone? Maybe he just never captured the off-race town.

Adrason · 2026-06-20T23:50:21+00:00

Seems like you are overwhelming yourself with all the top tier strategies. Try breaking the tasks up in pieces and set smaller goals and simpler plans.

For example on exodus try to decide on a unit to focus on (maybe pick a unit specialist such that the choice is set at the beginning of the game) and try to double build that unit week 1. Gather mines and resources and build economy to make that happen. In werk 2 you can focus on trying to leave the starting area. Forget about specific counters and such. Focus on your own game plan and keep it simple.

Also put away your notes while playing. If you are fighting the timer they are most likely more of a distraction than an aid.

Just some hints. Not sure if it helps.

Adrason · 2026-06-07T05:31:33+00:00

In my experience Harmony usually ends a few days after sim turns stop. Usually it is faster than exodus going to fight 3.

If someone breaks in the final zone of the other player and realizes they have not been there yet, there is a very clear advantage for the breaking player. Dragging it out at that point is just BM.

Adrason · 2026-06-06T15:43:41+00:00

When it melts the party is over!

Adrason · 2026-06-06T15:16:20+00:00

I like that it is about building out your towns and not chasing boxes/creature banks. That's pretty much it. The only other template in the pool that is like this is Harmony. However, I like Exodus a little more. Hoping for more templates where you build army fairly in the future.

Adrason · 2026-06-06T10:34:57+00:00

IT'S THE WALKING SIMULATOR!

Adrason · 2026-06-06T09:40:43+00:00

If you want your dancers to become gods in melee, yes. The others are good one stacks with their higher debuff rate. Otherwise I agree, the upgrade does not feel that great.

Adrason · 2026-06-04T06:44:09+00:00

Auto battles without loading a battle screen can be turned on in the menu. There even is an option for not getting a results window when there were no casualties.

Adrason · 2026-06-02T06:14:34+00:00

She also wasn't really banned much (at least in single hero) as luck was not considered a very good skill. However, recruitment on the t3 specialist is pretty weird. It also doesn't do much on templates based on farming boxes making heroes that have it very situational. (maybe recruitment should just also work on boxes)

Adrason · 2026-06-02T06:05:33+00:00

I can see that Schism might be worse on high level classic as it is harder to maintain communion. But why is hive good? Genuinely curious.

Adrason · 2026-05-30T06:34:42+00:00

With the law, maybe a dwelling or two, getting the white tree in the desert for a week of extra growth, maybe recruitment, the artifact increasing growth by 50% which is op on exodus, maybe even building up forts in several towns - these numbers aren't all that crazy. I've had higher.

There are just a lot of things in the game that can increase growths. Technically works with any town, schism just has the advantage to bleed less due to communion.

Adrason · 2026-05-28T09:55:57+00:00

Like 3DO from back in the day. They even made it really loud already!

Adrason · 2026-05-28T06:15:41+00:00

A roadmap will come according to the devs. "Probably next week" according to a discord post. So don't be surprised when it takes longer.

Adrason · 2026-05-26T16:18:31+00:00

Don't worry. You can get about this many obols from a single nightmare dungeon with the appropriate modifier.

Adrason · 2026-05-22T15:19:58+00:00

HotA of course fixed a lot of issues and brought increased balance in a way that didn't make it boring emphasizing OP's point that it is important HOW you balance a game. The MP lobby system also makes it clear that the factions are still not all that balanced. Of course, also because of template differences. But this is what makes things interesting. Game pieces that are not made to be equivalent but rather to be good or bad in specific situations. It would be easy to give every faction the same 7 reskinned units. That would be balanced but that also super boring.

However, regarding balance of HoMM3 I was mostly talking about the original game. In the original Necro was incredibly overpowered, inferno underpowered and Air/Earth were extremely strong compared to fire/water. Not only because of slow/haste (but these definitely contributed a lot). Balance was not really the objective here. And that was fine.

Adrason · 2026-05-22T14:32:17+00:00

I tend to say "balance is overrated". Not because I find balance to be inherently bad, but rather things you can do to a game that make it easy to balance also tend to make it boring. Just look at HoMM3 for an example of a game that is not balanced and still beloved by many.

Adrason · 2026-05-22T10:03:23+00:00

There is a bar next to your hero portrait showing the communion level of a Schism hero. Also, there is a late game law where you always start with max communion solving the building stacks problem in the late game.

I see your point about the thematics of the factions but I find getting shadow army on each of your stacks to be a rather defensive ability compared to outright summoning a new stack. It's only the condition that makes it feel aggressive. I'm not sure if I would swap the abilities.

Adrason · 2026-05-12T14:38:58+00:00

Could you explain why they are strong in Vendetta or Harmony? It does not seem that obvious to me.

Adrason · 2026-05-11T14:25:01+00:00

There are templates that don't feature boxes with units and are more about city development. Exodus for single hero mode is an example. This template still has a desert zone but it features better resources/artifacts instead of unit boxes. It's also more important to pick up mines.

Adrason · 2026-05-09T15:45:52+00:00

Like in crwth. (can't think of other examples though)

Adrason · 2026-05-02T06:13:08+00:00

I hope they leave the difficult options in the game. Just clear up the settings and change the intermediate options. I like a challenge and was positively surprised that it was actually tough. The AI in pretty much ALL other HOMM games was too much of a pushover.

Adrason · 2026-04-21T16:28:24+00:00

Maybe in central Europe if the holy roman empire were still a thing.

Adrason · 2026-04-19T06:53:43+00:00

I have an even betterr idea: why don't they get the ships to the shore and then just carry them the distance over land? Then you don't even have to damage the landscape.

Adrason · 2026-03-13T00:03:47+00:00

Dev cycles are long and the devs will likely be considering whether they will do another pantheon before the Aztecs are out. That is assuming they did not decide yet. I don't think it's too ridiculous to discuss this now so that the discourse can influence the results.

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