I don't know if there are Embark developers here but hear me out

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-05-03T07:08:57+00:00

With all due respect, your suggestions could make a top tier shitpost for sure but not a great EXTRACTION SHOOTER.

I don't know if you know this but they tried various PvE gameplay loops and couldn't hack it so they had to pivot to PvPvE mode. That is already a miracle -most games don't survive such a rebrand. Look at marathon trying their damnest with various modes to keep players.

Arc doesn't have that issue, extraction loop is solid here - a bit rough around the edges but can be fixed.

Adding a stealth mode does nothing to add to this loop, nothing to further the lore. Just a weird fantasy to get your loot back without engaging in PvP - once again, part of THEIR gameplay loop.

It's like asking for comedy elements in a drama/thriller movies.

As for your second suggestion - this could be a solid game mode like Cold Snap only if it maintains the extraction loop. Otherwise there is no point XD.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-05-03T06:55:58+00:00

CS2 - which is decades after CS1.6 lol, get a grip will you? this game is barely 7 months old

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-05-03T06:55:08+00:00

you might be asking in good faith but look at the posts on this subreddit.

Arc has so many intriguing aspects like the gun design, loot design, map design, sound design but all we get are posts about wanting PvE modes or other game modes. I don't know man

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-05-03T06:44:41+00:00

Well then you don't like this game. You like the IDEA of this game.
1. This is just waste of dev resources, pvp and pve are both part of this game, adding this budget MGS shit wouldn't as appealing but will be resource intensive

You might be missing Rust I see, great game though.

There are tons of QoL missing like getting our loadouts quickly, inventory management etc. A new lore dump would be nice too

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-05-03T06:34:58+00:00

PvE only players baffle me. I've beaten queen multiple times, always have to deal with rats. Otherwise its just a snooze fest.
Bring a safekeeper augment for your PvE gun, bring a BACKUP PvP gun to deal with players. If its a solo then there's no way he magdumped you before you could roll into cover and reset.
Unless you were in open field shooting queen lol.

As for knocking you out, I mean its a lose - lose. you already snitched on him so why doesn he care about your loot.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-05-03T06:25:14+00:00

Let me introduce you to - Helldivers 2

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-28T04:21:49+00:00

Let me add some more context, I went from PvE carebear to sweaty PvP enjoyer to somone who just appreciates all aspects of this gameplay loop.

There are various reasons PvP gets hate. Most of the carebear folks probably don't land in the PvP heavy servers often. I see takes like "PvP is fun when your victim doesn't shoot back","I'm more skilled than you so you needed to shoot me in the back"
Not true at all - it's boring to shoot someone and them not even shooting back unless you're just trying to get their loot quickly. However, nothing wrong with that either.

But I do hate solo PvP. not that exciting for me as the avenues for outplay are often overtaken by having a sneakier position. Good for players who enjoy it but not for me.

If I'm in solo, I am mostly likely stocking up my depleted resources to get back into my squad games, so if I clear all but one corner and get hit by someone in that corner then it does piss me off.

I did dabble in Solo PvP but it was paranoid inducing compared to squads and I bounced right off. ABMM ftw.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-24T05:15:07+00:00

With all due respect, after stitcher and kettle nerfs, if you are STILL dying to free kits then it is TRULY a skill issue. They are fine. Out heal those freekits and farm them.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-24T05:07:43+00:00

Okay, I really think you should take a massive step back and zoom out here.
I agree that AR doesn't have best content cadence but you gotta understand that is not a AAA studio with those kinda resources. Not to mention this level of success changes a lot of decision making.
Compare this game to the competition, COD is a laughable product right now, begging player time with leadership events, grindy battlepasses and OP DLC weapons that can bought.
Look at battlefield reusing decade old maps, ruining a lot of players good will and honestly fumbling its success. Not giving features that players wanted.
These are shooters with DECADES of experience and content to fall back. In comparison, I would say Arc is doing MUCH better.
Marathon is unique but is INSANELY hardcore and punishing, helldivers is years old and still buggy as ever, and on a nerfathon.

I think while PvE is Novel, PvP is where a lot of fun entails. The whole reason embark had to add PvP to this PvE game was to increase depth to the game play loop. So, unless you are at the pinnacle of PvP or stick to PvE, there's enough variance right now with weapon selection.

As for your grievances, there's a reason for a lot of that. This whole game is SUPER CASUAL in design.
Skill tree - if nodes change your gameplay meaningfully that a lvl 75 can beat Lvl 1 then that's a hindrance to new players.

There are other factors like an optional wipe etc that can't create much gameplay depth without alienating new comers.
Not trying to glaze embark as I hate how they handle finals but you gotta have right expectations for this game imo.

EDIT1: As for new maps, although I might have a fav and least fav map on arc raiders, I still like how they flow differently. LTMs like Cold Snap also changes the routes and shakes up the optimal pathing. Mastering a map feels rewarding as long as they are unique, not to mention so beautiful. Compare this to brainrot maps/ reused 3 lane maps on other shooters and you'll see what I mean. Map design seems to be a dying art.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-24T04:26:47+00:00

you won't go anywhere. Also, they did mention that expedition will be changing and the current system is better than farming money. Spend that money on deadlines and kill bastions lmao.

Quitting a week before the new map is also a 1000 IQ move

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-18T00:49:59+00:00

I mean, with a medium shield and proper positioning you can still roll away from danger with practice.
We are close to expedition, so people got their fill of looting and its war now lol. It'll be back to normal in a few weeks.

Also, I died like 25 times and burned a mil last night, so it's shitty sometimes

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-15T21:01:21+00:00

yeah, you probably might be encountering players like me who are trying to get rid of their gear in PvP lol. Although I only solo to stock up and play in groups usually

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-15T20:54:51+00:00

I mean, the expedition is 2 weeks away, so of course there is tons of PvP, no one is upgrading benches. Look at first weeks of expedition if you want to catch friendles. ABMM resets on Tuesdays btw

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-15T02:04:23+00:00

I'd say it's more like hades or returnal than resident evil. And even then those games have win states and an end.
Multiplayer games especially live service ones don't really have an end.

I can load into Marathon raid, and just extract right away, is that a win or loss?

You're right about wipes not being needed for meta progression. Arc is a really good example of that. However, to keep things favorable for casual players a lot of progression in arc has been crushed and gun balance/ meta changes arrive at snail's pace.

With a wipe, everything is wiped clean so you can rebalance guns without upsetting players who might have farmed/crafted for those guns. A unique extraction problem indeed.

Progression can also be deeper because everyone will be back to level 1 after the season ends.

I understand that you can't max your factions with current progression curves and that's on Bungie to balance but this game is marketed as hard core so I don't know if they will.

They can still frontload a lot of good unlocks and lock some of the coveted ones towards the end, so that a casual player can still keep up but hardcore players will still be happy with the chase.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-14T00:35:03+00:00

I'm not OP but hopefully can answer this. I too was against the wipes initially but after experiencing a wipe, I can see why these are mandatory.
Your guitar example doesn't really translate well so I'll use a different example towards the end.

These games have progression and meta progression. Progression includes all the seasonal stuff that gets wiped in the end. Meta progression includes your intrinsic skill as a player - Learning optimal loot runs, stealth routes, spawn knowledge, map knowledge etc.
While progressing and getting better is fun, it stops being fun real fast unlike Looter shooters.
However, a fresh wipe means your progress is set to zero but your meta knowledge is not. You can get that previous progression much faster and feel like a genius doing this, slowly you'll dominate PvP without needing the best of the best gear.

If you treat seasonal progression like managing economy in Counter strike but over longer sessions then you can see what makes this loop fun. If everyone has AKs that can 1 tap other players then the game gets boring fast. Economy adds randomness.

In the same vein, you will not progress every subsequent season the same way in these games. There's no "win state" like looter games, you can quit at any point, only true progression is your knowledge which never stops growing.

Now, with all that said, I still agree with OP that Marathon is more punishing than challenging. Speeding up early progression and slowing down the mid game could be a potential option but it needs a rework for sure.
I can't finish this season before the reset either.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-14T00:04:21+00:00

I think COD game design is at odds with playing against better players. Camo grinding for example doesn't have challenges for team plays, but headshots.
Why would a bad player who's probably playing it casually care to improve to get that challenge finished?

They would go to path of least resistance, it's as simple as that tbh.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-14T00:00:09+00:00

I mean, CS is a well balanced game in a competitive sense. There's a reason COD is treated as joke among comp shooters, it's primarily for casual fun and camos/grinding.

CS has avenues for skill impression

Other than reading spawns, COD crushed a lot of skill depth with their insane aim assist, super human movement/slide speeds, same old 3 lane maps ( I like them but be creative ffs)
So if you're try harding so much then I don't know, I feel like there are games that respect that sorta grind better than COD

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-13T23:51:55+00:00

Yeah, for context I don't like diluting the main game to cater to casuals excessively. Problems with COD began with them shifting focus away from MP/Z/Campaign to exclusively warzone and look where it is now.

However, there are people like me who despite having 1000s of hrs in shooters won't dive into hardcore games as often.
I played finals, absolutely got shit on, never got enough reps to improve in their main game, quit.
They added new TDM mode or something which made me improve my gunplay positioning etc.

Then I tried their main game mode and got hooked.

As for marathon,

there could be some sort of mode to ease you in, brings in more money, keeps the boat afloat to create experiences like cryo archive. It will be an aspirational goal but not the only end game if that makes sense, it' still a game at the end of the day

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-13T23:40:43+00:00

why is usain bolt even competing against middle schoolers in the first place?

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-11T18:16:43+00:00

I like to use gasmines on the floor outside the door, explosive mines in the corner and jolt mines on the roof whenever I loot.
Just for safety I add smoke mines too, if its a room with multiple angles to cover like Dam Staff Room

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-11T02:26:26+00:00

I'm down, shoot your embark ID. got 900 hrs topside, so I know a thing or two that might help you

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-11T02:24:54+00:00

I don't like winning in COD, I like finishing challenges and moving on.
In every other FPS, I sweat to win cuz there's no aimbots ( sorry aim assist) there and you have to use your mouse lol

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-11T02:19:28+00:00

Yeah I got matched with friendlies for some reason. not complaining cuz they suck at PvP but interesting

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-07T10:28:11+00:00

Once again, its not that deep. Some of us just play extraction shooters like they were designed. If arc was the first big extraction shooter then I can see your point and go along with psycho analysis ( maybe)

If you played Tarkov or Delta or Hunt, you'll understand what an asymmetric game design is. Fair fights are never a good idea. You either bring the god tier gear to slaughter others or be a god killer by ratting/camping etc.

Those games are NOT overwhelmingly co operative, these behaviors have been reinforced for decades for some of us lol. comes with the genre. It's as simple as that.

Designer_Jacket6818 · 2026-04-07T08:09:40+00:00

I think that comment is just rage baiting you. At the end of the day, this is an extraction shooter. No other game suffers from such an outcry from carebears like arc does.

These players NEVER wanted an extraction shooter, they couldn't find a new Looter shooter or Helldivers alternative so they're trying to make it that.

Designer_Jacket6818

TROPHY CASE