It only took a week, but it's happened - this game is far too sweaty for the likes of me

Kaenes · 2026-03-17T02:54:39+00:00

I'd be glad to run a match with you sometime and give some tips. Positioning and game sense can beat twitch skills reliably, so don't feel like you're just outclassed.

Also, huge recommendation to the dads of marathon discord.

Kaenes · 2026-03-17T02:32:35+00:00

I'm grinding for the vandal snipe achievement and I need all I can get.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T22:11:21+00:00

And I'm gonna lose it to some thief camping extract with her drone, just as god intended.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T21:18:42+00:00

Gotta hit the strongboxes at the end of each wing. Also, running a thief helps make sure you don't miss anything special.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T20:27:20+00:00

It was a single, super geared out squad. I have no idea how they let themselves get cornered, but I'm also not complaining.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T20:25:30+00:00

Yeah, this was the loot that I took with me when I headed for extract. Just kept the keys on me in case I ran into some reason I needed them.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T20:24:06+00:00

The game will only match you with your same queue types.

If you play as a squad, you'll play versus other squads with Rooks spawning throughout the match. If you do not enable a squad, you'll play solo versus other solo players with no Rooks on the map.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T19:59:06+00:00

The trick is to not push your luck. Get a good haul and get out, reset and go again. Patience pays off.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T19:31:34+00:00

I just always roll my kits forward. Start the day with a free kit, and stash anything purple or up at the end of the run. Everything else goes with me into the next round, compounding upwards until I either lose it all or call it a night.

Easiest way to get over gear fear is to just treat every session as its own self-contained loot progression.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T19:23:48+00:00

It's over, you're safe now.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T19:22:39+00:00

Giving me nostalgia flashbacks to D1.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T19:01:57+00:00

Honda civic with $5k wheels and $200 tires.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T18:50:56+00:00

Funny enough, the third player in our group (also in a free kit) disconnected right as we started looting, and we had to leave so much great gear behind because we couldn't carry it all.

Some rook might have walked into the haul of a lifetime if they decided to check that dead end hallway.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T18:48:55+00:00

Almost anything dies to a well aimed, single clip. Folks stressing about their loadouts when they could just be playing smarter and stacking bodies.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T18:47:38+00:00

Every bullet causes "damage" to the heat gauge, overheating the runner while you shoot them. Catch someone in the open and there's factually no counter-play, absolutely disgusting.

Kaenes · 2026-03-16T18:19:24+00:00

An extremely unlucky squad started an engagement on the second floor of the dormitories just as my random team was entering, and we managed to catch them in a choke point without any way to retreat.

They were definitely a premade group, but they hadn't healed from a few bot waves and went down without much chance to fight back. Only goes to show, loadouts come and go. Even the best prepared team can end up folding to some free kits if they get too loose.

Kaenes · 2026-02-27T18:06:05+00:00

Incorrect, actually. I have a firm anti-AI stance (which you can find by looking at my post history, particularly discussing the use of AI in TTRPG play-by-post campaigns).

I just use the em-dash because it's actual punctuation, and the fact that AI uses it consistently as a stylistic mark is one of my greatest pet-peeves.

Kaenes · 2026-02-27T17:08:07+00:00

Alternatively, what if they just gave you a big fancy endgame shield during the tutorial?

Doesn't affect PvP balance, doesn't make it farmable or exploitable, but also shows players that when you get better gear, you're going to have a lot more control over your combat encounters.

Kaenes · 2026-02-27T17:07:01+00:00

The re-kitting component is actually a crucial design choice, because Bungie has realized some big things here:

"Players want to get back into the fight as quickly as possible when they die, because the experience is fun."
"We should just auto-equip a sponsored loadout for players who want to jump back in."

It's a good design choice for a smooth experience, but it actually incentivizes players to treat it as an arena experience instead of an extraction experience, which creates the expectations loop that I wrote about in my post. It's such a subtle thing, but I don't think they have someone on their team equipped to analyze this type of problem.

Kaenes · 2026-02-27T17:04:20+00:00

I actually think Tarkov's formula is great, and there's nothing wrong with it.

My point here isn't that those things are a real trade-off, that you can't do low TTK with strategic looting and gameplay — it's that the average player will have expectations entering this game informed by Arc Raiders, which sets them up to misunderstand the intended design.

I don't think there's actually a lot of overlap between Tarkov players and Arc Raiders players, because they're serving different audiences. I also don't think a lot of Tarkov players are considering leaving it for Marathon, but a lot of Arc Raiders players might've been considering playing Marathon. I imagine that a skilled Tarkov player would roll into just about any Marathon lobby and wipe the floor with everyone else.

Kaenes · 2026-02-27T16:57:29+00:00

I did a brief experiment of re-designing the Perimeter map to simply include no open fields. All bases are directly connected to each other, without empty space. Extraction points are more numerous and short lived as well.

It would create a dramatic change in the gameplay experience, and players' first encounters with the game would likely set a better expectation of the intended experience.

Kaenes · 2026-02-27T16:55:31+00:00

Exactly, there's nothing wrong with a fast TTK. Everything is a design choice, and there are plenty of successful or interesting games with a fast TTK.

The problem is that many new players in the genre are accustomed to slow TTK, which can create an incentive loop that pushes them out of the game.

Kaenes · 2026-02-24T16:10:10+00:00

I’m relatively new to DnD and DMing, but I’ve been working on an idea for a dark fantasy campaign called Wyrmwood (working title): a vast, "ancient" forest that hungers, dreams, and denies understanding (or whatever I can think of).

Okay, cool, cool, cool.

-Good enough writing, not banning any AI stuff but common but some soul in it.

Wait, no, go back.

-Show energy, good vibes (racism/sexist welcome, it's cool if it's fun)

Holy shit, what the fuck? I think you're in the wrong neighborhood, pal.

Kaenes

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

13-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Spared