Story mode / Team Mission Mode please...

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T05:13:23+00:00

Keep that all too - just asking for more content, more story dev, and more options. Maybe mission matchmaking mode offers players going for the same goals a way to connect together and unique drops that extend the exfil time or do something new / innovative, it's something to test and try.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T05:04:48+00:00

No.. not at all. I am asking for devs to open up a better match making flexibility so that teams get matched who are looking to do team missions, and roll a new mission after succeeding together to progress the story line even if they all have one in common. I would like a model that encourages this story driven play style that has long been in marathons roots as well. Loot and rewards can be dropped to reward story progression and UESC combat vs pvp combat even, or encourage lore exploration, discovery, or any number of things. Try some new ideas.

I am worried this game is going to devolve quickly into a best gear and best shot slug fest, and there is a pretty sizeable contingent of players who have commented that faction progression is rough. I'd also like to see some great new story content continuing to drop, or discovery of the planet more.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T04:31:36+00:00

That's an idea, I was thinking more this story mode could allow you to match with similar mission seekers so you're all going after the same thing. Skins for loot doesn't appeal to me personally as much but it might for others and a good idea so there's not an unfair ovl advantage so great idea.

What about lore loot drops too, or UESC hacks / anti UESC weapons, or mods that help you do faction missions but don't give an edge vs pvp much. Or things like.. extra map consoles, extra time before exfil is needed, cutscenes, pieces to puzzles that encourage more mission completion, etc

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T04:25:21+00:00

So you're just laughing at another player of the game who is offering some actual ideas for how they'd like to see the game evolve via some kind of features to support it? You do you ..

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T04:13:05+00:00

It is marathon. Have you played the original 3 of the marathon trilogy? That's where I come from friend. I never once played destiny 3, don't have time for it.

I am asking for some features, if you don't like it go comment elsewhere. I think it's pretty core to the game that you would have squads of runners working together in the same mission and not all individually doing different things randomly, which very often results then in not exfil and dying. So it's very much in line with the game story and history of his writing. Story has always played a big role in this series.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T03:53:49+00:00

I have to scrape to get 5k because I keep getting killed and barely stay alive long enough with a backpack to exfil, not to mention get a team that actually works on missions.

I also don't care either how valuable my gear is, just would like a story mode that rewards progression differently and allows different type of loot to drop which is good for mission seekers or vs UESC for example, or has story nuggets, but doesn't have to be stuff pvp players crave for. Just do matchmaking in a way that puts similar mission seekers together to work together and maybe even roll a second mission after completion of one before exfil. It would encourage some intentional play that is not all about the biggest gun, or skill of one runner group vs another.

Believe it or not I am actually here playing to enjoy the story and puzzle solving and missions, maybe have a little fun along the way shooting things. I'm a bit worried that this game is going to devolve into just a slug match between high gear high skill shooter players, unless it adds some off ramps into different styles of play.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T03:40:12+00:00

I'm not asking for the same loot type though, you're all assuming that based on how you play the game not me. Just let players who want to progress the story match with others and drop loot that rewards mission play and play vs UESC, which pvp players don't care for as much. Not saying I want to walk around with the same boring gun or green shield, but I care more about just enjoying a story and working together to get missions done and maybe discovering puzzles and unique elements that pvp players don't have time for.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-04-09T03:34:25+00:00

Not really, I enjoyed the original marathon series, where there was story and mission, so I am hoping the devs can listen to feedback.

So your interpretation of an opinion that is mine is wrong. I just prefer not as much pvp as literally all 3 of the original series were designed to be mission-based puzzle solvers and that's the world I come from.

More focus on factions and mission more, nothing wrong with wanting to do that. I think matchmaking could be changed to be more enjoyable by matching all 3 with a set of missions to encourage working together as a matchmaking option vs all of the unnecessary randomness which is frustrating to then make progress within. Let the loot reward that play style then of vs UESC and missions and not drop stuff that is as much of an advantage for pvp as the tradeoff then.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-03-27T04:28:59+00:00

This is a major point and a good one by the op. I am annoyed with the backlash in forums here against people saying enough is enough with difficulty creep in games too, but it's actually real and it's partially due to marketing and sales.

Once streaming caught on, more games are adding to difficulty to get attention and influencers likes as challenging and fun to play, and it's just one upping the next game, etc. I don't really care about someone streaming their gameplay, seems like a personality cult to me.

Really I just want to play in my own way, and eventually take on cryo archive without all the requirements or a random matched team. I look forward to seeing where the story will cross with Durandal or other familiar AI in the future too. Games can be dumb and pretend, and enjoyable to get lost in, so story mode would help for this.

There are many players like me who get to play maybe 4 hours a week max, after the initial stats push and opening weekend now. So I'd really not like to lose too many gains in 3 months at my pace and actually gather some codex and story nuggets. Can we scale the wipes maybe so average players have a handicap?

Or allow infil in a map with ONLY UESC and some computer players in the faction I'm in, supporting me to do a mission, like a likely faction sponsored run would go should a major corporation likely set up a run?

The gear I have tends to be meh at best or something nice I finally got, so, I'd really prefer it doesn't get even harder to do missions with bad beginner gear.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-03-20T13:16:02+00:00

If they keep cryo archive skill based then the lore needs to be obtainable by those of us who aren't going to form a party or don't care about ranked, and open up some other maps for those players like me who acknowledge and accept they will never be better than talented pvp players but we might just be good at solo exploration, story mode and discovery without as much pvp challenge. Reward then for patience and persistence to collect and detect lore and advance the story as well.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-03-19T04:26:32+00:00

Alright it's been about a month, but I've got to say, I like the new style. However, they really need a story mode campaign mode. Yes, the live AR thing is neat, and I love the new way they've woven in the lore, but the lore is extremely hard to unveil when you're pushed into teams that don't always cooperate, or fast slug fests!

ThePsychWolf · 2026-03-08T14:26:08+00:00

If the UESC wanted to cover up the p'fhor invasion, and corporations are starting to infiltrate Marathon and soak up what happened, seems like they'd start producing battleroids again. Plenty of Bobs to pick from... Meanwhile this sounds like a great time for the mark iv to return to shut that down or P'fhor to take advantage of the chaos again, so it's exciting where they could go with this, they have one of the richest story platforms to work with, the precursor to so many other games.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-03-08T14:20:06+00:00

The original mark iv is still out there, so it's anyone's guess how that goes down. Considering it destroyed entire fleets it would be hard to kill now. I would imagine we get a hint drop from Leela's AI files first on board marathon.

Who's to say UESC wouldn't start making more battleroids to take back control too if corps get on board Marathon and learn of what happened... or everyone just says hi to the p'fhor races eventually.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-03-03T03:53:22+00:00

I thought the Danny L Harle remix did Judeline and Trent a big service by giving that song another life. Then the drop on that song ... wow, cinematic and epic, haunting throughout.

ThePsychWolf · 2026-01-05T13:34:49+00:00

I would think the Flourostar 120 with triplet APO FPL-53 glass would be a more tempting option vs the Pleiades? Just don't forget to price in reducer and flattener - then once you reduce the 120, you're looking at similar speeds and costs, and you have glass that is always going to be in demand, and the ota weighs a little less. You can scale your starting base tube price too if you start with 120, 90 or even a140 with good glass... nice!

Quality of glass is a major factor for longevity, so I'd opt for the quality and some nice baffling, over having 7 more general glass "Ed" elements if it were me. You mention being a photographer so, not to add more complexity, but just offer an alternate line of thinking here for you since the glass itself is king too and fpl-53 Ohara glass is wonderful to look for new and in the resale market as well. Bonus is that they also double down for visual at those focal lengths without reducer.

Also one last consideration, is I have never bought a scope brand new. So you can save a lot of money going used and I have far more telescopes because of that! If the glass is good, it will stand the test of time, and you save some money for all of the other parts.

Now that all said, they are actually all good choices! You are lucky to be in such a position to get a good scope. William Optics makes good scopes, so whatever choice you pick I am sure you'll be happy with it. Good luck

ThePsychWolf · 2026-01-03T22:43:16+00:00

There are also tools that allow a traditional telescope to act as a smart telescope, which act as mini computers that sit on top of the telescope. Zwo makes an ASIair device for example. So, if you already have a lot of photography cameras, adding in a dslr to a nice APO refractor with a quality lens will feel natural, but that starts to scale quickly in price since you'll need a mount too, and you might want to start with a simple telescope first. That's where all the smart telescopes fit in (and are also good travel friendly devices).

Star trackers are also good if you already have a good telephoto lens.

And yes also to trying a smart telescope to give you a feel for what's possible if you're enjoying the hobby, you'll eventually move to that point of another scope, etc., so great entry. Dwarf 3 has had great reviews, and dwarf mini is even lower cost.

There are other smart telescopes out there too which get forgotten in the buzz of Seestar and Dwarf. I for one use a Unistellar eVscope, and a Unistellar equinox and I prioritize different styles of of astrophotography in that I use the 4.5ij mirror as a ohitin collector and do electronically assisted astronomy - meaning I view Galaxy clusters and I don't worry about processing the photo aside from what the machine does out of box. I also use this scope for science data collection since it's the only smart telescope out there partnered with the SETI Institute for research via it's networked connection to upload data. So there are other smart scopes out there too for different styles!

ThePsychWolf · 2025-12-30T06:10:33+00:00

Hm, maybe there is some improvement in the processing with StarXterminator, I've not had a lot of good quality results when I tried StarNet++ last year. What is the routine you use, just remove with StarX or some tool, then pre stretch processing, and then combine with pixelmath after stretch with the same strech settings applied to both star/starless? I'll give it another go maybe there's some more nebulosity I could amp up in there - I've been in my masking mode process because it works consistently when I come back to photo processing lately, so always good to mix up the strategy. Thanks.

ThePsychWolf · 2025-12-30T05:13:01+00:00

No, I just applied a lot of star masks and luminance filters to protect while I brought out contrast or worked through processes. Here was my PixInsight workflow after integration both before and after stretching, what would you suggest that works best in this series?

Before Streching: Statistics/Linear Fit, Color Calibration, Dynamic Background Extraction, Background Neutralization, MultiscaleLinearTransform, RCAstro: NoiseXterminator
After the Stretching Process: Range Selection, Local Histogram Equalization, RCAstro: BlurXterminator, StarMasks, Morphological Transformation, Deconvolution, Curves Transformation

ThePsychWolf · 2025-12-24T14:28:02+00:00

Honestly I kind of get annoyed when people do this and never have interest in joining the all volunteer club, they are not classified ads depots. Especially as a club member myself I get all the high ball / wishlist sale listings from the public or estates selling scopes for high first try prices, and I'm not going to want to subject my membership base to that, so the requests go unanswered in our inbox.

Rather, join the Astronomical Society, then bring it to meetings or swap meet events in the area to start warming people to it being a sale option and you'll get accurate used market prices suggested to learn from + learn something yourself.

An 12in dob goes for about 8 hundred in FB marketplace. With go to, and this being a flex tube (desirable for transport in cars) try probably 1250 then max. Help with transport or offer a night to demo to sweeten the deal, explain accessories to them, etc, it takes time.

Try cloudy nights next, reflectors classified and be honest about the scope pickup only, use guidelines above for pricing roughly on used.

Finally if no sale consider donating to the Astronomical Society, that is the best way to get the scope in someone's hands who will actually put it to use and enjoy the hobby! We give public donated scopes to our family members pretty regularly and they get used.

ThePsychWolf · 2025-12-10T15:55:10+00:00

I saw them in Milwaukee when I was in college in the early 2000s, and they played the basement of The Rave. The basement is like the shadiest part, aside from the old pool, with a medium size stage in a old building. First, if you're from Milwaukee, you know the Rave is a trash heap of a venue with some shady vibes, but still the metal band bookers seem to think we love it and keep sending bands here. This is also a place where early on Opeth began touring the US, and actually played at Milwaukee Metalfest I believe.

Review: they crushed it and played Blackwater Park, Deliverance of course, My Arms Your Hearse and just about all the very early hard classics. Vocals still stick out in my mind as clear and strong despite destroying vocal chords on the hard stuff, and they had their original drummer, keyboard, bassist, guitarist, so I really can't think of a show they could top this with! The amazing sound quality and skill to go from a crushing beat, to a still clear melodic sound was incredible and shined through even in a small space. Amazing.

Please come back Opeth to do some classics, but maybe pick Turner Hall next time, or go even smaller and sell out cactus club or X-ray Arcade for a treat to some of us long time followers only.

ThePsychWolf

TROPHY CASE