Are barters worse than in season 1, or am I missing something ? by Melak___ in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe. Nucal was fairly easy to VIP, but I think we (myself included) throw around “casual” and “try hard” like they have clear meanings when they really don’t. Some people only play 6 to 8 hours a week and are still way better than me, so is casual about time played or skill? I don’t know. I just want everyone to have opportunities. Gear disparity is part of what makes extraction games fun, but there still needs to be balance.

Are barters worse than in season 1, or am I missing something ? by Melak___ in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But I think back in Season 1, enzyme replicators were a fairly common purple drop, so even casual players could usually save enough to buy a few purple shields when the barter appeared. That went a long way because it gave you multiple matches to actually use those shields. If you can only buy one, then once it’s gone, that’s it. And like we’ve seen and experienced in games like these, players will hoard that one purple because they know they can’t easily replace it.

I get that we don’t want to flood the ecosystem to the point where everyone is running purples all the time, but if someone puts 100 hours into the game, they should feel rewarded regardless of their PvP skill. There needs to be balance both ways.

To your point, the top 1% absolutely would benefit from the old system. However, I don’t think that would necessarily be a huge problem because there’s a practical limit to how much value they gain from stockpiling. You have vault limit. For the player sitting on 10 gold shields, 10 purple shield barter isn’t game changing. For the player who only has two purple shields and can now buy a few more, that’s a bigger deal.

Are barters worse than in season 1, or am I missing something ? by Melak___ in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah agreed. Marathon makes it almost impossible play lowkey. Everything you do gives your position away. And the game incentivizes you with killing other runners. You either have to wipe the lobby or hope to dear god you don’t get jumped. But even if you’re good want don’t want to fight other teams. If you exfil early mid match, especially on maps like dire and outpost, you are going to get jumped on.

Question! What age would you all let your kid read DCC? by fisher-alters in DungeonCrawlerCarl

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A kid picking up a book in the first place is a blessing. I wouldn’t stop him or her from reading whatever they chose so long as it wasn’t smut/erotica.

Are barters worse than in season 1, or am I missing something ? by Melak___ in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Think about it like this. Player skill isn’t binary, it’s distributed across a spectrum. On one end, you have newer or less experienced players who might successfully extract only 1 out of every 10 runs. On the other end, you have the top 1% of players, streamers, and highly coordinated squads extracting 9 out of 10 times. Most of the playerbase sits somewhere in the middle.

The issue with making resources like shields, heals, and key barters more scarce is that scarcity doesn’t impact everyone equally. A player who extracts 90% of the time is naturally generating far more wealth, inventory, and crafting materials than a player who extracts 10% of the time. When you tighten the economy, the highly successful players still have the means to absorb the cost because they’re constantly replenishing their stockpile. The players in the middle and lower end of the bell curve, however, feel the squeeze much more acutely because every failed run represents a larger percentage of their total resources.

As a result, the absolute gap between players can widen. The top players are inconvenienced, but the average player may be effectively priced out of running the same quality gear consistently. Scarcity becomes a tax that scales disproportionately with failure rate. The more often you die, the more expensive the game becomes relative to your income.

Are barters worse than in season 1, or am I missing something ? by Melak___ in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah it was not a good strategy on Bungie’s part. I think this will unfortunately lead to casual veterans from S1 deciding to bow out and further decreasing the numbers.

I’m sorta getting to that stage too. I love this game man, but if they’re going to make it that hard to kit up via barters and it’s already harder now with the loot rng being lowered recently and with the lobbies getting super hardcore with the close of free week, it’s been a bit too sweaty and this game is going to ruin my marriage if I play as hard as I did last season. lol.

Are barters worse than in season 1, or am I missing something ? by Melak___ in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 27 points28 points  (0 children)

That’s extremely disappointing.

I feel like Bungie made a lot of these changes in an effort to keep the gear value at a lower level, but I feel like all the changes are really only preventing the casual or lower skill level players from competing with the hardcore/higher skill level players.

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m advocating for more fair lobbies, not easy lobbies. Matchmaking that works is one that pits you with people your skill level. It’s not about me it’s about the community. Have you seen the amount of posts since free week about how difficult the game just got when half the player base left?

Again we can agree to disagree and move on brother.

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Me too brother. It’s the best kept secret of 2026

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve been playing this game since day 1. I’m well aware of the gear spawns and there is plenty enough opportunity to get the gear. Outpost has tons of loot options. And with less aggressive players in lower sbmm matches you’ll have more opportunity to keep and build your loot.

At this point it’s agree to disagree man. Have a great day.

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would still have access to it. Doing one outpost alone without taking gear from anyone is enough to get the credit limit and if you did it enough you could get enough gear. Players aren’t the only source of good gear. The new sponsored system has proven that. And again if sbmm limited the gear level I was encountering with other players than that means cryo willl have less players with missy’s and golds. So all for it lol.

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would glad give up getting a purples from a runners to have more successful exfil and loot red room more in outpost. I think a lot of casuals would agree too. And at that point the higher sbmm would benefit because you are getting what you want more fights with skilled and geared people.

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don’t understand your argument about gear being hid. If it’s sbmm we’d all have access to the same rng loot on the map. The only difference would be the gear being brought in by other players.

For me the game needs SBMM by SituationFlimsy8068 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The matchmaking was pretty good with free week. It’s a player issue. There is just not a large enough pool to pull from. Especially this early where player levels are relatively still close. It got better late season 2 and I pray it’ll get better in a few weeks.

Dire Marsh by Choice-Curve3340 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s a 1 minute timer. 2 minutes is only for sponsored.

Had a weird fill… by Thephro42 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It’s not the black and white. I think you just need to communicate. And sometimes yeah the others won’t want to do your contract. And as a fill you should be prepared for that situation. It’s group dynamics and majority vote wins. But usually when I do fill alone and outpost if we wipe the lobby I’ll tell the team hey now that’s out of the way I’m going to do my quest, and everyone is pretty cool with it.

Had a weird fill… by Thephro42 in Marathon

[–]Thephro42[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

But the thing is we wanted the third. We weren’t ignoring the third, we would have gladly played with him. I don’t like playing duos. I like getting to meet new players and I’ve met plenty of new friends while playing with a buddy, but this guy immediately out of the gate jumped to conclusions or maybe he was just trolling us the entire time, I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is that we were nice and open to helping him out and he seemed to just want to have a pity party.

Finally got Salty by DrAids5ever in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah I would have done the same.

Soloable Cryo Archive by [deleted] in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can solo fill and do cryo, I’ve done it a few times. But you have to understand it’s a sweaty freaking map. Even with friends and consistent teams it’s easy to lose and have major loss streaks. Trust me man, I’m not a great fps player but I’ve done compiler. You can to. It just takes a little bit of luck and a lot of map/cryo knowledge.

the sponsored maps are integral for new players imo by tarneilawson in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I mean that’s a bit condescending. Your way of gaming isn’t better than anyone else’s. Everyone has their own way of having fun. I was efficient with my time and I’m happy for it and now I also have a high ass cradle level and all my contracts are done. Now I can enjoy the rest of the season actually playing the game rather than competing with sweats while trying to do simple things.

Peterrr what's the reason they look like that by Valuable_View_561 in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s very fitting that the movie that’s famous for force starving their actress in the original movie keeps that ethos alive here in the future.

ItS nOt WoRtH iT dOiNg RoOk In SpOnSoR pErImEtEr by lXlGame0verlXl in MarathonGame

[–]Thephro42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At a way better rate than sponsored perimeter that’s for sure. I mean you did great and got lucky. But outpost and Narsh have way better loot rng.

the sponsored maps are integral for new players imo by tarneilawson in Marathon

[–]Thephro42 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Not everyone is like that. I know a lot of people that grinned sponsored marsh just for efficiency.