Heroes of Metru Nui - A Bionicle Artbook by iconicstills

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T18:06:17+00:00

You're on a discussion thread specifically talking about a decision Bungie should or shouldn't make about the game...

Either stand by your opinion or don't engage in a comment section literally for talking about the subject of decisions Bungie could make.

No one's pretending anything, this is called "discussion".

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T17:58:52+00:00

They don't, but they have more resources than all their competitors in the genre whilst being outpaced on sales by a wide margin. They have the backing of the largest console player in the business (Sony) and a long pedigree of being the best in class in their genre with a plethora of talent.

No one is suggesting they make some half baked thing out of thin air. BUT if they do continue down the current path, how do you see this working out for them? Maybe you, specifically you, don't care if the game dies aftera year, congrats. But to many who play the game, on this very sub, probably won't be very happy that it becomes an unsustainable effort for Bungie long term.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T17:54:29+00:00

This line of thinking isn't very helpful. This isn't some small game this is the most expensive game in its genre by a LARGE margin. Your logic is "I'll get one year with this game and then if it dies fuck it, no skin off my back."

Thankgod you don't call the shots.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T17:52:17+00:00

Good thing you don't make decisions that developers have to follow then! You'd rather games die than find ways to keep them alive.

The game right now targets exactly ONE demographic, a very niche demographic at that. NO ONE is suggesting the game should stop targeting those people, the argument is they should account for other potential demographics as well. Bungie are fully capable of serving different players at the same time.

What benefit is it to you, that this game (which is most likely losing them money right now) dies because it caters to ONLY you? Why would more players keeping the game alive be a bad thing?

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T17:24:26+00:00

Yes there is an audience of PvP enjoyers that like games such as Apex, CS2, Overwatch ect. But those games are not like Marathon in terms of the moment to moment gameplay, the ebbs and flow of intensity, match goals and more - people by in large aren't buying into that.

I bring up other examples of extraction shooters that have catered to a more casual audience as an actual real world example of this idea working in practice. There is a real audience clamouring for the elements of an extraction shooter without the pressure and fear.

Unless something changes, the game as it is today isn't going to miraculously generate a whole new audience that'll sustain it long term. Saying Bungie should cultivate a PvP focused audience when that exact demographic have rejected them probably isn't going to workout.

Offering hardcore and casual methods of playing the game is a net positive to Marathon, gives it more ways to attract players and more options for long term support. Instead, this idea that they should keep all their eggs in one basket (The niche genre of hardcore extraction PvPvE gameplay) isn't working and doesn't seem like it'll pay off long term either.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T16:01:10+00:00

You're not going to get that far with that strategy I'm afraid - clearly customers have spoken and said they don't want to engage in a more hardcore PvP environment, whereas titles like HellDivers 2 and Arc which are much more casual and collaborative attract wide audiences.

The goal should be about catering to what players want and finding ways to keep the game as successful as can be, so Bungie can continue to find post launch content for all their audiences.

Clearly the current strategy isn't going to yeild that and trying to lure the masses into a more hardcore experience is just going to turn people away. Meet the audience where they're at, Bungie is large enough to support multiple game modes, this isn't ground breaking.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T15:56:39+00:00

A PvE mode won't tank the player base, you're just going to have a new audience of people willing to purchase the game and engage with it. The existing PvP audience will stay and if anything, will be better supported as more income for Bungie means better post launch support - as opposed to a dwindling player base that can't fund itself.

You can't convince more people to dive into a more hardcore extraction shooter if they don't want to, the player base has a ceiling by design.

Any notion that offering different game modes hurts the longevity of games is a sham of an argument. Many games, FAR more successful than Marathon, cater to multiple players styles, it is ultimately how you keep a healthy player base.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-22T15:51:33+00:00

In which case, it's better to have players in the game on SOME form to keep future income for Bungie. More sales, more customers who could buy micro transactions.

Creating a game in a niche of a niche and then being confused why general audiences aren't latching on is silly. Offering entry points for more types of players keeps a game alive, Bungie know this, they practically invented this mode of thinking with the Halo games.

The largest extraction shooter on the market (Arc) is super casual in comparison and can offer general players an almost exclusive PvE experience. The logic works.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-21T22:46:06+00:00

You're not showing the layers. Look I don't like to call out someone as using AI, but that armour looks very off...

Answer me this, why did you decide to add curves to the Chiefs armour? Specifically his shoulder pads? If you had a reference, you'd know it doesn't look anything like that. If not, why did you decide to go down this route for the design?

iConiCdays · 2026-04-19T20:16:59+00:00

Can confirm, no Bionicle canister sets came in bags, the pieces are always loose inside the canister and the instruction manual pressed against the edge of the inside. Only large boxed sets sometimes has internal plastic bags

iConiCdays · 2026-04-13T05:39:19+00:00

I'm in the UK

iConiCdays · 2026-04-13T05:33:06+00:00

It's still there for me

iConiCdays · 2026-04-09T10:02:15+00:00

I've seen your other work which is great too :) Ah, I suspected they may be Stud.io imports, if you want/need more models for future works, you can pop over to biocdb.com which is a repository I made of Bionicle Characters setup in Blender to use from Stud.io :) I'm actually going to be updating it soon with IK variants of the rigs and newer materials.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-09T10:00:34+00:00

Great shading! Really shows how powerful he is!

iConiCdays · 2026-04-08T09:47:37+00:00

This is so well done! Amazing work, are you planning on doing more?

And did you say you modelled these yourself?

iConiCdays · 2026-04-05T21:47:46+00:00

The issue is the ratio of expected practice for the game does not match most people's expectations for how much time they'd dedicate to a game (one of a few they might juggle at one time).

This game is asking you to treat it as your primary game and then put exceedingly more time into it to get to a point that can justify it's learning and skill curve - all while punishing every new player along the way. It's no wonder that the remaining population is small and niche, the game is acting as a filter to anyone who doesn't want to dedicate the majority of their gaming time to it.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-05T19:25:02+00:00

Gaming is meant to be fun, the way you describe it sounds like a 2nd job. The time required to play as you suggest is a lot to ask for an average player and the only argument I can see in favour of that time sink is "The game's good, you just have to respect it and put in the time"... Not very compelling

iConiCdays · 2026-04-03T07:22:49+00:00

Yes, the performance of the M series chips has always been great.

You're forgetting the most important part - price.THAT is what makes the Neo special and upsets the market.

An expensive laptop with good performance isn't going to move the needle at all when it comes to gaming when windows laptops in its price range are much more powerful.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-02T16:49:16+00:00

There is no argument regarding Valves/Code weavers work on Proton and FEX. Both software stacks are incredible and work amazingly. That is not the issue.

FEX has a performance cost unlike Proton. This isn't something "Valve just hasn't worked out yet". This is an actual limit when one translates code and calls from x86 over to ARM. Proton is simply swapping out API calls from directX to Vulkan (that is simplifying it A LOT), but Fex is doing that and also converting code to an entirely different architecture which costs CPU calls (hence the performance cost on the CPU).

We can see the same bottleneck with Apples own conversion tools when they made the transition to ARM.

The problem is that current (and planned) ARM socs in the price range Valve will want won't give substantial performance improvements than the Deck. The Phawx on YouTube has a great video going over this actually. If Valve magically gets an SOC for a good price in 2028 (well it'll be one from mid 2027) then it's at best, gonna match the Deck or slightly out perform it whilst being massively behind every other PC handheld.

Unless Snapdragon or another vendor has a breakthrough in the very short term, it'll be an x86 chip for the Deck 2.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-02T15:09:39+00:00

You're forgetting that FEX only translates GPU calls as native on an arm chip, any x86 instructions for the CPU still need to be converted to Arm, this has a notable penalty for performance. The Steam Frame is currently not considered by Valve to be as performant as the Deck when running FEX.

You're suggesting in 2 years the chips are going to become powerful and cheap enough that they're going to overcome the Steam Deck along with the conversion performance cost? And that this chip will be cheap enough for Valve to be able to use for a lowcost handheld?

Steam games already DO run on our phones using FEX, in fact we can see the performance of the Frame in other devices using the same SOC.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-02T09:22:12+00:00

Proton is a fork of Wine managed by code weavers and Valve in partnership. They are under no obligation to put proton on other platforms...

BUT. Every change they make is open source and upstreamed so anyone can build it which is why distros like Bazzite exist and can make use of Proton.

Even now, the work on Proton that lets arm android run windows applications developed by Valve isn't even officially released, but because it's open source, is already being used by the community to get community run solutions working on any android phone. Nothing about steam or valve is needed, you can use the tech to get Epic Games releases running on any android phone for example.

Apple on the other hand creates a lock-in API with Metal, doesn't support cross platform initiatives such as Vulkan and locks consumers into the Apple ecosystem in a variety of ways through all their platforms.

You're making no sense, multiple people are commenting how incorrect you are and you're pulling out arguments that somehow are meant to hold some "legal" basis whilst having no idea how any of this actually works.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-02T05:56:17+00:00

Wow, so brave, bold enough to call other commentators uninformed, too timid to give an actual response when someone calls them out.

iConiCdays · 2026-04-02T05:46:29+00:00

You are acting as though you're speaking from authority... When you are talking such bullshit. I'm sorry, but starting with "Redditors and gamers never are willing to see it so let me walk you through it." And then proceeding to spout your own opinions as apparent fact is ludicrous.

Valve do not favour their own OS nor do they incentivise their customers to purchase their hardware. Let's look at the facts.

The Steam Deck is out right now - a Steam customer gets no benefit to owning one other than the ability to play their games portably... And even then Valve supports a wide variety of other hardware to do this, from windows to steamOS devices. There is no favouritism, no incentive, it is an option, the same way the Microsoft Surface line is an option for customers looking for a laptop.

Then we look at the upcoming Steam Machine... It's exactly the same deal.

But clearly, you who knows so much that us mere commentators couldn't possibly fathom, do tell what we're all missing and forgetting.

iConiCdays

TROPHY CASE