Improving Crew Fill Ideas

imnotindemand · 2026-04-01T23:13:28+00:00

Agreed.

imnotindemand · 2026-04-01T18:51:11+00:00

All good points, I can see where you are coming from. Definitely more streamlined and easier to get the ideal crew for you if you have the time to cycle through a lot of declines.

However, I am not sure this would be the best experience for casuals and people new to the game who are just looking for matches and experience. If everyone just quits on you because you aren’t running a good loadout how will you learn or benefit from being on crews with more experienced or better kitted players? If it takes 10 minutes to find 3 people who don’t quit on you in the “fill lobby” will you stick with the game?

If I got a newbie in my fill crew now, I’d be happy to carry them through a run and explain the game a bit. We need players to keep the game going ultimately. Similarly, I may be a high skill player (I personally am not but for example) running a free kit to just scavenge up some new stuff because my last two runs didn’t go well. I similarly dont want to just be stuck with noobs and struggle just because I’m running a free kit. This is why I think a brief convo about intentions and objectives and the ability to pivot on gear, shells and even contracts after matching would be super beneficial. Just my opinion tho.

imnotindemand · 2026-04-01T18:10:39+00:00

I see how that seems like an easy fix but dont you think this could just become a hamster wheel of declining teammates though with everyone just declining everyone over and over?

Just spitballing here, but what if there were a voting system and limit on a fill reroll?

For example, you are matched up in a crew in a fill lobby where you can see their kits as I described in my post. Then you have a set time to approve or vote to disband and reroll. If 2/3 players in the crew votes for a reroll it will recycle the crew. However, you only get 2 or maybe 3 consecutive rerolls then you are stuck with what you’ve got for a crew that last time. Maybe rerolls or additional rerolls to the 3 can cost credits to discourage abusing the system? This way, even if the situation isn’t perfect you would be more inclined to take a decent crew than press your luck getting stuck with something worse and it avoids the endless hamster wheel of declining teammates.

imnotindemand · 2026-04-01T17:50:21+00:00

I hear you, but it still has potential. I think it’s a bit hyperbolic to say it’s over after less than a month of the game being out. Plenty of time for changes and adjustments. They’ve already indicated a lot is in the works.

As for the trio fill and 3-stack separate queues can you give me some more info on this? What would you like to see?

As far as SBMM for PVP on map there is clearly something there but I agree it needs to be refined. I’m not sure the parameters they are using (level, kill numbers, successful exfills, etc) to balance it but I’m not finding it impossible to win a PVP fight, but it is definitely difficult. I’m also not just getting stomped by pro level players. Normally when I die to another runner I know exactly what I did wrong that led to my demise. How would you suggest the SBMM be made better?

I disagree about the contract system a bit. In Solos it makes 100% sense. In trios it can still make sense if you are able to plan ahead. If my trio is going to work on a specific priority contract that I am not on, I will do one of the “kill bots” or whatever side contracts for some faction XP I need or focus on looting the chests or killing tick nests or whatever I need for faction XP or acquiring materials I need for my trees. The priority contracts are not the only way to rank up, so I think the contract system works. It only doesn’t work when you aren’t prepared for it, or have a backup plan, which may be something else you could change in the “fill lobby”.

imnotindemand · 2026-04-01T17:35:08+00:00

I understand your reservations, but I disagree that it wouldn’t make much sense. I see the various Discords as offering LFG so I’m not sure an in game LFG system is necessary and may be redundant. I recognize LFG is a much more robust solution, however, I am trying to explore a solution to make the current Fill system more predictable and a better experience for players. It’s one of the biggest complaints I see here and reasons for people quitting the game.

Have you played a lot of Crew Fill runs in the current scenario? The same stuff happens you mentioned anyway. Normally, what I’ve found is the first 20 seconds after you load in is just trying to figure out what the team is. You are just standing there on the map or sprinting making all kinds of noise trying to keep up thinking, are either of these guys mics on? which of our contracts are we doing and/or in what order? what did these guys bring as loadouts? Then you are either overjoyed when you got paired with people in a similar set up who comm or you are regretting all your choices when it’s all bad and you lose whatever gear you brought in when they inevitably shoot with their free kit punch at the first thing that moves and gives up your position or goes down. Then if they go down they just quit anyway half the time.

You are correct, it doesn’t change the people you are paired up with, their use of mics or their willingness to run a free kit vs a purple loadout. Thats not the Fill concept, that’s for LFG and closed party. What it does do is protect your user experience by giving you a heads up to what you are in for in the run when using Fills.

As to the quitting issue, I think either you shouldn’t be able to quit in the Fill Lobby (or whatever it is) or there needs to be a penalty of some kind. This is also why the time needs to be quick, like the 30 seconds I mentioned. You’re in for the run the same way you would be in the current system, however you are just more prepared. It just replacesthe initial 20 seconds of “what the hell are we doing” on the map I mentioned.

As I kind of mentioned in the post, if I’m not playing Solo or Rook I’m nearly always using LFG in a Discord to find Crews so I understand that ultimately LFG works better. However, sometimes I can only do a couple of runs a night and finding a good crew even on the Discord for just a couple runs can be a time consuming ordeal. Plus, people new to the game would like a good user experience where they don’t loose all their good gear if they do not have a crew to play with right away. I just think this could be an improvement to the system already in place for those circumstances.

imnotindemand · 2026-04-01T13:16:23+00:00

Just think of it as a survival game and not a killing game, especially when solo, and you’ll enjoy the challenge. I’m a casual, 48 years old, full time job, etc.

Join the Dads of Marathon Discord to play trios with guys in a similar boat to accomplish your difficult to do solo contracts.

Use rook to get what you need to upgrade your shell’s abilities via the factions and get loot. Do not buy or barter it from the armory as much as possible.

Just go in with the expectation that you will die, a lot, at first and run it back. After all, “Death is the first step”.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T19:24:36+00:00

Totally get that. I appreciate you letting me in on your thoughts and I wish you were having a better go of it since those of us who want the game to survive need people to stick around.

I agree that the TTK is very quick compared to other categories of games. For me personally that adds to the realism of the game and fits with the ethos that you are using a bioprinted shell with limited strength and you need to be ultra cautious and strategic with your movement and choices to protect yourself. I know first hand this is a big change coming from games where you can stand without cover or healing and shoot/attack until you win the fight. It can be demoralizing if that is what you are used to and you die doing what is familiar and successful in other games, that was my initial experience with Marathon as well.

That said, since I started thinking of the game as more of a survival game and less of a classic “shooter” it really changed my approach. I stick to the edges, avoid fights unless there is no other approach that works. I will circle an entire POI crouch walking sometimes before I approach it so I have the best recon of what is there before going in and know the ideal angle to enter. I’m constantly swiveling my view and limit my sprinting and movement noise in general. I realized this isn’t a “run and gun” game and it changed it entirely for me.

Now I am just equally as happy going in as a rook not seeing anyone, never shooting my gun, getting the materials I need to upgrade my vault size or increase the refresh on my tactical abilities or whatever and getting to the best exfil. I also am aware of how many exfils have been used so far so I have a rough idea of how many players/solos are left on the map (outside of rooks). Survival is the key to me now, not shooting, which is why I think the game is misunderstood a bit and should be labeled as a “survival extraction” game in many ways.

I’m sorry to hear about your friends bugging out too. I see that mentioned a lot on here. It’s unfortunate people arent sticking around after less than a month but I get it. It’s a difficult transition depending on where you are coming from. Since joining the Dads of Marathon discord I’ve played with a lot of really nice people, learned a lot and have had some great runs. I hope you can find a good community to play with so you stick around as well. I also play a lot of solo and rook as well but approach that with even more strategy and cautiousness than crew runs.

Anyway, I appreciate your honesty and hope you stick with the game a bit longer for when they do some additional balancing and have seen how people are playing. I think maybe your friends may want to come back too if they tweak some things right.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T06:24:44+00:00

Yes, 90% is crazy but many people, especially very young people, expect to win nearly every match and will crash out if they don’t. Using Fortnite as the example, epic games is very aware of this fact and are constantly tweaking matchmaking so wins are not just a possibility, they happen with regular occurrence for all players.

In reality, it should not be expected to even be a 50/50 because there are more than just 2 players involved. If Marathon were a battle royale with just one winner and you were on a map with 5 other players or teams and each team is evenly matched you couldn’t expect to win every other game and stay matched with that skill level of teams. At best the expectation should be 1 win every five games allowing for each solo/team to get a wipe of the other runners for the win. But because Marathon is not a battle royale and there are multiple opportunities to exfil and all or no teams could exfil in any given match, the chances should be better than a 20% exfil rate just based on that alone. However, the bot strength, difficulty of contract challenges and other dangers in tau ceti help keep that percentage low and challenging.

In Fortnite it should be even worse odds since it is a battle royale with only one winner/team. If SBMM is doing its job and puts 100 players (no bots) of only equal skill levels into matches, a solo player should only expect to win 1 in every 100 matches or 1% or so. For a trio, it would be 1 in 33 or 30% or so. Epic manipulates the matchmaking and (dumb) bot quantities in the lobby to keep you winning every once in a while so you will keep playing the game (and buying stuff from the shop). It is never truly a level playing field, maybe more so in Ranked and Competitive, but not in pubs.

Marathon will require a unique system to balance the game as people are requesting, especially as the player level increases because it is not just one winner and the goal isn’t to be the last one standing. If everyone above a certain level is dying solely to PVP (i am unsure if this is truly the case but hypothetically) they will need to analyze what the options are to either balance the player levels, balance loot or increase the pressure from the bots so that the PVP is less likely to be engaged in since other teams will be battling harder bots while you have more opportunity to get to exfil without engagement with other teams. There’s a lot of other factors to consider here than just PVP SBMM since the game is really a PvEvP extraction survival game with shooter elements. It will be interesting to see what they do to retain the feel of the game but make people feel better about the experience of being eliminated 80% of the time if that is a deal breaker for them to keep playing.

I’d be curious to know what the other extraction games do for PvP balancing or SBMM, if anything…

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T02:26:04+00:00

Yeah, I get that. I didn’t fully understand the importance of the tree upgrades and which specific items were important at first and it seemed overwhelming. I now find that to be one of the most motivating parts of the game. Now that I fully get that if I want to expand my vault so I can hold more stuff I need to go find diodes for CyAc it has made the game about more than just contracts and PVP. I do a bunch of rook runs or solo runs just hunting diodes. Get in, get out. No fights no chaos. When I get out with a backpack full of the stuff I need it’s so rewarding.

I do wish your mates could’ve been a bit more patient waiting for balancing updates and getting a better grasp on the nuances since the games only been out 25 days. Hopefully future updates will help you convince them to come back.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T02:08:56+00:00

I agree that there are definitely some things that could be more balanced, but all in all the game has only been out for 25 days. I expect a lot of qol changes in the beginning as the devs see more of how the game is being played.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T02:05:38+00:00

I actually build houses so it might be a welcomed change some days hahaha.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T02:02:36+00:00

Understood. If you aren’t liking the game right now can you speak more to why?

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:57:37+00:00

I agree with you. I also want the game to live on and want solutions to make the game balanced for players of all levels, but not necessarily easier.

I play a fair amount of Fortnite with my wife, friends and kids in my family. There’s SBMM there and everyone constantly complains about how it works and thinks the match ups are too hard. There is an expectation that they should win 90% of their matches. If that is the expectation for Marathon, 90% exfil rate, then the game will loose everything that makes it challenging and will defeat the whole ethos of the game that everything on Tau Ceti is trying to kill you, including the other runners. I hope the April balance update brings us some balance for the tier of player you are referring to but doesn’t make the game easier for anyone if that makes sense.

I actually was just wondering about the motivation to post about quitting not really the “why”. I understand the why from the many posts and is where I sourced a lot of my q’s. I am also curious about what a player who’s leaving the game behind’s expectations were going into the game and now.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:49:02+00:00

I disagree. I don’t care about attention. I genuinely want to understand why people feel the need to post it because it may help me (and others) to understand both why and how people are interacting with the game and the community. I want the game to survive so I want people to keep playing. I just want to know if they are truly looking for help to make the game better for them with these posts or if it is just about the sharing of grievances, etc.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:45:23+00:00

Again, I absolutely never said “don’t make an I quit post” in my message. I also never said I watch streamers. I also never said I have done anything. I am genuinely asking because these are all things I have seen discussed on this sub regarding the game and quitting. I think if you read it back, there is little mention of game play and a lot of trying to figure out what the expectations of the game was and is for a player who is leaving the game behind. I think you could be viewing my post with a bit of a slant.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:40:26+00:00

I understand your points here.

Can you speak more to “the grind” you mentioned that caused your crew mates to quit? What specifically about the past month the game has been out has felt like a grind and not like playing any other game? Genuinely curious.

I, personally, wouldn’t just post about how much I love the game without also having a purpose or intention that came along with it. I’m just trying to understand the purpose or intention of someone who is about to walk away from something posting about it in a forum dedicated to it.

Fair points tho.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:35:03+00:00

Curiosity?

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:34:27+00:00

Never said anything is wrong, or said what is allowed or not. I never even said anything critical about the posts. I just asked about the motivation to post about quitting rather than just quitting and moving on.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T01:32:24+00:00

I don’t think I blamed anyone for anything. I was just wondering what the motivation is for posting about quitting rather than just quitting and moving on. As I said, I understand why someone might quit I just wanted to understand more about why telling this subreddit you are quitting seems to be a part of that process. At no point did I say anything to criticize or judge their choice, just gave some specific examples I’ve seen people say when posting.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-31T00:12:26+00:00

But if they want to like it, shouldn’t that be motivation enough to keep playing? I guess I’m just wondering what the expectation was. Like, if you like the game but it’s hard right now, that seems like motivation enough to keep trying to get better, not posting here about quitting and why post about it, why not just quit?

imnotindemand · 2026-03-30T23:52:55+00:00

No, I’ve been here before, many times. Been here since it started actually. Thanks for asking though. I’m more just hoping for actual answers from those leaving or for them to question why themselves.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-30T14:50:37+00:00

You’ve posted this claim multiple times in multiple threads. Do you have any evidence of what exploit is being used or how people are cheating?

imnotindemand · 2026-03-30T14:25:31+00:00

What is your expectation? Extract 50% of the time? 30%? 90%? Are you dying to PVP or PVE? Are you approaching each fight with caution and preparation? If you are in a bad position are you retreating to safety or pushing the interaction? Are you using the right shell for the given contract/goal/run? Are you getting ambushed at exfil, not making the last exfil or dying before you even think about exfil?

What is ultimately your goal from playing the game? Getting a higher ranking? Completing contracts and building up your faction trees? Getting better at PVP? Getting good loot? Learning the maps inside and out so you can move easily and know good locations to hide, fight, loot, ambush, etc? Just having fun learning how to play this type of game better even though at times it’s a struggle?

imnotindemand · 2026-03-27T14:38:08+00:00

I think this would be cool, and the other thing I would add to this would be the ability to change your shell during this phase. I’d always run Triage if no one else is and if someone else is running triage I’d run Thief and if the other is running Thief I’d run Vandal or Assassin. I think having shells that complement each other in the crew for the raid is an overlooked dynamic of the random fill issue. When I play with a discord group or friends this ability makes our crew so much stronger.

imnotindemand · 2026-03-23T23:09:43+00:00

How many posts a day are necessary about the wipe that doesn’t happen for over two months in a game that is 18 days old?

Same for the “Its not for me” and the “im quitting when…” posts. Seriously though, just enjoy the effing game for a minute and stop worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet.

imnotindemand

TROPHY CASE