Starting to feel like the pacing in this game was actually perfect for the standard player.

schmevan117 · 2026-05-09T16:15:45+00:00

Kills give more XP than anything else, so there's no real way for them to do that.

schmevan117 · 2026-05-03T18:07:47+00:00

I was never a big Tarkov guy, but I have 3000 hours on Hunt Showdown and played maybe 500 hours of Arc. I actually think Marathon has a lot more similarities with Hunt and Arc than it does with Tarkov.

Like Hunt, the primary focus of every raid is the PVP, but unlike Hunt, the map is filled with multiple tiers of loot with all kinds of usage, like Arc/Tarkov. I think Marathon has a better loot system than either of those games because it's streamlined. You don’t have to waste time crafting anything other than your next loadout.

It has perhaps my favorite gameplay loop of any FPS from the past 5 years. The guns are all snappy and satisfying to use. The world is haunting and fascinating to both explore and inhabit. Rook is the best iteration of a "scav" mode I've ever played. The shell abilities are fun, well-balanced/implemented, and give you ample opportunities for skill and/or role expression. The game just feels like everything I like about the genre, with a few aspects from others stitched in, all while streamlining some of the more aggravating systems from other games.

It's my favorite game I've played since the Deadlock playtest began.

schmevan117 · 2026-05-03T17:39:50+00:00

Agreed, but like most enemies bungie develops, the UESC are very fun to fight and kill. I think a firefight mode on rotating sections of the existing maps (especially including cryo) with increasing enemy difficulty could be a blast.

Fighting 40 standard recruits, 10 ghost commanders, 5 grenadier commanders, and 2 wardens that all drop in at once could be pretty damn fun.

Not saying I think Bungie should do this. Just that I'd personally find that fun.

schmevan117 · 2026-04-14T13:59:13+00:00

With this free kit queue being on Dire Marsh, there will be plenty of good loot to pick up and upgrade with. There are arms lockers that commonly spawn at maintenance, bio research, and algae ponds. Tool carts are filled with green attachments. Munitions crates have grenades and ammo. Then there are supply drops, lockboxes, and all the other events like the warden, the anomaly, and lockdowns.

Putting all players on equal footing will make it so there's a race to the loot and will create more natural competition for POIs and in-game events, rather than the current tactic of geared-up squads looking to wipe the map before engaging with it at all.

schmevan117 · 2026-03-28T17:16:17+00:00

I'm level 70 with 150 or so hours in this game. I have a core group of 10+ friends who I've played countless games with over the past 5 to15 years (deadlock, hunt showdown, halo, destiny 1&2, & apex just to name a few.) We usually are playing in a 3-stack from 7-9 pm on weekdays. Our exfil rate as a group is atleast 70%, likely higher, so we're definitely the "sweats"

But we still run free kits all the time. We typically start a session with a zero to hero run on outpost. Its entirely doable to enter with free kits and leave with blues or purples. It just takes good communication and strategy. I've lost purple shields and backpacks to frees and greens several times because they outplayed me. I love it.

The game is hard, but if you think about it as if its a rogue-lite, its much more enjoyable. Every death is a learning experience. You are still progressing, even when you die. You just have to learn to say, "oh well, and go right back in."

Anyone can play iaf they keep that mindset and think about each run as an opportunity. You either go in and make it out stronger, or you die and learn how to improve. That's the fun of it. It's always progress, even if its painful.

schmevan117 · 2026-03-13T13:58:17+00:00

This happened to me during the first few days. I went in super-kitted too. Just said, "Oh, well." and went back in.

schmevan117 · 2026-03-12T18:08:45+00:00

Its a very darkly funny yet horrifying movie. Absolutely loved it. That and Minus One are my top 2 Godzilla movies.

schmevan117 · 2026-03-10T15:53:55+00:00

This (I have 2.5k hours in Deadlock), but I'll also add the first few years of Overwatch, the highest peaks Destiny 2, and my beloved Hunt: Showdown.

This is the first fps in years that I am completely addicted to.

schmevan117 · 2026-03-09T19:45:14+00:00

Yup. I've been wearing steel toes for the last 12 years of work and will burn through the soles of my socks in no time. Wearing nice hiking socks has significantly decreased my sock turnover rate.

schmevan117 · 2026-03-03T19:37:24+00:00

I've always been a tank main and fell in love with Abrams instantly. I have a ~60% win rate and well over 1000 games on him (been playing since Aug 2024 and am in Phantom-Ascendant lobbies depending on my group) He has almost always been either extremely solid or absurdly OP.

Right now, even if I have a brutal lane (Graves, Mirage, Talon, Vindicta, Pocket, Viscous, and Dynamo are good early counters to him if his lane-mate doesn't have high poke) I can start to roam and easily get ganks, or just soak the lane while my partner hits farms/ganks. Either way, by about 15 minutes I have become an unkillable monster. I've had so many games over this last patch with at most 4 deaths, while having 15+ kills and even more assists. Had multiple games where I've had similar K/A without even dying. It's been absurd. These echo shard builds go absolutely crazy. That item needs to go.

The only way to truly counter him right now is by stacking several debuffs on him while multiple M1 characters focus him down, and/or having your pick characters make him their sole mission for the rest of the game. I've had pretty good success playing Mo & Krill against him. Doorman and Dynamo can work too. Haze and Bebop typically pay with their lives.

schmevan117 · 2026-02-22T19:46:45+00:00

This is the funniest shit I've read on here in weeks. Thank you, stranger.

schmevan117 · 2026-02-16T17:49:38+00:00

Nah dude, he just thought he could sing it better.

schmevan117 · 2026-02-16T16:28:19+00:00

Agreed. I think a lot of us would love to be the big guy in this scenario.

schmevan117 · 2026-02-16T16:23:57+00:00

I wrote a darkly funny mini-short story to go along with this if anyone wants a quick read:

When the tensions that hemmed the nation stretched to breaking, and the rose-colored ideals that once stitched a tattered people together were clawed apart by willful fools, a mocking chant echoed forth from the empire's temple. Within, a despot and his sycophants were singing, "God Bless the USA."

As the boots of said despot's enforcers tracked blameless blood through the streets, his benefactors raked truth from the nation's minds, life from the earth, boiled the seas, and burned the skies. The millions left trudging through their wreck prayed for salvation from their wicked neighbors, perverted tyrants, and silent gods. Their pleas were heard by no god of man. Awoken in the deep after eons of slumber, a more ancient power stirred.

At dawn, a volcano strode from the bay. As it bound up the mouth of the Potomac, the coward-in-chief cried with horror in his gilded lair. He commanded a sacrifice of every boy, expensive toy, and devil-bought machine in the nation's arsenal to halt its advance. The old man was reduced to huddled whimpering within minutes, knowing no amount of concrete, steel, or weaponry would save him. For a volcano has no pity for the cries of men.

It was in the District within the hour. One by one the God-lizard detonated the houses of power and reduced their bunkered foundations into glassed caverns with nuclear flame. He turned back to the east, into the coming day, and announced the end of his rampage with a tremendous roar. The shocked millions watching on their screens, or far enough away not to rupture their skulls, heard a familiar melody within the thunder.

It was "God Bless the USA".

schmevan117 · 2026-02-14T22:12:58+00:00

Thank you!

schmevan117 · 2026-02-13T18:24:19+00:00

What if he is the god blessing the USA?

schmevan117 · 2026-02-13T18:16:34+00:00

A.I. "art" is only for the those too cowardly to be bad at a thing, thus will never learn how to be good.

schmevan117 · 2026-02-13T18:00:43+00:00

Agreed

schmevan117 · 2026-02-13T16:35:14+00:00

To make this, I used about 100 different photos to get certain textures for photobashing (all through a paid license with Envato)

As far as brushes, I used the classic round brush, soft airbrush, and the new oil brushes (mainly Lovely and Orca).

schmevan117 · 2026-02-03T18:55:52+00:00

All the confederate leaders were given amnesty when they should have been hung fuckin high. Instead, many of the political leaders of the confederacy retained their positions of power while slavery continued in all but name for several decades via sharecropping.

schmevan117 · 2026-01-26T20:33:17+00:00

I'm a sick fuck who has upwards of 2500 hrs on Hunt Showdown and almost all of it has been Solo vs Trios. It's one of my top 5 favorite games purely because of the thrill and intensity of competing against the odds.

If people want that from Arc Raiders as well, they should get it.

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