Reflecting after another weekend of grinding. It took about 200 hours to get into the "Blue Shield Club." Shout out to NuCal VIP rank rewards pushing me over the top. (Also shoutout to the CARRI faction XP rep packages.)
But it's heck of a grind post mid-season, nonetheless.
I can more commonly mix blue shields, green backpacks, etc. But my money isn't ticking up unless I score big in Cryo. Or spend way more time farming Rook runs. Bartering for most anything but basic meds/ammo is still a fairy tale.
A blue backpack and shield are still a cautious luxury.
As you'd expect with this genre and a Bungie game, you have to spend a lot of time grocery shopping and going to the gym, so to speak.
The random fill and solo experience do ever-so-slightly improve, week-by-week.
But without a consistent "tested team," it still feels very grindy to reliably try to do things like lockdowns, contested contracts, and sometimes even supply drops. Safe to say that's pushed away a lot of players, already.
Of course it should be scary -- it's an extraction shooter.
However, for the variety and load time loop (10-35 minutes per run), it feels more like a lifestyle choice than it does a game at times. (*cough* Destiny *cough*)
And so that remains my biggest issue. I want to see more depth, and do more, but the gatekeeping is easily 50, 100, or 200 hours more.
For reference, I played Arc Raiders for 200 hours and that was enough good fun for me.
Marathon may have wanted to be a "polished Tarkov" with some new rules, but it's going to need more consistent reward to keep people going.
Like I've barely been in blue or purple locked rooms, because to use a key, you have to bring it in and extract it out before you use it. They're also expensive in terms of time. Do we really need this level of gatekeeping, especially with random team fills?
It feels like the grind was designed for 10x the playerbase -- so without all that loot floating around, it's just too polarized. It's not like I'm consistently finding blue keys or purple backpacks on winning runs.
In the longrun this could turn into Trials of Osiris again -- a brilliant mode out the gate, that depletes the average player and only leaves behind the suffocating elite.
It's a self-fulfilling problem because it's often designed to keep it rewarding and challenging for people who play an insane amount -- but they are not the majority of players, merely the majority of hours.
But in 30-40 days all this work will be heavily reset and wiped out. If I can't enjoy all this depth now, then when?
On the positive side of things, let me be clear: I very much enjoy playing. It's got a "hook" that pulls me to get better, take more risks, etc.
Random-filling Cryo, I've been surprisingly lucky where like 40% of matches are friendly, reasonably experienced players.
I would look at buffing the loot/pace in general. And you know things are off when the recent patch doubles the spaces available for depleted meds.
I would also look at buffing Perimeter and Dire Marsh. You don't want them overrun with sweats, but it feels like if you don't want to grind Outpost repeatedly you're disadvantaged by a wide margin.
And, another one as I've mentioned before: largely ditch the "In a Single Run" contract requirements.
In short, I do not want to have to play the game 30-40 hours a week to see and enjoy the depth of it. I also don't want to have to play the game for 12 out of 12 weeks in a season. That's live service for you -- but fewer and fewer yearn for that when there are so many choices. I'm just as happy spending $40 to play a game like Marathon for 150 hours and enjoy the depth. I don't need a mountainous grind ahead of me every week for months or years to come.
@PaulTassi The problem is this game has some deep mechanics and people do not have enough brain power to sit down and read through text of fraction upgrades. So they quit after the tutorial without even trying. Gaming was a much better without social media. This is the real problem!
@Skarrow9 Love the art style, love the gunplay and pase of the matches (people think it is too slow but do not read fraction upgrades), no problems with the menus at all (everyone who have problems with it should try where winds meet and than complain again) only TTK is a bit to fast imo