Episode #10: Wiping Lobbies, and Taking Names (feat. Fallin31, AtlasForged, &; Truebatman4444)

The BIG ONE is here!! Join old_townsouth in an almost 3-hour long episode where he brings in all the guests from previous episodes to talk/discuss Marathon Season 2 news. Each guest speaks on their experiences and journey as Runners in Marathon.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Howdy and welcome everybody to freaking 1-0 episode 10 of running out of breath. The one, the place that only to get your marathon listening ears on. Man, holy cow! Back in April or May, I can't remember when it was when we first did episode one. I really wasn't even sure if you'd asked me then, if we'd even have made it to an episode 10. But here we are, episode 10, going strong. Some of the feedback we've gotten has been absolutely amazing. We will get to that here shortly. Woo! Already running out of breath here. I'm your host, Old Underscore Town South. It is great to be back with each and every one of y'all. And I have a treat for all you listeners out there. Cutting your grass right now, working out at the gym, listening, you know, you know, hiding your phone from your boss right now at work, listening to us in the car, wherever you're listening right now. Thank you for choosing us as your podcast. We appreciate that. We gotta say, we got we got a surprise. We got something cooking for y'all tonight. We have brought in everybody that has been on the show. We have in some wrestling terms. We got some tables, we got some ladders, we got some chairs, we got a fatal four-way for you all tonight. We have the bat, of course he's here. We got true Batman 44 44. It doesn't stop there. We've brought in not just fallen 31, but from what I have heard, the fallen 31. He is referred to as the fallen 31, baby, and we also have the man, the fan, the guy who was here first, the first fan mail. We got Atlas Fords. Let's clap it up for everybody. Let's go, dude. We got a banger for y'all tonight. We've brought in the whole brick squad, and boy, we have a lot to say, a lot to unpack, a lot to discuss. So I think the way I would um know I that's what I'm gonna say second. We actually have, before we get into some questions that I have for all these fine gentlemen, we gonna start with some more fan mail, baby. Here we go. This first fan mail is from we got two bat. We got two fan mail this time, son. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, let's go. Let's go, baby. We got two fan mail. Here is what Z Tangler had to say. Hey guys, thank you for another episode. I appreciate the advice for us casual dads out there trying to make our way on Tal City. I'm having a hard time. I got I can't I chuckle a little bit when I say this. I have a hard time selling all my loot to the cradle like Batman, but I've been trying not to be so attached to it for the sake of the upgrades. If you guys are down, I think it would be a great time to do some runs with you two. Let me know. And again, thanks for bringing me a some marathon content to listen to at work. Let's go, let's give it up for Z Tangler for the fan mail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yes, so Z Tangler, by the way, for all the listeners, context is key. You don't know what you don't know, so let me fill you in. We have had an opportunity to talk to Z Tangler. Fallen and I actually ran a cryo game with him today. It went pretty good. We didn't make it, of course, but we did get a team wipe. We won our first heads up, and um, he didn't have a lot of time because he had to go into one of his shifts, but it was so cool to get to talk to him. And then there was even another day we got to kind of talk with him a little bit, and he just had to say when we talked to him that he appreciates what we're doing in the podcast and everything. So, Z Tangler, we look forward to running more games with you, man. And we truly appreciate the kind words and we appreciate the feedback. Okay, here we go. We got more fan mail. This came in last night. Fallen gear up. I'm gonna need your help on this one. All right, so this is from Xanam. And Xanam sent this to me yesterday, and here is what he had to say. Your tips on the new episode helped me gain several levels in the cradle today alone. Thank you, Xanam. We appreciate that. Surprised though, there was no sentinel chatter. What do y'all think? I can't seem to get a hang of the new shell. So I look forward to your advice. I am a Vandal and triage mains. Those are the two shells I main. Really enjoying the show overall. So glad to have a fun and dependable marathon podcast to fall along with the new season. Keep up the great work bringing a mercy, bringing mercy to an ex-fill near you. Let's clap it there for Xanam. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Let's go. Xanam, thank you so much, brother, for the fan mail. Okay, I think this is the time to answer these questions directly. So, what I was about to say before I started reading the fan mail, I was about to ask Atlas and Fallen a question. So I think the time to strike with that is right now how we'll really kick things off. So, Fallen, I'm gonna kick it to your way first. So, two questions. So far, what is your overarching thoughts of season two so far? And what do you have to say? How what what advice can you give to Xanam, the person who sent us the fan mail about Sentinel? I'll be honest, I have little to no experience with this runner shell. And as I was reading this fan mail last night, I was like, holy crap, yeah, me and Bat, we did not talk about Sentinel. And if we did, it was in moderation. It was very little. We talked a lot about the guns, we talked a lot about what we thought, but we really didn't go in depth with Sentinel. And of us four, you what better person to ask than you? Because you have actually been picking him up. So, my two questions to you is what what advice would you give to Senum about Sentinel and what's your overarching thoughts on season two so far?

SPEAKER_04 7:06

Alright. Um, I'll tap on Sentinel first because from one Vandal main to another, it's a it's a pretty big adjustment. But um, I have kind of locked in with Sentinel this season. Um, got his mastery done in a couple days, it wasn't that hard. Um kind of fallen back into Vandal more just because that's my bread and butter, and that's I like to play aggressively. But the biggest adjustment I would say is with Sentinel, you kind of just you can't force it, you just have to let the match come to you. Um, you have to kind of change your mindset, where it's like like you play with like a recon or somebody like that, you're trying to pick the perfect spot to use your abilities. Sentinel, you just gotta start throwing stuff out. Sentinel, I've had my best experiences with Sentinel when you just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Um you go into a you're on dire marsh, you go into complex, just start throwing, start throwing out trap mines. If you hit, if something hits, great. If something doesn't, cool. Just start throwing stuff out. Um, because marathon, you've got so many good shells with so many good abilities, you can't really pred outside of just trying to predict where somebody somebody might go, you can't really predict how you're gonna get attacked. So unless it's a situation like when you and I two manned um outposts, and you just know, like, okay, there's one way in here and one way out, you just gotta just have fun, just start throwing stuff around. Um my other point would be to learn what you can do and what you can't do with your prime ability. Uh, when we were playing, I learned, hey, that giant bomb drone, I can block that. So if we're trying to exfil, I can just throw that down. Block, easy.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Um, do you feel like that prime is really helping? Like, does it truly block within a pretty good radius of the projectiles?

SPEAKER_04 9:03

It does, and it blocks a lot. I mean, you can go in with no no attachments and it blocks eight projectiles. Okay. Um, so it's really, really good. It's amazing in a close quarter map like Cryo or Outpost. I will say you will struggle with Sentinel on a map like Perimeter with big open areas. You will not get the most of his of his kit. His scan is great. If you don't know, you with his scan, you can distinguish bots from players. Uh, players pulse, bots don't. Um, but yeah, on a perimeter, I mean you you can probably do it on direct marsh, and I would add that in there, but on a map like perimeter, I would hesitate to take him in there just because there's just so many open areas, unless you're like taking a fight in a building, because I mean you're in the open field, you throw down your prime, your prime can get shot up like a bubble shield and right, right.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Okay, okay, so so enemy runners can shoot the the the the the prime that you throw down.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

Yeah. Um, and the one time it happened to me was on hauler, and if memory serves correct, it does not have a lot of health. It did not take a lot of bullets to put it down. Which I'm not upset about. I feel like every ability should have a counter. If you if you had that and you were just able to tank bullets, I don't think that would uh that wouldn't mesh very well. But um, I'd say maybe half a clip put it down. Um, so I I think it's reasonable. Um but yeah, it's just it's tough if you're not in a building or running a flank, it's difficult. His snares last, I think, three minutes. So they're great to just throw somewhere, and then you get a you see like hit markers when you run away. Oh, somebody just went through there, so I can tell somebody's in a building I was just in like minutes ago.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

So what does things like that is good? I'm gonna get in the mind of somebody listening right now that they may not know because I actually did not know this till a couple of matches ago when when me with me and you. What do the snare minds do to a player when they run into it?

SPEAKER_04 11:20

They do damage, not a lot of damage, but it might be enough to push tied in your favorite in a gunfight. They do damage and then they slow you down and like hack you a bit.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Ooh. Ooh. It sounds like to me it it it messes your pacing up.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Would be like if you're getting pushed. For example, if if you're running Sentinel and I'm running Vandal, and I'm trying to power slide into you, that's gonna stop me in my tracks, and that's easy damage for you.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Got it. Okay, okay, got it. So is it pretty safe to say that where Sentinel where he shines is Outpost and Cryo, where he struggle where you said he was okay on Dire Marsh, which that surprises me a little bit, but you said perimeter is where you notice he struggles the most.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

Yeah, because if you think about it on Dire Marsh, the biggest fights happen at bio, AI, up link, complex, maintenance. They're all indoor areas. That's true. There's plenty of places where you can prime things. Perimeter, you've got so many open areas. I mean, and his snare glows red. I mean, you could see it. It's it's rough. I'm not saying you can't be successful because I've I was telling you um probably what a week ago, I almost with a free kit almost 1v3 to team of purples uh on perimeter. Nice. And I lost because I just ran out of ammo at the wrong time on the third guy. Um it's just a 50-50 that I lost. But you can be successful with him anywhere, it's just you have to pick your battles, but his scan is his scan is priceless, especially if you don't have a recon. But I did learn uh a couple days ago. You pair a recon and a sentinel together, that is a dangerous combo. Oh my god. That is dangerous, yes, that's because that's like double awareness, it's scary.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Didn't you discover the other day you can differentiate a runner from a bot with the scan?

SPEAKER_04 13:30

You can. You can. Bots are red dots, runners are pulsing red dots. There's kind of like a cross on them. Um, which I did not realize until someone actually had to tell me. So the first couple days of me using sentinels and running with our crew, I'd be calling out, like, hey, there's a hostile in here, it might be a bot, it might be a player. I think it's a bot because I can hear a bot. But now it's like, okay, I can actually tell just by what the ping looks like. Okay, that's a player, that's a bot, and we can adjust accordingly.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yes, great feedback, Fallen. Thank you. Uh, thank you so much for that. And uh, it seems like to me the scanner is pretty subtle, too. Like, it doesn't really make it a lot of noise, if any. Um, so players don't really know when you like even with recon's pulse, if you look really closely, you can see the waves, you can see the pulses. Yeah, I saw it earlier in a in a match we had tonight. Uh, I I knew there was a recon actively using their prime because I could see the pulses go off. But I don't think that's the case with uh sentinel. I think it's a lot more subtle and it's a lot it you can, you know, you can be caught off guard a lot easier with that with that ability.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Um, you can hear it, but there's no visual cue. You can tell you're being scammed by a sentinel if you see a sentinel because his visor has a glowing Wi-Fi symbol on it when he's doing a scam. I did not know that. If you're looking at a sentinel, you can see what he's doing because it shows up on his visor.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Okay, all right, very good. Great feedback. Atlas Forged, my good man, my good man. What is your um you can take this any direction you would like to? What is your overarching thoughts of season two so far? Have you been experimenting with any new guns? Have you been because I know you're a hardcore destroyer, man, which we appreciate very much because we need a destroyer. Um, have you been messing around with any new runner shells? Just uh what's your what what what you thinking so far?

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Um, so season two feelings overall have been really good in terms of Nightmarsh. Nightmarsh was a fantastic feeling in addition to the game. New map that I really liked, right? New guns, awesome. Um, so far, battle pistol feels really strong. I still gotta play with the other one a little bit more. It feels doesn't feel as strong as I would like it to feel. Um but the KKV the KKV, KKV, yeah. It hasn't been, and maybe it's just because it burns through my ammo, and that's something you have to think of in an extraction shooter when you only have so many bullets on you. If it's like really going through that ammunition, I I'm not the biggest fan of that. Um but overall, guns feel good, variety feels good. Um, I'm a little down on the contracts that I was really disappointed in, just to be to be blunt. Um, yeah, send it. We want to hear it. That that's my lowest point, right? So at the end of the day, the contracts were exact same story, exact same thing. And even then the new contracts they added um didn't really amount to much lore or story difference, right? Um, it's not like you got a new cut scene each time you did a limited contract, you had to do several to get a new cut scene, and it kind of only amounts to two, maybe three. Um, I'm hoping, and this is something like that, and I've talked about a good bit. I'm hoping this ends up just being really uh a season where they're they're they're setting some things up, which is why those things feel a little bit lackluster. But right now, it didn't feel like the story in the world moved and shifted and felt alive. But in terms of gameplay, fantastic. Um, Nightmarsh, awesome, spooky, creepy map. Guns, great. Sentinel, great new shell edition for the first one. Um, I tested I played with him a little bit before uh you know Fallen proven at uh you know the mastery that he was he was gonna be the Sentinel guy. I think I'm still a destroyer guy. I got reasons for that, but I think I think the destroyer is still what I'm gonna end up calling home. But I like the new shell coming in and having a distinctive space, right? He's not stepping on anybody's toes, I feel. I feel like he really has his kids trying to do something specific that's different than others, sure. Um, yeah, but overall, uh I'm excited, I'm happy. Some things didn't move as much as I want, but hopefully that just means the next season will move a whole lot more, giving them some more time.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Okay, very good. Great, all great feedback. So, for everybody, if any of y'all are kind of looking at the notes right now, I'm kind of gonna I'm gonna go to Batman. Uh, I'm gonna go to him next with this. We're gonna read. Okay, so everybody buckle up because we're kind of gonna immediately immediately jump into something that is a little bit of a hot topic right now. This may be a five-minute conversation. This could turn into a 30-minute conversation. I do not know, but that's the beauty of what we do here on this podcast. We have a little bit of we have a little bit of a criteria notes we go by, but actually, the the God's honest truth there, baby, we really truly do free ball most of this, so we hang our hat on that. So here we go. Get ready to uh get a little spicy here. Segment two here. The great cradle nerf. Um, so it says basically, if the community was mad about the global cradle XP nerf last week, update 1.1.0.2 just through gasoline on the fire. Um, Bungie targeted Pacific item types to slow down the in-game stat maxing. Uh Blue Eek uh deletion. So Deluxe Unique Weapon. Deluxe Unique Weapons had their cradle sacrifice uh sacrifice XP half from 1500 XP down to 700 XP. Mods, high tier weapon mods, uh according to the notes here, it got a pretty big hit. So superiors, purples, cradle value slashed, ooh, from 2500 down to 1000 XP, prestige gold mods, cradle value cut in half, uh 7500 to 3750 XP. And we got a little last note here. Some of the community backlash. Players on Reddit have argued that this punishes casuals who didn't exploit the ultra-high loot rares during the first few days of season two launch. The FOMO argument is reaching a boiling point. Okay, and some of these words that get used sometimes is hilarious. A lot to unpack there, gentlemen, Batman. You were the one of the four of us who has fed the worm the most, who has invested most of his time into the cradle. I want you to also, I want you to lead first with speaking on that. What is your goals you have accomplished? What does that currently look for you right now? Um, talk about that, and then Batman, I want your your initial thoughts on. So we we you gotta think we got the 25%, like overall 25% nerf, uh, like what a week or two ago. Okay, well, now Bungie has kind of slapped on another nerf. Uh certain mods are literally half of XP of what they were. Um certain guns, uh, deluxe uniques. Uh they're they're down so bad. What's your thoughts on that? And just talk to us about uh talk to us about the cradle.

SPEAKER_06 21:31

Okay, so I know that um some of our devoted listeners have been extremely excited to hear my progress.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

They actually are.

SPEAKER_06 21:43

Um I am graciously and gratefully able to announce I have finished the cradle. Woo! They are full, bring me bountiful plenties. Yes. It's done. It is going to have to feed them again.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

That is. And it's not even been a full month. That is actually amazing, brother.

SPEAKER_06 22:12

Um, the one thing that I want to say is that I absolutely had to dedicate everything to get it done when I did um and how I did. I feel like I have spent so much time in sponsored um that I would probably say that I don't even know how to play this game anymore when it comes to PvP. But the sacrifice was made, and I'm going to be feeling that sacrifice till the end of the season, thankfully. Um I think that the equ like the um the weapon and the weapon mod XP slash is a little brutal from Bungie. And I don't know if it was necessarily something that should have taken place, in my opinion, because a lot of people that are feeding the worms felt that you know that was a really good way to get that done, you know. Load in, try to find the highest tier weapons, and you know, you're going for the secured resources, which um you're putting yourself a risk to do. Now there's no reward. Um so I mean I now you can keep the unique weapons and you can play with them, but that that initial um reward for taking it into the cradle for that extra XP is now gone.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

That go the gold mod slash from 7500 to 3000. That's brutal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:13

That is brutal. Um, something that I do want to bring up, and I apologize that it took so long for us to you know get another episode out so that I could speak on it. Um, under the Sekaguchi uh faction upgrades, there is actually an XP boost that you can unlock with resources. Did not know that. Um, it's yeah, it's a 5%, a 10%, and then I believe it's a 15%.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Ooh, okay. How how how steep is the investment? Is it like how kind of is the materials pretty tough to get?

SPEAKER_06 24:51

The first one's pretty easy. The second one was a little tougher for me to get because as soon as I realized what it was, um, they switched it from Dire Marsh, and it was a lot easier to get those um resources there. But and I unfortunately I do not remember off the top of my head. I think I'm pretty sure it was the blue circuits, the paradox circuits, and the green storage drives, which I did end up getting in perimeter, but the drop rates were definitely not what I was hoping for for the blue circuits. Those are still pretty hard for me to get. Okay, if you go into like um outpost, you you would find those a little more often. Those drop pretty well up there.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Okay, thank you for elaborating. Good. Good to keep going, keep going, by the way. I was just I was mostly just saying thanks for like being specific with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:57

Um I want to say that I don't know where the next sponsored is gonna be, but I do have one little thing that I don't like, and that is the fact that I went an entire week and a half without seeing a single rook, and then they became my worst nightmare. It's not that I don't like that they're in there, it was just the fact that I went so long, and then all of a sudden it was just a big problem. Right. And they were everywhere. Yeah. I don't know if it was like a loading issue or if just rooks weren't playing the mode. But and it's something that you have to run with in the back of your head when you're playing that specific mode, um, as well as other ones. But yeah, it it it was uh kind of a slap to the face on a couple of those runs, and that's just my skills as a player, but Cradle is really good. You will feel it once you get you know those upgrades and everything. Uh pick and choose what you want. There I can confirm from the last podcast that there are 84 levels total, and you can only get 70. Um, 60 is the base, and then the last 10 are VIP. So you are going to be spending a lot more XP to get the last 10. And I can tell you that the final level 69 to 70 is 210,000 XP. Who it's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yeah, yeah, that's some grinding.

SPEAKER_06 27:58

Yeah, yeah. So um, I will be moving on to profiteer now. Yay!

SPEAKER_01 28:04

There you go. Yes, yes. So you have literally accomplished that goal, and I'm so proud of you, man, because I mean you literally said it in one of our episodes like this is one of the goals I want to work towards. So great on you, man, that you have already been able to accomplish that goal. I if I don't okay, this yeah, I'm very, I'm very squirrel. I'm very squirrel. So this is the moment. I'm thinking about it. If I don't say it now, I will forget to say it. That another shout out to Batman. Something big that happened to him. Don't quote me on the date, don't call me out on the date. But a couple of days ago, you were live streaming and you got raided by somebody. You had 25, 25 active people in your chat on your birthday. I was so happy for you, man. That was freaking awesome. And then to make it even better, like 20 of those 25 people stayed for like the whole stream.

SPEAKER_06 29:03

Yep. It was a pretty big moment. Like I turned 30, and then all of a sudden, I felt like I was in the real world.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

It's as if the world universe knew it was your birthday and you needed a good raid. That was awesome. I was very happy. I still have that screenshot, by the way. I need to send that to you. Gentlemen, any of y'all feel free to jump in on this. It seems to me the consensus is like there to me, there's no doubt about it. Like season two, the pace of season two is moving extraordinarily faster than season one. Now, there's some things we have to take account for. Um you know, you gotta remember a lot of returning players people know what to do. We had faster access to cryo. Like we didn't get cryo to like a month in ish ish in season one. Um, we were trying to figure out the game. It was harder to get the upgrade. So there's the evidence is kind of undeniable that season two that Bungie's flirt Bungie is flirting with let's let let's experiment with making sorting upgrades and and and the gear. Let's get it faster to players and let's see what how what that turns into. Um I'm gonna piggyback before I'm gonna piggyback off bat a little bit. I I'm gonna be honest. I I do not now if y'all disagree, I want you to tell me that you disagree. I also am with bat. I'm not real crazy about the the deluxe uh the even not so much that one, but the the mod nerfs for the cradle. Um, I I really feel because like the sweats have done it's they're done. They've already got it done. Like the sweats probably grinded that out immediately. And the 25% nerf that we talked about in the last episode, that really did not bother me that I think everybody panicked a little too much over that one. That one didn't bother me that bad. This one actually bugs me a little bit because it got pushed a little bit later and then they slapped another nerf on top of it. And to me, that kind of did lengthen the ladder a little bit. That that to me, this did actually kind of hurt the casuals a little bit. It's not a, oh my god, everybody panic, you know, this is this is the worst thing in the world. It ain't that. I just I am actually not super crazy about that update because I actually do think that hurts casuals who even I'm getting into the mindset of casuals that don't even have as much time as we do. Um, you know, they got like maybe an hour here, maybe an hour there. And this definitely widened that gap for them to catch up. And, you know, they're gonna have to spend more time. They're they're gonna have to kind of do what Bat talked about. They're gonna have to really, they're gonna be at a crossroads and they're gonna have to really make a decision. What right do they want to prioritize PvP more and keep in that gear to have fun and to fight? Do they want to use this gear to invest in the cradle, which unfortunately is is going a lot slower now, and the really hardcore players, they're already there. Um, do they want to invest in upgrades? Like they kind of gotta choose a little bit more. And I'm not, I kind of wish Bungie wouldn't have done that. I kind of, but this also them slapping this nerf, this kind of tells me something. And this is where it's I'm about to turn it loose to an open discussion. This tells me that I think Bungie didn't intend for it to go this fast. There was a stat put out. Um, I wish I could, I wish I could give you all my sorts on it, but I I saw something where like uh players average, now there's a lot of factors that go into this, but players average loot in week two of season two was the average of week 11 of season one. That is kind of insane. I'm not gonna lie. That is actually kind of wild. We knew season two was moving fast. I didn't know if it was moving quite that fast. So, boys, buckle the F up because we get in about mid-season, it's probably gonna get pretty competitive, which we all we're grinders, we're casuals, but we're grinders and we love competition. But get ready, the competition is coming. My open discussion to y'all is do you think season two is moving too fast? Do you like it? Do you think this nerf was necessary? Do you think I blew it out of proportion a little bit? Do you think it hurts casuals? What's uh I'm following, I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna turn it to you. What do you think about what we've talked about so far?

SPEAKER_04 34:31

Um, so I might have a hot take on this because I don't I'm not a sweat, but I I won't classify myself as a casual either.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

You're kind of in the middle.

SPEAKER_04 34:42

Yeah. I get why they nerfed it because you know you're looking at something that they were probably anticipating being a big factor of the season and taking at least half a season to finish, so I get that. I will go on and say that I did see on uh X or Twitter or whatever you young kids want to call it these days, um, that the most recent nerf was likely going to get reverted later in the season. Okay. Um, they put it out now because they don't have a way to combat people just dumping their vaults into the cradle just yet. Okay. Um, but they did say the most recent one was going to get reverted when they come up with some other options. Interesting. But I know you and I spoke about it. My overall thoughts is I like that it's going faster. I under I knew it was gonna go faster. I mean, look at how we run. We have our routes that we do things, we go on the perimeter, we know exactly where we want to go. Uh, we go on outposts, we know exactly where we want to go. It's not like it was last season where we load in, we're trying to figure out okay, what do we do? So I get that. Um, it's gonna be faster, which makes it nicer because we get more access to loot. I mean, got gold stuff in my inventory already that I mean, we probably didn't see gold until after the midway point. But and here's where my hot take comes in. And and I think it's because, like I said, I'm not a sweat, but I'm also far from a casual. Um, and I I'm I'm never one to trash talk or toot my own horn because I I don't like that. You can say whatever you want about me, I will gas you up, it's fine. But um y'all can hype me up, I don't care, I will never do it to myself. But um my thought on the cradle is yeah, you can see some of the changes because I've got I'm almost maxed out, I've got three levels left. Um the biggest one that you can see is melee. But my mindset is if we load into a match and I have let's for argument's sake, let's say I'm level one in the cradle or level one through ten or somewhere in the lower end, and I run into somebody with their cradle maxed out. At the end of the day, you have to beat me. I don't care what you have, you still have to beat me. And that's not an easy thing to do. Yeah, say it. You still have to beat me. The fallen!

SPEAKER_03 37:18

Not fallen, the fallen aura it goes off of him.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Go ahead, continue.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

You give me a sniper rifle, I promise you that cradle won't matter. Then there's nothing on that cradle that'll save you. Yeah. So, I mean, and like I I mean, when you, Bat, and I run together, my number one thing, whether we win or lose, the one thing I would say about our squad, you will not beat us unless you get the drop on us. In a heads-up fight, you are not gonna beat us.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Even that last fight where I uh I I'm jumping ahead of myself just a little bit. We'll get into this here in a minute, but even that last game that we came off of before coming into this podcast, what did that i i i i own? I'm gonna own it. That's on me for not assuming they were around that rock. But ultimately, what did they do? They picked us apart, they split us up.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

Even then, still didn't beat us. We still made it out. We did, true, true, did not beat us. I won't I won't put that blame on you. Um I kind of put that blame on me. I had a sniper rifle. When you said I'm going, I didn't know where you were going. I was too busy watching to start picking people off. Had I known that you were gonna go around the way you did, I would have advised you not to because like I said, I do not like to hype myself up. But whenever we get into fights, I look at things on how I would do it. And I have team-wiped a team where you went. If they're not where I'm standing where I can see them, that's the only other place they would have been. Yeah. So had I had known that's what you meant, I would have said, well, maybe hang back a little bit and let them start looting, and I'll just start dropping people.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

That will definitely be for me one of those moments I never forget. I I almost remember the moments like that more than the successes, because I that's what those are my biggest teaching moments. So now I'll kind of know if that situation sort of presents itself again to be a little more aware. That's probably the direction the team is assuming somebody's gonna peek. They just got there a little bit faster than I anticipated. It it sounded good in my head. I wanted another angle for us, but oh, clearly it was and you know, I think I'm telling you, I think if I would have had a blue or above, I actually think I'd have got out of that scenario. I almost downed that purple shielded guy. I made him back up, but he took one last little peek as I was backing up, and then that's where he downed me. So I I've learned that's one that's been one of the few situ one of the many situations I've already learned in season two. Be aware of that more.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

Go ahead. Well, that's the beauty of the game, right? The the L's make you better. The key is not to take the same L twice. The L the losses, the gunfights will always make you better. But like I said, that's I don't even classify that as a loss. We we still made it out. We made it out with loot. That's the whole end game. The end game of whether you're not you win or lose isn't whether you win or lose a gunfight, is whether you make it off the map.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Moments, you know, some moments the way I go down, and y'all literally mean heard y'all heard me vocalize this before. Y'all heard me say something along the lines of like, hey, I'm not even mad at that. Either. That was just a really good play by them, and I just would have never seen that coming. Or, or there's even been moments where I know, like, hey, that's really the best I could have done in that situation. I'm not even really mad about how I died or how it went down. But it's moments kind of like that where that was preventable. That's something I can, that's something I can continue to clean up and improve upon, and hopefully it won't happen again. Those are the ones that stick with me a little bit where I know deep down in my soul, ooh, if you'd have just thought a few steps ahead, just thought a little bit harder before you positioned that way, it probably would have made a big difference.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

Um, yeah, I will say, I will say if you think about the match we had before that, where we actually did lose. Um I also kind of put that one on myself because when we loaded in and we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do, I kind of have the tendency, unless I'm by myself or with complete randoms to just go with the flow. When you said let's push overflow, I knew that a team was gonna push us. I should have been more vocal about that. And as soon as we went through Holler, we got pushed by the overflow team. Like I knew what happened. It will never they got the drop on us. That's we can't control that. But I should have been more vocal when we were trying to decide what to do. Like, hey, that may not be the best idea. Let's trans, let's move to a different POI.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Sure, sure. And going forward, that goes for any of y'all. If I ever say make a call out or whatever, please, you are not gonna hurt my feelings. If you're like, I don't think that's the best idea, old town. There could be somebody waiting on us or whatever. Hey, let's try this and I promise, and I hope you guys know this about me. Um, you will not hurt my feelings. I am a huge team player. Please let me know. I know that team, the match you're referring to, I put a lot of that also on myself because I this is leading into a whole nother thing of things that I know I've got to improve on. I'll go ahead and say that right now because these are questions I'm gonna ask y'all later on in this episode. One of the things as a player, I don't think I'm doing a good job of right now is always thinking about hey, I see the Vandal running. I see the Vandal that just down bat. There he goes, there he goes, there he goes. And I blindly chase. And I don't think about where's his two teammates, though? What angles could they possibly have? Hey, if I jump down off this runway. From Haller, could his other two teammates be waiting for me where they downed bat? Spoiler alert, that's exactly what happened. That was another moment. I just look back on it and I just kick myself. Falling, don't take the blame for that. I, if anything, I take the blame because I should not, because that situation could have been savable too. If I just would have backed up and just evaluated it a little bit more, we probably could have took those guys, but I got ahead of myself, man, and I've got to work on that.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

I think a healthy place to be, because I know you, you, uh, you, me and bat have talked about this. Um, and I think I said this on one of the early episodes of the podcast. Um, I think a healthy marathon player is somewhere between you and somewhere between me. Right? I have seen you, you will drop everything to go save a teammate. And then you have me on the other hand, I will let you die if I think I can win this fight. I think a healthy marathon player is somewhere in the middle. Yeah. Like I you will drop a fight to go res somebody or to go jump in and see if you can help somebody. I will fall back, assess a situation. If you die, you die, I will clean up.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

I think that middle ground between the two of us is that healthy moment. And I kind of believe it or not, I think bat kind of falls in between there.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Where if he can, he'll go get you. If not, he'll try to clean up and then pick you up later. Go ahead, bat.

SPEAKER_06 45:40

I just I just suck. Um, no, the the one with Holler, like when I jumped down, I heard nothing. I saw nothing. I was not expecting them to already be underneath us. If anything, I was expecting them to be in the tick area. Didn't even cross my mind that they could be up that far.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

I think I'm hitting the one person. I think I'm hitting players to the critic.

SPEAKER_04 46:09

I thought I heard them on the ladder underneath Hawler. That's why I take the blame for that. Because when we're pushing the door, I'm like, I think I hear something, but I don't know for sure. Yeah. Which is why when you guys went outside, I stayed inside. Because I stopped to hard aim that uh ladder for a second. Then when I saw you two go down, I was like, okay, yeah, it's hard to see in Hauler as it is. Where's the best place I can go where I can pick them off one at a time? Unfortunately, where I went, they all pushed together. And that recon had her ult up, so they knew where I was already. And I did I didn't know that they had the recon. But I did take one of them with me.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

I've went back and watched, I went back, you you did. I've went back and I've watched the tape a lot on our matches, the ones that went well and the ones that did not go well, you know, a blend of both. And you really are an observant player. Like and like when like and I and I am I I I'm a good player, but sometimes I'm aggressive to a fault. Or I I I I commit to a decision to a fault. And I don't think about hey, is hey, I just downed this this destroyer. I'm about to go finish him with my finisher, but is his teammate have I accounted for is everybody dead? I think I could I need to work on that. Is everybody dead? And I think I did a good job of it tonight. Like I remember asking the question to y'all a couple of times, is everybody dead? How many bodies do we have? I'm gonna try to start vocalizing that more. How many bodies do we got? Because I have we I have also in season two and the end of season one died relaxing, thinking everybody's dead. Not everybody's dead! The fight isn't over. I'm getting too relaxed too quick, and I think I'm giving these enemy runners too much credit. I think I'm I think I'm underestimating people. Like I I I I shouldn't underestimate that uh that that the overflow team would already have been there to hauler we when it was taking us a little extra long to get through all the bots. Because I get lost for some dumb reason, I still, I'll own this, I get lost in Holler. I I have a I have a hard time, and I don't know why getting out of Holler sometimes. I don't know what it's a me problem, but that happened. I was it was one of those moments, and that's why I was also frustrated because had I normally already been out there, I would have seen that team coming at us sooner, and I am so confident we would have beat those guys. We would we had the skill, the better skill to take those guys out, but they flanked us, but they were ready for us, and yeah, yeah, yeah. That's something definitely I gotta work on as a player.

SPEAKER_04 49:00

You know what's funny. Um, I don't know if you remember this, but you called me observant, um, which I appreciate the compliment. But do you remember the first thing you said to me when we first met in season one? Job my memory. We were on perimeter, we got into a fight, which we just kept trading back and forth for a good solid probably 10 minutes with this other team. Um, yeah, we left. Well, we are about to leave, and I'm counting bodies, and I'm telling you, all right, this many people's dead, this many people's dead, this many people's dead, we have this many people to worry about. You said that that's the kind of player that scares us because he knows everything that's going on on the map. Yeah, I try to go with that approach on every map that we go on, which is why I'm usually the one who's like, all right, we've got this down, this, now, we've killed this. I've seen that we have two teams left. I think if we and you and I discussed this, I think our biggest problem with our squad is we put our we put our contract not at all. I think the biggest problem with our squad is we go in with contracts, right? We get in, we have a game plan, all right. Yeah, let's work together on this contract, this contract, this contract. We get in, we're like, let's kill everyone.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

We get in, and we just see red. It's like, all right, screw the contracts, everybody dies.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

We go through like three or four teams, and they're like, All right, three or four teams, I'm counting out, I'm counting out deaths, I'm counting body bats. All right, we probably have one team left, give or take. And then we're like, oh yeah, we have contracts, and we get so tunnel vision on the contract that we forget there's still another team somewhere. Because we've we're in matches with like 10 minutes left. So it's like if we've done all this damage, no one else has done damage. There is another team out there because we haven't killed them yet, right? Yeah, we'll but we go, we switch, we switch from we switched from murder time to being productive, and then we tunnel vision being productive, and I think it you notice that that only happens on maps like Perimeter and Dire Marsh. Because when we go on to I mean, when we go on the outpost, and even a couple times on cryo, when we wipe them, when we wipe the map, we wipe the map. That's it.

SPEAKER_05 51:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 51:36

The only difference is cryo, we don't have to worry about rooks. Yeah. Unfortunately, the couple times that we've wiped the map on cryo, we've gone in with no keys, so kind of counterproductive to us, but um, yeah. So I think I think with us, it's just uh we come in locked in and then we relax. It's just staying locked in for the entire match.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

Well said, great feedback. We're gonna get to some war stories here. We talked honestly a lot right there about war stories, and I think a lot of our listeners really appreciate those segments of this podcast that we do. So if y'all have the notes up, scroll down a little bit to player growth and that adaptation. Uh we'll I'm gonna kind of pop some of these questions off to you guys. Atlas Forge, you're up, buddy. Atlas Forge, in what ways has Marathon challenged you the most compared to other shooters like Destiny, Call of Duty, Apex, and Overwatch.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

Um so I feel like I have to separate those to some degree, right? So, like Destiny and Call of Duty, especially I'm thinking like regular Call of Duty, not like Warzone or DMZ, um and Overwatch. I feel like it really introduces uh looting and extraction, right? Um those are things that you don't have to worry about in those games, especially in Destiny, right? Like you went in, you you killed, you got killed, you maybe learned something, you respawned, you go in, you kill again. Um and on top of all those things, my life. Like my life matters, right? Like, I need to get kills, right? I need to put a win a W on the board, but it really teaches you to stop throwing your life away because your life is important, right? Um, apex does a good job of this as well. You die, it's game over, right? You're not like if the team wipes, that that that's it. Um, but even compared to Apex, I feel like Marathon or extraction shooters in general step it up a little bit more. Um, extraction variants. It's not about being the last team on the map, it's about getting out with your gear, it's about achieving your goal and getting out. And you don't have to fight everyone on the map to do that, right? Um and even going to that point, it's a game where you can make your own goals, right? Bat decided at the end of the beginning of this season he wants to get that cradle maxed out. That is his first goal. Um, I've kind of been building on this goal where I want to actually start farming for the cryo keys because I only did two of the vaults last season. So, like the game's got enough variants in it where I want to go in, I want to be effective, I want to get better, get my skill home, be a better slayer, kill, survive, but I also have goals I can create in this game while I'm doing it, right? Um, and not just something like improve my KD or be, but like really like in-world, almost lore-approved goals that you're searching. Um and on top of all that, loot permanents. If I get out with something, it is mine to use again in another run. Like, I don't I don't just queue up, I don't buy my weapons in game, I don't just select my loadout. Like, I've got to go find my loadout, get out with my loadout, use it, and then if I lose it, earn another loadout. That has been really the defining thing and why I'm so invested in the game, because it's those extra layers um with my life mattering, the gear mattering, um, that just makes it something way different compared to other games in general.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

Absolutely. I mean, you guys are you, y'all, you you three are on fire tonight. I don't even need to be the like y'all the host. Y'all are man, y'all are giving me chills, dude, with some of this feedback, man. Like great feedback, Atlas. Um Batman, when you first started playing, what was the hardest bad habit you had to break to survive active lobbies? What advice would you give to our listeners that are struggling to ex-fill in this hyper fast, hyper fast-paced season and this most dangerous game we call Marathon?

SPEAKER_06 55:56

Um, one of the biggest things that I probably thought the hardest when I started, um, not to sound cliche, but was the fact that this is an extraction shooter. Um, I come from Call of Duty, I come from Destiny, I come from Overwatch. And to kind of piggyback off of what um Atlas was going over, those are the things that I I look for in a game. I I can throw my life away. I don't have to look for my loadout, it's right there. Um, you know, I like those aspects. I can die over and over again and just come back and try to kill someone. Um so it honestly, the like, this is a one-life game. That was really difficult for me. I used to play a lot of like search and destroy, but it it's it's so different compared to that. And then uh Gearfear. That was the biggest thing that second biggest thing that I had to fight really hard, which thankfully this season I am doing a lot better. Um, feeding the worms has taught me a lot. I'm not a cultist, but it's getting there. Uh and I think that the way that it's moving forward with me as a player, um, I'm I'm growing, I'm learning the game, uh I'm figuring out the things that I need to work on, which I kind of just had a realization. I'm a huge flank player, and I I I am that way in a lot of different games. If I see my team fighting someone, like head on, I'm gonna try to find an angle so that I can catch them off guard. That is something I honestly probably need to dial back a lot on in this game, and I feel like it causes a lot of problems for my teammates because if I don't win my flank, I put them in a compromising position, and then I get mad because I did it. Right. So if you're somebody that's a flanker, stop, take a beat, look at everything, you know, take a head count, try to figure out where they are, um, and then play to your your strengths with your shell, you know, the range on your weapons, um and then you know, good call-outs are a massive thing in this game. Not wearing a headset and talking to people unless you're in a lobby where everybody's doing that, I wouldn't do it. Because it's just not a fun time.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

Comms and audio, huge in this game. Audio, like a good headset, really listening, and good communication with your teammates, huge in this game.

SPEAKER_06 59:14

Um, something that I've done is I've I've turned off all music when in a game. I've turned up all of the ambiance. I know that um the PS5 has a boosted feature for audio. I have that on. So I can hear footsteps and stuff clearer. Um, I think that that this this type of game um with its different audio cues and everything is important. So I don't know if that step would help anybody, but being able to locate an enemy, especially if they're close range, um, will help you a lot in a gunfight.

SPEAKER_01 59:53

So thank you so much for the feedback, Bat. I really like the second question. I'm gonna ask all three of y'all this. Fallen, when you first started playing, what was the hardest bad habit you had to break to survive active lobbies? What advice would you give our listeners that are struggling to X-Fill?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:16

That's a tough one. Um I would say for me, not utilizing my shell. Um not using, like I said, all season one, I'm main Vandal, and she's still my main, regardless of who I use. I play outside of Destiny, I play so many shooters, ranked mode, anything like that. Just you don't have abilities. I was going in and not using my abilities. Um I was just going in and treating a fight as a pure one-on-one gun fight. And I wasn't utilizing her arm cannon, I wasn't utilizing her double jump or slide. And early on, I think that cost me a lot until I just kind of had like that aha moment where I'm in a fight and kind of reflux takes over, and you like double jump to the side, and you see how the person just can't track you, or you use her power slide at somebody instead of away from somebody, and they just can't track you, and now you're in a better position. I think that kind of clicked. Um click with me, and then just kind of learning the map. You know, don't go not going into like loading into rim or going to the same couple places and then leaving on the first X Field. Like you and I have spoken about. I mean, every loss makes you better. Every win kind of everything that you do in this game is going to make you better. Um go go to that go to go to algae ponds where you know is the PvP capital of the world. Go to uh maintenance where you know everybody's gonna push. You have to kind of force yourself to to kind of get out of your comfort zone. Don't go to the first exfil you see, wait it out. Um to piggyback off of what Bat said, I mean, it's an extraction shooter. Everything you have is rented, nothing is yours. It's okay to lose it, you'll find it again. Be it be it a blue or a gold, you'll find something to replace it with. That I think that was the biggest one. It's like get outside of your comfort zone. Um, especially for me, because my first couple matches, like I said, because I never really did extraction shooters outside of DMZ was hey, if I can get a kill, grab the first body bag I can, take the first X-Fill. You're missing out on so much stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:58

Great feedback, Fallen. Love it, man. You guys are just on fire tonight. Atlas, when you first started playing, what was the hardest bad habit you had to break to survive active lobbies? What advice would you give our listeners that are struggling to ex-fill?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:17

So I think the first bad habit, and I'm glad that all of us seem to really like this. Is our first extraction shooter kind of feels like it? Um, it's fear. It's you can it's gear fear, it's fear of having to be aware of all your surroundings, it's wanting to crouch across the map thinking that's going to protect you from somebody, right? It it's once you start learning to play confident and moving around, even even though this is, you know, I just talked about how like my life matters, right? But when you play as if you are in an arena shooter, that's when you truly are excelling and and functioning well of the game. So that bad habit, everyone's is more than likely going to be fear, and it only takes time to to knock that fear train down. But the faster you can get confident with in the map, in the world, not worrying about losing that gear. Um, look, I'll be honest, I find it way safer to take the the back third of an extractions, not the first one, right? Even if I'm in and done, I am waiting till further in because as soon as that first one comes out, all the nervous snellies are rushing to that, right? Um yeah, it's fear. Be on the map, know your space, knowing that, be aware of your surroundings. But the first bad habit to break in this game is being afraid. And as soon as you do that, that's when you can truly grow. Um now, struggling to X-fill, right? Like, same thing, you know, like and I'm taking this literal, like trying to get out of the map. I am just not happening, right? Play smart, move with purpose, all that great. I recommend don't wait to the last extraction, but usually I'm not hitting ones until like last six, five to six minutes in the game, is where I'm using maybe that four-minute one comes up and I'm eyeing that one. Um, but also if you struggle in extraction, gear up for it, right? You don't need to be an assassin to use smoke grenades really well. Um, you have stuff like the destroyer's ability for the ride barricade. That's almost a guaranteed extraction if you're using it right. So if you're struggling with a particular part, gear up for that shortcoming that you have. But losing that fear and playing confident, that's the first bad habit. You got to break it into to move on and to grow.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:30

Love it, dude. Absolutely great feedback. Y'all, I mean, I'm gonna say it again. Yo, you all are just on fire. Um, my advice for for all of our listeners uh I have a lot of bad habits, so I am really growing a lot as a player. I think one of my first pieces of advice I would give everybody is it's not over till it's over. I don't care if you're on perimeter and you, your team, you've gotten eight kills. Guess what? That that's not nine. It's not. Nine and there's still rooks out there. It is not over till it's over. And always always be ready. Always, you know, like a lot of like what they're taught, what you're hearing from them, like your life matters. You've got one life. You've got to play it smart. Um, don't just assume the last team is just gonna ignore you. Don't assume those rooks aren't gonna mess with you. Always play as if it's almost like for me, I think I've got to get into the head space of like, even if we've wiped two teams, I need to continue to play as if everybody is still on this map. Because there are still players out there and we don't have that information and we don't know where they are. Always play as if they're all still there. Because even rooks, it's kind of random how many rooks spawn in to every map. So always take account for those who don't sleep on rooks, don't sleep on them. John Wick, John Rook, he's out there, baby. You don't don't let John Rook catch you slipping like he caught me slipping. I think the other thing I would say, uh, another bad habit that I am struggling with that I would help hopefully pass this on to our listeners to help them extract is kind of the whole I I'm rushing in to a fault. I'm chasing, maybe I'm going for a revive. That's my homie. I gotta get him up. That's my buddy. I ain't gonna let him die. I ain't gonna let his body bag be let sitting there. But sometimes it is best to let that bot, that that bag sit there and focus on the task at hand. Think about hey, you have not wiped this whole other team yet. Where are they? What angles could they potentially potentially be taking? Focus on the fight. But that is a balance sometimes. Sometimes there is a time, like, hey, like I feel really, really confident I can get this revive right now. Maybe I'm assassin, maybe I have smoke, I can use smoke, maybe I have a bubble shield, I can throw a bubble shield down. The other thing that maybe this will help some listeners is the whole problem I have with like you gotta like, even if you get a down, don't immediately always go loot, especially if the whole team has not been wiped, the fight's not over. Be thinking about where is that next guy. I'm gonna take this even further. Even if you get a team wiped, this game is evolving every day as we speak. The pace of the game, in my opinion, is increasing. Uh we are not the sweatiest of players, but even we are turning into a team that we are hungering for the fight, and we are immediately pushing people spawns and looking for a fight. And if you beat a team, somebody look out. Have one person on your team, even if it needs to be you, and it it's hard being that person because the loot's so fun in this game. But sometimes you might be surprised if you're the person looking around while everybody's looking, you're the guy, you're the unsung hero that sees the third team pushing in, and you're the guy that saves everybody and sounds the alarm. Hey, team, team, team, somebody's coming. When you beat a team, don't just assume nobody heard anything. Play as if, hey, I bet somebody hurt us shooting. Let's take a minute, let's re-up, let's re-up our shields, let's re-up our health, let's get ready for let's take a few seconds. Let's get let's take about 30 seconds or so. Let's get let's watch out for these next boys that may be coming in to push us. And last, we'll definitely get into this. Um, keys. Uh, keys are really loud. Keys are really loud. Um, when you go into a key room, um, you are not safe, even if you have killed a bunch of people. Um, keys are very loud, and you would be surprised, as I have been, learned the very hard way. A lot of people can hear you opening up a key room from pretty far away. Keep that in mind if you open up a key room. It plays this really loud sound that goes a lot of meters out. And uh, and I really like the whole fear thing. I think you're playing, you know, put yourself, last thing I'll say, and we'll move on. Put your don't be afraid to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. We as a team are working on that. You're gonna lose, you're gonna die, you're gonna take your L's, but try your best to learn from those L's. What went wrong in these fights? How can I, to the best of my ability, not make that same mistake twice, especially if you got a group of people, you know, whether if you're solo or if you got a group of buddies you play with, what mistakes like really think about it? And I was why are we losing these fights? What's going on? Because most of the time, I think this is really good with our group. We can sit there and say in almost every fight that we lose, this is why we lost, this is what happened. We can actually break it down and talk about it. This is probably this is what went wrong. Um, analyze those and and really and and and and I am truly at my best when I'm playing loose. But it's a but it but it is it's a tight balance because you can't play too too loose because you kind of get into that arena shooter mindset was if you die, you get to respawn. You don't get to respawn in this game unless your teammate heal, you know, unless your teammate clutches up and heals you. So you get it's it's a fine line, but I do really like what they were talking about, what Atlas was talking about was the fear aspect. Don't don't let, you know, don't be afraid to put yourself in hyper intense and uncomfortable situations because ultimately it's gonna hurt in that moment, but in the long run, it's gonna make you a better player. True Batman 444. Tap in, Bat.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:20

Um, one thing I wanted to mention about um X fills, because this happened to me tonight. Um, if there's something that you're interested in trying to accomplish before you know final X-Fill, watch the timer because it's important. Um I was running with Fallen in in Old Town tonight, and I missed it by three seconds. I had a schema for a Ms. Rayah, and I about cried. Um, and another thing, like if I was especially I'm still hurting for you. I'm still hurting for you. And the worst part is you know, old town like let me have that, and then I biffed it. So just just always keep an eye on that clock if possible, because it is so important when you're getting down to those last few. Um and then another thing I wanted to touch on real quick. Um, if if you're playing with a group of people, like a consistent squad, um, it's also really good to like learn what your your people play well with or what they like to keep. Um, like right now I'm going for profiteer, but if I see a bully, I'm gonna call it out for fallen. Um, if I see a a lookout, dookie tier, I'm gonna call it out for for old town. D for dominant. Um and then I feel like I'm actually getting pretty good at this. Like, once we start, once we get a team killed, I've been trying to like be that guy that keeps the head up while the other two loot. And I think I even did it tonight where I'll see a bag, I'll look in it for a second, and I'll say, Okay, this is a good bag. You guys can go through this, I'll go watch. Love it. This isn't a yourself game, this is a team effort. So keep that in mind as well. Um, especially if you're with a group of people that you play with constantly. It's a little harder when it's you know, random fills, but you know, hey, throw the question out is there any guns that you guys are wanting that you that you're really good with that you like that you're specifically looking for? Um, are there resources that you guys need? Maybe it's an upgrade that I've already got, but you need those parts. Um, stuff like that goes a long way. And Marathon is a good community still to this day, I think, for the most part. Um, and I think we want to try to keep that as much as possible.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:23

So, yes, I agree with you. I think Marathon is absolutely still a banger of a community. Now, we would encourage all of our listeners, don't be afraid to get on the mic. Everyone, I ain't saying you got to do it every single match, but it works getting on the mic works wonders in this game. And you can, and with this community, I'm not saying there ain't poopers out there. There absolutely is poopers out there. But, you know, don't be afraid every once in now and then to get on the mic. It works wonders for the team. Uh, the direct communication is always better than trying to tag something or type something out, especially trying to type something out. Um, and you'd be surprised. So a lot of times people will fall in line. Like if you're the first to get on the mic and you do this, hey, what's going on, everybody? Uh, what are we doing? Well, we we got contracts we're gonna do, we gotta do some PvP. What we doing? You'd be surprised how many people will flip their mics on and say, Hey, I really need to do this contractor. Most of the time, what they'll say, yo man, I'm just chilling. I just want to get in some fights. That's actually a lot of times what they'll say. But you know, it's like, all right, bet. We have a goal in mind. We we as a team now have a goal and a vision in mind. So yeah, not saying that'll always be the case, but you would be surprised how much it'll help. I think everything we've been talking about really kind of ties into this story I'm about to tell. And there's two stories to tell. There's actually kind of three, but there's two in particular stories to tell. Here we go. The perimeter heartbreak, right at the beginning of one of my streams, we dropped uh this was myself, Batman, and Fallen, dropped into a game of perimeter, and we went on an absolute tear. We completely controlled the pacing, dominated the angles, and racked up a combined eight-runner eliminations. By the way, everybody door listens, this is not, I'm pulling that out of thin air. This is, I went back to the to the footage and I watched and I and I added this up for myself. That is objective. We had eight runner eliminations, and I'm gonna even get into some of the cold hard stats. Batman had three downs, three limbs, five hundred and fifty-seven damage, fallen had zero downs, and bear in mind, everybody, when we're talking stats, this is one game, and numbers aren't everything. Keep that in mind. Most of the time, Fallen's the one balling out, but for this one, fallen. Here's here, this was the objective numbers. Zero downs, zero limbs, 218 damage. Not too shabby, 218 damage, not too shabby at all. He was involved in the gunfights, he was there, he was present. Old Town South, who's that guy? I had six downs, five a limbs, and one thousand twenty-two damage. If I, gentlemen, if I were to put out a blind poll on Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and say, hey, we had eight runner a limbs this game. That was our stat, that is our objective stats. This that's how much damage I should have tallied up the damage we did. If somebody wants to do the quick math on the side, like how much damage we had that match. We literally was going on an absolute tear. And I, if I were to ask people, do you think we X-filled this game? I am almost willing to put the house on Zillow.com that 70% of people that poll would say, Oh, yeah, of course you guys X-filled. You guys dominated that lobby. We did not. We did not. We the we the final team, there was one triage left, and he bested us. I cannot speak for Fallen and Batman. I'm gonna let them chime in on what went down right there. I gowned that final team, I downed his two, um, I down with the ironically with the overrun, I downed his two teammates. And this is this was actually on stream. I might post this whole video if anybody ever wants to watch this. But dude, we were having such a good game. And I look at the gentleman, I look at those numbers. Numbers obviously are objective, but they don't tell odd clearly, they don't tell the full story. But I look at that and I'm just and I just kind of lay back and I'm I want to smoke a cigarette. Like, what what where we you I'm getting ahead, like getting ahead of myself here. It just kind of blows my mind. It's like, wow, how did we not X-field this game? It's how can we take games like this where we're dominating? How can we clean up? I think we've talked about it a lot already. I think it's some things I said, like we just can't we can't get in the mindset it's over until it's really over. We oh we gotta maybe I don't know. I I I I'm actually I I don't know. I think that's where we maybe another area we could grow as a team is clearly we can fight. Clearly we can fight because we have all kinds of stories where we're we're we're winning fights and everything. But Batman and Fallen, what is y'all's thoughts on that game? How did how was that from y'all's POV? What do y'all think what do y'all see something that I'm not seeing? Maybe something we could do better as a team to finish strong on these type of games.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:17

Well, I can tell you exactly how we lost it because I was the last man standing. But um that goes into my point. Don't take Sentinel onto perimeter. You cannot utilize this full kit. That I could not I could not jump into any fights the way I wanted to. Um, I think I was peppering people from a distance, but we lost that fight. Um, I went in with uh with one of those uh kits that they gave out with they ended up giving me like a a twin tap with no scope on it. Um so how we lost that was we got into a fight at station. Uh it went down to a 1v1 with me in that triage. I got high ground on him. I picked up a battle pistol from one of the guys uh town killed. And in the middle of that fight, I had the triage dead to rights. I realized, and this is something everyone should learn for future reference, when you pick up a gun off of someone you kill, reloaded first.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:30

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:31

The battle pistol fired three times and went empty. So in the middle of the gunfight, when I had him dead to rights, I had to reload because I did not check to see if the gun was reloaded when I picked it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:46

A literal teeny, tiny micro missfumble, and it it just a teeny tiny it's crazy how this game is a game of inches and little tiny micro decisions, and that determines sometimes who the winner is of a fight. So freaking close. Batman, what was your POV from that situation and that in that match?

SPEAKER_06 1:23:17

Um, first off, I I did the numbers, and our total damage was 1797. Wow. Um I'm not gonna lie to you, boys. I I don't remember this at all. I don't remember it. Uh I might have been in with a green kit. It might have been my purple kit. I I don't know. It's been too long. They have been in sponsored for so long. I don't remember anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:50

Right. This one, man. He's been in the hyperbolic time chamber, okay? You know, he's he's working on his, he's he's doing Super Saiyan training. He just he's lost track of time. You know, he's been in the Purdue Triangle.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:06

Solitary Purgatory.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:11

It was worth it, but I I honest to God, I do not remember this match. It is perfectly okay, man. Um, we've we've all slipped since then. Um, it's just a game, dude. I go back and I and I watched it, and it was it was satisfying to watch because we had so many kills that game. We had eight on perimeter, by the way. Perimeter. Eight runner elims. There was one not counting rooks. There was one guy left. It was just that guy. It would have uh not counting rooks, it would have actually been a lobby wipe. We just we're there guys. We're so close to like uh I'm almost 10. Especially nowadays, being a father now and and and working Monday to Friday and just a lot of obligations, a lot of responsibilities, but but like almost feel like from graduating from casual status, man. Like we're there, we're so close, man, to really coming out with our heads held high. We we as a group, I think we're very good at navigating negativity, we're very good at navigating downs, like low moments, and we keep our heads up to the best as we can. Like, even if we lost a lot, like I hope y'all know what I mean by that. I think we do pretty good as a team, as a group of keeping our heads held held high, even when it's kind of hard to. And but with that being said, I think we can soften the blow for if we can just clean some of these things up we're talking about to taking our own advice. Dude, I mean, we're we're up for some banger nights and in Old Town and Fall and we're gonna have some more TikToks and YouTube shorts to post, baby. And we we we go have some content because like we're there, man. We're we're freaking there. And there was a um getting into the the next story, the infamous perimeter key room. Oh my gosh, dude. Uh, our our homie Atlas had joined the crew. It was me, Atlas, and Fallen. Everything was aligning for a legendary extraction. Um, Fallen 31 and Atlas both had purple shields. We had completely uh looted out a high-tier key room. Another game. Here we go again. We had seven, this is objective. This is what went down. We had seven runner eliminations. Um, Fallen that one had zero downs, but he had three limbs and he had 410 damage. I had four downs, one elim, eight hundred and sixteen. Atlas had three downs, three limbs, nine hundred and two damage. We were on fire. We did, we did so good, but we talked about this earlier. What are some things we can pass on to our listeners that we've learned? I talked about the key room, and that was leading up to this story here. We killed all, we we we we won our gunfights. I don't remember how many minutes was left in this match. It wasn't much. We had a key, we looted the key room. Well, I'm only gonna speak for me. What did I do? I let my guard down. Oh, we got seven runner limbs. We're good, ain't nobody touching us. Ha ha. Boy, was I wrong. There was a team. They heard the sound cue notification, and they were very Very subtle, they were very quiet about it. Maybe you guys can speak to better where we were. I don't remember where exactly which key room it was on perimeter. I bet y'all do which key room it was on perimeter, but they took a very subtle, quiet pathing, and buddy, they were ready for us. Um, my POV from that fight, I came, I reacted slowly because I was not anticipating somebody to push us in that moment. I just got it, I got relaxed. I gotta work on that as a player. I with that being said, I actually came super close to downing the destroyer. But the problem is there was a triage right behind him, and he peppered me down and he forced me to back up. I spam, I got caught between trying to use the destroyer shield and throwing a bubble shield down. And he caught me and he hard pushed me because he knew I was hurt. He's a player that knew what he was doing, and he had the game sense to know I cracked his shield and I put a lot of damage in him. He took a 50-50 and he hard pushed and it paid off because he caught me in the middle of that animation and he downed me. It was a super heartbreaking moment. And I just it it it not even for me, like I just want to win for y'all. Like, I want to do good to help you guys be y'all's best and get out with the loot. And it hurt me that Atlas that was his purple kit, and it just ah, I we navigated it good, obviously. There were no hard feelings, like we literally immediately dove back in and we got us a dub, and we we called it a night on a dub. But that that situation, dude, just stands out to me. And I think it's another one of those moments that it's a memory that I'll always have, and I I've learned from it. But what what do you uh I'll I'm turning to you, Atlas Forged. What was that situation from your POV? What advice do you have on that run? Um, what what do you take from what do you take from that situation?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:18

Yeah. Um I I can't speak about the whole run because it's bad said that you know that these nights were a good while ago. Um, but I remember the key room, and at least from my own point of view, it was like it was we're all inside looting, wrapping up, right? All right, time to go move to the extraction. And it once again it must have been you, but somebody stepped out and the fire started, right? It was this was in the tunnels on a perimeter, and that nearby door to that key room, they were there just waiting. Didn't hear them, they didn't activate any kind of reconnobility. I can't even tell you what shells they had, to be honest. But they were waiting, and as soon as one of us came out that door, the beam started. Um, I popped out on the door store near me, had a great damage exchange, you know, really pushing one back and cracking one. I myself am cracked, I pulled back, and by that time they had already pushed on your guys' side. People went down, and I don't even finish popping my heel before I get shot within the key room going down, right? Um, I mean, once again, we've said it all night. It ain't over till it's over. You don't let your guard down. You've got to stay in the zone. Like it is you will play better in a relaxed, comfortable zone, true, in terms of fighting, right? But it also means what you can say what you want, or you can call it ratting, sneaking. That's a legitimate strategy, right? And it's got good premise to help equalize the playing field. We let our guard down, they positioned themselves, took advantage of that. If we were paying half as much attention as we should have been, that wouldn't have happened. And we got punished for it, we deserved it, right? Um, yeah, and it it sucks all the way through because, yep, it was my last purple, you know, kit that I had, and I was like looking to finally get out with you know the shield. Everybody else is getting out with all their purple stuff. I'm like, God, this is it. Finally, my time didn't happen. Um, but once again, it didn't happen, but then you you have lessons like this that stick with you that you learn where it will have laws next time and go, nope, I'm paying attention. I don't care. Just like on Outpost, no rook will ever get to jump on us again. So too now is at every key room. We are on guard. Like pay attention, listing, check corners. Um, yeah, it it was heartbreaking, but those are the best lessons.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:36

Uh yeah, uh you you said that very, very, very well. Never again. It's one thing if we just lose the gunfight, but that will be the last time us as a group when we're hitting a key room that we get caught off guard. We will we will be much going forward, much more hyper alert as we are looting, hyper alert, as we are exiting the area. Is somebody waiting for us, gunpointed? We will it was a hard, it was a hard lesson, but a lesson learned. Fallen, any thoughts on that situation?

SPEAKER_04 1:33:13

Uh yeah, so I remember that match, and just a little um from my point of view, I was forcing myself to use sentinel on perimeter because I was, you know, you're trying to get better with a frame. Granted, hindsight, whether I had Vandal or not, I don't think it would have changed much, but I was sniping that entire match. So I was doing cleanups. Um, you guys were peppering, I was just polishing off kills. The issue that hit me, because I was the one who walked out and got just beamed. The problem with me is I would like I said, I was sniping that entire time. So as I'm walking out the door, I still have my outland in my hand. The moment I step out, I see three dudes crouched in a doorway, just adsing the door. So when I'm in the process of swapping to, I think I had a battle pistol on me. I just get firing squatted. Um like it, there was no reaction. I don't even think I put the outland away. The animation didn't even finish, and I just got beamed. Um hindsight should not have walked out that door with my sniper still in my hand. That was the mistake because I don't care what attachments you have on a on an outline, you would never get it up fast enough to out DPS an automatic gun. Right. Um, yeah, that one was rough. I mean, again, hindsight, I could have popped my sentinel scan and checked if someone's around there, but you know, we were riding the high of a bunch of kills, everybody got kills, and I know for me that was running coming off of those other matches we mentioned earlier, where I was I was annoyed that night because as I was telling talking, you and Bat, I you don't see me go many matches where I don't get kills. And between that and learning a new shell, I was already frustrated. So it was riding the high of okay, we got kills on the board, we looted a room, we looted a bunch of bodies. You're kind of writing writing that out. You don't think to okay, we still have to make it out of here. We're counting our wins before we got them.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:43

Oh, yeah, yeah. Everybody really dial into what he said right there at the end. I think I struggle. I think I struggle with that really bad. We've all kind of talked about that. Like it it the the key takeaway is it's not over till it's over. I'm bad to be kind of oh I'm kind of feeling myself right now. I got I got I got three I got three bodies, Fallen's got five bodies, Atlas has four bodies. We we we we cooking right now, we doing good, and buddy, it ain't over. We have not extracted. We could still be down by bots, we could still misjudge the timer and not catch the X-fill in time. You just you gotta be thinking ahead in this game. You really gotta be always thinking ahead. And and and these even tonight, um, I feel terrible that Batman didn't make it out. I mean, I I really don't count it, I don't count it as a win. We all three did not get out. We had a lot of kills, we won our fights, we had good loot, but our homie he got left behind. And uh I take accountability, can't I take some accountability in him not making it because I probably could have backed out and stopped the timer. I didn't know how much longer we had left. I I really for on my end, it boiled down to I just thought he was closer, but I shouldn't have assumed, and that's on me. I shouldn't have assumed, I should have actually looked. Is he in here? Is he actually here? And that's something I could definitely um clean up. Like so many things could still happen. So the key, the big takeaway from all this is we as a group, I don't know if our listeners have experienced this, but our group has experienced we're having these really good games, but boy, we're getting, but boy, we're getting soft. And I guess at the end, we're getting maybe soft is not the word, we're getting relaxed. I think that's the word. We're getting relaxed, we're letting our guard down, and we're getting punished by rooks and by the the the the third final team that's lurking around, misjudging the timer on the call. So I think that's where we all could probably. I don't even like throwing us all in. I'm just gonna kind of speak on me. Like I those are things I'm struggling with. So I think if you know I clean that up and we become more aware of those things, hopefully we'll start having more highs. And we'll, you know, these situations are always gonna happen. You're always gonna have your heart broken in games like this, but y'all, y'all get what I'm saying. So great feedback, everybody. Oh my gosh, great. I mean, I'm just fired up tonight at all of this, um, all this talk. I'm gonna power through real quick because I really enjoyed the questions segment. I think I want to kind of get back to that. So we'll power through real quick on some of the bug fixes. So in season two so far, in this update that we have just received, we have had some bug fix and changes and some tweaks. Um, the zone, I highlighted this one. The zone reset fix. They fixed the bug where you previously were your previously selected zone, would reset back to default every single run. No more accidentally queuing in the wrong map because you aren't paying attention. I am so happy they fixed this. This was happening to me constantly. I would have dire marsh selected, solos, and and then I would queue up again, not thinking about that. And next thing I know, I'm in trios perimeter. So I like that they they've got they've fixed this issue where what you last did is what will lock in and what you automatically will queue in as next. Same thing kind of for crew fill retention. Your crew fill settings, auto fill on and off will now actually persist between matches instead of toggling itself. That was also an issue and a bug that we were experiencing. I don't know if y'all knew this. Apparently, there was a folding stock bug, a hidden mechanic fix. They patched an issue where folding stock stat bonuses were accidentally reversed based on their configuration. Unfolding your weapon now actually grants accuracy properly. Apparently, it was the other way. Apparently, if your gun was like not folded, you were getting a bonus. It's weird. Did y'all hear about that by by any chance?

SPEAKER_04 1:40:23

I did because I felt it. I think I commented to I think it was either you or bad. I commented about it. I was like, man, I feel like having the stock unfolded on the battle pistol, uh my the spread should be zeroed in a bit more. It was firing like crazy. So I was like, why am I not because I'm like, I've had I got my I'm beaming this guy in the head. Why am I not downing him quicker? Why does it feel like I have to put a clip and a half into him? And yeah, when I read that, I was like, oh, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:53

Yeah, yeah. That was a that was apparently a bug, and I I did not know. So I'm glad we have someone in here that that experienced that. One more, one more thing. Uh, we have Nightmar Slightness. They fixed a glaring visual issue where other runners' flashlights wouldn't render if they turned them on before entering your direct. This is wild, before entering your direct line of sight. You can now spy enemy lights creeping through the swamp. I never experienced this. I haven't played a lot of PvP. We played a lot of sponsored Nightmarsh, but I have not played a lot of PvP Nightmarsh. I've done I've actually done more solos PvP Nightmarsh than anything. I did not know this was a bug. I don't think it was like a major, major thing. Um, but that was a thing, and it is addressed now. And I'm gonna go. Anybody got any thoughts on that before we move on?

SPEAKER_06 1:41:44

Yeah, actually, you know, remember the first run that you went in with your purple kit on Dire Marsh or yeah, Dire Marsh night? Yes, and we killed the the purple team, yeah. We never saw them until we were right on top of them. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:03

I bet that was that bug. That oh my gosh, you're right. That was probably that freaking bug because they didn't see us. Yeah, and that we got the jump.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:12

The only reason that we got the jump was because neither one of us could see each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:18

This situation he is talk talking about. This late for all of our listeners, this is actually my most viewed video on TikTok and YouTube short. If y'all would like to go check that out, head over to Old Town South on TikTok or Old Town South on YouTube. It's a short, it'll just be the one with the most views on it. Um, and that is that situation that he was just describing. Seg before Joe Ziegler's multi-season blueprint, uh, a little bit of a discussion here. Okay. Uh, Ziegler released an update discussing the future direction of the live service games, the experimental PVE modes. Ziegler confirmed the upcoming mid-season mode will be a pure 100% co-op PVE with match-to-match progression to give players a break from high stakes stresses. So interesting. We, of course, have not made it to mid-season. I would imagine mid-season for us is going to be sometime in July. July, middle of July, somewhere will be the midseason. So, yeah, hey, you know, it'll be um, it'll be I I'm looking forward to it. Um, it will be a true PVE experience. No rooks, no surprise rooks. Um, and we'll we'll see what they cook up about it. And then excited. Bat is excited about this. And then uh we'll go through this part real quick. A five uh a five-season roadmap, Ziegler laid out their target goals extended deep into 2027. Season three, a complete overhaul to the onboarding experience on perimeter. Interesting. That's all I got, though. That's all the only notes, so we will just have to see as we get closer to season three, what gets revealed about that. Season four, I love that we're talking this far in the future, adding deep tactical mechanics to the core extraction gameplay loop. Okay, interesting. Season five, evolving the weird sci-fi world by bringing. I I got something in my head what I hope this is, by bringing the entire ecosystem of pure PvP, PvE, and PvP light cues together seamlessly. I tell y'all what, man, it's a pipe dream. I'm gonna go ahead and speak on it now. I really hope by season five, and it would really be a pipe dream if we get it before season five, but I'm gonna try to keep realistic expectations. By season five, we have a brand spanking new map. I think we're gonna get another new map well before season five, but I hope by season five, we have the alien faction. They bring in the Atlas can speak on this, but they bring in that species of alien, and that's your that's the that's the AI on the map. You know, you're you you gotta watch out for the for the aliens coming. It's a pipe dream, but I think they can do it, man. And uh I I'm I'm pumped for it. Any any any thought? Does anybody have any um any thoughts on any of the pro of uh kind of what's coming? It was very vague, but what's coming down for season three, four, and five?

SPEAKER_06 1:45:47

Um, I do want to say that I saw a picture on um Reddit the other day, and it was kind of like you know how they show like storyboards and stuff like that in like movie and stuff. Um, it was just a collection of like 15 different uh like character models, and they were all different types of enemies that could be possibilities of marathon, like aliens, mutants, um different uh UESC, and I'm not gonna lie, if any of them come true, we are in for a treat. Because they all looked nasty, like they are gonna cause some fun gameplay.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:40

I'm excited to hear music to my ears. Atlas, I know you're a lore guy. Any thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 1:46:49

Um, so yeah, obviously at some point they gotta expand the factions, and they have a lot of material. Um, you know, you got the Spore, you got this fit, like you got you got plenty of aliens you can draw to, but the question is we still don't know how they fit into the grand scheme, right? Because supposedly they're no longer here. So we have one that's left behind. What does that mean? Where they're at. Um I will say this, yes, I have no doubt at some point we get to fight aliens. It's not a bungee game if we're not fighting aliens. The question is just what season they introduced that. Um I don't know. I'm I'm I'm excited. The lore is super freaking deep. Um and they've expanded, built on a waste. The biggest thing we just don't know is how it fits into the marathon timeline, right? Like, obviously, they have a lot of references to marathon one. How do you use the references to marathon two and three? Is this the same timeline or not? Like, it's it's so intriguing when you dive down, but at the end of the day, we just don't know what they're using, even though they seem to be using a good bit of everything everywhere. Things are different enough to where you're just kind of questioning did this all happen to play out the same? Is this a different multiverse kind of theory? Yeah, I don't know. Um, but five robots are great. Robots allow you a lot of creativity. It's not a bungee game without aliens, and I think the aliens will be coming with it easily within a year, but I think there'll be more, maybe some more hints towards them, right? Um, like I saw one awesome idea because I think the four at some point like had invisibility and that they were gonna be the invisible things hunting us in Nightmarsh. Um, okay, okay. That that's uh once again. So I I think at some point we'll get hints that lead up into it with stuff like that, because that's the cool thing you can do in these worlds. Um, I'm also hopeful because like you know, going back to you know, just the overall roadmap in the original post that Ziegler made, you know, his quote is season two is on the horizon, and we'll be sowing the seeds for a lot of our future plans via new content. Um this feels like reading that quote and looking at what I like and don't like about season two, this feels like a sowing seed season, which means that hopefully, if that's true, which is what it looks like, season three will be all the better. Because they're already talking about in season three in that same post that introducing another runner shell, which is awesome, right? Runner shells are always exciting. Um, yeah, it's I I cannot wait, but my bet, my bet would be at season three, we maybe start getting hints. And then Bungie being bungee, it's always a year later that the teams had long enough to introduce it. And to me, a year later marathon, that's where we see an actual alien faction launch and fighting. Maybe I'm wrong they pulled the trigger sooner, but that to me, because then hopefully, too, some of those destiny uh team members have been able to come over, work on some PvE stuff, um, bring that talent, that skill, and that lore there. That that's where I'm trying to set my expectations when I get too excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:59

Great feedback. Love it.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:01

Go ahead, Matt. So I know that like the description of Marathon right now is scavenging Tausetti, right? Um, with with Atlas's background in the lore aspect. Do you think that they might take a page from Destiny's book to where we could eventually have multiple different planets that we go to? And then that would be easier to transition into different type of monsters with multiple maps? Or do you think that they're always gonna have it at Tal City?

SPEAKER_00 1:50:44

So I think right now, if we go through to different planets, um I think it'll be by way of Eldritch horror warping kind of stuff, right? Um I don't think we're gonna go visit the the next neighboring moon of Tal City. Um I think there could be possibilities of different ships, right? So what if an alien ship came and nestled above orbit like the marathon? I think that could be a fun event to then board that and look at that. Um and I think the anomaly and what the anomaly is, and what the most accepted uh lore explanation of the anomaly and what it does, I think you could explore galaxies inside of the anomaly itself. Um once again, this is all theorycrafting and lore, but the lore that is established in um Bungie's first ever game, Pathways into Darkness, and how that ties into Marathon and what what people think the anomaly is related to all that lore, the possibilities are unlimited, right? Um never say never, right? But I think Tal City is like Tig Destiny, right? When Destiny launched, it made me realize that our solar system is big enough for a galaxy-worthy adventure. I think Tal Ceti will prove that even one planet could be big. Because, like right now, we haven't explored anything of the colony, right? We have the edges of it, we have Dire Marsh where the anomaly was, we have outpost that was one of the many outposts of the colony expansion. But for all we know, the colony was the size of you know multiple states of the United States, like it could be huge. We haven't explored anything yet, and I think next map, I think, especially given how like close quarters cryo has been. Um I love the idea that we visit the beach scene in the live action trailer where the debris from the marathon starts slamming down.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:53

Um, I would love that that being an open map and seeing those facilities on the edge of water, like an ocean. That would be something different that's mentioned with the the drone cartridges and stuff like that that you can collect with the lore collectibles.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:08

Okay, cool. I just wanted to know your your thoughts on that kind of a possibility.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:13

I could talk it all day. I could talk it all day.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:16

I like just throwing out ideas and bungee listens are like, hey, let's pluck that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:22

Buddy, buddy, let me tell you, like like when we used back in the we're all in our 30s here now. Um, back when uh in the early 2000s, when you had the load minutes on your phone, buddy, he he could keep on going with that lore. And buddy, we can burn all six of my hours of this podcast right here, right now. Everybody get ready to cut, get ready to lift more weights, get ready to cut more grass, get keep hiding your phone from your supervisor.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:53

We don't have four episodes and one one show and for you. So, you know, taking segments, water break in between. Yeah, no, it's it's really, really good. And right now it's it's the beautiful part, like when you get a new game, right? There's you give you just enough to where you constantly are going, well, what if this? Well, what if that? Well, what if this? And your mind just runs with it because it's so awesome to not to have enough answers to be curious and to brainstorm, but not have enough answers to know the answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:19

Yeah, love it. Great feedback, man. Great feedback. I mean, we're probably definitely uh gonna, I I think I want to go a little over. We're at an hour 54. I think I honestly want to keep going because I don't know how how often I'm gonna get all four of y'all on the same episode. So I'm just I'm loving this feedback from y'all. Here we go. I know I think I know his answer. I may ask all three of y'all this question, but I'm gonna have fun with this first. Fallen. We've been dealing with the great cradle nerf lately. Do you think a player's raw mechanical skill can overcome a gap in cradle stats? Or do you feel the grind is mandatory to stay competitive?

SPEAKER_04 1:55:07

1000% you can outplay somebody with a maxed out cradle. The only well, because you and I have talked about it, you the cradle is like I would say it's like a taste test, right? It's like, hey, this is what your melee can be at this level, but you still get bigger bumps from implants and cores. Your implants and cores are what's gonna push you across the across that limit, and your implants and cores also drastically change your gameplay. Like there's a Vandal implant that gives me a triple jump. You can't do that with a cradle. There's a sentinel implant that gives you two snare mines. You can't do that with a cradle. And from my point of view, like I said, I've got almost four maxed out. The only cradle upgrade that I really, really feel is the melee damage. The only time I feel the heat bump is when I'm using Vandal, because I'm I mean, you see me when I'm when I'm playing, I'm sprinting everywhere. I don't if I'm playing Sentinel, it does uh bonus heat doesn't really matter. I'm taking my time, I'm being slow and cautious.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:23

True, true.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:24

Vandal, it works out because I need heat to jump, I need heat to power slide, I need heat to do all that, and I'm doing all that in a fight. So yeah, when that when you're using a a destroyer shell or a vandal shell, yeah, you'll feel the heat. But the one universal thing that I think you'll always feel is the melee damage, and I think that's the biggest advantage that you can get. So, I mean, if I had to recommend somebody who doesn't have the time, max out your melee one and then just let the rest just come. Because I I've said this to anybody who's talked to me about it or asked me for advice on marathon. Gun skills are great, your ability, great comms, or what win fights?

SPEAKER_01 1:57:06

All right, love it, dude. Great feedback. Batman, with the cradle nerf in mind in it being a hot topic right now in the community. Do you think a player's raw mechanical skill can overcome a gap in cradle stats, or do you feel the grind is mandatory to stay competitive?

SPEAKER_06 1:57:28

Um, absolutely, someone can outplay me. It's happened multiple times. Um I absolutely agree with everything that phone just stated. Um, but I will say that I think it is very dependent on the shell that you're using. Ah, okay. Okay, okay. Because, you know, he stated that you know the heat is really good for Vandal and Destroyer. The only one that I don't have filled out right now, which I should honestly probably change when I'm playing as recon, is the getting your ult faster. So re the recharge category. Yeah. Um, but what I have right now, um, especially since I was playing sponsored a lot, I was playing triage because healing is so important in sponsored. That gray shield is abysmal, you barely feel it. Um, and I don't want to have to carry so many healing uh items because you're not guaranteed to even get a green backpack, so you might not have space to carry the things that you out. Um and the you know, being able to use your consumables quicker was really, really good for that. Um and then even in the PvP, like as playing as triage, if I run up and I heal somebody or like res them, it's much faster as triage because his res speed is higher to begin with. Um and the perk where they have a little bit of extra health when you res them is also really nice. Sometimes that can save you in a fight. One less heal that you had to take, so you're back in the fight faster.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:37

Great um, great feedback.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:40

Keep going, I can tell you keep going. Yeah, I don't think it's mandatory. Um I wanted to get it done so that I could focus on gathering things later on in the game without having to worry about giving stuff to the worms. That was really my only goal with it getting done. Um now me having nothing in my vault and going into a game with a free kit. Um I felt it as I was progressing through the sponsored. You know, every time I got a bump in my melee, I felt it. Um every time I got my uh the heat reduced, I felt it because I was able to run a little bit further. Um being able to cover more of the map in a run. But yeah, it's definitely I I would not say it is mutatory. Somebody that's got angle or knows their shell better, utilizes their equipment. Um, yeah, if they especially if they get a drop on you, yeah, I'm I'm dead to rights every time. Happens all the time.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:53

Great feedback, Bat. Um, I'm I'm fixing to ask Atlas the exact same question. I'm gonna throw in a little uh I'm I I I've something that went off in my mind. I'm gonna throw it in there real quick. Alluding to what Bat said, when you're doing your cradle system, especially for a cat for the casuals that you've only got so much to play with, think about what runner shell you're gonna be running, and you can at any time you can modify the the stats to what you feel benefits your runner shell the most. Atlas, we've been dealing with the cradle nerf. Do you think a player's raw mechanical skill can overcome a gap in cradle stats, or do you feel the grind is mandatory to stay competitive?

SPEAKER_00 2:01:45

I mean, obviously, gun skill is going to win every day, right? Um, the cradle offers a lot of what I would call macro benefits, right? So, yes, you can really put some stuff in there to heal your shields faster, right? You coming out, healing your shields faster in a 1v1 can make a difference, but there's nothing the cradle has that is going to help you in that moment of I'm shooting this person, they're shooting me. That's gun skill. Also, the cradle doesn't affect flanking, moving, positioning. This, the, I mean, once again, a smart player does not allow a fair fight. So, all that thing quality of life, but at the end of the day, how you play the setup beforehand, the ultimate um, you know, decisions you're gonna make in combat are way more important than what the cradle offers. Um, I also think there's a big learning lesson to be had. Like, you know, I wasn't asked the question earlier, but taking the cradle nerf, it's about the journey. And if you go through the cradle bit by bit, you will learn things about your play style, your skill, what you value that you won't get if you just max it out to 100 as fast as possible, right? Um, and this is nothing against bat to each their own, which is which is one of the fun parts of this game. But like I first said, I want to I want to maxim outstret the first chance I get. And I got to that first perk, which was really good. And then I started realizing at the time I was experimenting with Sentinel, and I was like, you know what? I actually do want some extra heat capacity because I can't sprint from my my fat ass from one POI to the other without getting heated, right? So I I dumped some stuff into there to level that up. Then as I did that, I was like, you know what? Scab factory, now that I'm finally like no longer by myself playing solos, although I do play solos a lot still, I'll have a team. I want to be able to be down for longer without my team feeling they have to come get me because I'm bleeding out. I'm gonna pop three points in that first, right? If you're just getting super fast, like we were in the beginning, where you bump up all that quick, you don't learn those things about your journey in which you want and you don't want. So I think there's a journey to be had in the cradle. I think it only happens when you go up five points at a time, play for a while, having to decide where to put those points. Um, but at the end of the day, I don't think it's gonna the difference the cradle makes would have to be such a high level of play with players of such equal skill on equal footing, and the same that doesn't happen in the real world, right? Um, there's gonna be more variants in that, but at the end of the day, it's it's who position themselves better for the combat that's gonna win. And the cradle's more quality of life improvements than anything else, really. Like, I don't sit there and go, man, if I have 10 more points and recharge, that match was mine.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:30

And I don't think anyone argued. Mm-hmm. Great feedback from all three of you. And um I am in uh in in uh I'm about to make it unanimous. I also agree with y'all. I just wanted y'all to talk first before I said anything. I love the cradle. Uh, it's been fun for me. Uh it's been I have four bars filled up at this current time, and then I've got like I have strength maxed, dexterity maxed, endurance maxed, and resistance stacked uh maxed at this time. They are nice. It's a good, it's it's it's some good barbecues. The the perks are nice, and I I I also am in agreement with them. I think the two I would notice the most is strength and probably then endurance. So for our people, our listeners that don't have a lot of time and you need help and advice on what what should, especially with these nerfs that's came in, what should I prioritize? I think we've all kind of agreed here, and it's ultimately pick your poison. Our word is not the end all be all. Do what you feel you what you think is right. We we really like strength, we really like endurance. That's probably where we feel the most, but you may feel different. You may main recon and you may want that recharge stat max so you can get to your prime faster. So it's to each one's own. But I it it has been a pretty unanimous, it's been unanimous feedback that the cradle is not gonna save you from a bad decision. The cradle's not gonna save you from you, you, you rounded the corner and somebody catches angle on you with an M77, you're done. Um decisions, gunplay, communication is still king. With all this being said, don't let to our people, don't let maybe the drama that's going on right now with uh even though I don't and I stated earlier in the episode I'm not crazy about the nerfs that bungee's made. Y'all have all heard it, what we've been talking about the last 20 minutes. It's not like it's not the end-all be-all if you don't have as much invested in the cradle system. Your decisions, your gunplay, your communication with your team, those are is gonna be the ultimate thing that that helps you with X Fils and helps you to come out on top. So don't get too don't get down and don't get too caught up in, oh my gosh, like I'm behind on the cradle. It will come. Guess what, everybody? It's June, it's June 19th, 2026. Um, we got time. We still got time. We're not even a month in, and I'm just kind of taking the path. I'm slowly progressing it, but that's the beautiful thing. We've all had a little bit different answers. Like Bat had fun with it and absolutely prioritized it. But us three, we've all took a little bit different approach to it. But that's the beauty of the game, you know. We've all kind of are getting to have our fun in our own way. Moral of the story. We were all unanimous on don't get too too caught up caught up in the cradle drama because ultimately it ain't gonna save you from the gold misrayah. All right, my gosh, what a freaking good episode this has been. Like, I literally like just want to keep asking you guys questions and questions of questions. I'm gonna ask, I'll tell you what, um, this has been such a great episode. This is episode 10. Yeah, uh, I like your the the compliments, Atlas. You've said like kind of behind stage. Like, hey, most people don't even make it to making a podcast. Let alone you can probably take it further. A lot of people probably don't even make it to episode 10 in their vision and their project with their podcast they was trying to do. So just the fact that we're sitting here now, these relationships we've developed for our love from this game, making it to 10 episodes in of running out of breath is something really to be proud of. And I appreciate all three of y'all and all of our listeners for supporting this podcast and me and being with me on this journey. Just thank you all so much for that. I think this is a really good final question for all three of y'all before we wrap this up and we talk about where the people can find this. True Batman 44, 44, the man that meant the legend. In what areas of your gameplay do you feel you have grown the most from season one to season two? What areas do you feel still needs improvement? What areas do you feel you're sh you're you you're strong in?

SPEAKER_06 2:09:40

From season one to season two, I would say that one of the things that I've learned to grow in would probably be um prioritization. Uh like when I was doing Dire Marsh sponsored night, I was hitting contracts really hard. Um and as soon as it switched to perimeter, I I really started focusing more on my cradle just because I couldn't do any more contracts, so I switched it and I said, okay, I gotta work on this. Unfortunately, you know, that has put me in kind of a position which I did it, it's my fault. Um I'm I'm not as strong in the PvP so far this season, strictly because I've basically been in sponsored for two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:45

Right.

SPEAKER_06 2:10:46

Um I want now that I have that completed, um, I'm going for profiteer. And once that's done, it's it's gonna be contracts and um gunplay. So I I'm hoping that these guys stick with me while I relearn the game.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:09

Uh little while you're you're you're on a tight tight leash, but you know, keeping receipts, you know, go, well, hey, he died here, you know.

SPEAKER_06 2:11:20

I'm not in a good running for tonight, I can tell you that much. But yeah, no, it's it's been a long kind of journey, and I I'm excited to see where it's going, you know, what the community brings, what Bungie puts out. Um, and I'm excited to keep like learning the new weapons and getting better with the new meta shifts. Uh I I I've definitely noticed like more weapons drop that didn't before, and less drops from ones that were from the previous. season. So that it's really interesting how much it's changed the gameplay. And I still think I'm kind of in the mode of like season one. So it's like I go into a fight and I'm still like okay it's season one. They're gonna have this, this, and this. Well that's not the case anymore. So I I gotta work on that myself. And I've got to stop flanking so much.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:25

Awesome man. Hey that's great feedback. And guess what man? Um so sure it took a lot of time to max out the cradle, but guess what? You're there. You've maxed it out. You're done. And now you can put your head down and you can start grinding and building your PvP back up. And you can start, you know, iron sharpens iron and you can get back and you know where you're just bad to the bone that I know you're capable of. And don't be so down you had I mean the other night we played and like you absolutely saved the fight for us. You absolutely won the mandatory 1v1 that needed to be win to decide if we go back to spawn or not. So you've all so you've had some great moments man and the other night where we had the infamous key room uh that that last game you played before you logged off you were on fire you had like three or four bodies so yeah man that's your but great everything you said though great feedback Atlas Forge sir in what areas of your gameplay do you feel you have grown the most from season one to season two? What areas do you feel you still need improvement in? What do you feel are your strengths?

SPEAKER_00 2:13:53

So obviously you can give you know map knowledge has improved gun skills improved but it happens with any game I'm playing more frequently so I'm focusing specifically on the things I think marathon does different right um as we talked about before you need to avoid fear. Confidence in the feel right and I think specifically this is triggered for me when I realized like I even still sometimes in buildings crouching is overuse and it can be a handicap sometimes. Like use it to sneak around to make less noise but at the end of the day if I can hear them they can hear me and crouching is not no noise it is just reduced noise. And sometimes it's that just sitting there think you're hidden and more and more I've dropped that move um to start moving quickly and effectively to eliminate a threat versus hoping I kind of maybe get to jump on them. Especially someone who doesn't play the assassin type right not my style um that has been a growth of mine that I've liked um next loot management that it's gonna happen with the game but still looting and loot management is a skill inside the world and at the menu right at your hub knowing what to pick up when to pick up where to put it what you want it how to organize it what to look for what perks you want what mods you want how to keep those that is a skill that is something you've got to hone and I think a lot of people want to complain about loot systems and stuff and not realize it is another challenge for you to learn overcome knock down and improve about and I've definitely learned all the tricks by playing over and over again and finding out what I like and what I don't like what guns to look for. Try all the guns in the beginning but then you realize hey look this this this overlook no one wants that that's that's bad. Let's just go ahead and put it right to the cradle that's the best call for that kind of gun. So you just these things right here you got to really learn from experience um and then lastly which something people a lot of people don't talk about and this only happened once they had the push to talk active in my opinion social gaming like learning to pick up on social cues in the game for hey do I want to team up with this runner? Can me and this solo help each other out hey is this person gonna shoot me as soon as they turn around I should kill them the social skills in this game are there that's not in other shooters like this right Arc Raiders has it. But even here it's definitely a lot more on that razor's edge and it's a fun thing to learn to navigate and it's also something I've seen people like drop these kind of games because they don't like that moral dilemma that causes them to hesitate and to get in to get killed. So learning when to talk to people how to talk to people that aren't on your team and making friends and connections out like sometimes the best thing on a run the best way to survive and extract isn't to shoot someone it's to actually realize they weren't a threat to begin with because then you have a buddy and then now that makes sure you it's easier for you to get your way out of right that's more from my solo experience than from teams but still it is something that was a fun skill to learn and to not have it mastered it yet but I definitely am a lot better than I was in the beginning. That's the stuff that I have grown from season one to season two. Stuff I need to work on that I'm still working on um team fighting coming mostly from solos right it's easy it's almost easier to say it's me versus the entire lobby handling it as a 1v1v1 and going learning to fight on a team is still difficult for me. And most notably it's knowing how you can trust your teammates how to like read what they're doing as well as you reading your enemies oh man yeah because it once again it's not just oh like he tells me he's over there like no sometimes you got to be able to look at them know what they're doing and instinctively do that. Sometimes it only comes with playing with them but other times no you got to be able to read them so that is something I'm still learning to do. And then honestly this is gonna sound weird but power weapon skill right so any of those weapons that really put people down in one to two shots I do not use enough. Like I've always been a primary gunfighter and more and more I need to I need to dig into that vault deep and bring snipers and shotguns more to use more on the field and railguns. I think railguns have a great place but my power weapon skill is not as great as my primary weapon skill if you excuse my my destiny terminology there. So that is something I really need to work into flex on because I think I think in the end you need to go with a primary weapon but then you need that equalizer that helps you do that 2v1 that 3v1 that knocks someone down before they can react um I need to work on that as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:28

Awesome absolutely amazing feedback and I really by the way it's been it it has been a pleasure to get to know you and I'm so happy you run games with us I'm so happy you're you were I'm so happy you reached out to us and it has turned into this I look forward for to more adventures and journeys with you and us growing as friends and us growing as as teammates together to get better at this. I like how you said like solos is a different dynamic from team fighting because in solos it's that 1v1 baby and and it you you know you you you can control you know you I'm having trouble finding the words but you y'all know what I'm picking y'all y'all know what I'm pitching like it's just you and that guy and you control the elements or at least on your side right you control the elements on your side with what you do but team fighting is different there's a lot more going on and it's clearly something we are refin we are refining and trying to get better as as a group here because like I feel like I am still making decisions that's putting the team in a bad position so I think I'm will continue to dive in the tape and watch how Fallen plays watch the decisions he's making watch Batman watch how he's taking fights what is he thinking when we get into these engagements watch Atlas how is he approaching fights how can I enable that I I'm a cheerleader. Y'all I I'll throw my man card out the window right now I'm a supporter I'm an enabler and I'm a cheerleader and I love to see my people succeed and what can I what can Old Town South do to help Batman Atlas and Fallen succeed and be better players and what can I do to help them pop off. So I think that's somewhere I like I want to grow and I like how you brought up like learning your teammates how do they fight how can we enable them I love that Fallen I will also say if I if I can interject this real quick as a shout out on the podcast is like I don't know how you guys do this as much I will say I if Bungie ever listens to this I think the Solos experience is a fantastic marathon experience.

SPEAKER_00 2:20:50

I think it's unique from the team I think it's the closest thing to a campaign mode you get right now. And I think personally rook adventures although they are they are they can be up there and be creative they do not hold a candle to the solos experience if you embrace that social side and the competitive side and once again if you like assassin play assassin but like not just hiding but actually like learning like that's how I built my confidence of is in solos right so to all the people out there who play solos that maybe are listening this know that I am with you. I I am a solos player I did all my contracts in season one as solos and it was one of the best and most rewarding experiences of my life getting those huge obstacles in front of me and knocking them down. So just as a shout out from AtlasForge to everyone out there I love solos I started as a solo player and I will continue to play this game solos because it is a different experience in the team experience in a good way amazing feedback.

SPEAKER_01 2:21:50

Love it love it love it Fallen in what areas of your gameplay do you feel you have grown the most from season one to season two?

SPEAKER_04 2:22:01

What areas do you feel you still need improvement with your game and what areas do you feel you're strong in um I guess improvement from season one to season two especially as we run more and more together because it's almost to the point where yeah I'll do crew fills but I kind of pardon my French but kind of half ass crew fills I mean I don't go in with an objective I just go in to collect bodies um when we go together that's when I actually you know I lean forward and you know actually start putting in the effort yeah but I think it's just trusting your teammates I think if you if you ran into me into me last season I was definitely that guy who was just like teammates are down sucks to be them I'll finish this now it's more like I see you are back go take it take an angle I'm like they don't need me I I don't have to worry about them I can go jump onto this roof and snipe someone that's trying to flank them and I don't have to worry about them. Yeah you may not win your gunfight every now every time but that's you're never you're never going to win your gunfight every time but I can already know like okay if I push this angle in cryo if I turn around Chase is behind me. I know it I don't even have to look at the map I know that he's behind me and I don't have to say anything or if bat wants to go on a flank and I can see him on my I see his arrow moving I'm like okay I know what he wants to do. I trust that he'll win his fight if not I'll be on our rooftop with a sniper rifle ready to back him up but I think that's also still an area to work on because like I said earlier today just voicing things you know like sure hey let's go here like well that may not be the best decision or hey if we like today like hey if we go there we're gonna get what we just did to another team they're gonna do to us. I think that that's an area that that's got to get worked on but that's also my personality like I was I was joking with I'm pretty sure it was bat I was joking with bat I was like man I really wish marathon would have a a setting to turn off the autofill when you extract because me and my social anxiety don't like sitting here with the people I just ran with but it's it's it's not my personality to be the most vocal person. Yeah um you piss me off that's different but um yeah so I think that's definitely area to uh build up a bit the irony fallen is that feature that the team stays in after an X Fill the irony in that is that's kind of what led you to us it yes it kept you in the lobby with me and bat and we were like oh he's still with us the rest is history yeah how about that well the difference for us is like you know like I said when we had that first match we were just trading back and forth we're just competing with the other team on who could revive more people the most but we were sitting there just cracking jokes the entire time so that kind of changed the dynamics I was like okay these guys are cool I'll roll with these goobers I think old old town can probably speak on this there were multiple runs during season one that like he would talk to the other person and I just I'd stay muted because I couldn't stand talking to people yeah I mean I do it now so bad I felt so bad I mean we get out of a run and he's like man that guy was cool I'm like I'm so sorry I couldn't bring myself to do it I mean I think I think when we end up in a situation when the all three can't get on together and it's like either me and bat or be a chase I think to a degree you guys see that with me where it's just like like I know uh bat had hit me up the other day he was like I don't know if you're muted it's like oh no I knew I was muted I knew and you know that is one of the things like I I wish that duos was around more just in the case that like our third can't get on it'd be nice to just run with two of us and be like okay we're we're we got this like we don't have to deal with a third person which which I I agree with that instead of having duos be like on a rotating map I just wish it was permanent for every map because it would just make life a lot easier when we all can't be on together I mean and there it there are people saved us a few times Chase going into trios just the two of us recently yeah boy boy wouldn't it have people suffer from social anxiety I mean my brother does that's why he doesn't talk anything so just for for that purpose like that would be a nice feature to have so hey great everybody great freaking feedback I had a feeling I had a feeling this would be a banger episode tonight and boy it did not disappoint.

SPEAKER_01 2:27:33

So I hope our listeners enjoy this episode just as much as I have when Voll I I gotta say this real quick I'm kind of squirreling right here but when he was like man when I when I crew Phil I just see red I just see him bodies and I when it when he said that in my head I was just sitting there thinking let the bodies let the bodies dude that song just started going off no baby everybody dies everybody dies oh man that's right I had to say that because I was just the that that metal song would just start went off in my head when you talk about dropping bodies oh gosh this game dude um we're just I'm having a great time man and the the solo queue mode the the the the sponsored kit is my and I've enjoyed that and that has brought me a lot of great gear and re much needed resource and I'm so happy they did that but I've learned something from that mode um when I was playing that mode and there was a time where I was it I was in there with that I was grinding it grinding it grinding it grinding it and it made me realize real quickly like how much I was missing PvP when I was grinding that mode and it and I kind of had that light bulb moment of I learned what I really love about this game is I love the stories and I love the interactions but I just I love the PvP in this game and I love the gunplay. I love the thrill the journey of are we gonna beat this team and if we do it to get their stuff and okay what's going to happen next man like I don't think I've just ever played a game where we can break each game down and just make a story out of it. It's truly something special and uh and I love it. So uh this is another thing um I'm gonna say this right now we've talked a little bit about you know people maybe having a little bit of some social anxiety and some and I've gotten some fan mail people saying like hey I need some people to play with and y'all tonight have heard these fine gentlemen talk about how there's nights where we don't have a third that we're talking about the duos mode and everything. So I'm gonna put this out there to everybody if you uh we're not hard people to get off I'm gonna share mine it is totally optional if these three gentlemen want to share theirs not I told them in the Discord that is up to them. But um I am noticing uh you know there's you know we've all we've got obligations and sometimes we're on at different times we're working we're doing this we're doing that and we still find ourselves in situations where we need a third uh you know we need we just need that one more person so I tell for all of our listeners if you are ever interested in coming and playing with us and joining our group and joining all on these adventures and stories do me a favor this is my bungee tag that you can go in the game right now or whenever you're available type this in and friend request me this is old underscore town south hashtag 8498 that is old underscore town south hashtag 8498 feel free to friend me um I will accept it uh never obviously a guarantee because some nights we do have the party filled but we will always try to rotate you in feel feel free to don't be shy don't be shy to shoot me an invite so I put that out there to all of our people this has been an amazing episode um would any of you three I'm gonna totally leave it up to y'all would any of you three like to share your bungee tag with any of our listeners um you can get me at fallen f a l i n hashtag 7319 all right sounds like a winner Batman would you like to share yours yeah mine is uh true Batman the T and the B are both capital uh 444 hashtag 9686 wonderful just just give me a moment to like talk with you first so that I can get like in a mindset so he's gotta pick up what you're throwing down you know he's got he's gotta feel you mouth gotta be a vibe but that's awesome and that hey and that is true you know at the end of the day it does have to be a vibe but definitely everybody who wants to don't be afraid to defriend us. So uh Atlas totally up to you if you were afraid to say at me answer this question Atlas would you like to share your bungee tag sure I got uh find me anytime um it's gonna be Atlas spaced forged uh hashtag 5448 Atlas spaceforged f-o-r-g e d hashtag 5448 heck um bring me send me a message let me know you know uh if someone once great said you know let me know you're from the podcast it would really make my you know just everything so awesome about life yes come on keep going keep going that would be cool though if y'all got messages hey I'm from the podcast uh I'd like to play with you sometime that would be that that would be that'd be awesome all you listeners I'll be the cheerleader I'm not the host of the running out of uh breath podcast right I'm just the number one fan so you guys deserve to have play because you guys took me in gave me some place to call home and it feels it feels really good because the marathon community is great but it's still hard to connect absolutely play with these guys you love it that's what we aim uh that's what we aim to be yeah one of uh we talking about strengths and areas of proof I will say I'll I won't draw this out too long but one of my strengths is I can talk to lots of different types of people uh I'm a really easy guy I'm a really easy guy to get along with um so yo that's why I put my bungee tag out there um Love to get to know you. If if if our solo players out there that are struggling to have people to play with, I'm gonna open my door to you. So feel free to what I said earlier. Uh feel free to friend me on there. It's that time, gentlemen. Batman, we talked about bungee tags, but where else can all of our fine listeners find the dark night at?

SPEAKER_06 2:34:23

You can find me on Twitch. Yeah! Um same name, true Batman4444. Um, I I'm not gonna set this in stone, but there may be a day sometime in the future where I try to start doing some TikToks as well of gameplay. Um, I might even set up a YouTube just to throw it out there, see what lands. Um, but the biggest thing is the podcast. Um, this is where you're gonna hear me the most. Um and if I think I said this in the last one, if you ever have a personal message for me, I think the easiest way would probably be through Old Town. Um, and he will get those to me. So I appreciate everybody listening, and hopefully this continues. Great episode 10. We made it.

SPEAKER_01 2:35:18

Woohoo! Woo! Yes! This is just awesome. Uh, everybody, I'm gonna add just a little bit to what he said. You can also whisper him. I bet my LP does you can also whisper him on Twitch if you would like to get in contact with Batman 4444. One last question for you, Bat. When when do you normally go live? Or roughly?

SPEAKER_06 2:35:44

Um, I don't have like a set schedule. Some days I get home and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna stream. Um, but typically, if I'm not on call for work, um, I try to stream on the weekends. Uh I I typically kind of do it in tandem with uh old town and fallen. Um that way if you want, you can flip between them and get different points of views. Um, you know, maybe somebody wants to watch um Fallen's over mine or uh Old Towns over mine, or maybe you just want to see how not to play the game and you love it, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:36:26

Love it. And he he brought up a really good point. A lot of times when he's live, I'm live, Fallen's live, we're all usually live. So usually if you see one of us live, there might be a solid chance the uh the I'm live and fallen's live and etc. etc. So I'm glad you added that in there. Everybody go follow true Batman 4444 on Twitch. The Fallen, not Fallen 31, the Fallen, where can people find you, brother?

SPEAKER_02 2:36:58

I'll I that I'll never live that always gonna stick with me. Oh my god, is that is that the fallen that was awesome, that was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 2:37:09

Um, yeah, you can get me on uh YouTube and Twitch at Fallen31. Um you can find me through uh O Towns uh TikToks, and if you want to get at me directly, you can get me on Instagram at fallen underscore GT.

SPEAKER_01 2:37:32

Heck yeah, dude. That's what I'm talking about. You've been hitting the uh I I've noticed an it uh an uptick with you and the YouTube. You've been posting more videos, you're even diving into shorts, so yeah. You've uh you've been you've I've noticed you've been hitting it harder. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 2:37:48

That's got a couple shorts at a thousand views, a couple that are breaking a thousand. So let's go.

SPEAKER_01 2:37:54

That's something to clap up. Let's go. Ws W views. W views.

SPEAKER_02 2:38:01

Yes, W following the the videos.

SPEAKER_01 2:38:03

Let's go. Atlas, is there anything you would like to flex? Any way people to contact you? Any in any way that you would like to any way people can reach out, our listeners can reach out to you.

SPEAKER_00 2:38:15

Yeah. Um, once again, I don't have anything ongoing in terms of uh Twitch, but I tell you what, if I get someone that askes me to stream, I'll start streaming. I usually only do it to watch my feedback. Um, but both on Twitch and um Twitter, uh you can find me at at AtlasForged one word. So instead of the space, just one word. Um once again, you you look up an Atlas Forge somewhere, it's probably me. There, uh I'm I'm uh I have a pretty unique name, so no numbers needed.

SPEAKER_01 2:38:44

Okay, great, good job. Everybody, definitely go uh for what he said, go check out Atlas. Every for our listeners, I'm talking to you directly right now. All three of these guys are studs, stand-up dudes. It would be a you would you're you're in for a good time if you play with any of these three. So they have my stamp of approval. So definitely the platforms that they said you can find them on, please go check them out. I am your host, old town south. You can find me on Twitch at Old Underscore Town South. It's a picture of me, my sunglasses, and my poodle. You can't miss it. You can find me on the tiki talkie, old underscore town south. Yeah, I've been posting a lot of shorts on there, and I've been having a blast making videos there. You can find me on YouTube, Old Underscore Town South. Guys, uh just thank you. We we have made it. We did it to episode 10. I could go on and on. This has been a banger episode. Thank you, three, for taking time out of your day, taking time out of your gaming time, your precious time to do this with me. Can't thank y'all enough. And all of our listeners, thank y'all so much. The podcast is growing and it's growing. Like, we've got I this whole other conversation. Ain't gonna get into it. But like we got it, we got some episodes, fellas, that's almost at a hundred downloads. Like, this thing's growing, baby. Uh, that and it just brings almost a tear to my eye to see how this thing's developing and growing. And every time I get something that says you've got fan mail, I'm like, what? Like the fan mail, please guys could keep that coming. Keep the fan mail coming in. Don't be shy to reach out to us. Get y'all's butts over on our YouTube, get y'all's butts over in our Twitch. Come. It's a vibe. Come hang out with us and watch all these experiences live. This is Old Town South, and this has been episode 10 of Running Out of Breath. You guys are awesome. We love y'all so much, and we will see you soon on the next one. Stay classy, everybody.