Marauders News

Tech Test | Times & Patch Notes

[h3]🛠 Day 1: [/h3]

The Technical Testing will be starting today at 16:30pm and will end at 02:00am BST.
Anyone who pre-orders the game or has previously done so can participate in all tests!

The tech test's main focus is to iterate and improve the stability of our backend systems, this is to tackle any progression/save issues that occurred in the Beta playtest. That being said, we will continue to address any of these issues, so please reach out to our Discord if you have any.

[h3]Outside of hundreds of fixes and changes, here is a summary change list:
[/h3]

New Backend/Database System
Exploit Fixes
Crew Stability/Lobby System
Item/Inventory Stability
Received Hit Effects Enhanced
24 Campaign Missions (Over 40 built for EA launch)
Recoil Rework & Vertical Camera Improvements
Melee Improvements (Now deadly and has headshot multipliers, Machete one tap…)
Ballistic Shields (Small and Large)
Frigate Rebalance (Speed has been “Squeezed” )
Pod Rebalance (faster longer boost but longer recharge. Pod also has larger collision)
Additional Cosmetics
Enhanced Main Menu Sounds (Item moving, scrapping sounds per material)
Additional Recipes (Hi-Grade Gunpowder and 7.62 Ammo)
Recipe Cost Re-balance
Depot Areas (Spaceport and Asteroid Mine)
Flamethrower BUFFFFFFFF

During these testing periods, we will be introducing new content to be demonstrated depending on their stability, so keep your eyes peeled for further announcements.

[h3]Bigger known Issues:[/h3]

Crew Voip is currently not supported in our new backend, hopefully this will return before EA launch.
Additional QoL has not yet been introduced, this is planned for Early Access launch but please feel free to leave feedback/ideas in our Discord.

Marauders early access launch includes 80 hours of mission content

When you're trying your hardest to be the Blackbeard of space, sometimes you'll need to go a little off the beaten track to complete your zero to hero path. Well, that's exactly what Small Impact Games is trying to encourage with its new upcoming Marauders missions.

The missions, which were first introduced in the last closed beta run, added more depth to the extraction looter shooter game, forcing players to use different weapons or loot a specific location. However, with the beta racking up more than two million games in just five days, players were quickly running out of things to do, meaning they often got stuck into a cycle, raiding maps without any real mission to focus on.

However, Small Impact Games is looking to tackle that once the game launches in early access in October, with lead developers James Rowbotham and Cameron Small telling The Loadout exclusively that there'll be 40 missions for players to enjoy. In total, this will take around 80 hours to complete.

Read the rest of the story...

Marauders new prison map was influenced by board games and Half Life 2

When you think about a prison ship floating in space, you might well think of Mass Effect or Disney's The Mandalorian. However, while Small Impact Games has certainly done its research for its upcoming content drop, its Penal Colony map actually took its inspiration from somewhere quite different indeed.

The Penal Colony, which will drop in early access along with the Navy Outpost, is technically a love letter to Aliens 3, Half Life 2, and Dust Tactics - an old board game which game designers Cameron Small and James Rowbotham say helped establish the Dieselpunk genre.

"The prison was definitely influenced by Aliens 3 and there's a Half Life 2 Nova Prospekt feel to it too," Small tells The Loadout. "But this is more of a love letter to a board game called Dust Tactics, which basically helped establish the Dieselpunk genre for a lot of people. The game had these amazing walkers - they basically took a Sherman or a Panzer tank and stuck legs on them and it just looked so badass."

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Technical Test Period | Info & Dates

Hi everyone,

You may have seen the recent news that Marauders is launching into Steam Early Access in October 2022. To prepare for our release, we’ve decided to hold a series of limited-time technical tests that will take place on Steam next month, 6th-14th September.

The technical test period will be comprised of a series of limited-time play tests (we estimate about 5-6 hours apiece), to allow us to test certain systems we’ve added to the game
Anyone who has previously or does pre-order the game can participate in all tests
We will be announcing the technical test times the day before they go live, so keep an eye on our social channels to see when you can jump into each test
Your gear may or may not reset between tests depending on what systems we’re changing
We may announce specific objectives beforehand, where we ask you to use certain items or weapons in the game, to help with testing
Please leave any feedback/bug reporting in our Discord, channel called ‘#Bug-Reports’

During these technical tests, as we are testing a lot of backend systems, you may encounter bugs and issues throughout each session. If so, we ask you to report this to us on the Discord as every small piece of feedback helps and will go towards helping make the game the best it can be at early access release. We appreciate your patience and support throughout this period.

Closed Beta Wrap-up

[h3]Hello, everyone! [/h3]

It’s been a few weeks since the Marauders Closed Beta and our whirlwind time at TwitchCon. Now that the dust has settled, we’re excited to check in with our community to recap the beta and fill you in on what’s coming next.

[h3]Closed Beta Lessons
[/h3]
First things first, we want to thank everyone for their patience when the beta had a little bit of trouble blasting off. We continue to be blown away by the patience and camaraderie of our community when we needed a bit of extra time. We’re a small team and making and executing a game of this scope isn’t always easy. Your support didn’t fall on deaf ears and we hope the extra time we added to the beta made up for the hiccups.

As for what we took from the beta, our team used the this time to take note of the response to the tweaks and fixes made since the alpha while also introducing brand-new content to the game.

The new major changes, such as the matchmaking, linear contract missions, and audio alterations seem to have been well received, and we are thrilled that everyone sees and is enjoying the improvements.

However, as most of you know, we immediately noticed players were experiencing server kicks and progression blockers even though this had been fairly stable in Alpha. This was a large problem we had to solve and we once again, we’d like to thank everyone for their patience as we attempted to do so. Ultimately, we are taking the opportunity to investigate these systems and deploying additional solutions so future fixes can be done within our own eco-system rather than purely relying on external ones.

This means additional testing is required to guarantee stability before launching so watch this space.

[h3]What’s Next
[/h3]
Outside the obvious issue testing, the beta was also incredibly useful since players gave us a wealth of amazing feedback on things they would like to see in the game. Here is just a few changes and additions we expect to make before launch:

New levels
New loot
New missions
New cosmetics
Pod and frigate speed rebalance (faster rust bucket)
Top-tier gear rarity
Terraformer vault loot increase
Recoil rebalance

We are happy with the core loop of the game, but seeing the response on gameplay depth is something we couldn’t agree more with. Going forward, we will be adding extra layers to the game to keep the action intense for longer play sessions without compromising the game’s style.

In conclusion, we were floored by the response and we’d like to give another huge thank you to everyone who played..

If you want to keep up with what’s happening, the best place is our Discord and social media channels as here, we’ll be posting anything new between now and early access launch. Links below!

Main site: www.marauders.game
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Team17Ltd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayMarauders
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlayMarauders/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/team17ltd/
Discord: https://discord.gg/pXSDWuEfHA

[h3]Wishlist Marauders
[/h3]https://store.steampowered.com/app/1789480/Marauders/