Marauders News

Welcome Marauders, to our first public test! or “P.T.E” (Playable Test Environment)



Everyone who owns Marauders can play this early test build now. Access it by right-clicking Marauders in your Steam Library, clicking properties then the going to the Betas tab. In this menu use the drop down list to choose “marauders_pte” to begin downloading the build. You may have to restart Steam for it to appear in the list.

This first P.T.E will be running until Tuesday night (UTC) however this may change depending on how certain mechanics function. For example we may need to disable it early to fix issues or leave it running longer to test efficiently. Whatever happens we will make sure to let the community know of this activity.

The main goal of this P.T.E. is to test the stability of the new UI/Friends Overhaul and the Guilds mechanics. So please take a look around and thoroughly explore these features. Please relay any feedback or bugs found to our Discord channels with the PTE tag (bugs and feedback are separate channels).

IMPORTANT NOTE:- Raid locations Planet Killer Base and Colony Cruiser are not in this P.T.E.





Guilds
First pass on the main feature of this upcoming update. You will be able to create a guild (by being level 10 and having 100k credits) and have others join for free at any level. Guild captains (the creator) can provide a name, and select with guild patch design they wish, this will be visible on certain parts of cosmetics and gear for all guild members.

You will also have access to a guild chat, guild hideout, guild trader and of course, the hideout (of which some of these features are tied to progression when extracting with an enemy guild’s patch).

You will have “Freebooter” status if you are not from a guild or have mixed guild members within your crew. This means you will not bring in a lootable guild patch and any enemy guild patches extracted will be void. Each patch is worth 1 point for your guild. Raider mode currently assigns the “Freebooter” status.

Trader Refactor
Faction traders are no longer on rotation and are always available however the C.E., U.A. and K.A. traders require your faction XP to be level 1 to access. The Pirate faction is unlocked from the start and has a 40% reduction in cost. The guild trader is unlocked when joining a guild.

Available items in these shops have been re-shuffled with certain items removed, this is not final but each faction trader will have their inventory belonging to a theme, such as Captain Wolff (C.E.) being high damage and armor, Major Rosie (U.A.) being medical and military supplies and Overlord (K.A.) being special weapons.

Main Menu UI Overhaul
We have reworked a good chunk of the main menu UI to incorporate the new mechanics that are coming with the full Guilds Update. Some of the notable larger changes include:
Reorganising things to help make the menu more unified and flow better
Implementing the new UI for the guild and friends systems
Changing the way you crew up to be more simple and require less going into and out of menus
Adding crew text chat
Expanding the shopkeeper UI so you can now access multiple shops
You will notice in this P.T.E that the UI is still placeholder and WIP (work in progress) in places. We want to make sure we get the flow and feel right first and then we will phase out the placeholders. We are looking forward to getting these changes into your hands and hearing your thoughts to help us feel out any pain points, issues and help make it all more sturdy.

Grease Gun
A submachine gun chambered in .45 that deals higher damage than its other SMG counterparts and has a tighter hip firing spread however it does suffer from a slower fire rate so make sure you have the drop on someone before “letting it rip”. This weapon can be found in most locations including its stock and suppressor however when the update officially drops it can be found on certain U.A. Marines.

Raid Attachments
14 additional attachments have been added including a major new feature that allows you to attach and detach these items in raid (whilst the weapon is equipped), alongside a large rebalance on the amount of attachments that can be found in raid. This gives a breath of fresh air to playstyles and looting in the game.

Shotgun BUFF
We wanted to put these weapons into the Meta during the P.T.E. to see how it lands. Currently they all deal the same amount of damage but only vary in spread. We personally really enjoy their new power (especially against low tier armored targets) but want to make sure we don't have another “terminator” situation on our hands. This also includes the introduction of the Heavy liberator that can be found in vaults so let us know what you think!

Raider Mode V2.0
Planet Killer Base will be included in the Raider Mode map rotation for when the guilds update official drops, however in this PTE it only includes the Terraformer raid area. This mode now has an increased player count and has NPCs added. This edit is to provide players with a larger playspace and opportunity to “win big” by going for NPCs kits.

Here is additional patch notes that we help would be helpful to test/look out for (subject to change for when “Guilds” officially launches):

• Klobb is now a .32 acp weapon
  
• Reduced exit gate timer to 5 minutes
  
• 2x Basic Supply Drops for marauder starting gear
  
• Bandages and First Aid Kits now heal more (around 20 to 40%) and the Large First Aid heals pain (10) on top of around 85 health
  
• Lockers now mainly have bags, helmets and armour including the new “large locker” found in vaults
  
• Green containers now only contain weapon orientated items included the vault variation
  
• Industrial toolbox containers have a higher chance of large scrap items
  
• Added hanging pressure suits lootables which provide valuables
  
• Less valuables are within individual lootables however more lootables are in each raid
  
• New recipe blueprints for the Klobb, Mat49 and M45k attachments
  
• Bandit head and body cosmetic
  
• Navy Outpost pod locations have been moved to the gun and rocket decks with additional level reworks
  
• All raids have had a large increase in containers
  
• Rebalance to which recipes unlock with new ones added and old ones removed (Klobb attachments for example)
  
• Calico is now the guild trader, the new character “Graybeard” is the pirate faction trader
  
• Added a female American female voice
  
• Ammo counter on the HUD is now more visual
  
• Updated shooting sounds for the PPSH, Uzi and Thompson
  

Thanks again for everyone's patience we hope this new P.T.E will give the guilds update a smoother launch that should be just around the corner depending on how it performs.

Any issues found or suggestions made through our discord channels is greatly appreciated!

See you space pirates…

S.I.G.

Good Day Marauders!



We will be looking to launch the PTE before the end of Tomorrow! (Friday the 1st December 2023).

Here is a tease into some features that will be included in this public test;

• Create a Guild (for the low cost of being level 10 and 100k credits)
  
• Players can join guilds at any level and for free (up to 50 players)
  
• Guild hideout (enter your private base at any time with your fellow guild members)
  
• Guild Progression (level up the guild trader “Calico” and the guide hideout)
  
• Shotgun BUFF (all shotguns have 12 pellets which do 16 damage, they just vary in spread)
  
• 5 Minute Gate timer
  
• UI Overhaul and friends system
  
• Bandage and First Aids heal more, Large first aid heals an additional health burn amount
  
• Attachments that can be removed and added to weaponry in raid
  
• Loot balance overhaul (lots more lootables including attachments that can be found “loose” in raid)
  
• Faction Trader Refactor (no longer relies on rotation, certain factions will be unlocked at level 1. The pirate faction provides 40% discount as default)
  
• Raider Mode V 2.0 (Now includes NPCs on bigger maps)
  

Further details will be posted when the PTE drops tomorrow including how to access it and what are the specific goals of the test.

See you soon Marauders

[h3]Good day Marauders [/h3]

We apologize for the lack of communication recently, however, we are undergoing a restructure which affects development, community support and how we deliver updates. Unfortunately we still do not have a set date for the ‘Guilds’ patch however we would like to take this opportunity to announce that we will soon be launching our first public testing branch (PTE).

This allows us to get the update into your hands sooner and help with the current restructuring process, we have high hopes it will become the norm for future large updates and provide a smoother feedback process (hopefully avoid any drastically disliked balance changes in the main branch)
The PTE will become a separate available title in your steam library and provide players a new separate account to experiment with.

This confirms there will be a wipe for “guilds” in order to make sure this new functionality works for when the update officially deploys (after PTE completion) , so feel free to use this early notification to start blitzing through your stash!

[h3]Guilds[/h3]

We would like to take this opportunity to also tease more content coming to the “guilds” update.



[h3]Attachments Galore[/h3]

We will be adding another batch of attachments for weapons such as the klobb, M45k, Mat49 and Johnson this will bring our attachment item count to 60!



[h3]Guild Rep[/h3]

Certain armour and helmets will be displaying your future guild patch designs, even certain cosmetics display these badges on your shoulder. You can choose the guild icon, its primary and secondary colour resulting in thousands of possibilities.



[h3]Raider V2 [/h3]

Raider mode will now include NPCs, have an increase in player count and feature the new map, planet killer, in its rotation. (And of course more loot!)



[h3]Heavy liberator [/h3]

It will definitely become a meme but hopefully with the overall shotgun rebalance it could become your new favourite….




We hope to talk more closer to the launch of the update however keep your eyes peeled for the PTE announcement since it will be a great opportunity to experience the new content earlier
We thank everyone for your patience and we find ourselves extremely blessed with this incredible community!

See you space, pirates

[h3]SIG [/h3]

Welcome to another dev blog, this one is a little unique, focusing on research trips our team have completed in recent weeks that have proven more than fruitful. There are some secrets too for upcoming content… so make sure to look for clues!

Before we get started on the gathered research, we have two announcements.

[h2]Marauders Champion Tournament [/h2]

Our Marauders Champion tournament will start in the next few hours. As stated in previous blogs, this player-kill competition is a limited-time event that will normally last for a week. These competitions will usually happen once a month but may occur twice a month. This one will run a little longer - around 2 weeks - and have additional prizes alongside the exclusive nomad blood mask, so make sure to get in the top 100 to earn it.



[h2]Merch Store Updates[/h2]

The second announcement is that our merch store has been updated with two new items! We are extremely proud of our new Champion Space Nebula (tie-dye) ultra premium hoodie. The quality is unparalleled and will work wonders for the upcoming winter season. Our second item is an additional “F1” design, as requested the detail is on the front and displayed on another high-quality Champion product. We hope one of these newly created clothing pieces tickles your fancy.

Hoodie: https://marauders-shop.fourthwall.com/products/marauders-ultra-premium-hoodie


Long sleeve t-shirt: https://marauders-shop.fourthwall.com/products/marauders-premium-f1-long-sleeve-shirt

[h2]Research[/h2]

Now onto the field research. Our team has been exploring the U.K. in search of inspiration and references that can be used for Marauders. Since real-world engineering cannot be beaten for its badass aesthetic and brutal style, our research helps us design new environments, vehicles, and characters. It's no secret our spaceships look like armored tanks with booster engines, but this is mostly intentional!

First up is our trip to the “D-Day Story” in Portsmouth, England. This has a strong history for the World War 2 Allies, as a large number of forces set sail from this location during Operation Overlord to begin taking back France. This Museum is filled with elements to commemorate that day.

They have a fascinating range of equipment, everything from amphibious vehicles to secret documents, but it was great seeing such large landing craft up close, so we can appreciate the detail and effort that went into building them.



It was also a pleasant surprise to see the Denison jacket and paratrooper helmet worn by the British forces. As some of you will notice, we took inspiration from these elements for our very own S.A.S operatives.





Another recognisable item we found is the sea mine (which we retrofitted into a space-variant for Marauders). We noticed some interesting details that could definitely be applied to our version, such as strong central welding. The personnel landing craft behind it provided endless texture inspiration.





They also had the military documents for “Operation Neptune” which contained top-secret orders for the D-Day Normandy landings. It is an amazing piece of history and a great opportunity to analyze these items so we can accurately create our own versions of intel.



These are only a few highlights of what the museum contains so make sure to drop by if you are in the area!

The following week we visited The Tank Museum in Bovington, England. This took us by surprise as the wealth of world war weaponry on display was tremendous. I'm sure the team will agree that this was probably the most impressive collection we have ever seen. We had our work set out for us with over 500 photos taken and 40 minutes of footage, it proved to be more than useful.

You are welcomed by a tank that needs no introduction, the very same Sherman that took the cinema by storm in the movie “Fury.”





The tank is covered in unique and interesting details, they clearly knew how to dress a vehicle to make it special, almost like a character on its own. It gave us a tonne of ideas that we can use to spice up our own vehicles with going forward.





Alongside the tank, they had great pieces of memorabilia of the tank crew from the film, and in real life. We were especially in love with the tanker helmet, a real iconic piece of gear that will definitely be coming to Marauders in some sort of fashion. You may recognise Brad Pitt’s jacket from the film since we took inspiration for our very own U.A. commander concept art in our previous dev blog.



The Museum was filled with light tanks and reconnaissance vehicles, the more interesting ones were the Panzer 1, and the Guy and Daimler armored cars. All the bolts, paint and panels provide great ideas for our dieselpunk aesthetic







They have a wide range of world war nations. The Japanese WW2 tank crew equipment was especially useful for inspiration for a potential new faction coming to the game in the future.



The range of Great War British “Mark” tanks on display was immense and filled with loads of variants, crew uniforms, and fully explorable interiors. A personal favorite was the world's first APC, the “Mark IX”. Once again the details and texture reference was invaluable.









Even though this is just a slither of imagery gathered from our trip, we couldn't recommend it more. Research aside, it was an amazing experience and would rather not show too much so you can see it for yourself! We were fortunate enough to witness their “Tiger Day” event. Please excuse our rough edit but it works great as a tease of what they have to offer. You can watch our footage here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So make sure to plan your next excursion to The Tank Museum in Bovington. You won’t regret it!

We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into early research and development. We may do some more blogs like this in the future. For now, we are heads down building Guilds for our next update, so stay tuned for our progress coming soon.

Dash or Die Marauders

[h2]Welcome, Marauders. [/h2]

This is our final Plunder patch, as we head towards the next phase for Marauders: Guilds.



The next build will require three to four weeks of development, however, that doesn’t make this iteration any less special! We now have over 70 different weapons in the game, a great milestone! The addition of three new grenade types; fire, stick and impact bombs – has helped us achieve this. We will continue to produce and incorporate more weapons for the foreseeable future!

Another important addition is the recipe blueprint, helping players gain more access to Heavy MG42s and Thompsons by providing temporary crafting capabilities – this is a rare item that will make your heart pound!

Let’s get into the patch notes:



[h2]Fire Bomb[/h2]

A napalm filled grenade with a very short fuse (1 second). This device creates a devastating pool of fire that inflicts 6 damage per tick, if you’re unlucky enough to be caught in its wrath. The flames blaze for ~20 seconds, but you can thwart them sooner with a fire extinguisher. This weapon is suitable for temporarily impeding enemy advances and blocking flanking routes. No one likes to be blind sided.

These grenades can be found in the grenade boxes, as well as part of the pistol loot pool.

[h2]Impact Bomb[/h2]

This explosive will ignite as soon as it hits a surface (Marauders included) – dealing a hefty 90 damage with direct impact. However, has a fairly small radius and large fall off, giving it tighter concentrated power. Best to be accurate with your throws and become the victor.

[h2]Sticky Bomb[/h2]

A powerful counter to the heavy shields. This grenade has a strong adhesive; making it stick to most objects, even a Marauder. It deals around 85 damage, with a faster fuse of ~1 second – but boasts a larger radius than the other grenade types, making it useful to flush enemies around the corner.

[h2]Recipe Blueprints[/h2]

A new, very rare item type has been added to depots and hidden stashes. Once this item is in your stash, it temporarily unlocks a crafting recipe. Every craft reduces the item’s durability until it reaches zero. It will then be destroyed and removed from the crafting list automatically.

This can provide the holy grail of crafting options such as the Heavy MG-42, Barrel Bag and Dart Ammo, so make sure to keep an eye out for those depot tokens!

[h2]Ship Interior Expansions[/h2]

As we attempt to improve breaching balance; making it more dynamic and enjoyable – all ships have had their break point increased from 4 to 7 (excluding the Red Baron Strike Frigate).

This includes re-works of the ship interior maps with the Rustbucket and Scout frigate variants; granting them a much larger and vast play space. You will be able to flank from most breach point positions, and the cockpit can now enjoy multiple exits.

• Fire bomb
  
• Sticky bomb
  
• Impact bomb
  
• Grenade Crate/box
  
• Recipe Blueprint items (which can be found in hidden stashes or depots) these unlock recipes, every craft reduces their durability (they are also stackable):
  
• > - Heavy MG-42
  
• > - Heavy Thompson
  
• > - Heavy Shield
  
• > - Dart Ammo
  
• > - Krasa Suppressor
  
• > - Krasa Stock
  
• > - Krasa Mag
  
• > - Barrel Bag
  
• > - Trench Gun
  
• > - 1911 Government.
  
• > - SVT40 Drum Mag
  

• Rustbucket and the Scout Frigate variant interior maps has been increased
  
• Player capital ship now has new breaching areas (much like the stranded capital ship)
  
• Starter frigate interior map update
  
• Interceptor and Heavy frigate interiors now have new breaching areas.
  

• Rucketbucket and scout frigate now have 7 breach locations (up from 4)
  
• Spread no longer gets larger over time again for all weapons (back to Pre-Plunder)
  
• Spread only gets larger when jumping for all weapons.
  
• All interceptor, capital and heavy frigate variants now have 7 breach points (up from 4)
  
• Npc ships (scout and interceptor) now have 2 additional green containers onboard to loot.
  
• New grenades (sticky, impact and incendiary/flame bomb) now spawn on pistol spawner loot pools and inside grenade crates
  
• Recipe blueprint items can now be found in hidden stashes and depot lootables
  
• Long double barrel shotgun and the terminator shotgun now have around a 15% reduction in spread.
  

• Visuals for showing a recipe blueprint in the crafting UI
  
• Switched the order of the videos in the guide, so now the quick how to plays are first as they are more easy to digest
  

• Luger P08 now has 2 reloads one for empty mag and one for loaded mag (bullets remaining in mag on reload)
  
• Luger P08 bullet in mag is now hidden if your mag is empty when you reload
  

• Ambient sound pass on the Terraformer raid area
  
• Sound occlusion improvements to the Terraformer raid area
  

• Reduced the lights that spawn when using the Flamethrower (around 30 down to 3)
  
• LODs added to Luger P08 skel mesh
  
• All flame and fire effects have had their GPU cost reduced
  

• Explosive barrels can now be blow up by flamethrowers
  
• Collision improvements for gold and copper coins to prevent them falling through the floor when dropped. various fixes
  
• You can now pick up items that stack into full inventory rigs
  

Dash or Die, Marauders!

The SIG team