(NEW) Suggestions for Marathon (Attract new players) (QoL improvements)

Hello Bungie and Community. I hope that this post is able to be seen by all.

I'm very sorry but this is not a bug report. Its a couple of feature suggestions that will make Marathon Much Much better and also more attractive to new players

Background

I am Paradox, a long time bungie fan. My first ever bungie game was Halo CE and I absolutely loved Halo 3. So first I just want to say, Thank you. Thank you to the team at Bungie, past and present, also Thank You to the community for games like Destiny 1 & 2, Halo 1,2,3,odst,reach, and now Marathon. 

Meat & Potatoes

TOPIC 1 Marathon Hub world.

Now hear me out before you dismiss this one. I've seen the talk about a hub world similar to the tower from Destiny. I am here to suggest something different. Instead of having a hub with 60+ players. I wonder if it would be possible to take the lobby area (Seen in Season 2) and turn that into an optional mini hub world for a party of 3. 

What do I mean by optional? : Bungie, please let me know if this can be done; A button somewhere in the main menu, perhaps underneath the "Factions" button. That would allow the party leader to transition from the stationary menu (Shell standing doing the idle animations) into the hub world experience. And to be frank, I think that if this were to be added, This shouldn't be optional. this should just be the way the menu works. WHY? Keep reading and you'll see that this actually makes kit building easier for newer players while also making this slightly faster for experienced players. Win, Win. 

What could be in this hub world?: MAIN PULL; A physical vault room. Im suggesting a room that player can enter, displaying a physical version of all the weapons other items in the vault. Furthermore this would offer a NEW UNIQUE Gameplay loop of building a kit for a run. Perhaps inside this vault room, there could be a weapon workbench where player can take their weapon off the wall and place it on the bench to open up a mod menu for that weapon. (minor suggestion: Adding names for specific weapons and or weapon setups.) Also there could be a Shell modification station, when player interacts with this it could open up a menu where players can quickly access the following: Shell selection, adding/removing implants & cores, Cradle. Also a cool little addition could be to allow customization of multiple shells. For example: "I want to run Triage, and want to use these three specific implants and/or cores. Furthermore I also want a very specific cradle config for him So I can save that, as my Triage setup. Then customize another for, lets say Vandal, I equip the cores and stuff for her and then I'm ready to run. Before matchmaking I can still come back and switch to either setup I made." Adding this would make kit building very intuitive for new players but also make it quicker for experienced players to simply just select the "usual" setup and start matchmaking.

NEXT would be a room or kiosk for things like profile customization and codex entries. This would make those feel more meaningful. 

Miscellaneous Features: Visible player banners somewhere in the lobby - Maybe in the room that you have to stand on for matter transfer. 

potential easter eggs: The room/area where you go in to retrieve contracts and other faction interactions is the same room as seen in that one trailer with vandal shell speaking to ONI. 

TOPIC 2 ARACHNE ARENA

This is where my suggestions are purely for attracting new players and adding additional ways to experience Marathon.

This game has EXCELLENT, STATE OF THE ART gunplay. Let us, exploit this charm. 

This mode would be a PVP focused mode with new risks and new rewards.

What is it?: Arachne Arena would be an arena shooter mode. Arachne Arena would have three main modes (possibly more in the future).

It's an arena shooter so I don't really need to explain the gameplay loop of that, but I will explain what's different from games like Halo and Destiny. 

The Maps: The maps in this game mode could just be various named and unnamed POI's across the already made, Perimeter, Dire Marsh (Night & Day) and Outpost. No Cyro Archive maps please. Keep that for the endgame extraction shooter. 

Mode 1: "Regular" arena. 2 Teams of 8 fight in various objective types, KOH, SLAYER, DOMINATION, CTF, etc. Players chose loadouts and simply play. The loadouts are not customizable, they are pre made by y'all at Bungie :) 

Mode 2: This is probably not called Arachne Arena. This will be a PVE focused mode. Same maps, just different challenges. Teams of 4 or 3. Objective types, Firefight, where players will load into a map CREATE their loadouts and setup for the attack (about 5 mins or until everyone is ready) Then Players will fight against waves of enemies with increasing difficulty until on the last wave, a random warden spawns in. Once complete award xp and contract rewards. 

How does loadout customization work?: 

MODE 3:: Ranked. This will offer experienced players a brand new way to play the game and accumulate a new type of ranked progression.  This mode is heavily inspired by Destiny's IRON BANNER. It should be available on weekends only.  So instead of premade kits, Arachne is tired of running simulations. This is real loot, from your vault to make your loadout. Same game types as before. But if your team losses, your loot is awarded to the other team.

If you win, The enemy team inventory is placed into a large strongbox.

Based on the points scored by that player on the winning team during the match you will be chosen from highest to lowest to loot. 

When you loot the Strongbox, you can only take X amount of items. This number is based on the amount of items (excluding ammo) divided by the amount of players (8). If the loot cannot be divided equally, the remainder will be given to the player who loots first AKA the MVP of the winning team. For example, if there are 9 items in the strong box, MVP can take 2 while the other 7 members of the winning team take 1 item.

Why is it named that?: Okay so, I call it "Arachne Arena" because if we're being honest, out of all the factions in Marathon (2026) who would be responsible for such a mode? Arachne. and probably maybe Mida.

I love Bungie and Marathon, I want nothing but the best for both, please fill free to email me bungie (you know my email) I'd love to keep this disscusion going. I just so happen to be a college student my major is Software Engineering field and I would be more than happy to help develop this with the marathon team at Bungie. Please email also if that's a possibility. 

Anyway Thanks for reading and have a terrific day, week, life!