Bungie Cracks Down on Movement Exploits in Marathon Latest Update

Image via Bungie

Bungie has released a new update for Marathon, which addresses a popular movement exploit that players have been using to move around maps faster than intended.

Bungie fixed an issue in patch 1.0.5.2 that allowed players, specifically those using the Thief character to cancel a slide animation while using the Grapple Device or pulling out equipment while maintaining momentum. That meant faster movement with virtually no drawbacks.

That is no longer there.

According to Bungie, movement in Marathon is supposed to be expensive. Players should not be able to reposition quickly without giving up something, whether it is due to ability cooldowns, risk, or resource use.

The studio also stated that this will not be the last time such a fix is implemented. While these types of tricks may appear cool in clips, Bungie claims they detract from the game's overall pace and balance and future exploits will be treated similarly.

Marathon 1.0.5.2 Update Patch Notes

Combat

Runner Shells

• Fixed an issue allowing slide cancel animations to keep momentum when either pulling out equipment or Thief’s Grapple Device ability.

  
  

Developer Note: One of our core philosophies for Marathon is that rapid repositioning and aggression must always have a meaningful cost. That cost can be an ability charge, heat buildup, or increased risk but it must exist and be understandable to an observer. Unbounded movement, while expressive and clip-worthy, is ultimately unhealthy for the pace of play we want to maintain for Marathon. To set expectations early, we will be looking at any future movement exploits through the same lens.

Contracts

• Fixed an issue where players could end up locked in a room during the Introducing: NuCaloric

• Fixed an issue where disabled contracts could not be rerolled for free.

• Fixed an issue making the objective points visible for all Runners on the map when one Runner is on RUN/HIDE [Part 1/6].

Zones

Dire Marsh

• Fixed an issue where the Anomalous waypoint activity was appearing below the map even when the event was inactive.

Outpost

• Adjusted the combat area for the Tox Warden:

  Tuned the layout to reduce the number of hiding spots.

  Tox plants now react correctly to player presence.

• Fixed an issue where the final exfil would spawn in the same spot every time.

Pinwheel

• Destroyed Wing entrance has been re-opened.

• Improved overall loot rewards.

  This includes the quality of loose loot and small containers.

• Updated encounters to match reward quality.

• Changed the security credentials needed to access the locked room in the Hub.

• Added bulletproof glass to the Hub room.

Cryo Archive

• Fixed geometry in Vault 6 that allowed Runners to fall to their death.

Armory

• Fixed a crash that could occur when opening the Armory.

• Fixed a bug that was causing low framerate on Armory tabs with many items.

Developer Note: Traxus operates beyond scale.

Codex

• Fixed an issue in the Ranked Challenges section causing Diamond to show before Platinum.

• Fixed an issue with the Requiem for a Cyborg challenge so that it progresses for all players in a crew after a successful Compiler kill.

UI & UX

Keybinds

• The ESC key will now exit the keybinding menu instead of exiting settings.

• Added an option to clear keybinds in the settings menu.

  
  

  NOTE: Non-English languages will show this setting as blank. This will be fixed in a future patch.

Text Chat

• Fixed an issue causing loss of control for a few seconds after using an IME keyboard in text chat while in a run.

Localization

• Fixed an issue causing certain Codex entries to appear blank when viewing in Chinese.