It’s time for blast off! Marauders has officially launched into Early Access. Thank you for assisting us in the preceding Tech Tests over the past few months, your feedback and participation has been invaluable.
What is Marauders?
Marauders takes place in an alternative 1990s where The Great War never ended, Earth has been industrialised to its breaking point, and most have fled to the stars.
This deep space shooter sees players take on other squads and AI enemies in a stellar sci-fi battleground of hulking frigates, bullet-riddled space prisons, and decaying agricultural hubs.
During each match, players hunt for valuable loot and gear to add to their ever-growing inventory or swap for cold hard cash on the black market, all while breaching and stealing others' ships and earning a notorious reputation among the stars.
At early access launch, Marauders features over 40 specialised contract missions and additional unique raid locations, with an extensive roadmap of content to come over the months ahead.
Launch Trailer
Marauders Key Features
Raid, loot, escape: Plunder deep-space battlegrounds and embark on daring raids for troves of valuable loot, then get out alive to claim your spoils and turn a healthy profit
Tense first-person combat: Work alone or with up to three other players to survive intense combat encounters with realistic bullet simulation against enemy teams and AI opponents
Persistent gear and XP: Keep your best gear match-to-match and tweak your favourite weapons with mods while using XP to unlock new items and increase your chances of survival
Upgradeable spaceships and explosive sci-fi dogfights: Upgrade your ship's armaments; build a brand-new craft with scavenged resources; or take someone else’s by force
Roadmap
Following Early Access launch, we will continue to add a range of exciting content for players to sink their teeth into, including new enemies, weapons, maps and more. A full early access roadmap features below.
Our main focus to begin with is bug fixing and quality of life improvements – we intend to ensure the best player experience possible before we set our eyes on content.
Marauders is available to purchase on Steam at £24.99/29.99 USD/€29.99.
Known Issues
The following stipulates in-game bugs we're intending to fix. We have redacted some exploits to avoid tarnishing your experience by publishing them, This list is not exhaustive.
Widescreen not currently fully supported
Certain players are redirected to the IIS (Login screen) after finding a session
Marauders local files are titled "PHTest".
The matchmaker "Cancel" button does not have any functionality after receiving the 10 min queue matchmake error
Mouse arrow can leave the screen in Borderless and Full screen mode
Audio of the game will go silent when alt tabbing
High DPI mouse can negatively affect the scale of your in game control options sensitivity
Rigs cannot be placed inside bags
In some cases a crew member can be left behind when a crew enters a match
Localistations are incomplete/ will continue to be corrected alongside updates
Camera stuttering effect encountered when sprinting/running before using "Pilot Ship" periscope.
DPI scaling in Windows affects the application's available resolutions.
Same resolution is applied from Window mode to Fullscreen mode.
Crew members still appear in a crew after a disconnection, after being redirected to Login from a raid.
Leaving a periscope on the loading frame of docking into a space station can cause the player to be stuck
Best of luck out there in the stars! Great fighters to it!
Royal Armouries Gun Insider Vol. 2 | The EM-2 Rifle
Introducing Marauders Gun Insider Vol. 2, The EM-2.
Part of the wider British program for the post WW2 era, the prototype rifle was built in the anticipation of cold & hot war with the Soviet Union. Sporting an arsenal of bolt-action and pre-dated rifles left the British ill-equipped – they replaced everything to prepare.
The EM-2 was designed to be lightweight; great for close-quarters-combat and agility – allowing strapped soldiers to jump out of aircraft (or spaceships) with ease. The prototype was viewed as a part of Britain’s contemporary imperial muscle.
The rifle never made it into production, the 1951 prototypes at the Royal Armouries are the only existing renditions.
The rifle’s optics drop from the top - so the needle/point in the sight isn’t obscuring your target.
You can expect to see The EM-2 rifle in Marauders during Early Access. We can’t wait to see what you think when you get your hands on it!
Marauders Gun Insider - Viper MK I (Royal Armouries)
Space Pirates,
Let’s take a look at some of the arsenal you’ll be using to wreak interstellar havoc.
Introducing the Viper MK I Submachine gun – a sightless rifle, designed to be fired from the hip, leaving your left-hand free to throw grenades and navigate with dexterity.
The original Viper is a weapon of British origin, designed by Derek Hutton-Williams during WWII in 1942. The prototype endured much criticism, failing to meet weight specifications of the military and for exceeding the preferred firing rate. The submachine gun was ultimately rejected.
You and your crew, however, will use it with devastating effect. It might not be good enough for a world war, but it’s more than apt for space.
We visited the Royal Armouries Museum for an insight into the weapon and its history.
Who’s ready for a third round? Tech Test III is upon us! Thank you for taking the time to involve yourselves in the preceding tests, you’ve helped provide integral insight in our quest to launch into space – with as little turbulence as possible – this October.
Below you’ll find patch notes for TT3.
Tech Test III - Patch Notes
Smoke and Flash Bombs have been introduced (Recipe Unlock)
Increased the amount of breach locations for the capital frigate
Terraformer has had another increase to loot, including locked industrial bins and locked security areas
Enhanced effects for when taking damage as a pod
Allowing clients with ping issues to matchmaking successfully
FYI - There will be a wipe to test our new wiping process.
Player Focus
*Can we please ask that you test the Smoke & Flash Bombs when possible in Test III.
Calling all Raiders
We need as many players as possible to test server loads, so if you can try and make it for the test - we will greatly appreciate it!
It’s fantastic to see people playing successfully now that the login button is working! These tests help ensure Early Access starts smoothly. Your willingness to report has been invaluable.
Thanks again, See you out there (watch your back)
Tech Test II (9th September)
We go, again!
Tech test part two is now live on Steam until Sat. Sept. 10 at 12:00 PM BST.
💻 Discord: discord.gg/marauders 💼 Bug Reporting: #bug-reports on Discord ▶️ Customer support (payments, purchases, receipts): https://help.xsolla.com/en/
This session, we focused on the cursed grey login button issue that would occur for those Steam accounts with special characters in their name. This should now be addressed, however to confirm this fix, we’ll be doing another wipe (including the leaderboard). This also means this next test will be a bit longer - we’re estimating around 20 hours.
During this next test, we ask that you focus on these parts of the game:
Breaching another ship while it is entering an airlock or extracting
Testing out melee more as we have since buffed that system
And here’s a few more exciting changes to look forward to as well!
Special character name account creation - grey button fix.
Performance/optimisation pass (some systems will experience an additional 30FPS)
Screen percentage and frame rate cap graphical options (45,60,90,120,144)
Crew stability
Faction XP progression fix
New server regions (South Africa, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tokyo.)
Keycard loss on extract fixed
Further exploit fixes
Terraformer loot buff (vault, new depot area, various new lootables)
Alt+Click transfer Items out of locked crates (into your inventory, for example Ration Crate to Stash)
Terminator Shotgun buff (more damage, unlocks earlier as a recipe)
Pirate Helmet is now craftable instead of the Civilian Helmet
Flaregun added to pistol loot pools
New various UI sounds
Please note* - The leaderboard will not work during Test II
CLARIFICATION | Technical Test Period
To clarify some questions, these tech tests are not daily but to be deployed as timed events within the broader testing window of Sept. 6th to Sept. 14th.
This means that throughout this aforementioned period, the team will be holding tests but they won't be set for each day. The team will then communicate in advance when the next round will be. This allows the team to fix some of the issues that were brought up during the previous session and prepare for the next one.
We'll definitely make sure for the future to be extra clear when something like this happens. Thank you!
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.
Outside of hundreds of fixes and changes, here is a summary change list:
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.
Bigger known Issues:
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.
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
Hello, everyone!
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.
Closed Beta Lessons
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.
What’s Next
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!
