Marathon - what does it actually do?

[Dracon]

So I started a marathon game with ironman a while ago, and bar enemies being weaker and the inability to play the intro mission i can't really see any difference between Marathon and a normal run storywise.
I still get the terror mission after the first month, and I still find the Overseer UFO around the same time.
So is it just prolonging research and enemy appearance or should it actually do something to the story pacing too?

[Rox]

The pace of the story is dictated by the player, not the game. If you know what you're doing, you can complete the game super fast.

[Dracon]

Nah thats not what I meant...
I actually expected Marathon to prolong the pacing a bit like first terror mission only after 3 months isntead of 1.

[Jack the Roamer]

As far as I know, it only increases the length of research/construction time. I find this makes any game vastly more difficult, not recommended on classic and you will never finish impossible.

[Dracon]

I paired it with Ironman, so i kinda know what you mean...

[b_dizel]

As an old Xcom-er I prefer marathon as it feels more like the original time wise. Essentially research, building times, wounded times and costs are all doubled. Find more details here:

http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Second_Wave_(EU2012)

[JH]

As it's getting close to EW release I wouldn't suggest starting a marathon game just now :)

[Dracon]

I'm already at the temple ship.
Just not sure whether I should assault it, since I didn't want to do Slingshot that early on and it somehow doesn't offer me the mission again...
So yeah i kinda missed my chance of getting a fusion lance :(

[Scazzuth]

Research, build and soldier recovery time is much slower. The missions per month seem to be the same... but due to your build time you'll run more missions.

[Bad Player]

Originally posted by dirtrubble:

As far as I know, it only increases the length of research/construction time. I find this makes any game vastly more difficult, not recommended on classic and you will never finish impossible.

Finished Impossible on Marathon mode yesterday. The game does not throw you heavier aliens at the normal pace. I only saw this happen at the later stages with elite mutons and stuff. Jumped form elite mutons in an ufo to 2 sectopods with drones, 2 3xElite Mutons packs and 1 Etheral+2 Elite Muton guards on the next ufo.

Originally posted by Dracon:

I'm already at the temple ship.
Just not sure whether I should assault it, since I didn't want to do Slingshot that early on and it somehow doesn't offer me the mission again...
So yeah i kinda missed my chance of getting a fusion lance :(

Try to get dodge and tracking boosts - plasma cannons do their job. I skipped the second and third slingshot mission several times - I'm not sure right now, but I think they'll come up a month or 1 1/2 later

[Dracon]

The firestorm's weapons are not the problem - my heavies equip is as I can't build the Plasma rocket launcher at least 2 fusion lances.

[rakshasa72]

Originally posted by RAWLEE:

The pace of the story is dictated by the player, not the game. If you know what you're doing, you can complete the game super fast.

It's actually only partially true. Though certain game events are gated by player actions, game speed also determines when you will see certain enemies. So Marathon does make a difference in when certain things will show up.

Another big impact is the resource requirements for buildings and time to build. This requires you to plan further in advance for wich buildings/resources you need as some of the more resource heavy buildings require almost a whole month to build.