I just did a mission that perfectly illustrates the most frustrating things about these two games. They have some really cool moments that way too often turn into frustration and completely take you out of the moment.

I did one of the Outcast missions in Breakpoint, where you had to gather intel to locate a boat loaded with weaponry you could then steal and deliver to the Outcast rebels to help them in their fight. Well I took a boat and came ashore near a Sentinel base on the coast of Seal Islands. I meticulously took my time and using my gadgets and by studying guard routes I made my way around the camp gathering intel and interrogating soldiers and got enough information to feel confident I knew where the boat was. No alarms raised. No need to kill a single guard. After, I legged it to the boat encountering minor resistance. When I arrived I used the new Armaros drone to scout the base and spotted the boat. It was in the middle of the base. No way to take it out the quiet way. A fight was inevitable. I called a second drone (the time to use the drone is so short you don't have time to enjoy the moment. You kinda just have to spam the abilities out as fast as you can. No time for scouting.) to thin the enemy numbers to swing the odds in my favor. What followed was a prolonged firefight. One of the coolest ones I've had in this game actually. Taking my time I slowly moved from cover to cover taking out an automated turret with the rocket launcher (which is a really cool addition. I wish the game was designed initially so we'd have to use heavier weaponry to fight the armored drones. Shooting them with small arms is just really silly.) Once I pushed my way inside the camp the enemy had two fortified positions inside abandoned cold war machine gun bunkers. The first I took out by flanking the enemy position while my team kept the enemy's attention with their fire. For the next one I maneuvered into position in cover near the bunker and threw a well placed grenade just inside the window. The base was ours. Only thing to do was to deliver the boat with it's equipment to the Outcasts in the cover of the night.

Aaaaand Ubisoft thought it would be cool to send in an endless supply of helicopters in groups of two, when the player is unable to defend themselves or the boat. And the AI team mates are completely useless. All their fire is just smoke and mirrors to make it look like something action packed is going on. They don't actually do any dmg.

I'm really enjoying my time when the game isn't actively trying to force a "cool situation" on me. The on rails shooter missions using miniguns that barely affect the unarmored enemies. The hold this position while the game spawns in enemies all around you so close you can see them pop in and proceed to take a mad sprint into your melee range. The chase sequences that always completely take me out of the moment with their silly over the top "cool high octane" action and enemies landing pin point perfect shots on you while you are inside an armored vehicle speeding 60mph and the enemy is shooting from a helicopter. This mentality of forcing cool situations is also noticeable with the randomly spawning world events such as Azraels and helicopters flying over your head. They only fly over your head. How much cooler would it be if the helicopters just patrolled around naturally and it just happened to fly over you. Instead you're painfully aware that this happens every 10min or so and you just have to wait it out.

My time playing against ARMA's AI has shown me that it doesn't take something overly flashy to make an enjoyable military fantasy game. ARMA's AI enemies aren't exactly rocket scientists, but they feel so much more real, when you can see them take very simple actions that you could imagine a real human being making. You're getting shot at, proceed to find cover or get as low as you can if none is available. Occasionally using grenades, smokes and flashes would be cool. Having enemies actually patrol longer distances with the game remembering where units are instead the game just sprinkling enemy groups so close to each other that it's a bit silly. Especially when the enemy can't see further than their arm. I get that what the devs were probably going for was the feeling of the enemy combing the woods for you, but that really gets lost in translation.

In other words it doesn't take a lot to make the magic that video games can create happen. Most of it happens in your head. And I'm sad to see the game constantly telling me to have the same experience over and over again, when the method it tries to go about it is slightly flawed, creating a lot of unnecessary frustration in the progress.

I would love to see the distance enemy visions extends to scale with difficulty. The highest being basically, if the enemy has line of sight it sees you. If possible tweak Azraels and helicopters to not always fly directly over you. They are so easy to avoid that effectively they are basically just ambience. Optimally I would love a system where the game remembers positions of enemy units patrolling on the map, but I understand there are probably technical and real life limitations why this can't happen. Same with ballistics. I would love for engagement distances to be longer, but again I understand this is probably too much work or too hard to implement into this game. Enemy behavior could be improved with adding them rules for self preservation. Stay at range and try to use cover to stay alive. Flank and use grenades. Suppression mechanic would be amazing, but I know that's asking a lot.

Anyway I'm really enjoying both these games and I see so many people be passionate towards them and I see time and time again them echo similar sentiments about the games direction. I think people just want best for a game they love.

Thank you for making such a game.