@Flybye
That… is so beautiful put…
Now I envy those that had April’s patch even more…
… as I missed this period… cries loudly
I 10’000% agree:the game is extremely too soft.
“Many” asked to tune down the game, saying, it is too hard in skirmish mode.
“Many” others then, and me, let me be honest here, being the loudest and most active on this topic, asked for harder game.
The Devs tried to fix this by slapping on more armour, add more damage, increasing the aggro range, all by itself, not too bad, as it takes longer to kill a machine, indeed, the risk of death increases.
But to me, that felt like a really cheap method to try and fix balance, especially considering that the Machine AI is heavily failing.
Which is what makes it so easy to kill machines off while being “safe”.
Note, “safe” of course is a hyperbole to express a point.
Engaging 13 machines, and making it out alive (heavily wounded, granted, and having lost a ton of HP packs) should absolutely NOT be possible.
Engaging 2 Runners should be darn lethal.
That is how it would be in reality.
Think about it: compare it with a welder robot in a car factory.
These NEVER miss a welding spot, and weld God knows how many welds a minute.
These are dang fast, and beyond accurate.
IF something went wrong, they sense this (through various sensors, like laser lights and whatnot) they act instantaneous.
They don’t take a break, for whatever reason (unless, as per the above line, something is off).
GZ Machines then:
They react very often far too late, sometimes even 10 seconds.
They react not at all, in very few cases.
If they react, then they stand still to shoot, very often resulting in a miss.
Tactics is something that is beyond their interest seems, although EACH one is from military origin.
These things break the game, not just in playability, but in story as well.
How could these bugged microwaves have done what they did?
Impossible.
One explanation we jokingly came up with for the death toll on human side was quite straight forward: The GZ Earths gravity, which seems like 5 times our gravity strength.
Most troops and civilians probably tripped over pebbles and alike, only to drop dead due to impact on the ground.
If the Machine AI gets repaired, and works as it should be working, rest assured, all machines will have their armour and health rating halved.
At the very least halved.
The massive amount of armour and life has been implemented to counter the lack of Machine AI.
Fixing the AI, thus, would result in this amount of armour no longer being needed.
OK, that been said:
In reality, in OUR reality, if those machines from G…
No, wait, let me put this differently:
Imagine GZ took place right here, on Earth.
With OUR people, OUR governments, OUR visions about army and warfare.
A simple Shotgun Runner here, would be so lethal, it would, in comparison to human soldier capability, be a full division by itself, IF it was not hampered by ammo shortage.
If we then consider… 4 of these… and 2 Hunters… and 1 Tank… it (hyperbole) would be enough to take Sweden out.
Note: hyperbole.
I would not know how many it would take, but I assure you… it won’t be many.
And this in GZ?
No.
That would be absolutely no fun.
I mean: it would mean basically death for lifting a foot.
That would be, although realistic, just crazy to play in.
Balance is needed.
It should be survivable, but by very hard work, and luck.
Balance is needed, through fixing the Machine AI.
Not balance by cheap means such as weapon modification, tuned down aim, very high bullet spread, and bullet disintegration (I’ve seen .50 ammo fall apart before impact, making several trails).
Even with Marksman maxed out, the game does weird things with ammo being shot from our side.
That’s not realistic, come on.
Pistols shoot just as far as rifles.
Sure…
Reality in that regard is inexistent.
A .50 sniper rifle, shot at a target 350m away, should hit where aimed (when Marksman is maxed out).
Because that is the simple function of a sniper rifle: to hit targets beyond the range of any other rifle type.
And neutering just that, is turning the weapon into… well… even a Meusser or Stud has higher accuracy, go figure.
This is just wrong.
Some speak of reality, but when you point at reality, suddenly it’s … I’m not even sure what.
Pistols should not be able to be effective beyond maximum 60 meters.
And a Hunting Rifle should NEVER be able to out-perform a sniper rifle in all points but damage.
Since, the sniper rifle was made for extreme long range assault.
And later, to be an Anti-Material rifle, to take out cars, busses, even, with a lucky shot, a tank.
That is the sole purpose of a sniper rifle.
The April’s patch made one big mistake: it was all but optional!
It should have been implemented as a separate game mode, maybe called Guerilla Plus.
It should NEVER have been dropped on everyone like it was dropped on everyone.
Since some people, just are not this hardcore.
If it had been optional, people would not have complained as they did.
And some of the players then, like me, and apparently you, sir @Flybye, as well, having finally some challenge.
Interesting: it has been asked before, as an option… why did they decide to make these changes go mainstream instead?
I fail to get the logic behind it…
Ennywho, that’s how I see it.
Feel free to react, to disagree, but please, if you disagree, motivate why?
Actually, I encourage you all to react. 
Thank you.
All seriousness, we have companies like Sucker Punch Productions that puts out solid games on release.
.
.
. I thought April 2020 was fabulous 
. I put a good 200+ hours in with April 2020, and I will continue to do so despite the softening of June 2020 once I get through a few other games.
, I prepare a few days with plenty of medkits, adrenaline, and ammo, and I essentially go hunting. If I am lucky, I will find a Rival with plenty of robots around it making it more challenging. Sometimes I even have to face palm myself with the number of robots I have to deal with. The last Tank Rival I went hunting for eventually got noticed by several Harvesters, Tanks, Hunters, etc. Even with the great softening of June 2020, this turned out into a fabulous battle because of the sheer number of bots I had to deal with. The battle occurred in the ruins above Lovnas in the north east corner of the map. I essentially used the ruins as my own mini maze. I couldn’t stop moving in and out of the ruins. This was probably the best moment I’ve had in this game 
. If April 2020 was still in effect, this would have been extremely difficult, but the end result would have been even more satisfying.
There is so much more they can do to build it up.