Things that still suck (after 8 years.)

[bmb 3]

1. Grenades - After a lot of talk about reworking the grenades early on, it's still call of duty. A grenade is magically produced from the sleeves of the combat magician at high speed. The only thing that was added was a slight (very slight) delay between throws. I'll be the first to criticize how bad it was in the older games, but this was never an improvement. And they still bounce around like rubber even in dirt and grass.
2. AI - Not even in general, they just still can't take cover. Fights are easy for the player, and extremely lethal for bots, as they simply stand around and die easily without reacting. The few times they lie down it's still in the middle of the road. Arrowhead AI with mods was getting pretty good, but that progress has been slowly eroded over the years. The community seems to regard them as an obstacle and the principal AI mods today are focused on making them simply "respond" better, rather than act more realistically. They do seem to try to take cover dynamically, but it is utterly ineffective as their bodies are still very exposed. I saw once a comment that described it perfectly. "They seem to be caught between trying to take cover and trying to stay in formation, they end up doing neither well." The days of inattentive players getting shot from miles away by an enemy they couldn't see are long gone.
3. Fatigue and suppression - Still doesn't really affect accuracy like it used to. Full auto with a machinegun from standing position is deadly accurate. Firing after running miles is as easy as before running. The actual system of fatigue only makes you slower.
4. Movement and animation - Many actions are on fast forward. I understand this was an effort to counteract the "clunk" of Arma, a reputation that these changes have not been succesful in curbing. Probably because the movement system of Arma is still animation driven unlike other fast-paced FPS. The end result is eroded realism for no real gain.
5. Lack of injuries - I guess you can get a limp after some patch. But it's the only injury. Having legs or arms entirely disabled like before is not possible. And most game modes have magic revive systems.
6. Graphics - The release version of Altis was impeccable to the feeling of being in Greece. At some point a major overhaul was released and it no longer looks realistic, to go with the other changes I guess.
7. Flares - They still don't work. Only the scripted flare produces any usable light.
8. Flashlights - The range is still so bad that you can't see anything but get seen from miles away yourself. I realize now they're a visual effect for the low level mercenaries, and not intended as a real flashlight. End result of these being that the dynamic lighting possible in the engine means jack shit for night ops.

 

Some of these can be modded. Some of them can't. Some only at terrible performance cost compared to a native implementation. Some only at great difficulty. And ultimately modding simply to "fix" rather than to "extend" the game is not really any fun.

For any future possible Arma games I would like to see a return to simulation, rather than running and gunning.