research: player complaints landscape - what to fix, what to avoid

[MBarkerUK]

Summary

Player-complaint landscape from Steam reviews, Reddit r/arma, and the BI feedback tracker. The honest fixable-split verdict: which complaints AEE can genuinely fix with physics data, which are config/script-fixable, and which are engine-fundamental (claiming to fix them damages credibility). This is the prioritisation map for the mod's roadmap.

The Ranked Complaints (frequency × passion)

1. Performance/FPS — single-threaded engine, cities, view distance
2. AI behaviour — stupid allies, omniscient enemies, vehicle AI
3. Vehicle physics and damage — fragile, explode too easily
4. DLC/monetisation (not mod-fixable)
5. Stamina/fatigue system
6. Animations — climbing, ladders, transitions
7. Audio — no occlusion, basic samples
8. Netcode/desync/hitreg
9. AI night vision/thermal perception
10. Ballistics/zeroing confusion
11. Ragdoll physics feel
12. Mod dependency (base game sparse)
13. Single-player campaign
14. Explosion feel/particles
15. Learning curve/UI

The Fixable-Split Verdict (the decision map)

Engine-fundamental (DO NOT claim — damages credibility)

• Single-threaded performance ceiling
• Netcode/desync
• Ragdoll feel
• Sound occlusion (no engine acoustic simulation)
• AI detection core (knowsAbout)

Physics-data-fixable (AEE's targets, ranked)

1. Vehicle damage model — the HIGHEST-value target. Health-threshold explosion unchanged since Operation Flashpoint. AEE's feat: vehicle armour and penetration overhaul (STANAG-aligned) #126 (armour/penetration) + component-damage → no guaranteed explosion. ACE3 proves it.
2. Explosion feel — particles (feat: data-driven particle engine (config-driven FX pipeline) #149/150/151), Blastcore proves it
3. Ballistics depth — wind/drag/temperature (feat: barrel thermal expansion drives point-of-impact shift #130 barrel, feat: wire per-weapon ammunition temperature (cold/hot ammo physics) #94 ammo temp, the existing ballistics addon)
4. Stamina/sway — the physiology fatigue → animation speed link (setAnimSpeedCoef)
5. Collision-response tuning — the random-explosion-on-light-tap fix

Config/script-fixable

• AI skill/precision (the "laser accurate" perception — often mission-maker settings)
• Suppression response (Courage skill)
• Stamina parameters
• Weapon sway
• View distance (feat: vision-driven view distance (realistic human vision) #138)
• AI night vision/thermal

Perception (educate, not fix)

• "AI sees through walls" — real LOS through soft cover + predicted fire at last position
• "Laser accurate" — mission-maker skill settings
• "Bullet drop wrong" — the model IS correct; players misunderstand zeroing
• "Vehicles explode too easily" — half real, half expectation of soft-body damage no mod delivers

The Mapping to AEE's Existing Work

Complaint	AEE issue
Vehicle damage	#126 (armour/penetration), #107 (fragmentation)
Explosion feel	#149/#150/#151 (particle pipeline)
Ballistics	existing addon + #130 (barrel) + #94 (ammo temp)
Stamina/sway	physiology + #78 (bugfix) + setAnimSpeedCoef
AI	#74/#75/#81 (the AI cluster)
View distance	#138 (vision-driven)
Collision response	#154 Pattern audit (the light-tap explosion)
Performance	#97 (monitoring), #139 (range cost), #138 (view distance)

The Report's Own Target Order

vehicle damage → explosion feel → ballistics depth → stamina/sway → collision-response tuning

This confirms AEE's existing priorities: #126 (armour) is the right first physics-data target, the particle pipeline (#149-151) delivers explosion feel, and the AI cluster (#74/75/81) addresses the #2 complaint. The roadmap is validated by player demand.

Animation-Specific Notes (from the tracker)

• No climbing/vaulting (T61802, 100+ comments) — Enhanced Movement exists but causes a prone-reload freeze bug (real)
• Ladder animation "really horrible" (T62072)
• Reload locks movement (T72973) — regression from Arma 2
• Swimming resets firing mode to single (A3G-45, live Aug 2026)
• The animation fix AEE CAN own: setAnimSpeedCoef coupling — physiology state (dexterity %, fatigue, cold) scales movement animation speed. That's a physics-data animation improvement no other mod does.

Test Vectors

• Vehicle hit by small arms → component damage, NOT guaranteed explosion (feat: vehicle armour and penetration overhaul (STANAG-aligned) #126)
• Hypothermic soldier → visibly slower movement animation (setAnimSpeedCoef)
• The feat: vision-driven view distance (realistic human vision) #138 view distance lowers the chore(deps): bump softprops/action-gh-release from 2 to 3 #1 complaint (performance) in weather

Sources

• Steam negative reviews (performance 14 mentions = top theme)
• Reddit r/arma threads (AI, vehicle, stamina)
• BI feedback tracker (T61802 climbing, T62072 ladders, T72973 reload, A3G-45 swimming, T170689 AI night)
• Mod feedback: ACE3, LAMBS, VCOM, Enhanced Movement, Blastcore, JSRS, VTO

Labels

research, P2-medium, effort/XS, type/research, phase/2-expansion, core