I don't like the change in overall gameplay compared to the RO mod and Roost.
Long range fighting seems similar to ww1 trench warfare, or any modern game where classes aren't limited and half the team picks a sniper scope. Everybody plays as if they are a sniper rather than go for objectives, perhaps it is realistic but its too campy for my taste
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Where as short range doesn't require any tactical awareness you can just fully sprint into a building, and instantly fire your gun from the ironsights on sight of an enemy. In roost you had to stop sprinting before entering a building and had to go into ironsight pretty much before going in (if you wanted to fire from ironsight instead of the hip).
Next to that I don't like the overall control of my character.
Controlling a character in Roost while limited was really simple and similar to any other game. It got its limitations but those limitations were easier to grasp than in HOS.
While somewhat buggy when you need to go prone you could hit the button and go prone, in HOS you often get a message that you cannot prone there. If you wanted to run away you could just run away, in HOS you could get stuck to the cover system if you're using it. Now beside regular buttons you have all sorts of features added to the game, but you cannot even customize the controls to your liking.
You do not want to change your weapon with the scroll wheel but you do want to change the range with the scroll wheel too bad you cannot separate them. You want to pick up a weapon with a key, too bad you just went into cover mode against the wall. I have no issues with having to learn even 30 keys by hearth, but I hate it when I personally want to do a certain action and the game does something opposite. If I hit sprint key I want to run away I don't want to darn zoom in with a nade 3 meters next to me. I personally don't like toggles yet there is no real way to have iron sight on hold.
And finally there is free aim. As I've been a pc gamer for a long while my mouse responsiveness is important for me. If I move my mouse 10 centimeters to the right I want to move a certain angle to the right. If a game takes away my ability to use my real life experience in controlling my own hands and requires me to learn everything again (or if a game imposes mouse acceleration or a big delay) then that game is lost for me.
Free aim in first person view, makes me feel disconnected in the control of my characters hands. Using your hands in real life is the most easy thing to do as you've trained your entire life time, if you see a mug on your table, and you close your eyes you are able to grab that mug without looking.
In this game you are required to continuously look where you are actually pointing. While normally you can both sense your position, as are able to use a life's worth of experience in just going somewhere. Having to learn something as basic as moving your hands in a game is frustrating for me. With smg's its a non issue as you can just correct, but with rifles it simply becomes annoying.
So in short summary for me the worst things that happened to HOS were, the implementation of zoom. And next to zoom free aim in iron sight was a horrible thing to happen for me, as it removed the ability to use important sensors and experience in controlling your arms for controlling your character.
I could understand free aim for hip shooting so people couldn't tag a dot in the centre of the screen, but when firing from the iron sight there is no need for free aim it just makes controlling your character more difficult than it should be (for all I care add a massive sway or other things to make it more difficult, but making the connection between your hand's input and the screens output variable is game breaking for me).