Well, noone here even hinted that the relaxed realism would be turning RO in an arcade fest.
And I still love you, TW-Guys, for bringing me the longest period of time I enjoyed a game. Not even WoW could pull me away from RO!
But I still remain sceptical. And my point was that even minor changes do very greatly alter how the game is played.
Let's just take a look at OFP/ARMA. Even on the lowest realism setting it is heaps more realistic in what it does than any other game of that scale (despite a hitpoint tank system, crosshairs etc). It features some things very similar to the relaxed realism features: a GPS style navigation system, in World view of Objectives and Waypoints, friendly units and spotted enemy units on the map. Still, the gameplay mechanics remain the same. The guns aren't more accurate, you don't have more health, thus it should remain basically the same game, shouldn't it?
But it doesn't. A mission plays very, very differently if you have to figure out your position with a compass and a map, and constantly update it while you advance. You engange troops more cautiously if you don't instantly and magically know what side they're from. You are less perceptive of your surroundings if you can artificially pinpoint the enemy when he opens fire...
Of course, due to the nature of RO, some of these things are never possible, because for example the maps lack the scale so they're learned pretty fast, rendering the map to be quite without use except to check which objectives belong to whom. But still, I think my point is valid that the additional Info available to the players changes how the game is played, and more importantly what skills are needed to win.
With your relaxed realism mode (and on those linear maps, which ramm assured us won't be the only ones in ROHoS), you basically reduce the skills you need to succeed in the game to being a good shot.
And IMHO that reduces the general appeal and the replayability of it. But then, I'm one of those obscure types who find tremendous enjoyment in crawling through bushes and thickets for more than an hour to get behind an enemy position, just to be shot in the face by a patrol that I failed to notice