After over 200 hours in RON I can safely say that flashbangs simply do not work. There's far too much going for the AI for RON to be "hardcore." It's simply unfair and uses that old "hardcore slow-paced shooter" excuse to hide it.

There's just too much wrong with the AI for it to be a fun and enjoyable experience. Do I like the game? 100%, there's little else like it. But progression requires battling through tanky enemies that are so cracked, they're withstanding pepperball assaults, CS gas being dumped into a room, being shot at with lethal, and they're just locked into you without missing a beat. The tools that I have to deal with subduing these enemies do not in fact allow me to deal with these enemies. They just make me more uncertain when I'm gassing a room full of spics with guns, and I don't see what should be happening when I breach a smoked room and they're standing upright with all eyes on us. It's insane.

I forgot how broken the CS gas is, I remember the beanbag shotgun used to be OP at getting those armed goobers to comply but it feels worse now. I swear they made suspects and civvies take even longer to comply when shouting at them, so very often there's just 6 Meatheads in tactical gear screaming at someone until they comply or T-pose. I swear they also changed the excessive use of force mechanics, and added an animation for suspects where they briefly point their gun at you before slowly putting it down that still gives you a penalty for shooting them. In real life if you even pointed your gun in the same state as a SWAT officer, you're getting ventilated by everyone who's armed in the room

They 100% changed the excessive use of force gameplay, because now it's even more strict. You throw a bang against a wall and it lights your team up because sometimes stuff just happens like that and you're not getting an S rank. We've gone from "Wow I love this game that makes me pay attention to what I'm doing and actually critically think" to "if I even breathe at a suspect I'm not getting the S rank and I'll be shot at once before dying." They're trying too hard.

@Owl@nicecrew.digital @Formerly_Trucks@decayable.ink Sounds like what happened to Payday 2 about a decade ago, the bullet sponge enemies got even spongier (especially the regular revolver cops) and every gun (especially the meta ones) got nerfed into the ground. Not a fun experience whatsoever. I have an immense hatred for bullet sponge enemies and I think I have to "thank" Borderlands 1 for that.

The thing about Payday 2 is that presently you can get an insanely cracked build going with the Copycat perk deck that, with the proper skill point allocations, you can melt literally anything - Death Sentence becomes a viable and regular game mode to graduate into. With Ready Or Not, you have a community of people that are backing all these ridiculous changes to the gameplay and every time there is criticism these same nutcases come out of the woodwork to say "lol so you think you're a special operator huh?? you're a real navy seal huh?????" No, stupid, I know being shot six times in center mass isn't conducive to being a living and conscious human being.

@Owl@nicecrew.digital @Formerly_Trucks@decayable.ink >Deathwish was so good they added Deathwish 2.0 >after the nerfs Really now? What the fuck? Did they at least revert the 2014/2015 CAR-4 nerfs? >With Ready Or Not, you have a community of people that are backing all these ridiculous changes to the gameplay and every time there is criticism these same nutcases come out of the woodwork It's not just RON, every multiplayer game community is like this now. The same odious faggots will always defend the worst decisions by sucking off the devs while chastising the actual playerbase and/or denying that there's anything wrong to begin with. The kind of fags who write in a very specific way to piss you off and bait you into writing anything that can be seen as even remotely "aggressive" so that they can immediately tattletale to the mods.

All I'm saying is, Dozers get near me and they die a few frames later. Cloakers get into my sight and once they're in a few meters' distance, they won't be taking another step. It's all in the skill point-perk deck synergy. The fact they're still putting more into Payday 2 than that Godawful Payday 3 means they're still working on improving the game, and that's cool to me. >The kind of fags who write in a very specific way to piss you off and bait you into writing anything that can be seen as even remotely "aggressive" so that they can immediately tattletale to the mods. Steam Community Forums political activists in a nutshell.

@Owl@nicecrew.digital @Formerly_Trucks@decayable.ink I'm almost tempted to redownload Payday 2, back when I stopped playing they buffed the regular revolver cops (and every other cop, especially Dozers iirc) and those fuckers would NOT go down despite getting shot by a 41dmg CAR-4. I mean, sure, it WAS Deathwish but what the fuck? They were dropping like flies the day before that patch. >Steam Community Forums political activists in a nutshell. Pretty much, yeah.