Erewhon' Bivouac (What did you do in GR:B today) (spoilers)

So...

The Mk.48. So with all the commentary about recoil in the game I find it funny that the Mk.48 compact...which I think mentioned something about being less stable...may've been the most consistantly stable of the entire bunch. lol. Able to consistently land head shots and do a bunch of crazy funny things by mowing down legions of enemies and knocking them aside. Still, LMGs are a bit...problematic when you are the only one in the squad army of one. Great mag capcity, great power, terrific power for destruction...but a reallllllyyy long reload which could get you really screwed if you are in the middle of a firefight...may be worth exploring but for any Sniper (I mean even the Barret reloads faster) it is neccessary to use an SMG or AR or certain DMRs as a secondary.

With the AI team back, I saddled up for a solo playthrough.

I'm enjoying the update.

I tend to run female characters if I have choice. So I gender swapped the team. Then gave them some different tops for variety.

I'm certainly not going to get points for 'military authenticity' any time soon (which is fine).

So, the brief TLDR version of my impressions of the AI teammates is so far they are passable, competent, and servicable...and while I do think the game is better off with them then without them they still have a few REALLY annoying problems. I wasn't expecting Ubisoft to move the world or anything but still there is a few issues which really detract from there overall utility.

Pros: They are very chatty- while this could get REALLY annoying at the end having to hear the same things over and over and while some of the barks are a little cliche I really dig this so far.
The AI is pretty competent- While obviously not the best I at least appreciate that they TRY and do what you tell them and TRY and behave as advertised. Multiple times while I was up chilling on my little Oil drum and engaging in a fire fight both Vasily and Fixit maintained fire from the top from a distance while Fury ran around the side since I gave her a much closer ranged weapon. Only time unit cohesion broke down...well I suspect was because Fury died so the other two went to go rescue her.
Choosing their weapons- This is something that does honestly make them better then the ones in Wildlands. The ability to give them weapons of YOUR choice is honestly a game changer and I am convinced it is already saved my bacon once (or the game was really taking pitty on me). Right now I am rocking Vasily has the weapon you get from Rosebud, Fixit has the Mk. 48 SAW and Fury has Flycatcher's P90. As an aside this warrants more thought and experimentation but with the Rosebud weapon not being able to be suppressed might explain some of the trouble I got into.

Cons:
The synch shot drones and synch shots do not quite synch up (ba dum tss): So with one of the last patches Breakpoint limited the range of your drones to 200 meters. This made a certain degree of sense because the drones were too OP otherwise especially against radio operators. So I was curious to see how the AI squad would handle that and I am pleased that, so far anyways, the range seems limitless...which again does make a certain degree of sense, depending on the weapon. So GO SQUAD. Not so fast because as it stands now it is REALLY difficult to use both at once. While you have the drones equipped they take priority over your synch shot squad...to the point that you cannot get your squad to engage long distance targets. What makes this even more frustrating is that the methods to trigger the two of them are different, but apparently not to set this up.
They are not QUITE invisible: So back in Wildlands the squad was entirely and completely invisible, if you weren't seen, they weren't seen, no matter what. In Breakpoint the squaddies actually can be detected, albeit it takes the enemy awhile to notice them. This is kind of a realism win on the one hand...but a realism loss on the other. Considering someone snuck up on me on the aforementioned oil drum in some version of reality and Fixit just let himself be spotted. This could be really problematic because a human player would do everything in their power to NOT be spotted, so your AI should to. Even if it exposes you that should be your first job is to defend yourself because it really led to a panic moment.
The Order Wheel is buried behind menus: Bit self explanatory but the order system is kind of clunky since you have to go through the gear wheel to get to it.
Clear Hot works pretty much the same way as it did in the previous game- Again self explanatory.

Improvements: I think most people will know pretty much what I want by what I said up there. But one thing I will add is we definitely need a wider selection of orders. With the AIs emphasis on new tactics it would be nice if you could actually take some advantage of that yourself. My ideas is a Fortify command or an 'alert' command...maybe even make them the same command. The idea being that no matter what the weapon they are using, like with Cleared Hot, they maintain their position and make the enemy come to us instead of going to clear the base. Also makes it so that they keep a look out and actively kill anyone sneaking into your combat zone even if you are stealthed.

As an aside one of the Youtubers I was watching utilized the actually fancy BDUs that we see in the first Wildlands game and in Seal Team and stuff. Something to keep in mind for my second PT.

So yeah, might not have been the best idea to try out the new squad with an EFM but that is what I decided to do and I got into a bit of a death loop. It is kind of interesting that it does seem like this game does not take it easy on you now with the Ai squad on the EFMs. After a couple of tries if you kept dying the mission in question would get REALLY easy. That does not happen now. It is just as difficult with just as many drones and everything. So I ended up dying... a lot. People kept detecting me or calling in reinforcements and the drones are absolute murder for my squad by and large. On my absolute last attempt on the night before I stopped and would've had to give up with the whole night wasted though Mr. Fixit was an absolute beast MVP with his Mk. 48. All the squad was down so I went to go heal them, healed Fixit was first up and I got up but then instantly went down so I was sitting there resigned to my fate but Fixit it tanked the two drones and their mortars, long enough to heal me and then as we both engaged them he was able to get the rest of the team out as we cleared out the base.

So for the rest of this PT before I jump into the new one other than completing the Live Event and coming up with the tactics for the squad gotta figure out what I am going to do for my second weapon in the next game. Most likely something from the 416 family, probably my favorite Assault Rifle. I just gotta figure out if its the 416 regular, which can come with all my favorite attachments, the 416 assault which does kick like a bitch but can have a suppressor and is powerful, or the 416 scout which does not have good attachments but is a nice old reliable. Hmm.

Man this game is so fun now. It really puts me in a good mood for the second PT I am going to be doing in a bit though I have to keep in mind I'll have to build up my character again.

Anyways did the first two faction missions for the Outcast Live Event and boy were they a super duper blast to play. Actually a lot like Wildlands style, but improved, little actual story but pure Spec Ops goodness.

First mission was a hostage rescue and it let me know going into it, in no uncertain terms, that if I got spotted the hostages would be killed. Now I didn't push it but I do wonder what would've happened had I been spotted and there was no one actually near the hostages to kill them. But I got it first time. Some tense moments as they did go into 'search' mode with me in the middle of them so I really had to be careful and just really killed them, some of them at really close point blank in the middle of being detected.

The next mission was a lot more *loud*. The Outcasts wanted me to liberate a little village for them. With a quaint church and everything! I was a bit cautious because I was weary there would be a radio operator in there so I was sniping stuff filling up the meter for my sonar and I did, and then things got a little loud so I charged in with the Outcasts. Then Sentinel attacked the village after we had secured it, I used my grenade launcher on the vehicle, shot down the helo, and then noticed that a group of soldiers was comign in the other way. They pinned me down, I went full auto with the 416 assault, then shot a breacher that was getting in close before taking them down from a distance.