remove tight formation / coherency mechanic (armor regen dependency on proximity to squad members)

issue

armor regen dependency on proximity to squad members makes the player even less self-dependent in a game that was already plagued by robbing the player of self-dependency (reliance on depletable items and long cooldown abilities). it's ever more annoying considering how you made it so it's impossible to deploy as a single marine (it's only impossible to escape the players, not bot marines because they'll keep teleporting to you). i hoped lethal difficulty will introduce friendly fire so i can get rid of anything that takes tyranids' focus away from me and interrupts my fights. it even removes your armor regen when you are THE ONLY MARINE LEFT, which means that YOUR ARE the squad.

it also disproportionately nerfed bulwark, making conviction perk he's reliant on absolutely useless. all other 1st column core perks are useless for survival.

playing below highest difficulty will not work for players like me either because i need more challenge, despite of how difficulties above minimal remove power fantasy with the way they increase challenge.

in both SM1 and SM2 i do indeed sometimes have urge to stick to my battle-brother, and when i do, i simply follow them and ensure their safety which brings me enjoyment. but sometimes i just want to go forward and jump into a bloodbath. you can follow me if you want. it becomes a problem when the players are being forced to do it even if they don't want to by making them artificially weaker if they don't comply.

if you want marines to cooperate with each other instead of trying to sabotage each other, why not ensure that everyone playing together actually want to play together? why won't you stop forcing everyone to only be able to play operations with other marines unless they get them killed thru sabotage? why not do something like what i described in the idea here?

besides, those who want more challenge (like myself) will intentionally be trying to stay away from the squad.

solution

get rid of that mechanic and instead increase the difficulty by increasing percentage of larger tyranids and/or tyranid numbers. do not increase challenge by making player weaker because it ruins power fantasy SM franchise is all about. instead, do so by throwing more at the player.

I've posted a thread here explaining why player self-dependency is so needed.