This is really very simple:

- Combat situation begins, maybe while I was sneaking with a scout who got seen while the others are hanging back no more than a dash away, to be safe.
- Initiative is rolled.
- My scout is NOT at the top of the initiative that includes them and a half dozen or more other creatures.

=> The game Plays Itself, giving me NO control, NO ability to react, NO ability to bring my other characters in, NO opportunity to do anything because all of my controls and the UI itself is completely LOCKED OUT until my scout's turn comes around.
=> The characters that would have reacted can't, and the game doesn't give them a chance to, and I do not have the ability to tell them to in any way, because I have no control while the game is busy playing itself without checking.

Immersion breaking situation 1: The rest of my party stands by in idle animations watching on while the AI plays rapidly to gank my scout, potentiality even standing by while the game kills that character, if the AI rolled their initiative well enough.

=> IF my scout gets a go, and let's assume they do...

Immersion breaking situation 2: The game now FORCES me to deal with their ridiculous frozen-time/not-frozen time juxtaposition as I break from the situation and switch to my other characters, moving them into the combat from outside the flow of time... and I am just blithely left to select how and when they jump back into the flow of time, and in what order; I can't ignore this because I have to manually select it myself, and make that choice. It IS forced on me here, in a way that I literally could not have avoided, simply from playing the game in a reasonable and normal manner without any desire or intent to cheat or be cheated.

==

The system is broken, poorly designed and flawed in execution. Yes, I will blame the system; the system, and the supporting UI are there to be a seamless interface between me and the world I'm playing in, and to operate those elements smoothly and fairly in a way that does not call attention to themselves, but handles events in a way that compliments my actions and choices as a player. That is what a game system and a UI are FOR. If I have to actively book-keep myself in order for things to work correctly without breaking - if I must step out of the world and fight against the UI to achieve a flow that makes sense - if NOT stopping to struggle with the UI and book-keep for it leads to the game acting contra to the spirit of its own rules, then the The System Has Failed.

The System Has Failed.

You can defend it if you want to; you can make excuses for the poor design, you can do half of its job for it and claim that that means it works, and you can blame other players for Not Playing It Right... but none of that excuses or makes acceptable the system's poor design and failure at its job. If you want to make extra work for yourself, doing the jobs that the system should be doing and is failing to, that's your call, but don't act like other people are in the wrong for expecting a better standard of quality and design in their games than you do; it's not a very high bar to be expecting met.

This is Niara, it's 2am, and I am just feeling so Done with apologists foisting recriminations and blame onto players who are providing feedback in a feedback forum about elements that they found made the game difficult for them to enjoy.