Well the game doesn't have huge arrows that appear on the HUD saying "flank in this direction to take advantage of enemies' reliance on aim assist', I assume, so its not doing EVERYTHING for you.

Then you're doing something wrong boy!! My md an I have never been a more effectkve team, and my assists have gone up almost 3 times the amount my kills have, and they have increased a lot as well!!

If you came from any other PS3 shooter you wouldn't notice the AA.
If you didn't know CCP turned it off, then back on you wouldn't notice it.
If you didn't come to the forums or read patch notes you wouldn't notice it.

You would notice that the game "feels" like a console shooter again. I think the acceleration on the sticks has also been adjusted, Or something. Turn off the AA, and you are still not fighting the sticks like before.

Most Of the Knee jerk QQ, is coming from improved hit detection rather than the AA. The DPS of the guns are alot closer to what you would expect if you did the math. We already knew that a militia AR was able to do like ~1200 dmg in a single magazine. In practice it was doing like 200-800. How can you balance numbers on paper when they are not the same as in game?

The AA is not even that strong in this game.
It doesn't have any magnetism that puts your cross hair on somebody (BF3, COD, hidden during the ADS animation)
it doesn't have Magic magnetic bullets (Halo)

It does have some friction/adhesion when you are on your target, allowing better sensitivity (BF3,COD,Halo, every console shooter)
It also has some magnetism while you are tracking (Halo)

The magnetism while tracking is pretty apparent (and needed) while using the Laser rifle. I was shooting one red, While another decided to run in front of him through my beam(silly right?) my beam started tracking him instead of my target, for about 1m, then went back. it was just a little Tug.

This seems to counter the 2 step strafe that KBM users were able to do to dodge bullets as they face tanked you.
there is a New dance to learn. And it seems a lot of people are already adapting to it.

A message from the true forum overlord:

"I used to believe that aim assist is too strong. However, once I analyzed other games, tested it with friends, and did some research on the subject, I believe it's perfectly fine. Aim assist, call it whatever you want, is just that, an ASSIST. It makes the game far more enjoyable and stops fights from lasting 3 minutes, and yes I had fights lasting that long.

I do not care if it's fair or not, I care if it's FUN. Also, to all the "pros" who say that aim assist evens out the playing field with them. Did you know that you too have aim assist? In essence, you both are equal, the only difference being skill, gear, and skill points. If you get smashed by militia AR's in low level gear, while you're in a proto suit, I think the problem is with you, rather than aim assist. I used to be able to jump and turn around when someone shot me from behind. It doesn't happen anymore, but I accept that, if that means funner fights.

In addition, I think the revolt against aim assist isn't really because of aim assist itself. It's because of the extremely sudden change of Dust. It used to be a shooter of who can trick the opponents aim the most. Now it's a more tactical shooter, requiring you to actually think before you act instead of rushing in guns blazing and getting out without a problem because aiming was terrible.

As the old saying goes, adapt or die, things change, and much more will change in the years to come of Dust."

I'd just like to add that despite my initial misgivings about the 'aimbot' I've come to like it as well.

I love that CCP is willing to take the heat and swim in an ocean of boiling tryhard vet tears.

They've stayed the course and it's paying off.

After 5 days of alternating AA/no AA I'm now permanently without it and I don't really miss it that much. It did improve my performance, but not by much, and it certainly does not outweigh the taint of personal dishonor that comes from using it.

I want to see kb/m get more love.

I want to see adhesion tweaked down by maybe 50%.

I want to see matchmaking running like a clock - we prolly need more players for this though. Now that most of our core mechanics are working new peeps will trickle in slowly(and some old peeps will return).

And that's it. With these three issues addressed 1.4 is an unqualified success in my books.

If CCP can do the same thing with with 1.5 and maybe 1.6, we're ready to start realizing the true potential of this game.

And we have seen people trickling in, prehaps we need to give DUST some good exposure, when all of the mags are running reveiws on chromo newmplayers are being discouraged by bad press, now is the time to begin flooding the internet with blogs and comment posts about how its changed, if we can BURY the bad exposure, something glorius might just happen!!