I'm not sure where you got this impression that we are somehow malicious liars who want to mislead players.
I'm not sure where you got the impression that I got that impression somewhere. Descriptions lie because they do not tell the truth, or do not tell all the truth. It's just a fact.
Based on reading various forums the last week or two, I think part of this sentiment overall is that bug above, and part is players getting upset when enemies built for high speed and initiative get the drop on them, because they're used to turtling behind cover and think that because enemies don't adopt the same play-style
Players get upset, and I can see why, because AI is not very good, and does strange things in combat, like running from one character to another wasting AP, zerg rushing party in clusters through whole screen, and that makes combat not very controllable, and in turn, not very tactical. That and bloated HPs often resolve in party running back and forth like crazy chickens instead of relying on solid tactics.
Overall combat in game is just not very tactical. Big problem are, of course, bugs. You can't create good tactic if you don't even know if you will have LOS to enemy, for example.
Also the speeds are just way too high. That problem existed in one old russian fallout-like, where instead of adopting Fallout's 10 AP system, it allowed for 20 and more. Robots rushing from corners and unloading miniguns onto party and all that.
Level sizes and perspective also don't play well with that. Levels are big, but often not very interesting or complex, sometimes rather empty.
Also, turtling in game works fine. Especially in the endgame. Take Scorpitron, for example. That enemy can be taken out with only 2 characters - I'd say a Brawler & Energy Medic. They crouch behind barrells, brawler catches small scorps, energy medic slowly chunks 3000 hp away while using extra AP to heal Brawler. If Scorpitron had ability to move around the battlefield, crushing cover and hitting characters, it would be a interesting and dangerous fight. But instead it's more like a MMO fight. Kill adds while healing through. Very easy.
The last fight after elevator is also super turtly. There are ~20 robots there but their AI is not that super, so you can slowly get them one after another with a sniper. And of course area is sooo huge, enemies don't even know what to do. Like Mattheas during my fight and all his bodyguards just sat there doing nothing while some random bots from map corners were rushing me. So long, and so boring.
Where combat shines in this game is when you're at least somewhat underleveled. When you storm Red Scorpions just right after first missions, or first fights against Nuns, or robots once you arrive in LA. Or the whole plane graveyard - probably the most excellent area in the game challenge-wise, with many new and fresh enemies, turrets and entrances and even a hostage situation and an ambush.
I hope you're better than to put blame for holes in design on some fictional psychological player's schtick. If players don't feel that they have good control over flow of combat, change things.
Tweak speeds of enemies that should not be very fast, like big gunners.
Make speeds slower on average, since maps are already too big.
The camera is not great, in general you can't even understand what enemy was built for. I would never have guessed that that amazing art with synth in a wheel chair would be used not for big and beautiful NPC model, but for a trash mob in endgame fortress-of-regrets-run with size of a cockroach.
Tweak enemy names maybe, designs, make faster enemies more lean, give them different animations.
It's too late to change how maps were done, but in future you should strive for more compact maps with more sets and less open spaces. I am going to get soo much shit for this, but... check, say, raider's fortress map in Fallout Tactics. Compare it's architecture with some of yours, especially RSM leader's fort - that fort is just a bunch of empty, poorely textured boxes with just a single entrance. I don't know how to put it better, but it's like the difference between city of Baldur's Gate and Athkatla/Sigil. The first one is larger and argualbly a lot more realistic with it's 10 taverns in one fantasy city, but that does not achieve much. Second has tighter levels but content is spread out better. That way of design can not, and should not be applied to just quests, but to geography too. It's better to make one interesting small set than many big, uninteristing ones. The example of that poor design is Rail Nomad's camp. Nothing there uses it's size for gameplay advantage. It's not even that heavy combat area, unless you're just murdering everything.
Overall level design for combat is all over the place. Sometimes there's something, but often you just stand in the open, party clustered together, kicking enemy melee's as they come to you, shooting and healing, enemies getting rekked one after another without any thinking.
Side note:
I'm butthurt I never met a crab in a phone booth enemy.
we will remember you 200 hp Prosper Junior, crushed under robot's foot
