Groups VS random players are simply not fair. People playing in a group should be queued up only with other people playing in a group, or the game should have a no groups allowed separate mission queue where you simply can’t join if you’re in a group and it’s just all randoms.
Sucks for the people wanting to play fusions but blame the cheese clans running 4man gank groups
When you think about it further, a mission queue separate for group playing people could be kinda fun, as it’s 8 vs 8 you could have 2 4-man groups on one team, 4 2-man groups on the other, or two 4s on both sides, 3+2+bots on one, 4+bots on the other and so on
And as an added bonus you get rid of things like 4 people running hermes booster TOW builds in normal missions and being untouchable for 5+ battles in a row on the enemy team because nobody can ever reach them let alone destroy them with random players while being spammed by tows from the enemy spawn and kept at bay by retcher and destructor bots and their perfect aim
I prefer playing with randoms myself as well. But I do feel like competitive modes are where groups belong, because those modes are supposed to be more challenging. Even if I’m not playing in a group, I expect others are going to be in those modes, and I enjoy the challenge.
I always found the whole “stay together” thing as advice for bad players, not that the advice is bad but moreso that it’s the most basic thing you could do or tell a noob in the hope that they might survive and do something.
There are many instances where grouping up is bad or wouldn’t be the best way to counter or engage. Perhaps with my playstyle being the complete opposite I have a different opinion on it, but either way I think there’s 0 chance that a group could do worse than randoms unless the group are just worse.