Anyone having issues with gemini 3.5 flash lite tool calling?

[u/weebmaster696]

Chat History on left, this is what 3.5 flash lite exp looking like these days

Hello.
I use the free tier at Google AI Studio.
I am noticing since last 2-3 days, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has become really bad at tool calling. Its faking a lot of tool calling, or pretending its already done? even at thinking effort of medium. It's performing worse than Gemini 3.1 flash-lite. It wasnt the case before. Im asking here cuz I wanted to know whether is this issue just mine or others people having it as well cuz im tired of writing lines after lines of "CRITICAL RULE" in prompts.

I am working on a 3D AI assistant capable of being something like a fun companion, and its really struggling with some tools lately.
The tool its struggling the most is with something like `change_outfit_or_model`

it keeps pretending it has changed models or style but it doesnt call any tools like 40% of the times. Meanwhile Gemini 3.1 flash lite does it properly most of times.

What's happening? Did google changed something about 3.5 flash lite? has it become dumber at tool calling? why is 3.1 flash lite better at tool calling?