The idea is just that simple - make all weapons available for all classes. I mean 1st slot weapons - SMGs, LMGs, semi-auto, bolt-action and lever-action rifles.
Some may fear that BF1 will turn into sniper carnival but I myself don’t see that happening - because we don’t see lots of people playing as snipers in previous BF games and even less among them are good snipers.
I believe that classes should be different not because of their available weaponry, but because of their special abilities like assault being able to destroy vehicles, medic only being able to heal, revive and repair, support defending objectives and resuplying teammates and recon doing their recon stuff =).
Maybe even their movement speed, ability to aim quickly and recoil control should be different from each other.
However, only sniper (or recon, or scout) should have access to sniper scopes. And playing with a couple of bolt-action or lever-action rifles should be mandatory before getting auto and semi-auto weapons.
And it would be cool to see a mode where only bolt-action, lever-action and semi-auto weapons are available. Call it something like reallistic mode. Or full-auto weapons only can be picked up on the actual battlefield or getting them should be a result of personal or team effort. Or even make a version of Gun Master starting with all the bolt-action rifles, at least in Open Beta.
In this case players will be able to see if they really do want a game about WW1 with mainly bolt-action rifles and if all their complaints about seeing too many auto and semi-auto weapons are logical and will lead to good gameplay.
I see your point, but this problem is solveable. For example, if you use bolt-action rifle of lever-action rifle you can’t use things like ammo bag or medkit. And, as I’ve said, you don’t get to use scopes - only iron sights or 1-2x magnification.
On the other hand it would add variety to gameplay. I kinda see a point in that, but that’s just the easiest way to distinguish classes. They would still have class-specific abilities.
Don’t really see any contradiction there. You can use bolt-action rifle if you want but with several rules so that you don’t outperform the class that is intended to… camp, I guess, to put it simlply.
Limiting weapon types for certain classes is a way to balance them.
Example: engineer class on BF4. It’s the best class against vehicles and you’d like to give engi the best weapons against infy too. Or imagine everyone using AEKs and ACE-23s no matter what class they have.
I understand the reason of doing this in previous BF titles. And I completely agree with it. At least because of the weapon variety for all the classes - you can be close combat fighter or long range fighter even with one given weapon class. And, besides, all classes get to use carbines, DMRs and shotguns in BF4.
In BF1, however, it is different. Classes are made different in a way that I, personally, feel a little bit artificial.
But even if we discard the idea of all classes having all weapons because, for example, DICE devs felt that class abilities don’t make them different enough, we still have an “immersion” problem, so to speak.
You see, I personally would be ok with smgs being assault weapon, semiauto weapons being medic weapons and so on, but this is a game about WW1 and not giving player a chance to use bolt-action rifles which I believe is one the first things many players think about when WW1 is brought up is just wrong. And there are ways to balance it, are there not?
Oh, and about your AEK and ACE example… Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to it but I haven’t noticed that problem even inside assault class in BF4, it seems that people use all the different weapons they are given.
Well, maybe, if there are no ways to distinguish classes that DICE can think of. Worth trying though, just to break away from distinguishing classes by weapons (to certain extent of course, things like M98B or SRR-61 should be available only to recon, AT launchers and mines only to engineer and etc.) and make classes different because of what they can do even with all (or almost all) the weapons. In BF1 this problem wouldn’t be so hard to solve compared to BF4 example, if we wanted to give all classes all weapons in that game. But there we had so many weapons that carbines were available to everyone.
Making classes really different requires real effort, no doubt in that.
Told nothing about gadgets. Do not exaggerate, please. There are always ways to give classes almost all weapons but still make them different. With different attachments available or different weapon handling, for instance. For example, if you want to use LMGs as assault you will aim slower, colntroling recoil will be harder and etc.
And I do not suggest to. It’s just the more such threads are out there the more support of these ideas devs see. My position isn’t limited only by bolt-action rifles. But it seems our argument in that won’t lead to anything. However, thanks for your opinion. At least I will learn to express my idea better so that people won’t discard it right away and maybe think if I may be right about some things.
