When the campaign system existed it was very sensible that balances were designed around that system. After all, how could the devs expect new players who had bolt-action rifles to compete with their semi-automatic counterparts unlocked by more experienced players? Because of these balancing reasons guns were buffed and nerfed to fit the gameplay mechanics of the Campaigns.
With the BR system, however, it is clear that these factors no longer apply in the same way. New players will face off almost exclusively against players with Bolt-Action rifles and, generally, slower, higher recoil SMG’s. After moving Grenade Rifles up to BR 3 (any rifle grenade weapon should be 1 br above its namesake starting at BR 3), a necessary improvement, some things should be changed to improve gunplay and encourage weapons to be used in their proper mechanical roles by players.
- All Bolt-Action Rifles should be moved to BR 2. The only fair exception to this rule should be the Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk1 since it has a 10rd magazine. Even then I think it should be moved down because of the next suggestion.
- All rifles should deal roughly equivalent damage. Yes. Whether the devs decide to make every Semi-Automatic weapon deal 12 damage or 20+, any rifle-caliber weapon should deal rifle-caliber damage, generally. Small differences in weapons to represent different muzzle velocities may be fair but they fire the same round.
The M1 Garand and the M1903 Springfield fire the same 30.06 cartridge. The German Karabiner 98k and Gewer 41fire the same 7.92 Mauser cartridge. All Russian rifles fired the 7.62x54 and continued to do so until the adoption of the SKS and AK-47. Japan used the same 6.5mm cartridge in their rifles.
- Recoil adjustments need to be made. The number of laser beams coming from players standing upright and leaning back and forth is insane.
The biggest insult on this issue is the FG-42 which has the same recoil as the M2 Carbine despite firing a round over twice as powerful. It should have, at a minimum, a similar recoil to the M1 Garand when standing. The tradeoff between guns like the M2 Carbine and the FG-42 should be the damage and the recoil, not allowing one to be a laser beam at long range. The FG-42 should have a damage per round of ~22.1 and the M2 Carbine is probably fair around 11-12 as is but the Carbine should be more controllable, making it better in close-range full-auto engagements, but less equipped at longer ranges.
- MG’s need to be reworked entirely. Most people, not even most soldiers, would not be capable of shouldering a LMG, definitely not accurately and not while leaning back and forth. LMGs should not be able to be shouldered as a weapon class rule unless bipoded otherwise, they should have to be hip-fired with the accuracy debuff that comes with it.
The Vickers and Bren weigh 10.4kg(~23lb) and 8.3kg(~18lb) respectively. Both were designed to be used with the Bipod almost exclusively. The only “LMG” in the allies tree designed to be shouldered was the BAR 7.2kg (~16lb), which was designed to mainly be hip-fired anyway as it was created for walking fire. The biggest offender I can think of is the MG 34 with Patronentrommel 34 magazine, weighing in at a beefy 15.1kg(~33lb) The MG 34 and 42 are not far behind and the lightest German MG is The Breda Mod. 30 and ZB-26 at 10kg.
- SMGs should have worse horizontal and vertical inaccuracy. I am not suggesting that the recoil on SMGs should be nerfed, but their general inaccuracy should be worse. These guns were designed specifically for CQC and using them at long range should be more punishing. Over 20m it should be very difficult to hit a target at full auto. A mechanic that could work here to incentivize tap-firing at long ranges is to make it so bullets fired by tapping generally fly straight while in full auto the inaccuracy increases as the gun fires.
- Sniper play needs a complete rework from a game design perspective. Too often you see players not contributing to their team with sniper squads, opting to sit back and not play the objective. I cannot figure out how to fix this aside from removing rewards for camping at long range. That would make it so players who take snipers into battle would use them slightly more often to take out high-value targets or sneak around the map. But that’s a slippery slope.
Edit: Another method to balance snipers would be to turn them into recon squads. Give them points for scouting or assists for kills near scout markers and kills on tanks, but remove the long-range kill bonus. Replace the long-range kill award with a scouted target award. This should reward productive gameplay.
I think that this suggestion if implemented, would make gunplay significantly more rewarding at higher BRs and would fix some of the problems the community is facing. Rifles, as the mainstay of the armies, should be the most sought-after weapons, able to take down enemies in 1 hit. SMGs should continue to reward aggressive play but punish passive play. MG’s should reward holding down chokepoints but punish aggression. ARs should get the best of damage and the worst of Recoil when used in full auto (FG-42 and STG-44.) The hardest weapon to get a read on in the meta is the sniper, in theory, it should reward slow play and strategy but in practice, it rewards non-contribution to the team.
Thank you all for coming to my Ted Talk. I will reply to further suggestions in the comments and edit the post as needed imo.
Edit 1: Edit made to Soviet rifle cartridge information due to error.