And bring back the Bren-Gun-Rambo Mode from 2.15! I want to own them all in hip firing!!
Ok, seriously: I like the SMG like they are in the game right now. I do well with them. On close range you are the master in combat as it should be, on medium range you can use them still equally to rifles and atleast for little fire support, at every range beyond just forget it to face an enemy and try to get closer.
In a COD Game every weapon feels the same for me. Of course there are slight differences, which you recognize after some hours playing the game and can take advantage of, but most times it feels just like the same weapon with a different model.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFUgA0t5SCI
Cheers and don't worry.
This^^
Improvements can be done and should be done always, when possible. So I doesnt sound bad, when Eat announce that SMG get a little boost. And thats a good idea.
I barely see the SMG-class unused. That mainly happens on maps and situation, where long range weapons get a clear advantage. Like the beginning of big vehicle maps like cobra or totalize or whatever. Ones the situation changes to close range combat, the people begin to use the SMG class.
To some of your points:
Ammo: On nearly every map there is an ammo box at every flag; You already get ammo from (half) trucks; You also get ammo from every deployable weapon like machine gun lafettes and mortars.
Strafing: Strafing is the most unnatural way of moving you can think of. In my opinion it should be banned at all. It just looks awfull, when you see two guys doing their "dance of death" when they strafing and jumping around each other.
Rifle nades: I never have done this in real life, but i can imagine that it takes even under training conditions several seconds to load them. You have to attach the adapter to your rifle, than load a blank catridge and put the nade on it. This all with a handy rifle, which is about a meter long. In combat conditions it might be even longer. The sitiuation is fine at the moment as rifle nades are really powefull. So the reload time is also a balance decision.
MGs: I agree on your opinion on Mgs though, especially on bren and BAR, which should get a little boost in deployed mode.
Increasing the Range and damage:
At the moment it takes:
Pistols/Smg: 2-3 shots
Carbing/StG44: 1 and a half
rifles, MG: 1
hit(s) in the chest to kill someone. I dont see your point, what we can increase without destroying the differences between this classes of weapons.
Player counts of Forgotten Hope:
I dont see, that FH loses players more and more; We had never had so many players before. Take this weekend for example. On saturday evening (european) there was one tournament going (64ppl), next there were 2 full servers(2x 64 ppl) and one server with around 20 ppl, which makes more than 200 ppl playing at one moment! Thats very much for FH. Next take the player count on the 762 ranking, which counts more than 35000 players in total, whcih played FH.
Last fact take the people who are joining the forums and posting that they are new and enjoy this mod!
My two cents on some of your points
Oberst
PS: I have faith in the Developers making the right decision; Keep the work going!