Not gonna bother responding to the entire thing, since it was quite a read; but one thing I completely disagree with is:
@Defias123 wrote:3. Reduction in Tactics/Stealth - Stealth and overall tactics in this game is HEAVILY diminished. There's an abundance of reasons for this. First, weapons. With tracers, and very noticeable ones at that, and hugely bright lights as scopes. The minute you open fire at someone, they know immediately where you are. And if its medium range or more on some of these maps...half the map will know where you are too. Its like you're fighting inside battlefront 2 sometimes. Along with this, you of course have the kill cam. The biggest mistake of the kill cam is that it shows the enemy location BEFORE being revived. So you kill someone and their buddy is around the corner to revive them, you just gave them a free "Here's a big red outline pointing exactly where I am". Showing the kill before releasing is such a big ball drop in terms of proper FPS design in games with reviving capabilities. Then on top of this you have sound, automatic spotting from firing, lots of different spot gadgets, etc etc. Trying to be stealthy, flank, and perform any tactics beside "run at enemy and see who has the faster reaction time" is not worth it.
First, weapons. With tracers, and very noticeable ones at that, and hugely bright lights as scopes
So this is all possible to circumvent by equiping the right attachments my dude. You can remove yourself from the minimap at different ranges using a supressor. You can remove your bullet tracer and hitmarker indicator by equipping Subsonic Ammo (in combination with a supressor). The scope glint only shows at 6x and above - so as an example you can equip the GOL with an ACOG scope. This is true for every weapon.
The biggest mistake of the kill cam is that it shows the enemy location BEFORE being revived. So you kill someone and their buddy is around the corner to revive them, you just gave them a free "Here's a big red outline pointing exactly where I am".
The killcam is only shown to the downed player who will have to communicate using either VOIP or pings. In other words the big red outline is only for the downed player to get an idea of where they were shot from- which I think is fair in a game where you can be shot from 360 degrees at all times. I agree with you though - I would prefer no kill cam myself personally.
Then on top of this you have sound, automatic spotting from firing, lots of different spot gadgets, etc etc. Trying to be stealthy, flank, and perform any tactics beside "run at enemy and see who has the faster reaction time" is not worth it.
This is where Specialists come in though. You call Sundance cheesy, but she is made for going on big flanks. Same with Mckay. Spotting gadgets are only owned by Recon- which is their main role. Why these gadgets are in the assault category is beyond me though. Seems like these tools would be a better fit for Recon, but that's just my opinion.
Edit: Blasco also completely counters spotting gadgets with her gadget. 🙂 in fact it removes the ability to see the minimap at all. Equip attachments as suggested above and you will be practically invisible.
4. Exclusion of Sniper Players - It doesn't matter what this forum thinks, snipers were part of this game's identity and draw. There were some players who liked sitting back on top of a roof top and sniping. Some who did that to help break up the routine and try something different. 2042 absolutely curb stomped this playstyle. You have the things in #3 that really help give away enemy positions. You have the new attachment based system and a lot of AR and LMGs have gotten quite good at competing with snipers at long ranges. You have Tor tanks that can snipe snipers from long ranges. You have sundances that can fly across the map to your location within seconds. You have Lis who can launch TV rockets at you. Sniping is just not in a good spot and this part of your playerbase just isn't hitting it off as a result.
I completely agree that sniping has always been a part of the franchise. I disagree that this playstyle has been ruined. The attachment system also works in -your- favour since you now have a chance at actually defending yourself against say Sundance who flies in your face. If you are a good sniper you will outrange even the best ARs. Same with LIS rockets - they have limited range and can be shot out of the air. 🙂
Yesterday I went 25/1 as a long range sniper- and I was even PTFO'ing since I was just camped on objective C on Arica Harbour - on top of the crane. If someone tried to contest I'd deal with them first and the rest of the time I was sniping people all the way at the village - preventing them from advancing on B1. Simultaniously I had my drone watch over the B3 bridge and also had full overwatch over that from my position. I also ran SOFLAM- giving off zero glint to spot my targets- then quickly pull out the sniper and headshot. Not a chance to react. And I had assists on practically every vehicle on the map due to target painting. 🙂
