Hello, this will be my first post. I used to be a pretty active member of the infamous EAUK before it was shut down but never bothered with the exodus to MHQ/CE because other games were occupying me at the time. I love Battlefield and I love what you people are doing for what I consider to be one of the best entries in the series despite everything. I have come to some pretty strong opinions about what the game needs in order to be the best it can be. These are not demands, just thinking out loud. Some feedback on how feasible these ideas would be to implement using the modding tools at launch, and later down the line, and if it is possible at all would be great though.
First and most important is spawning. I have a saying that the difference between an unplayable mess and the best game in the series is little more than 10 seconds of respawn time. If nothing else is changed, this is the one thing I'd change. There's several problems with the way spawning works right now. A lot of them done in the name of immediacy. People spawn wherever they want, whenever they want. And the result is an unstructured, unpredictable gameplay.
BF1942 is the only game in the series to have the concept of the respawn cycle, where everyone spawns at the same time. The default spawn cycle was 15 seconds although I am an advocate of up to 30 seconds myself. I can understand not wanting to sit through a lengthy timer when you die, so some compromise obviously has to be made. But the value of the spawn cycle to the gameplay cannot be understated.
Battlefield is, at it's core, a combined arms team deathmatch game favoring territory control. The flags represent territory control in a very simple and easy to understand way. The basic gameflow should be such that both teams spawn, capture flags until a frontline is formed, and then engage in battle where they meet. One team wins the battle, captures a given flag. Everyone then respawns and the cycle continues until there are no more reinforcements left.You can have stalemates and backcapping is definitely a thing so it's a simplified model, but at it's core that is what the game is about. The spawn cycle should reflect a period of time where a battle can take place in. This way, whenever you kill an enemy, you contribute significantly to the territory control battle because that enemy is then not able to fight until the next cycle. By having the mechanic of the spawn cycle you create the gameplay (or the way the game is played) of waves of reinforcements clashing together. With short or instant spawn times, people can simply spawn right back into battle as soon as they are killed, making the impact of killing them on the flow of battle minimal. And without a spawn cycle, people are spawned in a piecemeal stream which goes against the large battles that Battlefield is known for.
Another big problem is where you can spawn. Again in Battlefield 1942 (and Battlefield 2 if I'm not misremembering) you could not spawn at contested flags. This meant that when the battle had already begun, you could not join into it without being part of the next wave from the next flag. And if you are able to spawn at contested flags, the game basically turns into spawncamping simulator 2011. You all know the deal, you're sitting at an enemy flag waiting for them to spawn so you can shoot them. You spawn into a flag to try and fight the enemy off but they are too fast and knife you from behind. This is not fun. The interesting part of the map should be what happens between flags, not sitting in spawn at them.
Squad spawning only adds to the problem. When you are able to spawn on your teammates you disrupt the flow of the spawn cycle waves. Again you all know the deal. You have just killed three people in a squad and as you are about to kill the fourth, all three of the previous pop right out of his ass and kill you. It basically makes pushing back a squad virtually impossible and again negates the value of killing enemies and leads to unfun stalemates. I can perfectly well understand the need to spawn near your friends, and I'm not saying that should be done away with. In fact I don't have a good solution to the problem. But it is a problem none the less. Squad leader spawning mitigates the problem, and also encourages squad cohesion. Limiting the ability to spawn while in combat also would help tremendously, similar to limiting spawning at contested flags. The only problem is properly detecting when a squad member is in combat since the current method used in BF4 seems flawed at best.
Spawn beacons also are problematic because they allow spawning behind the enemy lines at will. Especially indoors where spawns are instant. Unfortunately not all maps can count on parachute drops being viable. I suppose you could limit spawning when enemies are even near. The concept of the squad leaders spawn marker in 2142 was interesting and definitely a solution to squad leaders only hiding away, but I'm not sure it has translated well to a recon gadget. As a concept, it is an alternative to leader spawning, not a class-specific gadget. Squad leaders spawning on squad members has replaced its role. And in practice it is only used for camping anyway.
I'd also like to go off on a tangent and address safe spawns in the same breath. It's important that a team always has a way to spawn that is safe, in order to allow them to have a chance to fight off being blocked into their uncap. 2142 managed this well by providing the shielded areas inside the titans that enemies could not reach. Allowing players defending here to be prepared when going out into the battle. BF3 does fairly well by having uncaps be out of bounds, but it is still possible to be bombed, strafed, sniped and mortared on spawn in most uncaps. There should be some kind of bunker, barracks or other shielded location where you can spawn without fear of dying immediately to such an onslaught. In general it shouldn't be possible to shoot at the (infantry) spawn as a matter of course. It is silly that server owners have to have scripts or rules to protect against this when it could easily be part of the games map design ethos.
More to come...