Originally Posted by Long Bow

I think the fact that the weapons are more of a handfull and there are no perks to boost your performance really levels the playing field. In COD4 you can pick people off at range with the SMG's; in COD2 I have a hard time hitting people at 25yds with the SMG's. Heck in COD4 if I'm getting my butt handed to me I grab my RPD + grip + double tap kit and can rock and roll at any range easily. You can't do that with COD2 weapons. The bolt action or the recoil of the weapons makes COD2 hard to follow up shots and gives the target a chance to counter or reach cover.

All of that is part of the weapons adjustments we made to prevent "rambos" and to promote balance and teamwork. Vanilla CoD2 was horrible in terms of weapons balance. None of the guns had any recoil to speak of, the semi-autos could effectively be fired like automatics, and, regardless of which weapon you used, accuracy wasn't much of an issue.

Our weapons mod changed all that. Recoil, rate of fire, damage, and accuracy are much greater factors now. The submachine gunners don't have much effect beyond short to medium ranges, so they have to rely on the riflemen for that type of work. At close ranges, the opposite is true. The machinegunner provides the base of fire, and the sniper handles the long-range work and reconnaissance. We limited the number of weapons (depending on the type), and we adjusted the grenade loadouts to provide balance between these four roles and to promote teamwork.

The whole idea was to provide the tools for a generic WWII-era infantry squad of 11 or 12 players, all of whom would have to work together to succeed. I would think something similar could be done with CoD4, albeit with a modern flavor.