As Jared has said regarding the weapon loadouts, we changed our mind during the course of the development. The original way that we were planning to do it wasn't looking like it was going to fit in as well as we'd like. So we implemented it a different way. Given that Ostfront used STG44's in a similar amount (or more) I'm quite surprised at the outcry. There weren't any 100 page threads in Ostfront with tons of people in an uproar over having "too many assault rifles" in Danzig and similar maps. We designed RO2 with pretty close to the same realism measures that we did in RO1. We've always had some odd weapons in the game, and we've always done things where we abstracted functionality to make it fun to play. The question we always asked was "can this weapon have possibly been there". If the answer was yes, it was fair game to put it in there. Remember the PPD40 and the MP41? They were rare weapons, but were featured in almost every map. And yet there was almost never a mention of the PPD40, and just only a slight murmur over the use of the MP41.
I'm very disappointed you decided to include the Mkb42 for all assault classes, and I really don't think it's a reasonable comparison to say that RO1 included the MP41 and the PPD40.
The MP41 wasn't different to the MP40 - only an aesthetic difference (correct me if I am wrong), and it was only available to the squad leader class on standard maps (iirc).
The PPD40 was in service with the Soviet army for years before the outbreak of the war, so whilst it may have been rare due to it's low production number, or never mass produced like the PPSH41 I imagine it still existed in significantly higher number than the MKb42 ever did - it was a standard issue weapon at one time or another.
Also - the MP41 and the PPD40 are not game changers, in RO:Ost the MP41
is an MP40 and the PPD
wasn't drastically different from the PPSH41.
We can all agree that the inclusion of the MKb42 to the German assault class is a very
significant game changing weapon.
I'm not saying it is "game breaking" to add them in the manner in which you have, but it has a dramatic impact on the game in comparison with the loadouts I had been playing since the beta started - I personally had a much better time playing RO:HOS before these "rare" weapons were added.
After all you've done over the years with your integrity and respect for the source material (so to speak) how can you turn around and make an extremely rare prototype weapon as readily available as the MP40 (same applies to the AVT and PPSH41)? Especially when it doesn't add anything to the game - all I can see happening is you losing some of the respect you've earned from your previous approach. It makes no sense to portray Stalingrad in such a detailed and realistic way and then turn around and stick in something like this in this way with no historical consideration.
Judging by the number of threads in these forums about the effectiveness of the MP40, SMG accuracy, and the generally faster pacing (certainly in comparison with RO:Ost) the last thing you'd think the community wanted, or needed was the "rare" weapons to be as readily available as they are.
I'm not really going to get onto how you changed your mind mid-development as you are entitled to do that - it's your game and your development studio - but I am really quite saddened that you decided to do so and that you decided to keep it to yourself until post-release considering how much of a big deal for the (original, and new) forum community it was when the "rare" weapons were announced. It's historically largely nonsense, and you went back on your previously stated plan for implementation for no real gain - I mean, can you tell me how the game benefits?
