I'm pretty sure both the MkB 42 and the MP 40/II are confirmed as being for heroes only?
No, they have been confirmed as beeing "rare", but there's no word on if they are hero only.
Seeing as they've made rather significant changes to some weapons already in an effort to keep them historically accurate for the period (PEM instead of PU scoped Nagant etc.), I am sure this issue has already been solved.
Pretty sure that was allways the plan, they have said from the start that both the German and Russian sniper rifles would get several different scopes, and i've allways assumed the PEM would be one of them (what else would they use? It's not like the Mosin had a huge catalog of avalible scopes).
This is just the first time we've seen the PEM, but it was probably planned all along, and that doesen't mean it has replaced the PU, which i'm sure is still the standard issue in the game, the PEM is most likely an unlockable.
Also from previous videos i always thought there was, for example 'Rifleman and "Elite Rifleman" which i believe would have the different upgrades or weaponry and can be limited for small numbers.. Hero status only affects other players in a small radius being suppressed as easy.
That is indeed how things seem to work, and it seems there will be an "Elite assault" class aswell, and this is the class that is likely to get the option of the MP-40/II.
Problem is though, this works both ways, the drum mags and select-fire where also planned to be unlockables for the PPSh, just like the MP-40/II is an unlockable for the MP-40, so a PPSh with a drum may become as "rare" as seeing an MP-40/II, and may be restricted to the "Elite" class, and most of us would not get to play with the propper select-fire version, because that's the 3'rd and final upgrade and will be the rarest of all (it may even be Hero-only, i don't know).
There is an awfull lot we don't know about this upgrade system, including how things can be disabled on servers, we know things like Elite class can be disabled, but can we disable Elite for the Germans, so they don't get the MP-40/II, but only enable Elite for the soviets, so they get PPSh's with the drums? Or does disabeling a class mean it's not there for both teams?
This woulden't be a problem if it wheren't for the PPSh, so far it seems that if we want realism, we could disable Elite and Hero stuff if we want to keep things bare-bones and realistic.
But the PPSh is so far the odd one out, the only standard issue weapon that will actually require unlockables to be a realistic weapon for this time period.
And it's never quite realistic anyway, not only should the weapon have select fire from the start, but it should have a mixed loadout of magazines to be realistic (1 or 2 drums, and 6 or 8 sticks), but the plan is to only have sticks (a late 1944 loadout), or only have drums (a 1941 loadout, they stopped issuing only drums in early 1942 and switched to the mixed loadout).
If the gun where only implimeted realistically, it would be balanced.
It would have select fire, but the MP-40 does not? Not a problem! the MP-40 has a ROF of ~500 so it doesen't need Semi, it's no problem to fire it in 2 round bursts, or even single shots. But the PPSh has a ~900 ROF, making it allmost impossible to fire it in bursts of less than 5 rounds, so it really needs the Semi mode to be able to do what the MP-40 can so easilly.
But the drums? Well if it where realistic, you would only get one or two, and the rest of the ammo in sticks. TWI's balance problem stems from the fact that they are giving it an unrealisticly generous supply of drums (all drums), which it shoulden't have (though they could add it as a top-tier unlock to work alongside the MP-40/II, since all-drum loadouts where issue at the beginning of the war, and some soldiers still might have their origional issue from back then).
