If you want infantry only mode, the solution is simple.. Counterstrike. Better engine, better weapon balance, better net code, better hit-detection. Of course, far more cheaters than you'll ever encounter in BF2, but if this idea goes through as is the only cheat you'll need to 1.4 is to run a squad of medics on an infantry only server.
Just as important, the Battlefield series defining characteristic is vehicle and infantry interaction. Battlefield without vehicles is like cereal without milk, it just doesn't make sense. Without vehicles (and to a lesser extent commanders, class balance ect..) Battlefield 2 is nothing more than a mediocre shooter.
Balance does not exist in this "Infantry Only" mode.
You think medics are bad now? Try infantry only medics with nothing to stop them.
But first, let's take a look at how the other classes will fair:
Snipers are useless with increased HP it'll take them 4 or more shots to kill and by that time the target has escaped.
Engineers are useless obviously with nothing to repair, no use for mines, and inferior weapons.
AT are useless with inferior weapons, no grenades, and nothing to shoot an AT rocket at.
And of course, Spec Ops are useless without anything worthy of a C4 kill (no vehicles, commander assets to c4).
Assault are useless as always, but suprisingly less useless than they are normally. Still a far cry from a medic, however.
Support? Meh, medics with slightly better guns but lose the ability to revive/heal as a result, and thus.. worthless.
Then you've got the GODs of no infantry servers, the ultimate stat padder, the medic. Thirty seconds to revive? Sweet! Medic packs that instantly heal 4 grenades worth of damage? Sweet. Best weapons too? Super sweet. Most sprint for escaping with my massive tank of health? Godmode.
Of course, this scenario is not so sweet for the assault that just spent a full clip and a grenade to kill someone, only to have them revived in a fraction of a second by the swarms of medics. And of course since the medic has such high HP it's easy for them to run out in to the line of fire (no tanks/APCs to worry about), revive someone, run around the corner and drop a medpack and heal up. It would be a laughable stat padding fest and EVERYONE will be playing medic.
Of course, without APCs medic squads will become nothing short of invulnerable. Camping will be horrible, as people can just sit back and turtle with the medic crew in whatever certain location with no fear of a tank rolling up on them, a helicopter cleaning them out, a plane bombing them, or a commander dropping artillery. These things that they are removing are the checks and balances that keep 100% medic squads and other lame tactics at bay.
So the only alternative for the idiots at DICE is the just make it normal BF2 without vehicles. Of course then the servers set with no infantry 24/7 Karkand become havens for stat padders and "leet dewds". Horrible balance of course, but an easy way to grab a medic and rack up a 6-7 SPM with nothing to worry about. The players that sit on these servers will be the undisputed king of KDR, SPM, and every other stat that matters.
The inevitable outcome of all of this - servers full of medics hopping around reviving, turtling, spawn camping, and servers completely devoid of any class other than a medic with horrible balance and a failed game dynamic. I could think of no quicker way to completely kill the series.
Worst idea ever, scrap it all DICE or you'll forever lose my faith in you as a semi-competent game developer.
edit #1: Adding on the the original point made by this thread, I'd like to include the following speculation in my initial post:
It doesn't matter if it's a server side option, let me put it this way.
Let's say DICE introduces IO mode in the 1.4 patch.
Let's say to make the numbers easier to digest we've got a total of 20 BF2 servers in all, all of which are 64 player servers.
We'll go with a fairly liberal estimate but based on the number of 24/7 Karkand servers this might not be far off and we'll say that half of the servers switch over the IO mode.
Let's also say on any 64 player server you've got roughly 10-15 people total who are either trying to get in to a vehicle or are in one and want to stay in it.
So now, over the 20 servers you'd have a total of 200-300 people trying to get vehicles. But then IO mode comes so those 200-300 people who like/want vehicles go over to the 10 servers that still allow them. So now instead of the reasonable 10-15 people trying to get vehicles you've got 20-30 people, or roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the server. Now it's more difficult to get a vehicle, more players are sitting around waiting and doing nothing, and as a result the whole game is corrupted. Airfields are certain to be hell if this patch goes through.
In conclusion, IO mode effects all players, and the excuse "it's just a server side option!" doesn't really cut it. The effects of such a drastic change will ripple outwards and effect every single BF2 player, including those poor folks who bought BF2 because it is a large scale FPS with infantry, and *gasp* vehicles!
Of course the numbers aren't always so clean in the real world, but I'd bet my left pinky that this same factor will effect servers in the real world to a noticeable degree. And it is that fact that I can only hope that DICE fails to implement a pleasing version of the IO mode so that very few servers will switch over and the impact will be minimal.
edit #2
Teamwork is not needed nearly as much in an IO server. It may appear like you have more teamwork, but that's only because many of the essential tasks teammates had to perform in regular BF2 are no longer necessary. So in an IO server everyone can be a medic and do their down thing, so you'll get revived more and you'll say.. hey! more revives = more teamwork.... right? Wrong.
Your team doesn't have to bother having teammates spawn as AT to destroy that tank/APC. Don't have to have a teammate hop in that AA post and drop that plane/helicopter out of the sky. Don't have to bother spawning as engineer to lay down AT mines to block the path for the incoming armored vehicles. Don't have to move quickly and uncluster to avoid the inevitable artillery associated with half a team squatting on a flag. Don't have to have that transport helicopter pilot drop you at the flag, wait in a low hover and pick you up again. You don't have to worry about being careful while rounding that corner and being face to face with an APC or tank. You don't have to worry about being exposed up on a hill top sniping where an enemy helicopter will easily spot you. The list goes on and on.
BF2 "infantry only" should just be renamed to BF2 "easy mode", because on the most basic level that's all it really is.
Oh, and on a final note... splitting the community of a game in a manner such as this is quite possibly the easiest way to ruin a game and drain its playerbase.
Just as important, the Battlefield series defining characteristic is vehicle and infantry interaction. Battlefield without vehicles is like cereal without milk, it just doesn't make sense. Without vehicles (and to a lesser extent commanders, class balance ect..) Battlefield 2 is nothing more than a mediocre shooter.
Balance does not exist in this "Infantry Only" mode.
You think medics are bad now? Try infantry only medics with nothing to stop them.
But first, let's take a look at how the other classes will fair:
Snipers are useless with increased HP it'll take them 4 or more shots to kill and by that time the target has escaped.
Engineers are useless obviously with nothing to repair, no use for mines, and inferior weapons.
AT are useless with inferior weapons, no grenades, and nothing to shoot an AT rocket at.
And of course, Spec Ops are useless without anything worthy of a C4 kill (no vehicles, commander assets to c4).
Assault are useless as always, but suprisingly less useless than they are normally. Still a far cry from a medic, however.
Support? Meh, medics with slightly better guns but lose the ability to revive/heal as a result, and thus.. worthless.
Then you've got the GODs of no infantry servers, the ultimate stat padder, the medic. Thirty seconds to revive? Sweet! Medic packs that instantly heal 4 grenades worth of damage? Sweet. Best weapons too? Super sweet. Most sprint for escaping with my massive tank of health? Godmode.
Of course, this scenario is not so sweet for the assault that just spent a full clip and a grenade to kill someone, only to have them revived in a fraction of a second by the swarms of medics. And of course since the medic has such high HP it's easy for them to run out in to the line of fire (no tanks/APCs to worry about), revive someone, run around the corner and drop a medpack and heal up. It would be a laughable stat padding fest and EVERYONE will be playing medic.
Of course, without APCs medic squads will become nothing short of invulnerable. Camping will be horrible, as people can just sit back and turtle with the medic crew in whatever certain location with no fear of a tank rolling up on them, a helicopter cleaning them out, a plane bombing them, or a commander dropping artillery. These things that they are removing are the checks and balances that keep 100% medic squads and other lame tactics at bay.
So the only alternative for the idiots at DICE is the just make it normal BF2 without vehicles. Of course then the servers set with no infantry 24/7 Karkand become havens for stat padders and "leet dewds". Horrible balance of course, but an easy way to grab a medic and rack up a 6-7 SPM with nothing to worry about. The players that sit on these servers will be the undisputed king of KDR, SPM, and every other stat that matters.
The inevitable outcome of all of this - servers full of medics hopping around reviving, turtling, spawn camping, and servers completely devoid of any class other than a medic with horrible balance and a failed game dynamic. I could think of no quicker way to completely kill the series.
Worst idea ever, scrap it all DICE or you'll forever lose my faith in you as a semi-competent game developer.
edit #1: Adding on the the original point made by this thread, I'd like to include the following speculation in my initial post:
It doesn't matter if it's a server side option, let me put it this way.
Let's say DICE introduces IO mode in the 1.4 patch.
Let's say to make the numbers easier to digest we've got a total of 20 BF2 servers in all, all of which are 64 player servers.
We'll go with a fairly liberal estimate but based on the number of 24/7 Karkand servers this might not be far off and we'll say that half of the servers switch over the IO mode.
Let's also say on any 64 player server you've got roughly 10-15 people total who are either trying to get in to a vehicle or are in one and want to stay in it.
So now, over the 20 servers you'd have a total of 200-300 people trying to get vehicles. But then IO mode comes so those 200-300 people who like/want vehicles go over to the 10 servers that still allow them. So now instead of the reasonable 10-15 people trying to get vehicles you've got 20-30 people, or roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the server. Now it's more difficult to get a vehicle, more players are sitting around waiting and doing nothing, and as a result the whole game is corrupted. Airfields are certain to be hell if this patch goes through.
In conclusion, IO mode effects all players, and the excuse "it's just a server side option!" doesn't really cut it. The effects of such a drastic change will ripple outwards and effect every single BF2 player, including those poor folks who bought BF2 because it is a large scale FPS with infantry, and *gasp* vehicles!
Of course the numbers aren't always so clean in the real world, but I'd bet my left pinky that this same factor will effect servers in the real world to a noticeable degree. And it is that fact that I can only hope that DICE fails to implement a pleasing version of the IO mode so that very few servers will switch over and the impact will be minimal.
edit #2
Teamwork is not needed nearly as much in an IO server. It may appear like you have more teamwork, but that's only because many of the essential tasks teammates had to perform in regular BF2 are no longer necessary. So in an IO server everyone can be a medic and do their down thing, so you'll get revived more and you'll say.. hey! more revives = more teamwork.... right? Wrong.
Your team doesn't have to bother having teammates spawn as AT to destroy that tank/APC. Don't have to have a teammate hop in that AA post and drop that plane/helicopter out of the sky. Don't have to bother spawning as engineer to lay down AT mines to block the path for the incoming armored vehicles. Don't have to move quickly and uncluster to avoid the inevitable artillery associated with half a team squatting on a flag. Don't have to have that transport helicopter pilot drop you at the flag, wait in a low hover and pick you up again. You don't have to worry about being careful while rounding that corner and being face to face with an APC or tank. You don't have to worry about being exposed up on a hill top sniping where an enemy helicopter will easily spot you. The list goes on and on.
BF2 "infantry only" should just be renamed to BF2 "easy mode", because on the most basic level that's all it really is.
Oh, and on a final note... splitting the community of a game in a manner such as this is quite possibly the easiest way to ruin a game and drain its playerbase.
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