Modern Warfare 2
So you get a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, two attachments for each weapon, grenades, and three perks. This is all well and good, and there's a very wide variety of weapons and perks and stuff that you can make your Create-A-Class from. Here's my issue though: In the single player, the game gives you a silenced ACR with a heartbeat sensor and a red dot sight, but this setup is impossible to replicate in the multiplayer. At most, you can have two attachments on your gun.
Counter-Strike (Source)
The game doesn't have attachments, but has a "shop" system, where you can purchase a primary weapon, a pistol, assorted grenades, and other equipment. At the beginning of each round, every player is given some money, the winning team's members are given even more money, and during the round, each kill is worth a certain amount of money. If the player survives a round, they keep the weapons that they purchased or found during the previous round, and otherwise they have to buy all new weapons. For a game that's already terribly un-noob-friendly, the shop system gives the better players a big advantage over the worse players. Nothing sours a session of CS:S than having to survive a round with just a USP.
My Proposal
For this new FPS, a multiplayer, modern day (sort of), tactical shooter, there will be a budget system. Here's how it works:
The player is given a budget for how much equipment they can have in their loadout, let's say 200 points.
-Primary weapons (assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, sniper rifles) all cost the same amount, 75 points.
-Pistols cost 20 points.
-Attachments for primary weapons cost 10 points.
-Attachments for pistols cost 5 points.
-"Skills" (same idea as Perks in MW2) cost 15 points.
-Grenades cost 15 points.
-Grenade launchers (not an attachment, a standalone weapon like this) cost 30 points.
-Extra magazines cost 5 points.
That way, the player can create a wide variety of possible loadouts. Balanced loadouts have a primary and a pistol, a few attachments, and a few perks. There are also skill-heavy loadouts and weapon heavy loadouts. Here are a few example loadouts:
"Special Ops"
-Assault rifle 75
---Silencer 10
---4x Scope 10
-Pistol 20
---Silencer 5
---Laser Sight 5
-Skill 1 15
-Skill 2 15
-Skill 3 15
-Frag Grenade 15
-Flashbang 15
Total: 200
"Mobile Sniper"
-Sniper rifle 75
-SMG 75
---Silencer 5
---Red dot 5
-Skill 1 15
-Skill 2 15
Total: 200
"Demolitions"
-SMG 75
-G. Launcher 30
-Skill 1 15
-Skill 2 15
-Skill 3 15
-Frag Grenade 15
-Frag Grenade 15
-Frag Grenade 15
Total: 195
I'm still thinking about what sorts of weapons and such I want to have for the final game, and of course all the prices are still in "alpha." It'll be an interesting thing to balance; all the items that are the same price can be balanced against each other, but it's hard to compare a grenade launcher to two perks, for instance.
