I think the map changes only apply to Operations, and it might actually be a little closer to balanced now. My thoughts (sorry if I'm pessimistic).
1) Now everyone will fly fighters because tail gunner won't be able to take down enemy planes because DICE can never nerf/buff 2 things without screwing it up. (They decreased "close" damage by 42% while "bullets" do 20% more damage to bombers. does that mean MG bullets from planes or just ground gun fire?)
2) Emergency repair nerfs are not going to fix the problem of there being emergency repairs.
3) Landship has now become op and light tank is the new Landship. More than likely they did the "buff" so more people would use the Landship, but that was never the problem of why no one uses it.
4) Reducing the AA range from 400m to 334m is not going to fix the problem. They need to lower them to 200m but I've got a feeling that it would limit max height which would allow orbit bombing.
5) LMGs have just become screwed up if I understand this correctly. i.e. Bar Trench is now the preferred setup. It's far superior in hip fire (what's intended) but now it should be just as accurate as the telescopic version when ads. (Maybe I missed something?)
6) The problem with the shotguns has to do with damage and range. Even with the accuracy buff to the other shotguns, the a10 and "range decrease" (I assume damage drop off starts soon) will not fix the problem that the a10 and m97 sweeper have twice the pellets as the other shotguns. All shotguns have zero spread when ADS and standing, so what advantage does reducing max range get? Nothing because you still get 80% damage compared to 50% damage. In other words, the a10 still has the clear advantage kill faster since even with the tighter spread on the other guns, you still have twice the pellets on those 3 and because of that, have a higher chance of hitting the target. I know you have spread as the pellets fly away from the gun and not all pellets will hit. Though in the cone, you have a 21v12 (for the a10 v 12g), without increasing the 12g to the higher count of the a10, it's worthless.
7) Fixing the bug of not being able to sprint out a crouch? Who comes up with these ideas!? That was literally the only thing that kept people from crouch (slide) running when being shot at. Welcome to the new dolphin diving.
Still no mention about fixing DX12 and the stupid problem for getting blinded by reflections or blue/green filter spam if you don't have TAA for your AA setting. As for balance, I don't think DICE could balance plate on a flat surface. All the changes made to the Landship make no sense unless they wanted to get people to play it more and made it op on purpose. You thought the Heavy tank was bad before? Get ready for the new op tank, the Landship. Instead of just 1 cannon, it has 2! And it has the same armor as the Heavy tank. Gee, I wonder how that fight will go?
I hope I'm wrong about some of these things (which I'm sure I will be on some). Though I'm pretty sure the Landship will now be abused and that's going to be the only thing that gets spawn any more. The quick repairs at a break between the heavy and Landship so even if the Landship can't move, you're still out gunned against a Landship. Even worse if it's the support one that now has the 20mm on the front gun.
Anyway, here's the pastebin for any one that wants to read it the changes:
http://pastebin.com/MRYABYZA
