Battlefield 2142 got it right IMO for the most part
You get two trees per class you can go down, and each had ONE weapon unlock that you got at the bottom of the list, each time you ranked, you get a new weapon. or gadget, and you had slots to fill similar to now.
For Assault, you can mix it up between medic and an assault class.
Medic tree you get carbines with no grenade launchers, and perhaps limited to only an RDS?
Assault tree gets the goodies of a 40mm shotgun or grenade, and is of course more adept at anti infantry as it should be.
Engineers can either go for vehicle enhancements or anti armor roles perhaps. IE, use the current vehicle spec as a passive bonus in most cases. but I'm not sure how this would function really. just an idea. Engineers would be armed with either an SMG or shotgun
Support: They get to choose between two types of LMG's, the heavy hard hitting LMG's that kick like a mule like the PKM and M60, they are very heavy and slow your character down and you pretty much need to be kneeling or prone in order to use them effectively. Great defense weapons, they also will overheat faster.
Then you get the more high ROF LMG's which are good for suppression, but have limited penetration capabilities (IE they can't shoot through brick walls very well)
Recon: Where to begin, you have the option of going for the long range slow firing BA's as a Sniper, or useing DMR's. The DMR' using a less powerful zoom, and of course are semi auto, this would include the M14 EBR, T88 Sniper, SVD, HK417 etc.
As a scout you do not get a ghillies suit, you are a medium range sharpshooter meant to be closer to the fight, not half way across the damn map.
Just my 50 cents. May modify this post later if new things come to mind.
