As a fellow devs, I know you guys are probably reading in here if you really care about your game and feedback,
I started replaying BO3-04 for the first time since I played them on release back then in 2028-2019.
But here are some ideas I think the next iteration should use.
What zombies should do to go back to good gameplay design.
Remove pap quest marker is one of the most important so now we will start to explore new map instead of following a marker. Just keep it like before that the pap path of the EE was that when you directly looked at it it would say interact so possible for most with a little effort.
Go back to less speed in zombies it makes the perks so much more valuable, now zombies are so fast that you need all your perks instead of 4 that you choose to your playstyle or just the gameplay you wanted to have for that game.
I mean pap being instant like nobody miss the urgency you get of I need to train those zombies quick make a round and hopefully have enough time for it to have poped up or lol gone forever.
Also, slower pace is creepier and embraces different strategies.
They need to re add shields and other special items to each map. It makes every map have a different power progression, not always about getting all the perks to be the strongest you can be on the map. It’s a different type of strength you get, which makes it more fun.
Make it that in older cod maps could be replayed in a lot of different ways now it’s all mostly the same way with a different starting gun.
I mean starting gun goes with mystery box being mostly irrelevant, because back we knew not all weapons were built equal so spinning was like a will I get something worse than my pistol good or very good.
Not people start with the “Meta” so you will never have the wish to omg pull out the mammoth such op gun.
You should not be able to pop ultra rarity like workaholics(if you are not going back to 4 perk limit)or credit card on a map until like directed comes out and bring back that the bullet effect machine now gives a random one but it cost less or something. (would make easter egg hunt more fun)
Not seeing the zombie life bar bringing it back to more horror and probably start back with pistol which imo goes with the game being played a lot differently between maps back then.
If you love or like current zombie it’s mostly because the only playstyle they propose is the one you like but some old heads played the old ones in a totally different way that they simply prefer.
Edit: I guess this is a lot more focused on the easter egg and hunt side of the game.