Hardware

ironically COD did the "cold war gone hot" thing not too long ago, lol

I actually think smaller-scale conflicts would be a good fit for battlefield gameplay. the series has eternally struggled to balance aircraft, having jet fighters boom-and-zoom and go repair in the endzone where they're untouchable is no good, they just don't couple to the battlefield very well. even tanks/helicopters have risk, but, planes just fly away and go repair. and if you make them weaker then they're not any good.

(it's very similar to sniper rifles in the sense that sniper rifles either 1-hit you and then they're not fun for anyone else, or they require multiple hits and then that's just not good compared to DMR/etc which allow you to spam shots and achieve generally lower TTKs on average if you assume one or two misses.)

but if you do smaller-scale conflicts, then airplanes can be older slower stuff like harriers or a-6 intruders, or propeller aircraft, and helicopters, etc. if planes can't just disappear over the battlefield in 5 seconds flat, then that's more of a chance for people on the ground to actually coordinate against them and gets you away from the "sniper-rifle problem".