Modern Warfare day one patch notes: mini-map, weapon buffs, spawns, more

Albert Petrosyan

Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward have unveiled the launch day patch notes for Modern Warfare, and we’re here to make sure you’re caught up on all of the changes.

Modern Warfare is starting to release around the world, and players are able to access the game for the first time since playing the Beta back in mid-September. 

On October 24, Infinity Ward posted what are officially the first-ever patch notes for MW, outlining all of the changes they made between the Beta version and the full game.

As expected, with the Beta being so limited and full of issues and complications, there were a plethora of important adjustments and fixes the developers have implemented.

You can find all of the details about the changes below, including the full patch notes as provided by Infinity Ward.

Infinity WardA lot of things in Modern Warfare have been changed from the Beta to the full game.

Spawn fixes

Spawns were a huge issue in Modern Warfare during the Beta, and were high up on the list of things that most players complained about.

Thus, the developers made it a priority to resolve spawns and implemented several major fixes that will hopefully improve how they work in-game.

Firstly, the major problem where players would spawn directly on enemies, called “edge case scenarios,” has been fixed.

Furthermore, spawn logic has been adjusted to improve quality, and more spawns have been added to provide players with more options.

Infinity WardSpawns will (hopefully) not be as much of an issue as they were in the Beta.

How mini-map will work in regular modes

The mini-map was another hot topic of contention during the Beta, even more so than spawns, and Infinity Ward were heavily criticized for removing it from the main HUD.

They ultimately brought it back during the first Beta weekend, and it looks like that’s the version that will be used in the full version of the game.

In the core default Multiplayer modes, everyone will have a mini-map at their disposal, but enemy firing will not show up on it unless the player or team have a UAV up.

The one change the did make, however, is that the zoom has been “pulled out a bit” in order to help players see more of their surroundings. 

Infinity WardThe mini-map will largely stay the same as it was in the Beta, but a bit more zoomed out.

Weapon balancing

In terms of weapon balancing, the developers didn’t go into much detail about what they changed with the guns in the game.

All they said was that the weapons “received a lot of love since the Beta,” with a special emphasis on pistols and shotguns. 

This likely means that the weapons which were perceived to be noticeably weaker than they should have been, such as the two classes mentioned, have been buffed to improve their viability. 

Infinity WardExpect weapons to work a lot better than they did in the Beta.

You can check the full patch notes below, as they were posted on Reddit:

Day One Patch Notes, Updates, and Intel!

We’re almost there! Modern Warfare launches in a few hours and soon you’ll be able to hop into Campaign, Special Ops, and Multiplayer. Watching the game light up across the globe is so exciting and we’re happy to have all of you along for the ride and to celebrate with us.

You’ll be able to earn and unlock exclusive gear and XP for both Multiplayer and Special Ops when you play through the Campaign as well, so don’t skip out! Plus, on Friday night, be sure to grab some of your friends for Ground War!

Now, since Beta, we’ve made a TON of fixes to the game. Below are patch notes for fixes we’ve been working on with the help of your feedback:

GENERAL FIXES

  • Spawning in Core Multiplayer:
    • Fixed edge case scenarios with spawning on enemies
    • Adjusted spawn logic to improve spawn quality. We’ve also added more spawns to increase your options. We will continue to improve this map by map post-launch
  • Ground War:
    • Added more fallback spawns to FOBs if the flag has too many enemies
    • Improved safety checking for spawning on Squadmates (is still dangerous, but the UI will notify you of this!)
    • Added spawning on Squadmates while in vehicles
    • Neutral tanks and helicopters now show up in the Spawn Selection screen
    • Helicopters now have flares to help manage incoming missiles
    • If all flags are captured by one team, you’ll go into Defcon to win so protect those flags!
    • Fix for an exploit that was allowing players (and therefore teammates) to spawn under the map
  • Lighting:
    • Brightened characters in dark areas across many maps
  • Low Health Visuals:
    • Now brightens up in the middle of the screen instead of darkening
  • Weapon Balance:
    • In general, weapons received a lot of love since the Beta. Most notably shotguns and pistols.
  • Equipment:
    • Enemy claymores now have larger, visible lasers
    • Reviving a teammate near a friendly claymore could cause the claymore to explode, resulting in a suicide
  • Mini-Map:
    • Now on by default across core multiplayer and Ground War. Enemy firing does not show up on the mini-map unless a team UAV is active
    • Map zoom is pulled out a bit to help with player awareness
  • Killstreaks:
    • VTOL Jet adjusted to not target players though rooftops
    • Fix for the Juggernaut Suit not spawning out of a crate. Another fix was deployed to prevent the mask from staying on the player after you have died as the Juggernaut and respawned
    • After using the Cruise Missile, player character models were sometimes stuck in a lean after using the streak
  • Screen tearing on character and weapon models on Xbox
  • Impact damage of lethals/tacticals and the ammo box were causing instant kills
  • Adjustments to the descriptions in Gunsmith
  • Fix for a bug where the wrong input would be shown for players in a party
  • Fix for a bug where a door could open in the opposite direction of the player’s movement
  • Footsteps – Footstep tuning of volume fall off distance, mixing volume and occlusion settings
  • Placing Deployable Cover on stairs could prevent teammates from being able to mantle or crouch under, blocking paths**.**
  • Various audio tuning and fixes for executions and weapons
  • Players were able to spam the crouch button while moving creating a ‘snaking’ effect.

PC SPECIFIC

  • Crouch and prone transition animations have been smoothed out for high FPS
  • ADS Sensitivity options can now be saved when using KBM
  • Double-tapping the sticks now always triggers the Tactical Sprint when using a gamepad on PC
  • Fixed blurriness in various situations
  • Ping widget is now showing the correct latency value
  • Added depth of field option in the Graphics options
  • Added HDR support
  • Added NVIDIA Highlight support in MP
  • Global performance improvements and stability fixes
  • ADS transition animations have been smoothed out for high FPS
  • Adjusted stand-to-prone timing for KBM versus gamepads
  • Player no longer loses sprint functionality by holding down sprint keybind and the move keybind while respawning
  • FOV Slider setting reverting to default after loading into the map.

About The Author

Albert is a former esports and gaming writer, focused particularly on Call of Duty and content creators. Spending over three years at Dexerto, Albert eventually now works with streamer NICKMERCS and the MFAM group. You can find Albert @AlbertoRavioli on Twitter.