Black Ops 4 servers have been improved after update – but there’s a catch

Following the October 23 game update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, it appears the server send rate has been increased, but it’s still not what it was in the multiplayer beta.

Back when the multiplayer beta took place in August, fans praised it for its fast, fluid and responsive gameplay, which felt tight and crisp.

However, upon the game’s full release, players quickly began to notice that the responsiveness wasn’t quite the same, as bullets would slide off enemies, corner peeking advantage was rife, and there was increased kill trading.

After some investigation, fans discovered that the server send rate (the rate at which updates are sent from the server to the client) were down to only 20Hz from around 60 in the beta.

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Unsurprisingly, this infuriated many players, who took to social media, YouTube and Reddit to slam Treyarch for the poor networking, but the developers responded by saying it was done to ensure a smooth launch period.

On October 23, Treyarch released a new update with what they said was the “first phase of planned changes to network configuration in targeted locations.” After some tests, it appears this is an increase to 30Hz server send rate.

Server send rate (blue) has been increased to 30Hz. Data: u/soja92

This data specifically comes from a Reddit user on the East Coast of the USA, and since Treyarch have said they are rolling it out in “targeted locations”, it may not be the same all across the globe.

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It is certainly a step in the right direction, but fans will hope to see the send rate increased further still as the we move further away from the launch period.

But, for those hoping that there will be a sudden jump to 60Hz, you can pretty much rule that out, as Treyarch said in their update:

“It’s important that we roll out updates in a carefully staged process, as changes to networking infrastructure can potentially produce both positive and negative effects, and we need to monitor every update closely.”

They have been updating the game every few days so far since launch, with numerous bug fixes, the addition of the Black Market, new game modes and more.