Modern Warfare 3 October 12 update patch notes: Enemy nameplates, Striker nerf, more

Sledgehammer Games listened to community feedback and released a Modern Warfare 3 update that addresses enemy visibility, weapon balancing, and more.

Modern Warfare 3 players walked away from the beta’s first weekend with mostly positive feedback. Specifically, fans sang praises for a slower time-to-kill speed, classic mini-map, map voting, and improved movement speed. However, the devs didn’t escape unscathed from criticism.

Community members slammed “inconsistent” enemy visibility, “random” spawns, and a “horrible” delay after sliding.

Sledgehammer Games heard the complaints loud and clear and responded accordingly.

Activision

Enemy nametags finally return in Modern Warfare 3

If MW2 was your first COD, you would never guess, but enemy nametags were once a staple of the franchise. MW2 instead placed diamonds above players’ heads, which still served its purpose but didn’t provide nearly as much visibility as before.

Players feared the worst as the first MW3 beta weekend used a similar system to MW2. However, the devs leaned on community sentiment and are bringing back enemy nameplates for the second beta weekend.

MW3 players took note of the game’s crisp gunplay, but a few weapons emerged as early favorites. One SMG, in particular, ended up dominating not only short-range engagements but also medium and long-range gunfights.

The Striker most likely won’t have its reign of terror last much longer, as the SMG saw its range nerfed for the second beta weekend. The devs explained: “These changes reduce its damage output at long distances, preventing it from outperforming Assault Rifles.”

It’s important to note that the devs are also preparing an update to “decrease the slide to sprint delay,” but the change wasn’t ready to be a part of this patch. The devs are also investigating reports of “spawn selection quality,” and Sledgehammer Games urged players to send the team clips of examples.

Modern Warfare 3 October 12 patch notes

Here are the full October 12 MW3 patch notes.

Gameplay

• UIX
  • Enemy Operators will now display a red nameplate above their head.

Weapons

• Reduced Tac-Stance spread while sliding for several weapon classes.
  • Assault Rifles: Decreased 17-26%.
  • Submachine Guns: Decreased 14-17%.
  • Light Machine Guns: Decreased 30-45%.
  • Marksman Rifles: Decreased 29-31%.
  • Pistols: Decreased 10-20%.

• Decreased near-medium damage from 39 to 36.
• Decreased near-medium damage range from 24m to 19m (-21%).
• Decreased medium damage range from 30m to 25m (-17%).
• Decreased far-medium damage from 28 to 27.
• Decreased minimum damage from 23 to 21.
• Increased headshot damage multiplier from 1.2x to 1.3x.
• Increased lower-arm damage multiplier from 1x to 1.1x.

Killstreaks

• Guardian-SC
  • Decreased health from 550 to 400 (-27%).
  • Decreased lifetime from 120s to 60s (-50%).

Modes

• Ground War
  • Vehicles driven by the player no longer have limited fuel.
• Hardpoint
  • Disabled overhead spawn camera sequence upon respawn.

Maps

• Estate
  • Added collision near various areas of the Waterfall to prevent players from accessing unintended locations.
• Favela
  • Players will no longer be killed immediately after respawning near the yellow car on the Side Street.
• Popov Power (Ground War)
  • Added collision near Reactor Beta to prevent players from accessing an unintended location.

Operators

• Operator movement animations will now play properly in the moments following a respawn.

UIX

• Added a missing icon for the Incursion XII Long Barrel Attachment for the SVA 545.
• Players will now be properly notified of Playlist updates while idling in the menus.

Stability

• Addressed a crash that occurred while matchmaking in the Ground War playlist.
• Addressed multiple crashes that occurred while launching the game.
• Resolved an issue that caused an error message stating “a required network service has failed” upon attempting to join another player’s party.