GamingCall of Duty

Treyarch Discuss What They Will Look Into After Day One of the Black Ops 4 Beta – Weapon Tuning, Armor, and More

Albert Petrosyan

Treyarch has posted an update as to what they will be looking into after day one of the CoD: Black Ops 4 Private Beta.

The developers have outlined several aspects of the game that they will be working on, including framerate, load times, weapons tuning, special issue equipment/weaponry, bunny hopping, spawns, the free cursor UI, and armor.

The arrival of the Black Ops 4 Beta on August 3 has afforded the chance for many in the community to try the upcoming game out for the first time.

It has also given Treyarch an opportunity to gauge community feedback and appropriately apply it to the game so that the final product released on October 12 will be as good as possible.

After the first day of action, Treyarch published a long post on Reddit detailing their experiences with the Beta so far, and what feedback they had received from the community.

The post is split into two parts, the first which details the high impact feedback items that the devs have been tracking:

  • Framerate: Overall, the general framerate in the game has been solid for the majority of players; however, we have identified specific cases where a player will experience a bug that causes the game to get into a bad state where framerate is severely impacted. We’re working with our QA and Player Support teams to zero in on steps to reproduce this issue so that we can engineer a fix. Additionally, there are some known performance shortfalls in Gridlock that we’re working to improve for our next big update.
  • Load Times: We’ve also identified a bug that’s causing maps to load too slowly for some players in a lobby relative to others in the same lobby (which results in those players missing out on the pre-match specialist selection stage). Again, we’re working with QA and Player Support to identify a repro case so that we can implement a fix.
  • Weapons Tuning: For anyone getting rekt by SMGs right now(!), rest assured that we’re looking at the performance stats of all weapons in the game with the flood of new data that we now have from the Beta, and we will be tuning gameplay content throughout the Beta period and beyond based on performance metrics. Look out for an update Saturday morning (PST).
  • Special Issue Equipment/Weaponry: Some players have shared feedback about Specialist weapons or equipment that feel OP. We’re actively looking through the data to make sure that we strike the right balance between fun and pacing. As with weapons tuning, balancing this will be actively updated during the Beta.
  • Bunny Hopping: We see you out there. . . clearly, your jump game is on point! Jumping in combat is a perfectly valid technique, but we may have let a few tweaks slip by that makes it a little… too valid. This one is high on our list of tuning tasks to address this week. (We also see you in your slide game, don’t think anything slides by us… see what I did there?)
  • Spawns: We’re looking at the data on spawns and are tuning this actively alongside other gameplay systems. Spawn systems are always in constant need of fine-tuning throughout the life of a game, because there are always new and evolving player behaviors and trends that impact it. We have designers dedicated to watching the spawn system and constantly working to improve it for a better overall player experience.

The second part of the post talks about two other aspects of the game that have been at the center of discussion among Beta players.

  • Free Cursor UI: Yes, this is a big change – which is why we knew it would be controversial. There are benefits to free cursor that make it faster to navigate once you get the feel for it and once we’ve tuned it effectively (which like all things is ongoing through Beta and beyond) – for example, you can travel from a selection in one corner of a grid to a selection in the opposite corner of the grid several times faster than you can with standard d-pad navigation. That said, we understand how off-putting a change like this can be for many players, so we’re investigating alternative approaches that bring more familiarity into the system while still maintaining the option of free cursor for those who want it.
  • Armor: We hear what you’re saying about Armor. We want to proceed thoughtfully and carefully here. We’re less than 24 hours into the Beta at this point, and not all content has been earned or had enough time to settle into the meta of the game. We know that the Gear category is new and has a lot of content that sits above the normal power band of Perks. Because of that, it’s really important that we see the full range of Create-a-Class content in play with a lot of data about player performance with this content before we rush into any changes with it. From our stats so far, other pieces of Gear are showing up as more effective than Armor. That said, we know that it can feel frustrating to fight against, and that feel is where we want to start. But let’s give this one a few more days to breathe.

It is worth keeping in mind that the Beta is as much for gaining feedback to improve the game as it is for players to have fun in a new CoD title.

You can participate in the feedback process by providing your comments and concerns on the Black Ops 4 Reddit page and these other locations:

  • Twitter: @Treyarch and @ATVIAssist – Make sure to include #BO4Beta.
  • Console: Depending on the technical issue, you may be given the opportunity to “report a problem” directly on your console. If that happens, please do so, as it helps us track down the source of issue.
  • Survey: After you’ve played the Beta, you will be given the opportunity to provide us with direct feedback through a survey: https://www.cvent.com/d/jgqvyy

The entirety of Treyarch’s Reddit post can be viewed below:

Day 1 – Beta Recap

Last night, we began slowly opening the flood gates to the Black Ops 4 Multiplayer Private Beta on PS4 to ease server load as we rolled into our official 10am/PT start this morning. Over the course of the first 5-10 hours, we experienced a few issues with beta packages not launching properly in the EU, as well as some instability associated with the new map Gridlock. We worked quickly to address these issues and were off to the races on what has been a tremendously fun Day 1 of our PS4 Beta. It looks like people have been having a good time and providing the exact type of feedback that we are looking for to make our October 12 launch better for everyone.

Of course, the Beta is just that – it’s a work-in-progress that can only be fine-tuned by having everyone hammer on it and tell us what they think. Out of the gate, here are a number of high impact feedback items that we’ve been tracking:

  • Framerate: Overall, the general framerate in the game has been solid for the majority of players; however, we have identified specific cases where a player will experience a bug that causes the game to get into a bad state where framerate is severely impacted. We’re working with our QA and Player Support teams to zero in on steps to reproduce this issue so that we can engineer a fix. Additionally, there are some known performance shortfalls in Gridlock that we’re working to improve for our next big update.
  • Load Times: We’ve also identified a bug that’s causing maps to load too slowly for some players in a lobby relative to others in the same lobby (which results in those players missing out on the pre-match specialist selection stage). Again, we’re working with QA and Player Support to identify a repro case so that we can implement a fix.
  • Weapons Tuning: For anyone getting rekt by SMGs right now(!), rest assured that we’re looking at the performance stats of all weapons in the game with the flood of new data that we now have from the Beta, and we will be tuning gameplay content throughout the Beta period and beyond based on performance metrics. Look out for an update Saturday morning (PST).
  • Special Issue Equipment/Weaponry: Some players have shared feedback about Specialist weapons or equipment that feel OP. We’re actively looking through the data to make sure that we strike the right balance between fun and pacing. As with weapons tuning, balancing this will be actively updated during the Beta.
  • Bunny Hopping: We see you out there. . . clearly, your jump game is on point! Jumping in combat is a perfectly valid technique, but we may have let a few tweaks slip by that makes it a little… too valid. This one is high on our list of tuning tasks to address this week. (We also see you in your slide game, don’t think anything slides by us… see what I did there?)
  • Spawns: We’re looking at the data on spawns and are tuning this actively alongside other gameplay systems. Spawn systems are always in constant need of fine-tuning throughout the life of a game, because there are always new and evolving player behaviors and trends that impact it. We have designers dedicated to watching the spawn system and constantly working to improve it for a better overall player experience.

Based on what we’ve seen on Twitter and on the Black Ops 4 sub reddit today, we appreciate that there are two other things that you’ll likely want to hear about:

  • Free Cursor UI: Yes, this is a big change – which is why we knew it would be controversial. There are benefits to free cursor that make it faster to navigate once you get the feel for it and once we’ve tuned it effectively (which like all things is ongoing through Beta and beyond) – for example, you can travel from a selection in one corner of a grid to a selection in the opposite corner of the grid several times faster than you can with standard d-pad navigation. That said, we understand how off-putting a change like this can be for many players, so we’re investigating alternative approaches that bring more familiarity into the system while still maintaining the option of free cursor for those who want it.
  • Armor: We hear what you’re saying about Armor. We want to proceed thoughtfully and carefully here. We’re less than 24 hours into the Beta at this point, and not all content has been earned or had enough time to settle into the meta of the game. We know that the Gear category is new and has a lot of content that sits above the normal power band of Perks. Because of that, it’s really important that we see the full range of Create-a-Class content in play with a lot of data about player performance with this content before we rush into any changes with it. From our stats so far, other pieces of Gear are showing up as more effective than Armor. That said, we know that it can feel frustrating to fight against, and that feel is where we want to start. But let’s give this one a few more days to breathe.

There are many other issues that we’re also tracking (including some interesting canine behavior) – just know that this is a process that is constant, ongoing, and only possible through our interactions with you.

Please keep the feedback coming here on Reddit – and here’s how you can participate at the following locations:

  • Twitter: @Treyarch and @ATVIAssist – Make sure to include #BO4Beta.
  • Console: Depending on the technical issue, you may be given the opportunity to “report a problem” directly on your console. If that happens, please do so, as it helps us track down the source of issue.
  • Survey: After you’ve played the Beta, you will be given the opportunity to provide us with direct feedback through a survey: https://www.cvent.com/d/jgqvyy

Thank you for your feedback and continue to enjoy the Beta – we’re looking forward to playing with you throughout the weekend!

Treyarch

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