Call of Duty

Treyarch – Black Ops 4 “Road to Launch” Stream Recap

Keshav Bhat

Treyarch hosted a Road to Launch stream on their YouTube channel talking about the changes they are making to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 based on the feedback from both the MP and Blackout betas as we get ready for the launch this Friday.

In this post, we’re recapping a lot of the big things they shared.

Multiplayer:

  • New weapons revealed:
    • Outlaw Sniper
    • RK-7 Garrison Burst Pistol
    • New LMG, there’s 2 new LMGs compared to beta
  • Treyarch has made numerous balance improvements to weapons in MP. They are “very happy” with the balance right now, but will of course monitor it throughout the year to see how to adjust weapons based on feedback.
  • New Optic Sight revealed, only for certain weapons. It features thermal and night vision.
  • 3 new Scorestreaks revealed:
    • Drone Squad — squad of drones do recon around the map
    • Sniper’s Nest — a helicopter flies in featuring 2 professional snipers on each side of the helicopter and take out enemies with a .50 CAL weapon. It’s one shot, one kill.
    • The Dart returns!
  • Lots of improvements to the RC-XD. Better vision and ability to navigate and more effective.
  • Attack Chopper now improved. “Some might say it’s actually devastating.”
  • Drop Shot has been drastically changed. You have to use the Stock II attachment on weapons in order to drop shot now. It does not work by default.
  • Big change if you use Tracker Perk: there’s an eye ball on your map when you appear on anyone’s mini map, including fog of war.
  • Fog of War is now a cone versus a circle. There’s a perk, Team Link, to get better situational awareness.
  • Spawn system has been drastically improved. Treyarch is “very very happy” with it.
  • When you switch to heal and back to your weapon, it’s a lot faster and smoother animation. Stem Shot was “too crutch” in beta, its been “dialed back”…there’s some time added with using it.
  • Big thing for LMG: there is “very little..too almost no” flinch in ADS using LMGs in Black Ops 4

Blackout:

  • Level 3 Armor has a reduced spawn rates in the world. Less often in the world now.
  • Changes to Muzzle Flashes coming for release: they don’t want it to impact your field of view. They want it shown to you in a dark room, not all the time. Muzzle Flashes are now improved for launch.
  • Changes also have been made to what you see on screen when you’re outside the zone. Not as much red on your screen, “feels appropriate to being outside.”
  • Audio Updates:
    • Fixed audio issues between walls/etc, that wasn’t working properly in beta
    • Teammates foot steps are now quieter
    • Under Audio Options in Settings, there’s many mix settings to work for your play style, including headphone option for those who were annoyed with the pre-stage deployment sounds.
  •  New option, tap to pick up, added for consoles. They are actively discussing making tap to pick up items default, hold to pick an option. Picking up items is a lot faster. Don’t have to look down anymore.
  • HUD Updates:
    • You’ll see when your teammates are downed now.
    • Top right corner of your screen: Kills + Cleanups. Kills — put in down state; Clean up — finishing enemy off down state.
  • Updated After Action Report in Blackout, can also see Squad stats
  • As you level up in Blackout, every 20 levels, you will get a new Blackout character. There’s a total of 80 levels in Blackout.
  • Changes to the Merit System to better suit the mode based on feedback. Earn merit, 10 points, for kills. More merit earned for placement in matches.
  • Hit markers are now different for what you’re hitting. Specific hit marker for hitting a vehicle versus hitting a player.
  • Blackout Launch Player Count Revealed
  • Blackout Post-Launch ideas also talked about, here’s a post for that.

You can watch the stream again here:

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