Vahn says removing Armor Level 3 from Blackout would be ‘the wrong call’

In a lengthy podcast interview with GameInformer, as GameInformer raps up their coverage of Black Ops 4 this month, GI asked Vonderhaar, Treyarch’s Design Director, fan related questions on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and the Blackout BR mode.

One of the hot topics coming out of the beta was Armor and its significance to the mode. Many fans wondered about Armor and how Treyarch plans to change it for launch. Treyarch made some adjustments during the beta, but Vahn followed up in this interview to elaborate a bit on their vision.

Vahn stated that removing Level 3 Armor is the ‘wrong call’ and they do not want to do that. Vahn states he believes that Armor has its important role in the game and how it functions in the end-game but are going to make adjustments and tweaks to it. One of the big ideas they are looking at is to understand how Armor effects the end game in Blackout and how they can make changes to that to ensure it’s a balanced in a way that works.

During the beta itself, Treyarch already made some adjustments as outlined below:

• Spawn frequency of Level 3 Armor has been reduced by 75% compared to its initial spawn rate in the Beta.
• Level 3 Armor will now most frequently be found in Stashes and Supply Drops, though it may occasionally spawn in the world.
• Level 3 Armor now breaks sooner and passes more damage to the player wearing it, and still offers headshot and other types of damage mitigation. We’ve heard your concerns that Level 3 Armor was still perhaps too powerful by the end of the Beta, and will be evaluating the data to see what other tweaks may be required.
• Level 2 Armor was also minorly adjusted during the Beta and will potentially be tweaked further in time for launch.
• Players will see an indicator of the condition of their own Armor, and those of their teammates, in the HUD. This provides a more granular indicator of the damage that your Armor has taken beyond the Armor icon and will let you know if it’s time to seek out a replacement.

Vahn stated that they will always be looking at the tuning in Blackout and how to adjust based on fan feedback.

The full interview is available here.