Carl on Duty: Black Cops - Holy crap a patch
 

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So despite most of you donging all over it pre-release, the slow cascade of people getting this has begun. Toku and Russ have been playing it, my rental showed up which somehow led to m00 buying it, and then hilariously Skills has bought it. Also for those of you who know them some of the other guys from Shimms' group have it; SoupClan rented it from Gamefly as well, and at least Shimms will probably be buying it Black Friday and more of those guys might get roped in as well. So it seemed appropriate to make a thread, since it looks like this will probably get some level of play from enough people. I think most of us will still main Halo, but this seems like a good alternative go to for at least a couple of months as the two games could not be any different.

I still haven't played much (I'm level 12 and just unlocked Custom Classes, Killstreaks, etc), but since we all have familiarity with MW2, I'm just going to pull this condensed list of main differences from that game.


Classes - unlocks are different; you still obtain XP in the same ways, but you also earn COD points (which is a horrible name) that you have to use to actually buy stuff. So you still unlock gun x at level x, but then you have to spend money to buy that gun, along with attachments, equipment, perks, etc.

Wager Matches - 4 modes in which you can put up your COD points in a match against other players; the top 3 players at the end earn their ante back plus a bonus, everyone else loses their ante.

Contracts - Somewhat similar to Reach's Challenge system. On a daily/weekly basis, there are 3 different sets of contracts you can purchase. Once you purchase the contract those COD points are gone, so if you don't complete the contract you're out that money, but the contracts tend to pay very well (usually up to ten times what you paid for it). The contracts are things like knife an enemy in the back, get 10 headshot kills with a certain gun, etc. What's interesting on these is that you have an in-game time limit to hit them; so rather than being given a time limit of say 5 matches, it will give you 45 minutes while alive in-game to complete them. You can complete a contract multiple times while it's available that day/week, but once you've completed it there's a cooldown time until you can purchase it again. The ones I did had about an hour or so on average.

Prestige - You now max out rank and can Prestige at Level 50, but there are now 15 Prestige levels. Like before you unlock additional Custom Class Slots at higher Prestige levels, as well as other unlocks (like camos, playercards, etc).

Visual Customization - You can now buy and edit your Playercard (the nameplate behind your name in lobbies, Titles in MW2), as well the Icons that appear on your Playercard. You now buy the icons, and can buy 12 layers of them so you can pull off some Fortza type bullshit if you are so inclined (you can do some basic rotating, color changing, and outlines). You can unlock more Playercards and Icons as you rank up, but they still must be purchased. You can also buy custom reticules (I was killed by someone with a smiley face laser sight), gun skins, and other visual flair but I apparently haven't gotten to any of that yet so I can't comment.

Killstreaks - Deathstreaks are completely gone. Killstreak kills no longer "stack," i.e. getting kills with your Sentry Gun Killstreak don't count as kills towards your next Killstreak.

3 kills - Spy Plane, aka UAV
3 kills - RC-XD, a remote controlled car strapped with explosives
4 kills - Counter-Spy Plane, aka radar jammer
4 kills - SAM Turret, a placeable turret that destroys aircraft
5 kills - Care Package, works as before by dropping a random killstreak or ammo crate, can now also drop a Special Weapon like the Death Machine (a player-usable minigun)
5 kills - Napalm Strike, drops in a firestrike (think Harrier Strike but with fire)
6 kills - Sentry Gun, just like before
6 kills - Mortar Team, choose three locations on the map to bombard with mortar strikes
7 kills - Attack Helicopter, just like before
7 kills - Valkyrie Rockets, launcher with two remote controlled rockets
8 kills - Blackbird, a recon plan that reveals enemies and their direction, NOT destructible
8 kills - Rolling Thunder, a B-52 Carpet Bombing (aka Harrier Strike)
9 kills - Chopper Gunner, similar to MW2
11 kills - Attack Dogs, as annoying as it sounds
11 kills - Gunship, allows you to pilot a HIND with rockets and machine gun, can be destroyed

Perks - Stopping Power, Juggernaut, Danger Close, One Man Army and Commando are all gone. Worth noting also that Scavenger now does NOT restore Grenade Launcher ammo, so Noobtubing like in MW2 is effectively gone. Now to unlock the Pro versions of Perks, you have to complete 3 specific challenges. The perks in BLOPS are:

Lightweight: Move faster / Pro: No fall damage
Scavenger: Resupply from dead bodies, does not resupply launchers or equipment / Pro: Doubles your starting ammo and replenishes tactical grenades
Ghost: Undetectable by Spy Plane and Blackbird / Pro: Undetectable by aircraft, dogs, infrared and sentries, enemies don't see your name or red crosshair when targeting you
Hardline: Killstreaks 1 kill earlier / Pro: "Re-roll" results of a Care Package
Flak Jacket: Extra explosives resistance / Pro: Extra fire resistance and reset fuse when you throw back grenades

Hardened: Extra bullet penetration / Pro: Bullets do extra damage to Aircraft and turrets, reduced flinch when shot at
Scout: Hold breath longer / Pro: Switch between weapons faster
Steady Aim: Extra accuracy when shooting from hip / Quicker aiming after sprinting and quicker recover from knife lunges
Sleight of Hand: Faster reload / Pro: Faster aiming down sight with non-scoped weapons
Warlord: 2 attachments on primary weapon / Pro: Start with one extra lethal and tactical grenade (excluding smoke)

Marathon: Longer sprint / Pro: Unlimited sprint
Ninja: Move silently / Pro: louder enemy footsteps, makes you completely silent
Second Change: Pull out pistol before dying / Pro: Survive longer and any teammate can revive you
Hacker: Detect enemy equipment and explosives / Pro: Booby trap enemy care packages and turn enemy killstreaks and equipment friendly (???)
Tactical Mask: Reduces effect of Flash and Concussion grenades / Pro: Reduces effects of Gas and Concussion grenades, reveals location of flashed or stunned enemy

Weapons - Grenades and Equipment are different slots now, as opposed to being lumped together like MW2. Shotguns are back to Primary weapons.

-You can now dive to prone which is sort of hilarious.

-Party Chat is allowed now in all playlists but Search and Destroy. Fuck you IW.


So far I'm enjoying it; pretty much feels like MW2 with changes that range from good, bad, or indifferent. Probably my only particular disappointment is the SCAR being gone as that was my go to gun (and so far I haven't really liked any of the Assault rifles I've unlocked), and none of the Killstreaks really do it for me. Although it might overall be for the better that Killstreaks don't seem as super broken in this as they did in MW2. Also the UI in lobbies and menus isn't great, took us a while to find shit and it's just really not intuitive.

I'm loving it. I think pretty much all the changes (gameplay wise) are for the better and so far BOPS > MW2. Everyone using care packages because they can't get gunship and dogs legit woooo~

The UI in the lobbies is slick as hell, but they need to do a better job of calling out various things.

So far, it feels like they didn't mess with things that didn't need it, but killed a lot of broken shit (all the perks that are gone deserved it for one reason or another, attachments are a lot less abusable) and the stuff involving COD points, buying stuff instead of having to grind it, and the general less restrictive nature of the playlist just calls out a lot of the really stupid crap IW did that they didn't have to do in MW2.

The engine still shows some weaknesses, especially in the connectivity department. Some of the wonkiness there felt not much different from MW2.

Still liking it a lot, though.

Also Daravon, you renting it didn't lead me to it. Skills and I talking to each other about how we were both wavering about buying it caused us to buy it. We weakened each other's resolve.

My concern about this game was that the Treyarch productions have always been something of a pale imitation of the IW games. Since I'd been so incredibly disappointed in Modern Warfare 2 and the mess the multiplayer was in that I wasn't holding out much hope what-so-ever for Black Ops. I expected it to be a decent, though largely similar, experience.

But then the news about various tweaks and changes they'd made as a result of listening to the fans and I was intrigued, I just wonder if Treyarch could pull it off. Sounds like they have and what with all the feedback I've seen from mates I trust (including people here) I too am going to pick it up. In fact I plan to pop out into town this morning and try and grab a copy.

Given past performance I don't think it's entirely unfair that people like us were a little more cautious about this release (I had played some of World at War's MP and really didn't like what they'd done with it, as well), but I'm not going to cut my nose to spite my face, so to speak.

Guess I'll be seeing you guys on there for some multiplayer later then. :)

I've played enough to get to rank 23 or so now and I can say that there are aspects of it that I like and aspects that I don't like. The main gripe I have remains in the "I shoot them in the back, but they turn around and kill me with a weaker gun" department.

The things I have liked so far include the fact that the maps are (if not smaller) less wide open, so there are far fewer snipers around, and there seems to be fewer situations on maps where you can only get from one side of the map to the other by way of two or three "hallways". The air support is still powerful, but not utterly dominant the way it was in MW2. I got a chopper gunner earlier and managed to kill about 8 or 10 people, instead of the 15+ that was normal in MW2 with chopper gunner. I like the level progression/gun progression.

While it generally feels "cheaper" than either of the Modern Warfares, in terms of look, feel, sound, it is at least a vast improvement over World at War and is so far somewhat playable.

You think it feels cheaper? How so? I feel like BLOPS got a gigantic coat of polish that MW2 was sorely lacking.

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Apparently, BLOPS has an architecture set up that allows them to make "live fixes" without having to send things through certification. So far, they've fixed:

They've also posted stuff that is "in progress" for future fixes.

Of note:

I've run into issues where I search for a Wager Match and get thrown into a random private match, so I'm hoping that thing about player matches accidentally doing that also applies to wager ones. Nice to hear they're working on some of the stuff, although them saying they've fixed parties disintegrating when the leader doesn't find a game fast enough doesn't seem to have taken yet.

From what I can tell some of these fixes can come as live updates while they still have to send patches through certification for other things. Considering the speed at which they've already been doing shit (there was a title update before the game came out, for one), I'd put money on it being sooner rather than later that some of the more egregious lag-related shit gets fixed.

Well that's good news. I don't know how it is on the circle version, but the lag can get pretty wonky on PS3. In rounds where I can't seem to kill anyone it's entertaining to watch the kill cam and see how things went on the enemy's side. I can usually count a good quarter of a second difference in my actions on their cam.

Supposedly the PS3 version is even worse than the 360 version in terms of online framerate and lag, which is almost unbelievable.

I believe it (I have a PS3). As I said, watching killcams has offered quite a bit of insight into the amount of lag actually going on. It's bad enough that sometimes even though I opened fire into the guy before I was killed, on his killcam replay it shows me as never having fired a shot. It's especially noticeable with shotguns, making them almost unusable sometimes.

Right, but everything you've said 100% happens all the fucking time on 360, which is why I'm appalled at people saying it's even worse on PS3 than 360, since it's barely playable on 360.

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Another belly flop. This time it's even stupider, and I'm not the one doing the flopping!

This actually sounds a lot like Bad Company 2 where you could shoot at thin air and get a kill, yet if you walk up behind someone and blast them in the head you miss and wind up getting stabbed in the face. Something about shotguns in games nowadays. :(

HMV are doing a deal over here whereby if you trade in Black Ops by December you can get that new Assasins Creed for £3 or a couple of other things for a fiver, in case anyone in the UK is bored of it yet.

Title update today that patches matchmaking, host selection, and party issues, as well as fixing the weekly/monthly leaderboards.

Well, that's a start. I think I'd still prefer an update that fixes people dying when you shoot them.

Fixing (or at least improving) host choices and matchmaking SHOULD fix the latency issues of people actually kicking the bucket more often.

Additional Spam:
Just played for a bit with Omagnus.

Patch improves a LOT. Thank God. Only had one match where there was any lag related BS and it was because someone was very obviously standbying. So colour me surprised at just how quick (and effective) it is. I am pleased.

What level do I have to be at to buy the weed nameplate. I don't even care about buying other shit. M16 is the most sex starting gun ever and I'll be damned if I'm going to use anything else.

Go to your playercard settings and go all the way to the bottom where it should say "Riddled" if you still have the default nameplate. Choose that and you can look at all the nameplates and what levels they unlock at.

Why can't you just tell me, I don't wanna do all that work. :(

(Thanks for the tip though)

I played for about an hour last night and managed to do pretty well overall, with little blatant lag related bullshit, so that is good. Now if they could just fix spawning so that I don't have three or four of their guys spawn surrounding me all the time, that would be great.

Interesting you mention that.

Man Phong is never allowed to play zombies again.

P: "Hey look there's a mystery box over there!"

F: "Phong get back the zombies are coming."

P: "Guys check this out."

F: "PHONG. GET BACK."

P: "Alright I'm coming" ::runs towards group then turns back towards the box::

::Phong subsequently downed by zombies"

G: "I got this"

M: "DO NOT GO TO REVIVE HIM"

::Goodhand goes down, group is overrun::

Merc and Fox: "GOD DAMN IT PHONG"

I am shocked.

"FUCK IT IM SCARED IM OUTTA HERE"

I keep meaning to buy this but keep putting it off. I don't think I can justify buying another game for $60 after I bought (and was completely disappointed by) Blood Stone. But I do love me some FPS gaming.

I assume everybody here has the 360 version, because the PC version that I got is a load of shit compared to MW2. Part of that opinion might be from me being bitter that my computer can't run it well, but some of the gameplay changes threw me.

Maybe it's the lag that's killing me, but the M16 was my gun of choice in MW2 and from what I've used of it so far, it's got nowhere near the power it did in the old game. I've also noticed that assault rifles are pretty much the only gun worth using because every other gun has ridiculous recoil.

i dont know where to post this but
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=413950
is dat true? That the $10 raise was to pay activison?

The price hike was because they've never put up the price since Live was launched however many years ago that was. There's a lot of "probably" in that article and if anything it highlights the hilarious change of tack from wanting to charge a subscription to saying there's no way they'd ever charge one (Obviously realising that all the COD players would just play something else if they tried charging for the pleasure).

I wouldn't believe too many crazy internet conspiracy theories if I were you.

That thread is speculation, but in all honesty there's probably at least some partial truth to that; the fact that MS is apparently paying out any amount of money to Activision I'm sure contributes, but I agree with Shin that it was probably at least largely driven by the fact that the price on the service hasn't changed in 6 years.

Also holy fucking shit, we just had a 31 game winning streak, absolute madness.

Yo dawg, I heard you like dogs so I put a dog in yo dawg so you can woof while you woof

TELL ME WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN DARAVON

Can see now why u play this instead of Halo... ;););)

You mean because 99% of my friends list is playing this instead of Halo now? Yeah, you're right.

i wish i had nerd friends. i dont know anyone that plays xbox like that

I have a PS3.

foreveralone.jpg

holy christ you can get out of your chair

I tried to get out of the chair but it was too laggy and after the host migration I was back in the chair

You guys didn't tell me there was a computer you could use once you get out of the chair. :(

Actually I did tell you that, but you were probably too busy having your mind blown that you could get out of the chair

Am I the 1%? :(

You and a couple of the European dudes yes. I still get on in the mornings to do Challenges, and I see Roflfox on a bit (probably doing the same), but basically everyone has transitioned to blops. I'm assuming that Shimms and those guys are still playing Halo, but I haven't seen them on in a while, and I know at least Shimms said he was going to try to get blops on Black Friday.

We can be super friends that plays Bops :D

Especially since i just finished Campaign (Awesome although would have been awesome if the last part of the "Story" was playable, Like Call of Duty Moden Warfare, The Plane epilogue)

Making my way to Multiplayer, Pretty fun, although my horrendous 3rd world country internet affects my games greatly, it still is major fun (Especially when i get that coveted 3 green bars for my connectivity)

Some specifics on the patch m00 was talking about in the lobby the other day; according to their forum notes on this this was submitted to the console manufacturers (or to be submitted) Monday, and via their little FAQ from that point to actual release it's out of their hands, and usually takes about a week to a week and a half from that point. So sometime next week on this stuff? The party issues and knife lunge reduction are probably the most relevant.

Also for the lol's:

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These patch notes are hilarious. Some of this hasn't even been implemented. Let's see if I can't clean them up a little bit.

Red and green I've confirmed myself, orange I haven't had a chance to yet.

I guess 1/2 should be the going rate for expecting the fix to apply, I guess.

Although I'm glad we're not playing this on PS3, which is apparently a disaster of untold proportions right now.

Since the newest "Patch" came in, I'd be lucky to play an hour. It's a shame because before the patch everything was working fine for me and I was actually enjoying it more than MW2. Now the NAT type goes from Open to moderate at random times, connection interrupted is more frequent than host migration, and when a game works the lag hits you like a kick in the ass.
So yeah, have fun with your issues xboxers >=(

Weird that you`re still having party issues skills, we played some and still have it a bit, but it`s much better overall in terms of people getting dropped randomly. You and russ always seem to have a ton more issues with lag and whatnot than the rest of us though.

I'm convinced that my internet connection quality is just wildly inconsistent from one minute to the next. The fact that at times I can be posted up, waiting on a guy to round a corner, start shooting at him, then end up with him killing me, and then see on the kill cam that the timing of the events were completely different tells me that the majority of my problems are on my side. We played a few matches last night where I was basically all over the opposing team, racking up care packages and attack choppers, then the next game, I would be plugging 8 to 10 rounds right on a guy's chest and getting no hits. If I have a 4 bar connection, things generally seem even, but anything less than 4 bars is a crapshoot for me.

I will say that when my connection quality is good, the game seems to have less lag than MW2 ever did regardless of connection quality.

I was playing with Russ and the party exploded 4 times in a row there. Perhaps it's safe to assume that's the problem, but the chopper gunner stuff I can absolutely confirm, and while anecdotal at best, some of the other stuff seems mighty fishy.

You`ve had the problem where you don`t get control of the chopper gunner? I`m just curious because I`ve never heard anyone mention that, including you. The first I had ever heard of it was in the patch notes. I didn`t really get a good feel for if knifing is any better or worse last night, was too busy raping dudes nonstop and going 30 and 5 like all night.

I had it once, but that was some time ago. However, in one of the games me and russ were in last night, an enemy chopper was doing that. You can tell it's broken when it flies pretty much straight up in the air and all irregularly. It basically spazzes out. The guy couldn't shoot us at all because his gun rarely pointed at the actual map.

Also post patch I got a chopper gunner and can confirm the red diamond thing isn't implemented.

Weird. I don't doubt it, I just hadn't actually spoken with anyone that had even mentioned it. I got a few Chopper Gunners last night, but again I was on a roll and killing dudes so bad I didn't even notice the red diamond thing either way.

Apparently on the new Major Nelson podcast he revealed that the first Black Ops DLC maps will be coming on 2/1/11, $15 for 4 new multiplayer maps and 1 zombie map.

Edit: Some details (apparently) from GAF:

The red diamond thing for the chopper gunners has been implemented, by the way. If you get a gunner on Nuketown, because the map is so small, you can see guys spawn without the diamond over their head for a short period before it shows up.

You'll love this bullshit Skills: just went 32-2 on Havana Deathmatch in Ground War. The best part though is I got a Chopper Gunner from my Care Package, then earned a Chopper Gunner on the regular right after. They finally took out my first Chopper Gunner, immediately called in the second.

I imagine they were probably mad.

They mad so bad, son

holy shit this game is fun as hell online.