CoD:BO PC Multiplayer FAQ

JD_2020 came out and gave us a very comprehensive update that answered a lot of questions about BO for the PC.

Full feature support: Confirmed
Ranked Servers: earn XP and currency. Wager Servers: gamble your currency. Customizable Unranked Servers. Combat Training against practice dummies. Theater. Create-a-Class "2.0." Contracts. Emblem editor. Everything the consoles get. Implemented in a way that makes sense for PC (*cough* no lobbies *cough*).

PC Features: Confirmed
Dedicated Servers. New Server Browser. Dev console. /record. Customizable game modes, perks, killstreaks, classes, and higher player counts on unranked servers. Map rotation. RCon. Kick & Ban. MOTD. In-game custom Server Banners. And more.

Mod Tools: Confirmed
We will release mod tools sometime post-launch. We need to finish the game first. Then we will make sure any urgent issues are handled. Then we will begin work on tools. The extent of the mod tools package will not be known until this time.

Global Persistent Stats, Profiles: Confirmed
Your profile data is stored on servers for you and is accessible from anywhere on the internet. Stats, XP, COD Points, configs, etc.

Leaderboards: Confirmed
Yes, leaderboards - globally persistent leaderboards (i.e. NOT per-server based).

Steam Exclusive: Confirmed
Millions of Call of Duty fans are already on Steam. Their Friends are on Steam. Steam will provide the ease of auto-updating instead of manual patching. Auto-updating will also help keep the community playing together on the latest version. The Steam cloud will make your profile and configs available to you on any computer.

VAC: Confirmed
We are serious about protecting the integrity of this game from hackers and cheaters who would otherwise ruin the fun for the honest players. Used in conjunction with our own anti-exploit measures, Theater reviews, trusted servers, and supplemented by server admins with kick and ban powers we believe that Valve Anti-Cheat will be an effective solution for Call of Duty: Black Ops PC. We are committed to working closely and diligently with Valve to deal with new threats as they appear.

No “Public Server Files”: Confirmed
Many of these game features are predicated on having a trusted host or server. Otherwise these features would be wide-open to easy exploits and rampant cheating. Also, anti-cheat solutions can be significantly more effective on games that rely on trusted servers. We chose against “public server files” in favor of providing full feature support and protecting the integrity of this title. This doesn't mean you won't have customization or admin capabilities with your servers - because you will. This simply means we've partnered with an exclusive server provider.

GameServers.com Exclusive: Confirmed
We have partnered with GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Every dedicated server for this title will be running on top quality hardware and infrastructure with excellent bandwidth. There will be a ton of official servers at launch for everyone to play on for free. If you want to run your own server you will be able to rent one at a great price (which will never go higher than $0.99/slot). They are actively adding new server locations and staffing up to meet global demand. If you don’t see your location you can suggest it here: http://www.gameservers.com/blackops/

Max Players: Not Confirmed
We have not yet finalized the maximum number of players in ranked or unranked servers. More playtesting is required to determine how high these numbers can go. This happens as late as possible in the project otherwise the game is likely to change in ways that could invalidate the results.

Minimum System Requirements: Not Confirmed
The game is still in development, and the PC team is hard at work making further optimizations. We will announce the min specs in the near future.

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Hopefully that answers the majority of the outstanding questions not answered from our MP Reveal coverage. There are still some questions we do not have answers for at this time, so as always, we appreciate your patience. We will have all questions answered before November 9th.

CoD:BO The Good and the Bad

It appears that we may not get everything we wanted like we thought we would.  With the following report from BASH, we find out a few less than ideal things about what we thought was the game we were looking for:

[...]What did we learn? Dedicated servers, sure. But you will only get them from Gameservers.com. Also, there will not be any public server files. Public files would allow you to run the game from your own server, you will have to rent them from Gameservers exclusively it seems. But ranked or unranked servers will be available from this (trusted GSP) provider. In other words, you as the admin will have access to your server and you will be able to configure the server or mod it.

The game will be distributed exclusively through Steam and that means VAC - not Punk Buster. VAC does not have the same anti-cheat savvy that PB has, so we will need to monitor the resilience of VAC to counter the hackers out there.[...]

CoD:BO Reveal List for MP

This is a short list of things that where made public today.. Video to be added later.

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There are 3 pillars to the game: Compete, Customize and Create

First pillar Compete: We are bringing tons of new weapons, killstreaks, perks to give them what they need on the battlefield. The ability to dive through windows.

- Combat mode with bots. It's  a New MP training mode with its own level up to battle Practice Dummies or can be played in CO-OP.

- Create a Class is still here. Your on screen character looks like that in game. If your a ghost you wear a ghillie, and if you take a flak jacket you take less explosive damage.

- Lethal, Tactical, Equipment -- you choose. All things you throw that are lethal go on right bumper, all things that are tactical go into your left bumper. Equipment: Camera Spike, C4, Tactical Insertion, Motion Sensor, Claymore

- Killstreaks are here again. Many of the new Killstreaks have some layer of player interaction -- they wanted them to be more interactive. Death Machine is an epic gatlight, Grim Reaper is a rocket launcher, Napalm Strike, RC-XD ( remote car with c4), Gunship, Motar team and SAM Turret.

- COD points. You earn points in game to unlock things. There are also Contracts that are time challenged the give you more Points.

- Wager Match a new game type. Put your COD Points against other players and the top three people get paid in the match. 4 FFA game types for Wager.

     - One in the Chamber: everybody has one bullet. If you kill someone, you get their bullet. If you miss, you have to knife them. You have 3 lives.

     - Sticks and Stones - Crossbow, tomahawk and ballistic knife. If you hit with he tomahawk, you bankrupt them.

     - Gun Game. if you don't know what this is go find out

     - Sharp Shooter is the 4th type. All players start with the same random weapon, and then the weapons all change at intervals. Everybody is always equal with the weapons.

Second Pillar: CUSTOMIZE. "This is my weapon, this is my gun." You can customize your weapon so it looks the way you want it to look -- new camo patterns, and you place your emblem on it, customize your red dot sight. Killcam can see these reflections. Change the color of the reticle -- red dot doesn't have to be red or a dot.
 
Third Pillar: CREATE. Emblem editor – images, layers, and a background. You change the scale, move, color, rotate, all that stuff. Create layers, then purchase the option with COD points to put it on your gun.

- All Live games can be played back, searched, tagged, everything. The footage is yours. Awesome Frag Movies.

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No Details on a beta or other info at this time. Hopefully we should hear soon about that. This seems like a good progression towards a better game. I can't wait.

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edit: 9/2/10

Perks & Killstreaks

You want a list of the unlockable and purchaseable perks and killstreaks in Call of Duty: Black Ops? Here you go!

Perk 1
Lightweight - Move Faster (Pro)
Scavenger - Pick up ammo from fallen enemies. Replenish lethal grenades. (Pro)
Ghost - Undetectable by the Spy Plane and the Blackbird.
Flak Jacket - Reduces explosive damage.
Hardline - Killstreaks require 1 less kill.

Perk 2
Hardened - Bullets penetrate better.
Scout - Hold breath longer.
Steady Aim - Increased hip-fire accuracy.
Sleight of Hand - Faster reloads.
Warlord - Equip two attachments to your primary weapon.

Perk 3
Marathon - Longer sprint.
Ninja - Silent movement.
Second Chance - Pull out your pistol before dying.
Hacker - Ability to detect enemy equipment and explosives.
Tactical Mask - Reduces the effect of flash and concussion grenades.

Killstreaks

    * 3 – Spy Plane
    * 3 – RC-XD (remote bomb)
    * 4 – Counter Spy Plane
    * 4 – SAM Turret
    * 5 – Care Package
    * 5 – Napalm Strike
    * 6 – Sentry Gun
    * 6 – Mortar Team
    * 7 – Attack Helicopter
    * 7 – Valkyrie Rockets
    * 8 – Blackbird
    * 8 – Rolling Thunder
    * 9 - Chopper Gunner
    * 11 – Attack Dogs
    * 11 - Gunship

CoD:BO: We get a dev console

A few weeks ago, a very high level meeting occurred at Treyarch where the topic of PC support arose. My sources indicate that key figures in that meeting stood up and defended the wants and desires of the hardcore PC community. Those figures were Treyarch's Community Manager and former CoD-blogger and modder, JD_2020 (Josh) and lead PC developer, pcdev (Cesar).

The rumor was that JD and pcdev won the day. Though the exact topics of the meeting were not revealed, some of us in the community were told "not to worry".

But let's get to the big news. Simply put:

    1. The PC platform will get a developer console in CoD:Black Ops. That is, you will be able to adjust some variables (Cvars) directly through your keyboard, whilst in-game. This has been possible on all PC-CoD's, with the exception of MW2.

    2. Mod-tools, which are used to create new community maps, are not ready for deployment day one of release. However, the developers will be addressing them afterwards (presumably in the new year). The release of mod-tools has been made difficult due to changes in the CoD engine.

This info came to light in a conversation by a German forum group with Josh during today's Gamescom interviews. A translation of which appears here.

It was all confirmed on callofduty.com a little later:

    We plan to open the game up for modding sometime post-launch. We do not know yet to what extent you will be able to mod the game. There are some purely technical issues related to engine and internal tool enhancements that do not easily fit the modtools paradigm. We have looked at it close enough to see that it is non-trivial and we will have to pick it up again post-launch. Right now we are completely focused on finishing the game.

    And, dev console: confirmed.

    -pcdev-

Bottom line

Configs...scripts...in-game binds...yup, looks like we still have that ability.

Mods? I cannot see why not, even on release. Mod-tools are generally necessary for community mappers, whereas modders can make due with even simple Wordpad as their "tool". Therefore, mods should be do-able.

A good day for the PC

This article is from bashandslash
http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1058&Itemid=131

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Today we can celebrate... Finally a studio is hearing what the pc community wants. I am glad that this is going on.

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