The road to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is shortening and getting more exciting by the day, but it’s also paved with a suite of improvements based on beta feedback, according to a new blog post.
Activision and Treyarch have outlined a slew of changes from the beta, touching on a number of requested improvements highlighting everything from gameplay to map design, game performance, and weapon balancing, all born from player experience and in-game data. In short, it seems like the beta was paramount in helping to shape BO6 for launch.
Treyarch said the beta was “immensely helpful in identifying and resolving some performance related issues,” including the “hitching” that most players experienced throughout the beta, making it unplayable at times for some. And yet, Activision said BO6 was the series’ most successful beta yet.
“A smooth game performance is paramount to the player experience, and we’ve been able to chase down sources of in-game ‘hitching’ and deploy major fixes since the close of the beta,” Treyarch said. “We will continue working with experts across all disciplines to improve overall performance for launch and into the live seasons.”
BO6’s main selling point and difference from the rest of the franchise, omnimovement, is also being tweaked. For launch, there will be “improvements to animation fluidity and fidelity throughout,” including improvements for third person animations for sliding, diving, jumping, and going prone. Sliding is also being tweaked, with a reduction to the time between sliding and going prone, the minimum time to slide after sprinting, and a slight increase to initial slide speed with a reduction to the maximum slide duration.
In relation to omnimovement, BO6 at launch will also have improvements to the fluidity of sniper ADS speed, improved fluidity when swapping weapons during sprinting, reduction of weapon motion when crouching, and more.
In response to player complaints of maps in the beta being too small, Treyarch reiterated that “the majority” of the 12 core six-vs-six maps are “medium-sized,” while several in the beta were smaller and the overall map pool of 16 launch maps will feature more variety.
Elsewhere, Treyarch confirmed a shortened Winner’s Circle that plays at the end of each match, a reduction in camera motion while moving, and other tweaks to gamer modes, equipment, Perks, and more.
The full list of patch notes for BO6 from its beta will be coming closer to launch on Oct. 25.
