Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is now live (some have been playing the game for hours now), and Activision has released Preseason Patch Notes these detailed changes made to multiplayer ahead of launch. These are in addition to changes already announced based on feedback and data from beta weekends.
The headline is that aim assist is significantly weaker at close range launches and gradually increases in strength at tiny range. Aim assist is always a balmy topic in the Call of Duty community with each game’s release, so it will be captivating to hear feedback once the game is live.
Elsewhere, improved pistol speed and special melee weapon swap, slightly increased melee weapon butt attack speed, and adjusted swing, hop, and overall weapon movements to improve the aiming point when entering ADS (aiming down).
Fortunately, Activision has included a weapon damage range explanation in the patch notes that details how damage actually works in Black Ops 6 and Warzone Season 01.
We have a lot more information about Black Ops 6 ahead of launch, including built-in support for better audio technology for $20, Activision’s ambitious novel plans to defeat cheaters, and confirmation that the game won’t feature the dreaded Riot Shield.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 pre-season update information
MULTIPLAYER
Weapon
At launch, there are 33 weapons available to unlock and customize. See our full gun breakdown on the COD blog.
Weapon balance
While there have been many changes to weapon balance since the Beta, we feel the launch will be our day one benchmark across the arsenal. Weapon balance is always a work in progress, so we’ll be assessing data and feedback and providing regular updates on it.
- In the multiplayer beta, we tested a change to disabling aim assist at close range. While this was a change in the right direction, we felt it would be a bit irritating when exceeding the close range threshold, so we adjusted our approach to linearly interpolate aim assist strength. This means that aim assist will become significantly weaker at tiny ranges and augment smoothly at tiny ranges. We will, of course, continue to monitor and evaluate player data and feedback.
- Improved the speed of replacing pistols and dedicated melee weapons
- Slightly increased melee attack speed with the butt of a weapon
- Adjustments to sway, hop and overall weapon movement to improve aiming point when entering ADS
- Additional improvements will come in Season 01
- Improved depth of field on all weapon types
Movement
- Added toggle option for Corner Cutting
- Added an option to set the dwell time during a belly or slide dive, depending on the slide/dive behavior settings
- Added a astute move option to set the mantle assist angle from narrow, medium or wide
Multiplayer map adjustments
Eagle-eyed players have already spotted some of the changes we’ve made to our beta maps thanks to everyone’s amazing feedback. Ensuring fair and consistent gameplay will always remain our goal, so we’ve made some additional covers and changes to make gunfights a bit more fair, as well as various lighting changes. The options below don’t represent all the changes we’ve made, but they will support give you an idea of what to expect from beta to launch.
Skyline
- Expanded cover points around the balmy tub in the center of the map.
- Added novel planters as cover near the distant spawn point.
- Added multiple cover options throughout the map.
Scud
- Adjusted the missile penetration values on satellite dish panels to allow for additional missile penetration.
- The concrete wall of the main watchtower has already been demolished, which will allow for greater bullet penetration, making it slightly weaker.
- The panels are doubled in the side skirt to still provide low bullet penetration where there was none before.
- Additional cover improvements have been made throughout the map.
Scroll
- Improvements have been made to shields across multiple fields of view.
Audio
- We’re excited to bring our best-in-class audio experience to Black Ops 6 with the introduction of HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function) via the Universal Profile in Enhanced Headset Mode, which is available to all players for free.
- We’ve also added an option to disable licensed music in all modes, which is especially useful for content creators streaming the game.
For a closer look at our innovations in adaptive audio, spatial reverb, physics-based acoustics, gaming audio prioritization, HRTF support, and brand novel asymmetric hearing compensation technology, check out our dedicated audio blog.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat systems activated in Black Ops 6. Improvements implemented include:
- Kernel-level (PC) driver updates for detection and monitoring of all protected titles, including Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty®: Warzone™
- #TeamRICOCHET mitigations introduced in Black Ops 6 multiplayer, including Damage Shield, Disarm, Splat and more
- Machine learning-based behavioral systems were implemented to augment detection speeds
- Added machine learning detection models to analyze gameplay against targeting bots
More information about RICOCHET Anti-Cheat can be found on the latest blog Here.
Corrections in future updates to weapon damage
Whether you’re novel to the series or a long-time fan, understanding how your chosen weapon deals damage is an indispensable aspect of Call of Duty gameplay. In the past, we have used certain terms in our patch notes to describe damage values at different ranges, which may have caused some confusion for some players.
In Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, we try to avoid this confusion in two ways:
- Creating a New Weapon Damage Correction Table for Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 Patch Notes.
- Setting weapon damage range definitions for Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 in the future.
Weapon Damage Correction Table
New in Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 is a novel table that shows the changes weapons have undergone between updates. You’ll find them nested within our existing tables, trying to keep the information as detailed and centralized as possible.
This novel table will consist of three columns (Damage Range, Pre-Patch, and Post-Patch) and rows of up to five to account for each applicable Damage Range for a given weapon. The appropriate damage and range values (in meters) will be found in each cell before/after patching.
For easier understanding, we will mark “positive” (⇧) and “negative” (⇩) adjustments with an arrow, just like in the game.
Clarification of weapon damage range
In Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, not all weapons are created equal, but they all follow the basic principle that the closer your target is to the target, the more damage you will deal to them. We apply the following animated ranges to determine how damage works in multiplayer and Warzone:
Maximum damage range
- This range determines the maximum potential damage a weapon can deal in a single shot at a given distance.
- This range always starts at 0 meters and extends until the player exceeds our Maximum Damage Range, where the damage will begin to “decrease”.
Medium and minimal damage ranges
- Starting right after the end of the Maximum Damage Range, we apply the Medium and Minimum Damage Ranges to determine how “low” the damage output will be with distance.
- Remember how we said that not all weapons are created equal? Some weapons may have up to three medium damage ranges, while others may have zero.
- In situations where a weapon only has one average damage range, we will mark that average damage range as is.
- If a weapon does not have a medium damage range, we will skip the lines for average damage range.
- Medium damage ranges
- When picking up right after Maximum Damage Range ends, we apply Average Damage Ranges to determine how much damage will “fall off” with distance.
- Reminder: A weapon with a medium damage range can have a minimum of one medium damage range and a maximum of three.
- In all future Damage Range Adjustment tables, we will identify these Average Damage Ranges as 1, 2, and 3, where applicable, with One (1) being the closest to the player and Three (3) being the furthest Average Damage Range.
- In previous versions of patch notes, patch notes were labeled “near-mid”, “near-mid”, “medium”, “mid-far”, or “far-mid”.
- Minimal damage
- This range determines the minimum potential damage a player can receive at the furthest distances.
- This range will always augment immediately after the furthest medium damage range ends and will continue indefinitely unless otherwise noted.
- Reminder: Some weapons cannot have medium damage range and will go to minimum damage range immediately after maximum damage range.
One last thing: As future seasons progress, the Treyarch and Raven teams will tweak weapons based on feedback and data to ensure the best possible experience in multiplayer and Warzone, respectively. These adjustments may include common Black Ops 6 weapons having different Damage Range values between titles.
Wesley is the UK news editor at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wy100@proton.me.
