Sep 13, 2010

CoD: BO "FAQ"

Treyarch Community Manager JD_2020 posted this on the Black Ops forums.  While it's not everything we want, it's pretty damned close.

Quote:

After Call of Duty: World at War, we set out 3 goals for our next PC title:

1] PC gets every single game feature that the consoles get, but in a way that makes sense for PC.
2] PC gets even more features – the ones that PC gamers want like dedicated servers and more customization.
3] Keep it fun. Protect the integrity of the title through design and post-launch support.

Keep that in mind as you read through the decisions outlined below in our FAQ.


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.

Regards,
-JD, PC Dev, & the PC Team

2 comments:

  1. sounds very good to me. I don't know what this "currency" stuff is, but the idea of wager servers sounds kinda cool. I just hope its Call of Duty 4 quality. It wasn't as good as UO, but a lot better then MW2 and other games were played. I actually love the ranking system in Call of Duty 4. It really gave me a reason to play when no one was on, because I had a goal I could shoot for and could keep track. First-person shooter is only fun when you have a overall goal and make Gary/Scott/Steve/Matt...Hell make anyone cuss.I can't make up my mind whos more fun to frustrate matthew or plucky.
    The task of getting top score in a random server with no friends is fun for an hour after that there's no point. So, ranking system FTW!

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  2. It's going to take a couple of patches, but I'm confident at this point that Black Ops is going to be the game I was hoping BC2 would be. I'm not talking about all the superficial customization options or the ranking system: that stuff is just padding for a younger generation of gamers.

    I've been jonesing for full-featured, infantry-centric shooter for a long time now, and it's obvious that this game is as good as any we're going to see this year (or next). Not as good as it could be, mind you, but the days of having near total control of the online game are gone.

    I want a game I can obsess over, the way I did with UO. I hope BO is it.

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