Finally its here!

This isn’t just a typical shooter that has its general requirements that pass it off. Definitely not. As you know this is one of the greatest quality fps series of all time. Its smooth, its powerful, its entertaining, its fun, its effective, its attractive and has potential for mass popularity, and it does! What I believe is explained here and what I want to show is important. I have taken into knowledge – my experience, other people’s experience, and the general idea of the majority. Basically I would like to steer you away from believing that Modern Warfare 2 is how you should design your game Black Ops. The general idea is that Modern Warfare 2 ruined the call of duty experience. It sure did deliver, it was great at the start, but once you notice the little problems it has, it builds and builds until one day its screaming problems. Not entirely glitches, but as in design flaws. Was it really designed to be fun and rewarding alongside challenging for those hardcore? It is an extremely hard formula, but it has faded away from the Call of Duty series. Every body talks about Modern Warfare and World at War as the good old days. Modern Warfare 2 brought itself down unwillingly. If you study the audience, especially the hardcore audience, you will find them offended by the turn of Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer. With massive faith now, you must bring back Call of Duty multiplayer, and keep it new. This is a hard task, it is not too late I am hoping, and I would hope my interaction improves your understanding of how a fan wants his game. Don’t let me be underrated because you’re selling the game to me, not to anyone else, but me and critics.

I have plenty of ideas, but it’s almost too late to consider. Can you please review my suggestions, and incorporate them at your own wisdom, though my suggestions are quite critical, but this is a serious and demanding industry, so please excuse me if I sound rude, and excuse my Australian spelling.

The kill streak system in Modern Warfare 2 was good. But once the game ages, unconsciously it is a pest. Specifically pointing to its design, as crafted to reward gamers for kill streaks, it far exceeds the fun-factor and rewarding opportunity, flourishing as something unrecognisable from its early stages. To make clear, it actually stresses out the gamer, especially when they fail to achieve their long awaited, hard worked for reward – to just miss it by a kill or two. As the whole online experience is shaped and dynamically works, some aspects and features do not fluently join in the system, as an example, the kill streak system. Looking back at the original idea of kill streaks in Modern Warfare and World at War, unnoticeably it marks itself more enjoyable, and less stressful. To simply state from this, the Modern Warfare 2 kill streak system renders itself negatively unlike the original kill streak system. I would recommend that it returns to kill streak rewards at the streaks 3, 5 and 7. It can also benefit the customizable reward idea, but to remain in the original fashion and for the rewards to well balance the game, which I would like to review in order to judge the balance it returns in the match experience. Looking at the customizable kill steak reward idea, if it where to be managed from the perspective of Modern Warfare 2, the streak of 3 should allow customization of either UAV, UAV Jammer and the Turret. As an example, I still wouldn’t recommend some of the kill streak rewards in Modern Warfare 2 simply because of the heavily unbalanced attack and counter-attack environment.

I was recently studying and trying to understand why the Modern Warfare 2 experience is stressful, and I worked it out. I can mainly blame the idea of a “kills” leader board and huge kill streak challenges. If you remove the “kills” leader board, I can assure that people will be less worried about their “kill/death” ratio, therefore less angry and stressed about dyeing. Before I was cursed to the “kill/death” ratio obsession, I used to play Call of Duty with no burden. I would just care about getting the most kills, even if I got more deaths. Halo does not have the in-match scoreboard showing the kills, and doesn’t have a leader board for it. People are less stressed about dyeing if there is no leader board for kills. Massive kill streak challenges are outrageous. 25 kill streak just encourages camping and rage if you die at a 24 kill streak. I assure you, keeping the kill streak rewards to a 12 kill streak should be the maximum FINAL. Modern Warfare 2 was apparently designed to be a more objective and team played game (SPECIFICALLY for new noob players – like they should only play a couple times a week and spoil the rest of the games hardcore audience), instead of the personal and inevitable idea of “getting the most kills”. It was not designed that way, so you can’t expect that in an fps like Call of Duty. “Getting the most kills” was in fact the main design for multiplayer since the early fps titles, I clearly stated why.

When we look at the gameplay experience, you must consider the dynamics, possibilities and tools used to create the flow. This balance is also modified due to the players experience, knowledge and skill of the world they interact with. The map as we know is just a static layout. The physics of the environment is beyond me at this stage though, I believe that Black Ops is not designed as entirely flexibly destructible environment. As cool as it would sound, it would not be cool after 6 months playing in it. The interactive “destructibles” can also play apart of the online experience – such as the classical exploding car and barrel. There are also unique operations in the level that move and interact with the player, such as radiation that restricts as the boundary of the map. These things have to be reviewed as they also contribute to the fairness of play, can they be used against you or for you against the opponent? There are plenty of possibilities. It’s a matter of how balanced it is, and balanced for what purpose(s).

One of the problems of flow is the poorly designed spawning system. Not to criticise too much, because it is hard to organise them and create a formulae that judges spawning without making it too unfair. Please avoid spawn traps, which Modern Warfare 2 did well in (in certain maps). I noticed that it spawns others closest to the longest surviving player furthest from where they died. This stage can only simply be engaged through testing, because there is no certain rule to base on all maps.

Mercenary team death match is only for those who don’t want to play with clans and parties. But it is not necessary! Core and Hardcore: I believe that there are an audience of people out there for both style modes, yet there still are limited modes that allow this style. Should match making be taken into consideration based upon the branch off Core and Hardcore, as in example, before I start the game match making function, I choose the style (Core or Hardcore) and then the mode, for more targeted lobbies. The “Hardcore” term implies more of a challenge, and therefore should rely on more skilled players in this style, and a more competitive structure.

The perks to remove: martyrdom (not necessary), pain killer/juggernaut (not necessary, DOES NOT need cheap new idea), stopping power (not necessary, needs new idea), commando, and the “pro” versions of perks (needs new idea).

How can the painkiller death streak be invited back in, but accepted? I believe that if some one has been dying constantly, and they are getting frustrated it should allow them to leave the match without counting their score (only a few times a day), solved. This is taken from the other perspective of death streaks. It allows an unfair advantage, but that is because of an unfair advantage in constantly dyeing without a kill.

The stopping power perk is almost a waste of calling it a perk if it almost becomes “mandatory” to have some balance. You would want to use the other perks in that slot… Instead of stopping power it can be a more hardcore dub. It increases the bullet damage to the “hardcore” mode, but makes you prone to die the hardcore death too. This can also question if you really need the hardcore modes anyway when you can have that perk. Having no HUD is irrelevant in hardcore, you can think of some other perks to balance this up if you decide to remove the hardcore mode for good, which is highly risky. If the hardcore dub is to actually go through, then higher amounts of balance planning must take place, as when you introduce a new element, you must almost try to modify everything else to make it fluent.

The “pro” versions are almost like a bonus perk. Instead of “Pro”, I would suggest an XP metre instead. It shouldn’t be hard to fill, and every time you do you get an XP point that you can collect and spend on different abilities? This is like a bonus element, and you can only have one bonus active at a time. For instance, a x2 increase on the range of the “Static Jammer”, but is this really going to be fun in the… long run? Consider extensive tests.

The most important improvement in Call of Duty should be the LONG awaited clan support. The clan crowds are truly waiting. This is the competitive community’s game too. There are many things to include here. One of them is an official clan report. The leader of a clan must be allowed to organise the description, ranks, powers and details. There should be a “create” and “join” clan ability. So this means that clan tags will be locked when in a clan (unless modified as a rank). The leader should be able to create the clan tag and give a full name to the clan. The leader should be able to set what kind of clan it is, such as a clan that plays “x” modes, “serious clan” or a “friendly clan”. The description should be organised to a maximum of “x” words. The leader should be able to create ranks and give those ranks special symbols, colours, personalised names, powers and if the clan tag is unique for a certain rank (in example, [SCE] = Member, [xScE] = Leader). The clan tag for a clan (only) should be able to consist of 6 characters instead of 4, and the option of a customizable colour.

The clan should also include a region flag (and more if needed, such as an Australian and New Zealand clan). The clan leader should be able to invite gamers to join (the clan), manage if it is “invite only”, “application only” or “open”. The leader should be able to kick or warn a member from the clan. The clan leader should be allowed to manage a calendar for events and if a certain event is to be set as an alert. The members must be able to receive alerts from the clan. The leader should be able to send an instant alert to “all members”, “members of a rank(s)”, “all offline members” and “all online members” and the optional “specific selection”.

There should also be a clan list that can be browsed, that is organised by regions and types of clans. When browsing other clans, the leader should be open to applying an alliance invitation with the clan if they allow this, or a challenge invitation if they allow this. The challenge invitation should be reviewed by the other clan, when accepted they can vote, suggest or accept on match(s) rules, mode(s) and map(s) (or as first map) and side (attacking/defending). When this is complete, they can set and agree on a time, this can be automatically set into the calendar and can be chosen to be an alert. When the time is set, the teams can be organised by the leader or who ever else has the power. The host will be chosen either from either team or an external gamer. The host will be asked to start the match, once the lobby is created, the members of each team can access it through their clan section. The host can also send out invites to their whole team, the whole other team, the leaders or specific members. The leaders can have the option to make a modification to the matches and can also organise their teams on the spot. The leaders can also agree between each other if there will be any spectators (and their spectating rules) or subs. The leaders can even stop their team from talking, to make an announcement or to just talk to the other leader in the lobby. The members of the challenge can set themselves as ready, so that when they everyone is ready on a team, the leader can set their team as ready, for the match countdown to begin when the other team is also ready. This should be dynamic, so that for instance, if they complete that match, they may allow the loser to choose the next match (map and/or mode and/or rules, side).

As good as it might seem, keeping a record of clan wins and losses is not a good idea in this case due to the issue of cheating. So to avoid this, a clan match can either be a scrim, warm up or competitive. If it is competitive, the challenge details will be recorded on the history of the clan (who did they verse, when, the matches and its rules, the results, member scores and so on). If a clan wants to remove its history with a clan, it can organise the permission of the other clan, but it would mean that it would only be hidden from public from both clans. With this in mind, the rematch option (after in lobby or during the match) would be very important, and also the half-time or pause option, so that if they need to, they can come back to finish the match later. The rules should be more deeper than the standard “match setup” in “private match”, this means that certain perks, guns (and attachments), attachments overall, equipment, secondary and so on. While in the lobby before the match, members can setup their classes according to the rules. Each match should state the “last kill award” and “man of the match”.

As good as the clan support, there should be a tournament support, which incorporates all the obvious features in the clan challenge feature. This can be established as either “invite only” or “open” or “qualified”. The tournament leader will be able to set the rules, modes and maps available. They can organise the prize their own way, nothing in game because this can cause cheating. It is complicated to create a final solution, but the in game tournaments should allow only a few ladder types, such as by points, wins, brackets and so on. The tournament should allow referees to apply, be invited and managed to referee a match. The referee can organise spectators with the leaders as they may only be allowed to watch one side to record for a montage or commentate? The results of matches and final rank should be recorded in the clan history.

The best opportunity of online games is the ability to record and save the match to be replayed at any time. If this was available in Black Ops, it would help everyone show off their skill, and allow montages so much easier to make from all sorts of angles and perspectives. I really recommend this, and it would be a revolution to the Call of Duty functions engine.

Match making – Unbelievably good in Call of Duty compared to some other games/series, but still shockingly bias. Let me explain, from my experience the match making, and how to solve the “blame match making” problem. For me match making will not take too long to find me a game or my party/lobby but it fails to find good games consistently. It will sometimes find me the same game I left, it will find me an over seas host, a game about to end in defeat, it will find me a lobby that never starts, it will find one then drop out, it will find me one that is hacked, it will find me one with gamers far too easy or too hard. Besides that, it can just about be called random. Apparently in Modern Warfare 2 it says its finding me the best game? Is that true? If so make it obvious that the game it finds me is the best it can find me. I don’t know how online servers work because I have never worked on a game that does this, but it can find servers, establish a ping result, then it’s up to me to decide. Have you ever considered taking the PC server list approach? Especially for gamers that don’t like the match making. It is relevant for the PC, but is it really for the console when you think about it? It is still online, like the PC. The difference is that the console is the server, running public matches that cannot have modified options/settings. Maybe you should think about that approach. Allow the gamer to search available games.

I’ve always wished that I could review a game before I agree to enter it. Such as the famous ping, the score (of the teams and of the leading player), the players, the time left and map before I join, so that its not bogusly match made. It would be a great new change to have the list of hosted matches available for that mode in a list. So that process of clicking find game, choosing the mode, then it loads a table and starts gathering results. Organising the host type by ping only, then allowing the player to click a button to automatically match make from the current results (whilst sill refreshing). Remember that refreshing is the greatest thing, so keep it refreshing. When ever someone has the rank of speed and consistency to host, they should start a game and the information should be sent to all refreshing lists. Allow the player to choose auto-find new game (one that has started – new host entered), auto-find room in an available lobby (before the game), auto-find room in game with best connection (the VERY important region only rule), and the standard formulae of your match making. It would be a good idea to mark servers that the player has already been in or left. Also make the time left and team scores visible on this list. Allow the player to enter a more detailed report of the match to judge themselves the types of games they are looking for (and what side they will spawn on if they join “now”). The priority of auto-find match making should always rank games with more time left, higher. So this gives the player the fun and enjoyment of finding (visually, knowledgeably and responsibly) a game, so there are no more excesses of poor match making.

Some of these ideas and suggestions are critical and some are quite a big task between now and the release. On behalf of the Southern Cross Elites gaming clan that supports the Call of Duty game, and anticipates Black Ops, Please take something away from this and incorporate some of the suggestions on behalf of the majority of hardcore Call of Duty gamers and clans! Thank You dearly, by Luka K.