It's absolutely ridiculous to write a headline here that includes the words “head,” “not,” “enough,” and “give,” but I'm a journalist of decency and discretion, and I'm going to resist. Treyarch, Raven Software, and Activision have released a note to players detailing a number of improvements they've made to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 following its August beta. Specifically, they're adjusting the damage done by bullets to the skull, and making sure that bullets to the skull “don't significantly impact time-to-kill consistency.”
“One of the common feedback we've seen is that low headshot damage reduces the impact of skilled play and makes it harder to challenge certain power positions,” the Steam post in question reads. “We agree with these points and are working on adjustments to many weapons to reward players who land multiple headshots during a fight. However, we don't want hit location multipliers to significantly impact time-to-kill consistency in Black Ops 6, so we'll continue to monitor the effectiveness of headshots during and after launch.”
I know very little about the effectiveness of headshots in real life, and I want to know. I know a little more about the concept of time-to-kill in shooters. It's a deceptively simple-looking metric that can completely change your FPS. Extend the number of seconds a player can last under fire, and you get a relatively calm, borderline RPG experience where duelists can dart and circle to get to know each other between shots. Shrink them back down again, and (if you're a terrible gamer like me) you get a blazing-fast Game Over montage with the occasional hint of a pointed rifle in the red haze of your peripheral vision.
COD has historically been a low-TTK shooter, and in Black Ops 6 you don't feel quite so spongy, but I still rarely get a headshot. I wish Treyarch and Raven Software luck in shuffling the books, because fans have vast, unpunctuated opinions on this one.
Here's a non-exhaustive summary of other things they've pruned and polished, taken from the Steam post:
– “Bullet Penetration is another system we'll be improving for launch. In general, players will notice less in extreme situations where bullets do too much damage from certain surfaces (AKA Wall Burst) and fail to penetrate others as expected (e.g. those pesky snipers behind the radar dish on the Scud).”
– “We're also evaluating some changes that will cover the layout across multiple maps, including our Beta maps, which we'll be able to share more details about as we get closer to launch.”
– “Players may have noticed improvements to the spawn logic during Week 2 of the Beta, and we are constantly evaluating our spawn system as new content comes to the game and more spawn data is generated, and will continue to make necessary updates throughout launch and beyond.”
– “Over the course of the Beta, we identified several areas that were impacting in-game performance. Some areas where we made performance progress include resolving common scripting errors, addressing issues with our in-game UI, and general improvements and fixes to our asset stream. Smooth game performance is critical to the player experience, and since the close of the Beta, we've been able to track down and implement important fixes for in-game “stuttering” sources.”
– “We identified several areas for improvement in our 3rd Person animation fidelity in gliding, diving, jumping, and supine positions. Our goal is for what you see in 1st Person to be representative of what others see in 3rd Person, preserving immersion and predictability.”
They’re also trying to find a “nice middle ground” for “the amount of time before you can slide into a supine position while sliding,” while reducing the minimum amount of time before you slide. This last change is designed to reduce the likelihood of “dead sliding,” where you accidentally squat instead of sliding. Indeed, dead sliding is a horrific faux pas of Austenian proportions, like referencing sexual acts in headlines or singing “just the two of us” when you’re a meat shield.
Back to the concern about headshots from the circular attack – what's your preferred mix of TTK and hit location multiplier? I always find it pretty hilarious when players run around with arrows and such coming out of their ears. Blops 6 comes out on October 25th. In other news, unionized workers at Raven Software are filing a complaint against Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, alleging “bad faith bargaining.”