Offical Call of Duty Black Ops Thread

I believe that's actually working as intended to prevent team stacking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating_in_online_games#Team_stacking_.26_Equipment_Stacking
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=team stack

In MW2 I saw firsthand hundreds of matches completely ruined because a group/clan/friends join as a team and stack one side of a pub and the unbalanced teams just made everyone on the weaker team rage quit. It ruins the game for 1/2 the players on the server (those that did not join as a group).

If anything they should include better support for group vs group matches, so that people who want to play together will play another set of people who want to play together. That way you can play with your friends, but against other groups only and not pub players. There probably already is a way to setup these sorts of matches already.

Most FPS games will allow 1 or 2 people to switch teams, anymore than that the game will throw a 'team unbalanced' sort of message and not allow the switch. For example in CS:S the default value is +2 the other team. There is a BIG difference between 1 friends switching to the other team to play with a friend of his, (which is no big deal really) - and 8 people forming a group to join a server and pub stomp ruining the game for others.

Don't get me wrong of course I support there should be an option for friends to play together, but as long as it does not support/promote pub stomping as it did in MW2.

+1
although i was one of those "pup stomping" groups i can see how this makes it more fair.
 
CoD: Black Ops- latest patch detailed

Issues Addressed:

•Resolved several issues with parties getting disbanded unexpectedly.

•Updated handling for UPnP-enabled routers to improve matchmaking conditions where users had strict or moderate NAT types. Also added in-game communications so that all players are aware of their NAT type in the Player Match party lobby.

•Addressed issue that prevented the "Load MP by Default" option from saving when other specific option combinations were set.

•Prevention of exploit that allowed players to keep custom classes and killstreaks after prestige.

•Addressed an issue where Flak Jacket Pro would not always protect against ground fires left by Napalm Strikes.

•Prevention of users losing their killstreak reward when switching classes at the start of a new round in round-based game modes.

•Addressed an issue where the incorrect perks would appear when spectating another player under certain circumstances.

•Added round start explosive delay to China Lake grenade launcher to give it the same round start limitations as other explosives.

•Contracts will now reset when the player Prestiges.

•Prevention of Valkyrie rocket exploding upon release under rare conditions.

•Prevention of Gunship failing to give player full control under rare conditions.

•Prevention of an issue where a player will get teleported outside the map boundaries under very specific circumstances.

•Additional security measures to enhance detection and banning capabilities.

Gameplay Tuning:

•Limit the ability to re-roll supply drops using Hardline Pro to Care Packages only, no other killstreak drops.

•Added a negative influencer to all spawn points to decrease the chances of spawning near an enemy. This will further improve spawning protection on top of previous updates.

•Additional sound mix tuning for Ninja Pro users - increased ranges and volume of enemy footsteps, and removed player footstep sounds on concrete material types.

•Increased headshot multipliers for sniper rifles. Sniper rifles with suppressors equipped will now always be ensured one-shot kill headshots.

•Subtle increase in sniper rifle accuracy when scoping in.

•Added a render delay to the red diamond player indicators that appear when controlling the Gunship, Valkyrie Rocket and Chopper Gunner. When a player first spawns, this will not appear for a period of time.

•Additional minor reductions in knife lunge.
 
CoD: Black Ops- latest patch detailed
Gameplay Tuning:

•Limit the ability to re-roll supply drops using Hardline Pro to Care Packages only, no other killstreak drops.

•Added a negative influencer to all spawn points to decrease the chances of spawning near an enemy. This will further improve spawning protection on top of previous updates.

•Added a render delay to the red diamond player indicators that appear when controlling the Gunship, Valkyrie Rocket and Chopper Gunner. When a player first spawns, this will not appear for a period of time.

•Additional minor reductions in knife lunge.

These were sorely needed and I'm glad to see them.

This is a big update. Lots of things addressed.
 
These were sorely needed and I'm glad to see them.

This is a big update. Lots of things addressed.

yup lots of needed fixes...decreasing the chances of spawning near an enemy is big...although on that Nuketown map this will be challenging as the map is so small with limited spawn points and multiple kills happening every few seconds
 
What we need is more fire!

Fire.jpg
 
Hooray for shitty console ports.

I like the game, but seriously release the shit at the same time.
 
I believe that's actually working as intended to prevent team stacking.

I don't think it is working as intended because console players still have the ability to party up. And if it is as intended then I say fail on you, Treyarch. Defeats the purpose of having clans altogether.
 
I don't think it is working as intended because console players still have the ability to party up. And if it is as intended then I say fail on you, Treyarch. Defeats the purpose of having clans altogether.

most shitty teams that team stack get rolled by random pubbers any way then cry hax and ban people lol.

but we do need a party system. no reason not to have one. even if they limit a party size to 4 people to prevent team stacking if thats their goal.
 
I saw someone whining about someone being too good last night, accusing them of hacking. I didn't see that. That person wasn't even close to the top scorer and I watched that player every time I waited for a re-spawn once I heard they were accused of cheating. To make a short story even shorter, the guy making the accusations is probably a whining 12 year old boy who got butt hurt because someone is better at Call of Duty than he is.
 
I saw someone whining about someone being too good last night, accusing them of hacking. I didn't see that. That person wasn't even close to the top scorer and I watched that player every time I waited for a re-spawn once I heard they were accused of cheating. To make a short story even shorter, the guy making the accusations is probably a whining 12 year old boy who got butt hurt because someone is better at Call of Duty than he is.

I can't tell you how many times I've been falsely accused of hacking in MW2. All the cheaters out there made people so hypersensitive that they screamed hax every time they encountered a legit/skilled player. I don't know what's so hard about watching the killcams to identify suspicious behavior before you make an accusation. That was another issue with nukes in MW2. Pretty much any time somebody got one it was assumed that they cheated. Probably a lot of the time they did.
 
The only time I think I've encountered cheating in Black Ops was the other night where someone ended up with two Hughey's in a row in the first two minutes of the match. It was on the summit map which is fairly large. It seems unlikely anyone could rack up that many kills in a hard core free for all death match that quickly.
 
I don't think it is working as intended because console players still have the ability to party up.
Console players use matchmaking which pits groups versus groups where possible, so its not group vs pub, its group vs group - thus making it somewhat balanced.

And if it is as intended then I say fail on you, Treyarch. Defeats the purpose of having clans altogether.
Clans can play against other clans via private matches, not so ? Or are you requesting that your clan be able to join a public server and play against random pubbers ? Cause that's called team stacking, and is generally frowned upon.

If the purpose of your 'clan' is to join a public server and play clan versus randoms, pubstomping and ruining the game for everyone you play against, then that's whats broken. Don't get me wrong of course I support there should be a convenient option for a couple of friends to play together, but as long as it does not support/promote pub stomping as it did in MW2.
 
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The only time I think I've encountered cheating in Black Ops was the other night where someone ended up with two Hughey's in a row in the first two minutes of the match. It was on the summit map which is fairly large. It seems unlikely anyone could rack up that many kills in a hard core free for all death match that quickly.

In both MW2 and BO i've seen people get really lucky with care packages.

I've seen 2 AC-130's in a row, and i've seen 2 chopper gunners in a row.

Not exactly hard getting enough kills for a care package off the bat. Not hard getting the 8 kills off the bat for chopper gunner either. One lucky grenade at round start can net you 3-4 kills easy.
 
Clans can play against other clans via private matches, not so ? Or are you requesting that your clan be able to join a public server and play against random pubbers ? Cause that's called team stacking, and is generally frowned upon.

If the purpose of your 'clan' is to join a public server and play clan versus randoms, pubstomping and ruining the game for everyone you play against, then that's whats broken. Don't get me wrong of course I support there should be a convenient option for a couple of friends to play together, but as long as it does not support/promote pub stomping as it did in MW2.

I don't really think it's unfair to play on a team with friends in order to coordinate, use teamwork etc, since the option is open to everyone (assuming they have friends... :p). As far as "pub-stomping" is concerned, I'd say it's pretty much the luck of the draw who you end up playing with, and clans have little to do with it. Whether or not you choose to play by yourself or with a few friends has no bearing on your actual skill in the game; most of the clans I encountered in MW2 consisted of players that sucked. In my experience the people who kicked ass and took names were generally lone-wolf types.

Aside from that though, I think the concept of "pub stomping" is flawed because public games are by definition open to anyone and everyone. If somebody doesn't want to play with me or my friends, they don't have to. In Modern Warfare 2 my "clan" consisted of myself and 1-2 other friends depending on the time. With 6-player teams in MW2 and 9 to a team in Black Ops, I hardly think this can be called unfair. While I would have no objection to playing against other group parties, I don't think we should be forced to do so when our clan makes up 1/2 to1/3 of the team or less.

I could foresee an issue if a clan was large enough to comprise an entire team, but in a few hundred hours of playing MW2 I've never seen that happen. The most clan members I can remember seeing in one lobby was probably 4 people. And with a group of that size, even if you have some good players, there tend to also be sucky clan members who balance them out (in my experience). I'm sure there are large/hardcore clans out there (a la Counter Strike) that could consistently whip a team of random public server players, but I have yet to run accross them.

Just my $0.02/reasoning for wanting a party system in Black Ops :)
 
I've been playing this game a lot for the last couple of days and all I've got to say is fuck Treyarch and their shitty spawn setup. I'm tired of spawning next to enemies all the time.
 
I've been playing this game a lot for the last couple of days and all I've got to say is fuck Treyarch and their shitty spawn setup. I'm tired of spawning next to enemies all the time.

eh Happens.
 
And I thought MW2 spawns were bad...Black Ops is on a whole new level.
 
yeah the spawns are pretty bad at the moment. hope they iron it out soon.
 
Can anyone go over 85hz for the refresh rate? I cannot get it higher and my current res is capable of 150hz. I even tried entering it through the console and it was still at 85.
 
It is actually quite funny. I play FFA servers and sometimes my score will be like 30-5 or 30-10 and I get banned for "Hacking". One of my friends got banned for hacking with a score pretty consistent score on a FFA between 30/28 - 5/10 and I got banned for backing him up.. You do good you get banned. FFA servers are normally full of people that really aren't that good. Easy points and wins.
 
I still can't play. Game crashes anywhere between 5seconds into a match and 5 minutes. Unplayable. Never had any stuttering issues, just total crashing. patch fixed nothing for me (and many others on the steam forums).

Ticked off.
 
I still can't play. Game crashes anywhere between 5seconds into a match and 5 minutes. Unplayable. Never had any stuttering issues, just total crashing. patch fixed nothing for me (and many others on the steam forums).

Ticked off.

Tried a format/reinstall? I'm sure you're ticked but chances are it's something on your end.
 
Go read the steam forums (as the CoD forums are down). It's not just me. You suggest everyone format and reinstall? It was fine prior to the 11/19 patch. That day, forums exploded with directx errors and total freezing. It's not me. Since then, the game's been a mess.

Let's not forget that any time you read a forum you're getting the vocal minority, not "hey guys just checking in to inform you that everything went better than expected." :p

I'm NOT saying that the problem isn't something Treyarch did, but I'd be willing to bet that if you did a format/reinstall, loaded up the latest drivers for your hardware and went straight to installing Steam/BlOps, your problem would go away.

And I don't want to hear complaining about a format/reinstall, if your data is backed up properly you should be able to get back into business in less than an hour, except for the process of downloading your games again if you bought them digitally.
 
I'm getting Black Ops for Christmas, and I did a lot of agonising over which platform to get it for. Considering the problems that the PC version seems to be having (as well as my aging PC), I think I'm glad I went with the 360 version.
 
I'm getting Black Ops for Christmas, and I did a lot of agonising over which platform to get it for. Considering the problems that the PC version seems to be having (as well as my aging PC), I think I'm glad I went with the 360 version.

I can't stand the matchmaking process anymore from MW and MW2. I'm glad I decided PC over Xbox.
 
And I don't want to hear complaining about a format/reinstall, if your data is backed up properly you should be able to get back into business in less than an hour, except for the process of downloading your games again if you bought them digitally.

I know. I work IT. I do formats and reinstalls all day long, both by hand and through network deployment. I keep my system in tip-top shape. I just blew away and reinstalled all my ATI software tonight in fact. Every other game I have runs spectacularly and show no issues. It's isolated to the game. I'm not going through the rebuild process without absolute proof I have to.

I'm glad I didn't pay full price for the game and am weighing heavily on not trusting a Treyarch release again. I love World at War but didn't start playing it until recently, well after the issues it apparently had upon release.
 
I know. I work IT. I do formats and reinstalls all day long, both by hand and through network deployment. I keep my system in tip-top shape. I just blew away and reinstalled all my ATI software tonight in fact. Every other game I have runs spectacularly and show no issues. It's isolated to the game. I'm not going through the rebuild process without absolute proof I have to.

I'm glad I didn't pay full price for the game and am weighing heavily on not trusting a Treyarch release again. I love World at War but didn't start playing it until recently, well after the issues it apparently had upon release.

I see. I guess you are just going to have to consider that money spent as money wasted then. I know it definitely happens sometimes. I bought Divinity 2 Dragon Knight Saga and currently I can't play that either after they released a patch (it doesn't crash, but the aspect ratio of the display is so warped it's unplayable.)

Sometimes an F/R can fix problems even if they are the fault of the devs, but it's obviously not acceptable.
 
I still can't play. Game crashes anywhere between 5seconds into a match and 5 minutes. Unplayable. Never had any stuttering issues, just total crashing. patch fixed nothing for me (and many others on the steam forums).

Ticked off.

post your specs first then we can decide who's end it is.:D
 
Can anyone go over 85hz for the refresh rate? I cannot get it higher and my current res is capable of 150hz. I even tried entering it through the console and it was still at 85.

My 120hz LCD monitor works just fine, if you still use CRT and you're on win7 then you're just screwed, GL finding a working solution, i remember that i could use >85hz while in desktop by removing a specific pin in the VGA but ingame i was still locked at 85 :S.

http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1953488
 
post your specs first then we can decide who's end it is.:D

Phenom II X4 955
4GB Gskill 10600 DDR3 RAM
XFX 5770
ASUS M4A87TD EVO

Whether the machine's at stock 3.2GHz, or overclocked to 3.8GHz & completely rock solid, the game is unplayable.

There's a difference between buying a product that doesn't perform as intended and feeling burned by your purchase, and buying a product that absolutely doesn't work. Buy a toaster that doesn't get hot enough and takes too long to cook your pop tart but still ultimately does so? Okay. Buy a toaster that doesn't get hot at all? Unacceptable.

Oh and just like everyone else, Single player is flawless. So is playing with the bots. It's not until you go online that the game freezes and crashes.
 
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Phenom II X4 955
4GB Gskill 10600 DDR3 RAM
XFX 5770
ASUS M4A87TD EVO

Whether the machine's at stock 3.2GHz, or overclocked to 3.8GHz & completely rock solid, the game is unplayable.

There's a difference between buying a product that doesn't perform as intended and feeling burned by your purchase, and buying a product that absolutely doesn't work. Buy a toaster that doesn't get hot enough and takes too long to cook your pop tart but still ultimately does so? Okay. Buy a toaster that doesn't get hot at all? Unacceptable.

Oh and just like everyone else, Single player is flawless. So is playing with the bots. It's not until you go online that the game freezes and crashes.

My specs are the same except I have double the ram. My system does fine. You may want to do the r_multigpu 0 code since you only have a single GPU in your machine. It defaults at 1 which makes the game think you have 2 GPU's.

I crash a total of once per day I play. I just shut down BO, re-open and all is fine in the world.
 
Phenom II X4 955
4GB Gskill 10600 DDR3 RAM
XFX 5770
ASUS M4A87TD EVO

Whether the machine's at stock 3.2GHz, or overclocked to 3.8GHz & completely rock solid, the game is unplayable.

There's a difference between buying a product that doesn't perform as intended and feeling burned by your purchase, and buying a product that absolutely doesn't work. Buy a toaster that doesn't get hot enough and takes too long to cook your pop tart but still ultimately does so? Okay. Buy a toaster that doesn't get hot at all? Unacceptable.

Oh and just like everyone else, Single player is flawless. So is playing with the bots. It's not until you go online that the game freezes and crashes.
well if i have a friend with a phenom 2 and a 3870x2 running it fine then there must be something on your end.
 
Yeah, I haven't had a chance to fully test out the new patch fixes in Black Ops. I was one of those who bought the PC game, loaded it and had nothing but lag fest, poor hit reg, lock ups, and Direct X errors.

I went through the whole modify the config file this, update drivers that, and so on. I noticed that many other friends having the same issues and their systems had better hardware than mine.

It just goes to show you when a game developer creates a game targeted at the console market and then makes a half-hearted effort at the PC version. *sigh*

Here's hoping that they actually improved something instead of making it worse with a patch.
 
I played the game last night just a bit after the patch was released. I changed video cards so it's hard to tell how much of the performance improvement is from that, or the patch. However the game runs like it should. Nice and smooth, all maxed out.

Works well for me. Here's the changelog from Steam.com:

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Improved threading performance on computers with only 2 cores.
Additional performance optimizations
Added an option to pre-cache all shaders during load time. This fixes hitching related to shader compiling on some video cards when viewing an area of the map for the first time.
Fixed random freezes in certain computer configurations.
Allow Team Change on Ranked servers when it does not unbalance teams (this is a server admin option).
Allow Team Change grace period at start of match (server admin option).
Added 4 more reserved slots (server admin option)
Added /connect
Improved quickmatch results (server side change)
Fix for watching films through Combat Record
Fixed compassSpectatorsSeeEnemies exploit
Fixed 3rd person fov exploit
Fix for infinite supply drop exploit.
Fixed crosshair flickering when stereo is active.
Various spawn improvements
Various sound improvements
Fix for Zombies – Teammate shadows not displayed properly.
Fix for radar not staying on in One in the Chamber when it should.
In a Domination match, the Position Secured medal is no longer delayed.
'Hardened: Equipment Shot' Challenge can now be completed by destroying a 'Camera Spike'.
Fix for choppy final killcam in dedicated servers.
Various map glitches fixed.
Weekly and Monthly leaderboards will now track all kills, deaths and assists properly (All Time leaderboards were not affected by this)
Added mixed hardcore playlist
Added mixed barebones playlist
Added 12 player versions of all playlists

Rcon

Reduced timeout values. Connect (or failure to connect is faster).
Added all white-listed dvars for Ranked and Unranked. Admins have rcon access to ALL available dvars.
Added Settings and Console tabs for Ranked servers.
Fixes a bug where the “Server” tab doesn’t update values when connecting to a new server.
Added version number to the title bar.
Fixed a bug where UI state didn’t persist after switching to another server.
Added “disconnect” button.
Fixed map “set” to not use admindvar.
Changed all dvars which could be possibly float, to float. Mostly these are time-type dvars.
Fixed bug where entering a value of zero for Message Duration would cause a unhandled exception error
Truncated all message fields to 140 chars
 
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I crash a total of once per day I play. I just shut down BO, re-open and all is fine in the world.

And when you crash, you lose the XP you had earned on that map. Plus, that's unacceptable. Crash to desktop is not something that should be tolerated. Besides, when I crash, it can be as fast as displaying the menu, or as slow as displaying the score after a map. Rarely, if ever, do I get a full map in before the game crashes. I certainly can not put up with such a random occurrence and enjoy the experience.

And saying it's "something on my end" is vague, and a cop out answer. It could be as much my fault as what sound system is on the motherboard (realtek vs VIA) or what video card manufacturer made my card. just because it works for you doesn't mean it will work on every system that's similar. This is pretty much a proven point by the number of issues still prevalent on the other forums. (For every tech help request, there are dozens of gameplay threads as well from people who CAN play. Stating that forums are only for negative posts is not accurate. There are plenty of people who post who are happy.)

I've done pretty much everything in the .cfg files that have been mentioned by others. The only things I haven't tried (not that I Think they will work any) are changing the cpu affinity to 1 core, swapping in my old Sound Blaster Live in place of the onboard sound, and reinstalling Windows. To be honest, the soundblaster option is probably the most likely to work since a lot of the stuttering and crashing errors seem to be sound related

But I have no hope for this game to ever be playable. Why do I say this? To "fix" the choppy disgusting Final KillCam bug, Treyarch just REMOVED IT instead of fixing it. It now plays the final killcam, but the slow motion aspect is gone completely. They avoided fixing it instead of fixing it. I have little faith in the company at this point anymore after seeing how they've handled the customer response (from both the PC viewpoint and towards the PS3 players). Their lack of communication is absolutely unfathomable for such a high profile title. How Activision isn't upset with them, I'll never know.
 
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