Now that 2019 is in full swing, Treyarch is back at it and have released the first Black Ops 4 patch of the new year.
While a special patch was released on Xbox One to fix intermittent freezing issues on January 3, the last patch for all platforms came with the December 21 Game Settings Update.
As such, there was much anticipation for the next big patch and while this doesn’t contain much in terms of gameplay changes, it has a few major updates on some of the game’s most anticipated features.
By the biggest information released in the update pertains to League Play, which has been confirmed to be on its way by the end of January.
As we mentioned back in our Operation Absolute Zero announcement blog, the Black Ops 4 competitive season is a core focus for us heading into 2019. Now that we’ve built the foundation for our competitive feature set with the launches of CWL Custom Games, CODCaster, and Live Event Viewer, we’re dedicated to rolling out continuing World League Hub features over the coming months.
This all kicks off with the launch of League Play by the end of January, which we know many of you are eagerly anticipating. League Play will operate a little differently this time around. The system is designed to emulate a schedule more like the pros play, where League Play events will be intense and frequent but shorter duration, generally spanning weekends or 3-day periods.
More information on what’s in store for League Play can be found in the patch notes down below.
In addition to the crucial information on League Play in Black Ops 4, Treyarch has confirmed that the improved looting system for Blackout on consoles will be released in the v1.11 update next week.
While the latest patch might not have included much in terms of full game updates, it sounds like next week’s update should hold players over until the release of League Play at the end of the month.
You can read the full patch notes for the January 8 update below:
Jan. 8 Update: New Featured Playlists, Details on Mastery Camos in Zombies & Blackout / Upcoming Zombies Features / Blackout Looting Improvements / League Play
Happy New Year from everyone here at the studio – we hope you’re all rested up and ready for an incredible year of Black Ops 4 content! Today’s update is all about what’s coming soon in 2019.
First up: we’ve updated our post-holiday MP playlists into an all-out Moshpit bonanza on all platforms, including Endurance Chaos Moshpit in this week’s Featured Playlist showcase, along with Mercenary Capture Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, Deathmatch Moshpit, and Map Pack Moshpit in the Featured category. We’ve also made stability improvements in MP and Zombies in today’s patch as we prepare for what’s in store later this month… see below for details.
With Black Ops 4’s launch window behind us and Operation Absolute Zero in full swing on all platforms, we’re hard at work on upcoming features and new content across all three modes. As we gear up for 2019, we’re kicking off our first community update of the year with details on some of our most anticipated upcoming features:
- Mastery Camos in Zombies and Blackout
- Upcoming Features in Zombies
- Improved Looting in Blackout on consoles
- League Play in Ranked Multiplayer
Mastery Camos in Zombies and Blackout
Many of you have been asking about bringing Gold, Diamond, and Dark Matter camos over from Multiplayer into Zombies and Blackout, particularly after the recent launch of Weapon Camo support in Blackout. We hear you, and we have a feature incoming that will support equipping these camos in all modes while preserving what those camos represent.
There is a reason these specific types of weapon progression camo are not shared across modes: they are designed to represent that players have completed a mode-specific challenge progression. Gameplay is very different across Multiplayer, Zombies, and Blackout, and we want the bragging rights that go with these camos to mean something in the modes where they’re shown off. As such, we’re building out Mastery Camo progression systems in both Zombies and Blackout that have unique, custom-tailored challenges that will represent that players have completed challenges designed for the modes where they are equipped.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
We’re planning to deliver Mastery Camos in both modes in late January as our teams continue to work on the next round of new features, content, and events coming to Black Ops 4 this year. Stay tuned to these community updates to be the first to know more.
Upcoming Zombies Features
With five Zombies experiences now available following Dead of the Night’s release on all platforms, the team is laser-focused on developing new features and challenges for the Zombies community to sink their teeth into in 2019, in addition to more Zombies experiences coming throughout the year for Black Ops Pass holders.
Next week, we’re introducing the first series of this year’s new Zombies features and content with Gauntlets launching first in Voyage of Despair and the addition of three new Elixirs on PS4, plus new balancing changes to existing Elixirs! And as luck would have it, there’s a very Zombies-specific date coming up next week when we’ll have more details to share about these features and more for Zombies coming in 2019. See you then.
Improved Looting in Blackout on Consoles
After additional testing and iteration, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be rolling out a much-improved interface for looting in Blackout on consoles in next week’s 1.11 update! This includes an easier-to-navigate interface that allows console players to quickly scroll through a multi-row grid, loot the items they want, and get back into the fight even faster. Thanks for all of your feedback on the current Blackout experience, and watch for more details on our updated interface next week.
League Play
As we mentioned back in our Operation Absolute Zero announcement blog, the Black Ops 4 competitive season is a core focus for us heading into 2019. Now that we’ve built the foundation for our competitive feature set with the launches of CWL Custom Games, CODCaster, and Live Event Viewer, we’re dedicated to rolling out continuing World League Hub features over the coming months.
This all kicks off with the launch of League Play by the end of January, which we know many of you are eagerly anticipating. League Play will operate a little differently this time around. The system is designed to emulate a schedule more like the pros play, where League Play events will be intense and frequent but shorter duration, generally spanning weekends or 3-day periods.
In between those events, Scrims will be run as an unranked playlist using CWL rules so that players and teams can sharpen their skills before a competition. Both League Play events and Scrims will use skill-based matchmaking, where focus has been applied to making sure skill matches are as accurate as possible without resulting in empty lobbies or long wait times. League ladders will be built around 50-player groupings to ensure the most intense competition for these shorter-duration events. We’ll provide more around how the ranking system works along with other details as we approach the launch date.
Our planned schedule is to release the World League Hub and first League Play event by the end of January. That said, we want to make sure that we’ve spent enough time play-testing and incorporating feedback before it launches, so this date is subject to change. We love ranked play as much as you do, and that’s why we’re taking the time required to give League Play the attention it deserves. From there, we’ll continue to release new World League Hub features, including Teams and Clans for our competitive-focused players.
Timing on all of the above features is subject to change based on development, and we’ll keep everyone informed with more precise info as we get closer to launching these new features.
Onto what’s new in the game since our last update:
- Endurance Chaos Moshpit added as Featured Playlist in MP
- Mercenary Capture Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, Deathmatch Moshpit, and Map Pack Moshpit added to Featured category in MP
- Stability improvements in MP
- Dead of the Night/IX improvements in Zombies
- 1.11 update arrives next week!
Multiplayer
- Featured Playlists
- Added Endurance Chaos Moshpit as Featured Playlist.
- 6v6 with higher score limits.
- Team Deathmatch with 150 score limit, 15 minute time limit.
- Domination with 200 score round limit, 400 score match limit.
- Hardpoint with 500 score limit, 10 minute time limit.
- Kill Confirmed with 150 score limit, 15 minute time limit.
- Added Mercenary Capture Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, Deathmatch Moshpit, and Map Pack Moshpit to Featured category.
- Stability
- Improved stability with Torque’s Barricade and its effects on enemy players.
- Improved stability with the Mantis Scorestreak, particularly when firing rockets.
- Improved stability when killing Strike Team members as they rappel out of the helicopter.
Zombies
- Miscellaneous
- Dead of the Night
- Addressed an issue that occasionally prevented a gravestone marker from appearing during the Main Quest.
- Addressed an issue that could prevent progression of the Stake Knife quest.
- Addressed an issue where players were able to pick up the Savage Impaler while their Special Weapon was in use.
- Addressed a rare stability issue involving the clock step in the Pack-A-Punch Quest.
- IX
- Addressed an issue that could prevent progression of the bull head portion of the Main Quest.
- Dead of the Night
- Stability
- Improved stability when multiple Sentries are active.
-Treyarch
