Sledgehammer, Activision Blizzard’s 2021 Call of Duty’s dev team, revealed that they had changed a truckload of things in the multiplayer.

“Distortion effects were removed from muzzle flash, and we reduced smoke emitted when firing a weapon. Completed a pass on muzzle flash placement/coverage when aiming down sights. VFX Environment ambient placement for better sightlines. Removed the droplets of water that get all up in your face when it rains. Various bugs have been fixed, including certain optics stopping the enemy and friendly HUD icons from displaying while ADS. Fixed cases of nametags appearing through Destruction. Lens flare reduced across all maps (we nerfed the sun). We will continue to refine VFX, Lighting, and UI into launch and monitor player feedback surrounding the various topics of visibility,” Sledgehammer wrote about the visibility changes.

What about audio? “Audio received a complete mixing and content overhaul to address community feedback from the Public Beta, including more audible footsteps, player and non-player weapons, and map environment content. Footsteps are silent when players ADS, Crouch Walk, or have a Perk / Field Upgrade equipped, silencing movement. Fixed a bug that caused shots after the first shot to be too quiet. Operator quips occur less frequently. Asked Butcher to chill out. VO lines are less frequent.” Spawns are not changed that much: “A bug resulting in unpredictable spawns in Patrol has been fixed as well general tuning of spawn logic globally. We will continue to refine spawn logic over time to improve spawns in matches with higher player counts.”

Movement changes follow: “Grenades and incendiaries no longer slow movement speed of players. A cap has been placed on max suppression effects. Changes have been made to animation times, including weapon swap speeds and throwing of equipment (i.e., Gammon bombs can be thrown more quickly). Sprint out times have been sped up and rebalanced. Dev Tip: Dauntless, a perk that players didn’t have access to in Beta, makes players immune to movement reducing effects.”

Weapons got a lot of modifications: “Shotgun lethality has been improved. The effective range of most Shotguns, SMGs, and Pistols have been reduced (SMGs and Pistols were overperforming at the range, and Shotguns were adjusted down due to increased lethality overall). Hipfire spread has been adjusted on most guns (mainly to add more consistency across weapon categories). Tradeoffs on barrels, magazines, and stocks have been reduced. Ammo types were rebalanced to include more tradeoffs. Squashed bugs affecting Weapon Progression and Detailed Stats. Dev Tip: Vanguard’s version of the smoke grenade works differently than previous games. You’re fully hidden from distant enemies but can be seen at closer ranges allowing you to close the distance between you and the enemy and hunt them down with close-quarter combat builds. Dev Tip: Try setting your mount options to use ADS rather than ADS+Melee. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a powerful way to become more accurate in an instant while staying out of harm’s way. It can be combined with blind fire for some great results.”

Killstreaks and Field Upgrades have also changed: “Friendly Spy Planes and Counter Spy Planes will no longer appear overhead. Spy Planes and Counter Spy Planes move slower and are easier to hit. Counter Spy Planes have a shorter duration. Health has been reduced on Spy Planes, Counter Spy Planes, and most placed Field Upgrades. Death Machine and War Machine have swapped costs. The glide bomb is easier to control. A max timer has been added to the Radar Jammer and Field Mic Field Upgrades. Bugs resulting in graphical corruption of the Attack Dogs have been fixed – no more Dognados.” And finally, the perks: “Low Profile has been removed and replaced with Ninja. Dead Silence has gained the ghost effect in addition to silent movement while active. This offers more flexibility in perk loadouts.” More details in the Q&A.

Call of Duty: Vanguard will launch on November 5 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC (Battle.net), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: PSL