CoD Modern Warfare’s Latest Update Brings a New Map, Assault Rifles and the 725 Shotgun Get Nerfed

Modern Warfare has sort of redeemed the Call of Duty franchise after a series of lackluster launches from Activision. Personally, this is the most fun I have ever had with a CoD title since Black Ops 3. Starting with Modern Warfare the series will drop the season pass with paid maps which means all post content launch will be free and accessible for everyone.

Modern Warfare’s first big update brings a new map, Shoot House 24/7. This update also brings a lot of balance changes, major ones we will cover below.

Firstly game lighting has undergone a slight change so players can see enemies better, this is very minute and most players won’t be able to differentiate. Claymores can be annoying to deal with and the devs have nerfed them a bit, with the new update shooting claymores point-blank won’t kill you.

Player voice cues are universal in the game, so if your character spots an enemy and shouts “contact!”, the enemy player hears it too. This is problematic for obvious reasons and with this update, the devs remove the enemy player’s ability to hear you. The field of view to trigger the callout for your team has also been reduced.  Footsteps have also been reworked and the devs have reduced its volume at a distance and behind objects, again a very slight change.

Coming to weapons, the dreaded 725 shotgun finally gets a nerf with a reduced damage range, for 725 players this means less 1 hit kills at distances. All 5.56 Assault Rifles including the M4A will be slightly nerfed, with reduced damage at range and increased hip fire spread. In SMGs, the UZI has been buffed dealing more damage at range. This covers the most important parts of the update, you can, however, read the full changelog below.

General Changes

• Backend fixes to prevent crashes and improve stability across all platforms, include dev errors, and various performance fixes.

• Fix for a few bugs where some streaks and Field Upgrades were able to be flown out of bounds without penalty. General out of bound fixes were also added.

• Fix for a bug where a player being killed by an enemy with a Variable Zoom Scope would not see the zoom function in the killcam

• Fix for the Semtex warning audio being heard at the same volume whether in a building or outside

• In Headquarters, players were able to place a Tac Insert and respawn when their team owned the point. This has been fixed.

• Fix for various collision issues across maps

• Added UI that shows when XP events are active in playlists menus

• Sprint and Tactical Sprint speeds are now back to speeds in Beta

• Fix for a bug where the progress of the bomb defusal can be seen by the team that planted the bomb

• Fix for a bug that revealed players to UAVs when they fired their weapons, even if they had Ghost and a silencer equipped

• Fixed an issue where if multiple Personal Radars were active on a team, and are both marking the same enemy, only one player would see the enemy on their minimap.

RIOT SHIELD:

Fixed an issue where the throwing knife and Thermite weren’t causing the shield to go on the player’s back when thrown. We’ve also fixed the issue where explosive splash damage wasn’t working consistently. We’ll continue to tune the Riot Shield in future updates.

CLAYMORES:

Detonating an enemy claymore with bullets is now non-lethal when at full health. We’ve also reduced the trigger and damage radius and also reduced the damage width to better match the trigger width.

BATTLE CHATTER:

Removed the ability for enemies to hear when they’ve been called out by the opposing team. We also adjusted the enemy callouts so they are never from your Operator. Enemy callouts now use a more restricted cone at the hip and even more restricted in ADS when calculating whether or not to trigger. We’ll continue to monitor this and make additional tweaks to Battle Chatter in future updates.

MOUNTING:

Slight increase to recoil while mounting.

PERKS:

E.O.D. now clamps damage to a non-lethal amount, assuming the player is at full health

LIGHTING:

Continued updates to player visibility in dark windows and dark areas.

FOOTSTEPS:

We’ve increased the occlusion percentage to filter footstep sounds behind geometry and adjusted the footstep volume at a distance. We have another large footstep change coming in the next update which will make crouch and ADS movement significantly quieter. Stay tuned!

CHALLENGES/PROGRESSION/RANK

Daily Challenges and Active Missions are getting a full sweep of testing and fixes. We’ll have more updates to these systems in future updates.

• Fix for a bug where the Infiltrator challenge was not tracking properly

• Fix for launchers not giving XP when shooting down killstreaks

• Fix for a bug where planting or defusing 5 bombs in Cyber Attack or SnD was not tracking properly

• Camo challenge for “Kills After a Reload” didn’t give the player enough time to acquire a kill, so time has been increased

• Fix for a bug where your XP require to reach the next rank was higher than the value needed

Weapons

• 725 Shotgun: Increase to ADS and Hip Spread, reduced damage range

• M4A1 Assault Rifle: Reduced damage range, small recoil increase

• Assault Rifles: Increased hip spread to reduce effectiveness up close, less damage at long range for full auto 5.56 rifles

• SMGs: Increased move speed, increased ADS move speed, small reduction in sprint out time

• UZI SMG: Increased damage range

• MG34 LMG: Increased hip spread, damage range reduction, small ADS slow down

• M91 LMG: Increased hip spread, small damage range reduction

• PKM: Increased hip spread, medium damage range reduction

• Pistols: Increased move speed, reduced sprint out time, increased damage range

• Crouch and Prone no longer adjust recoil

CALL OF DUTY LEAGUE

Updated rulesets for CDL competitive modes in private match

CYBER ATTACK

Fix for a bug where a player could use lose their primary weapon and would be unable to see their ViewModel after being revived by a teammate

GROUND WAR

• Fix for a bug where players would sometimes be unable to pick a spawn location

• Fix for a bug where a Tac Insert could cause players to spawn on the enemy home base

Special Ops

• Pick up Intel! – In the Operations, explore Verdansk to find additional backstory information of Verdansk and the Operators.

• Fix for scoreboards displaying incorrect data

• XP adjustments and general backend fixes

• Various fixes for out of bounds and parachute exploits

• Respawn timer no longer stays on screen after teammates are revived from bleedout

• Fix for issue where the Munitions were not usable after respawning via Gunship

• Fix for losing your weapons when picking up the core

• Achievements can now be unlocked in CP

• Fix for issue where players could spawn with their weapons in the downed state

• Picked up Munitions no longer carry over from match to match. Only the Munitions you purchase with points will.

• When respawning via the Gunship, you will no longer be given the Tank role

• Selecting an Allegiance Operator or Allegiance as a favorite faction will now properly assign the voice of the correct operator

• Operation Headhunter: Fix for a bug where players are not able to lock missiles onto the final boss helicopter

• Operation Crosswind: Adjusted stealth for gameplay

• Operation Paladin:

  • Fix for a bug where there was no UI or indicator of where to go or how to finish the objective after defending the 3rd arms crate

  • Fix for a bug where the default weapon was different than the weapon a player would hold if they were placed in Last Stand