After Call of Duty: World at War, we set out 3 goals for our next PC title:

* 1] PC gets every single game feature that the consoles get, but in a way that makes sense for PC.
* 2] PC gets even more features – the ones that PC gamers want like dedicated servers and more customization.
* 3] Keep it fun. Protect the integrity of the title through design and post-launch support.


Keep that in mind as you read through the decisions outlined below in our FAQ.

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC Multiplayer FAQ

Full feature support: Confirmed
Ranked Servers: earn XP and currency. Wager Servers: gamble your currency. Customizable Unranked Servers. Combat Training against practice dummies. Theater. Create-a-Class "2.0." Contracts. Emblem editor. Everything the consoles get. Implemented in a way that makes sense for PC (*cough* no lobbies *cough*).

PC Features: Confirmed
Dedicated Servers. New Server Browser. Dev console. /record. Customizable game modes, perks, killstreaks, classes, and higher player counts on unranked servers. Map rotation. RCon. Kick & Ban. MOTD. In-game custom Server Banners. And more.

Mod Tools: Confirmed
We will release mod tools sometime post-launch. We need to finish the game first. Then we will make sure any urgent issues are handled. Then we will begin work on tools. The extent of the mod tools package will not be known until this time.

Global Persistent Stats, Profiles: Confirmed
Your profile data is stored on servers for you and is accessible from anywhere on the internet. Stats, XP, COD Points, configs, etc.

Leaderboards: Confirmed
Yes, leaderboards - globally persistent leaderboards (i.e. NOT per-server based).

Steam Exclusive: Confirmed
Millions of Call of Duty fans are already on Steam. Their Friends are on Steam. Steam will provide the ease of auto-updating instead of manual patching. Auto-updating will also help keep the community playing together on the latest version. The Steam cloud will make your profile and configs available to you on any computer.

VAC: Confirmed
We are serious about protecting the integrity of this game from hackers and cheaters who would otherwise ruin the fun for the honest players. Used in conjunction with our own anti-exploit measures, Theater reviews, trusted servers, and supplemented by server admins with kick and ban powers we believe that Valve Anti-Cheat will be an effective solution for Call of Duty: Black Ops PC. We are committed to working closely and diligently with Valve to deal with new threats as they appear.

No “Public Server Files”: Confirmed
Many of these game features are predicated on having a trusted host or server. Otherwise these features would be wide-open to easy exploits and rampant cheating. Also, anti-cheat solutions can be significantly more effective on games that rely on trusted servers. We chose against “public server files” in favor of providing full feature support and protecting the integrity of this title. This doesn't mean you won't have customization or admin capabilities with your servers - because you will. This simply means we've partnered with an exclusive server provider.

GameServers.com Exclusive: Confirmed
We have partnered with GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Every dedicated server for this title will be running on top quality hardware and infrastructure with excellent bandwidth. There will be a ton of official servers at launch for everyone to play on for free. If you want to run your own server you will be able to rent one at a great price (which will never go higher than $0.99/slot). They are actively adding new server locations and staffing up to meet global demand. If you don’t see your location you can suggest it here: http://www.gameservers.com/blackops/

Max Players: Not Confirmed
We have not yet finalized the maximum number of players in ranked or unranked servers. More playtesting is required to determine how high these numbers can go. This happens as late as possible in the project otherwise the game is likely to change in ways that could invalidate the results.

Minimum System Requirements: Not Confirmed
The game is still in development, and the PC team is hard at work making further optimizations. We will announce the min specs in the near future.

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Hopefully that answers the majority of the outstanding questions not answered from our MP Reveal coverage. There are still some questions we do not have answers for at this time, so as always, we appreciate your patience. We will have all questions answered before November 9th.

Regards,
-JD, PC Dev, & the PC Team

I was at the Black Ops MP Reveal down in LA on September 1st, 2010 and was give the oppurinty to interview @pcdev about the PC SKU of Call of Duty: Black Ops...



Josh: Cesar thanks for doing this!

Cesar: You’re welcome my pleasure.


Josh: Dedis, first off everyone wants to know are they self-upload like World at War, or sort of like what EA did with Bad Company 2 with a trusted gsp?

Cesar: Excelent question, right out of the greatest hits. You just saw this presentation on multiplayer. My goal with this game is to give the pc community the entire game that the console guys get plus all the cool pc stuff that we as pc gamers need to have to make it feel like a pc title. Most of these new features in this game are predicated on having trusted servers, we are having a trusted server system as a matter of fact we are partnering with gameservers.com to be the exclusive provider for all of the Black Ops dedicated servers. These guys are big, they’re great and we’ve been working with them since world of war, they're going really big with this title, we're going to know on day one that there’s going to be a huge number of official servers for everyone to play on. We’re going to know every single one of our dedicated servers is going be running on top quality hardware on a great infrastructure that has great bandwidth. We're also going to know they're going to help us protect the integrity of the title. In addition, if you want to run your own server, you're going to be able to get a rank or unranked server from GamerServers at a great price


Josh: Mod tools, I’ve got to ask it, I know you’ve said before you aren’t sure what’s going to be in it, but I’ve got to ask, is there going to be a mapping ability?

Cesar: So, you know @JD_2020 and I kind of come from modding backgrounds, near and dear to our hearts, as soon we ship this game, get it in your hand so you can start playing it, and make sure its all good were going to focus on getting some tools to you this work isn’t done yet I can’t say what it is going to include what it’s not going to include, my hope is that it includes a complete set of tools. There are some difficult issue we need to solve the works not done I’m not going to make any promises. I feel pretty confident that the tools will be sufficient to make great competitive mods at the very minimum.


Josh: Do you hope for a possibility of Map Tools?

Cesar: Of course. I can tell you the most difficult issues, purely technical issues, have to do with the mapping tool. They have to do with the way we’ve change our shadder system our lighting system. Moving this tool from an in house tool to a tool you can put in the hands of our players is definitely not there yet.


Josh: With the server, I have a lot of questions on that, will there be customization, will we be able to turn o and off certain things on the server?

Cesar: Absolutely, even though a lot people are kind of scared of having rent only servers, the way were doing this is having highly customizable unranked servers. If you want to play no killstreak ,no perks, shotguns only, go for it, you want to have higher player counts? Go for it, knock yourself out.


Josh: With that, will there be an opportunity to change the game type and rotation on the server?

Cesar: Yes.


Josh: Everyone keeps asking about whether there will be a /Record and the Dev Console, or will it be the type of tool we saw in the MP teaser?

Cesar: I’ve seen that question a lot. So we will be including the Theater feature, the film editor, that you just saw in that presentation, which is super cool; but were not taking /record away. You want to do client side demo recording you can still do it old school.


Josh: Anti cheat…Punk Buster or VAC?

Cesar: We’ve got an enormous Call of Duty PC community, most of them already on Steam, this is going to be a steam exclusive title. Most of their friends are on steam. We’re going to use VAC, and together with our trusted server system I feel confident this is the best way we can provide cheat protection at this time.


Josh: With this steam requirement, will that also mean for the PC that DLC and patching…

Cesar: Were still trying to finish the game so were not thinking DLC


Josh: When the game comes out, there are always problems, will patches be regular?

Cesar: There are always bugs everyone knows this. I think we proved ourselves on our last title. We’re going to support this game.


Josh: How in-depth is the Dev Console be, will it be like World at War, where we can do what ever we want with it?

Cesar: Definitely including the Dev Console and this is a different title and its not finished yet, we can’t go into detail about what you can and can’t do, one of the things I’ll probably need to do with the Dev Console, is make sure that in the spirit of keeping the game fun and to protect it from those lowly cheaters (who are going to try and ruin the experience for us honest players ) is to make sure there aren’t things you can exploit with the dev console. Other than that, I love the dev console most hardcore pc gamers do


Josh: I didn’t see a Spectator Mode on the 360, will there be one on the PC?

Cesar: Yes. You can spectate.


Josh: Will there be Community features like with the Theater and Profile Linking your Game Account to Online Community Website for stats for the PC?

Cesar: Definitely


Josh: On that note for the Theatre, will pc be able to upload or is there like a whole thing where it uploads to a community site?

Cesar: This a feature were still working on stuff its going to be web friendly mobile friendly


Josh: I’ve heard rumors about Matchmaking on the pc, it being included…

Cesar: Where did those rumors come from? This title is, although it will support some old style listen servers, this is a dedicated server title. its going to have a newly designed server browser, that I think you’re going to love, and also if you don’t feel like browsing you can ask the game to pick the server for you with the click of a button, that’s the extent of anything that someone what some would call matchmaking its just putting them in a server.


Josh: You talked about the Server Browser and how it was going to be improved, how so?

Cesar: We did various things to improve usability for it we have the tabbed interface, we have a tool tips, context menus, it performs a bit better. There’s a bunch of improvements to it.


Josh: Will the Base Assault gametype return on the pc?

Cesar: Hopefully the modding community will help us out here, I’d love to see that.


Josh: Is LAN mode for the pc, get together with friends at a house.?

Cesar: We’re Not supporting LAN, it’s a steam title internet required


Josh: How many PC players can get on a server?

Cesar: We have not actually determined what the ceiling is going to be yet, this is testing we do late in the project because this is predicated on memory requirements, how fun the different game maps, game modes are with a lot of people. But we’re going to have higher player counts than the 360…Did I say that?


Josh: Thinking of what else to ask you….. What Is your favorite part of the PC SKU of the game

Cesar: The cool thing about this game, this title, is that you get so many (you just saw this presentation where you get thing after thing after thing, the customization is super cool) I dig the new game modes the wager matches gets really addictive, I don’t know, I’m more of a CTF guy. I like the objective game modes.


Josh: Last Minute question, is HQ back in the game like World at War?

Cesar: No comment.


Josh: That’s all I got, thanks!

Cesar: That’s pretty good man, I think we can go home now. Get that out on the web and we’re done man.



Thank you again Cesar for letting me be the first to interview you for the PC community at the MP event!

We have not yet finalized the maximum number of players in ranked or unranked servers. More playtesting is required to determine how high these numbers can go. This happens as late as possible in the project otherwise the game is likely to change in ways that could invalidate the results.

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