Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will have even deadlier shotguns than the beta - see what else is changing

News by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on Oct. 31, 2016

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta feedback and data has brought about a rebalance.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is being rebalanced based on the results of recent beta test weekends.

Infinity Ward community manager ashtonisVULCAN shared the details of the rebalance on Reddit, but didn't say exactly when it will be implemented. Can we expect these changes in a day-one patch when Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare launches on Friday?

Before we dive into nitty-gritty of weapon balance and other gameplay tweaks, here are a couple of general comments on what's changing in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare based on beta feedback.

On the topic of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's matchmaking, Infinity Ward highlighted four problems that made the beta more frustrating than it needed to be. Apparently the beta was too strict about testing connection times, was incorrectly categorising players by geographic region, and was slowing down in-progress match joins. All of these were addressed over the course of the beta. Issues with cleaning up dead lobbies were also identified, and clearing them out should speed up match searches.

Infinity Ward also said that it's testing a new dedicated server allocation system with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. This wasn't working super well at the start of the beta but was fixed for the second weekend.

The last general note regarding the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta was that TTK (time to kill) wasn't well received. Infinity Ward said the matchmaking and dedicated server tweaks described above, as well as the weapon tuning below, should address that and ensure a better balance. Goodness knows what a Call of Duty fan considers a reasonable TTK: coming from Destiny PvP, the whole thing seems bonkers fast to me.

Anyway, here are the post-beta rebalance notes for Call of Duty: infinite Warfare.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare weapon balance changes

Shotguns

Increased the consistency of shotgun damage.
Shotgun damage at longer range has been increased.
Slightly increased the one shot kill range.
Both the Reaver and Banshee have received a slight bonus to their 1 trigger pull kill range.

Snipers

Bullet spread at the hip no longer gets smaller as the player ADS’s. Once the scope reaches the player’s eye, the bullet spread goes instantly to zero.
Sniper aim assist was reduced slightly for the KBS Longbow and the other bolt action snipers. Our turn rate while Aimed Down Sights is still slowed to help with precision aiming.
Sniper-class weapons no longer have any Aim Assist until the optic fully reaches the player’s eye.
For the ELO and Scout optics on snipers, the idle sway while ADS has been increased along with the player’s view bounce when moving. Because these optics are less zoomed in, the view bounce and the sway are felt less. These changes are to promote more stationary aiming and firing with these optics.
The Tracking Chip optic’s visuals have been improved.
Reduced bonus of the Quickdraw attachment on snipers.
Updated snipers to have more flinch when getting shot.

Launchers

The Howitzer Grenade launcher can now be fired from the hip instead of requiring full ADS

SMGs

The RPR Evo epic variant (Ripper) has had a tuning pass to increase recoil given its bonus fire rate

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare mode changes

Defender
When carrying the Drone, the score-per-second bonus has been bumped from 5 score per second to 10 score per second. Scorestreak carrier bonus is unaffected.
Gun Game
Now features all classic weapons. In future updates, weapons with alternate functions will retain their state upon spawn.
Domination
When you step off a flag, the current capture bar progress starts to decay. The rate of this decay has been halved from the Beta. This allows players to hop off a flag to defend it and then get back on the flag with less progress loss

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare general changes

Perks and rigs

Marksman – We fixed a bug where, in addition to reducing flinch, it was also reducing recoil. This would then stack with Gun Perks and the Foregrip Attachment. This bonus reduction has been removed.
Momentum – Fixed issues with speed not being retained
Marked Target – The temporary red marker on the victim has been toned down

Health and regen changes

Health Regen time has been reduced.
Infusion bonus reduced.
Continuing to refine spawn system on beta maps, will assess remaining launch maps in live environment.

Economy changes

Increased salvage gain in mission teams.
Changed currency value in supply drops.
Increased drop rate of keys in round-based modes.

Scorestreaks

AP-3X
- Increased health, bullet damage, and weapon accuracy up close to help with target acquisition
RC-8
- Increased health, increased weapon accuracy to help with target acquisition, slight increase in fire rate, and slight damage increase on splash damage
T.H.O.R
- Increased speed of tracking rockets
- Increase damage of both tracking and straight fire rockets
Bombardment
- Slight decrease in both time to the initial drop and the time between each subsequent drop
- Updated area damage to be consistent inner to outer