Overnight the latest PC patch was pushed out to Steam and GameServers. It turns out the list of PC updates that our great Community Manager JD_2020 gave to the public back on January 12 that I reported on here a few days ago; was actually not the list for the latest patch being worked on – but a list of what is being worked on in general. Thanks for the clear communication JD!

The list for the latest patch; although much smaller that what was mentioned on the prior list from JD_2020, doesn’t include much of anything in regards to tuning or balancing but does continue to push on with the still much needed stability improvements and some bug fixes – with a few little additions on the side. With that said; there are still numerous additions and changes that the XBOX 360 & PS3 has had for over a month now already – and since those features weren’t in this patch us PC users will now be waiting over two months (or more) to get those features and changes that the consoles have had.

[fancy_link link=http://www.callofdutyview.net/articles/codblack-ops-patch-history/]View the full COD:Black Ops Patch History page here[/fancy_link]

[check_list]

  • MP Audio stuttering on certain systems.
  • Playercards sometimes not showing properly.
  • Added three Private Match Server Settings: Team Change, Team-Up Period, and Keep Balanced Teams.
  • Added Alternate Color Scheme for accessibility: Settings / Multiplayer / Player Name Indicator.
  • Changed Team-Up Period countdown interval to 10 seconds.
  • Combat Training sessions are no longer counted in Server Browser Unranked tab.
  • Friends on your team will now show as blue on your minimap.
  • Prevention of various exploits.
  • Objective markers localized for all languages.
  • Various stability improvements.

[/check_list]

Supposedly all servers were updated as well with this update however once again there is really no communication on what changes were done to the servers and GameServers staff has already commented that “not all issues have been addressed” with this patch. However a GS forum staff member did comment that we should be looking at two points on the same patch notes that were released for the client as they also are said to apply to the servers. It sure would still be nice to see ACTUAL patch release notes for the servers so we know what the heck is being changed or being fixed to make the servers that WE PAY FOR better.

[check_list]

  • Prevention of various exploits.
  • Various stability improvements.

[/check_list]

Lets hope that these stability fixes finally address the client side freezing issues that so many are still experiencing once and for all and lets hope that something is corrected with the horrible server crashing issues that have been going on. As of this morning reading the GS Forums there are mixed results with some reporting servers are still crashing yet others are reporting that they notice major improvements in server performance and their server isn’t crashing – so I guess it will take a little more time to see which way this patch swings the pendulum for the server side.

The last part of the update was a version increase to the Treyarch RCON tool with the addition of it now being able to notify you if you are trying to connect with a wrong password. Yay.

[check_list]

  • Recognize new “invalid password” server response

[/check_list]

Now for the future; it seems that the next patch (1.06) will be a pretty big patch with some actual weapon and game play balancing/tuning; and hopefully some of those features and changes that consoles have been playing with already for quite some time. However, at this time instead of speculating what we will get in the next patch I will just direct you to David Vonderhaar’s post on CODHQ if you haven’t seen it yet to get an idea of what might be coming up. Keep in mind that right now in that topic he is talking about console updates for the most part but I would see most if not all of those also coming over to the PC as well. Again; only time will tell.