VANGUARD: THE ROAD FROM ALPHA TO BETA

Party at our house last weekend was fire, right?

High fives and celebratory fist bumps all around, folks. Thanks so much for playing the Champion Hill Alpha! On behalf of our development teams, partner studios, and global partners: we appreciate you showing up. But you didn’t just show up—you wrote us thousands of love letters and provided countless data points (ok, but like...we actually do count them) that'll make Call of Duty: Vanguard a better place to play for everyone.

In addition to the four new maps, six modes, and various features we’re bringing to the Vanguard Beta, we’re also delivering plenty of gameplay enhancements based on player feedback and internal data from the Alpha.

We passionately believe in being transparent with our community, and we’re addressing feedback as soon as we can. Please know that some of the feedback received during the Alpha weekend was already in flight for the Beta build. As a result, some feedback we were able to address ahead of the Beta, while other changes will come at a later time.

Did someone say Beta? Let’s dig in. 

CHANGES FROM ALPHA TO BETA

VISUAL UPDATES

Over the course of Alpha, we received a considerable amount of feedback regarding visibility. We’ve made several graphical improvements that you should notice in Beta, and we’ve responded to player feedback regarding low visibility when taking damage, and visibility issues with character/map lighting.

• Damage Overlay:
  • Refined the damage overlay when injured to help maintain visibility.
• Lighting:
  • Reduced the density of sun fog.
  • Increased the rim light around players to help separate them from the background.
  • Adjusted overall exposure—aka we turned up the lights.

AUDIO TUNING

The audio team has made improvements to weapon sounds that will be ready in time for Beta including:

• Non-player footstep volume slightly increased.
• Non-player weapon volume slightly reduced.
  • Note: Non-player is anyone that isn’t you (enemies and teammates).
• Announcer volume and callout frequency reduced.
• Global MP mixing pass to improve informative audio for gameplay

CHAMPION HILL SPAWN TUNING

Throughout the Champion Hill Alpha, we observed spawn issues that resulted in players spawning very close to other players. To address this, the design team has adjusted the spawns on Champion Hill.

• We’ve tuned spawn locations and adjusted overall spawn logic. Hopefully, this should eliminate any more Angela & Dwight spawn scares.
• We’ve done away with that one spawn in Courtyard that forced you to have 3 seconds of awkward eye contact with your opponent. You know the one.

FIXES IN THE PIPELINE

We received reports of nameplate visibility issues and aim assist tracking through destructible walls. While these fixes probably won’t be ready before Beta, we assure you they will be addressed before launch. Here’s which issues we’ve identified for fixes and a little information about why these bugs are happening:

• We identified a destructible wall in Champion Hill with a mismatched collision model. Even though it appeared as a solid wall, there was a hole allowing the raycast to pass through and show nameplates.
• Note: Nameplate visibility works by doing a raycast from you to other players. If there’s something blocking it, the nameplate shouldn’t be visible. Please keep this in mind while playing and make a report if something seems off.
• We are aware there are more nametag and aim assist-related issues and have an ongoing investigation on how to resolve them. Gameplay clips have been a great resource for our teams to find and squash these problems, so keep them coming.

BETA CONTENT

MAPS

• Champion Hill
• Hotel Royal
• Gavutu
• Red Star
• Eagle's Nest (weekend 2)

MODES

Outside of Champion Hill – Vanguard will introduce another new game mode: Patrol. Based on Hardpoint, this objective-based mode features a scoring zone in near-constant motion; if Operators want to rack up points for their team, they should keep up and move around the map within this Patrol point.

These modes are in addition to the classic offerings such as Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination, and Search & Destroy. These are also the exact modes you can play alongside Patrol during the Beta period (Patrol and Search & Destroy to be available later in the Beta).

Available modes in Beta:

• Champion Hill (Solos, Duos, Trios)
• Team Deathmatch
• Domination
• Kill Confirmed
• Patrol (Kicking off Saturday of Weekend 1)
• Search and Destroy (Weekend 2)

WEAPONS

Champion Hill

• Weapons are persistent through matches. There are ten upgrades per weapon, each adding one attachment.
• There will be three rotating weapon sets, featuring 2 ARs, 2 LMGs, 2 snipers, 2 shotguns, and 2 pistols.

Core MP

• For Core MP, you'll be able to level up weapons to level 30.
• PlayStation players will get +2 custom loadout slots (12 total, 10 for other platforms).

FEATURES

Combat Pacing

Combat Pacing is a feature that allows players to select the intensity of their games. Player count is determined by map size to achieve the intensity described in the Combat Pacing System. Player counts will vary.

• Tactical: These are the lobbies that franchise veterans know well. This is the experience that you're used to with classic Call of Duty combat timing. Tactical Combat Pacing is always 6v6.
• Assault: Balanced combat pacing that gives you enough room to breathe and a lot of targets to kill. In Beta Weekend 1, player counts will vary between 20-28 players.
• Blitz: High-action lobbies where the intensity is cranked up to frenetic levels. Prepare for plenty of combat when choosing to join a Blitz. In Beta Weekend 1, player counts will vary between 28-48 players.

OPERATORS (Each will have 1 finishing move)

• Daniel Takeyatsu
• Roland Zeimet
• Lucas Riggs
• Polina Petrova
• Wade Jackson
• Arthur Kingsley

That’s it for now! There will be much more information about the Vanguard Beta to come in the Call of Duty blog next week, so keep your eyes peeled. We’ll see you online in the Beta, and we’re looking forward to collecting more community feedback to help us make Vanguard a better experience for players.

Many thanks.

-Sledgehammer Games