Black Ops Cold War’s Scorestreak system overhauled for launch
In Black Ops Cold War’s day one patch notes, Treyarch revealed changes to the new Scorestreak system following player feedback.
In Cold War, Scorestreaks do not reset on death. Rather than having to earn a Scorestreak in one life, points remain on death and accrue over the whole match. Killstreaks multiply the score earned, so a high-end killstreak can be earned through either a 15-kill streak or lots of 5 or 6-kill streaks.
Players and Treyarch have agreed that with this system, low-end Scorestreaks were too easy to earn and those high-end Scorestreaks too difficult. Treyarch said: “even top players were having a hard time getting to the highest Scorestreaks.”
For the full launch of Black Ops Cold War on November 13, Treyarch have overhauled the Scorestreak system. Here’s a breakdown of the changes.
Earn Rate
With the way the previous system worked, many players were earning low-end Scorestreaks such as the Spy Plane and Counter Spy Plane at roughly the same time. This meant that for the duration of a match, low-end Scorestreaks were constantly being spammed.
Treyarch has acknowledged this and has adjusted the earn rate so that low-end Scorestreaks won’t be called in as often.
Although low-end killstreaks were too easy to earn, high-end killstreaks such as the Chopper Gunner were too difficult.
Treyarch has “increased score bonus thresholds at 10-kill and 15-kill streaks to make high streaks feel more rewarding, and to help boost score to higher-end Scorestreaks.” High killstreaks will now be more effective in helping to earn a high-end Scorestreak.
The cost of Scorestreaks has also been adjusted, although no details on the new values have been released.
To further reduce Scorestreak spam and to “allow for more interesting player choices and strategy,” Treyarch has added variation to Scorestreak cooldowns. It appears that different Scorestreaks will now have individual cooldown timers.
Further adjustments
Following feedback from the Beta, further minor adjustments have been made to how Scorestreaks work in Cold War.
The Attack Helicopter and Chopper Gunner have been tweaked. Treyarch has “increased Attack Helicopter damage from 5-hit kill to 3-hit kill,” and “slightly reduced Chopper Gunner duration and damage.”
Players can now see a numerical value for how much more score they need to earn to use their equipped Scorestreaks. Cursor speed and player visibility have both been improved on the Scorestreak tablet.
Work towards earning Scorestreaks yourself when Black Ops Cold War launches tomorrow, November 13.
Source: Treyarch