(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Okay... many of you have been asking me to post a detailed list of the items that Treyarch need to fix in the recently released Black Ops.

Before I do.. let me say
1. I play the PS3 version and the game is generally absolutely terrific. The design and features are world class and second to none. To have campaign, multiplayer, zombies, combat training, wager matches, theatre mode, 3D and more... all in the one game is a phenomenal effort and credit goes to Treyarch for their decision to include all these features.
2. I have been playing it most nights since the game was released.. as have many online friends and the list of issues below is a collective effort
3. I write the list below with many years of gaming experience, having played all of the WAW, MW2 and COD4 previous releases
4. I have many days of game play already clocked up for Black Ops and have completed the campaign
5. I write this post as constructive as possible encouraging Treyarch to act on it's recommendations and resolve the issues highlighted
6. I run a NAT type 1 over ADSL2+ with DL 8.0 Mbps and UL 0.75 Mbps. I basically play over a strong connection with my PS3 in the DMZ and always play with 'OPEN' Nat type.

Ok.. let me begin.

Issues/problems --->
1. Game Lobbies / Friends parties
This is one of the more important issues that is detrimental to the gaming experience and there are a few problems here.
a) When the party leader chooses a game mode and enters it, most times (9 out of 10 times) some members of the party are lost (left behind) when the party leader enters the pre-game lobby. Only a few of original party members accompany the party leader. The party leader then needs to back out (using the 'Leave with Party' option) and then wait for the missing members to reappear. Luckily, most times.. they reappear in the part lobby after a few seconds. It can take up to 20 attempts to have all five party member guests accompany the party leader into a pre-game lobby
b) It is not always the same party members who disappear. Most times it is the same but other times it varies as to who is left behind
c) When you have successfully taken a party of 6 into the pre-game lobby... one of two problems can then happen.. 1) the game kicks you all out with transmission or other types of server errors 2) one of your team members ends up on the other side
d) While waiting in the pre-game lobby.. your friends normally show up in blue. However, after some time.. the blue will disappear and your friends then show up in grey.. like the non-friends in the lobby. This causes confusion as you're not sure if you need to re-group or not
2. Waiting for other players issue
This is unfortunately occurring every time after you are successful in moving your complete party into a pre-game lobby. When the lobby fills up and there are enough players to start the game (i.e. 3v3 or 3v4 or 4v4 or 4v5 or 5v5 or 5v6 or 6v6), the game server does not recognise this. It unfortunately still says 'Waiting for other players to join the lobby' and it stays like this for a long long time.. over 5 minutes some times. For some reason, it doesn't realize there are enough players to start the game.. even when there are 12 players. I suspect the problem may be related to the split-screeners and the possibility that the game server only counts split-screeners as 1 player.. not 2.
3. More than 6 players in a team
Occasionally.. the game will start with more than 6 players on the one team. I have been in a game where it was 8 players vs 4. It occurred when I after looking for a game with my party of 6.. the game server put me into a game with 2 players on the one side where the game was just about to start... not realizing I had 5 other players with me.
4. Backing out to the home screen (front menu)
Occasionally, the game forces you to back out to the first screen (main screen) where is gives you the 'Campaign, Multiplayer, Zombies and Option' options... or you may choose to go back to this first screen yourself. The issue is... that most times the game then forces you to go through the initial set up procedure again, where you need to set the horizontal and vertical safe areas and decide which language sensitivity you want etc. It doesn't realize or remember that you have done this already.
5. Server/Transmission time outs
Although not anywhere as bad as MW2, the server or transmission time out problems still exist. During a game.. the error occurs and you can find your self back in the pre-game lobby with most of the other players in the game. In these situations, the game server unfortunately doesn't try to migrate the host. These timeouts are very annoying and even worse.. you take a loss.
6. Host migration failures
Host migration is a great concept but unfortunately, it only works about 60% of the time. For 40% of the time, the game server decides not to migrate and everyone gets a loss. I would like Treyarch to reprogram this.. and have the game server FORCE a migration to the next best host. There is no reason for the game not to migrate... even if all the remaining players are poor hosts. The game MUST choose a new host and continue. Most Players prefer to play on with a poor host than not play on and take a loss
7. 2nd half and Overtime start issues
Many of you may not have experienced this as yet but I can assure you it's real. It has happened to my friends and I twice now. Basically, at the start of a 2nd half Objective's game (in this case CTF) or at he start of overtime.. many of the payers do not re-start IN the game, i.e. within the map. The players instead get a radar of the map come up on their screen, their screen is in black and white, the sound works but the player can not spawn, can not pick a weapon and can not participate in the game. He can only listen and watch the radar as to what's going on for those players who were able to spawn. Then.. when you finally get shot by the enemy.. you do spawn but you are in black and white and you can not capture the flag.. you walk straight through it. The game had no countdown timer and the only way to exit it was to quit that particular game and take a loss. Even when the host leaves, under the new host (if migration is successful) the conditions are the same.
8. Ability to kick players
When in the part Lobby... the party leader does not have the ability to kick some players. The option to kick some players is not present. It normally happens to players who join your party rather than being invited. The party leader should have the option to kick any player under him in the party list.
9. Leave with Party
This is a great feature...however, it isn't always highlighted as an option AFTER a game has already completed and you are waiting in the pre-game lobby for the next one to start. If for example, you need to re-party after a game, to bring in a new friend etc., the 'Leave with Party' option is not available for the Party Leader.
10. Keeping a party together
The game in general is not Party friendly. It takes an extreme amount of time to create a party, then successfully deploy all of them into a pre-game lobby, then luck comes in to keep them all together. The game code on how parties stay and move around together needs to be re-visited.
11. Host identification
During a game on occasion.. the scoreboard would normally tell you who is host. However, on many occasions, after pressing select to bring up the scoreboard, no-one is identified as host. All players will be three green bars or all two bars etc. No-one will have four green bars. Then.. occasionally, when someone is identified as host with the four green bars.. someone else appears to be host later on in the game when they have four bars and the original identified host only has three.
12. Headset/Microphone display/identification
Unfortunately, the headset/microphone programming is broken.
a) In party lobbies, one or two of the party members .. say (a) and (b), can not be heard by other members ... say (c) and (d). But (c) and (d) can hear (e) and (f). But (e) and (f) can hear (a) and (b). then.. when the party moves to the pre-game lobby.. it all changes. Now for example, (a) and (b) can be heard by (c) and (d) but they can't be heard any more by (e) and (f).
b) Also... the headset (microphone) picture comes up for people that can not be heard .... and is not present for some people who can be heard. There is no consistency with the microphone picture ... it appears to work randomly.
c) Within the game itself... not everyone can hear each other either. Some people can hear others while others can hear some etc.
13. Checkered screen issue
There appears to be a dreaded checkered screen which many of us are experiencing after being kicked out of a multi-player pre-game lobby. The screen is like a chessboard without any pieces. When it happens, you need to back out to the main screen (and unfortunately go through all the set up procedure again.. see point 4 above) and come back again into multiplayer. It happens to many players at the same time.
14. Freeze when loading. Restart PS3
About 8% of the time.. when starting a new game (new map) in multi-player, two or more players will have a continuous game loading screen. The other players will start the game and the two missing players can hear them talk and play... but eventually it goes quiet and the game never loads. To get out of the problem, the player needs to quit the Black Ops game entirely which then forces a complete shutdown of the PS3 system. You have the power up the PS3 again, start the black Ops game again and wait for your friends to finish.
15. Host selection - upload speed priority is an issue
There is an issue with the host selection logic in that the game server seems to pick a host who has the fastest upload speed. Normally, this would be a wise choice however, with many players now using 'Wireless off the street' broadband, this is an issue. This is because, wireless broadband for many many users, gives them a very fast upload speed but a very slow (compared to other broadband solutions) download speed. For example, a friend of mine always get's host when he plays because his upload speed is over 2 Mbps but his download speed is less than 1Mbps. When he is host, the game play is terrible with all players (including him) skipping and jumping around and walking into walls etc. My recommendation is for the game server to balance/weigh up BOTH the upload and download speeds before choosing a host.
16. Locale only
Choosing 'Locale Only' does not work all the time in that many games which are started after choosing 'Locale Only' in the party lobby, end up with hosts which are obviously not local. many times, all my team will be on two yellow bars including many of the opposition while the host enjoys full four green bars.
17. Muting players
Occasionally, in the Pre-game lobby... after muting a player.. you can still hear them. The mute function for this particular player in this particular lobby does not seem to work. Most of the time it does... just occasionally it doesn't.
18. Disappearing Care Packs
On many maps (Radiation, Launch, Grid for example) there are places on the map where a care pack will go through the ground and become inaccessible. The care pack green image will still be there on the map but the care pack is under the ground. We know this because you actually see it fall through.
19. Invite screen
a) Many times, you often end up inviting the wrong friend in your invite area because the 'cursor highlight' is not strong.distinct enough. The player background that the cursor is on changes colour to a light grey but this is indistinguishable for most of the time and you're not quite sure which player the cursor is on
b) it takes a lot of time to scroll through all your friends in the invite screen when trying to pull a party together. In my opinion, there is no need for the 'offline' friends to appear in the list.. they can be placed in a separate table. Likewise, for your online friends that are NOT playing the game, they can be also placed in a separate tab. My recommendation is to only show your online friends who are playing Black Ops and to have the cursor/background of the player highlighted in a very rich colour to make it obvious they are highlighted.
20. 'Best Win Streak'
This is coded incorrectly in the 'Combat Record' main screen. It shows the CURRENT win streak.. not the 'BEST'. The text needs to be re-named to reflect 'CURRENT WIN STREAK' as you can view your best win streak elsewhere in the Combat Record section.

Ok.. that's it for my first post on Black Ops.

Again.. let me re-iterate... I think this game is fantastic and superior to all other games that are out there on the market. I have the utmost respect for the game developers, designers and publishers.

I only hope though that this post finds it's way to Treyarch so that many of these problems can be rectified, mitigated or improved.

I don't expect all NGU readers to agree with my thoughts above however I ask these members to be constructive and not abusive in any replies they wish to make.

Thank-you for reading... ThunderJocks PS3.

Copy and paste? How could we be asking you for stuff when you have 5 post? Atleast give credit to where you got it, but if it is yours nice job..

My NAt Type is Open if i put it in DMZ will it be better?

He has 5 posts ...
Your point?
Posts don't prove anything. Rep is what matters when you're judging someone on how well their posts are.

Anyways, I don't think think this was a C+P.
Good post ! Must've took a long time.

ive sick of these issues, the worse is getting kikd out of a match n counting it as a loss.
ive only legitmately lost 20 out of 250. i went on a siik 73 winstreak n my win ratio is like 2.00

I threw it in a couple plagiarism checkers and it seems to be his own .

Good post Thunderjocks :y:.

All that party shit is ****ing annoying as hell. Whenever i play with friends its way too damn hard to stick together without it kicking one of us or just giving us all the "Transmission Error" and kicking us to theater WTF?

right now for splitscreen, in any non-respawn game you can only spectate the other "splitscreener" and if u both die then you have to watch ur dead body.

Hi all.. thanks for your support.

I can assure you all .. this is my post and it's original. If you perform a google search of 'MW2 Thunderjocks' you'll see my other posts on MW2 issues. and KDR vs Win Ratio etc.

I've just posed this same post on a couple of other sites including GameFAQs and GameSpot to try to ensure Treyarch get hold of it.

Again.. I appreciate your quick responses, kind words and support.

---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:06 PM ----------



Ah ok... I got this one wrong then. I suspected this was not the case. This is good news. Thank-you for clarifying.

---------- Post added at 02:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 PM ----------



Hi Blake... yes, it will be better to have your PS3 in the DMZ of your modem. This will give you a NAT type of 1 in the PS3 network Connections status section which is the best NAT type you can get.

You will probably be running a NAT Type 2 or 3 at the moment.

For more Information on how to do this.. read below.
_____________________________________________________________________

The PS3 and XBOX 360 can simply connect into your current home routers, switches and modems etc. BUT, without opening up ports OR placing the units into your modem's DMZ (de-militarised zone), the unit(s) will not be able to properly connect to the servers you need, i.e. PSN (PlayStation Network), XBOX Live, COD WAW servers etc.

For example.. most users will get NAT type 3 on their PS3 if they just simply plug it into their home network. To get NAT Type 2... you need to read on.

Without the proper connection into the internet, what this means is that certain on-line functions such as voice voip (voice over IP), connecting to PSN or XBOX Live, hosting games, joining games etc. may not work properly.

So how do you fix it..... Here's how. There are three basic options

OPTION 1 - 'Open Ports', 'Port Forwarding' or 'Virtual Servers'. All these are basically the same thing but different modem manufacturers have various names for them.

Basically... you need to find the set-up section in your modem for this, and ADD particular ports (both UDP and TCP ports) for the IP address that your modem/switch/router gives your PS3 or XBOX 360.

For example.. the local IP address of your PS3 might be something like 192.168.0.5 or 10.0.0.8  you would then open up ports or forward them for this IP address.

So what port numbers do you need to forward/open... here is a list for PS3 and XBOX 360.

PS3 - TCP Ports 3074, 80, 443, 5223, 53, 10070-10080 UDP Ports 3074-3075, 3478-3479, 3658-3660, 10070, 6000-6999, 2000-3100, 53 and 1900

XBOX 360 TCP Ports 80, 3074, 53, 28960 UPD Ports 88, 3074, 53, 28960

For more information or help with your particular router/modem.. you can use the following website which has much support and instruction for many different models.
[url]www.portforward.com[/url]

OPTION 2 - DMZ (De-Militarised Zone)

DMZ is a feature in most modems that allows you to open up all ports (TCP and UDP) for one IP address you choose. It basically allows direct un-interrupted and un-hindered access for one IP address to the world wide web and all game servers etc.

This is the option that I use as it’s very easy to configure and you don’t need to worry about knowing which ports to open and whether you have configured the port forwarding/virtual servers set-up correctly.

You need to be AWARE though that placing a PC/PS3/XBOX 360 etc into a DMZ does come with risks… but these risks in my opinion are minimal compared to the benefits of doing so.

One problem though… most modems only allow you to place one IP address into the DMZ… so if you have two PS3s or a PS3 and a XBOX 360.. .then you need to open the ports for one of them and place the other into the DMZ.

Note.. My modem allows 10 IP addresses to be placed into DMZ which is one of the reasons why I chose it. It is a Belkin F5D7634au4A Wireless Router/ADSL2+ modem combined.

NOTE - THE ABOVE TWO OPTIONS REQUIRE YOU TO KNOW YOUR PS3/360 IP ADDRESS AND FOR THIS ADDRESS TO BE STATIC ( i.e.. NOT CHANGE). IF YOU HAVE NOT FORCED YOUR PS3/360 TO HAVE A MANUAL IP ADDRESS, THEN IT MAY GET A DIFFERENT ADDRESS FROM YOUR MODEM/ROUTER EVERY TIME YOU TURN IT ON.

OPTION 3 - UPNP (Universal Plug and Play)

UPNP is a feature on some modems and devices which allows the modem to talk directly to the modem and open up ports automatically when required. The PS3 has UPNP support. Using this feature if your modem supports it THEORETICALLY avoids then need to open ports manually or place the unit into the DMZ.

Once you put a game in (depending on which game), the PS3 sends a signal to your modem to open the specific ports for that game. That’s why sometimes the PS3 says ‘UPNP unavailable’ after you turn it on, because its hasn’t sent the signal for the from the game to open ports as yet but once you get online, it should then go through.

Your modem must have UPNP enabled, just like your PS3. I do not know if the XBOX 360 has this feature.

Note.. I am not a great fan of this option. There’s too much trust that the modem and your PS3 will talk to each other when you can easily force them to with DMZ or Port Forwarding.

_________________________________________________

I hope this all helps. I basically have all my units UPNP disabled and have the main one placed into the DMZ of my modem. I get no connectivity or hosting problems and I achieve a NAT 1 on my PS3 after initially getting NAT 3 when first installing my modem.

*** Last point... if your modem has a firewall, you are best to turn this off and use the firewall of your PCs (Vista, XP etc.) instead. The firewall built into many modems is so strict, that even with port forwarding, DMZ etc... the modem restricts access/speed of your gaming online connection. I have my firewall turned off and I found a huge difference in the speed of my internet connection instantly (it went from 1.5mb/s to 6.5mb/s on an ADSL2 7.6mb/s connection).

Enjoy.. from ThunderJocks

1.Thanks Thunder
2.I THINK your not supposed to post a link to another Site. I THINK NOT SURE
3.Yes i am Nat type 2
4.My internet info is in my SIG
5.I am using a Bright house Modem with a Linksys Router