Black Ops II - Multiplayer details - rumours & thoughts

The below has been posted from another site. 

My thoughts will be in italics... 

Game Modes

• Escort, a new game mode.
  •  Similar to Search and Destroy however a live player must be escorted to one of three areas (or two depending on the map) without being killed.
  • The match will have rounds, consisting of one life only. (Interesting, a less campy version of S&D - I'll reserve judgement till I actually play it)
• Drop Zone and Kill Confirmed will return (Good to hear, both are nice additions to the rotation)
• Team Defender and Infected will not return (too bad, they were interesting, but infected did lead to some boosting.  If they were faster on the banning of people, then it wouldn't be as bad)

Pointstreaks

• Will follow from Modern Warfare 3’s system (But will they stack? i.e. kills from a air strike counting towards your next reward?)
• Larger emphasis on objectives (nice to hear)
• A bomb plant is worth 2 points
• A neutral flag is worth 1, however an enemy flag is worth 2
• A flag assist capture is worth 1, a capture is worth 2 (Not bad, won't matter much in Domination for the way me and my friends play it, maybe they should make defends worth an extra point as well?)
• The Specialist Pointstreak has be modified
• 2 kills now gets you 1 perk
• The 4th kill gets you 2 more perks
• The 6th kill gets you 3 more perks
• The 8th Kill gets you 4 more perks
• You do not get every perk when you reach 8 kills (Interesting, Not sure how I feel about it, I rarely use it in MW3, and when I did, my play style would usually mean I'd die by around 6 kills anyways.. )
• Perks only become “Pro” when you have them Pro (Seems logical)
• RC XD will not return (yea, a laggy RC-XD was a bit annoying)
• Heat vision is a new Pointstreak reward. When you get the required points, you can activate this Pointstreak and your player pulls out a scope and attaches it to your weapon. (Interesting would like to know more.. like, can you toggle it? - i.e. remove it, does it affect ADS times?)
  •     This scopes main advantage is it’s ability to detect enemies through most walls. Note, the scope can only be attached to primaries not including shotguns  (does it overlap existing scopes/sights?)

Item Packages

• Requires 5 points
• Fall along side care packages and air drop traps.
• Features a list of package items only Including ammo, mini gun, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and body armor (Interesting, makes it useful and not overpowered by giving a high point reward in it.. I like this idea.)

Prestiges

• There will be 15 prestiges
• There will be 50 ranks
• Every two prestiges there is a 5 rank increase
• The final prestige has 90 levels 

(Interesting, I like it progressively gets longer and longer - guess I'll have to wait till the next XP event to hear about other rewards and how the unlock progression works.  With extra levels, are there extra guns available to fill in the gap? or just more challenges?)

ELITE 2.0

• ELITE is being fully incorporated into Black Ops 2
• Combat record has been modified and re-named as ELITE Stats
• There will be a specific lobby for clan matches (new way of leveling clans) (Finally!, they can do this with the regular operation challenges as well IMO)
• Clan Tournaments can now be implemented

Removed

• No MOAB or Nuke (good riddance)
• No last stand (finally)
• No death streaks (finally)
• No flame thrower attachment (meh, I'm indifferent about this)

Map Design

•     Map design and size will be following Black Ops not Modern Warfare 3 (Hopefully more dynamic elements in the maps like in Black Ops - i.e. doors to open and close)

Sniper Rifles

•  Improved sniper rifle usage.
•  No aim assist for any sniper rifle.
•  Less sway

(This should reduce the amount of quick scoping, and it'll just be plain ol luck for no-scopers. Maybe they can address that even more if its still an issue.)

Customization

• No longer just perk 1 chooses the players appearance
• Appearance is a combination of all perks and type of Pointstreak being used.

(still no character customization - i.e. face/body etc, oh well.)

Hardcore

• Larger emphasis on hardcore than ever before
• No grenade launchers
• Only vehicle guided rocket launchers permitted
• Respawn timings decreased (for most modes)
• 1 bullet in the foot will no longer kill a person, a head or chest shot is usually required.
• A person will now bleed out if severely injured.

(Sounds good to me, I'll probably play more HC modes again)

Perk System 2.0

• The Perk Pro system has been upgraded
• There is now 2 options a perk can advance to.
• Both require different challenges to unlock
• Once the desired Pro version is unlocked, the player can select that as their “Perk Pro”.
• Once selected, the only way to choose the other option is by entering prestige mode.
• For example Perk slot 1 has the perk called Speed
  • Speed – Reduces the time taken to aim down the sight
    • Pro I – Swaps weapons faster
    • Pro II – Throws equipment faster

(So, does this mean at higher prestige, both pro effects are available - if unlocked? - either way, I like the added depth on this aspect of multiplayer.  Idealy, I would like more class slots too, like 15 or 20.) 

Combat Training

• Will be returning with vast improvements.
• Difficulty is no longer based on how long the bots take to start shooting.
• Bots now have an advance AI system
• Similar to the behavior seen in the MW3 Spec Ops survival

(It'll give this mode a bit more life, and help some new people get some practice.)

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