Black Ops 6 Desync Problems & Skill Based Damage

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is now fully released so I have a lot of BO6 gameplay time in. Unfortunately, Black Ops 6 is a very inconsistent game. It seems to be having problems with its servers, lag, connection issues, desync and all of these combined are making people want to believe in skill-based damage.

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[Belerin]

Sbmm belongs in ranked, I wish they would do ping based for casual

[Infamouschef_]

The game has a lot of potential but the inconsistency is really bad. Half of the time i feel like my only purpose is to die repeatedly, so i just stop and go to zombies or play a different game altogether.

[veechaeuphrates]

The thing is, it's not even just the servers, it's the netcode. I've been doing quite a bit of messing around with my network environment and I can tell you, that what's going on on your end (or more likely, the other player's end) will effect the experience. For example, if you drop, corrupt or misorder your packets you can avoid taking some damage despite registering that you've been hit or outright not even register the hit - as I've ran into a couple of grenade indicators without so much as even a flinch or any on screen indication of being hit.

There is also variable damage that is somehow tied to ping and I've noticed this as far back as OG Black Ops days. In those days people claimed that it's multiple bullets stacking into a single packet that gives the impression of higher damage per bullet but I don't think it's true. I've noticed that when playing with an ideal connection I will always get one shotted by a sniper rifle but if I just increase my ping to a certain level in the same match that same sniper will start having to hit me twice to take me down.

One of the big problems with Black Ops 6 is how lenient its netcode is and how good its lag comp is at smoothing out bad connections. I've tried playing with a 750 ping and it was still playable (though not too good feeling), I could drop half the packets and not get booted. And what makes all of this worse is that COD netcode has some weird system where it seems to inject fake lag into other players connections in the lobby based on the worst connections in that lobby. Which is partly the source of that packet burst (unless you're the one playing on a crappy connection, then it's true packet burst). If you've ever seen a player leave or enter a lobby and get a stutter and then the whole feel of the match changes this is why.

Also, the game still uses client hosts on occasion (ie, players' systems as servers). I've actually had a few matches tonight where a player would leave the lobby, the game would pause and give some message about severe connection issue and then resume play. And in all honesty I think the client servers actually feel better to play on than Activision's servers.

Another element to take into account is that you resync into the game every time you die and the quality of the resync seems to vary wildly. This is why you can go on a tear and get a massive streak and feel like a god, get killed and all of a sudden you can't hit anything. This was especially noticeable during 2 round domination COD's, where one round a team could slap the other team's cheeks and the next round they struggle to get out of spawn.

So yes, there is stuff going on that sounds similar to skill based player nerfing but I think it actually has more to do with netcode than skill. The only thing I can't a 100% figure out is if it's a natural byproduct of a bad network environment or if this stuff is actually coded in to function based on a players connection quality. And given that they've previously admitted to host disadvantage, I'm leaning towards this being deliberate.

[daxterkiddo]

Skill based damage has been the most schizophrenic thing I’ve ever seen in cod

[EuropeanEmpireEU]

The ping display is literally fake news.
I have a network scanner and i have other games where the ping display is real. Currently im experiencing bad internet, so my ping goes all over the place from 10ms to 150ms. Every game is accurate in displaying this, my network scanner is accurate in displaying this, but BO6 wants to tell me that I have a perfect 10ms ping all the time even though im ice skating over the map sometimes.

[BasePuma]

The manipulative matchmaking idea makes sense. I know this has been discussed before, but it is very obvious. When I play by myself, sometimes my ping is around 20ms, sometimes 50ms, sometimes 70-100ms. The only reason there'd be gaps this large is if the system is matching you with people that are farther away. If it's matching you with people that are farther away, it means it's intending to manage your experience under whatever parameters it's been given: if those parameters become more specific, it will have a harder time finding people closer to you. That UCLA study from 2017 outlined that the best way to maximize player "engagement" is not through "fair" matches, but through managing a players experience by drip feeding them a game where they're likely to do well, then feeding them games they're likely to do bad in. The bad games motivate the player to go back for more good games, even though they get frustrated.

From what I've experienced with the matchmaking in MW2019, MW2(2033), and MW3, I'd say this is probably a how CODs matchmaking works, at a high level anyway.

[redhunter]

I thought I was going crazy, latest games were terrible, no time to react, I know the enemy is there, I go prepared and already aiming while he doesn't know I'm there and he's still able to kill me wtf?
Hope they fix this because the game is so good, one of the best cod in years.

[barbellbryce]

Me: *Goes 69-2 "THIS IS LIKE OLD CODS!"

Next Game: "Ah, there it is"

[WalkerFilmsOfficial]

Drift, I have been watching since the first MW2. It's so great to see your own gameplay again this year. When I heard you say you felt bad at Blops 6 so far, I was worried for a sec. Bad Drift0r is still a great player, and after all you've been thru it's just a good feeling to know you're back in the saddle again.

I know I'm just a random person on the Internet but I'm proud of you!

[seyrnahd]

I called it a night after my last 4 games of TDM went 99-100, 100-99, 98-100, 96-100. Been playing COD since BLOPS and I have never seen it like that ever. The algorithm is working so hard that games feel completely formulaic and computer generated. Not fun.

[nrivera]

9/10 games I play, I have 10-16% constant packet loss and occasional packet burst with high ping making it unplayable

[KixSynq]

The worst moments for me are when you get slid or jumped on and the guy absolutely smokes you off the game then you watch the killcam and he’s an absolute bot and took 3 seconds to line up his shot but for me felt instant

[outcast]

I deleted the game. My issue was I was dying to enemies I couldn't see. Like I was being wallbanged. But the killcam would show them right in front of me. Enemy strafing is like their teleporting. Everyone has perfect aim and I die instantly, but it takes forever to kill. Cod isn't what it was years ago. Or maybe I'm too old now. None of these issues happened in a private match.

[DammitJeff]

The dreaded packet burst. Idk whats going on lol. My internet is good. My hardware is good. Yet i lag in the absolute *worst* possible time, like right as i meet face to face with an enemy

[BigIndividual]

I don’t blame people who’re so rattled they think there’s SBD. I’ve played enough hardcore matches that have left me wondering if I’m hallucinating.

[meatkurtin]

You are correct. Some games I stomp and other games I get insta killed over and over. It’s poopy pants.

[lilgabone]

I have this weird feeling that there is a very inconsistent ttk, I never kill as quickly as I die and when I check the killcams it says that I died with 5 bullets but on my end I die immediately. Sometimes when I see clips on twitter or something, people get shot at and have time to react (just like any cod before mw2019), they have proper gunfights, whereas all I have is 50/50's of who gets deleted first. I just don't get how people do it and I don't know how to adapt to this sort of gameplay (haven't played cod since bo4). I do get that the average player is much better than the average player in 2011 for example but man it gets tough sometimes... (before anyone says get good, I think a 1.6 kd is good enough)

[dark_matter]

The fact that we have no idea what the matchmaker tunes for is a fundamental problem. The game is literally manipulating you on a psychological level. Connection should be the only factor. Except for a protected bracket for the lowest skilled players or disabled players. They should be protected.

[TheStarBazaar]

This is why I stopped playing CoD altogether. MW2 was my last one because the algorithmic matchmaking turned me away hard. Its not fun

[LukeRosdahl]

I've never seen 2 or 3 hitmarkers in hardcore before. However, when I'm in matches with players that are better than I am melting me, I can't reach to the skill based damage idea. If I was in a potato lobby shooting marshmallows, ok, but when I'm getting hitmarkers in hardcore while being destroyed by better players . . that's when it doesn't track for me.

I really think that the movement speed is causing issues too. There were problems with hit detection in MW3 because of how sharp the movement was, I'd play people in competitive that would cheese the system by moving very spastically and it would take 2-3 extra bullets to kill them, whereas a stationary target or one that wasn't moving as fast would die in the proper amount of bullets. I'm not talking about feeling like I'm hitting them, I'm talking about number of hitmarkers I hear, so either the sound is being triggered when it shouldn't be or the shots are registering as hits but aren't really counting?? This feels like that sometimes.

I've been playing mostly hardcore to work on camo challenges, but it's been really frustrating, especially because of how awful the maps are . .