You may not realise it, but there’s a lot of juicy information about the as-yet-unnamed 7th title in the Call of Duty series sitting on their official forums. Specifically, Treyarch dev Vahn (real name David Vonderhaar – he’s the Multiplayer Design Director for the upcoming CoD game) has posted several tidbits in a thread on killstreak rewards for the forthcoming Call of Duty game – while some of this represents personal opinion, some of what he has to say may well represent the shape that their game is beginning to take.
The main message that he wants to stress is that Treyarch do listen to their community to the point that they read every single suggestion that is put to them. It seems we can expect to see a much more rounded game than Modern Warfare 2, as many posters on the Treyarch boards have called on the devs to learn from Infinity Ward’s mistakes and Vahn has expressed his agreement on more than one occasion.
One post for example recognises that there were problems with Modern Warfare 2, albeit in more diplomatic fashion:
I am seeing a lot of what I would call the “echo plex.” As fans of the previous games, we have drawn a lot of the same conclusions that many of you are drawing. Solutions to those problems may be different than any specific proposal in any specific post, but I’m glad we (generally speaking) want to go the same direction you want us to go.
In terms of actual game details, here’s a synopsis of what we can deduce from Vahn’s posts:
•While they’ve tried having custom killstreaks for each class, that seemed to complicate the ‘purity and speed’ of Create a Class.
•Consequently, it’s fair to assume that customizable killstreaks are all but confirmed.
•At this stage in development, killstreaks stack and carry over if you die, but do not contribute to further killstreaks (hence eliminating the ‘camping for killstreaks’ problem of Modern Warfare 2).
•Treyarch are not fans of Commando, the extended melee range perk in Modern Warfare 2, and it is unlikely to return.
•They’ve tried a ‘manned’ version of the Sentry Gun killstreak, but weren’t fans.
•We may well see a return to pistols as the only available sidearm, or perhaps a choice between pistols and launchers. Vahn and many of the team are not fans of shotguns and machine pistols as secondary weapons – it gives a player ‘too much firepower’.
•The knife may well become a secondary weapon – although Vahn didn’t want to say too much.
•Finally, don’t expect the nuke to return as a killstreak. Vahn says they are not fans of a game-ending killstreak.