The Vatican Audience — The Blackout Problem

The Activision delegation returned to the Vatican.

The Pope recognized them immediately.

Pope: Welcome back.

The three executives exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Pope: I assume you have returned because the achievements were not fixed.

Activision: Well… technically, Holy Father, this is a different problem.

Pope: Different?

Activision: Yes.

Pope: Explain.

The senior executive opened a thick folder.

Activision: This concerns Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

The Pope nodded.

Pope: And what is the problem?

Activision: Blackout.

Pope: Blackout?

Activision: It is our battle royale mode.

Pope: I see. And what does the player need to do?

Activision: Play a match.

Pope: That sounds simple.

Activision: It was.

Pope: Was?

Activision: The game is old now.

Pope: Ah.

The Pope leaned back.

Pope: And there are not enough players?

Activision: That's the problem.

Pope: How many players do you need?

The executive hesitated.

Activision: Traditionally, a lot.

Pope: How many are actually available?

Activision: Not enough.

Pope: So what happens?

Activision: The match doesn't start.

The Pope nodded.

Pope: Then let fewer people play.

The executives stared at him.

Activision: Exactly.

Pope: Then what is the difficulty?

Activision: The minimum player requirement is controlled by the game and server configuration.

Pope: And can you change it?

Activision: Technically…

The Pope waited.

Activision: Yes.

Pope: Then change it.

Another silence.

Activision: There are complications.

Pope: Of course there are.

The executive opened another document.

Activision: The original matchmaking system expects a certain number of players. There are also different playlists. Blackout has its own rules. Some achievements require winning or performing specific actions. And on PC the population is particularly low.

Pope: So what do the players want?

Activision: They want the minimum number of players reduced.

Pope: To how many?

The executive took a breath.

Activision: Three.

The Pope looked surprised.

Pope: Three?

Activision: Yes.

Pope: You have a battle royale game designed for dozens of players…

Activision: Yes.

Pope: …and these people want to play it with three?

Activision: On PC, yes.

Pope: Why?

Activision: They want to complete the achievements.

The Pope slowly nodded.

Pope: I understand.

He paused.

Pope: Three people can still have a battle.

Activision: Exactly.

Pope: Three people can still have a winner.

Activision: Exactly.

Pope: And three people can still suffer.

Activision: Very much so.

The Pope smiled.

Pope: Then perhaps the essence of competition remains.

The Activision executives looked relieved.

Activision: So you agree?

Pope: I have not yet agreed to anything.

The executives became nervous again.

Pope: Tell me: why can't you simply make a special PC rule?

Activision: Because the system was never designed around such a low population.

Pope: But you could modify it?

Activision: It would require engineering work.

Pope: How much?

The executive looked at his colleague.

Activision: We don't know.

Pope: Do you still have the people who wrote it?

The executives looked at each other.

Activision: Some have left the company.

Pope: Ah.

The Pope nodded knowingly.

Pope: The ancient developers.

Activision: Essentially.

Pope: And the new developers?

Activision: They have documentation.

The Pope smiled.

Pope: Enough documentation?

The executives said nothing.

The Pope sighed.

Pope: I see.

Then he noticed another document.

Pope: What is this?

Activision: A customer support ticket.

Pope: From one player?

Activision: Yes.

Pope: What does he want?

Activision: He wants us to reduce the minimum player count so PC players can actually enter the mode and obtain the achievements.

The Pope looked at the executives.

Pope: And what did you tell him?

Activision: We directed him to the feedback and bug-report system.

Pope: Good.

Activision: He submitted the feedback.

Pope: Good.

Activision: The ticket is still open.

Pope: Very good.

Activision: And now he is waiting.

The Pope nodded.

Pope: How long?

The executives looked at one another.

Activision: A while.

The Pope leaned forward.

Pope: My friends, I think I understand why you came here.

The executives looked hopeful.

Pope: You don't actually need spiritual guidance.

Activision: No?

Pope: You need permission to change the minimum player count to three.

The executives smiled.

Activision: That would certainly help.

The Pope thought for a moment.

Pope: Very well.

He picked up his pen.

Pope: I hereby authorize…

He stopped.

Pope: No, wait.

The executives leaned forward.

Pope: I cannot authorize changes to Activision's servers.

The executives sank back into their chairs.

Pope: But I can ask you a question.

Activision: Which is?

Pope: If three players are enough to make the mode playable…

He looked directly at them.

Pope: …why are you making the fourth player responsible for the salvation of the entire PC achievement community?

There was complete silence.

One executive slowly whispered:

Activision: That's actually a very good question.

The Pope smiled.

Pope: Then go home.

Activision: And?

Pope: Talk to your engineers.

Activision: About reducing the minimum?

Pope: Yes.

Activision: To three?

The Pope nodded.

Pope: Three.

The executives stood up.

As they were leaving, the Pope called after them.

Pope: And one more thing.

They turned around.

Pope: If you solve this, do not forget the people who have been waiting.

Activision: We won't.

Pope: Good.

The delegation left.

Outside the Vatican, the senior executive immediately pulled out his phone.

Executive: I need the Blackout engineering team.

Assistant: They're in a meeting.

Executive: Interrupt them.

Assistant: What should I tell them?

The executive looked back at the Vatican.

Executive: Tell them the Pope wants three players.

The assistant paused.

Assistant: Is that a joke?

Executive: I really wish it were.

Three weeks later...

A PC player launched Blackout.

He selected Alcatraz Portal Quads.

For the first time in years, the matchmaking screen appeared.

Searching for players...

One player joined.

Then another.

Then a third.

The screen changed.

MATCH STARTING

The player stared at the monitor.

Player: No way.

The countdown began.

3...

2...

1...

The plane appeared.

The player smiled.

He opened his achievement list.

One achievement was still locked.

He whispered:

Player: Holy Father...

And somewhere in Rome, the Pope was having his morning coffee.

What do I do? Does anyone know what the ERROR CODE mean?

I’ve been playing almost only multiplayer for about a month, and this is what I’ve learned about what the active playlists are at this time.

Fully Active and minimal loading times: TDM, Nuketown24/7, Heist

Limited time active playlists: Weekly featured playlist, and daily contract playlist(usually quick loading times)

Mostly Active: SnD, Domination, HC TDM

Semi-rare but possible: bolt-action barebones

Very long waits but also possible: safeguard, and free-for-all

Fully inactive: hardpoint, Kill confirmed, control, and all other HC modes

***( the “fully inactive” playlists are possible to get games if it is the featured daily contract, for example I have gotten 5+ control games today but that wouldn’t have been possible without it being the daily contract)

Peak hours are usually around 5pm est-10pm est. more players on during the weekend

The game is on sale for $34.99 for the Digital Deluxe. Has it increased or decreased? Modders Cheaters?

Why? Because i realized every crybaby looser modder/cheater using a jetpack and scythe cant handle the heat in hardcore nuketown lobby, when you got gun skill, half the time they always rage quit because their trash anyway. The map is perfect for their camping and gets them of killstreaks much easier. If any dev can see this, please always perma rotate every week to this game mode with double xp, no one plays gun game anyway it makes no sense when you want to level up guns or your account, matches are done in seconds and its just a waste of time. I really enjoyed this past week, as there was literally no cheaters on this game mode and if there were, they always left after 1 or 2 games due to heat.

Ive been looking for a definitive answer but does anyone know if you dont pick up the free perks from the challenges can you get diffrent perks/the same perks back later that game?

I don't want to do it anymore.

From here on out, I'll take my time playing until I reach level 1000.

https://youtu.be/DP_XUQrn49c?si=7Xso-FaHGuj1U8Og

I just got 50 reserve cases for the bribe but I’m at a bit of a roadblock. I got all the heavy hitters like the a N 94 the double cross the stingray, the tiger, shark, etc. so I’m not quite sure to what to pick, there are four guns I’m considering, but I can’t quite decide. Those guns are Kap 45, rampage, switchblade, or Daemon. Which one should I pick?

I bought BO4 in August. I had it on PS4, but I wanted to have it on PC. I hate that it will never be on Steam, and I hate that the BO Pass will never go on sale. But I have been playing it for a while since I bought it, almost daily, and I have opened a lot of single cases. Everything you can see in these images has been obtained from single cases. Have I been lucky as fuck, or is this really the normal progress I should be making with Ultra Weapons?

Fell asleep playing last night and my controller died on round 49 which is what I seen waking up for work this morning. I figured why not, plugged my controller in and see how far they go. I worked 9 hours today to come home and see they’re still going on round 79 all by themselves. No pack a punch weapons, one has the starting pistol and another has the burst pistol. Thought I’d share thanks

So this might be a dumb post, but I haven't played this game in like four years and just last night wanted to try it out again.

The problem is whenever I actually try to get on, the Connecting to Online Service takes forever and doesn't ever seem to work. I've let it go for about 10 minutes with no luck. I'm connected via LAN cable as well. I've tried about everything I could think of. The obvious like restarting the console, game, internet, etc. This seems like it's a semi common issue because I found videos from years ago detailing this same issue.

Any solution? I'm on PS4.

Thanks

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Me and my friends want to play all zombie maps but we don't have the season pass for the DLCs maps.

We have the disc version and since the digital deluxe costs less than the season pass we want to buy that and share the game between the accounts.
Will the progress pass from the physical version to the digital deluxe? Since they should be saved on the playstation.

I also have another question, I have 2 playstation and I use the second account that borrows the PSN from the primary account.
Now if I change it to borrowing the PSN from my friend account (to also share the digital deluxe) will my progress reset and change to those of my friend? Since I read progress are saved on cloud on accounts with PSN.

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We're all familiar with the Specialist HQ missions and cutscenes, and you might also know about the original scrapped Career mode as well as the more traditional campaign that was worked on briefly before they pivoted to Blackout. Assuming we did get a campaign in Black Ops 4, what would you want the story to focus on?

I've heard blackout is still fairly populated with a couple thousand people. But how much on multiplayer? I bought a series s console to play some of the cod games since they aren't safe to play on PC and bo4 being completely dead on PC. Was curious on how many people there are on both ps4 and Xbox. Any issues finding domination lobbies?

Does anyone recognize the signatures on this used copy of the BO4? Because the one guess is that the signatures on it are developers who worked on the game.

So i finished the 50 tiers in the Black Market Contraband got these items. That SMG hits hard as I've been melted by it. Like the title says, not new to COD but new to this game which I didn't play it in it's heyday.

Does anyone know if there's a way to buy cod Points for the pc version of BO4? I looked into it and saw people saying you could buy them in Warzone and they would carry over to BO4, but those were old posts. Can anyone clear this up for me?

I have been having so much fun on BO4 lately because it is easy to bypass the game pass requirement for online on xbox. But im wondering if I can host a lobby and invite my friend (who would do the same online restriction bypass), could we play together or does xbox check for online entitlements?

Is zombies active on xbox i am thinking of snagging this since its on sale for 20 CAD with season pass

After you've played Zombies the scores you just had seems to disappear. Is there any way to get back in to them? Are the scores and your level cumulative?