Modern Warfare 4 Is Tweaking TTK, SMGs, Aim Assist, Spawns, and More Before Launch

Infinity Ward shared its first Ward Room: Road to Launch episode, giving you a closer look at what the studio learned from the two beta weekends and what changes it's making before Modern Warfare 4 launches. The team covered several areas of the game, including time to kill, SMGs, perks, aim assist, tactical equipment, spawns, and feedback on the beta maps.

One of the biggest points discussed was time to kill, or TTK. Infinity Ward says the launch version is planned to sit closer to the second beta weekend rather than the first. However, the developers are also pulling back some outliers in certain categories, aiming to move toward a slightly shorter TTK in those areas. This means the overall launch TTK should feel familiar if you played during the second weekend, while some specific cases will be adjusted.

SMGs are also getting attention. According to the developers, the weapons were not consistently performing within the ranges where SMGs are supposed to be effective. That is leading to buffs across the board, even though some SMGs were already performing extremely well during the beta.

Infinity Ward also pointed out that the SMGs available at launch will be more traditional examples of the weapon class. The developers compared them to familiar weapons such as the VEL 46, aiming to make the category feel more distinct and effective within its expected range.

At the same time, the team feels that assault rifles were already in a good place and mainly wanted to bring SMGs closer to that level.

The team also explained why it chose to adjust weapons instead of changing player health to address the TTK. Increasing or reducing health would have affected much more than gunfights. Equipment, killstreaks, tactical gear, and other systems would all have needed to be rebalanced around the new health values.

With only a short period between the first and second beta weekends, Infinity Ward felt changing health would create too much work and too many additional variables. Instead, the developers focused on balancing individual weapons.

Some of the more extreme problems from Modern Warfare 4's beta also stemmed from bugs rather than deliberate balance decisions. The heavy chopper from the first weekend was one example. It apparently had a health-related bug that made it much harder to take down, allowing it to survive even when players repeatedly fired rockets at it. Infinity Ward says that issue has since been fixed.

Movement and perks are also being adjusted. Tac sprint has been moved into the Blood Rush perk, while the sprint-to-fire penalties associated with it have been removed. This means you can move faster while using tac sprint without those penalties, but Blood Rush will now compete with Ninja rather than allowing both options to be used together.

The developers said this setup gives you a choice between moving around the map quickly or playing more stealthily.

However, Specialist will eventually provide another way to access the combination after launch. Infinity Ward says this will arrive soon after release, allowing players who enjoyed combining the perks during the beta to keep that playstyle.

The decision around movement perks also reflects how differently players on the development team and in the community view the system. Some players prefer having tac sprint available, while others appreciate not having it and instead using Ninja. Rather than committing completely to one side, Infinity Ward is trying to give both approaches a place within the game's perk system.

Aim assist was another major topic following the second beta weekend. Infinity Ward says the team spent considerable time balancing controller and keyboard-and-mouse players, rather than making a large adjustment to aim assist.

According to the developers of Modern Warfare 4, when two players of similar skill fight each other, the current setup is around a 50/50 win rate across individual engagements. Naturally, that can change depending on the map, range, and other circumstances, but Infinity Ward considers that general balance to be a healthy place to aim for.

At longer ranges, keyboard and mouse can have some advantages because aim assist becomes less influential and the mouse provides more precise control. At very close ranges, particularly below five meters, controller players can receive more assistance from aim assist.

Overall, Infinity Ward wants the two input methods to remain balanced rather than letting one dominate in every situation.

The developers also explained that they have been actively switching between controller and keyboard and mouse during development. Something that feels good on one input method can feel very different on the other, so testing both has become an important part of balancing the game.

Interestingly, some controller players also questioned the strength of aim assist during the beta. Infinity Ward said the feedback stood out because it showed that players who benefit from aim assist were also questioning whether it provided too much help.

The developers also connected this to skill expression. The goal is not only to make controller and keyboard-and-mouse players competitive with each other, but also to make sure players feel like they earned their kills. Infinity Ward says it will continue monitoring the situation after launch rather than treating the current aim assist tuning as a final decision.

Battle Hardened is receiving changes as part of the same ongoing balancing process.

The Modern Warfare 4 developers felt the perk wasn't providing enough value, so they are buffing it. The idea is to make Battle Hardened more useful for players who want to build their entire loadout around resisting tactical equipment. If you throw a flash into a room and see the Battle Hardened indicator activate, you should know the player inside won't stay flashed as long as they otherwise would.

Infinity Ward wants the perk to feel worthwhile when you choose it as part of a particular loadout. You can build around options such as Quick Fix, Bomb Squad, or Battle Hardened and create a more defensive setup, but doing so means giving up other choices such as Overkill or Ninja.

The developers said community feedback suggested Battle Hardened simply didn't have enough impact to justify choosing it over other perks. As a result, the team reviewed the tactical equipment and adjusted the perk so choosing it feels more meaningful in Modern Warfare 4.

Spawns, particularly in Hardpoint, have also gone through several iterations.

Infinity Ward changed the spawning algorithm between the first and second beta weekends because the initial flow didn't work as intended. The goal was to let players spawn closer to the Hardpoint. Instead of sending players across the map and making them run back to the objective, the system was meant to place them closer to the hill, even if that sometimes meant spawning in a more dangerous position.

The developers also felt the first weekend lacked a natural flow because players spawned in locations that made the map feel chaotic. The system was overhauled for the second weekend, and while the team thought the results were better, it still felt like players were sometimes being placed too far away.

Infinity Ward has since increased coverage across the board and made additional changes to the system. The aim is to preserve the improved flow from the second beta weekend while keeping the exact spawn locations more dynamic. You should therefore see more variation in how close you spawn to the hill and where those spawns come from.

The beta also gave Infinity Ward a chance to gather feedback from the wider community around its maps and other systems. The developers were particularly interested in having everyone participate in the same beta rather than splitting the player base into different groups.

Zergak received several adjustments following player feedback.

The team behind the map worked on bugs, UI and HUD clutter, audio feedback, movement, and other balance-related issues. Infinity Ward said the team reacted quickly to player-reported issues and made noticeable changes during the beta.

However, work is still happening behind the scenes for Modern Warfare 4. Infinity Ward said the game is continuing to receive bug fixes and balance adjustments, while the audio team is still working on the final mix. The first Ward Room episode was meant to cover only some of the changes, and the developers plan to share more information in additional episodes as launch gets closer.

One of the final announcements was also a long-requested change to XP tokens. Starting with the new system, XP tokens will count down based on in-game time rather than real-world time. That means you will no longer lose several minutes of an XP token while sitting in matchmaking, loading into a game, or backing out after a poor match. If you activate a double weapon XP token, the timer will only continue running while you are actually playing.

The change will also apply to DMZ, giving you the same in-game timer system there.

With these changes in place, Infinity Ward is continuing to use beta feedback to shape Modern Warfare 4 ahead of launch. The studio is still working through weapons, perks, input balance, tactical equipment, spawning, audio, and bug fixes, with more changes expected as development continues toward release.