Call of Duty’s DMZ mode is getting a refresh in the long awaited season two, and the biggest focus of the update appears to be tuning the mode’s difficulty to make the game easier.
In the season two notes released today, one of the primary areas of focus was difficulty, in particular enemy difficulty, mission difficulty, and starting points. In the notes, the developers acknowledged that the enemy AI combatant “ramp up of difficulty was often steep with some players getting overwhelmed.”
During season one at one point, the mid-season update accidentally turned enemy AI difficulty way higher than it should be, but even after that was fixed the power level of enemy AI was still considered too high.
Starting in season two, fresh balance changes will adjust the different types of AI that spawn, the number of AI combatants that spawn, and the accuracy and lethality of enemy AI combatants, with the goal of making the DMZ space “challenging but manageable.” Many players have complained about getting overwhelmed or lasered by superior AI opponents.
Playing DMZ in season two will also be more manageable thanks to spawn point adjustments that should improve the player experience, resulting in less matches where squads start at a point that is more “isolated” from loot locations or contract opportunities. Additionally, the difficulty ramp for players completing faction missions was determined to be “too aggressive,” with players struggling to get into later tiers. Players will now have more “straightforward” access to tier three and above faction missions.
As for actual new content, season two will feature a new Exclusion Zone that players will be able to deploy to, apart from Al Mazrah and Building 21. There will also be “a refresh of your current faction mission progress and an inventory (Contraband and Keys) reset.” More details about the “need-to-know intel” likely needed to access the new Exclusion Zone will be released in a future blog post.
