No Call of Duty 4 1.8 patch?

I read with a feeling of trepidation on our Call of Duty 4 forums a post from a gaming news site, claiming perhaps no 1.8 patch.

Ok so fair enough, we’ve had 7 patches to date. But what about the outstanding bugs and glitches? I thought to myself, I only play the game two hours a day. I’m in no authoritive position to moan. So I asked our Call of Duty 4 head admin, UkDarkstar what he thought. Here’s just a few moans we came up with.

No support for Call of Duty 4 clans with tags.

Bossy limits on how many characters you can fit in your tag. My INX| tag works fine though, I can’t complain! Lack of colour support in tags.

Call of Duty 4 server browser.

An age old argument, that continues to rage. Still little can be made of how the browser actually works. To give you an example, we setup a Call of Duty 4 public server with standard maps running Team Deathmatch a few weeks ago. Darkstar and I sat in it (him mainly owning me), and lo-behold within minutes people started to flock in. Before we know it we have 16 players in. When we leave, those players stay. Our public COD 4 server really has gone from strength to strength. During busy times, the server is full. You can’t get on!

Based on that success we setup another server, similar settings. In the we became so frustrated with filling the server, we ended up copying the configs from the first server. It was identical, bar the server IP. Does it fill? Not without a serious nudge.

Work that one out! We can’t, lol

Ranks and perks not transfering

An age old argument. Should ranks work on un-ranked servers? An un-ranked Call of Duty 4 is essentially where you are running custom maps, mods etc. The perks and ranks are a great little feature to keep you hooked, but why the big fuss on them being played on stock? If the game was like Battlefield 2 for example, where you have global rankings no matter what server you play on, fair enough.

However, I found reinstalling my Call of Duty 4 the other day lost me my ranks and perks.

So why the big fuss?

Custom maps on Call of Duty 4 game servers

Better not get me started on this one

As a game server host, we have our fingers crossed with every new release. We hope and pray they just make it easy for us. If you running custom maps on a game server, given the size of the files, fast downloads are a must.

With hlds / srcds games such as Counterstrike Source, they are a relative doddle. Sorry, but with Call of Duty 4 servers its a comparative nightmare.

Don’t get me wrong, as a server host we can work round it and get it working. But game publishers, or rather those that develop the server software architecture need to realise, not all the players are computer geniuses. And how’s that relevant? It’s the players that buy the game servers, which they run which attracts more and more players to the game. The more people that play the game, the more copies of the game sold. Easy If you look at the long winded approach to setting up custom maps on a Call of Duty 4 server, you’ll get what I mean.

Call of Duty 4 isn’t that bad though is it?

No, not at all. I’ve not been so into a game since the original Counter Strike. As a gamer addict / freak, that speaks volumes. The realism, the graphics, the online play, is all fantastic.

I just feel perhaps it’s time before moving onto Call of Duty 5, that COD 4 and these niggles are ironed out. Just look at how Counterstrike Source, years on is still being bought and played. Surely from a financial point of view to the developers, if they patch up these niggles, Call of Duty 4 will continue to sell, and the servers around for a long time to come.

- Olly.