Vanguard players bring up issue with the Combat Pacing feature in MP

One of the more innovative additions that Sledgehammer Games introduced in Call of Duty: Vanguard is Combat Pacing. The multiplayer feature allows players to filter their gameplay experience in terms of player count. If they want a slower experience, they can choose the Tactical pacing for fewer players. However, if players want to get chaotic, they can step it up to Blitz for all-out action.

While this is a tremendous idea, in theory, it hasn’t been working as intended in the first month of Vanguard. Players will select their preferred Combat Pacing but they’ll still be put in lobbies with another pacing. This defeats the purpose of the feature, as players don’t seem to have any say in what Combat Pacing they play.

Combat Pacing in Vanguard doesn’t work properly

One Vanguard player even went so far as to track their matches with a certain Combat Pacing set to prove how broken the feature is. This reddit user posted a detailed explanation of how the Combat Pacing feature is not working as intended. They kept track of 100 matches with the Assault Combat Pacing set. In theory, this player should have only received matches with the Assault pacing. However, as the post shows, this didn’t happen.

Instead, the player received a third of each Combat Pacing through 100 matches. There were 35 matches on Assault, 33 on Tactical and 32 on Blitz. It seems as though Vanguard isn’t accounting for the specific Combat Pacing that players select. The game is throwing players into a mix of all Combat Pacings. This appears to be the case regardless of the mode players select, as the reddit user was playing Hardcore on a variety of game modes.

The pacing selection does not work at all, or: What 100 assault matches look like. from CODVanguard

In the comments of the post, players began jumping in to share their experiences. One commenter stated that they play on Tactical pacing and it doesn’t load them into other pacings. Tactical seems to be the only Combat Pacing working as described in Vanguard.

Other players defended the current system, though, saying that it’s not broken but rather it’s simply trying to provide the fastest matchmaking for players. There is a wide array of factors that would need to go into ensuring players got their specific Combat Pacing each match, such as ping, game modes and core/hardcore.

While this is a valid point, other players argued that Vanguard shouldn’t allow players to select certain Combat Pacings if they don’t have a guaranteed chance to join a match with that specific player count.

In any case, Sledgehammer Games has not yet commented whether or not the Combat Pacing is working or broken in Vanguard. Until (or if) they do, players will have to roll the dice when selecting their preferred pacing in multiplayer.