The smash hit that came out of nowhere, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been taking over the multiplayer discussions of 2017 without actually technically being a launched game. But Bluehole and the team are gearing up for that big 1.0 launch with another test server this week.
PC players can try out the first official “finished” (or at least as finished as an ongoing multiplayer game like this can be) version on a test server till November 24. Next weeks times are to be announced soon.
Those who try the test build can play in solo or squad modes and get a feel for a ton of new features like vaulting, a new UI and damage rebalancing. PC gamers won’t be the only ones to enjoy their chicken dinners, with the game projected to launch on Xbox One very soon, with further Xbox One X enhancements.
Patch notes below:
Optimization
- Optimize character animations
- Added LODs to further optimize weapon rendering for long distance
- Optimized various world effects
- Optimized various UI elements
- Optimized the sea by reducing wave effects
- Decreased terrain loading time
- Decrease memory usage of characters
Animation
- Additional vaulting animation for objects with a height of approx. 60 cm or lower (when holding down the Shift key)
- Greatly reduced jacket/coat clipping issue when moving in ADS while leaning
Gameplay
- Reduced the hit damage for hands and feet and increased the hit damage on thighs and arms.
- The healing period for bandages has been reduced to 4.5 seconds from 8.5 seconds. The casting time and the amount of health restored are the same as before.
- Players can now parachute and land on certain areas that were not previously accessible, including the outskirts of the island
- Added markings for zeroing distances on 15x scope reticle texture
- Added new 4x reticle for 7.62mm weapons
- Added new 4x reticle for sniper and SMG weapons
- Added blur effect on the outside of scopes
- Bullets now penetrate water based on the velocity of projectile (the faster the velocity, more shallow the penetration)
- Lowered camera position when proning in third-person
- Decreased firing rate of SKS and Mini-14
- Increased sprinting speed while holding DMR in hands (now as fast as assualt rifles)
- Decreased recoil for Mk14
- 8x and 15x scopes cannot be attached to an M16A now
Item
Added 2 new weapons.
- – Added DP-28. DP-28 will be spawned in world. It has a 47-round pan magazine for 7.62mm. Sights and a 4x scope can be attached. It has low firing rate but a long effective firing range with high damage
– Added AUG A3. The AUG A3 can be obtained from care packages. It’s a variant of a bull-pup assault rifle that uses a 5.56mm 30-round magazine as standard and 40 rounds when extended. It has high muzzle velocity, high rate of fire and low vertical recoil. - Kar98k will no longer be included in care packages. World spawn rate of Kar98k will remain the same
UI/UX
Applied a new font for English
- Improved designs for in-game HUD, option window, inventory, menu screen, and system message box
- Improved Solo/Team Play UI
– Moved health bars of team member(s) from the top left corner to the bottom left corner
– Changed colors and markings in the mini map, world Map, and team list UI
– Added indicators for team members to check their status (vehicle, parachuting, alive/dead, DBNO, connection status, etc.) - Improved interaction HUD
– If there is no more room left in the backpack, the font will turn red to show that items cannot be picked up - Improved the mini map and the world map
– Decreased the saturation of the mini map to further emphasize information of team members
– Adjusted the colors of the world map to increase visibility of markers and other information
– Players can check team members’ FOV direction through the world map and the mini map
– When team members get on the same vehicle, a single indicator will appear - Moved the kill log from the bottom left corner to the top right corner
- Modified the design of the health bar to show the point for 75%. The bar will not turn red when health is below 75%
- Added killcam feature that can be found in Settings. Now players can check killcams in the result screen
– For Duo and Squad modes, killcam can be checked after all team members have died
Sound
- Changed the lobby music
- Improved vehicle engine sounds
- Added a sound that will be played around the edge of the blue zone
- Added three different sound effects for the red zone
– Sounds of bombs being released
– Sounds of bombs falling
– Sounds of bombs exploding - Added sounds when character jumps into water. Sound will be different based on the speed
Language
- Added four languages: Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Mexico) and Chinese (Traditional)
Bug fixes
- Fixed camera jittering for passenger sitting on the back of a motorcycle with sidecar
- Fixed the issue where animations are not played when bandages are used consecutively
- Removed the pink circle that appeared on certain buildings when parachuting
- Fixed the issue where shooting was possible when vaulting
- Greatly reduced blurriness of the reticle while in ADS mode