PUBG’s vaulting update out tomorrow on test servers, includes ballistic overhaul and other major features

By Sherif Saed

The highly-anticipated vaulting update for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been given a second release date, after it was delayed a couple of weeks ago.

Now, this major content patch will be available on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds test servers starting later today, or early morning tomorrow in Europe. Developer Bluehole is calling it “1.0” but don’t expect smooth sailing.

Although the team originally deemed it too unstable to release, even on test servers – hence the delay – things don’t look like they’ve improved all that much. In a blog post, the studio warned players of client crashes and other problems, and reiterated that the build is not stable.

Although the plan initially was to leave it in the hands of the community for three or more days, this first test will last for just one day. Bluehole said it may extend it, but that’s the plan for now given the nature of the build. Test servers for 1.0 will be available on North American, and Asian servers in both first and third-person Solos.

Testing kicks off at 6pm PT / 9pm ET today, which is 3am CET on November 14 for Europe, and 2am in the UK. Of course, the patch will add the vaulting and climbing features, which have been in the works for a while – but that’s not all. Alongside the new animations, the update will bring a complete overhaul to the game’s ballistic mechanics.

Projectiles and weapons will all be rebalanced to make them a bit more realistic. There are several pillars to this, but the biggest one is the addition of bullet drag. Similar to Battlefield games, wind and gravity will affect the trajectory and speed of bullets across the board. In other words, bullet drop will occur much earlier at the same distances, compared to what it is now.

For assault rifles, this will be noticeable in the 300 meters range or above. The accuracy of certain weapons will more closely resemble their real-life counterparts, meaning some weapons will get an accuracy nerf while others, a buff. As a result of these changes, Bluehole is reevaluating the usability of iron sights and other sight attachments.

This includes a change to how zeroing works to allow every weapon to have a unique set of zeroing ranges (in iron sight). As for sights, red dots and holos will only allow for zeroing in short ranges. Players will be able to control the intensity of the reticle, too. For higher-powered scopes, you’ll be able to adjust the zoom level on the fly instead.

The final part of this ballistics update adjusts player hitboxes. Now, helmets will protect the character’s neck, and the damage multiplier for hands and feet has been lowered. Damage tables for all weapons will be modified based on their class.

Overall, damage will be calculated based on a more complex equation, which Bluehole promised to share in a subsequent blog post. With that in mind, some of these changes should be considered experimental, and may not end up in the final build in December. You can see a before and after representation of all that in this handy table.

For the rest of the patch notes, see below:

Client optimisation

• Optimized terrain data to reduce memory usage
• Reduced the lag issue when terrain is loading
• Reduced the lag issue when multiple players are in sight

Server optimisation

• Optimized server performance by adjusting network throughput

Action

• Added vaulting and climbing action

Gameplay

• Vehicle driving balance is modified (we are adjusting driving sounds to be more realistic. Sources of vehicle sounds will be improved)
• Vehicle driving is adjusted to be more realistic (this is an early stage of balancing. We need your feedback to improve driving)
• Improved the vehicle and passenger animations

Ballistics overhaul

• Projectiles fired from firearms are now affected by air drag. This means that projectiles will now lose velocity over time leading to greater bullet drop and longer travel time
• Large scopes (8x, 15x) now have variable zoom that can be adjusted using the Mouse Wheel (by default)
• Red dot, holo and 2x sights can now have their reticle’s brightness adjusted using Mouse Wheel
• Fixed the excessive aim-punch while leaning in ADS mode
• Removed the blurring effect of the weapon and objects close to camera that appeared in non-ADS mode

-Hitboxes

• Neck is now protected by the helmet
• Damage to the chest area is increased

-Damage balance

• The actual damage is now taking into account following multipliers:
• Base damage stat of the weapon
• Distance traveled by the projectile (damage decreases over distance)
• Hit area damage multiplier
• Weapon class multiplier

Vehicles

• Unified the sizes of all UAZ models, the number of seats decreased to four

UI/UX

• Improved the backpack capacity UI in the inventory screen