PUBG's Biggest Patch Yet Examined

PUBG didn't have a big update for a while, but we finally have new features in our beloved Battle Royale game. Vaulting and climbing features have been added to the test servers. This means after a bunch of testing, we can expect the vaulting and climbing on the live servers. These features will forever change the way PUBG is played, so they aren't small additions to the game, but right now the features are very buggy and the test servers have a lot of desync. Let's break down the most recent test server patch to offer a better perspective on the features and changes.


~ Vaulting and Climbing. Vaulting and climbing makes your character in PUBG a lot more mobile, since he can vault over any wall lower than your character. Vaulting makes movement around compounds a lot quicker and there's even a major bug right now on the test servers, you can vault right through the thin windows on some buildings. When you're vaulting, your model apparently becomes smaller and allows you to move right through small spaces. With the medium sized windows, you don't have to abuse the bug of jumping and crouching at the same time anymore, since vaulting also works through those windows. The only windows where vaulting doesn't work with are barred windows.

Climbing is a very large feature as well, allowing you to climb over fences and higher stone walls. Unfortunately, climbing is very bugged and doesn't always work like normal climbing. You can't jump through hatches that are above the last reachable level of some radio towers to reach the absolute top, climbing on top of broken vehicles (props, not usable vehicles) can be very buggy for your character and the camera, you also can't climb on top of very thin fences from the side (for example, the sheet metal fence) or smooth edges.

~ Ballistics and other parts of weapons in the game were overhauled. This is a change that has the same impact on the game as vaulting and climbing has. The changes will not be noticeable for short to medium range weapons, but for snipers this is a game changer. The bullet no longer has a constant drop like it did before, but has a drop that is kind of constant until it reaches 300 meters, at which point it will drop drastically (The bullet drop is around 4x faster at any distance beyond 300 meters, but this speed will stay constant even at a distance of 900 meters). Zeroing settings in the past were set on the gun, but they changed it to your zeroing distance being bound to your Scope/Sight. If you have a Holographic/Red dot sight, you can set the reticle's intensity lower or higher to make the Red Dot/Holographic sight denser, this can help a lot in dark rooms like most parts of the Military Base. The 8x scope was changed to have a new dot in the center of the scope.

~ Optimization changes to make PUBG run better. There were three client optimizations and one server optimization. Bluehole has optimized the terrain to reduce memory usage, this can result in less crashes that are a result from lack of memory. The second change was reducing the lag issue when terrain was loading, this is a very important optimization. A lot of people experienced problems loading very slowly into the lobby island, this fix will make the experience loading into the lobby and pop-in effect from lower distance a lot smoother. The last client change was reducing lag issues when multiple people were standing in your sight. The servers were optimized as well to reduce latency issues. When I was playing the PUBG Test Servers, FPS was a lot better and parachuting was more responsive in this patch.


~ Other changes that impact the game. All vehicles in PUBG have changed in the way you exit/enter them (Warning: it's way harder to shoot someone while you just jumped out of a vehicle because of the animation duration), and the way you drive them. The driving is more "realistic" but is in early development stages, so we will probably see a different kind of driving on the live server. At this moment, the driving feels more stable in cars like the Dacia that's normally turning very slippery. The UAZ is less stable now and feels more responsive when you are turning then before and only has four seats compared to the five seats it first had. Last but not least, all vehicle sounds have been changed to more "realistic" sounds, so you have to learn the new sounds for every vehicle to know which one it is without seeing the actual vehicle.

This patch probably brought the most impactful updates we've ever seen in PUBG, giving the game a bright future to look forward to. Nobody knows if these changes will stay in the game or if they will be removed. The game has definitely improved but it's hard to tell if the latency issue has been mostly resolved due to high load on the test servers. I hope the climbing and vaulting bugs, especially the vaulting bug will be removed from the game since it's game breaking to move through windows that are very thin and on ground levels of buildings. Overall, this will give fans of PUBG more faith in Bluehole and the game development itself. Try the new changes out for yourself in the test servers, and best of luck to you on the battlegrounds.

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