PUBG - PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Dev Tracker

Are you thinking "with this costume set- no two games are the same, I'll never know what I'll get until I'm dropping", or like a "random" button in the character customization menu to just barf out a random outfit?

I'm all about more accessibility features for gamers. It's a hard nut to crack, as a major component to PUBG is spatial awareness- but that doesn't mean it's not a worthy endeavor. I'm sharing this sentiment with the audio team. TBH, they always have a few things rolling- this may already be on their radar.

I appreciate the question.

I've forwarded to the sound team. I know they are working to always make stuff better- I remember my first day at work (3.5 years ago) I was killed during playtest and it was so loud I almost broke my keyboard in surprise.

Thank you for sharing this!

Big time yes to new guns and vehicles. I understand the idea of map specific experiences- like, the Tukshai would just feel weird in Miramar, right? But I do think there's value in spreading new weapons around, to allow players to really find a groove.

As for weapons- I'm a huge shotgun fan, and as we are looking at larger maps- Snipers and DMRs are on the menu as well.

When I was a boy, no- but now that I am a man- kinda.

Yeah- we planned on it being an event map, but it's pick rate was super high/fan attachment was high, so the team decided we should hold onto it for a while longer. With that said- with a live service game, maps can always go into the vault/come back later.

1. So we melted the snow because we got some serious "oh man this is really fatiguing to look at over sustained play" type feedback. The "phase one" fix was to reduce the overall snow to get a little more visual balance into the map. With that said- we like Vikendi being "the snow map", and I'm confident we can return to this flavor in the future through improved lighting/material work. Don't hold me to a date just yet- but we are looking at it.
2. Maybe. ;)

Thanks for reaching out! I think the big thing with the tiny maps, is they are kind of an idea test bed for things we'd love to see in old maps, or even new maps. I still think the utility parachute has some room for improvement, but I'm with you- I can totally see using it to bail out of a glider, or jump off a building before it's destroyed by the Black Zone.

I dug Arena mode too- I thought the team did a really great job of making something that was fresh, but still felt PUBG. My expectation is the team has been looking at feedback, and thinking about what the next incarnation would look like. Remember, we can only make so many maps- so it's safe to expect old and new modes to pop up in 2021.

Good God- a BRDM with firebomb capability? That sounds like something that would work in some kind of death race mode...

For the record, all of us devs are all extremely online, so ofc we see the crazy Pangea style supermaps that pop up on Twitter/Reddit every now and then. What I like about the idea, is having SUPER DIVERSE biomes in one map- starting on a cold snow capped mountain, and having a final circle in a lush valley, or arid sandy desert, is just a great player story.

Assuming we could overcome performance considerations (maximum terrain materials), I think the big obstacle is game pace. If the map is merely "big", like an 8x8- the change in biomes would seem too sudden- imagine clearly seeing the jungle from on top of the snowy mountain. So then okay- let's try to make a super map, something like 10x10. Now the map is large enough to really sell the variety of biomes, but is it fun? Do we want like, a 2 hour BR map? I'm not sure.

But it's interesting to think about.

Was just talking about those triggers the other day- they feel so good! Also, a big thing we are looking at is the whole "end of game" experience- everything from the fanfare/data/presentation, to allowing you to jump back into matchmaking, is on the table. The Chicken Dinner is one of the rarest, hardest won prizes in gaming- I think we need to celebrate it more!

I want Next Gen to be better too- we're looking at ways to improve internally. Where did you even get one? I'm still refreshing online for restocks like a buster.

Dude- first of all, thank you. And it's not a dead horse to care about such a big issue!

In short, we acknowledge it as a priority we need to continue combating. It’s a problem that not only plagues the entire video game industry, but more specifically, us…so we’re very hypersensitive about it. For me personally, dying to a cheater the first time is not only frustrating, but it changes your outlook-

It made me question every death I ever had moving forward. Just that little scratching doubt in the back of my mind... "was that legit- or was it BS...".

Obviously, it’s something we’re always looking to improve and we’re always coming up with new measures to counter cheaters (like the ...

Yeah- 2020 had a lot of tiny map drops so we could quickly deliver fresh experiences. For example- Haven is a 1x1, so that's 1 square kilometer. And Miramar is an 8x8, so that's 64 square kilometers- 64 Havens. So the smaller maps allow us to get something fun, polished, and with some new kind of innovation (destruction/blackzone, random royale, loot trucks, AI ecosystmes) in a timely manner. But now that we've had some fun, and tried to find what's really landed with the fans, it's time to go big.

Well I don't wanna give too much away- that's cheating.

But to be clear- I do think "survival phase" (I'll call this anything that's not actively shooting a dude) is pretty straightforward. You've got some nuance with how each vehicle handles, and vaulting/traversal opens up some interesting possibilities- but for the most part it's rather straightforward when measured against our deep gunplay. We don't want to needlessly complicate survival phase either, rather, we are interested in opportunities for everyone in your squad to have fun and contribute, even scrubby Peter, who's a bad shot.

Ideally, PUBG becomes a place where even more unique stories of survival can be told. But it's still gotta feel "PUBG".

I think a "tiny maps only" playlist would be rad.

So remaking a game from scratch is generally a non-starter, but we always want our stuff to run better- so what to do?

Well, we've got 2 general "levers" to manipulate.

The first is engine side- it's an ongoing parade of optimizations, and backporting/remaking cool features we like from newer versions of Unreal. Our version of 4.16 is very, very different than what's available "on the shelf".

The second is content side- we've learned so much about how to make BR maps, so we are constantly pushing ourselves to get more/better art in, with a lighter memory/performance impact than in our previous efforts.

Used together, we get a PUBG that keeps on trucking along, getting better and better from where we started. We aren't perfect, but we're gonna keep on pushing to improve.

I totally agree with this sentiment- I think the more stuff we can do to give freedom of play, the better- I've forwarded this to the appropriate team(s).

+1 to death races.

But to be clear- as much as I want it to be, Creative Director is not a god-king role (dang it)- so I can say "this looks like something we should try", but all of the teams on the hook for doing the actual work need to work out where it lands on the priority list versus existing tasks. I'm saying I love the suggestion, but I can't promise anything today.

Thank you for the suggestion-

Well, it should be noted that I'm just one guy, the game you've played and dedicated so much time into is the product of a global, passionate group of developers. In some ways it's easy for me to advocate and evangelize a destination, but ultimately they have the very challenging job of translating vision to reality.

But what is that vision? Of course, I can't spill the beans too early, but I'm happy to hit you with the broad strokes:

I want to protect the core gameplay: Land, Loot, Survive- we want to honor what has brought us to the dance, so to speak. This is a survival game, not a very large game of TDM.

I'm passionate about larger worlds: In 2021, you can expect vast new lands to explore, that should remind you why you fell in love in the first place.

I'm interested in fresh experiences: Here's what I love most about PUBG: it's an amazing story generator. So in 2021, we want to give our players more tools to create more diverse stories and exp...

Just popping in to say it's been an hour and I've only done a few of these- I plan on doing way more- I'm just trying to be thoughtful and intentional so you guys pick up what I'm laying down- I'm gonna do a ton of these, thanks for your patience-

Thanks for reaching out Wacky, we always love watching your videos- I remember beaming with pride when you did that Erangel Remaster lore deep-dive, as that was my basement you were investigating! =)

I watched your first night Test Server streaming, and could feel your pain. Something you and I totally agree on, is just because something is realistic, doesn't mean it's fun!

Tracers, even through suppressors, are realistic - but that's not why we've included them. We've included them as a balance feature to make sure players can't totally vanish from view and just rain hell on the rest of the map.

Our goal for Haven was to create a darker, moodier map. A place that gives players the opportunity to hide/hunt each other a little more than in our traditional wide-open maps. But as you would expect, early playtests revealed a map that really shifted the balance to reward the best snipers who could find the best cover. Which feels amazing for the killers, but no...