PUBG Corporation says the first of three planned PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds testing windows will begin next week, giving the community its first hands-on time with an unfinished launch build of the battle royale shooter. The studio also addressed concerns about the recent influx of cheaters and hackers on PUBG servers.
According to the dev team, the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds test servers will go live next week with an incomplete launch build featuring the dynamic climbing and vaulting mechanics announced at E3. Players can scale any object up to a maximum height of 2.3 meters. Speed will be determined by the height of the climbing surface and held weapons will be automatically holstered to free up both hands. Players can vault over anything chest-level height (or shorter) without putting away their weapons. Both actions will complete faster when triggered while sprinting, thanks to the added momentum gained from running.
“Due to the nature of this system, we expect possible issues, bugs and problems to occur. Ironing out this feature may take some more time, but we do hope you will have a lot of fun with it and make great use of it. We are eagerly awaiting your feedback and reports,” the team wrote. “In the next few days, we will also touch on other important changes. Please stay tuned for more updates on the test server.”
PUBG Corp. also says the next patch will implement new anti-cheat measures, but declined to provide details on those changes for security purposes. The team says its latest anti-cheat efforts have already resulted in more than 20,000 bans, in addition to those revealed earlier this month, and the studio hopes recent monitoring of “abnormal gameplay behavior” will continue to bolster its anti-cheating efforts.
The opportunity to engage with PUBG’s dynamic climbing system may offset some of the morale in the game’s increasingly aggrieved community. Kotaku ran a story this week diving into recent discontentment, from mega-streamers like DrDisRespect all the way down to casual players, in the wake of rampant cheating and network issues. Excitement about new features likely won’t drown out those criticisms, some of which have been smoldering for weeks. But it might be enough for fans to ignore PUB G’s troubles while they explore new combat strategies and other changes implemented in the launch build.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available in Early Access. The launch build is expected to hit Steam before the end of 2017. A Xbox One port is currently slated for early 2018.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news in 2017 and as long as PUBG Corp. supports PUBG in the years ahead.
