PUBG Servers are down tonight to make way for a new update When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up forfor the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks PC players have been warned that the Battlegrounds will be offline for an extended period of time. PUBG servers are down tonight as Bluehole Inc. work on bringing their latest build online. It’s been confirmed that scheduled maintenance starts at around 3am, BST, and will last quite some time. That's pretty good news for people in the UK, but not so brilliant for those in the United States. Server downtime begins at 7pm, PDT, for some, meaning a big gap in game time for some Battleground fans. PUBG servers will be offline for around four hours, although Bluehole have been known to bring the game back online sooner. “PC Players: Live servers will enter maintenance for 4 hours starting at May 30 7pm PDT / May 31 4am CEST / May 31 11am KST,” the PUBG support team confirm. “Once maintenance is complete, update #14 will be available to play and the new leaderboard season will begin."<doc-sep>PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is due for another big patch on PC this week. This week’s PUBG update actually hit test servers early yesterday, but PUBG Corp. only came around to revealing the details later that day. Patch 14, as the developer is calling it, comes with a number of key changes. The biggest is the overhaul of all throwables, that includes frag grenades, flash grenades, and molotovs. Frag grenades have been greatly buffed, in both their effective range and damage. Stun grenades will now not only impair a player’s vision, they’ll also do the same to their hearing, and ability to shoot accurately (no ADS). These updates to stun grenades come with a new set of animations that should make it easier to tell if your target has been stunned (hand over eyes). Molotovs are also getting an increase to their area of effect, but the most interesting addition is that fire will now spread along wooden surfaces indoors, such as floors and walls. The flames can spread further when you throw more of them. The M24 sniper rifle, which has long been a crate-only weapon, can now be found as normal floor loot. To compensate for its increased availability, the patch is lowering its damage from 88 to 79. PUBG Corp. says the intention is to provide an alternative to the Kar98k. Apart from the mechanical changes, the update brings a new anti-cheat detector developed in-house. You’ll now see it launch alongside the game, and it offers a compatibility mode in case the default, security mode gives you issues. As far as performance, and following up from the recent developer letter, patch 14 makes a few updates that should result in increased performance for all. That includes improving character model rendering, optimising character movement while skydiving, and the biggest one, increasing “the speed at which the server transfers data about objects.” The update will hit live servers following four hours of maintenance that kick off today at 7pm PT / 10pm ET, which is 3am BST on May 31, which is also when the new leaderboard season is set to begin. Check out all the patch notes below. Gameplay Increased frag grenade damage and effective range Frags previously had to be within 2.6m of player models to deal lethal damage. They now deal lethal damage within 3.5m, moderate damage from 3.5m through 8.5m, and low damage from 8.5m through 10m. The maximum effective range of stun grenade has been increased to 20m Depending on distance from the explosion, the direct effect can blind the player for a maximum of 5.5 seconds, and a minimum of one second (when 20m away). Depending on distance from the explosion, the indirect effect can blind the player for a maximum of three seconds. Characters blinded by a stun grenade now cover their faces. This is a new animation. Spectators are now also blinded when spectating someone hit with a stun grenade Stun grenades will now briefly blind and deafen the thrower if they explode behind their back when cooked. You’ll now be unable to ADS while blinded. Molotov cocktails now have new effects and their damage has been increased. Molotovs can now deal indirect damage and burn damage (as damage over time), depending on whether or not you’re standing directly in the flames. If you’re in the flames you’ll take both types of damage. Indirect damage (taken when standing in the flames) has been increased from 10 to 12.5 damage per second. After catching fire, players will take burn damage as damage over time (10 damage per second) for a total of four seconds. You’ll now be unable to ADS while taking burn damage. Flames now spread further along wooden surfaces in houses Flames from Molotovs spread further if another Molotov is thrown on top of the flames. A new animation has been added for character models who are suffering burn damage. They’ll attempt to pat out the flames using their hands. -Weapon and attachment balance: Reduced vertical and horizontal recoil of the SCAR-L Decreased basic damage of the M24 from 88 to 79 M24 will no longer dropped in care package. It spawns in the world The tactical stock and cheek pad are now less effective at improving recoil recovery rate. It now improves ADS speed. Light grip no longer affects weapon basic recoil control or recoil recovery speed Light grip now decreases first shot/single shot recoil by about 15%. Animation kick reduction has been changed to 20% (from 30%). To make the Vector a little easier to find, we’ve increased its spawn rate at the expense of the spawn rate of the UMP-9 (overall SMG spawn rate remains the same). Increased world spawn rate of DMRs. UI/UX Added a UI message showing when healing items can’t be used. Average swimming distance has been added to player stats, on the career screen New anti-cheat tech We’ve added a new anti-cheat solution, developed in-house at PUBG Corp Expect to see a new popup when you start the client. It’d be more helpful for us if you run the anti-cheat tool using Security Mode, but if that gives you problems, please choose Compatibility Mode. Performance We’ve improved the character model rendering process to prevent some small frame drop issues. We’ve optimized character movement and animation while skydiving to improve framerate when multiple players are nearby. We’ve made some improvements to our network code to reduce network latency. We’ve increased the speed at which the server transfers data about objects (items, doors, fences) to address the fact that sometimes items spawn in late after players parachute in. We’ve improved some inefficient processes with the way the server updates certain frames on vehicles and character models. This should resolve resolve some abnormal physics affecting vehicles. Sound You can now toggle the new HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) sound feature in the options menu (for opponent’s gunshot sounds only). The feature, which simulates fully three dimensional sound even for two-channel stereo headphones, was explained in greater detail in our dev blog last week. Reduced the volume of the care package airplane. Leaderboard The total rating points gained/lost per match has been increased, to better define the skill difference between players. Bug fixes<doc-sep>
Sign up forfor the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks This week saw another big PUBG update land on Xbox One, complete with Miramar upgrades. It wasn’t that long since Bluehole Inc and Microsoft released the new map on consoles. And now a new patch has been launched, aimed at improving the experience, among other things. The development team have confirmed that the Oasis in the northern area of the map has expanded, and should provide better encounters. It should also be noted that player reporting should now be enabled, giving Battle Royale fans the chance to report a team kill on Xbox One. Explaining the tweaks, a new message from the development team outlined some of the goals of the new patch. “Recently we shared a dev letter that gave a preview of some upcoming performance improvements we’ll be implementing in PUBG for Xbox One,” the development message reads. “We’ll need time to deliver on all of those improvements, but in the meantime we’ve got a small patch here with some bug fixes, improvements to Miramar, and a new teamkiller reporting function.” You can read about the other optimisations and tweaks made to PUBG on Xbox One, below: Optimisation Prediction based level streaming has improved. Elastic accuracy control for character has improved. We introduced some back-end changes to prepare for an upcoming feature and in some cases, the game would try to interact with this unfinished feature, causing the game to crash. This has been removed. Player reporting You will now be able to report a team kill. If you get killed by a teammate, simply... Press the Y button when the result is shown to expose the report pop-up Press the A button to report Check whether the “report competed” message is shown on the bottom of the screen If it wasn’t a team kill, the report button won’t appear Miramar Improvements were made mainly in the northern part of Miramar to make it a more appealing area. The Oasis in the northern area of the map has expanded. We’ve added more car spawning positions to facilitate easy travel into and out of the area. Certain problematic terrain elements (which caused weird collisions or movement) have been fixed for a smoother driving experience We’ve added extra farming points to loot in the map. We’ve added more objects like trees and rocks in the northern part of Miramar to provide some additional options for cover. The interiors of certain buildings have been simplified Bluezone