Early Access Month 1 Update

The following is a patch note for BATTLEGROUNDS.

Contents
Players,

This week we roll out our first monthly patch. This patch will the first of many to address performance, fix bugs and add new content to the game. I must stress that we will not be able to fix all performance issues with a single patch. For this patch, we focused on stabilizing performance for all users, trying to ensure there would be less FPS drops, and improve performance for those with lower spec systems. Optimizing the game will take us time, and will continue all through early access, so please have patience while we work to improve the game experience for all players.

We are opening a Test Server to better manage our updates and ensure stability before we push the update to the Live Servers. We will push each new update to this server on the Wednesday of the week, to allow a full days testing before updating the live servers. We will have the exact time you should expect this server to be online tomorrow, so stay tuned to our Twitter!

We are aware that some of you are experiencing what appear to be memory leaks, and we will work on fixing this going forward, but over the last month, we have been concentrating on improving the performance for min spec systems, and stabilizing FPS for everyone no matter what their PC specs. We are still a relativity small team, so we must focus on one problem at a time right now. We are working to expand the team, but finding the right people with suitable experience and capabilities takes time, so please bear with us.

Next I must address a slight price change for the game in New Zealand. We’ve been seeing some abnormal patterns in our New Zealand sales. It turns out that due to the comparatively low price in New Zealand (roughly US$25) and the fact that gifting from New Zealand to other countries is not restricted the same as it is for other countries like China, Russia and Brazil, people seem to be exploiting the system. We have slightly raised the price to US$28 to combat this.

I also want to address server lag once again. The lag you experience on the servers is not due to the hardware or size of the server, nor does it have to do with the number of players online. It is due to a networking issue with the core engine code, and it is something we are working hard to resolve, but it is not a simple issue to fix, so it will take us some time. Please bear with us and we will get it fixed as soon as we can.

Finally, before we get to the patch-notes for this month’s update, I want to once again thank everyone for their support over the past month. We broke 100,000 concurrent users on Monday which is a huge milestone for any game and we wouldn’t have done this without the tremendous support of every player, so from all team here, a sincere thank you.

Known issues

 * The motorbike leans slightly to the right when being driven straight.
 * The tires of the motorbike cannot be shot out at the moment
 * Non-English Players] There are some mistranslated in-game texts and they will be shown in English

Changes
Client Performance Improvements


 * Made some improvements to address the issue of FPS drops when opening the inventory UI
 * Reduced the load on the CPU through instance rendering so that the GPUs can function to their full capabilities
 * Made improvements to address the issue of FPS severely dropping when in the vicinity of Yasnaya, Polyana & Georgopol
 * Rendering performance on PCs with minimum system requirements has been improved
 * Graphic performance and quality on PCs with minimum system requirements has been improved

Server Performance Improvements


 * Performance improvements have been made with relation to the items spawned in the world

Content Updates


 * Added Vector SMG. A very powerful SMG most appropriate for short to mid-range combat that is spawned in the world
 * Added Motorbike w/ sidecar. A sidecar-less version will be added in a future update
 * Added a 2X Aimpoint scope
 * Added a Ballistic Mask
 * Added 3 new color variations for the Dacia
 * Added the crossbow back into the game

World


 * Adjusted the density of environmental elements to be identical across all graphic options
 * Adjusted object placement to address issues of characters getting stuck
 * Adjusted placement of trees that were spawning inside houses or above the terrain
 * Adjusted the frequency of thunder sound effects

UI


 * Revised certain system messages and item descriptions.
 * Added descriptions for attachments
 * The dead team-mate icon will now disappear after a certain time and distance when in team modes
 * Map markers are now visible to all teammates
 * Names of teammates now appear on the world map

Gameplay


 * Made improvements to the REVIVE state


 * - You are now able to move sideways and backwards


 * - The REVIVE timer will no longer decrease when a team mate is attempting to revive you


 * - When attempting to revive a team mate, the reviving timer icon will now also be visible to the player being revived


 * - Adjusted the character position slightly when in the REVIVE state


 * Made improvements to the Spectate system


 * - Made improvements to address the issue of characters shaking


 * - You are now able to open the world map when spectating


 * - You can now view the casting bar when the teammate you are spectating uses heal and/or boost items


 * You can no longer use heal and/or boost items when in water

Action/Gunplay


 * Combat Balance Adjustments


 * - Adjusted the overall balance on all attachments


 * - Adjusted the overall balance on Assault Rifles


 * - We will continue to balance all weapons and attachments throughout Early Access


 * Fixed the issue that caused cars to temporarily stop when their tires get shot out
 * You can now sprint when in the crouch stance
 * Fixed the issue of “Armed/Unarmed” state not being applied when there are delays in the server network
 * The blood hit effect size now varies according to the weapon caliber
 * You can now move when in aiming and/or scoping in the prone state
 * Fixed an issue with the sitting position of the character in the back-right seat of the UAZ
 * Fixed an issue with the position of the left hand when reloading the AWM
 * Fixed an issue where aiming from vehicles was not accurate
 * The positions of bullet hits are now the same for both yourself and the others
 * Fixed an issue that caused the hit box for the head to be slightly larger than the actual head
 * Adjusted the ragdoll physics for dead characters to be more natural
 * Fixed an issue that caused the character to use the wrong aim offset when using the freelook function while holding a grenade
 * Fixed an issue that caused the landing-from-a-high-altitude motion to seem awkward when holding a pistol
 * Improved the quality of zoomed-in scope views
 * Bolt actions are now triggered even after the final shot has been fired, so that you can starti re-firing as soon as reload is complete
 * Added swimming animations to go upwards and downwards
 * Fixed an issue that caused the reticle to appear even when in situations where you are not able to shoot
 * Your character now uses a different animation when in crouch stance while holding a melee weapon
 * Made improvements to the reload animations for the M249
 * Made improvements to the reload animations for the P1911
 * The muzzle flash is now brighter than before and is now visible from a longer distance

Sound


 * There are now sound effect differences for supersonic and non-supersonic bullet speeds
 * Made adjustments so that the sound of the bullet flying through air doesn’t play when shots are fired from a short distance from your character
 * You can now figure out what floor the opponents are at just by listening to their footsteps
 * Adjusted the firing sound of the SKS in mid to long range combat
 * Adjusted the volume of the footsteps

Miscellaneous


 * We have opened a test server to better manage our content and secure stability for our live environment updates
 * Additional in-game texts have been localized

Bug fixes

 * Fixed a bug that caused some buildings to not be visible at long distance
 * Fixed a bug that caused weapons to clip through walls
 * Fixed a bug that caused the icons for certain “pants” items to not appear correctly
 * Fixed a bug that caused the PLAYERUNKNOWN shoes to not render properly
 * Fixed a bug that caused the hit effects to play at random
 * Fixed a bug that caused bald characters to have hair
 * Fixed a bug that caused disconnects after 5 minutes into a match
 * Fixed a bug that caused a knocked out player to be ejected in front of a vehicle. If knocked out in a vehicle, you will now be ejected to the side