Just over a month ago, the 2018 roadmap for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was revealed, including a smaller 4x4 kilometer "Savage" map, which will eventually become the game's third unique play zone. However, ever since PUBG offered the harsh desert environment of Miramar as the second playable map in addition to the original, Erangel, there's been a consistent demand from players to be able to choose their map before joining a game.
It appears that PUBG Corp is set to address that gap after it made an announcement on Twitter today:
Add Map Selection, you say? OK!
— PLAY BATTLEGROUNDS (@PUBG) April 19, 2018
We’re finally bringing the ability to select a map to PUBG. We plan to roll this update out on Test Servers soon. Learn more about how this feature will work and our process developing it: https://t.co/3V7XNJLSZk
The studio also followed up with a lengthier announcement on Steam where it outlined the development behind the feature as well as the problems it considered. In particular, there were concerns about the potential increase in matchmaking times which led to the analysis of "tens of millions of matches... sorted the data by server, mode, and time to make sure map selection wouldn’t break the game for anyone." Another issue contemplated was how the map selection mechanism would work best for players of "different preferences and playstyles", prompting feedback to be gathered from numerous sources and several iterations of the interface's design.
At present, this is what the current version of the map selection looks like, which may differ from what is eventually tested and launched:
In terms of how players can use the new capability, the fundamentals are:
- You can select the maps you want to play with a click.
- If you don’t want to play a map, simply unselect it.
- If you’ve selected more than one map, the game will randomly pick one for you each time you start a match.
At this stage, a firm release date for the map selector on PC has not yet been made public but players can expect to see it make its initial appearance on the PUBG test servers before making its official public appearance.
Source: PUBG (Twitter, Steam) via Windows Central
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