Tag Archives: PUBG

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds: Red zones are shit. This is how I would change the red zones.

The red zones are clearly flawed in this game. They need to change. On one hand I completely agree the red zones should just be removed. It just seems bad. On the other hand, if it’s there to add a bit of a twist (for example playing the game for the first time and suddenly experiencing a bombardment, or being caught out to it) then it needs fixing.

The first thing for me is in terms of the world we are in, who is doing the bombing and why? We don’t seem to know and so it just breaks down the suspension of disbelief that there’s a round circle on the map, it’s red and in that zone, you get bombed randomly. Give it a story for one.

Games are all about storytelling and you (as in the developer of the game) never bothered to tell the viewer (the gamers/players) the story behind it. I can’t even be bothered to go dig a quote where someone from Bluehole tries to explain why it needs to stay. What I heard just did not sound right. Oh and calling players bad for dying to it is just plain stupid.

How would I change it while accepting to keep it in-game? Well, instead of a circle, change it to more like a line and have the bombs explode in a certain direction. Soon the mini-map, the red zone would look more like a thick line across the map in random directions. Ensure that it never spawns in the same exact area twice in a row.

Alternatively, if it’s going to be more like mortar fire, have the minimap reflect that and be a bit more random shaped. Have the bombardment come at an angle also. Again it all depends on the story behind this and how to then design it.

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds: Why I think the Miramar map is viewed as bad and what I think is needed to fix it.

It’s widely known that a lot of players dislike the Miramar, desert map on the Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds game. I wasn’t going to write this post on stating an obvious fact and leaving it at that or I would have posted something a lot sooner so my objective in this is to actually provide some meaty suggestions to fix the map, but before I do, I think maybe it’s worth mentioning when I say “fix”, it might not actually be broken in the eyes of the developers in which case maybe you consider that a bigger problem to contend with.

I read an article written (I’ll link down below if I manage to find it again) which went into what the game developers want from this map or even from this game and how they designed the map based on their vision of how they want their game to be played. Supposedly it’s all about being sneaky and very cautiously going for the win. A scavanger, almost.

Some people have said streamers made this game and the most viewed streams are those who seem to drop in the most highly populated areas and fight it out with a lot of fast paced play, so with the above direction, it essentially works to remove this. Even if Bluehole Studio’s did not mind pissing over their streamers, my main point would be is the whole reason some of those streamers recieved such high viewers and became more popular was in essence the game’s success as it’s enjoying to watch and play like very kind of play.

Weirdly enough you’d think they would see the success of the first map and change their plans a little if that was their game plan to begin with, however judging from their previous statements and ignoring the community here and there, it seems like they ignored that and drove right through that settlement.

Anyway, putting all of that to the side. I think a lot of people don’t get down to the gritty details of how to “fix” it when actually discussing the solutions, making vague statements like “it’s not a good map”, “I don’t like it” and the “It’s not a competitive map” views which would have a slightly different perspective to keep to. As if making a simple opinion was enough.

This map is larger than the old map and there was supposedly a slight reduction in parachuting distance. This results in having a flight path that sometimes leaves very few options and you’re left with either dropping and scavanging for miles or dropping in high populated areas and scrambling for weapons, fighting in urban combat which ironically contradicts the statements made about wanting players to be stealthy and play conservative.

One of the main issues with the map is the lack of vehicles. If more vehicles were added, players would pick a place across the map, land as close as possible, pick up a vehicle and reach their destinations, resulting in spreading people about a lot more.

It seems like the very opposite is occurring on this map. They even have a lot of burnt out vehicles on the sides of the roads, piles of rubbish to fool you into dropping in the middle of long stretches of roads with no vehicles. Either you have to have eagle eye vision or you reduce your risk and pick up vehicles only in towns, which again is not an easy task. To top it off, the vehicles are very slow.

Add more vehicles, speed up some of them by a few kmph. This would begin to solve the lack of weapons people complain about, while you take your usual years to fix issues in the game.

One of the complaints in this game is the lack of cover in some final circles. I know they have looked and added more buildings, rocks and cover, but there’s more to be done. If you need help, ask your community it’s not hard. Ask for screenshots or game logs and go look at it. I’ve played a circle in which there is nothing but a field, very rarely is this the situation in the first map.

To solve this, add some cactus trees and cactus bushes that’s more like foliage that can be driven over. NOT more hills to make driving across the map impossible. It’s critical that paths for vehicles for fast rotations is viable and possible.

Reverse the amount those unnecessary ridges that was decided to be added or at least take them off dirt roads. It does not help, it actually seems to block the way to solving the issues on the map. Honestly felt like it was a trap or even worse, someone who doesn’t even play the game in charge of fixing a problem they have no ability to even comprehend. Probably the latter to brutally honest.

Before I end there, I felt that I would mention a final potential change along with the above that I think would fix the map. Adding more players and increasing the loot by around 25% more. Along with these changes I would implement game modes with only random portions of the map and the standard 100 players. But these ideas for another time.