PUBG is testing a new system to stop safe zone camping
by Darryn Bonthuys
You’ve started a game of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, jumped out of the plane and made your way onto the map. Grabbed a few guns, got some body armour and a few frying pans for your butt. Business as usual, as you work your way to the middle of the map and then promptly decorated the landscape around you with your organs as some lucky bugger with a sniper rifle has patiently waited in a prime spot for a kill while not having to worry about the map shrinking on him.
That act of camping may be technically legal in PUBG, but it makes for a boring game overall. The PUBG team is looking to nip that problem in the bud, as they’ve begun testing a new mode called Bluehole mode, which adds a new layer of danger to the game and encourages campers to actually stay on the go or risk death.
“Land, loot, and camp in the circle for the rest of the match no more,” the PUBG team explained in a blog post.
Circle squatters that felt safe not to engage the enemy will now be forced to keep it moving as a second blue zone is being added to the existing circle. The new ‘inner blue zone’ will be both a camping deterrent and an indicator of where the next circle will be. Players didn’t know where the next circle would be, so whoever was lucky enough to be in the next circle had a higher chance of winning. As the next circle location was unknown, players could often find themselves fighting with the Blue Zone more than their foes and have to hoof it the entire match.
- An inner Blue Zone will now appear from the start of the match until the penultimate phase
- The inner Blue Zone will be the same size/location as the next circle
- It will be difficult for players to camp in the inner Blue Zone as they will take damage (same damage as the next phase Blue Zone)
Testing for Blue Zones is currently being kept in the PUBG Labs, but if successful it could help the game overcome some of the massive boredom issues that plague it as a spectator sport. Or hear me out here, because I’m exactly what the games industry needs: An ideas guy whose brilliant schemes require a vast team of developers to do the simple coding, design, direction and QA of a game while I do the heavy thinking. Make a battle royale game where the circle closes in on players stupidly quick as they race towards the middle in a gung-ho fashion and the genre can be exciting once again.