PUBG Map Selection to Be Scaled Back With Sanhok, More Changes

Sanhok is the third map that has been in and out of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds testing servers for quite some time now and as the team prepares for launch, it’s time to reflect back on the changes made and what players thought.

“Update #14 brought some big upgrades to throwables, introduced the M24 rifle to the world’s weapon spawn pool, and (most importantly) implemented a few clutch performance improvements. There are still many more performance improvements in the works—expect to see more make their way over to live servers in update #15,” opened up Bluehole Corp in their most recent dev letter.

From texture changes, to map revision, there is a lot of content for them to mull over before Sanhok fully hits the game’s servers. They also talked about the most common concerns they received, including map selection.

“The first topic is an update to the way map selection works. When we first announced map selection, we said “we’ll still have to keep a close eye on it, since it could become problematic as new maps continue to be added.”

It’s now become clear to us that these concerns were justified, and we’ve decided that we can’t support individual map selection for more than two maps. This is because map selection creates an essentially exponential increase in the number of total separate queues when combined with other queue options like party size and perspective. That means the matchmaking pool gets split into many small sections, making it nearly impossible to put together a match in at least some of those queues.”

“We still want to make sure that players can play on Sanhok without any hassle, especially given that it’s an exciting new map. So, at least for now, we’re going to launch Sanhok as its own queue, with Miramar and Erangel bundled together in a separate queue. That means that in the new UI, you’ll be able to queue up for Sanhok by itself, or Erangel + Miramar together. Choosing both queues means you’ll randomly be dropped into one of the three maps currently in the game.”

They also talked a little bit about the way matchmaking will work with Sanhok as well, mentioning “We want Sanhok to feel like a truly chaotic, different gaming experience. For that reason, there will be no MMR-based matchmaking when you play on Sanhok. Although career stats will still be recorded, your performance on Sanhok won’t affect your MMR at all.

When you drop into a game, you’ll be battling it out against both the world’s best players and… well… let’s just say players with “lots of potential for growth.” “

The team promises they have even more to share in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!