Console Dev Letter: upcoming changes - mapselection,servers,matchmaking

Hello everyone,

We’re back with another Dev letter from the console team! Today, we’re happy to talk about some updates coming to the game while we are in between our large content patches.

These changes include map selection and servers, all with the goal of providing a better overall experience for our players. Let’s dive right in!

Moving Servers

You may have noticed an improvement in your ping during our recent server testing in both Europe and North America. In Europe, we tested out servers in Frankfurt, and in North America we tested out servers in Texas. The goals for this test were the following:

  • Create a fair gameplay experience
  • Lower the average ping for everyone playing on the server
  • Lower the number of desync incidents

Desync occurs mostly when the differences in ping between players is high, resulting in each player seeing different things. For example, Player A could be hiding behind a rock, but Player B still sees Player A for a moment before they hide. This is due to the character location information being sent differently to each player because of their ping.

Below, we’ll explain the results.

  • NA
  • EU

In the charts above, orange is the original server and blue is the tested server. The X-axis is the ping (lowest → highest) and the Y-axis shows the ratio of players having that ping.

In both NA and EU, we can see that the amount of players with high ping have decreased overall.

In NA, we see that the amount of players with low ping have decreased, but there are now more players with similar ping, resulting in a more fair experience. Also, the less of a difference in ping between each player means less occurrences of desync. 

We’re happy with the results of the test and have decided to officially move servers to Texas and Frankfurt. Of course, we will continue to monitor the data and listen to your feedback and reports once this happens.

In addition to moving the physical location of the servers, we also plan to implement a new system to ensure better connection. More information will be coming on this as details are finalized.

Map Selection

Through analyzing queue data, it was determined that the “Quick Join” option was having a negative impact on matchmaking times. Due to this, we removed the option last update with the hopes that it would aid in sustaining a healthy matchmaking experience for all players.

Due to further player feedback and queue data since then, we have also decided to remove the “Featured Map” option. This will leave only the “Random Map” option, which will now contain all 4 maps at an equal percentage chance of being chosen. We expect this to have a positive impact on healthy matchmaking times, including FPP mode. At the same time, we understand that player choice is important, so we’re investigating ways to allow players additional choices where possible.

Our primary concern is always a healthy matchmaking system, but we will look to improve the systems and add more choice wherever we can. We will continue to carefully monitor these changes and as always, listen to your feedback.

We plan to implement the above changes to servers and map selection on October 16 10pm PDT / October 17 7am CEST. 

Matchmaking

We have been investigating reports of players being matched into the wrong servers, and we have discovered that there are some bugs with ping calculation. Due to this, we will be disabling ping-based matchmaking and changing the system to region-based matchmaking. This means that the region that you are from will select the server that you will play in regardless of ping.

This change to matchmaking will be rolled out at a later date, and further details will be provided as they are finalized.

We hope you enjoyed this Dev update. We’ll be keeping a close eye on your reports and feedback once we have rolled out the above features. Thanks for reading, and see you on the Battlegrounds!

PUBG Console Team