Battlegrounds!!!!!

[zoraster]

yeah i just had a couple of 70s finishes because i lost the first fight and ended up in a much denser populated zone than i anticipated. But I just finished 9th in a round where I was at one sliver of health after 15 seconds of landing.

[zoraster]

did you know that the final circle isn't the end? that if you wait long enough it collapses? I found that out as I and 2 others engaged in a standoff. Apparently it does and everyone had to run to where it was collapsing to, leading to a frantic end. I ended up getting one guy but losing to the other. sigh.

[Alisae]

Yeah that can kinda happen when you panic
I saw it on some streams but I don't think he happened to me as of yet.

[zoraster]

there wasn't really a panic. it was either run toward where it was collapsing or be the first to die. That last circle does enough damage that nothing can heal you before the time it takes to use the med kit or whatever.

I think i did exactly as well as I could have in that scenario. Knowing that it collapses I might try using a painkiller or something to try and get a tick more health than everyone else, but it wouldn't have helped here.

Frustrating to end up 2nd, but still feels pretty good.

[SleepyKrew]

zor go pro

[Porochaz]

I've managed a few 2nd's and 3rds (I like 7th quite a lot) but my only win is still my 2nd ever game. I've only ever gone off solo when I've been playing on stream (where I killed one of the three streamers with a crossbow).

[zoraster]

zor go pro

Obviously this is a joke, but I'll use it as an opportunity to talk about something related: pubg will be a very secondary spectating experience in terms of professional gaming (assuming we mean competitive professional gaming and not streaming). Shooters often suffer because the action is too fast to catch. CSGO makes up for that by having a best of 30 with very quick rounds. And because there are only 5 people a side, it's not impossible for production to find and play a replay when it feels relevant.

PUBG isn't like that at all. 96 people comprising 24 teams (assuming squads are used) is tough to follow. Obviously late game gets more manageable, but you're still left in a scenario where milliseconds decide a fight. And the game will last 30min or so. So the amount of fighting shown is limited. One of the appeals of watching streamers is that you're in the dark with the streamer. PUBG is an experienced game, whether playing or watching. Pro competitions necessarily remove that lack of information.

Additionally, there's a reason why competitive professional sports are all 2 sides competing. It sounds great to have basically an entire tournament of teams in one single game (and for fun it is!) but it's too hard to follow a narrative for any individual team. Which brings me to the point about tournaments. Tournaments tend to be the capstone experience of any sport or league. Whether it's a playoffs with 6 teams or the World Cup with its soon to be 48 teams, this is a great experience for fans. How do you organize a tournament in a game that essentially has every team already in it? How do you move teams on to a new round?

As for the competitive aspect (rather than the broadcasting or spectating), a lot of sports have tournaments and competitions with multiple repetitions to reduce the chance of the better team getting unlucky. The NBA, MLB and NHL all use Best of 7 series, for example. League of Legends uses best of 5. DOTA2 and CSGO (I think) use a double elimination system. PUBG is really hard to do that with because only 4% of your teams actually end up winning. I suppose you could do something like say "the tournament is won by the team that wins two games" but then you're left wondering if you'll broadcast 2 games or 25. You could make up some advanced formula to determine a winner (e.g. assign each place a point and the first team to X points wins), but that's complicated and unsatisfying to a viewer.

Anyway, I know there will be "professional" competitive play at some level. Any time people play something competitively they'll want to test each other in an organized fashion (I did play "professional" Battlefield 2142 way back in the day... where the reward was $250 a person to the top team). But where the game works wonderfully for streamers (for reasons I could go into but this is getting long already), I don't think it'll ever challenge top games as a professional competitive experience.

I've managed a few 2nd's and 3rds (I like 7th quite a lot) but my only win is still my 2nd ever game. I've only ever gone off solo when I've been playing on stream (where I killed one of the three streamers with a crossbow).

Is there a clip of that? Because that would be an awesome reaction to have.

[zoraster]

i've had some surprisingly fun games just going on the /r/pubattlegrounds discord server and asking for a duo/squad. I just say that I'm bad and have mostly gotten really nice guys. The guy I played with today on a Duo had just gotten the game so wasn't very good (even compared to me), but it was fun anyway. If I were concerned about my Duo rating I suppose I would care, but at this point I don't.

[Glork]

I *try* not to be concerned about rating, but I do like winning.

I find that in solo I tend to get a bit more stressed out than in duo/squad. When I play with friends it's just fun, even if stupid things happen.

[inte]

more like laggergrounds amiright

i died taking some air on a motorcycle and then like teleported to the ground

[zoraster]

I *try* not to be concerned about rating, but I do like winning.

I find that in solo I tend to get a bit more stressed out than in duo/squad. When I play with friends it's just fun, even if stupid things happen.

yeah. i've mostly been focused on my solo rating though. If I had a group of people i played with regularly or what not i'd probably care more about duo/squad ratings, but for now just trying to get to a halfway decent point solo.

[Porochaz]

I should add some more of you lot, although I repeatedly try and fail to get on when Glork is and fail miserably.

In regards to my win? I was so surprised I took a photo of my chicken dinner. Not that that means much. In regards to the crossbow kill the camera was on one of the other streamers. Im featured when that streamer tries to chase me down with a pan, I think you can see my kill in the background. To be fair, in the next game, the streamer I killed shot me through the window, I got a shock and killed the only person I saw. (my partner) Then obviously died myself. Ill try and find the video tomorrow, see how much I actually appear.

[zoraster]

Yah add me. I've been playing quite a bit. I'm on discord too

[zoraster]

have you guys seen this tool? http://www.planepath.net/

Basically at the start of the round you drag an arrow across the map that your plane is taking. it shows you the likely drop zone of people (also has the guaranteed vehicles). If you do it right when the game starts it also tracks the lowest health when you can use your first aid kit, but I haven't found that as helpful. And obviously it's most helpful if you use a second monitor.


Nothing game shattering, but I found it really handy for reminding me where is likely to be looted and active.

[Alisae]

Wow that's a pretty cool Zor
tbh I might use that in the future
mostly for trying to look for car spawns where I want to drop

[hiplop]

just bought this!!

[zoraster]

nice! what's your steam?

[hiplop]

Kilby

(pic of airplane, hiplopftw account name?)

[zoraster]

we went 3 to a squad and the random person does not disappoint. vaguely racist and refuses to heal himself from 10% health but is quite entertaining otherwise. https://www.twitch.tv/zorasterful

[Glork]

LALATheClown was his name, I think? Kinda hilarious.

[hiplop]

posting bug

[hiplop]

this happened to me twice!!

[zoraster]

This information is available elsewhere, but because it helps to put it in one place I've made a spreadsheet about circles:



The damage mitigation columns are about how much of the damage taken by the blue circle is mitigated at each boost bar. So if you drink an energy drink, you'll mitigate almost a third of the damage you take at first in the first circle.

Some insights:
1. You can actually outheal the circle 1 damage from only boosts, although only Boost 4 does that.
2. Circles are roughly 50% of the previous one EXCEPT for the second circle is roughly two thirds of the first.
3. damage increases in a weird way. The 2nd increases by roughly half again the first, the third a third again the second, the fourth a quarter again of the third. So you might think the 5th would be 20% of the 4th. But instead it's THREE TIMES as much as the fourth.
4. In other words, the 5th circle is where the game stops screwing around and tells you that you'd better be in the circle at the right time or it's going to kick your ass.
5. You can outrun even the MAX blue circle closing in on the 6th circle and afterwards if you're unarmed (or with pistol/grenade/melee) and running directly at the white circle. However, if you're running with an assault rifle the blue circle will pass you in that situation. But keep in mind that this is only for the max distance, which won't be the case in most situations, so you'll likely be able to outrun the 6th circle with an AR.

[zoraster]

hiplop were duoing. we were kind of far into the game when this guy comes running through, completely naked, yelling about how he had been mugged



We laughed. I couldn't bring myself to kill him.


His partner took us both out as we were laughing.

[Radical Rat]

So what makes this game different from the billion other hunger games survival-murder games?

I've seen its explosion in popularity, but as someone who never really could get into the subgenre, what makes this one special?