A closer look at PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds vaulting
And here's why it's a big deal.
The people behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds first announced it would add vaulting animations to the game back at E3 in June. Now, developer Bluehole has offered an update on how it's progressing.
Thanks to one of Bluehole's programmers, we can see work-in-progress vaulting animations - and they look like a game changer.
The video shows the player vaulting walls like an Olympic hurdler. With ease, the player briskly bounces over walls of varying sizes, including those much taller than themselves.
The ability to climb higher walls, and particularly onto roofs, could prove vital for snipers seeking vantage points. It will also increase tension. Knowing a sniper could be on any roof (with a flat roof) may be frustrating but could lead to a more interesting game.
The player's vault speed depends on character velocity, so the quicker you run at an obstacle the easier you will find the vault. This is going to be a an important feature when it comes to escaping the blue zone or enemies. Players will be able to quickly navigate obstacles to move faster.
Currently, players who encounter fences or walls at waist height have difficulty trying to jump them. This slows you down and means you have to take the longer way round. This is often the case with shin-high walls and fences as well, with players sometimes having issues even manoeuvring these obstacles if a glitch strikes.
If you go to three minutes 10 seconds in the video below, you can watch Eurogamer's Ian suffer from this exact issue.
The programmers have also added the ability to cancel before apex, so rather than carrying out the climb or vault automatically you will be able to stop if you change your mind or notice an enemy creeping up on the other side of the wall. This feature could also be used for sneaky peeking over walls.
In the video we can see the player using strategically placed boxes or environmental items to give an extra boost for certain climbs. The current maps do not necessarily have these items placed, so it's not certain whether they will be added into the maps before vaulting. It's likely, however, the new desert map will already have these items strategically placed with this in mind.
This is only the basics of the vaulting system PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds showcased at E3. In the video which announced vaulting and climbing animations, Bluehole teased fans with footage of players flipping over cars and jump-rolling through windows.
The developers have yet to say when vaulting will be added to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but it's nice to see how it's all coming along.