MADFINGER Games has just released the second patch for the Gray Zone Warfare public playtest. And while new landing zones and quality-of-life updates are nice, one of the game’s biggest issues is still widespread.

Nine new landing zones have been added to the Gray Zone Warfare public playtest servers, but the lack of available helicopters to ferry players to and from these landing zones remains a problem. Even as the game’s popularity has waned somewhat following its red-hot launch, players like me are stuck phoning for a chopper for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes.

The new patch does provide some minor relief to the helicopter traffic issue, with the addition of pickup and destination information displayed on the helicopters themselves. This addition allows players to see where the birds are headed in the sky, and allows them to hop on someone else's helicopter if it's headed in the same direction. This relieves players of the burden of having to coordinate helicopter sharing themselves, as the UI displays the information for them.

While it can still be frustrating to be stuck on base, or scary to be out in the open on a contested landing zone while waiting for a helicopter, MADFINGER has done a good job of implementing positive changes during these public test patches. Today’s patch includes further improvements for another GZW issue, rubberbanding.