When Rainbow Six Siege launched back on December 1st, 2015, to say it had a rocky start would be being kind. Many early adopters like myself were stuck with the offline tutorial part of the game that had to be completed before it even let you play online.
Let’s also not forget the one and only co-op story related mission that the game gave us, which in short is Ubisoft’s way of saying “This is the campaign experience we could have given you if we spent more time and money in development” arseholes…
At least we know what we can expect from the next Rainbow Six instalment, but for now, we are stuck with a multiplayer only component to the game, so let’s get on with it.
Ubisoft has ironed out over time many grips a lot of us have had with the game. Remember that offline tutorial component that was necessary to unlock the online elements of the game? Gone, like many little niggles we’ve all had since launch.
It is fair to say that day one players could consider the game almost unrecognisable since launch. Ubisoft has truly done a decent job at listening to fan feedback in actively dealing with the many bugs and glitches within the game, not at all like that have handled that other recent shooter… Cough cough The Division… Gamesrant.com did a pretty solid job of summing up how unsalvageable that game truly is now, for your convenience read that here.
Although we will never have that campaign component of the game, that the co-op and story oriented of us long for, the multiplayer’s constant overhauls and content updates teamed with the gripping and tense gameplay are what have kept us coming back.
The latest patch 5.0 clocked in at around 5Gb on Xbox One earlier, so a hefty one this time around. Here are the changes direct from the Ubisoft Forums, enjoy.
Patch 5.0 has been deployed as of November 17th for all platforms and brings with it the latest DLC Operation Red Crow
This expansion includes two new operators from Japan’s SAT, Hibana and Echo, a new map called Skyscraper, new weapon skins and features, and the debut of a new series of customization packs called Elite sets.
These sets each include a matching uniform and headgear, an Operator card, a charm, an Operator name, and “signature victory animations.” They’ll be released first for Kapkan, Sledge, and Thermite. The new maps and modes will be available to all players, while the new Operators and most weapon skins can be unlocked (which is to say, purchased) with Renown or R6 Credits.
When a player is shooting at an opponent’s chest, there is a good chance they will hit the arms and that means that they will need one or two more bullets to kill the operator. We are now making shots that land on arms more consistent with the damage dealt to the body. By making this change the game should feel more consistent every time you try to spray bullets at the chest area. Before it was set at 0.75x multiplier and now it is set at 1x damage for limbs.
We have changed the neck multiplier from 2.5X damage to the same multiplier as the head. Basically, that means that a shot that lands in the neck will now count as a headshot. When a player would land a shot in the neck previously, the character would play the same animation as a headshot and the blood splatter would be the large one. That led players to believe that they hit a head shot when it wasn’t. It even led some players to think it was bad hit registration when they were actually neck shots. We are making that change so that the game will feel more consistent.
With the same logic of consistency, we have also reduced the headshot multiplier for shotguns. As you may or may not know, landing a headshot with a shotgun does not mean that a player will kill instantly their opponent. Shotguns do not have the same multipliers as normal guns. They were set at 1.5x multiplier, but we have reduced this to 1x. Since the shotgun spray is random, that made them feel a little more inconsistent, sometimes needing three shots at a certain distance, other times needing two or even one because you hit the head. This will ensure that at a certain distance, players will more often need the same amount of shots to take their opponent down.
SMG-11
After a panel at the International Advanced Firearm (IAF) Conference in Bucharest, Romania, the Spestnaz Operator Alexsandr Senaviev presented the mandate to eradicate the ACOG on the SMG-11. The ten counter-terrorism units present (GIGN, Spetsnaz, GSG-9, JTF-2, BOPE, S.A.S, FBI SWAT, S.A.T, and NAVY SEAL) agreed to sign a lease against its use. Any Operator who defies this convention will be sanctioned appropriately.
(Read: The ACOG has been removed from the SMG-11 and you will be refunded the Renown.)
CAVEIRA
Caveira’s Luison damage curve has been changed as follows. Caveira’s win rate is a bit too low for our liking, and her pick rate both in casual and high level ranked games shows that she’s perceived as too weak. After looking more into her weapon stats, we believe the fall off damage on her Luison was so harsh that a small (and hard to evaluate) distance change made too much of a difference. We’ve reduced the fall off damage so that her Luison remains very deadly (DBNO in 2 torso shots) till around 8m.
| Caveira’s Luison | Distance | 0 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 15 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw damage | Old | 105 | 105 | 71 | 36 | 20 | 20 | |
| New | 105 | 105 | 96 | 70 | 35 | 20 |
BLACKBEARD
Blackbeard’s MK17CQB damage has been changed as follow. His damage was abnormally high, especially considering how strong it is combined to the rifle shield.
| MK17CQB | Distance | 0 | 21 | 36 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw damage | Old | 55 | 55 | 31 | |
| New | 44 | 44 | 28 |
CAPITAO
Capitao’s Parafal damage has been changed as seen below, his damage was also too high compared to similar automatic rifles which unbalanced his weapon choices.
| Parafal | Distance | 0 | 28 | 40 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw damage | Old | 55 | 55 | 32 | |
| New | 45 | 45 | 29 |
RECRUIT
GSG9 reserves barbwires reduced to 2 (from 3).
TL; DR: In a past update, we added players’ seniority into our MMR system, but it shifted their ranking inaccurately (high skill discrepancy within the same rank). We are moving to a more transparent system where your MMR is a direct representation of your skill, which should correct some of the inaccuracies in the past. A hard reset of your ranks and access to your MMR evolution will help you assess your rank better against other players.
A few months ago, we updated our ranking system to take player experience into account. This means that veteran players’ MMR would artificially go up with time, up to a certain limit. The goal was to let new players start in a smoother environment.
The problem with this system is that the rank we obtained was not an accurate representation of your skill (in some extreme and rare cases, players with an actual skill equivalent to a Silver player could achieve a ranking as high as Platinum if they played long enough). While there is a correlation between the time spent in the game and a player’s ability to win his games, this is mostly true at early stages of the games. A player with 10 matches will most likely be at a disadvantage when facing an opponent with 50 matches, but this might not be the case for someone who played 500 matches vs 1000 matches. Yes, there is a high skill cap in this game that allows you to progress when you invest enough time and practice, but the issue is much more noticeable in terms of skill floor (because if all defenders are in the hostage room, it’s the perfect occasion for a Fuze charge, right?). That’s why we are still implementing an onboarding system in Casual whose impact will disappear after a certain number of games, while keeping the Ranked experience entirely skill-based.
What do we mean when we talk about skill? Comparing two teams’ skills gives you the chances of winning for each. Thus, your skill is a measure of your ability to make your team win games.
We want to stress that it does not take KDA into consideration. While having a high number of kills certainly helps, we consider that a good Siege player is more than that and we don’t want to shift our model towards highly lethal players (who will naturally win more and therefore rank up more easily). Giving great calls while in cams, a solid jammer set-up, a good Thermite charge or a well-placed reinforcement can change the outcome of a game. This means that if you want to rank up, you have to do everything you can to help your team wins, rather than just rushing to kill that Rook your teammates downed.
The data we gathered during previous months show that we have an accurate estimation of our players’ skill. We believe that using this skill directly to rank and match our players is more relevant to provide a competitive and fair gaming experience. Knowing what skill to expect from your opponent will also help you have a better understanding of why your MMR decreases/increases by X points.
Remember that it doesn’t mean that you won’t be matched against people of different ranks (due to matchmaking constraints), but it means that the ranks of your opponents and teammates should give you a proper idea of other players’ actual skill.
We’ve updated the weekly challenges to be more difficult than they have been in the past. We found that they were fairly easy to complete, so we have tweaked the difficulty of the in-game weekly challenges to be more challenging. This also comes with an increase of 500 Renown that you can earn.
Since Rainbow Six Siege’s launch, we’ve observed that attacking can be harsher for new players than defending. While both sides require planning and execution, attacking is particularly demanding in terms of communication and synchronisation.
One of the impacts of this can be seen in win rates at different skill levels: defenders tend to win more at low levels, but this changes as the player level rises. Because of that, we’ve decided to test having different round timers in casual and ranked.
In Casual, the action phase will remain as they currently are with a 4 minute timer. We want everyone to feel at ease while learning how to attack efficiently.
In Ranked, we are implementing a 3 minute timer. Players in Ranked generally have more experience, and we think having a shorter timer could lead to more meaningful attacking phases where choices matter even more.
We want to be 100% transparent on the fact that this is a test. While we think there’s a good chance for this test to succeed, we’ll be looking closely at several things. The Ranked playlist attractiveness is very important to us: we don’t want to discourage players from trying Ranked. The global balancing of the game at different levels is also crucial: perfect balancing is impossible, but we always want you to feel like you have a good chance of winning whichever side you’re playing. And of course, your feedback will be invaluable. The objective of any change or update is always to provide a better experience. Please let us know what you think on our forums or official sub-reddit!
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