The Siege community has a lot of questions about the current state of the game and its future, which is why we brought together members of the dev team for a Reddit AMA on July 22nd. You can find a recap of the most important questions and answers below, the full Reddit thread can be found here.
MOUSE & KEYBOARD ON CONSOLE
Have you made any significant progress to detect MnK and have a reasonable timeframe for banning people who abuse it?
Our MnK work currently is still very much a R&D subject. We have dedicated people in the Rainbow Six Siege team who are actively working on MnK to not become an unfair advantage, but an additional input that we support to make everyone's experience fairer without impacting our players with disabilities. We plan to run tests in the coming months to validate our approach, once properly validated we can move forward.
CHEATING/BANS
What are your plans to fix the cheater issue?
A large portion of what we do unfortunately can't be shared here, as security is a huge part of anti-cheat and we need to guarantee we're not giving any hints to cheat makers. While we know this is frustrating, know that we have ongoing initiatives already live and in development that we can't explicitly share.
We'll be sharing a data-focused update to this Anti-Cheat article in August, but today, we're going to break down some of our most recent actions and plans for dealing with cheaters.
Will you guys ever consider manual bans of players doing new glitches in ranked that are found and exploited?
When someone finds a glitch, our stance is to fix it as quickly as possible. For that reason, we don't want to penalize someone who has found it in the first 24 hours - especially if this helps to identify the issue.
Are there any specific plans to add new level requirements or other/more forms of verification to Ranked?
In the future, we aim to add some access restrictions to Ranked for players who have not relaunched and played the game for a while or any new account that has reached the Clearance Level allowing access to Ranked and has not made sufficient matches in PVP Public Matchmaking to validate its eligibility.
We are also actively looking with our partners inside Ubisoft at reinforcing the account security to make sure it gets harder and harder for hackers to get their hands on accounts.
If we report a cheater in-game via the overlay, does an actual human look into the report? If not, how is it done?
We have a team dedicated to going through these reports and identifying cases that involve cheating. But, considering the high number of reports we receive each day, we have to prioritize which reports are reviewed immediately.
What do Developers plan to do in order to curb rampant cheating for Siege aside from automated bans? When will Devs look into the possibility of hardware-based bans?
Hardware bans are indeed a sanction used by us and across the industry, however, it's not a silver bullet since advanced hardware ID spoofers can disrupt the detection.
In a time where it feels like every game has a cheater in it, wouldn't you agree that manual bans would improve relations with the community?
Manual bans are not our long-term strategy as it would not be scalable, but that doesn't mean that we don't do manual bans - they're still very valuable to the team.
OPERATORS
Is the overabundance of operators and its resulting unpredictability seen as a design challenge that needs to be addressed?
We had introduced the Pick and Ban and the Sixth Pick to help on this. The current system encourages to pick operators who do a bit of everything or perform specific basic functions and for us it's something we would like to address. The Attacker Repick will answer to this.
I am curious to know how you conceive a new character, and which are the main factors you focus on during the creation; the aesthetic, or the gadgets first?
Sometimes the Gameplay will come first and drive the whole development of the operator. That was the case of Wamai for example, or Hibana as we wanted to give alternative pick choice for teams to fulfill one core function.
On the other hand, sometimes the Lore or the history of a CTU is very strong and attractive and drives the process of making the operator, such as Nokk from the Jager Corps.
However, we will never reach a point when we "sacrifice" the gameplay for the lore.
I know people working with R6 have said in the future they hope for around 100 operators, but do you genuinely feel that is realistic with the current trajectory of the game?
This statement of reaching 100 operators was a strong symbol of us, the Siege dev team, claiming and saying to our community that we were HERE TO STAY.
How does the balancing team incorporate less tangible factors into their process when balancing operators?
We have different processes:
- The Balancing Matrix helps us to have an overview/data of the performance of the Operators.
- Regular pro workshops to collect feedback from them.
- We also have calls with the pro players to present them various ideas/balancing changes. Those are also an important source of information.
- We have all the week some internal Playsessions to test each change/rework -- with different player levels.
- Finally, of course, the community's feedback is another of our core inputs, which comes to us regularly from our community team.
Why does Twitch's gadget completely prevent her from having two regular drones like every other attacker?
We are agreed! News coming (very) soon for Twitch.
Are there any plans to change something about IQ's kit, whether that be her loadout, gadget etc.?
There is a plan for IQ to improve the intel sharing, so stay tuned!
Will there be any LGBTQIA+ representation?
Representation is incredibly important to us as a team. This year, in fact, the team has taken great strides to really level up how we are authentically representing our Operators, for example with the partnership of Nakoda consultants for the creation of Thunderbird. This is an approach we'll be taking moving forward as well, to ensure the future LGBT operators we bring to the game feel like honest, real people.
What are your thoughts on Kali's balance at this current time?
She has a very good secondary weapon and to be honest, for now, we are not looking to give her another primary. For us, if we do that, nobody will use her sniper anymore and that's a shame.
So we need to look at the sniper itself how to buff it. We still believe in a bolt action sniper rifle in Siege.
Siege's lore has made a shift from it being a realistic counter terrorist game, to more of an Olympic-style game. What is the reason for this?
It's no secret that our obsession since the beginning has been competition rather than making a realistic and immersive game. So the more the game evolved, the more we felt the need to explore gameplay areas that were no longer compatible with the "realism" and the original settings.
When you think about how the game has evolved from the beta to now, are there any gadgets you feel didn't keep up in viability or purpose?
We cannot imagine releasing some of our Legacy operators today, this is why we have established some guidelines to help the creation of the operators:
- Define the player skills needed to manage each operator such as knowledge skill, communication skill, resource management skill, ...
- We need to have some balancing levers
- Play around soft counter instead of Hard Counter -- Soft counter creates more gameplay and implies more skill.
MAPS
Is there a plan to incorporate new maps instead of just reworking old ones?
Now that the competitive map pool is more solid, we will be switching to hybrid mode. This means that we will continue to maintain and improve the released maps with reworks but we will also start to make brand new ones again.
What kind of maps will we see changed in Y6S3?
For Y6S3, we're doing Buffs in 3 competitive maps: Clubhouse, Coastline, and Bank. The 3 maps received a complete tech overhaul (transparent to players) and some gameplay changes (balancing, quality of life). The total amount of changes in those 3 maps are about equal to the number of changes of a single rework. We wanted to be more surgical but tweak more maps.
Any plans on reworking Bartlett U. into an actual PvP map, or is it destined to be excluded forever?
It will come back in some form. We are currently trying some things from minor changes to a complete overhaul.
What aspects of a map make it 'competitive'?
The top one is overall balancing. Each team must have equal opportunities to win at high skill level of play. There must never be a point where one team can't do anything due to the layout or setups. It is also a question of trade-off. When a map has a certain aspect that favors one side, we try to counterbalance by having something else that favors the other side.
RANKED
When is the rank rework taking place?
We're still in the early phases so we don't have dates to share, but we are planning an update to Ranked. Among the changes that we have planned one of the core changes is to split the MMR from your ranking. MMR will be kept hidden. Your ranking will be a value that is slowly progresses towards your MMR. It will ensure better matchmaking from the start of the season without the stress of good/bad placement matches. It will also reward dedication on top of pure skill.
As a solo queue ranked player, what are your plans to improve the experience?
We're looking at two possible solutions.
- Solo & squad queues: While this would address many concerns, it has a drawback. This option runs the risk of increasing queue times and decreasing matchmaking quality.
- A single Ranked queue: Rather than just using MMR, it would also factor in the advantage of playing in a squad vs. playing solo. This would ideally offer fairer matches without splitting the community between queues.
Will the 700 MMR gap be changed? It's difficult to play with my friends with the current restrictions.
We're looking at a couple of different solutions:
The most promising one is to allow players to play with nearly anybody (some extreme limitation might apply) and then take into account the squad skill disparity into the MMR update. The goal is to dampen the unbalance that teams with a big skill spread can create.
Do you guys ever plan to rework the MMR/ELO system for ranked to make it more dynamic instead of just being "you get MMR if you win a game" and "you lose MMR if lost a game."?
We want to improve our skill rating system so it computes your skill with better accuracy and more importantly: faster.
In R6S it's a bit tricky. We tried using kills and in fact, our system was less accurate by taking that into account, which means that the game is strategic and not just about who got the better aim.
We also have to be careful about those stats, they could be datamined and people could try to adapt their playstyle to 'min-max' the stats instead of thinking about winning the game.
Will attack repick be coming soon?
The ATK repick is planned to be pushed on the Test Server in Y6S4 (but will not ship immediately).
Do you plan to do something about the growing number of smurfs in the ranked ladder?
We have already committed ourselves and are currently working on this topic within our team and with our partners to get an accurate understanding of the smurfing ecosystem via data collection and analysis. Currently what we want to do is:
- We are looking at account rules modification to establish stronger controls at the account level.
- Also, on the game side we will explore various possibilities including the identification of the main account (in terms of performance) to automatically adjust certain values so that alt accounts meet this rank/performance.
Is there a plan to fix the rollback system to rework it?
As mentioned in our last [Top Issues & Community Concerns](https://www.ubisoft.com/en-ca/game/rainbow-six/siege/news-updates/1YPQ5yw9TaRhQwghjStqn2/top-issues-and-community-concerns) article, we are currently working on a major update of our MMR Rollback system. This new version aims to bring changes that will restrict the time window for rollbacks and addressing rollback that occurs when you win against a cheater.
SERVERS
Will North Africa get its own servers?
At this time, we have no short terms plans to open a North African location but as we said previously, we are open to looking at the options in the future.
Can you add the option for picking your server on console?
It's a direction we want to go in, but unfortunately, we don't have it in our timelines right now.
What exactly is the reason you guys decided against the AWS/gamelift gameservers?
We have indeed added Gamelift to the roster. The idea behind is 3-fold and pushes to improve the overall server quality of service:
Improve our resiliency, offering a service backup in case of outage of our other providers.
Mid-term we plan on putting Gamelift in the Siege server pool more frequently in order to improve connectivity.
GAMEMODES/DESIGN
Why doesn't Siege have a form of bracket tournament similar to the ones in Rocket League or Fortnite?
We are working on a competitive playlist that will be activated only during weekends. We call it the R6 Cup as a code name. 5v5 pre-made squad only. However, new features like the R6 Cup have to be delayed because it's counterproductive to make this feature in the old online environment, and then have to redo it again when the transition it's over.
Will we be getting a gun range and is that idea even being considered?
I am happy to say that we currently working on some prototypes where the focus would be to learn & practice weapon recoil control and also visualize the effect of different weapon attachments.
Any thoughts on removing friendly fire from casual? That game mode is supposed to be relaxing and fun.
There is no plan to remove friendly fire in casual. The problem there is not about being relaxed, it's about toxicity.
However, you are right to say that this game is a very sweaty one and we acknowledge that sometimes you might want to enjoy Siege without necessarily having the whole pressure of a 5vs5 bomb match.
That's why we are working on a prototype of a TDM mode that we call Warmup. The main goal is to have something easy going, easy opt-in and opt-out where you can practice your aim and try different weapons.
Will there be any more work or updates for Terrorist Hunt?
To be dead honest, we have wanted to remove TH from the game for a while now. It has a lot of flaws, costs a lot to maintain, and doesn't really fit anymore the direction we are taking with Siege.
However, it still has some interest and some purpose for some people. So, we said to ourselves that before touching the TH we need to deliver some features that answer the needs I mentioned above.
We need to ship a Warmup game mode first. And we also need to have a way to play with bots in a safe environment for people that want to learn or play coop with their friend without playing against human.
What is the ideology that is used to determine the 4 bomb sites on a map?
These days the bomb site areas are decided upfront, and we build around them once we have the building skeleton. We noticed that it is faster to converge toward something solid this way. But there is a drawback, it tends to make all bomb sites more similar to each other's so we must keep this in mind.
When we decide on the general location of the 4 bomb sites, we try to cover most of the footprint of the building so that every part of the map will be used at one point.
Is there a plan to make a better Tutorial mode for beginners?
We are actively working on a brand-new Onboarding experience for new players which will take them through the Basics of Siege, such as destruction, verticality, and intel. We also want to have a more Siege-like preparation for players where the essence of Attack and Defend are introduced and how Operators play an important role in this experience.
Will there be a permanent Arcade playlist?
It's been in discussions on the team for some time, but we've lacked a large enough variety of modes to support a permanent playlist that players would actively use. Our intention is to release on a more regular basis arcades like Golden gun and headshot, until we build a large enough bank, to keep the quality of the matchmaking on par with the rest of the game.
Will you guys plan on rotating Arcade modes more often?
We are looking at how we can increase the frequency of Arcades while still having enough diversity so that it doesn't become redundant for players.
When Game After Death was first brought to TS many asked to cancel the feature entirely. However, Seb Francois (UX Designer) put out a tweet saying "Gameplay After Death is not a 'take it or leave it' situation at all" is this correct?
The community's feedback to Gameplay After Death was super useful after its appearance on the Test Server. It didn't feel balanced, so we're continuing to experiment with it. It's a feature we plan to release someday, but ONLY when it truly feels like it fits within the Siege experience.
Can we please get cross-save?
It's coming in 2022 :) You'll be able to transfer all your cosmetics to PC once it launches.
Are you guys going to enable cross-play between PC and console, with an option to disable it?
We believe in developing and deploying features in an iterative fashion. This is how we're proceeding for cross-play. So far, console generations (e.g. PS4 & PS5) can play together. Stadia, Luna, and PC players can play together as well. Coming up next is cross-play between all consoles.
Crossplay between PC and consoles is a more complicated subject, and we want to make sure we can provide a good experience before activating it. It's not a technical restriction, but more a matter of making sure we have better control over cheating, toxicity, and type of controllers.
BATTLEPASS
Will we see changes to the Battlepass at all, and will we ever see the return of the year pass?
We are looking to re-introduce the benefits that were previously given to Year Pass owners in the short term, including Boosts to Battle Points earned from Premium Battle Pass players.
Additionally, we are still not satisfied with our Battle Pass solution overall. We are actively working on a new type of Battle Pass that won't be found anywhere else. We're also looking to tweak challenges and make them more engaging in the upcoming seasons.