Updated: June 16th 2021
We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.
GAMEPLAY TOPICS - ACTIVELY UNDER INVESTIGATION
Smoke Canister Gas Propagation
The propagation of the gas from Smoke’s Remote Gas Grenades was often problematic, appearing on the other side of undamaged walls, floors, or ceilings. We’ve reworked the propagation system for the gas itself, meaning the toxic gas will no longer travel through unbroken, or unopen boundaries, though it will spread through walls, floors, or ceilings where gaps have been created. We also changed the sound that the Remote Gas Grenades make upon detonation, making it much more distinct.
Status: COMPLETE. Available at Y6S2 launch!
Bullet Hole Peeking
Single bullet holes are often used to gain an advantage, and we recognize that the difficulty in spotting such holes from a distance can cause frustration for some players. With the changes we’re implementing to tackle this, single bullets will no longer create an isolated hole through a wall or barricade (this does not affect weapons with more destructibility), though firing multiple bullets or meleeing a wall will cause a larger hole to appear, as is the case at the moment. This should help reduce the frustration caused by singular bullet holes while still allowing players to make use of destructible surfaces.
Please note, bullet holes in thin materials like window glass and the inner cores of props are not affected by this change.
Status: COMPLETE. Available at Y6S2 launch!
Improved Flash Detection + Consistency
The goal here is to make flash detection more reliable and to give players confidence in this type of utility by improving its consistency. Basically, when you throw a flash, we want you to know how this will affect your opponents and the environment. The solution that we’re working on simulates the light bouncing off objects in the immediate environment, and the results we're seeing are encouraging. We’re currently evaluating the strength of flashes and are excited for players to get a chance to test this change soon!
Status: Y6S3
Enemies Are Too Hard To See With Certain Skins Equipped
We know that certain operator skins are well-known for blending into some environments, and this has led to situations where players felt they were at an unfair disadvantage. Our solution is to add a rim lighting effect to operators. So far, we're quite happy with the results and feel it is cohesive with the art style of the game. We are in the process of aligning on the colour of the rim lighting, and ensuring the effect is consistent across the game's many unique cosmetics.
At the end of the day, we want players to be able to choose the cosmetics they want without gaining an unfair advantage of any kind.
Status: Y6S3
GAMEPLAY TOPICS – NEW ADDITIONS
As the topics above near completion, we’re beginning to set our sights on some additional changes that we believe will have a positive impact on player experience. We wanted to give you an early look at what we're beginning work on and will share more details and timing for these in subsequent Top Issues updates.
Loadout Reset
We’re aware that loadout and customization reset issues are prevalent for some players. While we have noticed the issue occurring during in-game events, we know that the issue is not exclusive to those. We’re investigating the issue and working towards a reliable reproduction and solution for this.
Flinch Animations in PvP
The flinch hit reaction has been a prominent topic across the player base, and this an area that we feel can be improved. We're investigating this topic and and will share updates in future editions of this blog.
DBNO Kills
Getting an enemy to a DBNO state and not receiving a point for the kill has been a source of frustration for players. We’re looking at this, as we feel that the player who downed the enemy should be awarded with the kill point if the enemy is taken out. Not only would this be more rewarding for the initial player, but this could remove a cause of toxicity from the game.
Friendly Fire – Team Gadget Launcher Damage
We are currently looking into the impact of hitting an ally with a gadget (e.g. Lesion's Gu Mines) or a launcher's direct hit (e.g. Mozzie's Pest), so that it no longer deals direct damage or results in a points loss. We are considering this change because such interaction does not bring any additional value to the gameplay experience, while also adding a form of unnecessary toxicity.
Following this, our intended plan is to remove the various damages caused when these situations occur. However, damage related to the end result of a gadget's deployment (e.g. actual explosion of a frag grenade) or launcher's actions (e.g. explosion of Ash's Breaching Round) will still inflict damage to allies and will still be considered within the Reverse Friendly Fire system.
PERFORMANCE AND PLAYER BEHAVIOR
Servers & Connectivity
During Neon Dawn and Crimson Heist we have seen connection based issues having a negative impact on players, and this is an area that we continue to work on at a global level, as we aim to resolve issues at their root.
In order to improve player experience, we’ve implemented a number of changes and shared our results in connectivity updates here and here. These changes have included migrating PC and PlayStation users to better servers, relocating the data centers for Japan and Australia, and launching a Middle East data center. Looking to the future, we have set a number of next steps, including global server migration on Xbox, working with partners to improve performance of the Middle East data center, and migrating servers in the South Africa data center.
Cheating, Hacking & Toxicity
Automating Data Bans
In our last Anti-Cheat DevBlog, we mentioned that we were working on building new cheat detections based on statistics to uncover our most disruptive cheat users. While this process was originally performed manually to stress test and validate its accuracy, we're excited to announce that we've updated it to be automatic. This mean that sanctions for cheaters identified through data-based detections will be delivered faster, reducing their impact on the community!
Implementing this automated process allows us to work in parallel and strengthen our collaboration with BattlEye. In the coming months, we will continue to develop new models and detection opportunities to increase our velocity on this front.
MMR Rollback
We are continuing to evolve the MMR rollback system by improving reactivity and minimizing negative impacts on honest players. The goal of MMR rollback is to help players who were in an unfair match. That being said, we know that it is frustrating for honest players to have their MMR rolled backed for matches where they won against a cheater, and we are working to address that.
We will continue to tweak the design as we work towards a clear and fair system. We are not able to share an exact timeline right now but are aiming for Season 3; stay tuned for more updates!
Preventative Sanctions
This past year we have been working on the implementation of preventative sanctions, one of the first visible aspects of the reputation system. In the future, by detecting patterns of griefing and harassment, we will be able to preventatively activate sanctions, allowing us to quickly deal with repeatedly disruptive players and reduce the frustration associated with them.
One of our first integrations for preventative sanctions will be oriented around Reverse Friendly Fire, and we will then expand the scope to other issues. We believe that this new way of controlling regular abuses will greatly contribute to the detection and prevention of disruptive behaviour. As with other topics above, stay tuned for more updates!
Abandon Match Penalties
We have increased sanction penalties for abandon-related offences, which players will notice with the launch of North Star. Paired with the recent improvements to match cancellation, we expect this to help discourage players from match abandons and limit the overall impact on committed players.
DDoS On Consoles
Over the last two seasons, we’ve made valuable progress in our fight against DDOS attacks on console, mitigating the effects of attacks. In addition to this, players who use this method of cheating are being banned, and our detection of such actions are constantly being improved. We will continue to look for methods of continued improvement as we seek to protect players from DDoS attacks.
Status: Ongoing
Mouse & Keyboard On Consoles
This subject is still a project priority, and the team continues to make progress. We appreciate your patience and look forward to sharing more in the future as we continue to refine our approach.
Status: Ongoing
Updated: November 30th 2020
We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.
PLAYER BEHAVIOR
Mouse & Keyboard on Consoles
Description: We are making progress on the matter, but it's a very challenging task and we are unable to predict the outcome of our investigations at this time.
Status: Ongoing
DDoS on consoles
Description: In close collaboration with our partners, new ways of mitigating DDoS attacks have been deployed. According to our metrics, we believe that we made significant progress on the topic and that we are seeing a notable reduction of the phenomenon.
We are also aware that the situation is not solved for everyone and that it remains an issue for some of our players. We will keep on working on the topic and provide regular updates.
Status: Ongoing
Streamer Mode
Description: The purpose of Streamer Mode is to protect our content creators with settings that allow them to increase their anonymity while streaming. The settings intend to discourage and prevent disruptive players from using streamers' public information in a toxic way.
The settings work to prevent two major disruptive behaviors:
- Queue Sniping: When players taunt or kill a streamer after deliberately queuing at the same time as them.
- Stream Sniping: When players intentionally use another players live-stream for information, or to act in a toxic manner because they are aware of the live-stream.
Status: First half of Y6
Cheating & Hacking
Description: Along with our partners, we continue making progress in terms of detection, communication and vulnerability improvements. Additional measures and fixes are scheduled to be released with Operation Neon Dawn.
We invite all our players to use the in-game reporting panel to flag any cheater you may encounter.
Status: Ongoing
Servers and Connectivity
Description: We have noticed an increase of connectivity issues during Operation Shadow Legacy; the entire Siege team has dedicated considerable resources and time to identify potential leads.
Once again, in close collaboration with our partners on that topic, we have made substantial progress. Additionally, we continue to have a closer look at the current connectivity issues and are exploring potential improvements.
A more in-depth communication should be released at some point in the future, we would like to offer the community a better understanding of our infrastructure and challenges.
Status: Ongoing
TOP GAMEPLAY TOPICS
Runouts & Defuser Planting Detection
Status: Improvements released with Neon Dawn, refer to our patch notes for additional information.
Defuser Retrieval Improvements
Description: It is possible to drop the defuser in locations where it cannot be picked up again by running over it. Often outside of the map, in cracks, gaps between objects, holes, etc.
To fix this, we created a 'Pickup Defuser' interaction that works at a distance. It will aim for defuser retrieval to act like picking up any other gadget.
We deployed this new system during Y5S.3.3 but we encountered some complications. We hope to release a newer version very soon.
Status: During Y5S4
Bullet Holes peeking
Description: Single bullet holes are often used to gain an advantage during gunfights. We recognize that this situation can be quite frustrating for some players who couldn't spot the bullet hole from the distance. We are currently exploring different options to make smaller bullet holes more easily noticeable or unusable for such situations. We have made substantial progress and are quite confident about this solution. There is still some work to be done and we are not quite ready to share more for now.
Status: Y6S2
Enemies are too hard to see with certain skins equipped
Description: Certain Operator skins are notorious for blending quite effectively within the environment. This led to situation where players considered to be victim of an unfair advantage. We are investigating how to make Operators stand out a bit more from the environment.
Our goal is to let everyone pick and choose their skins without providing any sort of advantage. We will proceed with caution on that topic, as we don't want this solution to clash with the general art direction of the game.
Status: During Y6
Audio tinnitus
Description: Following numerous community feedback, we have decided to reconsider the audio tinnitus triggered upon taking damage. We acknowledged that the reduced sound feedback was having a very strong impact on gunfights and could lead to some frustration.
By substantially reducing the tinnitus, we hope to offer fairer gunfights and a better chance to win duels.
Status: Y5S4
Improved Flash detection/consistency
Description: The rework intends to make flash detection more reliable. Enemies are often not affected by flashes due to objects and obstacles. We want to simulate the light ricocheting with the environment, to improve the effectiveness of flashbangs & other similar gadgets.
Due to shifting priorities, we hope to address this topic a bit later during Year 6.
Status: Y6S2