Posted: 08 Oct 2020 10:11 AM PDT

In this latest edition of Designer's Notes, we'll go into more detail about the balancing changes that'll come with the 3.3 patch and give you an insight into the reasons behind these changes.

BALANCING MATRIX AND TOP OPERATOR BANS

WIN DELTA VS. PRESENCE

Please note that we are using presence to gauge the popularity of an operator. This notion had to be introduced to reflect the implementation of the pick & ban.

Presence definition: pick rate of an Operator when not banned. Win Delta: The Win Delta is aggregated from Operator's Win Deltas per Bomb Site.

OPERATOR BAN RATE

Due to a tracking issue, we cannot provide the "No Ban" details this time around, we hope to have it back next time.

OPERATOR BALANCING

ACE

Reduce the number of S.E.L.M.A. Aqua Breacher explosions to 2 (from 3).

Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.

Ace is currently a very strong and popular Operator as you can see in the Balancing Matrix above.

Our investigation on his performance led us to witness that his hard-breaching gadgets are very effective and have less downsides than Thermite for a similar result.

With this change we aim to reduce the presence of the Operator, maintain Thermite as a credible alternative and to invite Ace players to think twice when placing S.E.L.M.A. on a reinforced wall.

FROST

Adding the ITA12S as a secondary weapon.

Population targeted by this change: Casual.

As you all know, secondary shotguns are very important in defense to structure the environnement and create rotation holes.

Frost's efficiency currently relies on how often she is played, most players trapped in her Welcome Mats did not expect the Canadian Defender.

On top of that Frost is often placing her traps in staircases close to doors and windows. We hope that by adding a secondary shotgun to her loadout she will benefit from being a bit more versatile, but also to be able to create new pathways to place her Welcome Mats, such as rotation holes requiring Attackers to vault their way in.

Players will be able to be a bit more creative and we hope to bump her presence by a little margin.

GLAZ

Reduce vision recovery time to 0.4s (from 1s).
Reduce movement penalization by 50% (from 6s to 12s of movement).

Population targeted by this change: Casual, Top Ranked and Pros.

According to our Balancing Matrix, Glaz currently is one of the most underperforming Operator. We are aware that Glaz is an extremely situational Attacker who has to potential to be quite frustrating in certain configurations.

At the moment, we are only trying to help Timur find a middle ground to boost the usefulness of his gadget to make him slightly easier to use and a bit closer to other Attackers in terms of performance.

As usual with Glaz, we will monitor your feedback very closely.

MELUSI

Adding MP5 as a primary weapon (Removing T-5).
Optics available on the MP5: Red Dot, Holographic, Reflex.

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

Melusi's performance is extremely solid as she boasts a very high presence and Win Delta in defense. We gathered feedback on this outstanding performance to investigate which balancing lever would make more sense.

The T-5 is currently on of the best Defender weapon and we felt that switching it for the MP5 should lead to an adequate performance reduction. Additionally, only 1.0x optics will be available on the MP5. This should slightly reduce her versatility and ability to win gunfights.

ORYX

Adding T-5 as a primary weapon (Removing MP5).
Optics available on the T-5: Red Dot, Holographic, Reflex, Scope 1.5x.

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

Contrary to the change we did with Melusi, Oryx was suffering from having an underwhelming weapon which turned out to be detrimental to performance in firefights.

Thanks to the T-5, which has proven to be excellent for other roamers, but also with the addition of the Scope 1.5x we are fairly confident that Oryx should see some improvements in that area.

TACHANKA

Removed 1.5x Scope from Tachanka's 9x19VSN.

Population targeted by this change: Casual; Top Ranked and Pros.

To prepare the arrival of the Tachanka rework, we decided to remove the 1.5x Scope from the Lord's SMG.

We believe that he will be able to rely on quite some assets and this scope would likely make him a bit too potent.

BALLISTIC SHIELDS - EXPLOSION PROTECTION

Shields bearers are now affected by the Guard Break when hit by an explosion.
Operators protected behind a shield bearer are no longer taking full explosion damage.
Shield explosion protection lowered to 66% (from 80%).

EXPLOSION PROTECTION:

The following Operators: Montagne, Blitz, Fuze and Clash will protect any player (hostiles included) from an explosion if the shield bearer is standing between them and the explosion.

It's important to add that players standing behind a shield will suffer proportionally to how exposed their body is to the explosion. Additionally, shields will still be protecting Operators even if stored on characters' backs.

GUARD BREAK:

The Guard Break animation will be proportional to the damage inflicted to the Shield (not to the Operator) and will only be triggered if a minimum of 50 damage is received. The greater the damage the more important the guard break animation will be. (up to 100 damage).

Melee damage, concussion effects as well as the Sonic Burst will trigger the guard break to the highest degree, while Electric damage will only trigger the lowest guard break animation.

Additionally, the rotation speed of the shielded Operator will be reduced during the animation and we also added a new animation for Montagne to prevent his shield from folding up during the Guard Break.

This change has several major goals, the first being consistency. It feels intuitive for Operators hiding behind a shielded ally to be protected in the same way as the Operator standing even closer to the explosion.

With that in mind, we know that this is likely to open the door to more team work and cooperation. Attackers will be able to rely on the passive protection of a shield bearer to plant on a bombsite for instance.

Indirectly, we foresee a renewed interest from Defenders to pick Operators such as Goyo, Smoke as well as the future Tachanka to counter these tactics.

However, explosions will now also trigger the Guard Break mechanism and offer a window of opportunity to damage shield bearers.

On top of that, Clash's CCE Shield is becoming a hard counter for shielded Operators as her ability will now trigger the Guard Break.

We are aware that shields are often a source of frustration, and we hope that the new guard break mechanism will improve this aspect. Our goal is also to improve teamwork and find new interesting ways to play with a shield and for the benefit of your team.

WEAPONS

TCSG12

Damage drop-off has been made more progressive to reach minimal damage at 50m (instead of 20m).
Damage at maximum range increase to 68% (from 48%).
Suppressor damage penalization normalized to -12.5% regardless the range.

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

The presence of both Kaid and Goyo is currently quite low within the Top Ranked population, we would like to tweak their shotgun to make them a bit more appealing that they have been recently.

The feedback we gathered from pro players tend to indicate that buffing long-range damage by a reasonable margin should not be concerning. With these new specifications, the TCSG12 will now be capable of downing a 2-armor operator at maximum range.

We will keep on monitoring the performance of both Defenders to see if additional adjustments are required.

ACS12

Damage drop-off has been made more progressive to reach minimal damage at 50m (instead of 20m).
Damage at maximum range increase to 68% (from 48%).
Suppressor damage penalization normalized to -12.5% regardless the range.

Population targeted by this change: Casual.

Just like the change abovementioned, and also out of consistency, now that the ACS12 is equipped with slugs, we are increasing the effectiveness of this weapon and long-range.

Given how good the MX4 Storm for Alibi and the Alda 5.56 for Maestro currently are, we don't expect this change to have a massive impact on the presence of win delta of both these Operators.

The ACS12 should now be a bit more viable and more effective at long-range for anyone willing to use it.

OPTICS

The community requested the possibility to equip any x1 optic an any weapon. From our perspective, some elements of these optics are only a matter of preference and have no direct impact on the actual performance of the Operator. However, these optics have different shapes and casings and have, to a degree, a balancing impact. The space taken by the optic on the screen can be something that can make the gun perform better.

On top of that, we want Operators to feel different and have a specific identity. Our intent is to give players a reason to choose certain Operators over others.

If you want to learn more about optics in Siege, Mathieu Lacombe was recently interviewed on the Logic Bomb podcast and provided some additional insights on this specific topic (around the one hour mark).

We also updated the full list of our weapon optics for attacker and defender to reflect the current distribution on the live build and the upcoming Y5S3.3 TS changes.

Click here to download the full assets.[ubi.li]

A few operators are not included in these assets: Kali as she only has her unique scope on the CSRX 300 and Blitz, Montagne & Clash as their only primary option is their shield.
Tachanka's new primary option, the DP27 is not included either, as it only has access to a custom reflex sight.

Try out the latest Rainbow Six updates on the Test Server and earn an exclusive charm through the BugHunterProgram[rainbow6.com].

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Y5S3.2 PATCH NOTES

Posted: 08 Oct 2020 07:30 AM PDT

Patch Y5S3.2 will go out to PC the week of October 5th. For consoles, the Y5S3.2 and Y5S3.3 updates will be bundled together and released when the 3.2 patch is ready.

BUG FIXES

GAMEPLAY

FIXED - If a deployable shield is placed in a doorway, players are sometimes blocked by the doorframe when trying to vault over it.
FIXED – Yellow Pings were not displayed in Replay Mode.
FIXED – Only the first Trax Stinger deployed could be targeted by the Smart Ping feature.
FIXED – Frost's Welcome Mats becoming invisible when Frost was killed under certain conditions.
FIXED – Spas-15 and Bearing-9 reload animations have to be entirely restarted when the reloading was interrupted.
FIXED – Missing burn/fire SFX for smaller explosions that accompany an explosion.

OPERATORS

ZERO

FIXED – Missing or incorrect interaction prompts for Zero's Piercing Camera crosshair when aiming at certain map assets/surfaces.
FIXED – When aiming through see-through + unbreakable glass, Zero's Argus Launcher does not detect an obstacle.
FIXED – Zero's Piercing Camera is not piercing through the destructible floor on the carpet in 2F Gym of Clubhouse.
FIXED – The Argus Camera activation SFX can be heard when deployed on an electrified wall.
FIXED – The Argus Camera can sometimes pierce through other gadgets on the other side of a wall.
FIXED – The Argus Camera cannot pierce through the rug in 1F Great Room.

CLASH

FIXED – When affected by a Breach Charge detonation, Clash's Shield is automatically placed on her back.
FIXED - Speed penalty does not gradually wane after being affected by Clash's CCE shield.
FIXED - Fix for an issue with weapon swapping when Clash's CCE shield is deployed.

NOMAD

FIXED - Missing fall damage for Nomad when jumping/vaulting from an elevated location (hotfixed on PC on Oct 1st).

FUZE

FIXED - Fuse SFX for Secondary Hard Breach gadget is too long.

LEVEL DESIGN

FIXED – Various LOD issues on maps.
FIXED – Various clipping issues on maps.

CHALET

FIXED – The vault prompt at the stairway railings (1F Fireplace) was inconsistent and difficult to activate on Chalet.
FIXED – Vault prompt inconsistencies in stairway railings (1F Gaming Room Hallway and 2F Library Stairs) on Chalet.
FIXED – Defenders were able to scan Attackers through trees and rocks from EXT Campfire camera on Chalet.
FIXED – Navigation issues due to rock collision in EXT Snowmobiles on Chalet.
FIXED – Drones can fall through the map at EXT Front Yard of Chalet.
FIXED – Drones can teleport into the shelf at B Storage room on Chalet by forcing collision.
FIXED - Low lighting inside the wardrobe of 2F Master Bedroom of Chalet after breaking the doors.

BORDER

FIXED – Throwable gadgets could be thrown through walls above certain windows on Border.

CLUBHOUSE

FIXED – Yellow Pings do not appear immediately when targeting TVs on Clubhouse.

COASTLINE

FIXED - Valkyrie cam can be thrown through the wall in 2F Hallway on Coastline.

USER EXPERIENCE

FIXED – Battleye ticker is now fixed. Previous banwaves carried out during the season were not visible due to a bug with the ticker.
FIXED – In map ban phase, system always bans the map on the right when there are two maps left.
FIXED – Ensuring all maps are properly randomized to show up in the map-ban phase.
FIXED - Crashes when using Vulkan (hotfixed on PC on Oct 1st)
FIXED – Various shop/cosmetic issues.
FIXED – Various HUD/UI issues.
FIXED – Reload prompt still appears even when interface preference is disabled.
FIXED – Steel Wave Champions charm is very, very pink.
FIXED – Players getting expired/older in-game notifications and pop-ups.
FIXED – Banned players could hit the "Find another Match" button, causing odd in-game messages.
FIXED – Custom color sights were not applied in Replay Mode.

TACHANKA REWORK

Posted: 08 Oct 2020 07:24 AM PDT

We announced it at the beginning of the year, and finally our very first ever Operator rework is here. Russian Defender Tachanka has proven to be a well-liked character in the community, but he came with a set of flaws we wanted to address and repair.

That's why he has traded his beloved turret to create an all-new way of moving. We have given our trusty Operator a fresh spin through a new gadget, a new primary weapon as well as a new ability in a conscious effort to transform a popular personality into a force to be reckoned with. Don't worry, Tachanka has kept his spirit, he just got brand-new toys to play with!

LEARN MORE[rainbow6.com]