Anti-Cheat can be a difficult topic to discuss, from its deeply technical nature to the necessity of keeping initiatives secret to protect against dubious folks exploiting them. Even so, it’s something we know you’re keen to better understand.

Below, we’ve put together a primer on the many facets of Anti-Cheat. We want this to stand as a reference into what we do – from the way we talk about cheaters, to statistics behind cheating on Siege, to the actions we focus on each day, all the way through to some plans we have for the future.

It’s quite long, as we want to establish a better understanding of what we do before coming to you with more regular, more focused updates on social in the coming weeks and months – this is something we can improve and we’re committing to. For the abbreviated version of this blog post, check out the thread we’ve just posted on Twitter!

Now, before we dive into a breakdown of what we do daily to combat cheaters in Siege, we wanted to share some background on the cheating ecosystem.

Blatant Cheaters
Whether they show no regard for gravity (fly, teleport) or spin out of control to get rid of their opponents, these are the obvious cheaters – the ones who have the highest visible impact on the community.

Covert Cheaters
These are the cheaters who try to pass their cheats off as their own skill. While they might not cheat all the time and are rarely obvious about it, their goal is to appear better than they really are and create noticeable disruption in the community.

Overperforming Players
Overperforming players can be cheaters, but they might also be smurf accounts playing at lower ranks, players who are highly skilled, or mouse and keyboard players on consoles. Even though all of these can create frustration in their own ways, identifying which are truly cheaters is complex and a key part of our job.

Boosted Players
These are the players who play with, or take advantage of, overperforming players or cheaters to gain faster access to higher ranks. They can easily be perceived as cheaters themselves as they have an unfair advantage against other players.

Account Stealers
While not literal hackers, this is the name we use to talk about those who steal other players’ accounts and resell them. They contribute to cheaters’ ease of access to new accounts and re-entry into the overall Siege ecosystem.

Cheat Makers
They create the cheats we see in Siege and can range from one person to a dedicated team. They are the brains behind the cheats. For them, creating cheats and profiting from them is a job. They empower others to negatively impact the game.

Cheat Resellers
They package the cheats created by cheat makers, selling cheats, and hiding already-detected cheats behind new securities. They are part of organizations that cater to cheaters and profit from the whole market.

This ecosystem exists because there is money to be made on Siege and will, unfortunately, exist for as long as they can profit from it, which is why disrupting their money flow will always be one of our primary jobs.

It’s likely no secret for anyone who actively plays multiplayer shooters, but cheaters are an unfortunate inevitability. What is it that attracts them to a game like Siege, though?

1. We are a competitive game with a solid player base. This equates to money in the eyes of cheat makers and resellers.
2. We are part of the esports scene. And with more attention on the highest level of play comes an increased market for getting players up to that level.
3. Players are always looking for an edge. As long as there’s incentive for players to perform at a high level, there will be an aftermarket to support easy enhancement.

As you can guess, this ties into one of the biggest problems with cheating – it’s widespread and an industry-wide issue. Wherever there’s money to be made, cheating will continue to exist as a prolonged, resources-based fight.

But it’s one we’re committed to fighting with and for you.

Now that we’ve talked through some of the cheating basics, we wanted to share some raw cheating data. There’s no better way to understand the scale of cheating than to see it in hard numbers. Before we go into detail with our numbers, it’s important to note that we cannot compare our numbers to other games. A one-to-one comparison isn’t possible when different games have different player bases.

What we can do is look at the context of cheating in Siege and use that as a way to talk about the future.

Total Cheating Bans

This graph groups BattlEye’s bans and our own sanctions based on data. Here are some takeaways:

• The two visible spikes from 2020 correspond with the initial phase of the pandemic back in April 2020 and the end of that school year respectively.
• On average, we ban over 10,000 players for cheating each month.
• We’ve banned over 100,000 cheaters since January 2021.

Ban numbers are only one indicator of the actual issue, but they tie into the extremely visual nature cheating, so we think it’s important to see the scale of this up-close.

We keep a close eye on new cheats and plan to focus more time and energy into threat intelligence – working with others in the space to expand our knowledge of emerging cheats so we can deal with them before they reach you in-game.

BattlEye and Data Bans

This graph gives more visibility into how sanctions are split between BattlEye and our data-based sanctions. Here are some things to note:

• About 11% of our total cheating bans are bans based on data.
• The point of data-based detections is to work in parallel with BattlEye and act as redundancy to ensure together, we catch as many cheaters as possible.
• We can see a small increase in sanctions year over year. As our detections have improved, so has our ability to catch more cheaters.

We are currently working on improving our data detection models and will continue our close collaboration with BattlEye to improve our identification of cheaters. More on this a little later.

Knowing what we do about the scale of cheating in multiplayer gaming, how do you go about dealing with this rampant issue? Below, we’ve broken out the many roles we play in this fight while also outlining the collaborative nature of Anti-Cheat as we work closely with other teams at Ubisoft.

Cheat Detection and Validations
Put simply, detection and validation are the act of identifying cheats and making sure the offending players are actually cheating. Since the cheating industry is so large and so many different types of cheats exist, a single Anti-Cheat solution is often not enough. This is where our close third-party partnership with BattlEye comes in.
They tap into a robust, ever-evolving cheating knowledge base to detect cheaters at a large scale, casting an incredibly wide net to effectively catch blatant cheaters and many covert cheaters that fit the parameters within their system. Of course, some cheats are more elusive than others. Where possible, we try help BattlEye expand their detections to account for emerging issues. We then act as a second layer of cheat security.
Using data we collect from the game and monitoring reports and conversation from the community, we’ve developed our own detection methods to catch cheaters who may not immediately be caught by BattlEye’s net. These range from data bans to the recent detections we put in place to catch idle botters – basically, we strive to catch the outliers who think they can get around the system.
This is also one of the most ever-evolving aspects of our job, so keep reading for an update on what we’ve been doing to address your feedback on data detections in Siege.

Sanction Cheaters
Once a cheater has been detected and confirmed, it comes time for sanctioning – the ol’ ban hammer. Sanctions are a significant part of what we manage each day. While most of our sanctions are triggered automatically after detection, like BattlEye bans and data bans, we also manually investigate and act on reports and issues. These investigations help us identify outliers and deal with them quickly, often while we figure out how to improve or create detections for these cases.
Take the idle botters mentioned above for example. When it was discovered that hardware could be used to circumvent our AFK detections, we had to hustle to find a solution. Our first course of action was to sanction the early offenders while we worked on an automatic detection system which came shortly after. Next, we plan on automating the sanctions for these early next year.
Like with detections, there isn’t a simple one-size-fits all solution to sanctioning cheaters, so we try to be as adaptive as possible. Over the past two years in particular, we’ve added DDOS bans, data bans, and botting bans to this roster of sanction types, and continue to work on more. We then issue ban waves and monitor for mentions of false positives to make sure we keep these detections up to date.

Protect the Game’s Code
It’s no secret that Rainbow Six Siege is a mature game that shipped 6 years ago. This means that a lot of our code is just as old.
Understanding that the code’s age, how it validates data, and the risk of updates introducing new vulnerabilities are all very real hurdles, we’ve worked hard to make our builds even more secure over time. Put simply, a more secure build is harder to develop cheats for, which slows down the progress of cheat makers and providers. Below, we’ve broken out three ways we’ve increased code-level protections for Siege to help stem the flow of cheaters:

Encryption
This is about hiding parts of our code from cheat makers – scrambling the data, if you will. We know they can crack it eventually, but we continue to add a layer of work every time we push a new game update to further slow them down.

Refactoring
Refactoring parts of our code (updating it) allows us to remove vulnerabilities, add detections, and improve the overall security of the game. These take time because of the impact refactors can have on devs who are actively working on new content that may interact with this code but continue to be something we hammer away at in the background.

Server-Side Validations
This refers to how we validate information we receive from the player’s game client. In the past, multiple player actions were validated only on their own PC. They could “tell” the game that they were supposed to “fly” and the game would allow that. Since then, we’ve added multiple validations that make cheats like this impossible to do, limiting access to this particular vulnerability.

Invest in Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence is all about knowing more. What cheats are out there? How much do they cost? How do cheaters get them and from who? It’s one thing to be able to act on what we already know, but it’s another to look to the future and anticipate what’s coming.
We know that the future of Anti-Cheat lies in data and intelligence and are allocating more resources to deal with these subjects as we look into incorporating machine learning and collaborating with others.
We’ve already kicked off a close collaboration with another company on this subject and are looking to expand. We believe that the more we know, the better we’ll become at managing and staying on top of the ever-evolving cheating ecosystem, which of course translates to stronger Anti-Cheat actions.

Deal With Live Fires
Drawing a little from each of the above topics, we work closely with the Game Operation and Community teams to ensure we’re fully aware of what the players are experiencing in Siege. When a new major cheat is reported, it gets flagged and routed through our team:

1. We start by discussing the obvious “how are they doing that?” question.
2. We check if any new update could have introduced a vulnerability or if it is something we might have missed.
3. Once we know where to look, we see how and if we can fix the issue by adding validation (your game passing a check to say “I’m not cheating”) or protections.
4. We make sure our fix or validation makes it live as fast as possible to limit disruption!

We can’t do it all when it comes to security and Anti-Cheat, and a huge amount of support comes to us from other teams within Ubisoft. We work with various teams to bring up issues that we discover, and work with them to come up with actionable solutions. Below are some key examples of this:

Legal
Our legal teams take care of everything when it comes to going after cheat creators and cheat resellers. Cease and desist letters, legal proceedings, and litigation are all part of their help. They did an amazing job on our Mizusoft case last year and are regularly shutting down different cheating providing services, including the ongoing litigation around Ring-1.io cheats!

Account Technology
Security and account creation are important subjects for Ubisoft. For that reason, we’re working at the account level to increase the overall protection afforded to our players. This comes in the form of account unicity – the ability to verify that a player is who they say they are. Basically, it’s more important than ever to be able to identify if a repeated cheater is trying to create a new account and stop them in their tracks.
We’re currently working with other teams here to add protections against this and better control the number of accounts players create to control abuse of account farming and selling. Specifically, teams are investigating verification that players will need to pass before entering competitive modes, although it’s important to note this has no defined shipping date at the moment and will be iterative, releasing across multiple updates.

Company Security
Ubisoft makes sure we get access to outside knowledge and companies that can help us in our fight, investing in threat intelligence and new technologies to help counter negative or illegal behaviors. They also ensure our Terms of Services is enforced and remains relevant and on par with what the games and company stand for, while addressing emergent bad faith actions in the gaming space.

Now that you have a framework of what we work on daily, we wanted to shed light on some future developments. As mentioned before, we can’t always go into detail on all our upcoming plans to limit cheat makers’ ability to react as quickly, but feel the following are particularly relevant to what you may be experiencing in-game:

Data Ban Detections
We’ve heard the complaints about our data detections and sanctions, and it’s something we’re actively working on. We have reviewed the reports that have come through and have been tweaking our detection model. So far, the only false positives that have been triggered stemmed from smurf accounts of players playing against less experienced players. Smurfs or not, we want players to be able to trust these detections, so we’re continuing to further improve their accuracy.
We are working with multiple teams and data scientists at Ubisoft to expand these detections and add more data to our data set. This will ensure we get even more precise scores to sanction based on. This precision will help us identify more cheaters and suspicious behaviors, while continuing to limit its effect on fair players.

Reducing the Amount of Returning Cheaters
We know how important this is to you. There’s no way to stop cheating altogether, but the faster we act, the more games we save, the less time cheaters are active. We have multiple teams working on initiatives to improve our time to detection and time to sanction. We aim to ship several different initiatives and updates over the course of the next year and while we are unable to share more about most of these right now, the one we can talk about is the work being done to add verification for players looking to enter competitive modes. We expect this to help slow the re-entry of cheaters into the Siege ecosystem and is expected to help curb the issue of smurfing (a topic for another day, as it’s not owned by our team).

Ban Automation
The more confidence we can build in our data, the more we’re able to automate our sanctions. And in the end, this means cheaters get dealt with more efficiently and spend less time in your games. We plan to start automatically sanctioning several new behaviors during the next season! While we can’t share what they are now, as it would tip of cheat makers, we plan to share an update on social once they are successfully doing their job in-game.

Bug Bounty Program
While not managed directly by our team, we’ll be contributing to Ubisoft’s upcoming Bug Bounty Program – different from the R6Fix reward program you may be aware of[rainbow6.com]. This program will offer recognition and compensation to players who report security exploits and vulnerabilities. This is crucial knowledge for developing Anti-Cheat protections, since these issues can stem from vulnerabilities in the code, and your security is integral to what we do.

In-game reporting will always be the best way to help up identify cheaters. This is the quickest way to help us flag potential cheaters. If you’re looking for the most direct route to action, this is it! Below, we’ve listed some guidelines for useful information you can provide in reports to help us identify and sanction cheaters in the quickest time possible:

• Clear video or photo proof of the incident
• The offending player’s Username and User ID
• Match ID for any relevant matches
• Date and time of the incident

Our team, focusing on all things Anti-Cheat and Player Behavior, are committed to continuing this fight against cheaters and supporting this giant industry we all love. Rest assured, we’re hard at work in the shadows, trying to make things better for you!
While this may be the end of this blog, it’s the beginning of a new commitment. Moving forward, we promise to bring you regular updates every 1.5 months on what we’re doing via our social channels. The first of these updates will be published on February 10, 2022. Interested in seeing how many cheaters we’ve banned in the last month? Want to hear about the latest sanction that’s been automated? Your trust is integral to what we do, so we want to give you more chances to better understand what it is we do and can’t wait to bring you along on the journey!

Kompletter Artikel: RAINBOW SIX SIEGE – UNDERSTANDING ANTI-CHEAT

Following the first three Community Artist Bundles created by SAU_SIEGE[rainbow6.com], Sunstark[rainbow6.com] and FrAgMenT[rainbow6.com], we are happy to present the fourth addition that will be released during Y6S4 High Calibre in collaboration with Prime Gaming.
With this program, we want to celebrate our amazingly creative and dedicated community artists and give them a chance to be represented in-game. Each chosen artist will have the opportunity to design a full set for an operator of their choice and the resulting bundles will become available during Year 6 and beyond.
It is now Pericote’s turn to present her contribution to the Community Artist Bundle: a warm and snuggly set for the operator Frost!

Pericote’s Frost Operator Bundle includes:

• Uniform
• Headgear
• 9MM C1 weapon skin
• Charm

The Pericote Operator Bundle will be available via Prime Gaming for a limited time, starting from Tuesday, December 14th.
Prime Gaming members will be able to claim this exclusive set for free. If you’re not a Prime member yet, you can sign up for a free trial.
A Renown Booster is currently available from Prime Gaming until December 27th, so don’t forget to claim this too!

Here’s how you can get these Prime Gaming offers:

• Link your Ubisoft and Amazon accounts here[primegaming.ubisoft.com].
• Redeem the respective offer through Prime Gaming here[gaming.amazon.com].
• Receive the content automatically in-game within 48 hours.

Pericote is a young artist from Chile who studied digital animation and now works as an art director. She started drawing at a very young age, inspired by her childhood cartoons such as the Power Puff Girls, Tom & Jerry, Pixar movies, and more. In 2017, she discovered Rainbow Six Siege and fell in love with its characters, leading her to create Siege based artwork.
While playing Siege, she often found herself in funny situations, and so in 2018 she started to share these moments on social media through small comics. Pericote didn’t expect her comics to be so popular, but she was delighted to see the Siege community show love and appreciation for them. While her popularity was growing, she had the opportunity to draw Kaid before the Operator was announced and also worked on the Siege Fifth Anniversary vinyl record in collaboration with other community artists.
Frost being one of Pericote’s favorite operators, she wanted to create a bundle specifically for her. Her nickname, “Pericote”, means “rat” in her country and this is the reason why she added some rat-like features such as the whiskers on the mask. She also included cute and funny elements inspired by her comics, such as the Pericote weapon charm – really, it’s too cute.
Go check out Pericote on Twitter and Instagram[www.instagram.com] to see more of her awesome artwork and funny comics!

What is the Community Artist Bundle Program?
The Community Artist Bundle Program launched in Y6S1 and it brings operator bundles created by some of our most talented and dedicated Siege fan artists into the game.

I’m a Siege fan artist too – what can I do to get selected as well?
Given the length of our production cycle for in-game content, the fan artists for Year 6 have already been determined. However, we are always on the lookout for future participants. If your goal is to see your bundle in-game, continue showing us your passion and strive to be an outstanding member of the Siege community. We have multiple ways for our dedicated community artists to get more involved with the game, such as the Siege Champions Program[rainbow6.com].

How can I get the Y6S4 PericoteOperator bundle?
Link your Ubisoft account with your Amazon account here [primegaming.ubisoft.com]and claim the Operator set through Prime Gaming[gaming.amazon.com] starting from December 14th. After successfully redeeming the content, it will be available in your in-game inventory within 48 hours. Players must have Hibana available as an operator.

Can I buy the Pericote Operator Bundle with Renown or R6 Credits as well?
The Pericote Operator Bundle is exclusive to Prime Gaming for a limited time only and can be obtained via the Prime Gaming offer as described above. Prime Gaming is included for free with Amazon Prime, and free trials are available for new users.

Will this offer be available on all platforms?
Yes, it can be redeemed on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Amazon Luna, and Google Stadia.

How long will this offer be available?
Following its release on December 14th, you have one month to claim this offer via Prime Gaming.

I don’t see my rewards.
If you’re having trouble redeeming your Pericote Operator Bundle, please contact our support[support.ubisoft.com].

For more information about Prime Gaming, visit the Prime Gaming FAQ[www.amazongames.com].

Kompletter Artikel: COMMUNITY ARTIST BUNDLE PROGRAM Y6S4: PERICOTE

Different people come to the Test Server for different reasons. While some want to try out new operators ahead of their release, we know that some of you want to try out features that are still in development. You want to help shape the future of Siege and provide meaningful feedback. You came to the right place.

The Lab Test Server is the latest addition to Siege’s seasonal roadmap and will offer up opportunities to try out features that we’re still working on and get a sneak peek at things that are early in development. Sometimes, these features will still be months or seasons away from release and sometimes, these features will be experimental features we want to put through their paces with the community before deciding whether they’d be a good fit for the Live servers. Basically, it’s a place for you to get an even earlier look at what you can expect from Siege in the future.

Before we dive into the two features we’re testing this season, do you have a hankering for more info about all the updates, changes and content that are new to High Calibre? Check out the seasonal patch notes here[rainbow6.com] and the Designer’s Notes here[rainbow6.com]. Ready? Let’s go!

It’s no secret that the Siege community’s been asking for a Team Deathmatch mode, and we’re happy to say it’s not far off. Say hello to the Warm-Up playlist and it’s new, permanent, Team Deathmatch game mode. In it, you’ll face off in fast-paced 5v5 Team Deathmatch-style matches featuring infinite respawns and a single 5-minute round (or until one team reaches the score limit).

Regardless of which side you’re assigned to, you’ll be able to pick almost any of your owned operators, with the exceptions being dedicated shield operators: Blitz, Montagne, and Clash. The reason for this is because operators won’t have access to their abilities or main gadgets in Team Deathmatch – this includes shields. On the topic of operators with gadgets attached to their primary weapons, they will keep their primary weapons, but lose that gadget with the sole exception of Glaz who will keep his scope. This goes for any operators who have weapons that would normally have launcher attachments as the focus here will be on honing your gunplay. To spice things up, though, you’ll also be able to bring one secondary gadget (frag, flash, or impact grenades) per life.

Not happy with your chosen operator and loadout? No problem! You’ll be able to switch mid-match any time you’re fragged, letting you quickly and easily test different combinations of attachments or weapons.

We’ve selected three different maps to kick things off on the Warm-Up playlist: Favela, Villa, and Theme Park. Of course, just like our other playlists, we’ll be introducing different maps in the future.

On top of the basics, we know you likely have some questions, so we wanted to answer some of the things that are likely on your mind:

Why did you choose Team Deathmatch instead of Free For All?

We explored the option of a Free For All game mode, but found it would require significantly more dev time and would delay the release of a warm-up-focused game mode. The reason for this ties into the core of Siege – it was built around two opposing teams facing off against each other, so while altering this "two team" DNA is possible, it’s something that requires time, as it touches upon more than just this mode.

This is part of the reason we decided to go for a Team Deathmatch mode – we wanted to make sure we prioritized getting something meaningful into your hands sooner. Of course, after testing it, we realized that TDM could still provide the fast-paced, action-packed vibe we were looking for.

Most importantly, though, the possibility of adding FFA in the future is not lost. The work and effort that was put into this TDM game mode opens the door to a lot of other possible game modes and events, so while we’re not sitting here today saying more game modes are coming, the groundwork is there and we’re looking at potential options. For the time being, we want to focus on iterating on TDM so that we can make sure it’s a solid permanent game mode before considering work on another mode.

Why can’t I use comms to chat with my team or the other team?

From the beginning, we’ve seen Warm-Up as a more relaxed way of enjoying Siege. It’s a place where players can unwind or get themselves into the zone before hopping into other playlists. Since Team Deathmatch has a run and gun style of gameplay with no team-based objectives aside from frags, we felt that having comms available left a door open for potential toxicity. For that reason, we made the decision to remove comms in order to keep the mode focused as a friction-free and low-stress way to relax and get a handle on Siege’s gunplay – either for the first time in your life or the first time in your night.

Why did you choose these three maps? Why not add a new map just for this mode?

We wanted to offer up a mix of different scenarios with the first iteration of Warm-Up and Team Deathmatch, so we decided on starting with a small map (Favela), a medium-sized map (Theme Park), and a large map (Villa). This way, you can prepare yourself for actual encounters you’ll face in other playlists. This is also the reason we decided to focus on existing maps – as a mode focused on helping players warm up before hopping into other playlists, we want that gameplay experience to be as directly transferable as possible, especially for newer players learning the ropes. As we’ve already mentioned, though, we plan to add more maps to this playlist over time, so keep an eye out!

Why did you include grenades in loadouts but not C4 and claymores?

The more we played Warm-Up’s Team Deathmatch, the more we wanted a little something extra to add some more strategic complexity. We found grenades fit the pace of the mode during testing and kept camping to a minimum, but we’d love to hear from you if there are specific gadgets you’d like to see.

What about shields?

As a game mode focused on gunplay, we felt that shields weren’t a great fit. Shields absolutely do factor into regular Siege gunfights and are important to the flow of matches there, but since this mode is specifically intended to help players warm up with guns, we felt they weren’t as strong a fit here.

We found that they tended to slow the action down, which didn’t fit with the general mood of the mode. We also wanted to limit the number of exceptions made when it comes to operator abilities since that’s where shields fit into the loadout system.  

We’re incredibly happy with where the Warm-Up Playlist is at quality-wise and feel it’s just about ready for a wide release.

We’ll be tracking your feedback throughout the Lab Test Server period to see if there’s anything we can tweak to further improve this mode, and expect to provide more info on the release date close to the Six Invitational 2022. That’s not far off!

First and foremost, you’ll notice a survey link on the Lab Test Server. If you have feedback that you’d like to share with us, this is the best place to submit it! Outside of wanting to hear your general thoughts, we also have some more specific questions we’re interested in hearing your thoughts on as you put in time with this new mode:

• Does the Warm-Up Playlist feel like something you will use to warm up?
• Does the vibe of the mode feel relaxed or competitive?
• How do you feel about the initial group of maps?
• Do you think it’s easy enough to distinguish between opponents and teammates?
• Does the operator repick flow feel easy to use?

It’s no surprise that Defenders already have quite a large advantage in many situations in Siege, thanks to their control over the objective and ability to build a team that’s tailored to that specific situation. There’s a lot left up to guesswork for Attackers and we want to even that playing field a little with the Attacker Repick feature.

With this, Attackers will be able to – as it says on the tin – repick their operator, loadout and spawn location as many times as they like during the Prep Phase. Since time is of the essence during Prep, we’ve improved the team header to show more info at a glance, making it clear to your team exactly what operators, loadouts and spawn locations have been selected. This should make it easier to make strategic calls on the fly based on your intel.

Coming to all playlists once it officially launches on the Live servers, our intention with Attacker Repick is to make sure the Prep Phase is equally engaging and meaningful to both sides. Sure, Defenders typically get to set the groundwork of a given round’s strategy, but we want to encourage a similar level of creative expression among Attackers. If you decide to risk your drones to identify the enemy team’s operator picks, you should be able to do something meaningful with that intel. We’re also interested to see how this affects "jack-of-all-trades" operators, as we expect this new feature to open the door to more specialized operators who previously weren’t considered worth the risk without clear intel.

Our intention with this feature is to ensure it’s easy to grasp, comfortable to use, and allows teams to be more dynamic with evolving their strategies. Of course, we know balance is a huge concern when it comes to Attacker Repick, so we’ll be looking to your feedback to gauge how it’s going. In particular, we’re interested to hear how feel about the added time management pressure this will bring to the Prep Phase. On paper, being able to counter Defenders may seem powerful, but considering the limited time available, necessity of intel and inherent team synergy required, effective use of Attacker Repick will require strong communication.

We also wanted to address a change that will affect the Pro League. With the introduction of Attacker Repick, we will be removing 6th Pick and the Reveal Phase. It also didn’t make sense to make 6th Pick exclusive to Defenders, as we feel there are still plenty of advantages to setting the pace and strategic landscape of a round that make up for this slight reduction in pre-match intel. Not only this, but revealing Attackers ahead of the Prep Phase when they have the ability to completely change their lineup would not be a reliable source of intel.

If there’s one advantage to viewers and players alike that we feel will come out of this removal, it’s the streamlining of match flow. Now, you should encounter less downtime between rounds and as mentioned above, encourage a wider array of operators in play – especially on the Attacker side.

Similar to the Warm-Up Playlist, we think Attacker Repick is in a great place and feel it’s just about ready for the big leagues. Currently, we’re considering a Y7S1 release for this feature. Once we’ve had time to dig into your feedback, we’ll make the official call, but would expect it to come quite soon.

As with above, look out for a survey in the Lab Test Server menus, as this is the best place to share your feedback with us. We feel this should cover the most important bases – specifically your feelings about balance – so don’t hesitate to let us know how you feel once you’ve had a chance to try it out.

—

Available from today until December 14, try out these upcoming features out on the Lab Test Server and let us know what you think! Have questions about how the Test Server works? Check out the Test Server FAQ here[rainbow6.com]. If you run into any bugs or issues, don’t hesitate to report them on the new and improved R6Fix 2.0.

On top of that, follow us and share your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook[www.facebook.com] and on our forums[discussions.ubisoft.com].

[rainbow6.com]

Kompletter Artikel: Y6S4 – WHAT'S NEW ON THE LAB TEST SERVER

You can find here the updates and fixes made over the course of the Y6S4 Test Server. For the full High Calibre Patch Notes, follow the link below.
High Calibre Season Patch Notes: https://rainbow6.com/highcalibre

Find the download sizes for each platform below.

• Ubisoft Connect: 5.36 GB
• Steam: 4.8 GB
• Xbox One: 4.08 GB
• Xbox Series X: 4.31 GB
• PS4: 4.38 GB
• PS5: 4.10 GB

HUD Rework

• Decreased the compass size.
• Automatically dim the Action Reminder opacity while in ADS.
• Added an opacity slider for Action Reminders in the HUD Options menu.
• Added the option to choose an Advanced or Simplified compass in the HUD Options menu.

FIXED – Total ammo count is incorrect on some weapons.
FIXED – Movement speed while using ADS upside down is faster than right side up during Rappel.
FIXED – Changing sensitivity mid-game removes the ability to look in any direction while in ADS.
FIXED – Assist is not counted for the player that injures an opponent if a teammate puts the opponent in DBNO and then eliminates them.
FIXED – Barbed wire can be destroyed by allies when friendly fire is off.
FIXED – Muffled sound on some weapons.
FIXED – Some device recharging cooldowns don’t get paused while in DSEG.
FIXED – Reinforcement hinges are invisible from one side and block bullets.
FIXED – Some gadgets don’t break the glass window when deployed on a barricade.
FIXED – Threat indicator doesn’t appear for a grenade dropped by an eliminated Operator.
FIXED – Servers prioritize putting players with a fast connection on the Attacker side during lobby creation. Attacker and Defender sides will now be chosen at random.
FIXED – In the Planning Phase, selecting Confirm Loadout with a controller also picks up the defuser or drops it.
FIXED – Grenade indicator color can be inconsistent with the level of threat.
FIXED – Crosshairs of the Bulletproof Camera are not visible for teammates and spectators.
FIXED – Electric damage won’t reactivate for a device disabled by an EMP if another electric device is deployed and picked up during the EMP duration.
FIXED – Player’s camera goes out-of-world after being eliminated when no drone is available.
FIXED – Laser sight remains visible while in ADS.
FIXED – Barbed wire destroys Defenders’ secondary gadgets when it’s deployed on top of them.
FIXED – The same controller input is used for dropping the defuser and switching ability mode.

FIXED – Multiple LOD and LOS issues on various maps.
FIXED – Defuser planting and retrieval issues in specific areas on various maps.
FIXED – Exploitable gaps on various maps.
FIXED – Multiple clipping, collision, destruction, and asset issues on various maps.

BANK
FIXED – Attacker can instantly teleport down from the roof by dropping to the lower ledge and entering Rappel.

CLUBHOUSE
FIXED – Valkyrie’s Black Eye cameras lose signal at B Central Stairs.
HOUSE
FIXED – Hatch gets destroyed when certain gadgets are deployed on top of it in 1F Dining Room.

KAFE DOSTOYEVSKY
FIXED – Incorrect Bombsite shown when a defuser is planted in 3F Bar and 3F Cocktail.

OUTBACK
FIXED – Bulletproof Camera can be deployed inside of an indestructible wall at EXT Terrace Balcony.
FIXED – AI will remain stuck after spawning under the BBQ at 2F Covered Terrace in Training Grounds.
FIXED – Stairs sign is still present in 1F Reptile Hallway even though the stairs were removed.
FIXED – Player is unable to place deployable devices on the south wall of 1F Bike Repair.

SKYSCRAPER
FIXED – An Attacker can pass through the red banner when they rappel from EXT Shrine Balcony while carrying the hostage.

FIXED – Various animation issues.

ARUNI
FIXED – Players can throw devices through the gap between a Surya Gate and the ceiling.

ASH
FIXED – Ash’s R4-C assault rifle total ammo count is incorrect.

ELA
FIXED – Ela’s deployed Grzmot Mines appear in their undeployed state for a player that joins a match in progress.

FUZE
FIXED – The Cluster Charge needs a larger space to deploy than intended. The reinforcement spikes and hole edges block its deployment.

GOYO
FIXED – Goyo’s Volcán Shield canister shells remain present after being destroyed for a player that joins a match in progress.

IQ
FIXED – Ping marker doesn’t appear when IQ aims at the edge of asset if it’s behind an obstacle.

JACKAL
FIXED – Some inputs are no longer registered when Jackal activates Eyenox at the edge of Mute’s Signal Disruptor.

KALI
FIXED – LV Explosive Lance damage activates Reverse Friendly Fire when it eliminates a teammate.

LESION
FIXED – Lesion’s Gu mine maximum limit is displayed as 99.

MAESTRO
FIXED – The window of Maestro’s Evil Eye closes fully when disabled by Thatcher’s EMP.
FIXED – The Action Reminder of Maestro’s Evil Eye appears and flickers when the camera loses signal while overheating.
FIXED – The window of Maestro’s Evil Eye doesn’t close automatically after losing signal while outside the building.

MOZZIE
FIXED – Mozzie is disabled due to crashes that occur when he eliminates a player or himself.
MUTE
FIXED – Mute’s Signal Disruptor area of effect is visible in Support Mode for Attackers and Defenders.
FIXED – Mute’s Signal Disruptor triggers multiple scores for the same gadget.

OSA
FIXED – Players are affected by Melusi’s Banshee while hiding behind the Talon-8 Shield.

PULSE
FIXED – Pulse’s Cardiac Sensor does not appear on screen after a player joins a match in progress.

THORN
FIXED – Thorn’s Razorbloom deployment effect produces cement particles regardless of the surface material.
FIXED – Multiple animation and audio issues for Thorn.
FIXED – Blades discharged from Thorn’s Razorbloom Shell stick to the lens of a Bulletproof Camera.
FIXED – Thorn’s Razorbloom Shells clip through one another when deployed too close together.

THUNDERBIRD
FIXED – Thunderbird can peek behind cover without opponents seeing her when she deploys a Kona Station.

VALKYRIE
FIXED – Valkyrie’s Black Eye camera can’t be picked up if it’s thrown under tight spaces.
FIXED – The gyroscope of Valkyrie’s Black Eye moves while the camera is in the process of connecting.
FIXED – Valkyrie’s Black Eye camera appears as disabled when a player joins a match in progress.

YING
FIXED – Ying’s Candela model briefly reappears a few seconds after being destroyed.
FIXED – Ying can deploy Candelas into a surface while in prone stance.

ZERO
FIXED – Zero’s smart ping is misplaced and offset when an Argus camera is placed on the ceiling.
FIXED – Laser dots appear over the sight when aiming at the sky with Zero’s Argus Launcher.
FIXED – Zero’s Argus camera appears as disabled when a player joins a match in progress.

FIXED – Compass options in the HUD section can be changed when the compass is turned off.
FIXED – Various UI issues.
FIXED – Various Match Replay issues.
FIXED – Various localization issues.
FIXED – Various audio, SFX and VFX issues.
FIXED – Various customization and Shop issues.
FIXED – Custom Playlists present some inconsistencies between cross-platform for PC and Stadia.
FIXED – Saved Customization can be reset after a patch.
FIXED – Players may encounter a crash when exiting the Loadout section of an Operator’s menu.
FIXED – Backing out of the Pack Manager without opening a pack and then creating a Custom match will cause an infinite, blue loading screen after the Pick Phase.
FIXED – Alpha Packs cannot be opened using the Enter button on keyboard or X/A button on controllers.
FIXED – The game crashes after filling a text chat box with specific characters and sending the message.
FIXED – Inputs aren’t displayed for the Action Reminders.
FIXED – Occasionally a squad member will not be able to hear anyone in a session on Stadia.
FIXED – Xbox players can lose all in-game audio and then crash.

Kompletter Artikel: Y6S4 High Calibre Patch Notes Addendum

Each season will bring the release of new charms, as well as a return of the streamer’s charms from previous seasons!

{LINK REMOVED}Thaqil

{LINK REMOVED}Patife

{LINK REMOVED}Lusorkoeffizient

{LINK REMOVED}Galadriex

{LINK REMOVED}Ad9m {LINK REMOVED}Alfredoplays {LINK REMOVED}AnneMunition {LINK REMOVED}Beaulo {LINK REMOVED}Bighead {LINK REMOVED}BikiniBodhi {LINK REMOVED}Bnans {LINK REMOVED}Braction6 {LINK REMOVED}Drid {LINK REMOVED}Gabbo IceyCat25 {LINK REMOVED}Interro {LINK REMOVED}JerichoFive {LINK REMOVED}JessGOAT {LINK REMOVED}Jinu6734 {LINK REMOVED}Just9n {LINK REMOVED}Kalera {LINK REMOVED}KingGeorge {LINK REMOVED}KittyR6 {LINK REMOVED}Kixstar {LINK REMOVED}LagonisR6 {LINK REMOVED}Lil_Lexi {LINK REMOVED}Lt Custard {LINK REMOVED}MacieJay {LINK REMOVED}Matimi0 {LINK REMOVED}MrBboy45 {LINK REMOVED}Narcoleptic Nugget {LINK REMOVED}PaladinAmber {LINK REMOVED}Pengu {LINK REMOVED}Punjistick {LINK REMOVED}REMGURI / 렘쨩 {LINK REMOVED}Rubsarb {LINK REMOVED}Salty Academy {LINK REMOVED}SexyCake {LINK REMOVED}Shorty {LINK REMOVED}SilphTV {LINK REMOVED}TangyD {LINK REMOVED}Tatted {LINK REMOVED}THE_M3RY {LINK REMOVED}Tranth {LINK REMOVED}Varsity {LINK REMOVED}WhiteShark67 {LINK REMOVED}z1ronic {LINK REMOVED}Zander {LINK REMOVED}Zigueira {LINK REMOVED}yo_boy_roy {LINK REMOVED}Mag6 {LINK REMOVED}CCSesports {LINK REMOVED}RazaH {LINK REMOVED}Heideltraut {LINK REMOVED}Nesk

These charms are only available by subscribing to the respective streamer’s Twitch channel with a linked Uplay account. For more information on how to link your Uplay and Twitch account, as well as opt in for Twitch Drops, please refer to {LINK REMOVED}this FAQ.

We are always on the lookout for additional content creators to add to the program and will be exploring new candidates in 2022. If your goal is to see your charm in game, we use the following criteria to begin the selection process for potential candidates:

Requirements to be considered

Approximately 350+ concurrent viewers – preferable.
Average of 10 Rainbow Six streams per month.
Average of 20 hours of Rainbow Six streamed per month.
Positive standing with Ubisoft/Rainbow Six Siege.
High quality level of content.
Twitch Partnered.
Rainbow Six Siege reserves the right for final decision.

Consideration for Removal

Less than 10 Rainbow Six Siege main streams over 3 months.
Level of quality dropping below an acceptable level.
Standing with Rainbow Six Siege/Ubisoft compromised.
Any actions that may negatively affect the R6S/Ubisoft brand.
Loss of Twitch Partnership.
Rainbow Six Siege reserves the right for removal of any charms.

Kompletter Artikel: NEW RAINBOW SIX SIEGE STREAMER CHARMS FOR Y6S4!

Over the years, we have changed how our Development Team approaches Seasonal content, as well as intermediary patches. Below you will find answers to some frequently asked questions regarding the Test Server.

Yes. You will need to own Rainbow Six Siege on PC. This includes players that have purchased the Starter edition.
Once you own Rainbow Six Siege on PC, downloading, accessing, and playing on the Test Server has no additional cost.

PC only. The Test Server is available through the Ubisoft Connect PC client.

Typically, we use unique game builds on the Test Server, so it is possible that players will need to download the entire Test Server client.

The Test Server will appear in your Ubisoft Connect library. Once it appears as “available”, you will be able to begin the download. Please note that pre-loading is not typically available for the Test Server.

Please note that the Test Server will only be present in the Ubisoft Connect library when the Test Server is active.

Yes. You will be able to have both clients installed on the same computer. Please note that configuration changes made on the Test Server will not carry over to the live client, and vice versa.

Yes. People that own Rainbow Six Siege on Steam will be able to participate in Test Server phases through their connected Ubisoft account. Please note that players must download and launch the Test Server through the Ubisoft Connect PC client.

Please report bugs/glitches that you find on the Test Server module on R6Fix[r6fix.ubi.com].

We are going to limit the available number of slots on our servers for the Test Server. Players will see an “Ubisoft services are unavailable” error message when the servers are at capacity. This will help us limit the impact the Test Server has on the live servers.
Please do not take time off work/class to participate in the Test Server phases.

No.

Content will not transfer from the live servers to the Test Server. Similarly, any Test Server related account progression, or items acquired, will not transfer back to the live servers when the Test Server ends.

The goal of the Test Server is to offer various facets of the game for testing and we know that different players come to the Test Server for different reasons. The Season Test Server will contain, as you can guess, content for the upcoming season, new operators, gadgets, weapons, etc.
Following the launch of the new season, the Lab Test Server will open to provide an early glimpse (and hands-on testing) with upcoming features. This early testing is particularly impactful and may result in changes to the features based directly off your feedback. The Lab Test Server may not take place every season, but we hope to utilize it as much as possible.
Lastly as the season comes to a close, we will shift into the Balancing Test Server for a focus on any balance, gameplay, or bug fixes for the next patch as we move towards the season reveal.

The length of each Test Server can vary and is partially dependent on the content being tested. As a general schedule:

• The Season Test Server will be open for approx. 3 weeks
• The Lab Test Server will be open for approx. 1 week
• The Balancing Test Server will be open for approx. 1 week

Kompletter Artikel: Test Server FAQ

Rainbow Six Siege introduces the fourth season of Year 6, High Calibre! Our newest Operator, Thorn, joins Rainbow as a Technical Weapons Expert from Ireland’s Emergency Response Unit. Never one to back down from a challenge, her strength and leadership set a new course for Rainbow. Her Razorbloom Shell proximity grenade is as sharp as her temper.

This season we’ve integrated some select updates including Team Colors, a Bulletproof Camera Rework and changes on the Test Server. We’re bringing balance to Finka, Drone Counters, Elite 2.0, and more! Read the Patch Notes below for full details.

View Patch Notes[rainbow6.com]

Kompletter Artikel: High Calibre

In this latest edition of Designer’s Notes, we’ll go into more detail about the balancing and major gameplay changes that’ll come with High Calibre and give you an insight into the reasons behind these changes.

For more information on all the updates, changes and content that you can expect from High Calibre, check out the [seasonal patch notes here] (https://rainbow6.com/highcalibre)

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.

• Bulletproof Cameras can now rotate.
• Added EMP burst shot that disables Attackers’ electronic gadgets (i.e. drones, claymore, Airjab, etc.).
  • The first player in the camera can use the ability to shoot. Unlike operators’ abilities, there is no notion of ownership.

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

While the Bulletproof Camera offers a good amount of intel utility thanks to doing what it says on the tin, its pick rate is still far below where we’d like it to be. Building upon the recent [Shattered Glass rework] (https://www.ubisoft.com/en-ca/game/rainbow-six/siege/news-updates/76KxHcLFOo2PdhSS4t1HmZ/y6s2-preseason-designers-notes) which changed how the Bulletproof Camera reacts to melee hits, we took it back to the drawing board to give it some added features.

In addition to making it a more versatile pick thanks to its ability to rotate and fire an EMP burst, we feel this will make it more interesting to run and a more "active" tool in players’ loadouts. Now, Defenders will have more options for effectively disabling Attacker gadgets outside of Mute, which should enable new strategies. The decision to allow anyone on the team to control and shoot the EMP is also intended to make this secondary gadget into a shared resource that can benefit the whole team.

It’s important to note, though, that once the glass on a Bulletproof Camera has been shattered, it will be unable to shoot EMP bursts.

• Added on-screen counter for Defenders that tallies number of regular drones destroyed by Defenders or captured by Mozzie during the round.
• The following actions do not count towards the Drone Counter:
  • Defenders destroy a special drone (i.e. Twitch, Flores)
  • Attackers destroy a drone
  • A drone is disabled

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

Back when we tested Gameplay After Death, we noticed that many Defenders felt overwhelmed towards the end of matches when faced with multiple drones seeking them out. This feeling isn’t exclusive to that feature, though, so we used this as an opportunity to make a quality of life change.

Say hello to the Drone Counter: an on-screen counter for Defenders that helps track the number of drones they’ve destroyed. Put simply, we want to make it easier for Defenders to track this information and make educated decisions about how much intel their opponents may have left. Not only that, but we feel having this information more readily available helps to emphasize the importance of tracking and eliminating Attacker intel and drones. We also feel this will benefit solo players and those still learning the ropes, as it adds another layer of non-verbal communication to teams.

Arguably the most important note here is that this is not intended to reveal any extra intel to Defenders – it’s simply meant to streamline the mental counting that was already occurring in many cases. In addition to the special cases listed above that aren’t tracked by the counter, it’s also important to remember that this won’t affect or decrease the total number of drones owned by Attackers. They will retain all the same intel capabilities they previously had, while reducing some of the mental strain Defenders had to contend with.

• Teams are now referred to in-game as "Your Team" and "Opponents" instead of Blue Team and Orange Team.
• Default team colors changed to blue (Your Team) and red (Opponents).
  • Team colors can be changed between blue, red, or orange.

We want to make Siege as comfortable of an experience as possible, so sometimes that means tweaking long-standing aspects of the game. Enter team colors. Moving forward, we will be streamlining how color is used to differentiate each team. Now, instead of players being part of the blue or orange team, players will always see themselves represented by one color (blue with the default settings) and their opponents by another (red by default).

Some colors are simply easier to see than others, so while we will be setting a new default for team colors, we want to ensure players have the option to change how this is presented to them personally to match their own experience. We will be launching this change with three available colors (blue, orange, red), but we are working on making a wider spectrum of options available, all while ensuring that they are presented equally in-game with regards to brightness, intensity, and distance.

This is a topic that we will be continuing to build upon, expanding how colors are presented in-game to better convey crucial info to players in the heat of a match, while fortifying gadget clarity. From recolored C4 to Claymore lasers, stay tuned for more information in the coming seasons!

As many of you have already noticed, we’re approaching the end of the year and there’s a certain Operator rework that’s still conspicuously absent. We hate to make you wait a little bit longer, but Goyo’s rework still needs some more time. Originally announced during the Year 6 reveal, our team had – and still has – plans for Goyo, but as the year has progressed, other Operators have shifted and changed, and we discovered that the change we have in mind requires us to completely redo his animations, it has taken more time than originally anticipated.

We know this is something a lot of you are waiting for and it’s still in the works on our end, so we just ask for a little more time to make sure we release a rework all you past, present and future Goyo mains can be happy about!

• Can now activate Adrenal Surge while in DBNO.
• Removed Recoil Boost granted by Adrenal Surge.
• Increased cooldown to 20s (from 10s).

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

Finka’s presence continues to be lower than we’d like. To help further define Finka’s gameplay identity, increase her utility, and make her more than just a decentralized healer, we’ve tweaked the way her Adrenal Surge functions.

A healer is only truly effective when they’re in the game, so we gave Finka a boost to her survivability. Whereas she used to only be able to raise others from a DBNO state when activating her Surge, she can now raise herself as well. This should help to ensure Finka stays in matches longer and brings longer-term healing value to her squad, reviving more players in the process. Why the increase in cooldown, you might ask? Ever since the change from over-heal to actual heal, it’s become clear that her healing capacity is high and quick, managing to heal 60hp in 30 seconds for every Attacker. Combined with a self-revive, we felt this would be tuned too high and had to be tempered in some way.

We’ve also heard the feedback from our pro scene that Adrenal Surge’s recoil burst is often more of a hindrance than a benefit since it alters the recoil patterns you’ve learnt, throwing off muscle memory. We’ve made the decision to remove this effect. While we understand this will be a small nerf for players who have not developed this same muscle memory, the added benefits coming to Finka with this update should more than offset this.

• Cameras thrown outside will lose connection after 10 seconds of activity.
  • This change also applies to Bulletproof Cameras and Maestro’s Evil Eye.
• Cameras are accessible while in the air, but video feed does not begin until they attach to a surface.
  • This change also applies to Zero’s ARGUS cameras.

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

On the opposite side of Finka, Valk has a very high presence and ban rate on the Balancing Matrix. Not only is she like kyptonite to new players who spend too much time planning their attack while outside in certain maps, but many experienced players have voiced frustration at the overwhelming intel value her cameras bring when deployed outside at the beginning of a match. To address this, we’ve changed the way cameras function while outside of buildings.

Now, Valkyrie and other Defenders’ cameras will lose connection shortly after being placed outside of buildings. With this change, they will not activate until they are placed on a surface, but once active, will only have signal for 10 seconds. This is intended to limit the oppressive nature of outside cameras – especially in the case of Valk – in the beginning moments of each round. While her cameras are still expected to bring a great amount of value inside buildings, this should help to limit the exceptional utility they previously offered, giving Attackers a chance to compose themselves and aligning the expectations of how she functions with that of the other Defenders (i.e. within the building that must be defended).

We know this change to outside cameras is a big one, so while we feel 10 seconds is fair, we’re going to be keeping a close eye on how it performs on the Test Server. We’re open to making adjustments in time for Y6S4’s launch, so get out there, give this a try, and let us know what you think!

• Increased drones’ time outside the building to 10s (from 3s).

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

To go along with the above change to Valkyrie and the use of Defender cameras outside, we also wanted to make sure the impact on their resident drone experts is consistent with it. While we’re limiting the passive monitoring of outside spaces through cameras, there will now be more opportunities for active droning outside of buildings with a change that’ll affect Echo and Mozzie.

Now, instead of being limited to 3 seconds of droning outside of the main building, they’ll have 10 seconds to gain as much intel as they can. This is expected to shift focus to a slightly more active beginning-of-round flow for Defenders while also giving these two operators more early-round utility. It will also help to establish a continuity between camera-using gadgets that are used outside by Defenders.

• Evil Eye cameras can be rotated by teammates if Maestro is not actively using the camera.
  • If hacked, Dokkaebi and Attackers will also have access to camera rotation.

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

Adding to the other camera changes – specifically around camera rotation – included in this update, we also wanted to provide some clarity on how this will affect Maestro. While he was previously able to rotate his Evil Eyes himself, his teammates will also be able to rotate them, provided he is not actively on cams. This is intended to bring them up to speed with the rotation rules of other camera gadgets like with Echo, Zero and Valkyrie. It’s also important to note that if Maestro is eliminated in a round, he will still be able to rotate his Evil Eyes, but will be unable to shoot with them.

We want to make sure when a player deploys an Operator camera, there’s a general consistency to how they function, so that meant removing one of the exceptions that limited Maestro’s Evil Eyes.

• The increase to ADS speed provided by the Angled Grip is now 20% less than it was before.

Population targeted by this change: Top Ranked and Pros.

Before we get into the description, we want to acknowledge that we know this isn’t going to be a popular change. We all love the angled grip, but that’s part of the problem – it’s so effective that it has become an essential attachment in just about every case. We know that by changing this, it will have an effect that’s felt throughout the game, so we ask you to please jump on the Test Server, give it a try, and then come to us with your thoughts. In theory, it’s a big change – we know that – but we truly want to understand how you feel with it in practice. This is something we can and do plan to continue tweaking, so we’re extremely open to hearing your thoughts, as always.

With this change, equipped weapons will take slightly more time to transition from hip fire to ADS than they previously did. We still feel that the benefit it brings is strong, but not so strong that it instantly trumps all other attachment options. Our intention with this change is to encourage a greater degree of experimentation with weapon loadouts, reducing the angled grip’s pick rate from its current place atop the roster.

As mentioned above, this isn’t the end of what we have planned for attachment tweaks. We are working on ways to change the game HUD to better and more clearly display key values of weapons, like the ADS time. Once this has been implemented, we then plan to work on balancing those values (including ADS) on a per weapon basis – not just by weapon classes – to further build out the unique identity of each weapon. This is a change planned for quite a ways in the future, but we wanted to make sure we shared our long-term plans here to give you a snapshot of how this will continue to evolve.

Reduced lateral recoil on:

• Jager – 416-C
• Ash – RC4
• Vigil – K1A
• Zofia – M762
• Ace – AK-12
• Warden, Dokkaebi, Vigil – SMG-12
• Mozzie, Aruni – P-10 Roni
• Alibi – Mx-4 Storm

Population targeted by this change: Casual and Top Ranked.

Please note that recoil simulations shown are representative of recoil on console without attachments.

We’re going to keep this one nice and simple. We know that certain weapons are difficult to handle on console with a controller- specifically with some of our recent recoil changes. In particular, strong lateral recoil can be much more difficult to adjust for when compared against a mouse. For that reason, we wanted to rethink some of the weapons which have received recoil increases in recent seasons and give them a pass that makes their recoil more manageable for controller users.

We’ve included before and after images above to showcase how these changes will affect these weapons and look forward to hearing your thoughts once you get your hands on them.

—

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

Follow us and share your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook[www.facebook.com] and on our forums[forums.ubi.com].

[rainbow6.com]

Kompletter Artikel: Y6S4 PRE-SEASON DESIGNER'S NOTES

In August 2021, we released an article outlining the top issues and community concerns[rainbow6.com] among the Rainbow Six Siege community in which we informed our intention to provide a complete solution to protect our content creators. In this update, we will provide insight on what we will soon be doing for the protection and privacy of _all_ our players, including our streamers.

The protection of our entire player community is important and key for our game. In addition to the importance of this subject for our content creators, we believe that it is also everyone’s right to be protected while playing.
Therefore, we are working on establishing sustainable solutions to protect all of our users, not only at the game level, but also at the account level with several Ubisoft partners and teams.
We are motivated by the same goal: improving our users’ protection. Whether it’s by giving more control over their personal data or public identity, we believe that our users require and deserve an improvement on this matter. We are aware that changes must be done within the Ubisoft environment and externally (external third-parties).
For this reason, we are working on three fronts:

• Preventing stream sniping with options that are on the Rainbow Six Siege dev team’s side. The options will prevent malicious players from using another player’s live stream to gather information and get an unfair edge, or to act in a disruptive manner to sabotage and harass the streamer.
• Controlling and limiting the data shared from your account to third-party sites/apps/overlays.
• Ensuring the protections for account data and game telemetry are respected by those third parties.

Consequently, it is no longer only about protecting our streamers, but all of our player base and, even more globally, all users of Ubisoft services.

Players will see a new section in the Options menu called "Privacy" which will contain all the current options related to queue sniping that were deployed with Y6S1.1.

Status: Available at Y6S4 launch.
To discourage and prevent disruptive players from using streamers’ public information in a toxic way, we improved and created a new set of options that will allow players to increase their gameplay privacy while being able to keep their legacy name without the need to create multiple accounts or change their account name to avoid stream snipers.

Hence, here is the set of options that will compose this new protection:

• Appear as Nickname: This will allow our players to create and use a custom temporary display name to be used directly in-game without losing their legacy name. These will not be cross-linked and can be changed at any time, which will add more friction to malicious players’ process of grieving.
• Appear as “You”: Both your legacy and alternative generated names can be a primary indicator used by malicious players to follow you from match to match. To reduce any collateral effects, this option will replace the player’s name on their screen with "You" so that somebody viewing their live stream, for example, cannot determine their displayed username.
• Hide Other Players: The use of surrounding information is also part of the problem and can contribute to the identification of a specific match. To alleviate this, this option generates pseudonyms for all usernames on the streamer’s screen in a match session except their own. This applies to both teammates and opponents in the match.
• Account Identity Privacy: Additionally, we’ll be testing an experimental iteration of account privacy settings to conceal the Ubisoft account name (with a randomly generated username) and profile avatar of users to protect their name on the platform. This will prevent stream snipers from using third-party tools to reveal streamer identities. Note: depending on the success of the test, this may not be available for public release.

Status: Planned to release during Season 4, but not at season launch.

Privacy and Data Sharing at the account level remains a particularly key point.
We are currently working with internal service partners at Ubisoft to establish and provide sustainable solutions from the short to long term. We are aiming to better protect our players and global users by increasing the protection and control over their data at the Ubisoft level.

• Data Shared by Ubisoft: Extend the protections for players’ account data and game telemetry to third-party partners outside of Ubisoft.
• Legal Actions: Exploring consequences for entities that undermine our efforts to respect players’ personal data and game telemetry. People accessing our data for community use must abide by our rules and guidelines.

Our end goal remains to protect anyone in terms of identity in Rainbow Six Siege, but to ensure a smooth deployment and to gather key players’ feedback, we will first release to a small pool of content creators, who remains one of the user groups most impacted by identity-based harassment in-game. Our plan is to roll out this feature in a gradual way, which will allow us to stress-test the functionality of each setting and allow adjustments to be made before a wider release.
To summarize, these first sets of privacy settings described above (including part of the account privacy settings) will be deployed initially on Rainbow Six Siege on PC via a soft-launch release to a limited audience during Season 4. Following the results of the soft launch, these features will roll out publicly to our entire PC community. As noted above, the “Account Identity Privacy” option is more experimental, and is possible not to ship publicly with the rest of these options. We are also planning to extend these privacy features to console players in the future.

Rest assured that this topic remains a top priority on the Rainbow Six Siege development team and across Ubisoft. The Player Behavior team and the different stakeholders involved are committed to protecting our players’ personal identities and providing a safer environment for our players.
We will release a roadmap around the launch period of Season 4, followed by further planned updates to be released iteratively. We will continue to inform you of the long-term plans including console release.

Kompletter Artikel: Streamer Mode Update

For additional information and further details on the changes listed below, please see our [Y6S3.3 Designer’s Notes](https://rainbow6.com/DN_Y6S33).

Below you will find the download sizes for each platform.

• Ubisoft Connect: 2.21 GB
• Steam: 1.7 GB
• Xbox One: 1.2 GB
• Xbox Series X: 3.7 GB
• PS4: 1.4 GB
• PS5: 1.13 GB

Increased Mx4 Storm vertical recoil.

• Reduced P10 Roni Magazine from 19+1 to 15+1.
• Increased vertical recoil and first kick recoil.
• Total ammo is now 181 in PVP, 121 in Hardcore and 196 in PVE.

• Increased number of Armor Panels to 4 (was 3).
• Reduced number of punches required to destroy an Armor Panel to 9 (was 12).

• Replaced P-10C with Super Shorty.

• Increased number to 2 (was 1).
• Affected Operators include: Montagne, Buck, Fuze, Capitão, Amaru, Nøkk, Ying, and Zero.

• No longer limited to placing 1 trap per door/window frame.

• Added Bulletproof Camera (removed Nitro Cell).

• Reduced Dash refresh time to 8 seconds (was 12 seconds).

• Increased number of Mag-NETs to 6 (was 4).
• Reduced catching area of effect to 3.5 meters (was 5 meters).

Performance Metrics

• PC users can now display real-time performance metrics in the HUD such as FPS, latency, and NVIDIA-related metrics. This feature can be turned On in the General section of the Options menu.

FIXED – Attacker is removed from the match if they injure a hostage that is later revived and eliminated by a Defender.
FIXED – Ammo counter flashes red after switching weapons.
FIXED – The G36Cs rail reduces visibility when the Red Dot is equipped.
FIXED – If a player is reconnecting, round doesn’t end when the last opponent is eliminated.
FIXED – "Join Party" option is not functional in the Ubisoft Connect overlay and client.
FIXED – Rim lighting is applied to Operators on the victory screen.
FIXED – Muffled sound is heard on some weapons.
FIXED – Defenders can vault on top of an unreachable location and secure a win for their team in the Doktor’s Curse Event.
FIXED – The attacker’s hammer animation freezes and loops without collision when holding down the trigger button in the Doktor’s Curse Event.

FIXED – Bar shadow at 1F Bar disappears when viewed from trapdoor in 2F Library Entrance on Chalet map.
FIXED – Asset and collision issues on Bank map and Kafe Dostoyevsky map.
FIXED – The light of the wall cladding located at 3F Lounge disappears when LOD lowers when viewing it from 3F Casino on Yacht map.
FIXED – Player is unable drop the defuser on the roof above 2F Billiards Room on Coastline map.

FIXED – Kapkan is not receiving 20p for each activated trap.

FIXED – Various UI issues.
FIXED – Various localization issues.

Kompletter Artikel: Y6S3.3 Patch Notes