Out today on PC, Rainbow Six Siege update 2.1 will be available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 16, taking up roughly 1.2GB.
Adding Custom Games and Spectator Camera support on dedicated servers, making tweaks and improvements, and fixing commonly raised bugs, here’s some of the patch notes for update 2.1:
New Features
Custom Games and Spectator Camera on dedicated servers
10 player Custom Games can now be hosted on dedicated servers, which offers a fair gameplay environment that better suits competition. Dedicated servers means no host advantage, better stability, and makes it harder to cheat. We also are making the Spectator Camera feature available on dedicated servers, allowing an 11th person to observe matches held on those servers.
There are currently limitations on using said feature. We do plan on making it more accessible and improving the feature over time, but wanted to share it today with you.
Current limitations:
- There must be 10 players for a Custom Game on dedicated servers to start.
- In order to create a game with a Spectator, the spectator has to be the one creating said game as Spectator. In that case, there will be 10 players and 1 spectator in a match.
- Only one spectator can be present in a Custom Match hosted on dedicated servers.
- Even though it is on dedicated servers, if the match creator quits, the lobby is disbanded.
- These matches are invite only.
- You will have 10 minutes to fill the lobby and start to game to keep the match on a dedicated server.
- There is currently no way to return to an already started match if you leave or disconnect.
- As the creator, you won’t be able to create a new Custom Game on dedicated servers for 10 minutes if you shut down your previous Custom Game hosted on dedicated servers.
Data Centers can be selected for Custom Games hosted on dedicated servers
If players or spectators do not wish for the game to be hosted in their default region’s data center, they will be able to change when creating the game, by changing the selection from the Data Center category.
General Tweaks & Improvements
Balancing
- Tweaked Blitz’s head model and hitbox to have the same amount of exposure as the other shield-wielding Operators and Recruits.
- Blitz’s opponents were able to headshot him with ease over his shield due to his big head model. We have reduced the size of his head model and made his shield taller.
Tweaked recoil on certain weapons in order to make them more controllable.
- PKP Pecheneg
- (PC only) AUG
Player Comfort
Added HUD presets in Custom Games to accommodate different needs
- Added ESL Pro League S1 HUD, which is the preset chosen by ESL for their tournaments.
- Altered Hardcore HUD, which is our first iteration leading to the Hardcore Mode. It is not final and is just a first step we can share as we work on completing the Game Mode.
Daily Challenges now accumulate daily without needing to log in
- Players no longer need to log in at least once every 24 hours to get a new challenge. Instead, one challenge is granted every day to every player that has at least one free challenge slot, even if they don’t log in.
- Fairfight cheating kick message updated to make it clearer
- When a player is banned, an unclear message was broadcasted to all players playing in public matchmaking ‘[PLAYER] has removed from the match by FairFight™.’ From now on, the message ‘[PLAYER] has been banned from the game by FairFight™.’ will be broadcasted instead.
Main Bug Fixes
Please be aware that this is not an exhaustive list and that we are only highlighting fixes that were done about the most commonly raised bugs.
Gameplay fixes
- Operators sometimes are displayed in T-Pose, slide around the maps and don’t have any textures. – FIXED
- Headshot hits do not register properly. – FIXED (We will keep looking for additional improvement opportunities.)
- Exploit: Kapkan’s trap can have an invisible laser if specific steps are followed. – FIXED
- Exploit: Bandit could duplicate the batteries in his inventory by doing a certain behavior. – FIXED
- Exploit: Players able to clip inside walls using Deployable Shields. – FIXED
- Collar collision on Frost and Buck, make headshots register as upper body damage. – FIXED
- Glaz is able to take down Castle Barricades with only 4 shots. – FIXED
- Player able to clip inside walls by using Deployable Shields. – FIXED
- Nitro Cells stick to the edges of tiny leaves on plants. – FIXED .
- Switching weapons takes Buck out of the Skeleton Key mode. – FIXED
- Blitz’s gadget blinds players who were not facing it. – FIXED
- Frost’s Welcome Mat is not destroyed when placed on a trap door which is then reinforced. – FIXED
- Sometimes, players get an infinite reload animation. – FIXED
- Sometimes, players cannot reload their weapon. – FIXED
- Player has a jammed screen if holding the drone in his or her hand near a Signal Disrupter. – FIXED
- If an attacker is killed at the same time as they finish placing the defuser, the defender won’t be able to disable it. – FIXED
- Armored barricades placed by Castle appear as intact when Castle is looking at them, while they are displayed as destroyed for other players. – FIXED
- PVE: Inconsistency between the number of AI displayed to be killed at the start of the session on Yacht and the one displayed for the rest of the maps on all difficulty levels. The amount of AI spawning was not the same as the amount of AI displayed. It was 20 on all difficulty levels while it should have been 22 (normal), 26 (hard) and 30 (realistic). – FIXED
- (PC) Cannot HOLD Sprint when Walk is set to TOGGLE. – FIXED
- Yacht: when playing during daytime with Montagne, broken glass decals are completely dark. – TENTATIVE FIX (We will be tracking for it once Patch 2.1 goes live, currently cannot reproduce the bug anymore internally. Please reach out to customer support if you experience it after the patch is live, thank you!)
The update also includes level design fixes, online fixes, UI fixes, and other miscellaneous fixes.
Speaking with Game Informer, Creative Director Xavier Marquis revealed that the top three selected attackers in Siege are Thermite, Fuze, and Ash, while the top three defenders are Kapkan, Castle, and Rook. “Obviously, the metagame is still rather young and the way the community plays the game and the operators they choose will evolve along with the game,” he added.
As for their decision to forego a single-player campaign, Marquis said it was the best way to deliver an engaging multiplayer experience:
The decision was a result of our desire to focus on the deep replayability of the game’s multiplayer and co-op modes. Ubisoft is known as an expert at making open-world games, but with Siege, our objective was to work on a completely different model, one built around the multiplayer experience. For the development team, foregoing a campaign was the best means to deliver the most engaging multiplayer experience possible.
When Rainbow Six Siege update 2.1 is available on PS4 and Xbox One next week, we’ll let you know.
[Source: Ubisoft, Game Informer]
