Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege News

Rainbow Six Siege's Border rework is boring, and that's a good thing

It's no secret that Rainbow Six Siege is a ludicrously difficult game to learn, and while learning nearly 60 playable operators doesn't make onboarding easy, map knowledge is by far the biggest barrier to entry for newcomers. To stand much of a chance in a ranked match you need to know each map from top to bottom, inside and out - every destructible area of flooring, the layout of every room, and even which pieces of furniture can be shot through.

Rooms filled with destructible clutter like plant pots, paperwork, and computer monitors make maps feel more realistic, but they create messy, irregular lines of sight. Having to second guess every object in a room made sense back when Siege was first released as a tactical shooter, but now it adds an element of randomness that feels at odds with the game's newfound identity as a tier one esport.

Client-side calculations, like the way objects collapse when destroyed, exacerbate this, sometimes resulting in opposing players having slightly different views of one another. In an FPS game where a single headshot is lethal and rounds are won and lost on razor-thin margins, dying because your line of sight was obscured by a desk fan that didn't exist for your killer is downright frustrating.

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Rainbow Six Siege devs want to "find ways to encourage players to use the test server"

Hopping into the Rainbow Six Siege test server lets you play new content early, but that's pretty much the only benefit - and even then, it only really matters shortly before the launch of a new season. Ubisoft says that participation in the test server is good, but it could be better, and to that end, the team has been looking at the sort of rewards prospective test server players have been asking about for ages.

"It's true that we're going to need good participation on the test servers," game director Jean-Baptiste Hallé tells us. "From what we have seen recently, we have pretty good participation with the launch of the test server. I don't know the details about what is planned to encourage players to participate in the test server, but it is definitely something that we need to be aware of and looking at, so we'll see. I'm pretty sure that we're going to find some ways to encourage players to use the test servers."

We have had some test server rewards in the past with weapon charms, which Hallé says have had "a bit" of an effect encouraging players to jump in.

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Cross-progression and crossplay are in the works for Rainbow Six Siege

Back when Ubisoft switched from Uplay to its shiny new Ubisoft Connect client last year, the publisher promised that future games would feature cross-saving and cross-platform play as much as possible. At the time, that promise didn't include Rainbow Six Siege, which was disappointing for players who hoped to combine their operator and skin collections across every platform. Rejoice: It sounds like we're going to get our wish, eventually...
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Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 release date, operators, and roadmap

Now Ubisoft has announced it's full plan for Year 6, let's take a look at the roadmap, including every update coming in Year 6 and Crimson Heist.

Year 6 sees a revamp of the usual annual content plan, making big changes to season updates starting with an operator landing in each season, as well as some operator reworks, and battle pass changes. The Rainbow Six Siege Crimson Heist release date also sees a brand new secondary weapon, the introduction of new operator Flores, and a Border map rework - among smaller changes and systems to a replay system, and streamer mode.

The rest of the year, however, is still fairly light on details, although we do have a full Year 6 roadmap and know what to expect from the operator reworks, skins, reduced downtime, and reputation system plans. Here's everything Ubisoft announced at the panel event and what we can expect from Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 and the four seasons ahead.

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Rainbow Six Siege's Blackbeard could get "a complete rework, a bit like Tachanka"

Earlier this week, Ubisoft Montreal revealed in the Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 Season 1 designer notes that Blackbeard is in for some key nerfs when Crimson Heist's launch arrives. The attacking op will see his shield's health dropped by more than half and his MK17 damage dialled down - but, it's possible we could see a more comprehensive rework down the line.

In an interview with the FPS game's director Jean-Baptiste Hallé ahead of the Rainbow Six Siege Crimson Heist release date, we asked whether Blackbeard might see a nerf in Year 6 or beyond, given he's not necessarily overpowered, but that his shield in its current state can be a point of frustration in a gunfight with the op. "I've never been happy with Blackbeard to be entirely transparent with you," Hallé tells us.

"It's a matter of priority. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up needing a complete rework, a bit like Tachanka had." However, it looks like we won't see anything along these lines hit the game soon. "Right now, we have higher priorities to tackle in terms of balancing, but I cannot be happy with Blackbeard's state if he's considered as frustrating as he is," he continues.

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