Operation Void Edge is finally being shipped to Rainbow Six: Siege’s live servers on March 10, with the 69GB patch bringing a host of balance and optimization changes for the tactical FPS.
Void Edge was revealed at the Six Invitational, with much hype generated around the game’s two new operators, Oryx and Iana, and the reworked Oregon map.
After a few weeks of tinkering on the Test Server (TTS), the first season of Year 5 is ready to go live. The new Operation isn’t the only thing players are getting though, with balance changes to operators like Lesion and Twitch on the way, as well as a major optimization update.
Operation Void Edge release
Operation Void Edge is the name of the Year 5 Season 1 event, bringing two new operators into Team Rainbow.
Oryx is a defender who can barge through soft walls and barricades to create new rotations or surprise enemies, as well as jump up hatches. Iana, the attacker, can spawn a hologram of herself to scout ahead and act as a secondary drone, giving her a lot of intel.
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On top of the two new operators, Oregon was the target of the map rework. While players were happy enough with the original map, the reworked version has more top floor rotations and a larger basement, on top of a fresh lick of paint.
Lesion, Twitch receive major balance changes
Lesion and Twitch have been the focus of balance changes for Y5S1, although they are not the only operators being targeted in Y5S1.
The Hong Kong defender has been too good in too many situations thanks to his Gu mines, so they are stripping back some of its power. Gu mines will no longer do damage on impact, instead doing more damage on each tick to compensate.
They will also no longer kill off DBNO enemies, even if they trigger. Lastly, Gu mines will only be visible when Lesion has direct line-of-sight, forcing players to rely on audio cues to tell where enemies are.
Twitch’s drone is now doubling-down on gadget destruction instead of just shooting enemies for the sake of it. It’ll do one damage to operators now, but will recharge shots throughout the round so that it has more of an impact in the later stages.
On top of the Lesion and Twitch changes, Castle, Dokkaebi, Ela, Frost, Goyo, IQ, Maverick, Nokk, Recruit, and Warden have all received minor updates.
Rainbow Six Year 5 optimization update
As part of the Y5S1 update, Ubisoft are working on optimizing Rainbow Six even further. The game size overall is being reduced — so while the patch is massive, it should take up less space in the future.
Patch sizes:
📥 PC: appox. ~60-69 GB📥 XB1: approx. ~39-43 GB📥 PS4: approx. ~38-42 GB
As stated in the patch notes, we're consolidating data files which means this patch is larger than usual. Check out the infographic below to see the before and after. pic.twitter.com/Ruu9Kz18Yg
— Rainbow Six Siege (@Rainbow6Game) March 9, 2020
On top of that, quality of life changes to barricades and explosions have been added to make destruction more uniform and reduce the chances of server-side debris becoming your undoing in a round.
The Operation Void Edge patch will be shipped on March 10. You can read the full Operation Void Edge patch notes below.
Rainbow Six: Siege Y5S1 patch notes
Operator Balancing
Recruit Rework
To improve the Rainbow Six Siege onboarding experience, we’re re-assigning Recruit on a mission to lead and guide our new players. In Y5S1, recruit will have pre-set loadouts for ATT and DEF instead of CTU based loadouts. This will help ease the learning process and make recruit an ideal pick for new players familiarizing themselves with Siege.
Castle
- Removed M45 secondary weapon and replaced with Super Shorty
Ela
- Reduced recoil now only applies to the first 11 bullets
- Increased resettle time after burst firing
- Faster up-time to increase vertical recoil
- Slightly increased recoil and spread
Frost
- Holographic scope added to Frost’s C1
Goyo
- Falling onto Goyo’s Volcan only causes it collapse, instead of explode and propagate fire.
IQ
- When objectives such as Bombs or Biohazard containers are still hidden during the action phase, if IQ detects them with her gadget she will reveal their location to her entire team.
Lesion
- Gu mines visible to Lesion only when in direct LOS and within an eight meter distance.
- Removal of initial Gu mine damage tick.
- Gu mine damage increased to six damage per tick (instead of four).
- DBNO players now immune to GU Mines. Being DBNO will still trigger them but the GU mines effect will not apply.
Twitch
- Twitch’s drone will now use a charge system similar to Yokai drones instead of a set ammo count. Drones will start with the maximum ammo count of 3 shots and it will take 30 seconds to recharge a new shot.
- Drone shot cooldown reduced to 1s (from 2s)
- Drone taser damage reduced to 1 hp (down from 10). Evil Eyes and Jager’s ADS gadget health also reduced to 1 hp.
- Increased recoil for Twitch’s F2
Warden
- Warden’s Smart Glasses will now run on a charge system and can be activated long as there is more than 20% left of his charge left. Activation lasts 10 seconds and needs 10 seconds for a full recharge.
DMRs
- Increased destruction for DMRs for faster destruction of barricades, hatches, and soft surfaces.
Vector .45
- Vector damage increased to 23 (from 21)
Loadout Changes
- Dokkaebi: Stun Grenades replacing Frag Grenades
- Maverick: Frag Grenades replacing Stun Grenades
- Nokk: Frag Grenades replacing Claymore
- Compensator removed from DMRs
Game Balancing
Explosions and Shrapnel Damage
We have reworked explosions and made changes some important changes to how explosion and the new shrapnel damage will work in Siege. This will make it clearer to players when they are damaged due to shrapnel damage from explosives.
Damage taken by a player from an explosion is now determined by Shrapnel damage. The new Shrapnel damage will govern who is hit, and how much damage is taken given the player’s environment.
It will apply reduced damage based on the number of objects it passes through from the origin of the explosion.
Shrapnel damage should be more transparent in providing feedback to players on how they took damage or died. For a more detailed look at how explosions in Siege work, check out our Dev Blog.
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Corner Explosions
We’ve improved how explosives interact in corners where there is both a hard and soft wall.
Indestructible Object Interference
We’ve improved how explosives interact in situations where an indestructible object like a beam can block destruction damage on nearby soft walls.
Player Comfort
Stay in Drone After Prep Phase Option
Attackers will now have the option to stay in drone observation tools even when Prep Phase ends by selecting the “Drone after Prep” option in the Options Menu.
Drone Random Spawn
Attacker drone spawn is now no longer random. Attacker drones will now always spawn on the same side of the building as your first selected spawn point.
This change will give attackers more agency and coordination during prep phase, as well as help simplify orientation for new. You can still re-select your spawn point afterwards based on intel you gathered during the prep phase.
Caster HUD Updates
The new Caster HUD gives the casters the ability to expand all 10 players for a global overview of the game at any given moment, without the need to see the scoreboard or a specific player point of view.
Cards can be toggled, allowing casters more flexibility for a specific situation, where they can choose between what we called condensed or expanded views. Condensed cards display the same amount of information as before, with added feedback for drones.
You can follow a player point of view without missing any actions on the screen. Furthermore, expanded cards will allow all players’ statistics and operators’ loadouts to be displayed simultaneously.
By moving player information, we could get more space to keep improving the narration of the game. The header will now display team names and clear defusing states when it happens.
Game Mode Name Change
The Terrorist Hunt playlist will be renamed to Training Grounds to better reflect what our community uses the playlist for. Terrorist Hunt Classic will be renamed to Elimination to more accurately depict the game mode players can expect when entering those games.
Game Health
Player Report Notifications
Players will receive notifications when a player they have reported has had an action taken against them.
Data Consolidation
To consolidate and reduce the overall game size, we have made some more improvements with restructuring how game data is stored. This means the season patch will be larger than normal.
Player Loadouts
With the start of Y5S1, we’re reworking how custom load-outs are saved in your player profile. If you log in at least once during Y5S1, we will be able to save and convert your custom loadout to the new load-out format. Players who don’t log in at least once during Season 1 will find a default loadout upon logging in come Y5S2.
Night Maps Removal from Custom
To better focus our team’s resources on creating a newer and better Rainbow Six Siege experience, we’ll be removing support for Night Maps from Custom game modes.
Player Behavior
Optional cross-chat
As part of our continuous efforts against in-game toxicity, we are introducing the ability to select more private chat channels for live games.
Chat will be set to ‘Team Only’ by default with this update, but players can select to see All or No Chat via their in-game settings (this option has no impact on the Custom Games).
Our data consistently shows that a very high percentage of Abusive Chat reports are from cross-chat. Currently, in Ranked, Unranked and Casual, close to 85% of reports for Abusive Chat are made against a player from the opposing team.
Our aim is to make games a more welcoming experience, and return the focus of the in-game chat to strategic team-based communications.
Abandon penalty escalation for ranked/unranked
As we’ve seen improvements in connection and server stability, we’ll be re-activating the escalating abandon penalty for ranked and unranked.