What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and today, I want to talk to you about a little promise
that was made to the Rainbow Six Siege community at the beginning of the Blood Orchid season.
A promise that (as you can probably guess, since I’m making a video on it) didn’t
last all that long.
So this video is going to be about the weapon damage drop-off standardisation and how it
seems to have only lasted one season.
Let’s go!
Quick reminder, my Year 3 Season pass giveaway is still running, new way to gain 3 bonus
entries added recently. Link in the description if you want to get involved.
And now, for those of you who don’t read and memorise the patch notes religiously,
let me start out with a quick recap of what we were told just one season ago:
“Weapon Falloff Damage Redesign”… or maybe they meant Weapon Damage Falloff Redesign…
Our old damage model had several inconsistencies, which has [sic] made it hard for players to
understand where each weapon loses damage efficiency.
With the new model in Year 2 Season 3, we have tried to keep the weapon balance intact
while setting hard values for where the damage falloff begins and where it ends per weapon category.
With Season 3, we have standardised the fall-off value across all weapons classes [sic]; except
for the shotguns and the sole sniper rifle for Glaz.
We believe this will help everyone have a better understanding, [sic] of when their
weapon loses efficiency.”
So now we have standardised drop-off ranges that are long for DMRs and LMGs (25-40m),
slightly less long for assault rifles (25-35m), medium for SMGs and MPs (18-28m) and relatively
short for pistols (12-22m).
The patch notes go on to explain: “We hope this will improve the player’s understanding of weapon efficiency.
Of course, we will be closely looking at that statistics [sic] to make sure that our game
balance remains the same.”
I personally loved this change, not only for the reasons given in the statement (making
it easier for players to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon category) but
also because it finally made it viable for me to create a comprehensive damage drop-off
spread sheet (link in the description below).
As some of you may already know, I have recently updated the sheet with the gun changes and
additions for the White Noise season and lo and behold: half of the new guns no longer
fit into this standardised pattern.
The SMG-12, the C75 Auto and the M762 are the only new guns that behave according to their class.
Ok, I guess the BOSG.12.2 is a shotgun and they were never standardised and in addition
to that, it is a completely new and uniquegun, so fair enough, its 11-19m drop-off range is acceptable too.
Somewhat more controversial is Vigil’s K1A.
In the game, this gun is modelled as an SMG (with drop-off between 18 & 28m) but I personally
would disagree with this approach.
The definition of a submachine gun is “a magazine-fed, fully automatic carbine designed
to fire pistol cartridges” and since the K1A is chambered in .223 Remington it should
technically be classified as a carbine assault rifle, just like Jäger’s 416-C Carbine.
And just like Jäger’s gun, I would have expected it to benefit from the damage drop-off
advantage of the assault rifles, instead of being grouped in with the SMGs.
And the only reason I refer to this case as controversial (instead of outright wrong)
is that the South Korean military, as well as S&T Motiv (the current manufacturer of
the gun) both refer to the K1A as a submachine gun.
So I guess that it can be argued that Ubisoft throwing this weapon in with the SMGs is acceptable,
although I was truly surprised and disappointed to see the K1A underperform the 416-C by as much as it does.
And really, since it fires an intermediate rifle cartridge, it should share the drop-off
characteristics with the assault rifles but that’s just my opinion.
And that is where I draw the line.
Zofia’s LMG-E clearly belongs into the LMG/DMR class in terms of its drop-off but for some
reason, it has been included in the assault rifles instead.
Sure, it only fires the relatively small 5.56x45mm rifle cartridge but so do Capitao’s M249
and Ying’s T-95 LSW and both of those guns get the longer damage drop-off ranges, so
why not the LMG-E?
And it’s not as if adding on those 5 extra meters until the damage curve bottoms out
would have made that much of a difference.
The LMG-E is right down there with the worst LMGs in the game and there would have been
no risk of making this gun OP by adding that tiny bit of extra range.
Ok, its fire rate is above average but the jerky recoil, combined with the weakest damage
per shot (both at close and long range) make this a horrible gun in my eyes and it in no
way competes with Zofia’s alternative choice, the M762.
So why make this gun even less viable by classing it as a rifle?
I just don’t know.
And then, of course, we have Dokkaebi’s Mk14 EBR (or Enhanced Battle Rifle).
This weapon is clearly a designated marksman rifle and belongs in the same damage drop-off
class as the rest of the DMRs.
I’m not saying that the Mk14 is poorly balanced or underpowered, even though its baseline
damage stat of 60 points might make it seems so.
Out of the four DMRs in the game (alongside the SR-25, CAMRS & 417) the Mk14 actually
has the highest minimum damage of 51, making it a 2 shot to down weapon against 3 speed
operators, at all ranges, so it actually becomes the most powerful DMR from 37m and onwards.
Still, the reason presented by Ubisoft for going through the exercise of standardising
all of the damage drop-off curves was to make it easier for us to be able to differentiate
the performance of the different weapon classes and I just don’t understand why, only one
season later, these new rules have simply been ignored.
And you know me, whenever I discover something in Rainbow Six Siege that doesn’t seem quite
right, I reach out Ubisoft directly to make them aware of what I have found out and I
do this before covering the issue in a video.
Normally I get a friendly email thanking me for highlighting the issue and assuring me
that it will be passed on to the development team… but not this time.
I did receive a very friendly email response from a customer support representative but
there was one part of the message that somewhat triggered me…
“We love hearing ideas directly from gamers and appreciate the support from fans like
you, although we cannot accept or consider creative ideas from outside the company for
legal reasons, but we definitely still want your feedback.”
And then he went on to direct me towards the Ubisoft forums where the community managers
would be happy to listen to my suggestions….
“Fans like me”….
“creative suggestions”…
DOES HE NOT KNOW WHO I AM… wait that sounds a bit arrogant…
No, you know what, I am leaving it in.
I have spent 2 years covering this game in depth and I am not just some fan, offering a creative suggestion.
When I take the time to write a detailed bug report, highlighting that promises of standardisation
were made at the beginning of Blood Orchid and that half of the new guns in White Noise
do not follow these rules; then I’m not making a creative suggestion.
Something has gone wrong here and all I’m trying to do is make you guys aware of it.
Ok… do these errors impact the day to day playing of the game?
No, probably not.
Will players notice these errors?
Again, probably not.
Are there more pressing issues, like for instance Jäger shield glitches?
Yes, 100%....
Fine, these inconsistencies practically don’t even matter and yet, if you are going to tell
us that standardisation is being introduced to help clarify the performance of each gun
class; then why not stick to it?
And since I spend a considerable amount of my time testing exactly these details in the
game, I would really like to see that standardisation adhered to.
#StandardDropOffPlease
And while we’re at it: #WhatEvenIsMobility… because 50 still makes no sense
What are your thoughts on this the drop-off standardisation issue.
Do you feel as betrayed as I do?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and do check out that giveaway link
if you want to take part.
And with that, as always, I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next episode.
Fans like me?
Excuse me i spat a little bit there...
Okay... Let's try that again... Fans like me? Creative suggest....