What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and today I want to talk a little bit about some of the
issues with shields in Rainbow Six Siege.
Occasionally when I use a shield, it feels like I die from being shot straight from the
front (which of course should not be possible except when getting shot in the hand).
So I went ahead and spent some time in custom games running some tests and many thanks to
YouTube user Dtron UFE for initially making me aware of one of the current bugs with shields
with a video he created.
What he showed me really is and odd bug, let me show you what I mean.
Ok, but first off, dying while using a shield and facing towards the enemy can of course
be caused by latency problems.
And with a game as fast paced and close quartered as Siege, even relatively small latencies
can make the ghosting effect that causes peeker’s advantage feel significant.
Here you can see some synchronised footage of a shield user and shooter and what it highlights
is that as a shield, you can already be facing towards an enemy on your screen but if you
or your opponent have a relatively high ping, you might still be side on, on his or her screen.
If we slow down the footage a little, this effect becomes even more apparent.
Now of course, for test purposes here, I created a game where we each had pretty high pings
of over 250ms, so in actual games you would probably not experience this effect in such
an extreme way but I hope this kind of highlights the issue.
Now this effect is nothing really new to most players, as I’m sure we’ve all experienced
ping related issues at some point or another but there is also a shield bug that I want
to show you next that could affect your game if you are trying to angle towards your enemy
while remaining stationary.
Here, let me show you what I mean with some dual screen background footage, so that you
can see the first and third person view of the shield operator at the same time.
Now, when the shield carrier turns to his right while remaining stationary, you can
see that the third person view of the character also turns right in small increments.
So far so good.
Here’s the problem though: when he turns to his left without moving you can get this
odd movement where the third person model of the shield will actually turn the wrong
way for a little while, before then snapping back to where the first person view is facing.
In most of our test, we were moving quite slowly to explore the issue but we also made
sure to test if this phenomenon also occurs when the shield op is rotating at higher speeds
and it does; the movement is just faster.
Now the consequence of this odd turning behaviour is that as a shield op, you can end up with
your first and third person headings diverging significantly.
Going by the in-game compass, I would estimate that the reset happens about every 40° and
since the third person model turns in the exact opposite way during that time, you can
end up with your first and third person headings diverging by almost 90°.
In some ways this is quite amusing because your shots will still hit where your first
person view is aiming even if your character model and even the laser pointer on your gun
are facing in a completely different direction.
And I say “amusing”… yeah it’s fun and all when you’re playing around in a
custom game but in a ranked match, this could turn a whole lot less funny pretty quickly.
If you end up getting a kill like this, your opponent will be mildly infuriated for sure
but what is more likely to happen is that they will simply aim at you and shoot you
straight in the side of the head while you thought that you were facing towards them
thereby giving the impression of getting shot straight through the shield.
What makes this effect even more confusing is that it will occur most of the time but
not all of the time.
As you can see here, when we tested this for the first time in a custom game, the misalignment
was not happening for my character when seen from Pogo’s view but it was happening for
him from mine.
But then in a later test, with more players in the server, it DID happen from Pogo’s
view for all of us…
So I guess the takeaway is that it doesn’t even happen reliably.
Ok!
We tested this effect in quite a few ways to see what would cancel it and what wouldn’t.
You can hip fire and reload while being split from your model.
The effect can occur while crouched or while standing
but when you change stances you character model resets.
Aiming down sights will align your third person model as long as you are aiming and when you
stop aiming, you will sometimes go back to being split and sometimes not.
Droning will also bring your headings together but only for as long as you are using the drone.
But luckily, almost anything else you can do will actually cancel out the effect.
Moving in any way at all will instantly align your headings; this effect only occurs when
stationary and turning to the left.
Throwing an object or extending your shield as Montagne will also immediately realign
you with your character model.
Clash is immune to this bug, since her shield is always either extended or on her back so
of course the easiest solution to this problem is for you to play more Clash!
*editors cough*
… oh… yeah, maybe not.
So ok, yes it can occur that your first and third person headings can be split apart by
almost 90° if you are stationary and turning left (but not right!).
This can of course leave you hugely vulnerable to enemies that you thought you were looking
at but in practice when playing the game, you’re moving most of the time, so the chances
of actually dying because of this are relatively small.
Nevertheless it is a curious little bug that may just catch you out now and then.
As minor as it may be in actual games, I do hope this bug gets picked up and taken care
of sooner rather than later.
And that’s pretty much all I was able to find while testing shields and trying to figure
out why they can be somewhat unreliable sometimes.
If you have any other theories or know of any other quirks that affect shields, let
me know in the comments section below, I look forward to hearing what else might be causing problems!
As always, thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in
the next episode!