Even after entering its fourth year of content, Rainbow Six Siege continued to be immensely popular both on the eSports circuit and from regular online players. Consistent updates, bug fixes, and new content have been a major reason why it retains a healthy online community even after all these years. Still, the game isn't perfect as player griefing and toxicity remain a big challenge. The developers are working to overcome these issues, with Ubisoft now including an update that adds a very interesting potential solution to a major problem.
In a new blog post on the official Rainbow Six Siege site, Ubisoft details how it is preparing to add a system that balances when players accidentally shoot allied players during a match while also containing those who decide to abuse the system. Reverse Friendly Fire activates by displaying a warning message to the person that shoots an ally or the hostage using their weapon or an offensively minded gadget such as Maestro's Evil Eye.
If the player continues and eventually kills the ally, the system will reflect all further team damage back onto the offending player rather than hurting the ally or hostage. All players in the match are notified of the situation, and the warning message for the player changes to inform them that Reverse Friendly Fire is active. Going one step further, the player who was killed by a teammate is given the option to validate the behavior if done intentionally or not during the kill cam sequence. If intentional is selected or no choice is made, Reverse Friendly Fire stays active, though it is removed if the player believes it was an accident and selects no.
While players are no longer immediately kicked from the match for a confirmed team-kill, Ubisoft is keeping track of team-killing incidents and will take action against those that get validated consistently. Naturally, this feature is being sent to the Rainbow Six Siege PC Test Server for both Casual and Ranked playlists before going live to everyone. Ubisoft has also confirmed that it will continue to evaluate and develop ways to combat toxicity throughout the year and beyond.
The change comes on the heels of the first year 4 expansion known as Operation Burnt Horizon. The update adds a new map set in the Australian Outback with two new Australian operators from Australia's Special Air Service Regiment. Players can expect three more updates as Year 4 rolls on, bringing new maps, potential modes, and operators from countries like Denmark, Mexico, Peru, India, Kenya, as well as a member of the United States Secret Service.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Ubisoft