Rainbow Six Siege is finally trying to fix an annoying bug after over four years.
Rainbow Six Siege originally released in December of 2015. It's an online team-based tactical shooter that emphasizes teamwork and a destructible environment in its strategy. Blowing open doors, throwing a few flashbangs, and taking out the terrorists in a coordinated strike is the name of the game.
The destruction effects in Siege are impressive, but there has always been a problem with the way it handles debris--those are the little bits of masonry and brick that gets scattered when you blow up a wall. Sometimes that debris will get stuck in a doorway or a window and block your sight and prevent you from taking aim at your opponent.
If that was it, then there wouldn’t be a problem. However, the orientation and placement of debris is calculated and shown on the client-side, which means that every player sees their own unique array of debris. What might be a rock stuck in a window for one player might be a completely clear view to another player, giving that player the advantage.
It doesn’t come up often, but it comes up often enough to be a nagging complaint with Rainbow Six Siege players. So much so that Ubisoft finally acknowledged it in their latest news update and even said that they’re working on fixing it.
The update is titled "Top Issues And Community Concerns,” with sound bugs and connectivity issues topping the list of issues. That makes sense as it’s an online shooter so a reliable connection is key, and sound often plays a role in locating a hidden enemy.
About halfway down the list is "debris stuck in window/door barricades.” Ubisoft says they’re currently in the design phase of figuring out what to do about this issue and are prototyping several possible fixes.
Although not mentioned by the devs, one possible fix is to have debris calculated on the server-side. This might have unintended consequences, however, as it would drastically increase the data load on connections as soon as anyone blows up anything.
Ubisoft currently has a tentative date of Year 5, Season 1 for a possible solution to this problem. It’s a thorny issue, but Rainbow Six Siege players have stuck by their game this long and haven’t been disappointed.