Rainbow Six: Siege

Siege continues its trend of a growing playerbase over time. Tuesday it had more concurrent Steam players than it has ever had (and that does not take players who play through Uplay alone without steam). Article below.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikka...s-best-day-ever-three-years-after-launch/amp/

 

I own the game and played it in the past. While i enjoyed it, i'm not that interested in it anymore. When it comes to these types of games, i'm mostly just waiting for "Ready or Not" at this point. I'm really excited about that game and even more so after the latest dev blog was posted today.

Now, i'm still willing to play Siege. Especially if more people start playing. However in the past i had problem with playing due to it being impossible for me to play at the hours you did. If that happens to be the case again then i wouldnt last for long with this game, even more so now when i'm commited to many other things.

 

Squad and Siege are 2 very different games. Siege does what it aims for really good. 5v5 cqb within a single house, yacht, bank or plane. With some extra objectives like defuse a bomb or rescue a hostage. It's round based with 1 life per round and rounds are about 5 min long.

Squad is the opposite. It's 40v40, large map with multiple objectives. A match can take everything from 30 minutes to an hour.

It's 2 different games delivering different types of experiences. Not everyone likes one or the other and some may like both

 

I'd love to go ahead and respond to a few of the questions and concerns above. I post occasional things in this thread because I really do believe Siege is a great game, and that more members could enjoy it. The reality is that it isn't for everyone, but right now Gihz, Haki, MH, and I play regularly (weeknights and weekends), and I'm happy to help bring more into the fold if they are interested. The game has seen a dramatic improvement over time, and it's been impressive to me.

Price:
Totally valid concern Magnus. The complete edition is pricey, but it is also unnecessary if I'm going to be candid. The Standard edition ($40) comes with the 20 standard operators unlocked, which gives you a ton of diversity in what you play. I personally still use several of them as main operators. If you did want to get a few more, you could piece meal the operators with the premium currency over time (and just pick and choose for far less than $100) if you saw some you were interested in but didn't want to take the time to earn the in game currency.

What I'm trying to say is not to look at the price of what the Complete edition as what is required to play and have the "full experience". Many of our members play and love Xcom2 and Stellaris.They both push $100 price points if you rope in all of the "necessary" DLC. Like those games, Siege really doesn't punish you for not spending that. A lot of the additional operators are a ton of fun, but they are not "superior" to what you are given for free.

Grind:
The grind is dramatically less than it has been in the past. All attachment/weapon components come unlocked, and 20 operators being unlocked from the start significantly diminishes the perceived barrier to entry. The operators are a big deal because a new player doesn't need to worry about only having one or two operators unlocked, find they are taken already, and then left to feel like they have to play a recruit.

The grind that remains is for the seasonal operators and cosmetics. I touched on the premium operators above, so I won't go into that too much. Yea, you're absolutely right, you'll have to play for hours to get the in game currency to unlock a seasonal operator. I play a couple of hours a night, and a few hours more on the weekends, and I could probably get one a week if I had to gauge it. That said, it really doesn't feel oppressive; you earn it while having fun.

On the cosmetic note, all cosmetics can be purchased with the in game currency you earn through gameplay, and a vast majority of it is super accessible in terms of the cost. I'll also say that cosmetics have minimal impact in Siege. Since it's first person, you really only see your gun (which you don't notice most of the time). Obviously other players see you, but the only time you really see your own cosmetics is on a victory screen at the end of the match (where it shows the winning team). As a result, I feel very comfortable saying that it's more of a "here's a cool goal to work towards" component. The vast majority of players I see don't really mess with more than their weapon (and weapon skins are the cheapest cosmetic component by far).

Gameplay:
Here's where it's ultimately pretty cut and dry. It's not for everyone, and I know some people just aren't going to be interested. A couple of key things to understand about siege. It is a competitive, punishing, first person shooter. Having been way involved in the FPS genre for twenty years now, what I'd like to highlight are ways that Siege successfully differs from other games. While this isn't a perfect description, I conversationally have described Siege to play like a midroad between Global Offensive and Overwatch.

GO is the industry standard when it comes to round-based FPS. Siege, like GO, has no respawns in a round, and you are split onto an objective oriented offense/defense match, in which you rotate sides until match point. I played CS:S and CS:Go for several years, and one of things that I love about that style of game is that it feels like it has a more severe weight of consequence. Call of Duty, Battlefront, TF, and Battlefield, while successful FPSs, all fall into the "arena" definition- where the expectation is that a game lasts until a kill count/time limit/ capture mechanic is met and there is a respawn element when you die. Like GO, the round play of Siege forces a more tactical approach and encourages a higher level of teamwork than what you see in the arena-style FPS. If you're reckless and throw yourself at the enemy, not only do you die, but you now sit out until the next round and put your team at a significant disadvantage. I find that to be a really cool instructor in how it shapes a player's gameplay.

Overwatch, while being an arena-style game, helps to address one of the core issues I have with CS:GO. The reality is that GO grows very stale over time. The maps change, but the strats really dont- and it isn't helped by the forced equality of every character having access to virtually the same guns and equipment. One of the reasons that Overwatch is so successful is that it avoids this by introducing the hero component. Team compositions dramatically impact the gameplay, and that holds true for Siege. Having an understanding of the operators and how they play will shift how you attack or defend an objective, or how you position yourself for engagements. It helps the game feel more alive, and, although the maps stay the same the matches feel more dynamic.

As a result, Siege feels like it walks a line between the two. Add in the the destructible environment and it forces you to approach gameplay in a far more three dimensional approach than what I have found in an FPS before. It has also gotten significantly better over time. If you tried it back in beta days, or haven't looked at it in a year or two, it feels a lot different.

Personally, I have no interest in making this an "official" game or anything. I say all of this because I genuinely think Siege is a great game, and it does offer something "different" for our members who might be FPS-inclined. Happy to respond to additional questions as they come up.

 

Oh totally get what you mean about the cost. My point was basically what you're driving at- the cost may be high for everything, but you really can decide to what extent you want to spend. I just wanted to clarify that $120 is not what you -must- spend to have a full game experience. You really can do that with $40.

You're absolutely right about the Starter package. I've steered people away from it previously here as well. Basically the grind for in game currency is 10x, and you can't upgrade to a standard edition.

One thing I did want to do is highlight the developer engagement. The team is awesome, and they generally stay very close to the community. Originally Ubi wanted it to be strictly arena style- respawn and everything. They also thought the game was too punishing, and that the barrier to entry for casual players would limit its base. The dev team has held their ground well though. In honestly, the premium currency only Outbreak lootboxes are the first real glaring sign I've seen where dev wishes were just shoved aside in the face of their demands. Yea, it has the Ubi title on, but the devs are pretty great on the whole.

 

I just realized I have no idea which version I bought. I sure as hell can't get a character in a week. May have been the starter version.

 

In fairness I do play a bit more If you have all 20 basic operators unlocked, you have a standard edition or higher.

Unless you had already unlocked all of those... then you'd have to check the renown prices of the seasonal operators. Should be 25000 apiece I think.

 

It is 25000. I get maybe 200 - 300 points per match.

 

Sounds right

 

Inspiration struck me tonight.

A few days ago I got my first ever legendary item from an alpha pack. You have about a 2-3% chance to get one when you open a pack, but I have been extremely unlucky and had pushed over 100 packs without one. Therefore, imagine my surprise and excitement when opening an alpha pack and I see this:



Gold! A legendary item! Hot damn I was stoked. Alpha pack legendaries are special cosmetics that you can only get through luck of the draw with alpha packs. Since Alpha packs can only be bought with significant amounts of in game currency, or earned through luck at the end of a winning round, they definitely have an exclusivity feel. I continued on bated breath- so eager to see what I received...



Wait? What the fuck? Are you god damn kidding me? Alphapackception? A legendary alpha pack charm to hang from my guns from an alpha pack? What the fuck is this ironic bullshit?

I was disheartened, and the feeling remained until today.

While I was playing Tower my team got cut down pretty hardcore and I found myself 1v5. Playing Buck and armed with my trusty CAMRS, legendary alpha pack danging from it, I pulled a reverse clutch out of my pocket and won the round. As we transitioned to the next round one of my teammates congratulated me and made the comment, "It was that legendary charm huh?"

Now, prior to this I held a minor amount of resentment in my heart for the thing, but inspiration struck me like a thunderbolt in that moment and I replied, "Yup, it's my clutch condom."

I now have decided that I love the thing.

BEHOLD THE CLUTCH CONDOM!

 

Tzeentch joined us tonight and we had a Skjaldborg five-man squad going for a few games with him, MH, Haki, Gihz, and I. A couple of us are playing just about every night for 3-4 hours. Hop in if you see us around and are interested.

 

This one point that I have to massively argue. You can bolster your ability with twitch reflexes.. however the game is FAR more dependent on knowledge of where the enemy is, which way they are coming, and map knowledge. This takes time to learn, but it is incredibly satisfying to watch someone on a camera and sneak behind them without them even knowing or what is more common pre-firing while coming into a room. I think twitch response is far less useful than you might think.

 

I will agree with some of your points that the community has some bad apples, which is why they have introduced a toxic ban system. There are those who whine and complain. But honestly they are not the majority. Certainly not even close to as bad as BF or COD.

I personally have not had many issues with PUGs in Siege, there is a rating system that keeps you with your general skill level.

While I also agree with you about Ubisoft, they have done well by Siege and several other of their games. They have stuck with development and I think improved every step of the way. Some people do not like it, but it is a very good, very balanced and fair multiplayer shooter.

 

Had another Skjaldborg five man tonight with Aspius, MH, Gihz, Haki, and I. As a full group we won three games to one before people had to take off. Between the first couple that start playing and those of us that kept playing after people began to call it, we probably had a good four and a half or five hours of concurrent players tonight. Come join us sometime if you're interested. We're on nearly every night.

 

Have you ever wondered, "What is renown good for after you unlock all the operators?"

Candidly, not much unless you feel real strongly about getting certain cosmetics. Even then though, you probably only play a handful of operators enough that you really care about getting things to make them look badass. At least that's how I felt.

And that, my friends, is why I had managed to amass 180,000 renown. At this point there is very little that I really want, so the Alpha packs are great for me because it just gives me random things that I otherwise wouldn't care to directly purchase with renown, but I might really like to have.

So I purchased Alpha Packs.



And awaaaaaaay I went. I knew that these 50 packs were going to be just unbelievable quality after 7 or 8 when I got my first epic:



While super attractive, I already have my clutch condom charm, so I'm unlikely to swap out.

Unfortunately, Legendaries elude me still. At this point I'm probably 1/~150-175 (despite a community gathered probability of ~3.5% based on several thousand recorded openings). I'm not too broken up about it though. It's like I said- I wasn't going to buy anything with the renown anyways.

Here are the opening stats I had:
Common/uncommon (didn't bother distinguishing): 35
Rare: 9
Epic: 6
Legendary: 0

Of the epics I got, my favorite was the headgear I got for IQ:



I didn't bother looking up renown values for all of the common stuff (just kept track of weapon vs headgear), but I did look up each of the rares and epics just out of curiosity. Making some estimates based on average values of common/uncommon weapons and headgear I believe I pulled in about 250,000 renown worth of stuff. The frequency of my epics helped out alot. Out of the 6 I got, 4 were headgear that cost 22500 apiece.

 

This is actually how the guns in Siege work, and it makes no fucking sense.