Ubisoft has been testing out a new Reverse Friendly Fire system (RFF) in Rainbow Six Siege for the better part of Y4S1, and it’s finally going live. Players can log in tomorrow to check out all the massive new changes.
Friendly fire has been an issue since Siege’s launch in December 2015. Toxic players often use friendly fire as a way to grief their own teammates, which leads to rage quits and furthers toxicity.
The devs have gone have included and excluded weapons and gadgets that are eligible for the RFF system to activate. For instance, Hibana’s X-KAIROS pellets and Thermites Exothermic charges will damage teammates, but will not trigger the RFF, while even something as mundane as Mozzie’s Pest Launcher will contribute to RFF activation.
Ubisoft has clearly spent a ton of time working on the RFF system to make it the best it can be, and it still isn’t there yet, according to the official post. The devs will be continuing to tweak the RFF until they find the right balance. An example of a future fix is the damage done by explosives to innocent teammates. In its current state, the RFF will allow explosives to do damage to teammates, which is one of the main ways in which toxic players grief innocent players. Ubisoft hopes to change this in Y4S2.
Related: Rainbow Six Siege implements team kill validation system
Although Ubisoft has gone to great lengths to fix the toxicity in Siege, the dev team have a long way to go. Some fans may be critical of the new RFF system, but it seems like a massive step in the right direction. Aside from the memer community on YouTube, it’s hard to see how this would affect anyone else in a negative way—presuming the system works as intended.
