Rainbow Six community react to controversial droning while dead changes
UbisoftThe Rainbow Six community isn’t happy with the controversial change introduced in Operation North Star that allows players to use their drones after dying, claiming it creates more problems than it solves.
Operation North Star was a massive shake-up to the game. It introduced a new agent, reworked four existing ones, removed armor, and revamped the Favela map.
However, the most controversial change was a new “after death activities” feature that allows players to use drones and cameras while they’re dead.
It’s the biggest change since the new pinging system was introduced in Operation Shadow Legacy, and naturally, it’s become a huge talking point in the community. Here’s a quick breakdown of what everyone is saying and how they feel about it.
UbisoftNiclas ‘Pengu’ Mouritzen led the charge by saying, “Droning while dead solves a big problem in downtime and engagement, but creates a whole new problem in terms of balance [and] reward for kills.”
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He believes the change is “more dramatic” at higher skills and ranks, implying that the cons outweigh the pros. However, he does think it would “probably be fine” to keep the feature in casual game-modes, including quick matches.
Droning while dead solves a big problem in downtime & engagement.
But creates a whole new problem in terms of balance / reward for kills.
This change is more dramatic the higher the skill/rank you play at – and probably would be fine to keep in casual game-modes ( quick match )— Pengu (@Pengu) May 25, 2021
Parker ‘Interro’ Mackay echoed the sentiment. “Droning [and] using gadgets after death is fine for casual and unranked,” he said. “But for ranked [and] competitive play, it’s way too much [in my opinion].
In his view, it boils down to the fact that Rainbow Six is a “tactical FPS with no respawns” and, therefore, “mistakes should be punished.” Letting players who rush in and die still use their drones is “too forgiving.”
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“I appreciate what the [developers] are trying to do, but I think this is too strong of a change for top-level play.”
Let's be honest, R6 has a lot of downtime that bores people. I appreciate what the Devs are trying to do but I think this is too strong of a change for top level play.
— Parker Mackay (@INTERRO) May 25, 2021
Emil Tobias André, better known as BikiniBodhi, agreed with them too. He dove deeper into the marrow of the issue and pointed out that it “definitely seemed too strong” on certain agents like Echo because being able to deny someone from planting a bomb while dead is “too good.”
To fix that, he suggested the developers could make it so that Echo increases the time it takes to plant the bomb rather than cancel it. However, it’s all from the top of his head, and he admitted his initial impressions weren’t final.
Initial Impressions(Not Final) on Activity after death.
Def seems too strong on Echo, being able to deny a plant while dead is too good imo, maybe if Echo just increased the plant timer by X amount of seconds instead?
Timer: 7 seconds -> Echo Stunned -> X more seconds needed.
— BikiniBodhi 🇸🇪❤️🇺🇦 (@BikiniBodhi) May 25, 2021
In the end, a massive change like this is always going to draw mixed reactions from the player base, especially one as passionate and dedicated as the Rainbow Six community.
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The devs will almost certainly take in all the feedback and figure out the best way to make the feature work moving forward, or perhaps they’ll even remove it.