BALANCING
 
    Operator shouts are now muted for enemy team From now on, the enemy team will not be hearing your team’s automatic character shouts. This will allow for stealthier approaches while maintaining non-verbal communication within the respective teams.
 
    Defender objective rotation (for Ranked and Custom Games) In Ranked and Custom Games, Defenders can vote for the objective location they want to defend. We noticed that certain maps have objective locations that are considered easier to defend than others, and that those are frequently being chosen. We believe that it will make for a more competitive and interesting experience to force variety upon the Defenders. From now on, when on the defending side, if a team wins an objective location, they won’t be able to pick it again until they’ve won the remaining locations. If the match goes into overtime, all objective locations become available again.
 
    Reduced bullet trail intensity, especially for suppressed weapons Reduced the visibility of bullet trails for all weapons, with an additional reduction for suppressed weapons for a stealthier approach. We believe this tweak will make silenced weapons more useful, as the damage reduction trade-off will now be more worthwhile, on top off the sound reduction.
 
    Increased the flashbang range of effect We are roughly doubling the range of flashbangs, making them more effective.
 
    Reduced noise levels of multiple Defender gadgets
 
    Reduced the noise levels of Mute’s jammers. It will now be considerably lower for Defenders and we reduced the verticality of its sound (will not be heard from two floors up or down anymore).
 
    Reduced the electricity noise levels on electrified gadgets.
 
    Reduced the noises levels of the Kapkan trap.
 
    Reinforced walls and Castle barricades now block bullets while being deployed It used to be possible to get shot while deploying reinforced walls and Castle barricades, even if they seemed to be covering the players. From now on, there will be collision on those surfaces even during deployment and therefore the bullets will be stopped.
 
    Thatcher now has a shotgun available in his loadout options We added the English shotgun M590A1 to Thatcher’s loadout options.
 
    Removed Bandit’s unique gadget’s (CED-1) electricity damage on the hostage Removed electricity damage on the hostage. This will avoid some edge cases where it wasn’t clear who was responsible for the hostage’s death.
 
PLAYER COMFORT
 
    Added map and mode name display during loading and planning phase screens
 
    Reduced screen dust effect When surfaces break or explosions occur, nearby players get a dust effect on the border of their screen. We reduced it to be less intense and occluding.
 
    Altered matchmaking timer display Timer now counts up to estimated time.
 
    Fixed weapon damage numbers in menus We have changed the damage numbers in the menus according to the light armor values.
 
PLAYLIST CHANGES
 
    Individual spawn location selection for Attackers (Ranked, Custom Games setting) In Ranked (and as a Custom Game setting), each Attacker can now select their own spawning location instead of having to vote as a group. This will give more tactical flexibility on approaching the building and will also greatly reduce the amount of instances in which Attackers get picked off as a group by the Defenders right as the Action phase begins (team spawn killing).
 
    Ranked population repartition tweak Our data tracking shows that the upper ranks (Gold, Platinum, Diamond) are less populated than expected. Therefore, we have reworked how our players are distributed through ranks. This means that many players will see their ranks change instantly after the February 2nd update.
 
    Here’s how it was before this update:
 
    1.17% Copper (1-4)
 
    34.6% Bronze (1-4)
 
    58.8% Silver (1-4)
 
    5.27% Gold (1-4)
 
    0.1% Platinum (1-3)
 
    Less than 0.001% Diamond
 
*Note: Players in Platinum were often matched against Silver players, almost always against Golds and rarely against other Platinums, which gives the impression that matchmaking is unbalanced.
 
    Here’s the repartition we are aiming for with this update:
 
    15% Copper (1-4)
 
    25% Bronze (1-4)
 
    35% Silver (1-4)
 
    20% Gold (1-4)
 
    5% Platinum (1-3)
 
    0.2% Diamond
 
We will be closely monitoring how the rank repartition evolves over time and will be doing additional tweaks if needed. To learn more about the Ranked System, read this forum post.
 
    Ranked fluctuation parameters tweak From now on, players ranked Silver 3 and below will have a higher fluctuation rate compared to the ranks above that threshold. For example, Bronze 3 could contain players that have skill ratings between 15 and 16.5 while Gold 3 would have a larger spectrum, between 32.5 and 35. The intention behind this is that players from the lower ranks can climb out of them faster. This will make it more fun for newer or less experienced players, while the constant, highly skilled players will be able to maintain their rank.
 
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
 
    Web feature: Tactical Board improvements
    Auto-save. The Tactical Board will now automatically save tactics in progress every 30 seconds. This will prevent you from losing your work if any disconnection or bug occurs while working on a tactic. It will also allow you to leave the Tactical Board without having to hit the Save button. Just make sure you noticed the “Autosaved” text popping on the top of the Tactical Board, to the right of the tactic name.
    Maintenance alerts. The Tactical Board will alert you of upcoming maintenances 15 minutes prior to downtime. Fixing the Tactical Board bugs requires us to switch off the servers for some minutes. When a maintenance is upcoming, you’ll see a warning on the bottom of the board. As we also have the autosaves ongoing, there will be less risks to lose your work, which will occur only if you edit the tactic 30 seconds or less before the maintenance starts.
    Texts are now easier to select and edit.
    Bug fixes.
    Fixed an issue preventing users to validate the removal of the tactician.
    Fixing an issue making undo/redo actions sometimes unresponsive until a change of tool was made.
    Inviting someone in the tactic will now correctly update the Attendees panel (top right).
    Fixing an issue preventing to dismiss a share notification from their dashboard when clicking "See it later".
 
MAIN BUG FIXES
 
Please be aware that this is not an exhaustive list and that we are only highlighting fixes that were done about the most commonly raised bugs.
 
GAMEPLAY FIXES
 
    Right stick dead zone is resetting to default after exiting the game - FIXED
    Thermite can’t place an Exothermic Charge on damaged and reinforced walls - FIXED
    Attackers win if a teammate kills Fuze as soon as he detonates his cluster charge on the hostage – FIXED
    Guard break does not work if a shield-wielding Operator moves while receiving a melee hit - FIXED
    When in rappel mode, the Operator does not have collision under specific structures and clips through textures when moving upwards – FIXED
    End of round camera clips through the Operator – FIXED
    PVE: on rare occasions one of the AI doesn’t spawn at the start of a match - FIXED
    PVE: AI Engineers end up in a loop between evade and idle reaction for every damage tic received from poison gas – FIXED LEVEL DESIGN FIXES
    Defenders are able to pass through red blocker walls during the preparation phase - FIXED Players in support mode sometimes don’t get a correct replication of the watched player’s point of view. For example, the player could have destroyed a wall and seen through it while the player watching in support mode would see an intact wall. - FIXED
    On the Hereford Base map, players are able to get out of the building through the red blocker wall when vaulting over the sandbags during the preparation phase. - FIXED
    On the Oregon map, players can see through the ceiling when vaulting over the bunk bed. – FIXED
    On the Kafe Dostoevsky, character can remain stuck when vaulting on a recycle bin in EXT Park Alley – FIXED
    On Consulate map, character can remain stuck between chairs at the Visa Office location – FIXED
    On the Kanal map, players can see out of world through the ceiling if he placed his drone over the air vents in the Hallway. – FIXED
    There are minor lighting issues on our maps. – FIXED
 
ONLINE FIXES
 
    The game sometimes boots on CENTRAL-US data center instead of WEST-EUROPE – FIXED
    Some players don’t receive renown after a match. – FIXED
    0-0x00000602 error is sometimes being received when returning from a matchmaking game to looking for players step - FIXED
    2-0x00000067 error is sometimes being received when trying to join a squad having previously went through a direct disconnection - FIXED
    2-0x00000068 error is sometimes being received when accepting a party invite. - FIXED
    Some players from a squad are left in the main menu when searching for a match if specific steps were not followed - FIXED
    There is no timer present during the lobby screen - FIXED
    Player gets stuck indefinitely loading a lobby when joining in progress if a player of the same game got killed and then quit the lobby first. - FIXED
    Some users are getting the "Connection Failure" error every time challenges reset while in-game – FIXED
    PVE: On some occasions, players are not awarded XP points and Renown after finishing Terrorist Hunt sessions. – FIXED
    Ranked: Players leaving for any reason except a network disconnection receive no warning and are automatically banned for 2 minutes – FIXED
    PC, Ranked: Players leaving match using F10 don’t receive reconnect message – FIXED
    PC, Ranked: Players leaving match using ALT+F4 don’t receive reconnect message - FIXED
    UI FIXES*
    A placeholder appears on the prompt with the abandoned match message after quitting a Ranked game – FIXED
    On the House map, missing location indicator in Laundry Room - FIXED
 
MISCELLANEOUS FIXES
 
    PC: If the player switches Aiming settings From Hold to Toggle, the player can’t ADS in Tachanka’s Turret - FIXED
    PC: Some keys are hard binded in the game involving movement and chat box - FIXED
    PC: Push-to-talk functionality is missing in the Options menu - FIXED
    Uplay: Alpha Team Uplay action is not unlocked after completing 50 ranked matches - FIXED
 
PATCH SIZE ESTIMATION: 3.58 GB
 
Thank you for being part of this with us and sharing your feedback. We hope you enjoy the new content Season One brings and are looking forward to sharing more improvements on the game with you.
 
The Rainbow Six Siege Development Team