During a Reddit AMA discussing operator balance and today’s big 2.2 patch announcement for Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft devs from the balancing team shared some aspirations and hinted at a few plans for operators that are in the works. Most notably, Ubi is not happy with one of the most popular operators in the game: Thatcher.

Redditor Jay-Aaron wanted to know why Thatcher’s EMP grenades can’t destroy Alibi’s Prisma decoys and Maestro’s Evil Eye cameras. Typically, the EMP is a surefire way to permanently disable any electronic on the defender side. In response, game designer Jean-Baptiste Hallé said that this is because the team isn’t satisfied with the way Thatcher is played right now.

“EMP [temporarily] disabling things like Alibi's Prisma, Maestro's Turrets, or Bullet Proof Cameras are first steps towards bigger changes that we have in mind for Thatcher. In general, we are not satisfied with the interaction of the EMP and electronic gadgets when this interaction is a simple destruction. We believe that it is often too binary and doesn't leave enough room for counterplays,” Hallé said.

By “too binary,” Hallé refers to a gadget that doesn’t leave itself open to creative use. With Thatcher, you simply throw his EMP grenade. If it blows up anywhere near an electronic, it’s gone. The power and simplicity of this ability has dictated large parts of the meta since the game’s launch. Compare this tactic to similar operators like IQ and Twitch, whose gadgets require timing, positioning, stealth, and inherent risk to make the same impact that Thatcher can by simply tossing an EMP from outside.

It’s this type of gadget that Hallé believes is inherently problematic. Redditor ASCIIPASCII put it best with how this relates to trap operators like Kapkan and Frost. “Personally, I've always felt like traps like those of Frost (or pre-nerf Kapkan), capable of killing or downing an attacker from full health with only a single trap is too hard to balance in regard to the current meta. Leaving them either very much overpowered or underpowered depending on how they are designed.”

Hallé agreed with the commenter, citing Kapkan’s recent rework as an effort to curb an ability that was too binary. Siege data scientist Geoffroy Mouret also chimed in, saying they “want to avoid ‘all-or-nothing’ situations and have more consistent mechanics.” Instead of instantly killing an enemy upon triggering, Kapkan’s traps now explode for 60 damage and are much easier to hide.

Keeping with today’s theme of overly binary abilities, user research project manager Julien Huguenin touched on one fan’s concerns with Blitz being too weak when far away, and too strong up close. “Blitz is a tricky operator to balance—he can easily swing between being much too strong or too weak as the shield mechanic is rather binary as of now,” Huguenin said. He also went on to hint at future efforts to make shields less annoying, saying “we have larger plans in the future to give more counter to the defending operator when facing a Shield at close range.”

We got a few other coy references to future features, too, like a mysterious Mute buff and a gadget for next season that might focus on slowing attackers down. The devs are also looking into Capitão’s asphyxiation bolts to make them more consistent and useful.

Para Bellum’s big mid-season patch is on its way to Rainbow Six Siege, and with it a big balancing pass on nine operators. Many of these changes were previewed on last week’s test sever, but there’s plenty of new changes on the way.

The largest changes are coming to Finka and IQ. In response to new statistics showing the win rate and pick rates of all operators, Finka specifically is in an awkward spot. She has an extremely high win ratio, but is also underplayed. “We want her to be more popular, but also make her weaker. This is somewhat counter intuitive, and thus presents us with a unique opportunity to make some tweaks and adjustments,” Ubisoft noted in the post.

In hopes of remedying this, Finka’s Adrenal Surge ability is being nerfed. Each use will now last only 10 seconds (down from 20), aiming down sights will only be 25 percent faster (down from 50 percent), and Smoke’s gas canister won’t do as much extra damage to those using the surge. She is also stealing IQ’s frag grenades, to the disappointment of many IQ mains.

In addition to losing her frags in favor of a claymore, IQ’s electronics scanner is also getting a slight nerf. Its maximum range will now be 15 meters instead of 20. These changes are targeted at IQ’s high pick rate in Pro League. Ubi wants IQ to primarily play a  supportive role and limit her fragging utility. “In the past, we gave her a Frag Grenade in a time when her gadget was less useful. The increase in detectable gadgets has buffed IQ each time, so we need to balance her a bit.” With the increased number of cameras introduced in Para Bellum, Ubi believes she’s never been stronger. Interestingly, the post also mentions plans for more “drastic” changes to IQ in the future, but gave no other details.

Blackbeard is also seeing some significant shakeup that will affect his play style. His two bullet shields will now have 50 health (down from 60), meaning in most circumstances they’ll be able to withstand one or two fewer hits. To compensate, his movement speed penalty when a shield is attached has been reduced to only 30 percent. His MK17 assault rifle is also getting a slight damage buff from 42 to 49, and his SR-25 DMR is seeing a big damage nerf of 72 to 61. The MK17 has historically been one of the weakest weapons in the game, so these changes will make his kit choices more attractive.

To round out a few other nerfs, Glaz’s rifle damage is going down to 71 from 85 while Twitch’s FAMAS is going down to 37 from 40. This makes a lot of sense for Glaz, who has become extremely strong since a surprise buff to his rifle fire rate in Para Bellum. A damage of 71 brings the weapon to the stronger side of other DMR’s with the added benefit of a smoke-vision scope, of course. With Twitch’s nerf, Ubi is hoping to encourage more operator diversity by making her gun less of a powerhouse.

A few more buffs were also touched on. The range at which Jackal can track footprints is going up from 5 meters to 8. With this change, Ubi wants to “improve player comfort while playing Jackal, and reduce a bit of the risk involved with scanning enemy footsteps.” Both of Frost’s primary weapons are also seeing a buff. Her 9mm C1 SMG damage is going up from 43 to 45, and her Super 90 shotgun damage is up from 32 to 35. These are small tweaks, but Ubi admits that they “probably need more extensive work done to make her as viable as some other Operators, but that is something that we will have to look at doing in the distant future.”

To make room for IQ’s new claymore, Dokkaebi will be losing hers in favor of flash grenades. This likely won’t change the play style of most who main her, as smoke grenades are often seen as the more useful piece of kit to bring along. Barbed wire is also seeing a change in speed reduction. It will now slow down attackers by 50 percent instead of 45, but still require two hits to destroy.

Ubisoft closed with some thoughts on several operators that they’re currently working on. They’re happy with how Maestro is performing, but think he might be too strong in the Pro League. Alibi is performing a little too strong in Ranked, but is underused in the Pro League. They’ll be keeping a close eye on how to improve her. Win rates for both Kapkan and Frost have also suspiciously dropped, so that is also being examined closely.

A rework of Castle is also in the works, but has been put on the backburner for the time being. “We are looking to make more drastic changes to Castle, but do not have an ETA. We have an idea for what we would like to do, but it is currently in the back log, with no time frame for when work on it will begin,” Ubi said.

The first quarter of Ubisoft's 2018-19 fiscal year was a very good one for the company—a record-setter, in fact. Ubi reported sales of €400 million ($466 million) for the quarter, driven primarily by continued growth of digital sales and "player recurring investment" [PRI] in "digital items, DLC, season passes, subscriptions, and advertising."

"We had a record first quarter, which exceeded our expectations. This performance was fueled by steady growth for our back-catalog and an excellent momentum for PRI, once again confirming the increasingly recurring profile of our business and the ever-greater success of our digital transformation," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said. Back-catalog net bookings reached €333 million ($388 million) over the quarter, an increase of nearly 75 percent that represents 87.2 percent of total net bookings. 

Ubi's future is looking pretty bright too: "Our teams are continuing to deliver on our strategic plan of ramping up our franchises. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and The Division 2 were very well received at E3, confirming their full potential in a highly competitive environment. Our new creation, Skull & Bones, also made a very good impression due to its innovative gameplay combining naval battles with a multi-player experience." 

And of course we don't want to overlook the PC's role in all of this: PC sales accounted for 24 percent of Ubisoft's total for the quarter, up from 21 percent of the first-quarter total in 2017-18 and behind only the PlayStation 4, which accounted for 38 percent of sales (down from 44 percent in Q1 2017-18). The Xbox One, which barely edged out the PC last year, came in third this time around, accounting for 22 percent of sales by platform.

It's not the first time that PC sales have surpassed Xbox One—in the first quarter of Ubi's 2016-17 fiscal, the PC notched 26 percent of sales versus 23 percent on the Xbox One—but the Xbox 360 was more of a factor then, too, claiming 3 percent of sales by platform. This time out, the 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Wii U collectively accounted for just one percent of by-platform sales.

Note: This story contains a video and image that uses homophobic and racist slurs. Dropping hate speech in Rainbow Six Siege now comes with automatic consequences. Since yesterday, dozens of players have been saying that they received an automatic instant ban after using a racist or homophobic slur in text chat. Ubisoft has confirmed to PC Gamer via email that a new banning system is live in Siege.  

These bans seem to last for 27 minutes on first instance, and prevent playing any aspect of Siege, including Terrorist Hunt or custom games. Upon second and third offense, the ban increases to 2 hours. After the third offense, an official investigation into the account is conducted that could lead to a permanent ban, per the Siege Code of Conduct. 

Asked about the ban on Twitter, Ubisoft referred to a post in its dev blog from April that addressed toxicity. Back then, Ubi promised several features coming this year, like muting text chat and enhanced chat monitoring for abusive language. A chat filter was also promised with an estimated arrival for Season 3, but the feature set is a bit different than what is in place today.

“Our team is working on the creation of an automated system that will censor text chat in game based on a chat filter list. This will replace words that have been identified as offensive and provide players with a notification that their language was found to be unacceptable. We will also be tracking the number of times players trigger this filter and will take action as necessary for players that are intentionally having a negative impact on other player’s gaming experience,” Ubi wrote in the April post.

As seen in the video below by Redditor EMU4, the current system doesn’t appear to censor the slur used or hide it to players, but immediately after typing it the player receives a ban and is removed from the match.

Some have praised Ubi’s efforts to curb hate speech, while others expressed anger that their favorite words are now off-limits. “Just wanted to say I’ve watched a few people get banned right in front of my eyes! It’s beautiful!” Reddit user TheDeaves said in a post on the front page of the Siege subreddit.