"Destruction is a key pillar of our game"- Rainbow Six Mobile developers discuss the upcoming iteration
Rainbow Six Mobile will soon be entering the smartphone platform in 2022. Ubisoft's plan to introduce the renowned franchise to the mobile-gaming community is finally transpiring.
Rainbow Six games have always been some of the fan-favorite tactical shooters in the industry, with Siege being their most popular and most recent multiplayer installment. It is an excellent opportunity for the mobile gaming community to try out a different iteration of the title on smartphones.
Ubisoft has excellent plans for Rainbow Six Mobile's future and is looking forward to sharing its predecessor's success with the upcoming installment.
Rainbow Six Mobile Developers Justin Swan and Olivier Albarracin unpack their upcoming handheld installment
Ubisoft has always excelled at making video games with unique and out-of-the-box ideas since the inception of the modern industry. Even for mobile games, Ubisoft has always brought forth the best experience with titles like Rayman Adventures and a few Assassin's Creed titles.
In a conversation with Kushal Bhattacharyya of Sportskeeda Esports, Creative Director Justin Swan, and Lead Game Designer, Olivier Albarracin of Rainbow Six Mobile shared their insights on the upcoming handheld installment of the popular tactical shooter franchise.
Q: Rainbow Six Siege has a very active player base across PC and consoles. What can they expect with this transaction to mobile devices?
Ubisoft: Rainbow Six Mobile reproduces the same experience you have playing Siege on a console or PC but is optimized for the mobile experience. Our philosophy was to keep all of Siege's core 3C features (Camera, Control, Character) and make them more seamless and natural to execute for mobile controls.
While we have made a few changes, it only enhances the mobile experience of playing Siege in your hands.
Q: What was the idea behind bringing Rainbow Six, primarily a PC and console franchise, to mobile devices?
Ubisoft: It is the perfect moment for Rainbow Six to jump into the mobile market. It is a great community, and many FPS mobile fans have been wanting a tactical shooter CQB (Close Quarter Battle) on mobile. We have created a team of mobile experts and are excited and pumped to deliver the Mobile Siege experience.
Q: How will the ranking system be implemented in Rainbow Six Mobile? Will it be similar to Siege, or are there plans for a significant overhaul?
Ubisoft: Our ranked mode will be made exclusively for our mobile audience and will not necessarily have the same system that Siege has. We want to nail the Ranked experience on Rainbow Six Mobile and not rush it.
We want Ranked to be the main game where players will be at their most competitive. We believe the key is working with the community to find a ranked mode we would all love to play. We will be communicating more about our Ranked mode at a later date.
Q: Limited-time events such as M.U.T.E. Protocol and Doktor have been a hit on Siege. What can players expect from Rainbow Six Mobile?
Ubisoft: On Rainbow Six Mobile, we have focused a huge part of our development on being live ready. We have developed many tools and levers to allow our game to be flexible and feel alive. We have many game modes and LTE (Limited Time Events) planned that we could not share. But the team is excited to play these with all of you soon.
Q: What was the inspiration behind the ticket system in Rainbow Six Mobile when unlocking new Operators?
Ubisoft: The ticket system allows players to try many operators in real matches before deciding which operator they should invest in. Also, trying an Operator enough time to use tickets will unlock them.
The ticket system also solves the problem of buying an Operator you have never tried, only to be disappointed since you don't click the Operator playstyle. We have many improvements coming to the ticket system that will be in our next update.
Q: How many operators can be expected to be added to Rainbow Six Mobile shortly? Who’s your favorite Operator whom you can’t wait to introduce to Rainbow Six Mobile?
Ubisoft: You can expect many Operators to arrive on the Rainbow Six Mobile scene. We have set things up so that Operators will be added regularly about our quick seasons.
My favorite Operator is Maestro. I love his character and his Kit. His LMG provides the best covering fire, and his Evil Eyes is just too good for intel for your team. Also, his Legendary skin we made is pretty awesome.
Q: Considering it’s a mobile game, how will the anti-cheat be handled in Rainbow Six Mobile?
Ubisoft: First off, we are 100% server authoritative, so it would be more difficult for players to become invincible, shoot unlimited bullets, walk through walls, etc. We have some anti-tempering solutions that make it more difficult for hackers to inject cheats or repackage our game entirely.
Another thing we plan to do is release updates often, which should make it difficult for hackers to update their cheats. This is important because while we can't prevent hackers from cheating, we can make the process harder, and thus they are less financially viable. We want to make sure our game stays competitive and will constantly be iterating and improving our anti-cheat systems to ensure this.
Q: Will the maps in Rainbow Six Mobile get more destruction design similar to Siege on PC and console?
Ubisoft: Destruction is a key pillar of our game, and we ensured that the system was as close to Siege as possible. We have procedurally generated destruction, including soft walls, studs, hatches, and even floor destruction.
We tried our best to maintain the destructible environment 1:1 with Siege. However, we have technical limitations on mobile and have had to rework some maps.
We also reworked the maps to make sense of the mobile medium. For example, we removed ladders entirely as we found this mechanic cumbersome. Instead, we have added ramps and more things to climb onto.
We also used data from Siege for the win/loss ratio per objective and considered this when reworking some of the destruction. But the destruction system itself is solid.
Q: Can players expect the addition of new maps and map changes per season, similar to Rainbow Six Siege?
Ubisoft: We want to focus on having a fair and competitive experience. We will always look at the data and listen to the community to revisit maps and rework objectives. We are working on a pipeline to release maps regularly.
The maps will vary from reworked legacy Siege maps, exclusive Rainbow Six Mobile Maps, and arcade maps for LTE or fast-paced game modes.
Q: What technical difficulties did developers face while trying to bring a game like Rainbow Six Siege into the mobile platforms?
Ubisoft: Well, first off, Siege is not the most accessible game. Bringing all the mechanics and rules and translating them for mobile controls was one of the most challenging tasks. We wanted the controls to feel intuitive and natural, focusing more on the tactical shooter feeling, using your environment and gadgets, and working with your team to overcome the enemy in CQB.
There are a lot of technical hurdles, especially when you want to support an array of devices. You will have different aspect ratios, processing power, RAM, etc. We want to ensure that the maps are optimized and that the gameplay session length makes sense for the mobile medium.
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Srijan Sen