The publishers note that patches after the season launch are generally lighter, and indeed though the list of fixes is fairly long in quantity, few are substantial in quality. The exception is that operators will no longer be able to glitch through terrain while rappelling – a serious bug (obviously) that had been drawing a lot of ire in the community.
Most other changes are, however, fairly minor, and there’s no mention of some of the most serious bugs identified on the Reddit megathread. Who cares about black pixels in a specific sight on a specific map when some operators are freezing when trying to use their gadgets? It’s great that rappelling through terrain is fixed, but there’s more work to do.
Original story September 12, 2017: It would seem that, despite Ubisoft’s best efforts to fix Rainbow Six Siege, the launch of Operation Blood Orchid has not been exactly smooth. Reports of bugs, including games freezing or crashing, and other issues like rubberbanding and players not being able to purchase items, are apparently rife, according to the update’s bug megathread on Reddit.
Operation Blood Orchid was pushed back by three months to allow Ubisoft to focus instead on Operation Health. This was a season-long initiative designed to improve the game, by investing in better technology, improving the deployment of new updates, and fixing bugs as reported by the community. The three-month content drought wasn’t universally popular, but the intended payoff was that it would improve the overall quality of the game.
A week after the end of Operation Health and the start of Operation Blood Orchid, it would seem that the bug-fixing element of Ubisoft’s season may not have been all that effective. The megathread on the Rainbow Six subreddit is already very long, and begins with a list of ten major bugs that range from microphones not working on PS4, to random game crashes in all game modes across all platforms.
Beyond that, there’s a lengthy list of bugfixes that concern everything from clipping through objects, to setting off allied mines. There are also widespread issues with freezing and rubber banding, which might be funny if they weren’t so painful to watch.