Games PC TOM CLANCY S-RAINBOW SIX User Manual

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Tom Clancy’s RAINBOW SIX

©1998 RSE Holdings, Inc. Package Design and Summary:

©1998 RSE Holdings, Inc. Red Storm Entertainment is a trademark of Jack Ryan Enterprises Ltd. and Larry Bond. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six is a trademark of Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Other brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks.

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The New World Order ................................................................................

1

Overview .................................................................................................

2

Quick Start ..............................................................................................

3

Game Menus............................................................................................

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Single Player Menu ........................................................................

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Multiplayer Menu............................................................................

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Training .........................................................................................

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Options.........................................................................................

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Planning Phase.......................................................................................

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Briefing.........................................................................................

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Intel.............................................................................................

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Roster Selection............................................................................

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Kit................................................................................................

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Team Assignment ..........................................................................

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Planning ......................................................................................

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Recon ...........................................................................

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Plotting Movement .........................................................

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The Waypoint Control Bar ...............................................

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Map Controls .................................................................

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Other Commands............................................................

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Tactical Behaviors .............................................

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Go Codes ......................................................................

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Rules Engagement .........................................................

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Special Actions..............................................................

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Execute........................................................................................

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Action Phase .........................................................................................

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Cinema Window ...........................................................................

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Map Window................................................................................

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Character Display .........................................................................

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Team Display................................................................................

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Fire & Movement...........................................................................

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Dynamic Team Control ...................................................................

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Ending the Mission .......................................................................

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Technical Support...................................................................................

53

Contact us on the Web .................................................................

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Contact us by Email......................................................................

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Contact us by Phone ....................................................................

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Contact us by Standard Mail .........................................................

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Appendix A: Multiplayer Mode.................................................................

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Join Game ...................................................................................

56

Create Game ................................................................................

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Session Options.............................................................

57

Player Options ...............................................................

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Manual Join .................................................................................

59

Server Info ...................................................................................

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Mplayer .......................................................................................

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Glossary................................................................................................

63

Credits...................................................................................................

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The New World Order

Though some believe terrorism to be a cancerous growth unique to twentieth century politics, the reality is much deeper. Terrorism is simply the modern moniker for certain aspects of unconventional warfare that have existed throughout recorded history. Tactics now attributed to “Terrorism” have always been attractive to vocal, violent factions attempting to coerce others to adopt their social, political or religious platforms. Such tactics include the ambush of troops legally occupying a province or territory, the kidnapping of important dignitaries or other individuals to be held hostage and even the assassination of such individuals. The emphasis on the word “legal” in the preceding sentence is important if we are to understand the continuing influence terrorism will hold in the next millenium. Consider the FBI’s definition for terrorism:

“Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

If one removes the first four words of the definition and replaces them with “War is the lawful...” one comes very close to General Carl Von Clauswitz’s dictum that “War is nothing but the continuation of policy with other means.” When diplomacy fails, governments have the option of lawfully applying force to further their political and social objectives. Groups and individuals do not have this “right” and are therefore branded “Terrorists,” though one’s point of view certainly impacts how readily that term is applied instead of “Patriots.” We certainly revere the courage our forefathers demonstrated in breaking away from mother England and forming a new nation, but doubtless their actions were viewed in a much less favorable light by the legal government of the “colonies” some two hundred and twenty-two years ago.

Today, we celebrate peace initiatives that portend to bring some degree of stability to regions that have long been plagued by terrorist activity like Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Nevertheless, there are many other nations where terrorism and its state-sponsored equivalent actively influence the world all of us live in. As weapons of mass destruction become increasingly

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available to smaller groups of determined individuals, political instability increases. To proactively combat this trend and protect their national security interests at home and abroad, the nations of the world have invested years of training and billions of dollars into developing counterterrorism expertise. The British Special Air Service (SAS) and the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six are perhaps the most publicized of these units, but virtually every nation now has some force capable of performing counterterrorist operations to varying degrees.

Rainbow Six is a game developed in honor of the brave men and women who guard the back doors of governments around the world, standing ever ready in the shadows to meet whatever threat may present itself. Although this is a work of fiction, and no such internationally wielded counterterrorism unit is currently recognized by the nations of the world, cooperation and cross training between each of the existing special operations units is not only common, it is highly encouraged. Consequently, the reality of this gaming environment is not as far removed from our own as some might hope.

Overview

Rainbow Six places you in tactical command of a roster of the leading counterterrorist operatives in the world. Each time a mission is called, you must review the briefing materials and select which members of this roster will form the team for that operation based on their skill sets and availability for the mission. During the Planning Phase for the operation, you will also review the blueprints for the structure to be assaulted, assess all known intelligence about terrorist strength, armament and locations, as well

as hostage locations (where known), and develop a scheme of maneuver for your team. Once you are satisfied with the plan, you execute the assault. During the assault (the Action phase), you will only directly control the actions of the team leader. All other operatives will follow the plan precisely! If the leader is killed, you will immediately assume control of the second in command, and so forth. The mission continues until either all of the objectives are accomplished or the team has been killed or incapacitated.

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If you fail to complete a mission, or manually quit before the objectives are accomplished, you automatically return to the planning phase to attempt it again. Each group of mission objectives MUST be accomplished before you can continue to the next assignment, but you can retry a mission any number of times without penalty.

Quick Start

Rainbow Six is a complex simulation of real world anti-terrorist team tactical operations. As such, we highly recommend that you become familiar with this manual and complete the tutorial series before going operational for campaign play. Nevertheless, we recognize that some players prefer to jump right into the game, then attend to the details of proper preparation after they have been sufficiently humbled. If you are not one of these players, proceed to the Game Menussection below to begin learning more about the interface. Otherwise, clean your weapons and suit up, it’s time to take out some bad guys!

After the opening sequence (which can be skipped by pressing the ESC key), you will be at the Main Menuscreen. Select “Single Player,” then “New” to begin a new campaign. When you are prompted for a difficulty level, select “Recruit.” The first mission, Operation Steel Wind, will load and the next screen you will see is the Briefing Screen. This is the first screen accessed in each mission and it contains the mission objectives for the team. When you are comfortable with these objectives, click on the arrow to the right of the Briefing Screen title bar to proceed to the Intel Screen. You will notice right and left arrows on either side of the title bar for each of the screens we will access during the Planning Phase. You may use these to navigate back and forth between all of these screens as much as you desire to refine your plan and team assignments prior to actually clicking on “Execute” to begin the Action Phase of the mission.

The Intelligence Screen contains vital information on the terrorists, hostages and the current crisis that you have been activated to resolve. This information comes from a variety of sources. Ignore it at your own risk. Click on the various sources on the left side of the screen to review what each has to offer. When you are

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satisfied that you “know the enemy” sufficiently to complete the mission at an acceptable level of risk, click on the right arrow next to the title bar to proceed to the Roster screen. You will be asked if you want to accept the default setup and plan for this mission. For the purposes of this quick start, say “no” and walk through the screens manually using the following paragraphs

as guidance.

The Roster screen contains a wealth of information about the individual skill sets of each team member. Long term success depends on your ability to select the right team members for each assignment based on the nature of the problem faced and shepherd those team members through each mission safely such that they will be available for future tasking. To learn more about the impact of the attributes listed on the Roster screen, consult the Planning Phase section of the manual. For now, in the interest of expediency, scroll down through the list until you find Ding Chavez. While his name is highlighted, click the “Add” button. Next, highlight the first assault specialist on the roster then click the “Add” button six more times to fill out the current team roster. You will notice that the pictures of these specialists appear on the team roster list in the upper left corner of the screen as you do so. You can click on the team roster at any point to highlight a team member and see their statistics displayed in detail in the center window. When the team roster is full, click on the right arrow again

to proceed to the Kit screen.

Each team member comes equipped with a default “Kit” based on his or her particular specialty. For example, demolitions specialists will be armed with breaching charges to blast locked doors and windows to get the teams inside the structure being assaulted. They will also have heavy body armor, a shotgun for room clearing, and a sidearm for backup. Now click on one of the other team members with an assault specialty to view that default Kit. You may click on the arrows next to each item in any member’s kit to view all of the other possible choices for that equipment slot. Later on, you will occasionally need to customize Kits to provide redundancy of equipment between team members to ensure certain mission objectives can be accomplished regardless of casualties but, for now, we will accept the default kits for all of the team mem-

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bers. Click on the arrow to the right of the title bar to continue to

the Team Assignment screen.

The Team Assignment screen is where you assign members from the active roster to individual fire teams. You may have up to four separate fire teams for the assault and each fire team can hold up to four members from the total pool of eight. In other words, you could create Blue and Red fire teams for this mission, and assign four members to each (which is what we will do in a moment), or you could designate four two-man fire teams. These are the two most common configurations because it is rarely a good idea to send in a team member without backup, but one man fire teams are allowed if desired.

Click on Ding Chavez to make him the active team member. Click on the “Blue” arrow to assign him to command that fire team. Highlight the remaining team members one at a time and assign them to the remaining slots in Blue and Red fire teams in any order you wish. When both teams are full, click on the right arrow by the Team Select title bar to proceed to the Planning screen.

The Planning interface is the heart of the mission preparation process. It is an extremely detailed tool that you must become intimately familiar with before proceeding into campaign play in earnest. For the purposes of this Quick Start, however, we will essentially skip this entire screen except for determination of the starting points for the two fire teams. You will notice that the Blue fire team is currently active by default. You will also notice a white area on the blueprint in the planning window. The initial point for all fire teams must begin within a designated white area (on some maps, there may be more than one). Left click once in this white area. A blue triangle will appear where the Blue fire team will start the mission. Now click on the “Red” button to make that fire team the currently active unit. Left click anywhere within the white area again to designate the starting point for the Red fire team. Now click on the right arrow next to the Planning title bar. You proceed to the Execute screen where your mission plan is summarized. To actually begin the mission, you must click the right arrow next to the title bar again. If you are not ready to proceed, simply use the left arrow keys to cycle as far back in the planning process as you like to change your selections, then cycle forward again to the

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prompt. Click on Execute to proceed to the Action Phase of the mission.

You will find yourself outside the Embassy near the front door. You are Ding Chavez, in command of the Blue fire team. Use your mouse to pan the view around and see all of the other members of both fire teams in the starting positions you assigned them. Consult the “Keyboard and Mouse Controls” ready reference card (printed separately from this manual for easy access during game play) to learn how to move and shoot. Move past the steps up to the main doors of the building and proceed to the corner. Look around again and you will see that the other members of your fire team are following you in “snake” formation and that each of them is automatically covering their own arc of fire within the formation. You will also notice that the Red fire team has not moved. This is because you did not assign them any orders during the Planning Phase. Don’t concern yourself with them for now. Consider them a “reserve” unit in the event the Blue fire team doesn’t survive the coming minutes, which is likely.

You will also notice that, as you move, the targeting reticle in the center of your screen grows larger, then reduces in size again when you stop. This reflects the increased difficulty of shooting accurately while on the move. The character’s skill level, wounds and fatigue also affect the size of the reticle.

Continue to the side door of the embassy. Your mission is to assault the embassy and rescue the ambassador, who is besieged and hiding on the second floor of the building. When you are at the side door, consult your ready reference card and use the “manipulate environment” key to open the door. Run forward and clear the first room using the mouse to look around the space and line up the targeting reticle, followed by the left mouse button to fire. Don’t make the mistake of shooting any terrorist only once, to “Double Tap” everyone is standard operating procedure (SOP). Conversely, remain mindful that the default setting is full automatic. You are spraying bullets as long as the left mouse button is depressed,

so practice short controlled bursts to conserve ammunition.

If Ding goes down, which is quite apparent when the ceiling becomes the dominant view, you will automatically have control of

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the second member of the fire team, provided that he is not already incapacitated or dead. Remember that the other team members are not simply standing by as “extra lives” for the player; they are moving and fighting just as a real fire team would. As such, they might be taking casualties as well as inflicting them.

If the entire Blue fire team is incapacitated, your perspective automatically shifts to the Red fire team leader. Re-enter the building and try to get through the remainder of the mission. Remember that the terrorists are well aware of your presence by now, so be prepared.

Have fun! See you back here after your butt gets kicked.

Game Menus

This section documents all of the choices available to you up to the point that you select a mission. Once you select a mission, you proceed to the Planning Phase, which is covered extensively in the next section of the manual. The first screen you encounter is the Main Menu.

Figure 1: The Main Menu is fairly intuitive, just left mouse click on a selection to proceed to the associated area or subordinate screen.

Single Player takes you to the Single Player Menu.

Multiplayer takes you to the Multiplayer Menu.

Training takes you to the tutorial menu.

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Options takes you to the Options screen.

Quit exits the game via the credits.

Single Player Menu

The Single Player menu is where most of you will begin your careers in counter-terrorism. Several additional functions and submenus flow from this screen including New, Delete, Continue, Backtrack, Practice Mission, View Mission Results and Options. Each of these is described in the subheads below.

Figure 2: The Single Player menu. The Campaign list window displays all active campaigns and their associated difficulty levels. The Mission List window displays only completed missions for the selected active campaign.

New

The first time that you play Rainbow Six, you will notice that the Campaign and Mission List windows on the Single Player Menu are empty. Select the “New” option to begin your first campaign. A dialogue box appears prompting you to enter a name for the campaign. Type in any name up to eight characters long and hit Enter. Then left click on Recruit, Veteran or Elite to set the difficulty level for the campaign. The general impact of each difficulty setting is explained below. Consult the new campaign screen to determine if additional criterion have been established prior to deploying your unit. When you are satisfied with your choices, click OK to proceed to the planning phase for the first mission.

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Recruit: Mission success depends on accomplishment of the primary objective. Other factors are irrelevant.

Veteran: You must complete both the primary and secondary objectives to proceed to the next mission.

Elite: Your team’s performance is evaluated against the high standards of conduct applied to real world special operations. It isn’t sufficient simply to accomplish the mission objectives. You must also do so with minimum acceptable losses, maintain good fire discipline and execute the assault plan with precise timing.

Delete

If you choose “Delete,” the program will delete the highlighted campaign and all of the missions associated with it. Before any campaign is actually deleted, you will be prompted to ensure that this is what you intend to do. You cannot delete individual missions within a campaign as their beginning and ending conditions are either influenced by or themselves influence the previous or upcoming mission respectively. Instead, if you want to replay a successful mission to improve your performance for campaign purposes, use the “Backtrack” function described below.

Continue

The Campaign List Window shows all campaigns that are currently active, and the Mission List shows completed missions within the highlighted campaign. The first campaign on the alphabetically organized list is highlighted by default. If you scroll down and click on a different campaign you will note that the contents of the mission list window changes accordingly. When you have the desired campaign highlighted, click on “Continue” to proceed directly to the Planning Phase of the next operation in the campaign.

Backtrack

When characters are wounded or die during a Rainbow Six mission, their status isn’t updated as such on the permanent roster unless the mission is successful. If the mission is a failure, you can re-start it immediately with everything as it was before the

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mission began. If the mission is successful, regardless of your casualties, the program autosaves the results to the campaign file. Consequently, if you want to replay the mission to improve your performance, you need to use the Backtrack function. Here is how it works.

Highlight the applicable campaign. Highlight the mission prior to the one with the results you wish to change. Click on Backtrack. This brings up the same dialogue box you see when creating a new campaign (see above). In essence, that is exactly what you are doing. This simply accepts the ending conditions of the mission you highlighted as the starting conditions for the new campaign. As before, you must enter a name for the campaign, but you cannot alter the difficulty setting for any campaign created via the Backtrack command.

Practice Mission

This selection allows you to ‘practice’ missions that have already been completed to further hone your skills for future assignments. For practice missions, all teammates are present with full health and no fatigue. You cannot elect to practice uncompleted missions at any time. Normal game flow is disrupted when you are practicing. If you fail a practice mission, you return to the planning phase as normal. If you successfully complete a mission, after viewing the Mission Results screen, you return to the Single

Player Menu.

View Mission Results

Select this option to review the End State of any completed mission within a campaign. This command is most useful when you have multiple campaigns and you are looking for an optimum place to use the Backtrack command. For a complete breakdown of the type of information displayed on a Mission Results screen, consult the “Debrief” heading under the Action Phase section of the manual.

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Options

This takes you to the same Options screen available from the Main Menu. See the appropriate heading below for a description of the functions provided via the Options menu.

Multiplayer Menu

The Rainbow Six multiplayer modes and options are documented in Appendix A of this manual.

Training

We have created several training missions to help you become familiar with commonly performed actions within the game. Prior to embarking on a full-fledged campaign, it would be a good idea to spend some time perfecting your skills in these mission profiles.

Figure 3: Maximize every training opportunity you have. Remember, the more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war!

Scroll through the list of training missions and either left click or use the Tab, Arrow and Enter keys to select a course of instruction. The courses are designed to be taken in sequence to help you progress from rudimentary fire and movement skills to advanced tactical planning. Nevertheless, you are not penalized for taking them in any order desired and you may also repeat them as often as you like.

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Don’t fall into the trap of failing to practice between missions once you have “gone operational” in a campaign. Real world hostage rescue teams spend thousands of hours practicing Close Quarter Combat (CQB) skills in mock “Kill Houses,” refining their marksmanship on the gun range and working out to stay in peak physical condition. These years of dedication and determination pay off in full during a few short moments of intense life or death combat, which is all the action that most of team members will actually see over the course of an entire career (when you consider that the average CQB engagement is over in five minutes or less).

The training objectives for each course of instruction are described below. These objectives are based on “Lessons Learned” by many “operators” who preceded you. Pay close attention to detail

and get as much from each lesson as you can. Once you have exhausted all of the training potential of these exercises, don’t forget that you can also practice any mission profile you have previously completed by selecting that option from the Single Player menu.

Obstacle Course

When most people think of an obstacle course, they attribute a negative connotation to the term. That is why the Marine Corps and other services have re-labeled these mainstays of military training as “confidence” courses. Building confidence is really what this level of training is all about. Herein, your objectives are to practice tactical movement; using obstacles for cover and concealment, running across open areas swiftly, climbing over obstructing terrain, shifting from a walk to a crouch and back again, sidestepping to cover your firing arc, and learning to shift between first and third person points of view while completing the course. Consult the ready reference card for specific commands for each of these actions. Most of you will find that the optimum control configuration for Rainbow Six is to use the keyboard for movement and the mouse to control your point of view. If you are already accustomed to a different configuration, however, you can go to the Options menu (see below) to re-map the commands to suit your individual playing style.

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Gun Range

Experienced operators will tell you that your weapon must become a natural extension of your arm. Where you point, you hit. The only way to develop this level of intimacy with the firearms of your choice is to spend a lot of time at the Gun Range. Here, you can practice with every weapon in the Rainbow Six armory at short, medium and long ranges. This course of instruction is not conducted under simulated combat conditions. As such, you should take your time and try to achieve the highest possible accuracy rating. Become comfortable swapping magazines, and also shifting between your primary and backup weapon rapidly.

The targeting reticle indicates the general aiming point for the selected weapon. The word ‘general’ was carefully chosen, for your only assurance is that when you fire, your bullet will hit somewhere in the area defined by the reticle. The reason this is important is that the reticle is a variable size—it is larger for someone who is a bad shot and smaller for someone who is skilled. Also, the reticle changes size dynamically during the course of the action phase depending on a number of factors like movement speed, exertion level, and health status.

Targeting Reticle Variables

The fundamental size of the reticle is determined by the skill of the character and is used as a baseline for all further modifications. A reticle cannot become smaller than this baseline size, but it can become quite larger when modified by quasi-permanent factors such as the fatigue and wound level. The current size of the reticle is modified by a number of factors that can be broken into two types: constant and pulsed.

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Constant Reticle Modifiers

Constant reticle modifiers affect the base or current size by a constant percentage as long as the state or action causing the modifier is in effect. Running, for example, affects the base size by a set amount as long as the character is running. Being wounded also affects the base size by a set amount. Constant reticle modifiers include:

Movement—The faster a character moves the larger the reticle modifier. This reflects the difficulty in firing on the move.

Stance Change—changing from standing to crouching or rotatIng in place momentarily increases the size of the reticle. It is possible to rotate very slowly without changing the reticle size.

Fatigue Level—High fatigue levels globally increase the fundamental size of the reticle. This also effects how quickly the reticle shrinks back to its baseline size when the character stops to take careful and deliberate aim.

Health Level—Wounds affect the base reticle size. The more wounded you are, the larger the reticle.

Pulsed Reticle Modifiers

Pulsed reticle modifiers have a one-time, pulsed effect on the current size of the reticle. Examples including firing a weapon and seeing a flash-bang. Pulsed Reticle Modifiers include:

Firing—Firing a round causes the reticle to increase slightly in size. This reflects the inherent difficulty in firing multiple rounds accurately.

Taking Hits—Being physically hit by anything, be it a round, shrapnel, or a physical blow, momentarily increases the size of the reticle proportionally to the size of the hit.

Distraction Devices—Observing a distraction device (flashbang) causes a large increase in reticle size.

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Environmental Distractions—Hearing cries of distress

on the radio, seeing a buddy go down, seeing a hostage executed, hearing an alarm go off, and so forth.

Demo Course

Even electronics experts need basic demolitions training to use flashbangs and grenades properly. This module gives you plenty of practice in both overhand and underhand tossing techniques and familiarizes you with the proper placement and detonation of breaching charges.

City Street

This is a “Hogan’s Alley” style target range with moving, pop up targets similar to those employed at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. You will need to advance down the street, clearing “enemy” targets as they appear. The objective is to develop a feel for how much your firing accuracy is affected while moving. You are expected to make proper use of cover and concealment at all times. Because stealth is a factor, you will also be issued a silenced weapon for the duration of this exercise.

Kill House Single

This is a “no-brainer” breach into a single room structure. The emphasis of this training module is to teach you basic room clearing techniques. You will be working with a teammate for this exercise. Together, you must enter the room, discern any hostile targets from any non-hostile targets (i.e.: hostages) which might be present. You must then engage and successfully neutralize the threat without sustaining casualties.

Kill House Double

This training scenario builds on the fundamentals learned in the previous lesson. Because two rooms must be cleared of hostile targets, slightly more complex planning is required. It’s just a small incremental increase in difficulty to properly prepare you for the final two training missions.

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Kill House Office

This is a complex training problem involving a much larger structure and more complicated interior floor plan than previously attempted. The objective of this lesson is to develop advanced planning techniques and the ability to coordinate multiple entry teams through the proper use of “go codes.”

Kill House 2 Story

This is it, the graduation exercise! It’s time to put everything you’ve learned up to this point to the test in a multi-level structure. Devise an assault plan that coordinates widely dispersed assault fire teams such that they simultaneously breach on both floors and take it to the terrorists before they have time to react. You will

find this to be a very challenging, crowded environment. Be exceptionally vigilant to avoid “Blue on Blue” (i.e.: friendly fire) engagements.

When you have completed this sequence of scenarios, you are first class certified in HRT and CQB and you are ready to go operational. More advanced scenarios are included for those players who seek to maximize their skill sets before deployment.

Options

The Options menu is where you can customize Rainbow Six’s audio and video display levels for maximum performance with your existing computer configuration. You can also toggle sound FX, music and radio chatter on or off from this screen.

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Figure 4: The Options menu is accessible from virtually every other menu screen before you enter the planning phase of a mission.

The Brightness adjustment impacts the light level displayed only during the Action Phase. If the planning screens appear dim, check the control settings on your monitor. The Resolution controls configure Rainbow Six to run at an optimum frame rate for your computer. If you are already at the lowest resolution setting and you are still experiencing sluggish performance during the Action Phase, refer to the ready reference card to learn how to reduce the size of the display window and improve frame rate considerably.

Force Software, Auto-Targeting and Gore are all on/off toggles. If you have a hardware 3D accelerator, Rainbow Six will automatically take advantage of it. If you prefer to force the program to use software acceleration routines instead, make sure this option is on. Auto-Targeting simplifies the game considerably. It is off by default but, if you are dying too frequently to suit your tastes, consider turning it on for a time until you become more proficient at quickly acquiring targets whenever you enter a room. With Gore on, expect realistic blood spray, not Mortal Kombat torrents that would make even Monty Python laugh. With Gore off, it’s like watching an old Western movie. The bad guys just fall down when they get shot, without any visible indication of the bullet hit(s).

The next selection on this menu is “Keyboard Controls.” If you are inexperienced with this type of utility, we recommend that you remain with the default control configuration. If you are a veteran of this type of game however, and are already intimate with a

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different control scheme, feel free to modify Rainbow Six to accommodate your particular playing style.

Multiplayer options affect the manner in which two or more people can connect online to play Rainbow Six cooperatively or competitively. For a complete rundown of multiplayer modes and options, see Appendix A.

Planning Phase

When you begin a new campaign, or each new mission within an existing campaign, your first task is to proceed through the Planning Phase. The planning phase is where you prepare for the upcoming mission by:

Receiving the mission briefing

Reviewing all available intelligence sources

Selecting up to eight operatives from the team roster to participate in the mission

Selecting the equipment those team members will use

Splitting the mission roster into fire teams

Preparing a detailed fire and movement plan for each fire team

These operations do not have to be completed in any particular order. Feel free to hop from mode to mode while in the planning phase-you can make a plan, then select your team, for example. Or you can select a team first, then make a plan, and then equip them. You get the idea. Each of these modes is fully described under the appropriate subhead below. Alternately, you can elect to use the default plan immediately after finishing the intelligence briefing. On the first four missions, these plans are fairly intricate. Subsequently, you are only provided with the insertion points for each assault element.

When you have specified the easy difficulty setting for the planning phase, a default team is pre-loaded for you. The Team Window depicts which team members have been selected for the

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current mission, their kits, and the plan they are assigned to, and who is the leader for each plan-group. These reflect the best choices based on available personnel and equipment, although you may still edit these if you wish.

Briefing

The briefing sequence will give you an overview of the basic political and tactical situation that you have been deployed to contend with. Rainbow Six Control and the “Mission Orders” will be your primary briefing sources. John Clark, a senior operative with considerable experience, is also onboard to offer you advice on the specific nuances you should be concerned about on each mission. Periodically, there will be other subject matter experts called in to lend their expertise. Simply click on their portrait on the left side of the briefing screen to hear what they have to offer. Remember that these advisors are simply that, nothing they say relieves you of ultimate responsibility as the mission commander.

Figure 5: The level of difficulty you specify for the campaign alters which mission objectives are displayed on the Briefing screen.

In addition to the written and audio briefing material, you are also shown some pictures of the interior of the space. Pay close attention to the arrangement of the furniture and other structural details that might affect the traffic pattern of your assault plan, or be likely areas of concealment for “Tangos” (i.e.: terrorists). Note the light levels of the space as well. If a lot of shadows and dark areas are present, be ready to use your night vision gear (NVG). When you

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are comfortable with your mission orders, click on the right arrow next to the title bar to proceed to your intelligence briefing.

Don’t worry about committing all of these details to memory now. If you need to review this information again, such as when you are the Planning screen viewing the blueprints of the structure, all you need to do is click on the left arrow next to the title bar of each screen several times to cycle back to the briefing screen.

All of the planning phase screens can be navigated in this fashion and nothing in the plan is finalized until you click on the “Execute” order on the last screen.

Intel

The Intel screen grants you remote access to Control’s database. The database is organized in alphabetical order, separated by category. These categories are people, Organizations, Newswire and Miscellaneous. Clicking on an individual entry displays graphics and/or a text entry for that item in the content window. If an entry is a new one for the current mission, it will initially appear highlighted.

Figure 6. Access to the Intel database is on a “need to know” basis, regardless of your level of clearance. Consequently, many entries won’t appear on the Intel screen until you have received an assignment for which knowledge of them is essential.

The Intel database is not available during the action phase, so make sure that you take the time to learn everything you might possibly need for the mission during the planning phase. When

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