Thanks to hearing about Siege on the Beastcast and seeing it played a fair bit by Dave Lang, Matt Pascual, and the East crew during Extra Life, I'm interested enough in the game to give it a look, especially since there are some deep discounts via Ubisoft/Steam and the PS4 store (haven't checked Xbox but I imagine they have deals on par with the other storefronts.) Before I jump in, I have a few questions:

1. How is the onboarding/learning curve for someone who would play mostly solo? Dan spoke a lot about playing Terrorist Hunt - does that teach you enough about raw mechanics as well as how to use different Operators that you can be a useful teammate in Casual team play?

2. How does this play on a controller/console? I prefer to play shooters that way in part because I don't have the skill to hang with hardcore KB/M players.

3. Is there a big enough community on PS4 or Xbox to make playing on console viable for a while?

3a. Are those console communities forgiving enough of someone learning the game and meta that I won't get sick of being yelled at by literal children and just go back to single player games? I realize this asks for a certain assumption about my willingness to handle BS from online players. Let's set it at "medium."

The game seems fun, is fascinating to an "outsider," and now seems like a great time to take a lower risk chance, I just want to make sure I'm setting myself up to enjoy my time with it. Thanks duders!

In general, yes the Terrorist Hunt mode will give you a little leeway on learning the quirks of various Operators, plus the Situations mode will walk you through the general aspects of breaching/defending an objective. Play through those if you can, plus they give you Renown (in-game currency) to buy skins and other Operators (if you don't feel like buying them outright with real money). The toxicity has gone down a bit in my recent experience but I would still recommend playing with people you know as randos may not be so forgiving and either don't say anything about enemy positions or have a small chance of yelling racial slurs in team chat.

Another general tip: try to learn the maps as you go through them. That will be the key. Learn quick which walls can be shot through or breached, which require thermite, and which can't be blown through at all. It only takes 3 melee attacks to break through a standard barricade, but just 1-2 can create a hole to shoot through.

Also, do not buy the Starter Edition. They make you grind a shitton more if you have that as punishment.

Copy-pasting an earlier post of mine on this topic

Some things I've picked up while playing through casual matches on PC:

DEFENSE

Starter Characters: Mute for drone and charge-jamming gadgets. Jager for grenade-stopping gadget. Rook because his job is simply to plant a bag full of armor at the start for the team and then act as a normal soldier. All set-and-forget, and with the first two you can pick them up and redeploy them as needed.

Watch for trapdoors and weak floor sections above you the enemy could drop down into an objective and reinforce them so they can't break through easily.

Don't cluster yourself around the objective, that just lets the attackers think up ways to squish your whole team. Have at least one or two roaming around outside of the objective.

Don't go outside of the building unless you know you have a good shot at the attacker or there's only one left, because your position is revealed to the enemy team until you get back inside.

Don't feel the need to barricade every open doorway if you can set up a good trap or ambush nearby.

If you have barbed wire, place it just outside a barricaded door so you can hear the enemy trying to come through. Bonus if you have a Bandit who can shock the wire.

There's no honor in camping, but R6:Siege is not about honor. Feel free to hide in one spot if you think it will give you or your team an advantage.

Remember that time is on your side. Eventually the attackers will have to come to the objective or lose the round by default.

OFFENSE

Starter characters: Ash for her long-distance breaching charge, don't waste it on things you can just shoot through or break down unless doing so would surprise the enemy. Sledge for his hammer which never runs out of ammo and can breach any non-reinforced wall. Thatcher for his EMP grenades that can disable enemy gadgets (as long as Jager's ADS isn't nearby). Glaz for his sniper rifle and smoke grenades, if you have good aim.

Drones are good for finding the objective at the start, but if the objective is found, try to hide it nearby so you can use it later to update enemy positions. Also, don't shoot the drones you find, as they are all on your team (with one exception).

If the objective looks clear, it probably isn't. Toss in smoke/flash/frag (if there's no hostage) grenades before jumping in to clear a room. If possible, tell your team to hit the room from multiple angles, or set up a breaching charge on a different wall so the defense gets thrown off. If you don't have any of those, use a drone so you at least have an idea of where the attackers might be hiding in the room.

If you see a camera inside, destroy it as quick as possible. Even in death, the defenders can still mark you with cameras, or communicate your position to their team without actually marking you.

Time may be with the defenders, but don't rush into a room or hallway unless you want to get killed easily. Go slow and steady unless there are only seconds left.

Remember it only takes a few shots for someone to die on either side in this game.