G’day folks! The last six months have been busy for the studio, and we're finally ready to share what we've been working on.
We've been working on two major projects within RISK:
CORE
The Core work is the spiritual successor to the Network Overhaul. The idea behind the Network Overhaul was to move RISK to a server-authoritative architecture to improve security and stability. Following a closed beta with experienced players and creators between Oct-Nov 2025, we analysed the results and two issues proved too significant:
Noticeable input delay that negatively affected online gameplay.
Inconsistent latency between regions, creating fairness and gameplay issues.
After extensive time in Q1 reviewing the player experience, risks, and commercial impact, we concluded the server-authoritative model wasn't the right direction and retired this approach.
There’s no silver bullet for stability and security. Our revised solution is based on a series of smaller tactical, incremental improvements starting next month with v3.24 (Aug), then ongoing through 2026-2027. We’ll summarise the key improvements below.
Version 3.24 focuses on rebuilding some of the oldest parts of RISK's codebase—including networking, reconnection, game state and time handling. Most players won't notice these systems directly, but they should notice the results: fewer dropped games, more reliable reconnects, better turn timing and more consistent bot-outs. It also prepares the game for Battle Cards (v4.0) later this year.
What ships in v3.24 (August 2026)?
To summarise the improvements:
Game State Optimization: Reduced packet sizes and rebuilt game state handling for faster, more reliable communication. Communicating with the server directly gives us better monitoring capabilities for detecting cheating.
Networking: Rebuilt connection and reconnection systems from the ground up. The endless "Reconnecting..." spinner should now be a thing of the past.
Game Timer Refactor: We rebuilt how the game synchronises time between clients, giving us much tighter control. That means fewer skipped turns and no more games unexpectedly snapping back to a previous state.
Bot-out Improvements: We reviewed and rebuilt the bot-out system, fixing edge cases where it triggered incorrectly—or not at all. Bot-outs should now behave much more consistently and as players expect.
What About Hacking & Collaboration?
The stability improvements in 3.24 lay the foundation, but we haven't forgotten the main reason we started this journey in the first place. Here's how we're tackling hacking without compromising the gameplay feel you know. Rather than relying on one large change, we're addressing cheating in four stages so improvements can reach players sooner. It's a complex problem and breaking it down is the right way to do it properly. It also means improvements start reaching you sooner, rather than waiting for everything to land at once.
Stage 1: Security Foundations: Essential protections that make the game significantly harder to exploit. (Q4 2026)*
Stage 2: Action Validation: Every turn, the server checks what happened against what should be possible. Inconsistencies get flagged and reported, giving us a clear picture of who's cheating. (Q1 2027)*
Stage 3: Expanded Coverage: Validation reaches deeper into the game, covering more scenarios and closing more doors on cheating behaviour. (Q1 2027)*
Stage 4: Live Enforcement: Validation moves from detection to action. Cheaters get flagged, games get stopped, and ranking points are protected. (Q2 2027)*
* Dates subject to change
Queued Lobby System (Q1 2027*)
Queued Lobby redesigns multiplayer matchmaking to create fairer games, reduce collusion and get players into matches faster. (Q1 2027, date subject to change).
More control over your games: Players can select multiple games to join from the main lobby view, meaning games fill faster and you spend less time waiting.
Server controls who plays against whom: We can detect players that have recently played against each other and ensure they don't join the same game, reducing the opportunity for collusion. We can also identify players on your block list, so you’ll never get matched with them.
Automatch revamped: Players can set their preferred filters (game mode, player count, map, and many more) and get matched into games that fit. Want Capital Conquest with 4+ players only? Done.
VCC sniper protection: Creators can flag known snipers and that flag is shared across the wider creator community and added to all creator blocklists automatically. Creators have the option to remove from their own blocklists.
Team Games (Q1 2027*)
Team Games has been one of the community's most requested features, and we're excited to finally be building it. A dedicated mode to play with friends against random human opponents means one less major reason for collusion to happen in other ranked and casual games. ETA ~Q4 2026 / Q1 2027 (subject to change).
Bring your friends: Step into battle with friends on games that are 2v2, 2v2v2 or 3v3. No friend left behind.
Help your teammates: Deploy troops on your teammate's territories to help them in battle.
Pass through: Fortify your troops through your teammate's territories, or just give those troops to them.
Improved in-game chat: for more advanced commands and exchanges.
And many more: There's a lot more to Team Games that we can't wait to share. More details coming soon.
BATTLE CARDS (v4.0 - Oct/Nov 2026)
Although unrelated to the network overhaul, it's worth mentioning that v4.0 doesn't just introduce major new features, it also includes a wide range of quality-of-life improvements, many of them directly requested by creators and the community.
4.0 Major Features
Daily / weekly missions
Battle Cards gameplay
Card Mastery progression & new rewards
Card collection and deck building.
Full UX and design overhaul across the entire game (every screen: menus, nav and in-game)
In-game events
4.0 QOL
Browse maps in a grid view: instead of one map at a time when creating or joining games.
Powerful new lobby filters: find online games faster (a highly requested feature).
Leaderboards overhaul: including dedicated friends-only, mode-specific and map-specific leaderboards.
% Domination, Round Delay and Max Rounds: now game modifiers instead of separate game modes.
Territory Connection Overlay: make sense of those fiddly map layout, available pre-game and in-game.
Dual Troop transfer slider: (0–100%) for faster, more precise transfer and no more mouse-finger injuries.
Adjustable bot movement speeds: suit to your preferred pace (faster default speed for MP online and adjustable for SP).
Music: instead of one single in-game looped track there's about ~40mins of music split into 7 themes. We've worked with long-time collaborator and composer Bradley Gentle. Each map defaults to its theme like Classic, Sci-fi, Viking, Dark Fantasy (roughly 6 minutes of music each), but you can freely swap tracks via the in-game settings.
...and much more.
Over and out!
