I hope your scroll-wheel is ready because this is one of the biggest updates to RISK yet and you’re gonna be scrolling for a while.
To celebrate this update we also want to share this amazing artwork we commissioned from Ryan Lee to celebrate the Strongholds & Castles map pack. Check out his work, give him a follow.
We’ve focused on new content and quality of life fixes. We hope you enjoy and wish all our players a safe and fun holiday season.
There’s also a LOT of work done but not released in 2.8 which will be rolled out in updates in early 2021. We’ll also be releasing our dice rolling code to GitHub so everyone can review and we can stop the conspiracies.
Strongholds & Castles
Battle your way through four iconic locations from around the world. Strongholds & Castles map pack features our largest ever map -- Mont Saint-Michel!
We heard you Big Map Fans. BMFs 4 LYF!
Mont Saint-Michel:
Weighing in at 88 territories this map is a big cluster of fun. It’s also the kind of castle you build when you really hate having neighbors.
Himeji Castle
Built in 1333 it would have been even more legendary had it been built in 1337 but they were ahead of schedule.
Conwy Castle
This is the type of castle you draw as a kid with the iconic circular towers around the wall. Built in 1289 for £15,000 which seems like a bargain in retrospect considering it’s still standing today and you’d struggle to build a small studio apartment for that.
Red Sands Fort
Honestly if you told me these were up for rent on AirBNB as instagrammer getaway hotels I would believe you. Built for the Second World War long before influencers were a thing.
Fantasy II
It’s Xmas time so we’ve doubled down with another four new maps! Reveal the mysteries of strange and haunted places, explore enchanted lands and ancient ruins in our Fantasy II map pack.
Dracula’s Castle
Oh Drac I love what you’ve done with the place!! It’s actually Bran Castle but that sounds like a breakfast cereal so we’re going with Dracula’s Castle as a much more tourist-friendly name.
Lost Temple:
We even asked master cartographer, Dyson Logos to licence us the design for Lost Temple. Check out his site and support his Patreon. There’s so many amazing maps for your own D&D sessions at home.
Jules Verne's Mysterious Island
Based off the Jules Verne novel by the same name (well it was originally L'Île mystérieuse but I struggle to type those umlauts, are they umlauts? what are those things called?) We thought we’d tap into the classic, but importantly public domain, fantasy.
The Younger Scrolls
Oddly familiar yet totally different map! Enjoy waging battles on this magical land.
Free Stuff!
Love free stuff? Of course you do. We’ve teamed up with prime gaming to offer free in-game loot. Pretty sweet deal. They help promote RISK, you get free stuff. It’s a triple WIN!
To redeem: Just log into RISK: Global Domination on mobile (IOS or Android) with your Prime account to claim free maps, emotes and more! The rewards will roll out over the next 6 months!
Settings & RISK Account
We’ve added categories to Settings for a better user experience AND added new options for account security.
16+ age players can now:
add an email as well as password to ensure your purchases and progress are secure and easy to recover with email verification.
Log in with your email only (once you’ve set it up) if you forget your username.
How's that for a slice of fried gold?
(Please comment below if you get this reference and want to see more British comedy injected into these updates)
Same user account and multiple devices
As of v2.8 players can still play across devices and platforms under one account, but will no longer be able to play games at the same time on multiple devices. This is to:
- curb potential cheating
- prevent server errors caused by updates from simultaneous games for one account.
When you log on to a second device while active on another, your session will be disconnected from the first device. If you attempt to return to the second device you will be asked which device to continue to use.
Battle Log
We’ve beefed up the Battle Log. This will help remove some of the !?!? when playing but don't worry the beef is vegan safe.
We know some of the authentic RISK rules can be a bit obscure, so we’re now logging 6 different event types:
Turn Start: details on troop & continent bonuses
- Card Trade: now shows forced trades / how many cards / if there was a 2+ territory card bonus / matching card combinations
- Attack: who attacked whom / territories and troop numbers
- Defeat: who defeated whom / territory cards seized
- Fortify: How many troops / from where to where
- Disconnects: for local player only (with a warning some events will not be recorded while they were disconnected)
For better clarity, we’ve added the details for the troop bonus calculations now. This helps a lot with the more obscure RISK rules, like the +2 troops when you occupy one of the territories on the cards you trade in.
If you’re playing with Fog of War, you’ll see fewer details of course:
- Turn Start: total troop only
- Card Trade: total troops only
- Player Defeated: full details shown
- Fortify: will only show details if both territories are visible to you on the map.
Other improvements:
Ever wanted to review the battle log after your game finished? Now you can both on Game Over or while spectating as an eliminated player.
We increased the max number of events from 30 -> 45. Work that scroll wheel!
(this update was brought to you by the Scroll Wheel Union of America. “Scroll Wheels: keeping America scrolling since 1996”)
We reduced the triggers to auto-close the Battle Log to the essentials only: your turn start; a player defeat; Capitals game mode ‘active’ alert; zombie outbreak alert. User testing says 93% less annoying!
New ‘Six Strikes’ Suspension System
The RISK ban hammer got a major update in v2.8.
Previously, player suspensions from ranked multiplayer games could last anywhere between 1-30 days. This has now been replaced by ‘Six-strikes’ where each strike incurs a longer suspension for repeat offenders. Strike 1 is a 24 hr suspension and escalates up to a permanent ban for strike 6. This is also aimed at reducing the number of “burner/alt” accounts and to be less punishing tor players unfamiliar with our fair play rules e.g. don’t play with friends in Global Domination (pssst that’s what Play with Friends mode is for).
Previously we did a poor job of communicating to suspended players how long their suspensions would last. In v2.8 this is clearly shown on the home screen and by tapping the Global Domination button. In addition, players will now receive a direct in-app message from RISK admin at the start of a new suspension.
Fair Play
We listen to our community feedback and requests, and with every release we commit a portion of our development to improving Fair Play. In v2.8 we’ve included many small to medium updates:
Stalling
RISK v2.7 shipped with automated detection for unfair stalling (where an opponent could win but stalls in an attempt to force you to quit rather than finish). In v2.8, the Report Player now has ‘Stalling’ as an additional option. Tap on your opponent’s avatar to access.
Reporting Players
We often receive questions from our community about what happens to complaints submitted during a game using the report feature (above) for cheating, unfair or inappropriate behaviour. Reported players are flagged and actively monitored for 30 days using our automated tools. For players using v2.8+ we will now provide a direct message in-app to inform reporters whether any action is taken against the player they reported.
In addition, as of v2.8 if you have reported a player using the in-game reporting feature (or they have reported you) neither of you will be able to view a game hosted by the other that is in the available games to join list in Global Domination.
Ranks
To counter unfair player targeting due to their rank, we’ve removed ranks from multiplayer lobbies, gameplay and game over. Rank filters for game hosts are still available.
Also in v2.8 you can now tap avatars in the multiplayer lobby to view player profiles.
Other Improvements
Thanks to our community feedback, we’ve addressed a few exploitable issues in v2.8:
Fix: Closing and restarting the app during a forced card trade will no longer allow a second trade.
If the AI takes over due to player inactivity, they will no longer be able to see the map to wait for an opportunity to rejoin. The map will be 100% hidden as above.
Spectate mode is disabled during Fog of War games to prevent unfair collaboration.
Available games in Global Domination will now be named according to map rather than by the host player, to deter friends playing together.
Rules Change
The progressive card bonus is now unlimited in 2.8. Previously it was capped at 60 troops.
Map Changelog
Major
- Ottoman Empire: Removed wrong connection between Far East > Caspian Districts. Added missing connection between Far East > Durrani.
- Britannia: balancing change- adjusted & increased Continent bonuses.
- Moscow: balancing change- adjusted & reduced Continent bonuses.
Minor
- Supermax Prison: dotted connections more readable between continents
- Classic: Fixed overlapping names & label positions
- Moscow Advanced: Fixed misaligned Continent bonus labels
General fixes & improvements
- Major Fix: player alliances will automatically be broken if a player goes offline and the computer AI takes over. This is to prevent an exploitable bug where the AI would honour the alliance and never attack for the remainder of the game.
- Fix: for incorrect position for local player on the in-app leaderboard.
- Fix: Occupying 2 continents next to each other will no longer cause the continent outline highlight to be broken
- Fix: When selecting a territory to attack, the enemy troop temporarily appears on different territory and then on the correct one.
- Fix: for occasional dice disappearing during manual rolling
- Fix: for charging tokens for tutorial scenarios.
- Added additional sound and vibration to the ‘Get Ready’ confirmation screen for multiplayer games.
- Player verified badges and country flags added to game over and home screens
- Streamlined onboarding and login for new and existing players.
- Multiple UI improvements and minor fixes.
Phew! I can't believe you scrolled this far!
Again thanks for playing and the support of the team at SMG and we can't wait to show you what we have planned for 2021! We’re wrapping up soon for holidays but will have a support team on to answer questions.
Don’t forget the officially community run Discord is also the place to chat with all the other RISK fans like you, well maybe not exactly like you as you’re special.