In response to community feedback regarding our previously communicated plans (or lack thereof) regarding public matchmaking, we are changing strategies.
If you viewed our Steam page before August 12th 2025, you might have noticed a disclaimer message titled "Netcode and Matchmaking". It explained that Secret Handshake Interactive is a very small team, and we simply don't have the resources to keep up with the war for fair play that modern online games create. It continued to state that C4 would not provide any open public matchmaking settings, and instead would prioritize facilitating play between friends and small communities.
However, we quickly received community feedback that this wasn't adequate. No matter how frictionless we made private games, or how much content we provided for solo play, battling against other real players in the Arena is an irreplaceable experience and would be inaccessible for people who did not have an established play group (and the ability to get them all into C4).
So, we're changing strategies! Here's what we are adding:
A "Quickplay" option on the main menu that looks automatically for a suitable server.
A public server browser, including expanded server info and filtering tools.
Votekick, a basic community-driven moderation method.
"Avoid list" for players and hosts.
Prevents Quickplay matchmaking into servers with avoided players, and flags Server Browser entries with avoided players.
Avoided players are automatically prevented from joining servers you host.
Your Avoid List is stored as a raw text file and can be easily copied and shared.
When a player is votekicked or banned by the host, all players are given the option to add the victim to their personal Avoid List.
We are investigating the anti-cheat options available to us.
And here's what is not changing:
The client-authoritative network model, which creates responsive gameplay and reduces the impact of latency.
Our commitment to facilitating established play groups, through friends list integration and other features.
This new approach is to respect the necessity of public play for the genre, and do our small team's level best to preserve the integrity of play with every tool available. We have updated the "Netcode and Matchmaking" disclaimer on the C4 store page to reflect this.
Secret Handshake Interactive is brought to you by players like you.
Thank you.
Preserved below is the original "Netcode and Matchmaking" disclaimer, outdated as of August 12th 2025.
"Without the resources to regularly update anti-cheat systems, a traditional server-based network architecture would not effectively reduce the presence of cheating in public matches. The Secret Handshake team weighed tradeoffs and made the decision to prioritize game feel and groups of friends playing together. As such, Classical Caliber Combat Contest uses a client-authoritative network architecture. This means user inputs are instantly responsive and the experience will be smoother when players are geographically separated from each other.
Because Secret Handshake cannot offer a public online experience reasonably resilient to cheating, the game does not have a public matchmaker or server browser. Instead, social features are available to help players connect to people they trust, such as inviting from the friends list, and Game Codes for easy connection without being Steam friends. Additionally, the "Station ID" feature allows users to perform custom matchmaking where they will be automatically connected to someone hosting a game using the same arbitrary code, if such a player exists.
It is our intention to be honest about the challenges of publishing an online multiplayer game, and continue to provide solutions to these issues."