Dev Q&A

[slate yarrow]

RISK Q&A

If you have any RISK-related questions you have come to the right place!

Today we are joined by our producer, devs, qa and our map pack artist/designer!

When do we start?

• We're starting a little later than intended (11:30pm UTC instead of 11pm)
• Start time: <t:1682638200:F> <t:1682638200:R>
• Approx. end time: <t:1682641800:F> <t:1682641800:R>

Notes

• Please note there will be a 15 minute slowmode activated so the team is not overwhelmed with questions.
• *Chat in the post will be enabled once we start

[slate yarrow]

Chat is now open!

[warm cloud]

Are you guys still on track for the Major Networking Overhaul this year and can you provide an ETA?

[honest raptor]

Are We going to get rid of this Hacker going around ruiniing Games?

[vague pulsar]

Have you ever considered using outside sources to catch the hacker? Mental health has been an issue with this person as well as financial loss.

[zinc moth]

Chloe (Producer) here: We're still planning to get this out in the second half of the year and working on it currently. No ETA we can confirm yet but we should be able to let you all know by June/July when the expected release month is.

[zinc moth]

Not something we've discussed - when they're reported we ban them. Our Developer Rob will answer shortly re: JJbruh's question.

[warm cloud]

is there any plan to change a bit amount of points lost when getting 6,5,4,3,2 when getting above 26k ? For me getting -2k or -1k pts when for winning i get e.g.400 just feels bad as an experience and i dont feel like playing more (question from @austere pumice who couldn't attend due to timezone)

[last rampart]

Are there any new gamemodes coming out soon?

[cinder sinew]

Just a random fun question, but what determines bot names and new risk account names. Is there a pre-determined suffix or something? Just something I’m curious so I can find out the true origin of my RISK name

[worn gazelle]

Is there any chance we can gain the ability to look at the battle log of the game using a game code?

[quaint sonnet]

I’d like to see some super sized games ie large maps and 10 player games.

Or increase some of the player numbers on some of the larger maps.

[dire yew]

Is it possible to put in a spectator role in the lobby where people can enter a separate code to spectate the game but not play so they don't see any cards or anything?

[digital stone]

(^To increase the use of commentators and live-streaming of official tournament matches. The implementation of a spectator option to games could flesh out the esports side of Risk and keep a genuine player and viewer base)

[latent kindle]

Do you think at some point we'll get a fully customizable, filterable leaderboard? That way the community will decide which leaderboard is the meta etc.

[frigid surge]

Would love some game settings for fixed, non-random cards. All cavalry, etc. for competitive balanced play.

[zinc moth]

We discussed this a while ago in the following reddit posts - https://www.reddit.com/r/Risk/comments/t430wd/ranking_system_changes_official/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/Risk/comments/tiz7a4/next_round_of_changes_narrowing_down/. This is something we will getting more community feedback about for future update. However we have been prioritising Multiplayer update to allow us more freedom to adjust the ranking rules.

[granite goblet]

Has a new expanded version of the friends list with a blocked player list been considered as a way to deal with lower level “quality of life” infractions (such as stalling). It seems that would really reduce the number of cheating reports by allowing wronged players to deal with it themselves and allow more time for SMG to deal with more serious infractions.

[floral saddle]

Not at the moment; our main priority feature-wise is the networking overhaul, but once that's released we'll visit the feature requests the community have submitted (eg 'secret missions') and we'll see what feels like the best fit.

[still notch]

The default names that you can chose from all come from a list of pre determined names that we have on the server, we randomly combine a list of first and last names then return them to the user to chose from.

[zinc moth]

to add to this secret missions have been on our to do list for a really long time: https://smgstudio.freshdesk.com/support/discussions/topics/11000009606

[woeful marlin]

Are there plans to make more leaderboards based on game mode and/or settings? Thanks for a great game to play!

[warm cloud]

Is there a ETA on when the Space map pack will be released?

[sullen valve]

We are very aware of this user and are taking some active steps. We won't go into details as that only entices more attacks but we are working on a more solid response. For now, we have had to take some resources from the new multi-player to address this.

As a small background, Risk was a single-player and pass-and-play only game. We built the logic on the phones. We then noticed there was an interest in Multiplayer so we opened it up to see how popular it was – but the logic was still on the phone - and thus easily hackable. We always knew this, there is no point attempting to prove it to us. But without it, we probably never would have tested the waters for popularity of the MP game at all.

Unfortunately, this did bring in those hacking users and we had to react as quickly as possible: our long term solution is to move to a “server-authoritative” solution but in the meantime we can only do post-game validation. We have smarts that try to catch users (also made tricky by the way the game was originally written as a single-player game) but this again is after-the-fact. The only other fast (legal) solutions are to enforce authorised accounts where you need to register with emails etc – but this is not what we are about and determined that the actions of the few will not impact others.

Stay tuned – we’re working on it – but in the meantime do keep reporting these users and we’ll act as quickly as we can.

[zinc moth]

Space Map Pack should be out within the next 2 weeks! We'll drop the v3.11 update and then the map pack will follow shortly after. Some of the content creators will be getting early access/extended beta access to use the new maps in their streams so you should all get a pretty good preview of them before they drop.

[floral saddle]

That's a cool idea, have you submitted it to risk-ideas ?

[raven tinsel]

Currently our system works like you have described. When reporting a player in-game they are added to your block list. This then after app restart prevents that player from seeing games you create, and vice versa.
It has been discussed to provide users more control over this list, but we need to find a safe way to provide this to you.

[next frigate]

Is the BB code posted on GitHub still vaguely similar to production code? Are the 4 balanced battle config parameters still the same as the ones posted on GitHub? If not, can we get updates in release notes when they change?

[honest bramble]

is there any plans to expand the spectator side of the game? (in game spectating, seeing through fog ect.) also it 2ould be wonderful for tournaments if a you can host a game you are not playing in. (i.e. 1 host 6 separate players)

[honest raptor]

There have issues with the "hit box" of certain territories with Portals on certain maps like for instance on Seagrogs Fortress in the Top left. Is this something you are looking into already? I have heard you fixed this on Trigons Labyrinth.

[sour island]

Is there any way we could get an expanded shop for emotes? I would love to be able to buy more emotes instead of just the couple I have in the shop. There’s so many dice but no emotes. I would also love more color options/variations

[sullen valve]

The Balance Blitz / Dice code is identical to that in the game. We also verified if this needed updating when 3.9 was released.

[last rampart]

Is there going to be any way to see game history? What place you get and how much battle points someone got from that game?

[floral saddle]

Absolutely, one of the reasons we're overhauling the networking system is to better facilitate spectating. Non-participating hosts is an interesting idea - though seeing through fog (during gameplay at least) would probably make it too easy to cheat.

[cinder sinew]

Are there any plans on adding new emotes to the shop? If so, maybe doing a community designed ones similar to the map design contest?

[worn gazelle]

How are continent bonus troops decided during map creation? Some of the maps are fairly lopsided on this. And what requirements would need to be met for the continental bonus to change.

[zinc moth]

Expanded shop with emotes is up for consideration - we're also looking at some other options like emote offer bundles.

[quaint sonnet]

I would also like to suggest a greater depth to the in game emotions or chat. The current ones have been kicking around now for some time and are dated.

A 15 second timer would be a fun option?

Lastly, Speed up bot button when it just 1 human and bot remains.

Other than the above and my
earlier point. Good job and keep up the good work 👏

[warm cloud]

are you guys planning on implementing for exanple 1 ip adress cant play more than 1 time e.g. in 1 week with the same ip adress in ranked ? this refers to streamera as well as people using more than 1 account to boost the "main" acxount. As far as streamers go i would love to play people like Kylted, Pete etc. in ranked to give them a tough game as well as to learn myself from them in a "normal" way, so without putting them or myself in danger of getting banned. (question from @austere pumice who couldn't attend due to timezone)

[digital stone]

Is there potential for more complex lobby configuration? (i.e. what territories are blizzards or stable portals, allies in fog do or don’t get to see your territories as well, etc.)

[still notch]

We don't have plans right now to expand our leaderboard system right now. Updating our leaderboard system to include more leaderboards that are filterable will mean a significant change in how the leaderboard system currently works.

[floral saddle]

Continent bonuses are initially defined based on a formula (based on factors like number of connected territories etc.) and then during gameplay testing we sometimes adjust them to encourage competition. If any continent bonuses feel lopsided please let us know in risk-ideas ; if it seems to be an opinion shared by the community we'll address it.

[zinc moth]

Thanks for all the feature suggestions and requests here folks! The general answer with feature requests is that risk-ideas is the best place to post these. Suggestions in here get fed into a dashboard that I keep an eye on at least weekly where we can see the top voted and recent suggestions. If something is highly upvoted and feasible to do with our current work on the new multiplayer infrastructure then we'll try to do squeeze them in. If its needs more thinking, design or discussion it goes on our roadmap. The development team also look at these suggestions regularly. This is the same for map bonus suggestions (Japan map bonus update last year for example).

[sullen valve]

IP blocking / control is contentious and not practical. Some ISPs operate through proxies where hundreds of users can be routed through the same IP/Proxy – blocking one will block others potentially miles apart. Those that play at work will be use a common IP even though they are spread geographically. (Others use VPNs to avoid getting caught on school or work networks, and may share Ips because they use the same global VPN provider.) Conversely dial-up ISPs swap IPs regularly, and some mobile/cell networks result in you hopping IP addresses frequently. We can use IPs as “advisory” but not “block”.

[zinc moth]

New emotes! Yes we definitely want get cracking on these. Currently we've just had a dice, troop and map focussed artist on the team but we'll be borrowing some more art talent from the rest of the studio hopefully soon so stay tuned!

[vague pulsar]

As this community is growing extremely well, have you considered your connection to content creators and their voices being leaders in the community?. As sports go, some staff, leaders, teachers, administrators and coaches are required to take TWO very important credential related courses. Respect in Sport
and Making Ethical decisions.
Considering the dual nature of SMG and content creator promotion. Sometime possibly soon to be E-Sport, should this be a future consideration as ambassadors to the game?.

[granite goblet]

To follow up on my previous question. Your answer suggests that any kind of cheat report means that that player and you are on each others ban lists forever and you don’t see each others game lobbies again. Is this a correct understanding?

Hopefully player control of the ban list will be a thing. Because my occasional report of someone who was stalling was not meant to block them forever.

Also an important question in the community:

Does SMG consider No Australia No win to be the best strategy in classic fixed?

[sour island]

Is the fault with Balanced Blitz caps being addressed? It shouldn’t be possible to hit a capital with a 1000 troops and lose 900 but it seems to be happening more than the x2 troops I would expect to lose

[last rampart]

How do bans work because I was banned for seemingly nothing for 24 hours and all I was doing was playing the game I wasn't playing with a friend or anything. Another part if you are just playing ranked and another player joins your game who you don't recognize but just happends to be someone you recently player with can that incite a ban and should I keep track of every player I play with to make sure this doesn't happen?

[slate yarrow]

On Q1 - the blocks only lasts for the duration of the report, so after X time (where you receive "no action taken" message in-game) - the block is lifted

On Q2?

[warm cloud]

people often say "caps are broken", do you see the problem and if so, is there some a fix comming ? best regards to the team (question from @austere pumice who couldn't attend due to timezone)

[slate yarrow]

It's worth checking out https://discord.com/channels/465846009164070912/1033202011488911380 first as it covers where you can find all of the relevant info

false-positives tend to only occur due to too many games with the same players (and more common in 1v1 than anywhere else) - it's a good idea to switch maps / settings if it occurs, but really you can only get an answer on why the ban was issued via support ticket https://smgstudio.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new

[honest tangle]

Would like to understand the devs thoughts on team games(2v2, 3v3), and if they hold a low or high priority on the road map?

My personal belief is that once people find out that Risk can be played co-operatively this way, it adds a depth the game never had before.

[zinc moth]

We do our best to screen RISK content creators as keeping RISK family friendly / accessible for everyone is one of our main goals. At the same time we don't want to create lots of hurdles for people to clear before they can stream RISK because we love boosting smaller creators.

When we're approached to do collabs (like the recent one with Pete) we'll always pre-screen or have a chat about what we think is appropriate or not before we go ahead. At the end of the day though there may be some streamers out there who we won't support based on their content. I know @stiff fjord has been working hard to boost our streamers.

[digital stone]

What is your team’s opinion on community-run tournaments and leagues outside of the official Risk discord server? Many new ones have been popping up with some even attracting sponsors.

[sullen valve]

You are correct: reporting a user automatically adds them as "blocked". You can remove a blocked user by adding them as a friend - but there is no finer way of controlling the block list.

[stoic zealot]

how hard would it be to put 4 people on the left side of the screen in game to have a 10 person game?

[slate yarrow]

@sour island@warm cloud We'd asked for input on Capital Conquest ~6 months ago in this post: #news_community_feedback message

The issue with making adjustments to dice rolls is that it wouldn't just impact capitals and it could potentially be game-breaking for everyone - if there's any suggestions for how to improve capitals directly it's definitely worth sharing in #risk_ideas

[zinc moth]

It's awesome seeing the tourney's run in this discord and we've been actively increasing our announcements on steam for these to help boost them. Can't comment on other tourney's as we need to be careful about who we're endorsing especially where sponsorship is involved.

[floral saddle]

After we rollout the networking overhaul we're really excited by the new ways to play that become possible (asynchronous play etc.) but team games and more meaningful alliances is something we're definitely keen to introduce.

[last rampart]

I did submit a support ticket but I failed to get a response. After how long should I expect a response because it has been a few days and after an initial response I have received nothing. And the 1st response only too a few hours to get feedback. So I'm slightly confused

[granite goblet]

What efforts has SMG made to make RISK more accessible to players with limited sight or physical mobility?

It is a rare online game along with chess and a few others where the game can be thought of as almost entirely mental.

I am of course impressed as anyone to watch lightening fast players take the board at remarkable speed, and would not want to see that type of game go away, but if some effort is not put into game modes that allow for people of different physical abilities to meet as equals in the mental arena of RISK then it really seems like a wasted opportunity.

[slate yarrow]

Should be within a couple of weeks for responses, it depends on severity etc. as things like lost accounts / missing purchases may be more urgent than a temporary suspension

[sour island]

I’m not asking you to change how capitals work. There seems to be a problem where when you roll a capital in Balanced blitz where mathematically impossible rolls in favor of the attacker are happening if you have exactly 100% odds

[zinc moth]

Just to reiterate; a lot of answers to the team play/clan based play, number of players, different game modes and new features is the same:

After our multiplayer overhaul this year we want to focus our roadmap for 2024+ on introducing these kinds of features. Rob gave some great context above on how RISK was initially developed as a single player/ pass and play game. This update helps us resolve this before we can tackle these features properly.

[slate yarrow]

Questions are now closed off - SMG Team will try to reply to anything not replied to yet - we'll need to get the team back to working on RISK

[spark bison]

It'll cover up the map art and make the artists sad

[raven tinsel]

We have added multiple controls for players with visibility issues or may be slow to react for whatever reason. Such thing includes colorblind mode with 3 different colorblind options and a slider to increase intensity. Player can control time limits to provide more time to respond. Zoom is available and you can increase puck size if difficult to see the numbers.
We are always open to ideas behind ways to improve this, but we also feel with so many options players can truly adjust a game to suite their needs.

[zinc moth]

Thanks everyone for your questions, suggestions and comments. We'll keep running these QandA's when we can as the team love chatting with you all!