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11 WARDOGS is an online multiplayer game with no offline or single-player mode, so every match runs on a hosted server. Players find a game through a server browser rather than automated skill-based matchmaking, which makes the choice of server, and of who runs it, part of how a session plays out.
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33 Official and Community-Hosted Servers
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55 Two kinds of server sit behind that browser. Official servers are run by the developers. Alongside them, players can rent and run community-hosted servers, which opened for pre-order ahead of the early access launch on 10 September 2026 through three hosting companies the studio has approved for the purpose.
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77 The practical difference between the two is moderation. A community-hosted server has admins who can ban a bad actor on the spot, while an official server leans on the in-game reporting pipeline and the automated anti-cheat behind it. The developers point to community-hosted servers as the strongest protection a player can pick for exactly that reason.
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99 The Community Server Overhaul
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1111 The community server layer did not survive contact with a live player base, and the studio said so itself two days after launch. Announcing patch 0.11 on 12 September 2026, it wrote that community servers had been underserved, that the browser experience as a whole had been poor, and that it had not put the same care and passion into community hosting as into the rest of the game, describing its own community server strategy as rushed. It called community servers the lifeblood of games like this one, the thing that keeps a game alive well past its peak, and said it had worked through the night on a fix.
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1313 The update split the front end into two separate browsers, Community and Official. The studio's own reasoning was that a game at this player count would realistically use matchmaking rather than a browser, but that it did not want community admins and hosts to suffer for that.
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1515 ChangeEffectSplit browsersCommunity and Official servers are listed separatelyFiltering removed from OfficialThere are no official modified game modes for a filter to sortFiltering improved on CommunityReliability fixes, plus a new text based searchPersistent server IDsIDs were previously wiped on map change and restart. Each server now keeps a unique ID that players can join by, longer than before for security reasonsEmpty and full toggleAdded to the browser quick barHost button repointedNow links straight to the hosting pageServer name rulesNames sort alphabetically regardless of special characters and numbers, and more than one consecutive space is disallowed
1616 The studio attached a bonus of 5 percent end of match cash to community servers for the following week as an apology, and recommended them to players who wanted to earn quickly. It also named further community features as in the pipeline but not ready, tracked under Early Access Roadmap.
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1818 Update 0.1.2 and the Deploy Flow
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20-The next round of server work arrived in Update 0.1.2 on 30 September 2026, and it partly reversed the patch before it: advanced filters were added back to the Official server list. The larger change was a new Deploy flow. Pressing Deploy now offers a choice of Official, Community, Infantry Mode or Low-Level servers, which the studio described as a first step toward pointing players at servers running those modifiers. As of 14 October 2026 it has not published what either modifier changes.
20+The next round of server work arrived in Update 0.1.2 on 30 September 2026, and it partly reversed the patch before it: advanced filters were added back to the Official server list. The larger change was a new Deploy flow. Pressing Deploy now offers a choice of Official, Community, Infantry Mode or Low-Level servers, which the studio described as a first step toward pointing players at servers running those modifiers. As of 16 October 2026 it has not published what either modifier changes.
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22+Season 2, on 15 October 2026, added region-based ping limits. Official servers enforce a maximum ping that depends on their region, and a player who stays over it for a sustained period is kicked automatically, with server-side lag spikes excluded from the measurement so that a temporary spike does not cause a kick. A player kicked for high ping cannot rejoin the same server until the next map. The server browser gained maximum ping tags and filters, and community server admins can set their own limits, looser to allow play across regions or stricter. The studio said the first values would be quite lenient while it settles on the right ones.
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24+The same update gives players who populate empty servers rewards and a vendor discount once the match begins, and warns that community server hosts seen exploiting the Lonestar faction bonus will be punished, though the bonus itself was removed on 16 October 2026. That day the studio also said Limited Mode servers, with no power weapons and vehicles, are coming soon.
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2226 ChangeEffectAdvanced filtersRestored on the Official listLong server namesNo longer cut off; hovering over an entry shows the full nameJoiningThe browser shows a connecting state and then the player's place in any queueAnonymous modeHides the server name on the loading screen and, unless the player chooses otherwise, in the pause menuRegion selectShows how many regions are selectedGamepadSupported on the Deploy selection screen
2327 Community server admins gained a daily scheduled restart time set in UTC, an RCON AllowedHosts setting to restrict who can reach RCON, capped RCON message and broadcast lengths, and a Standard rather than Full default for RCON response detail, with server internals no longer exposed in configuration responses. The ServerImageURL setting is now checked when the configuration loads.
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2529 Two hotfixes followed on 2 October 2026: a one-hour server hotfix at 08:00 UTC for minor security and stability issues, and a balance hotfix that needed no downtime. The full notes are under Update History.
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2731 Regions
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2933 Capacity is managed by region. Server capacity in the Asian region was increased in the same patch, with the studio saying demand from the region warranted it and that it would put more focus into supporting Asia as part of the worldwide player base.
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3135 Linux and Proton
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3337 Linux is not officially supported. The studio set its position out in a pinned notice on 4 September 2026, six days before launch: it does not officially support Linux, could not commit to support at launch, and is still working on official Proton compatibility. It stated that this stance had not changed since pre-release, and attributed the confusion to a communications error by a community manager that was screenshotted and circulated.
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3539 It also addressed the reason Linux players believed otherwise. Where the game ran under Proton during earlier alpha and beta rounds, the studio described that as happenstance rather than support, and advised anyone who had bought expecting Linux compatibility to refund. It said demand had been heard and that official compatibility remains the goal.
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3741 An update to the same notice on 25 September 2026 said the studio had no additional information on Linux compatibility or a timeline, that it still intends to support Linux officially through Proton, and that it would not keep restating its position until it had something definite to announce.
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3943 Anti-Cheat
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4145 The store listing declares that the game uses kernel-level anti-cheat, and requires agreement to a third-party licence for it. As of 14 October 2026 the listing names Elytra as the provider. The studio's own privacy policy, last updated on 9 September 2026, names Anybrain among its anti-cheat, fraud-prevention and security providers, and describes keyboard and mouse input telemetry captured by an Anybrain anti-cheat software development kit. Neither document mentions the product the other names, and the policy's wording allows for more than one provider. A developer video published on 8 September 2026, titled around the first rule of anti-cheat, named no product. Stored captures of the listing from July and August 2026 read a different provider, but the studio has never described a change, so this page records what each document says and when rather than asserting a switch.
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4347 Its published advice to players has two parts. Use the in-game report function when playing on official servers, and move to a community-hosted server when the strongest protection matters, because an admin there does not have to wait for an automated system to act.
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4549 Reporting and Bans
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4751 The launch build reworked how reports are handled. The studio added a report tracking system and started weighting reports so that repeat and bad faith reporters carry less influence, which limits how much a coordinated group can do by mass-reporting a player. Cheater bans are now announced inside the server when match termination is turned off, so the rest of the lobby can see that an account was removed rather than guessing. The message telling a player they were kicked from a server now appears only when they were actually banned, instead of after any disconnect.
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4953 The studio's player safety page, last updated on 7 September 2026, adds detail on what a report carries. A report made in game can include an extract of the recent text chat from that session, currently up to the last 50 messages; text chat is otherwise not kept. Voice chat is provided by a third-party service and is not recorded or stored, so a report about something said aloud is easier to act on with the server name, an approximate time and reports from other players.
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5155 Enforcement did not go cleanly at launch. A wave of accounts were banned incorrectly on 10 and 11 September 2026; the studio pinned a running notice acknowledging the reports, said it was working through them, and later confirmed that a batch of bans had been rescinded.
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5357 It has since published where the lines are. Patch 0.11 set out a three-tier response to economy abuse: a timed ban plus a reset of cash and experience to zero for abusing cash exploits, a permanent ban for producing content that teaches others to abuse a system without reporting it, which the studio said it treats as advertising cheats, and a permanent ban for experience farming, which it called the most serious category and said it detects by tracking which servers an account joins. It drew the line at repetition rather than discovery, describing one or two tests of a newly found bug as helping with quality assurance.
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5559 Update 0.1.2 on 30 September 2026 hardened that stance. The studio said players caught abusing cash and experience exploits, or real money trading, had already had their cash and progression reset, that it had been more lenient with first-time offenders until then, and that the leniency was over: abusing repeatable unintended exploits now risks a permanent ban without warning.
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5761 Security and Enforcement Policy
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5963 The studio also keeps a standing enforcement policy on its official site, last updated on 7 September 2026. It applies to official and community servers alike and lists four actions.
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6165 ActionWhat it meansServer restrictionA player who draws repeated reports on one server can be barred from that server for a period, without losing access to the rest of the gameTemporary suspensionThe account loses online play for a period that depends on the offence and any previous historyPermanent account banThe account permanently loses online play; the policy notes this may extend to other games the studio operates on the same account systemHardware banThe device itself is barred from online play, whichever account signs in on it; the length is not disclosed in advance
6266 Only permanent account bans can be appealed, and the studio aims to respond to an appeal within 30 days. Server restrictions, suspensions and hardware bans are final, although a hardware ban issued alongside a permanent ban is lifted if that ban is overturned. Bans handed out by community server admins are their own decisions, which the studio does not review. The policy also states that the game does not currently require Secure Boot or a TPM to play online, but that it may introduce that requirement, with notice before it takes effect.
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6468 Systems Tested at Scale
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6670 The second closed beta, announced on 1 September 2026, was run as a deliberate scale test rather than a marketing beat. The developers said they wanted players to jump in and break the systems that only fail under load, and set out which parts of the service they were watching.
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6872 Area under testWhat it coversServer scalingCapacity as invited players were added in waves rather than all at onceServer browsingThe browser players use to find and join a matchStream viewing rewardsReward entitlements granted for watching live broadcasts of the gameContent entitlementsUnlocks tied to the optional Supporter EditionVoice chatThe proximity voice system used in every match, covered under Teams and TacticsLogin queueThe queue that holds players before they enter a server
6973 Regions and Capacity Planning
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7175 Server capacity has shaped how the game was tested. During the closed alpha in August 2026 the developers ran servers across eight regions for the whole weekend window. Capacity planning is also the stated reason pre-orders carried a guaranteed beta invite instead of the studio simply running an open beta: a predictable number of testers made launch-day server requirements far easier to forecast.
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7377 That caution eased at the end. The second beta was thrown open to everyone on 5 September 2026, with the developers inviting players to come and break the servers, and it ran until 08:00 UTC on Sunday 6 September. The full testing programme is covered under Playtests, and the hardware side of the client sits under System Requirements.
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7579 Launch Day Stability
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7781 The early access launch on 10 September 2026 put more players on the service than it could hold. Players could not join servers, were kicked out of matches while playing, and sat in long login queues. The studio released a client-side stability hotfix the same day and set out how it would land: every logged-in player was forced to close the game and download the update, everyone returned to the login queue on relaunch, and players were then let back in controlled batches that were widened as servers filled and held. The studio said it would keep monitoring through the night and apologised for the disruption.
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7983 The server browser and front end had already been reworked in the Season 1 changelog published the day before launch. Browser filtering was rebuilt, community server images stopped scaling incorrectly in the listings, and the button for hosting a server now links straight to the hosting page.