Wardogs, the fast-growing multiplayer FPS from developer Bulkhead, is undergoing scheduled maintenance today to address long-standing frustrations with its server browser, following a weekend in which the title hit a mammoth peak concurrent player count of over 425,000. The servers will be down on Monday, 14 September, from 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM GMT for approximately one hour while Patch 0.11 is deployed. The update focuses primarily on improving the experience for players on community servers, and it arrives as the studio openly acknowledges it has fallen short in that area.
According to the patch notes, the overhaul introduces a new front-end browser split into community and official servers, removes unnecessary filtering from the official server list, adds text-based search to community servers, and makes community server IDs persist between matches and restarts. Players will also gain a “Show Empty/Full” option on the quick bar, an updated Host button, and new requirements around server naming and ordering.
A Rare Admission of Failure
Bulkhead has been candid about the state of its community infrastructure, noting that the server browsing experience has not matched the quality of the rest of the game. “Community servers have been underserved, and the server browser experience as a whole has been poor,” the developer wrote. “It is clear to us that we have not put the same amount of care and passion into community servers that we have into the rest of the game.”
The studio says it “worked through the night” to assemble the update, which it hopes will “start the process” of improving the browser with a focus on community servers. “Community servers are the lifeblood of FPS games like ours,” Bulkhead added, promising to actively build the technology needed to support community growth. “We have failed to do that by rushing our community server strategy. As we’ve always said, when we’re wrong, we’ll hold our hands up. We got this bit wrong.”
Community servers are the lifeblood of FPS games like ours, and we’re actively creating the technology to support their growth.
Bulkhead
As a goodwill gesture, community servers will offer a bonus 5% end-of-match cash bonus next week. Beyond immediate fixes, Bulkhead has shared a list of upcoming features it is prioritising, including community server favoriting, tiered priority queues, a Message of the Day prompt, improved warmup activities, AFK-kick functionality during seeding, and team switching controls. The developer stressed that these additions will not affect the content being worked on for Season 2.
Tightening the Economy
The patch also addresses the game’s broader integrity, with fixes for various cash exploits, GPU crashes, and increased server capacity in the Asian region. Bulkhead thanked players across Asia for their continued interest and signalled a greater focus on supporting the region as an important part of the worldwide playerbase.
On the topic of economy abuse, Bulkhead made its stance clear. “As an early access game, we’re not perfect, and we never will be. But if you do find something and take advantage of it, we have decided to come down hard.” Exploiting cash bugs will result in a timed ban with cash and XP reset to zero, while creating content that teaches economy exploits will be treated as advertising cheats and result in a permanent ban. XP farming carries the most severe penalty, with accounts tracked for joining farming servers banned permanently.
Bulkhead remains open to feedback on the policy, inviting players to communicate with the studio if they believe the stance should be adjusted.
Looking Ahead
With the game’s playerbase now exceeding 425,000 concurrent players, the emphasis on community servers and regional support marks a significant step for Wardogs as it scales. The maintenance window is expected to be brief, and players should be able to return to the action shortly after the patch is deployed. As Bulkhead continues to prioritise reactive quality-of-life improvements, the studio’s willingness to publicly own its missteps may prove as valuable to the community as the technical changes themselves.
For those mourning the downtime, the developer’s commitment to community servers suggests a promising direction for the game’s multiplayer ecosystem in the weeks ahead.
When Cheri’s not handling the site’s evergreen and guides content, you’ll probably find her mourning Destiny 2, building obscure structures in Minecraft, or saying “just one more run” while playing the latest roguelikes.
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