ASKA News

[h3]Hey there, I wanted to give a little update on our update.[/h3]

First off, happy 2025! It’s going to be a bright year for ASKA, we’ve got big plans and it’s all thanks to you. I’d like to start by addressing the elephant in the room: the animal respawn bug. This has been fixed and will be part of the next update. The obvious questions have been “why did it take longer?” or “why did the patch go out with seemingly less support on our end?”, as in “why haven't we hotfixed as fast as we've patched other bugs in the past?” Some assumed that it was because we closed shop over the winter holidays, and that's not accurate. The truth is that work has been done during the break, albeit at a different rate.

The way we work is that we always build and fix things in the background and what's being delivered in an update is not the true development state of the game. We sometimes have to stop building and decide what goes into an update. We basically tie everything together, make a build, test and deliver it. After that we "split open" the game again and continue working. While the game is "split open" we can't make updates because everything we touch in the game we also have to close back up and then test.

Because we wanted to continue work ASAP on the big update, we opened up the game right after the update was made live, and because we touched some big, sensitive systems it made it very difficult to quickly close it back up for a hotfix.

Basically we had to make the difficult choice of either delaying a major update or a hotfix. We chose to live with the bug for a while to the benefit of our upcoming update. As expected, we took a bit of a hit, and we didn’t make the decision lightly. Community sentiment affects us directly, and every review, positive or negative, is felt by us directly.

[h3]What's next?[/h3]
The update we've been working on since late last year, which will be coming sooner than hoped, is specifically driven by community feedback, and our bet is that it will be very well received.

Moving forward, 2025's ASKA will be defined by more consistent and vital content updates, dotted by any necessary in-between hotfixes, so major updates will truly feel major. We'll also try to be more present in discussions, because even if we go through the feedback and comments, we don't usually get the time to answer directly. The fact that Paige is our community manager and handles communication has sometimes been mistaken for a lack of community involvement on the dev team’s end. That being said, 2025 will also be our attempt to be a bit more active in community discussions.

The animal respawn bug has been unfortunate and sadly the fix had to be delayed overlong, but very good things are coming to ASKA, you can count on it. On the topic of the roadmap, we have a solid draft and we're doing the final check-ups to make sure it's feasible. So that will be coming soon as well.

It's going to be a big year for ASKA and we hope you'll continue to stick around for the journey, as we've got a lot of work to do yet!

Yours bug-fixingly,
[h3]Sand Sailor Studio[/h3]

Hey Vikings,

Thank you so much for an incredible 2024 for ASKA.
We’re starting to wind up for the holidays, so today we are dropping you a lovely big hotfix with lots of improvements and fixes, as well as some festive decor so you can celebrate in style with your villagers.

[h2]Build and decorate your Yule Tree![/h2]
With this update we're adding in a whole new host of Yule decorations that will go absolutely spot on in your new buildable Yule Tree!

• The Yule Tree can be found in the Build Menu under Decorations and will be buildable like any other garden or decorative tree.
  
• What's special about this tree is that it comes with 50 storage slots for decorations, 3 slots for tinsel and 1 slot for a tree top!
  
• Deposited decorations will show up on the tree so you can customize the tree exactly how you want it!
  
  
  
  
• Take the moment to celebrate all the Smolkrs, Wulfar and Villagers in your village life with a wide array of cheerful and fully paintable decorations!
  
• Decorations can be crafted at the Workshop and painted at the Dyer!
  
  
  
  
• You can craft a variety of tree tops inspired by the game's bosses, like the Stone Jotun, Skeletroll or Haugr!
  
• Tree decorations commemorate the various animals, magic artifacts, villagers or other symbols of Norse inspiration.
  
• Tinsel is the third decoration type and will fit in the 3 special slots. It's best to color them beforehand!
  
  

We can't wait to see what your favorite decorations will be, what colors you'll be painting them in, and how your Yule trees will turn out!

[h2]Update Highlights[/h2]
Beyond the festive cheer, this build also comes with a host of fixes and QoL changes, below are some of the more important ones

[h3]Custom Autosave Interval[/h3]
With this update you can now customize how often the game autosaves.

[h3]Dedicated Server Changes[/h3]
We've made a change to dedicated servers which now allows you to run an ASKA dedicated server on a machine that isn't logged into a Steam client as long as you have a Steam token.

[h3]Customize Highlight Color[/h3]
You can now pick custom colors for a variety of in-game highlights.

[h2]Performance Improvements and optimizations[/h2]
We've had some breakthroughs in terms of optimization, so some users might observe improved framerates in certain cases, mainly due to vegetation rendering and terrain streaming improvements.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
Make sure you check out the full changelog below!

FESTIVE CHEER

• Added Yule Tree decoration;
  
• Added Yule Tree ornaments with crafting and painting blueprints for them
  

CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN SERVER

• Servers now work completely without the steam client but require an authentication token, the details of how to get the token are found in the server properties file.
  
• Added options to customize server ports.
  
• Fixed errors on a server that launched an invasion in a world without players or core
  
• Fixed an issue where AI would sometime slide instead of walk on servers
  
• Fixed an issue where the region server session parameter would not be properly translated from the file
  
• Fixed a bug where clients would not level up cooking proficiency
  

DECK THE UI (& MENUS & CONTROLS) FALALALALA

• Added button to expand all villager panels at once
  
• Fixed quickbar numbers being hidden on the gamepad when that slot is selected
  
• Various UI fixes and gamepad navigation improvements
  
• Added missing gamepad button prompts across different menus
  
• Fixed boat builder task page not showing unless you have a boat build site
  
• Added button to remove a villager from his home inside his menu.
  
• Added split item stack functionality for gamepad users
  
• Fixed a bug causing the task priority change using a gamepad or the arrow buttons to not work correctly in reorderable tasks lists
  
• Fixed window not scrolling when using the gamepad and adjusting the priority of the tasks
  
• Fixed video settings not resetting correctly to the default values
  
• Removed unnecessary hold text from forge refuel
  
• Added new options to customize various in game highlight colors
  

I'M DREAMING OF AI IMPROVEMENTS

• Warriors now follow their patrol route in the correct order at the start of their shifts
  
• AI targeting optimizations
  
• Fixed Winter Invasion enemies not spawning at the portal due to a race condition
  
• Builders will no longer randomly wander to boats while idle
  
• Bloomery workers should be even more eager to finish the task before going to sleep;
  
• Fixed Warehouse workers sometimes not fetching items from Carpenter
  
• Fixed crafting station workers not fetching parts with the correct priority;
  
• Improved tools management at crafting stations
  
• Fixed a rare issue where small enclosed areas ,like small pens made out of fences, would not be traversable by NPCs
  
• Fixed potential cause for dogs becoming pups again after loading a save or villagers getting instant exhaustion
  

SANTA'S LITTLE FIXES (I RAN OUT OF NAMES)

• Players cannot place buildings inside the Large Spire and Shipwreck geometry
  
• Added a way to customize the way the game autosaves
  
• Added the ability to dismiss Wisdom Wisp forever with an ingame interaction
  
• Optimizations for vegetation rendering;
  
• Optimizations for terrain streaming;
  
• Rain and blizzard fx are now excluded from structure interiors
  
• Minimap and compass performance optimizations
  
• Fixed a bug causing Vsync to remain enabled despite the setting indicating that it's off
  
• Ambient sounds from weather now fade out inside cave
  
• Moon glow is no longer visible from inside the cave
  
• Fixed weapon trail sometimes not visible during 1H sword heavy attack
  
• Fixed iron battle hammer trail
  
• Tweaked 1H heavy attack timings
  
• Fixed item color not visible in dyeing menu
  

[h2]What 2025 holds[/h2]
Once again, thank you for making 2024 a truly spectacular year for ASKA, we can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate all of your feedback, and we cannot wait to take ASKA into 2025.

We can confidently say that our work is far from over and 2025 will probably bring the biggest ASKA updates yet. An updated roadmap will be made available, and you can rest assured that we are going strong! Our commitment to making ASKA is adamant. We'll just be going to our cottages and longhouses for a little while, as we scheme and ink out new features and content!

Happy holidays, no matter what you celebrate.
[h3]Sand Sailor Studio[/h3]

Hey everyone!
Can you believe the first year of the Viking is nearly over?
As it’s halfway through the month, we just wanted to share a bit of news with you to set expectations for December and give you an idea of the start of 2025 too!

For the rest of December, we’ll be looking to release a substantial hotfix, improvements to the dedicated servers & some festive cheer (👀).
This may come all at once, or we may do a couple of smaller updates so keep your eyes peeled.

We’d hoped to get a little more out before the end of the year for you to enjoy, but we aren’t quite happy with some other features that are currently well underway, and we wouldn’t want to release anything we aren’t happy with right before everyone breaks up for the holidays, so we’re pushing some things to January.

With that, we will be dropping an updated Roadmap soon, so stay tuned for that, and maybe another giveaway before the week is over too.

Thanks again for all your support,
Sand Sailor

[h3]Hey Vikings, [/h3]
here's a hotfix to mark the middle of the week and keep that major update some company, here's what's new:

[h3]Improvements and Features[/h3]

• Increased stack size of seeds, feathers and fibers ;
  
• The roads made with the road planner also increase sprinting speed ;
  
• Added rebind option for chat button;
  
• Added more storage slots to soup storage in the cooking house.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed audio not pausing in singleplayer;
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes clients would have holes in their terrain when joining a session;
  
• Fixed an issue with the path and road tools being completed by two or more players working on them simultaneously;
  
• Fixed an issue with biome vegetation items not being generated consistently for the same generation seed;
  
• Fixed placement preview not displaying correct colors when placing some buildings;
  
• Fixed missing notification marker on Cooking House;
  
• Fixed a bug that would make the Hedge Tower unbuildable.
  

Thank you for playing, good luck with your settlements!

Yours bug-fixingly,
Sand Sailor Studio

[h2]Hey Vikings! [/h2]
We’re thrilled to finally drop Update Three - The “Servers & Roads” Update for all of you tribe leaders. It’s LIVE RIGHT NOW and we cannot wait to see how your worlds take shape with this one!


[h3]Dedicated Servers ARE NOW LIVE![/h3]
Set up the server using the dedicated server app, and then you can find it in the list of joinable multiplayer games as before. But here your progress is persistent.
To set this up:

• Go to your library home page and select the drop down where it says “games”.
  
• Change this to “tools” and find the ASKA server application.
  
• Install this application on the machine you’re using as the server.
  
• Open the server properties file in the installations folder (\steamapps\common\ASKA Dedicated Server).
  
• Specify the world settings, seed, password etc
  
• There are some other steps you can take to doubly protect yourself here and we will share this asap in all forum spaces.
  
• Launch the app
  
• Get players to look for it as a joinable game in multiplayer
  

We'll be posting full instructions to Discord, Reddit & Steam so keep your eyes peeled for more information.



[h3]In Game Text Chat[/h3]
Press ENTER in game to bring up the chat window, and ping all the players in your game.
We hope this addition makes the game feel more accessible to those of you who don’t want to join voice channels and help with communication in online play.



[h3]Graphical Updates[/h3]
We’ve made some graphical updates to various parts of the game including:

• Grass texture improved
  
• Animations improved
  
• Terrain optimised and textures improved
  
• Improved day to night transitions
  
• Vegetation visuals improved
  
• Lighting generally brighter and more vibrant
  
• Low quality assets improved
  

Now you can enjoy the sunsets even more!



[h3]Roadplanners & Path Makers[/h3]
These new terrain tools have been added to create winding walkways more easily.
Place three points on a spline to create more natural, curved paths & roads, which your villagers can now help to build.
Laying out your route is free but roads will cost stones to construct. Paths however will be free, but don’t give the usual bonus movement to you or your villagers and are more for aesthetic purposes.



Reworked Archer Duty
Archery range and tower jobs have been reworked! Instead of requiring one villager per tower, tower archers are now assigned at the Archery range and towers work as patrol points.
You can now create patrol routes and define what archers visit what towers and how much they wait in each tower.
It also allows you to have multiple archers in a single tower and it makes it much easier to create multiple shifts.



[h3]Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed Ragnar torso reverting back to default after exiting ghost mode.
  
• Fixed settlement issues not working for clients unless they build a shelter first.
  
• Fixed Item Details Panel not positioning correctly in some cases.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the inventory slot icon to scale indefinitely when dragging and dropping multiple times.
  
• Fixed scrolling with the gamepad not working correctly when the size of the scrollable content is changed (Journal page, Craft menu, and Structures list)
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the dropdowns state of the structures list to reset after closing and opening the menu again.
  
• Fixed various bugs causing the UI sound to duplicate in some cases.
  
• Fixed hover on resources from the settlement not working the first time you open the page.
  
• Fixed inventory item slot greyed out state not working correctly when swapping item places.
  
• Drop and Assign to quickbar command changed from LeftStickPress + Button to Button Hold when using the gamepad
  
• Changed Menu Tabs navigation from Triggers to Bumpers.
  
• Various fixes and improvements for gamepad UI navigation.
  
• "Switch Container" function used from the crockpot menu will now prioritize placing the item in the pot.
  
• Removed click sound effects from UI elements that do nothing on click
  
• Pressing on non interactable buttons will now play a different click sound effect
  
• "Homestead" and "Workstation" villager sorting method now sorts alphabetically based on the structures name, rather than just "grouping" the villagers working/living at the same house
  
• Block can now be binded on the same key as heavy attack, this is now the default behavior unless changed in the settings.
  
• Added gamepad navigation for villager issues list in the Villager menu.
  
• Added a sorting function to the Whitelist page.
  
• Added buttons to select or remove all villagers from the whitelist page.
  
• Added gamepad rebind options in settings menu.
  
• Added a loading bar for the cloud operations.
  
• Added a select wheel for the season in the farm crop task page.
  
• NPC AI pathfinding optimizations.
  
• Optimized AI controllers and animal behaviour AI.
  
• Fixed an issue with villagers patrolling a route with exactly two patrol points not ever visiting one of the patrol points.
  
• Fixed an issue with deer jumping repeatedly at certain distances from players.
  
• Fixed a bug where creatures in their natural wandering state would not target their enemies for a while after being spawned.
  
• Added better road buff for the new road.
  
• Buffed regular Necromancer mini-boss.
  
• Fixed an issue where terraforming data received from clients would sometimes break terrain loading for other clients
  

Have fun Vikings, and be sure to keep that feedback rolling in.

Skal,
Sand Sailor Studio