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Updates & roadmap

What is new on the road, and what is coming.

Every release in short, newest first, then the road ahead. The long reads live in News.

What’s newWhat’s coming

The log

What’s new

  1. 1.13.2

    Steadier steps

    • Walking is steadier: a planted foot no longer slides over the ground, for every traveller, settler and online player.
    • Villagers and bandits at work keep their elbows and tools clear of their bodies.
    • Online, walking leaves faint boot prints in snow and mud, and the walking landships kick up a little dust under their feet. Both switch off with reduced motion, Low graphics and automatic slowdown protection.
    • The Controls screen links straight to Graphics, the classic online layout can open Graphics with V, and the online appearance panel gains the print cell size that Solo already had.
    • The online world no longer lets very wide obstacles slip past the collision check.
    Full release notes
  2. 1.13.1

    The illustrated field desk

    • Every one of the 169 items has its own low-poly illustration, the same one in the inventory, crafting, the hotbar and the new Resources catalogue.
    • New Ashfall artwork for the missions, all ten landships, the expedition desk, twenty-one companions and the fallen traveller screen.
    • The Field desk gains Camp & build and Resources. A camp you walked away from can be found again with Find camp, and G, B and the Build button now open the same builder.
    • The night warning follows the fire you are actually near, and a repeat camp tells you its real timber cost.
    • Online: stale expeditions are retired, and the lobby can forget a saved connection without touching your character. Guests who start in the morning now get their whole first night before signing in.
    Full release notes
  3. 1.13

    Nine new travellers and new settlers

    • A new journey offers nine new travellers, from Jory Fenn, the wasteland vanguard, to Tomas Grey, the old sentinel. Keys 1 to 9 pick them. As before, the choice is looks only.
    • Journeys started with one of the earlier travellers carry on as the new traveller closest to them, with nothing else changed.
    • The people of villages and camps, road folk and the online realm are drawn from nine new settler figures, with varied cloth and hair so a crowd does not repeat.
    Full release notes
  4. 1.13

    Hands, arms and the swing

    • Swinging the axe and the pick: the tool no longer passes through the head or the body, the arms no longer wrap round the head, and the off hand keeps hold of the handle.
    • Hands close into real fists and wrap round handles without sinking into them. Legs and feet face forward, elbows bend the natural way, and sitting on the ground no longer crosses the legs.
    • Existing journeys remain compatible. Online play is unchanged.
  5. 1.12

    Build your camp: you choose where, and one menu per thing

    • At a roadside fire ring you have lit, place the windbreak, the cooking station and the barricade yourself. A preview shows green where a piece fits and red, with the reason, where it does not. R turns it; you pay when it is set down, and you can move it later for free.
    • The fire ring, its log seat and everything you build are solid: no more walking through tables or into the fire.
    • One menu per thing. At the fire: tend it, keep the night watch, build. At the log seat or the windbreak: eat and rest. At the cooking station: what you can cook there, from restorative broth to roast roots, poultices, beeswax and seed cakes. At the barricade: restore it.
    • In a pitched camp, E at the fire, a tent or bedroll, the stakes or the woodpile opens just that piece. E at any crafting station opens straight onto its recipes.
    • On phones a tap moves the preview, and Place, Rotate and Cancel do the rest. Prompts and the Use button say what E will do.
    Full release notes
  6. 1.12

    Art styles, and fixes for reduced motion

    • Graphics & art direction has a new Art style section. Living road stays the default; Moonwood, Mint plate, Dusk poster, Halftone paper and Lantern sepia redraw the world in limited palettes with pixel dithering, with a strength slider. The choice is shared by Solo and Online.
    • With reduced motion on, including Windows with animation effects off, side panels such as Graphics & art direction open fully on screen, and fires keep burning gently instead of freezing.
    • Existing journeys remain compatible, and pieces built before this update stay where they were. Online play is unchanged.
  7. 1.11.1

    A tidier phone screen

    • Phones held upright get four clear areas: one row of buttons, a status card with the place, day, time and weather, alerts under it, and the controls.
    • The injury note is small and fades a few seconds after it appears; it returns when something new happens to your body.
  8. 1.11

    The working road: travel, mounts and the caravan

    • Travel quotes match what you pay: time, supplies, ford losses, gifts and vehicle wear are shown before you set out.
    • “With the train” journeys bring your herd and wagons with you. Farm animals yield their products, pack animals haul a share of the load, and a follower can ride beside you.
    • Mounts move more naturally, with no sliding when you start riding and no leftover speed when you stop.
    • Safer travel arrivals that avoid fences, water and steep ground, and warnings before a large save fills.
  9. 1.11

    Fieldwork, the Roadbook and landship worksites

    • A new Fieldwork screen for farm plans, saved beds, bulk sowing, group care and gathering goals.
    • The Roadbook adds paid commissions, survey circuits, service badges and saved crafting projects.
    • Unfinished landships stand on trestles with scaffolds, supply stacks and lantern light at night, in Solo and online.
    • Each region has its own soil and meadow colours, and Scenic world is a new optional look. Phones get a simpler menu and a faster first touch on decks.
  10. 1.10.1

    Beyond the surveyed country

    • Removed the fixed exploration boundary. Nearby terrain keeps streaming as you travel, and distant discoveries and resource records survive saving and reloading.
    • Distant click destinations now use successive local routes instead of being rejected beyond 90 metres. Physical obstacles and steep terrain still matter.
    • A clearer walking gait, smoother walk-to-run transitions and steadier clothing motion. Character motion resets cleanly after loading or travelling.
    • Enemy movement and attack recovery are smoother, with a smaller strike cue that follows the ground.
  11. 1.10.1

    The illustrated field desk

    • A unified field desk brings inventory, crafting, learning, building, missions, routes and the guide together. Arrival, pause and expedition screens share the game’s winter palette and clearer navigation.
    • New low-poly artwork throughout the interface: illustrated skill and item icons, 55 wildlife scenes, 60 threat scenes and five resource scenes, with searchable field notes.
    • Routes and journal now have larger, properly proportioned local and regional maps, compass details, biome symbols and a separate journal area. Zoom, waypoints and personal map notes remain available.
    • Build & Farm opens with seven useful essentials. Building cards show their purpose, materials and unlock requirements more clearly, with the complete catalog one tab away.
    • A larger hotbar and labelled vitals make supplies and condition easier to read. Menu transitions respect reduced motion, and smaller screens keep the hotbar clear of the vitals.
    • Camera and blur adjustments improve close-view readability. Weather-driven sky and cloud work, softer firelight, better-positioned monster glow and corrected melee direction feedback improve the view on the road.
    • Existing journeys remain compatible. Save your journey before refreshing to load the new interface.
  12. 1.10.1

    Smoother journeys: graphics that fit your device

    • Automatic graphics is now the default. The game detects your device’s graphics capabilities, chooses Low, Medium or High, and can lower detail when play stays slow. Device hints stay in your browser.
    • Prefer to choose? Low, Medium and High apply immediately and are remembered across Solo and Online. Low reduces resolution, distant decoration and expensive effects while keeping interface text sharp.
    • More varied dialogue, clearer settlement names, better winter visibility and more readable enemies. An optional closer camera adds depth of field on Medium and High.
    • Rebalanced sleep, supplies, trading, production and late building costs. Resting no longer heals through starvation or dehydration, and quest completion adds supply bundles to existing rewards.
    • Online improvements include shared carrying weights, protected property, personal recovery packs after a fall, Co-op night pressure, tribe controls, AFK handling and reconnect improvements.
    • Background terrain and plant preparation reduce server stalls. Repeated texture use is steadier, save failures are clearer, and pause controls, first steps and touch guidance are easier to use.
    • Existing journeys remain compatible. Performance varies by device; an actual MacBook Air M2 frame-rate and thermal test is still pending.
    Full release notes
  13. 1.10

    The Living Road: choose your traveller

    • A new journey opens “Choose your traveller”: seven hand-made characters, each with a name and a line of who they were. Every journey remembers who walks it.
    • Every person on the road now has a detailed body: the named companions, villagers, settlers, crew, road folk, travellers and bandits, with varied clothing and hair.
    • The world moves and glows: fires burn with flames, embers and smoke, lanterns throw light at night, windmills and the watermill turn, and crops sway, grow and pop at harvest.
    • Work shows: sowing, harvesting with a sickle, watering and fishing, with chips and sparks from every blow.
  14. 1.10

    252 expeditions, company and regions

    • F6 > Quests: twelve story expeditions and 240 commissions, with real places to find and restore: a pumping station, a pantry, a loading yard, a seed vault, a survey office and a watchfire.
    • Company: conversations with your companions, personal requests, galley orders and packing lists for the road.
    • 73 building improvements, each showing its cost and benefit before you build. Hover a resource to see its yield and the tool it needs.
    • Regions ask for different preparation: ridge squalls in the Crag Highlands, soft ground in the Reed Fen and ash smoke in the Ash Barrens, with waymarks to tend.
  15. 1.10

    A better first night, fairer nights and phones

    • New journeys begin at 08:30 with about six minutes of daylight and a gentler first night; the first camp fire takes one log, and E uses what the label names.
    • Night creatures appear out of sight, only when it is truly dark, stand in a faint pool of cold light up close, and slink away at dawn.
    • Smoother play: villages no longer stall on re-entry, and autosave works in idle time.
    • Fairer balance: faster landships, crew who eat and drink less, food that keeps twice as long, and a lantern that lasts the first night.
    • On phones the goal and notes fold away behind a Goal button, and the vitals stay compact until you tap them. Your 1.9 journeys carry over.

  16. The loading screen

    • The road at night appears at once while the game loads: a lantern in the snow, falling flakes and ash, and the name.
    • A progress bar follows the real load (“Waking the villages…”, “Lighting the lamps…”, “The road is open.”) and never runs backwards.
    • Field notes in the game’s own words change every few seconds.
    • A note appears on a slow connection, and a clear message if the game’s files fail to arrive.
    • Upright phones get their own crop; it respects reduced motion and Snowfall: off.

  17. Free accounts: sign in, cloud saves, profile and the leaderboard

    • Sign in with Google on the title screen. You can play the first night as a guest; at the first dawn your journey moves into your account.
    • Cloud saves: up to three journeys per account, on any device. Offline, you play on and the game keeps trying.
    • Journeys already in your browser are offered for upload on your first sign-in.
    • Profile (F3): picture, display name, a few words, country, favourite landship and your records. You can delete the account.
    • Leaderboard (F4): furthest north, most days, most settlers and the largest fleet, all time or this season.
    The leaderboard
  18. 1.9

    The Landships

    • Ten landships, from the two-legged Hearthrunner to the colossal Citadel Pilgrim, built at camp, a Landship Yard or a Grand Yard.
    • Each is built in five stages and burns charcoal. Settlers board as crew, and a fleet holds up to three.
    • 42 modules at tiers I to III, each on a framed build pad.
    • Walk her decks as she moves, take the helm, or let the road autopilot steer. The Citadel can carry a whole settlement and found it anew.
    • The game is now called Road Roamers: Ashfall Survival. Saves carry over.
    Read the post
  19. 1.9

    Play on phones and tablets

    • Touch mode turns on by itself on touch screens; desktop is unchanged.
    • A floating thumb stick: a light push sneaks, a firm push walks, the rim runs.
    • Use, Strike and Step buttons, and a More drawer with every action.
    • Tap to walk, double tap to run, long press for actions, pinch to zoom.
    Read the post
  20. 1.8.2

    Mountains, an organic road, fog and shadows

    • Hills everywhere: mountain ranges of 60 to 150 m, mesas and river gorges.
    • On new journeys the road winds like a worn winter track.
    • Valley fog, drifting cloud shadows and contact shadows, each with its own slider.
    • After a fall you wake half healed, with your wounds dressed.
    Read the post
  21. 1.8.1

    Crafted buildings, the mine and 41 plants

    • Every prop and building rebuilt with real construction and contact shading.
    • 24 new buildings that each do something, and 17 new recipes.
    • A real mine: 19 ore veins and 7 cave foes.
    • 41 new plants, including 8 potted plants for your home.
    Read the post
  22. 1.8

    The Living World

    • Villagers decide for themselves, weighing needs, personality, skills, mood and bonds.
    • Mission Control (Shift+N) shows what everyone in your settlements is doing.
    • Living villages, caravans on the road, and people who come to each other’s defence.
    • Trade with caravans, swap goods at counters and deal with pedlars.
    • 26 named places, built after the concept paintings.
    Read the post
  23. 1.0–1.7

    Before the public road: the development builds

    Internal builds, September 2026.

    1.7
    Difficulty presets, key remapping, accessibility and three save slots; clothing layers, wetness, injuries and sickness; dungeons, traps, night stealth and a seasonal Giant.
    1.6
    The caravan: pulka sledges, hounds, pack beasts and wagons, night raids and supply runs.
    1.5
    A camp pitched each night, permanent settlements, and road folk who carry light.
    1.4
    Night danger: unlit nights draw real creatures and light holds the horrors back; frozen lakes and rivers.
    1.3
    Four seasons and weather fronts; the cooking pot, fishing and mounts; herd migrations, bandit raids and the Long Night.
    1.2
    Click to act, first tools made by hand, and a country of 300 by 128 km.
    1.1
    Restyled creatures, auto-fight, and birds, voles, moths and travellers on the road.
    1.0
    The Wide Country: an open world beyond the road, 30 animal species, 30 foes and 20 people to recruit.

The road ahead

What’s coming

No dates, only the order. Plans can change as the road does.

  1. ✓ DoneAccounts

    Sign in, cloud saves, profile and the leaderboard. Co-op needs player identities, so this was its first step.

  2. ✓ DoneCo-op

    Private invitation expeditions for up to eight players are live, with shared camp supplies, rescue and landships. Online play requires a Google account.

  3. ✓ DoneTribes

    Tribes, roles, chat and protected property are live in the persistent public world, which supports up to 32 players per realm.

  4. LaterMany tribes, one world

    Tribes band together into confederations, with shared waystones, allied settlements and joint migrations, in one large world.

After thatPlanned

A sound overhaul

Every step should sound like the ground it lands on.

  • Recorded footsteps, several takes per surface: deep and packed snow, the road, sand, mud and shallow water.
  • Sneaking, walking and running sound different, and each step lands with the foot.
  • Animals, mounts and the walking landships get their own footfalls.
  • Then every other sound in the game, with ambience by region, weather and hour. Today every sound is synthesised.

Under wayIn development

More people, in detail

The faces of the road, from the owner’s own concept sheets.

  • Detailed characters built from 132 concept sheets: main characters, settlers and other people of the road, bandits and enemies.
  • One shared builder, with each sheet as its own preset; the first character is in review.

LaterExploring

One large world for many tribes

Research only, for now.

  • Confederations of tribes: shared chat, shared waystones and allied settlements.
  • Joint Citadel migrations across one large world, played together against the winter.