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ASKA Major Update Three, subtitled “Servers & Roads” and released November 25, 2024, adds persistent dedicated servers, in-game text chat, spline-based road and path planning, a reworked archer duty system, a set of visual improvements, and a batch of interface, AI, and multiplayer fixes. The details below come from the official Steam announcement and patch notes for that release. Later patches may have changed some of these systems, so treat this as a breakdown of Update Three as it launched rather than a description of the current game.
The core changes at a glance
| Area | What Update Three added | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| Multiplayer hosting | Dedicated servers where world progress persists | Groups that want a host that stays online |
| Communication | In-game text chat, opened with Enter | Players who do not want to use voice channels |
| Settlement layout | Spline-based roads (stone cost, movement bonus) and free paths (no bonus) | Anyone building villages, routes, or decorative walkways |
| Defense | Reworked archer duty with towers as patrol points | Players who staff settlements with archers |
| Look and feel | Grass, terrain, lighting, day-to-night transitions, vegetation, and low-quality asset updates | Everyone, with no quantified performance claims |
Multiplayer: dedicated servers and chat
Setting up a dedicated server
The announcement describes dedicated servers as a way for a world to keep its progress when the host is not playing. Setup follows these steps:
- Open Steam and find the ASKA server application under the Tools section of your library.
- Install the server application on the machine that will host the world. This does not need to be the computer you play on.
- Edit the server properties file to set options such as the world, the seed, and the password.
- Launch the server application.
- From the game’s multiplayer menu, find the server in the list and join it.
The announcement does not list hardware requirements, port settings, or a recommended number of concurrent players, so check the game’s Steam news page or community guides before hosting a large group.
In-game text chat
Press Enter to open the chat window and message other players during a session. The announcement presents text chat as an option for players who prefer not to join voice channels, and it does not describe any moderation or filtering tools.
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Roads and paths
Update Three introduced a terrain tool that uses three spline points to shape curved routes. You place the three points, and the route is drawn between them, which makes it easier to build bends than a straight grid of tiles. Villagers do the construction work. Roads and paths are both built this way, but they differ in cost and in what they give your settlement.
| Feature | Road | Path |
|---|---|---|
| Build cost | Costs stone | Free |
| Movement bonus | Yes, the usual movement bonus | No |
| Intended purpose | Functional routes between buildings | Aesthetic walkways |
Because paths are free, they suit decorative or early-game layouts, while roads are the choice when travel speed between key buildings matters. The announcement does not quantify the size of the movement bonus.
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Archer duty and towers
The archer system was reworked around two locations: the Archery range, where archers are assigned, and towers, which act as patrol points. The announcement describes these controls:
- Assignment: Archers are assigned at the Archery range.
- Patrol routes: Players can set the route archers follow and how long they wait at each point.
- Multiple archers per tower: More than one archer can be assigned to a single tower.
- Shifts: Players can arrange shifts so towers stay covered over time.
Visual and technical changes
The announcement lists visual work across the game world: improved grass texture and animations, updated terrain and textures, revised day-to-night transitions, new vegetation, adjusted lighting, and replacement of low-quality assets. These are described as improvements in look. The announcement provides no frame rate figures, benchmarks, or system requirement changes, so it cannot tell you how these changes affect performance on a given machine.
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- Wage massive wars, sieges and battles or use your skill and power to keep the peace
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Fixes and optimization
The patch notes also list changes that are not headline features:
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- Optimization of NPC pathfinding and animal AI.
- Fixes for multiplayer terrain loading.
- Fixes for villager patrols and creature behavior.
These are the changes the developers stated. The announcement does not describe independent testing of their results.
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What the release does and does not cover
The update is part of ASKA, a digital game distributed through Steam. The announcement does not describe a physical edition, printed guide, or merchandise, and it does not cover the status of the game after its release date. Its opening greeting, “Hey Vikings!”, is the only quotable line; it contains no statistics or developer quotes about the update.
For the most accurate details about a later version, check the game’s Steam announcements page and compare dates against the November 25, 2024 release.
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