After being sick, continuing testing branch by starting to incorporate modder content, starting with some from Arqs' mod! Let me know what you think of the new changes, especially the new Traits and Perks so far. There's still plenty of time to tweak them.

TO ACCESS THE TESTING BRANCH:

1. Right Click "Death Road to Canada" in your Steam Library
   
2. Go to Properties
   
3. Click on the Betas tab on the left of the Properties window
   
4. Click on the dropdown in the top right, and change the Beta Participation branch from "None" to "beta - TESTBRANCH"

If you want to communicate with us directly or want every bit of testing branch news, head to the Official Discord ( #deathroad-test-branch channel ) or post here!


All the below changes are from Death Road Modder Arq on the Official Discord!

• Back to the wall and Unpredictable traits added
  
• Supporter, Fierce Hitter, and Jack of All Trades perks added
  
• Support for Critical Hits added
  
• Fierce Tempered also adds some crit now
  
  
• AI Followers with Ex-Wrestler or Grappler can now pick up and throw zombies on their own!
  
• Dailymedic check for Back to the Wall
  
• Check word "someperkchecks" for Ultrafit, Healthcare, and Gun Collector perks to not give you supplies unless you actually recruit the recruits
  
• Bow and Pyro regen events moved a bit to play nice with Back to the Wall

I got sick for awhile, and that threw off me making content for the OMENTUM update. Now I'm getting into that again. Here's news on what we're thinking for the rest of the update:

• I'm about done with my new events work. I think they turned out great, but I'll be watching feedback for any suggestions as to what to tweak. With this mostly done, I'm going to be concentrating on at least 1 goal for OMENTUM before launching it.
  
• We're going to be looking into localization again, after the success of a team making a mod that localizes the game into Chinese
  
• I would like to talk to modders again to get some of their content into the game. Like before, we'd make some mod content officially into the game, with any tweaks, rebalancing, and bugfixing necessary

These are two possible goals I'm thinking of, but neither are guaranteed. We always try to remain really flexible about this, as plans don't always succeed. It's possible we also go for a third option that we weren't aware of yet.

TO ACCESS THE TESTING BRANCH:

1. Right Click "Death Road to Canada" in your Steam Library
   
2. Go to Properties
   
3. Click on the Betas tab on the left of the Properties window
   
4. Click on the dropdown in the top right, and change the Beta Participation branch from "None" to "beta - TESTBRANCH"

If you want to communicate with us directly or want every bit of testing branch news, head to the Official Discord ( #deathroad-test-branch channel ) or post here!

• 5 new events added! 2 Bandit events, 2 common events, 1 rare event. Now we're at 11 new events!
  
• Updated some older events that randomized your hair, to now support the new hairstyles

• 6 new events added! Currently 5 common events, and 1 camping event
  
• New functionality: Being able to get an extra "Always Be Looting" from an event!
  
• Lots of unused cyoa-images added to old events, including some that were prevented from showing up due to a bug
  
• Shorter version of zforecast, called zforecast-short, added to the Canada Crossing Event. This makes more room for the text after an image was added, and you didn't really need to know the time for the final event at that point, anyway
  
• Removed some extraneous duplicate image calls for several old events
  
• MODDERS/MYSELF: Extra comments added to old files so I don't forget basic things like "how do event card draws work
  
• Fix for an all-buddies-dead join crash
  
• Center the window after creation, to avoid some weirdness on older SDL versions
  
• Better dead loot/weapon text updates in trunk screen when driving or in mission
  
• Potential fix for character statmod icons/descriptions not displaying if mod ID over 31

A new update for the testing branch for the upcoming OMENTUM update for Death Road to Canada! The focus of this update will be on events, with additional extra content and bugfixes on top of that.

Help us test it out! The more testers we get, the faster we can launch the update. Currently only on Windows, but we will add Linux and Mac closer to the end of the update beta testing process like we usually do.

TO ACCESS THE TESTING BRANCH:

1. Right Click "Death Road to Canada" in your Steam Library
   
2. Go to Properties
   
3. Click on the Betas tab on the left of the Properties window
   
4. Click on the dropdown in the top right, and change the Beta Participation branch from "None" to "beta - TESTBRANCH"

I will be making more of these beta posts when major new things are added, though for minor additions and things like bugfixes, I will likely just post quick news to the Official Discord in the #deathroad-test-branch channel. If you want to communicate with us directly or want every bit of testing branch news, head there!

• 6 new events added! Currently 5 common events, and 1 camping event
  
• New functionality: Being able to get an extra "Always Be Looting" from an event!
  
• Lots of unused cyoa-images added to old events, including some that were prevented from showing up due to a bug
  
• Shorter version of zforecast, called zforecast-short, added to the Canada Crossing Event. This makes more room for the text after an image was added, and you didn't really need to know the time for the final event at that point, anyway
  
• Removed some extraneous duplicate image calls for several old events
  
• MODDERS/MYSELF: Extra comments added to old files so I don't forget basic things like "how do event card draws work

• Fix for an all-buddies-dead join crash
  
• Center the window after creation, to avoid some weirdness on older SDL versions
  
• Better dead loot/weapon text updates in trunk screen when driving or in mission
  
• Potential fix for character statmod icons/descriptions not displaying if mod ID over 31

The testing branch for the upcoming "O Update" has just gone up. Currently it's mostly checking if the new build works properly on Windows. The plan is that I will add more content to this about once every week or two, until the update is completely done, tested, and ready to go for everyone.

TO ACCESS THE TESTING BRANCH:

1. Right Click "Death Road to Canada" in your Steam Library
   
2. Go to Properties
   
3. Click on the Betas tab on the left of the Properties window
   
4. Click on the dropdown in the top right, and change the Beta Participation branch from "None" to "beta - TESTBRANCH"

I will be making more of these beta posts when major new things are added, though for minor additions and things like bugfixes, I will likely just post quick news to the Official Discord in the #deathroad-test-branch channel. If you want to communicate with us directly or want every bit of testing branch news, head there!

The theme of this update: An assortment of random content and events! I'll try to make new additions easy to test out. Once they're tested, I'll add more to the testing branch, until everything we're planning is in. As I said above, what we're currently testing is just "does this testing branch run?" as we get back into the groove of the update and testing branch process.

• WE'RE BACK
  
• Fix for an all-buddies-dead join crash
  
• Center the window after creation, to avoid some weirdness on older SDL versions
  
• Better dead loot/weapon text updates in trunk screen when driving or in mission
  
• Potential fix for character statmod icons/descriptions not displaying if mod ID over 31

I've been working on the next Death Road to Canada update, and also our upcoming First Person Swordfighting game, Dad by the Sword ( Wishlist it here! )

For the next update, I'm planning on focusing entirely on content. The current plan is also to get some Death Road community modders to add some content to the game, much like we did with Professor Sycamore in a previous update. For now, I'm focusing on getting new CYOA Events in the game this time, as I don't think I've added much in quite awhile now.

I'm also going to dive through the Suggestions section on the Discord. Quite awhile ago, one of the mods set up a bot in #deathroad-suggestions where people can propose ideas, and then vote on their favorite ideas. Check this out on the Official Rocketcat Discord![discord.gg]

As soon as we're ready to test the next update, I'll put it on the beta testing branch and make a post on how to access this! I'm hoping to get testing branch up some time in August, likely later in the month.

Thanks for all your support for Death Road, and I hope you enjoy the next update!

Every once in a great while, we do some kind of limited merchandise for Death Road to Canada. This time, we have a Horse Mann plush you can buy! If this does well, we'll likely offer other characters.

Get one here before time runs out: https://www.makeship.com/products/horse-mann-plush

Let me know what other characters you'd be interested in seeing in the future. Also, stay tuned for news on the next big content update!

For the NERVE Update, I wanted to do two things we haven't been able to do but were on our radar for a long time. One is that we added a lot of character customization options, both default and unlockable! There's new hats, glasses, tops, bottoms, and more.

The other thing is a complete overhaul to how Weapon Selection works for your Follower AI Buddies. Before, they tried to go by a formula to determine what they picked up and used, based on their stats. Not only did this not work great, there was also a bug we recently discovered that made them love new weapons way too much compared to what they already had. This contributed to them dropping claymores for tennis rackets sometimes.

Now, Followers will pick up and use weapons based on an Official Tier List that compares groups of weapons with each other. I am going to post these below for reference, but mostly I think this should feel a lot better in-game even if you have no idea what the actual list is.

This list is slightly out of date with recent changes, but most should be accurate! Let me know what you think of this giant change after you get a chance to play it.

Also, Tnomey was buffed and the Halloween Event lasts much longer now!

Read on for full notes for all the changes!


We're working towards demos for Dad by the Sword, our upcoming first person swordfighting game. This will include a Public Demo some time early next year! Before then, I'm also planning on posting a long video explaining all the different facets of the combat for the game.

Another Death Road update is planned, but I'm not 100% sure what's going to be in it yet. The original plan was to do some kind of community update, where modmakers from the Discord all add some new content. I'm going to shoot for this, but I haven't done anything like it before, so we'll see how it goes!


We are now over SIX YEARS OF UPDATES! It's your support and word of mouth that makes it happen. Keep recommending us to your friends!

If you want to stay in contact with us between updates, there's both the Twitter and Official Discord. Links to both of these and our Facebook page is in the game itself, but here's a couple handy links:

Official Rocketcat Discord[discord.gg]
https://twitter.com/rocketcatgames



- Followers now use weapons according to tier lists assigned for each weapon! This is a big change, but it got through a large period of feedback in testing. Let me know if you'd like any changes here in future updates
- Characters will vastly prefer higher tier weapons to lower tier weapons
- If a character is presented with two melee weapons in the same tier, they will then use their stats like in the old system to judge what they pick up/use (they tend to greatly prefer fast weapons)
- Special character weapons also tend to have a tier assigned, so they know how much to value their own stuff

- Halloween Event extended! It used to be just on Halloween Day itself. Now it will run from October 25 to November 1

- Tnomey can now be bought from up to 3 times per game, instead of a strict "1 Tnomey purchase per game" limit. This requires a Zombo Point unlock
- Unomey is selling more stuff! There's the above upgrades for Tnomey, and now upgrades to get your Max ZP up to 75, then 99

- Character customization choices greatly expanded, all around!


- New cosmetic choices for custom characters! New hats, tops, and bottoms
- New beards/facial hair!
- Adjustments to the male head with the really long chin, RIP
- New glasses, including a heart shaped pair of glasses
- New Unlockable Hats
- Level 2 Hat Unlock now also unlocks new glasses!


- Bugfix for a very long standing mystery bug that made weapons on the ground more valuable than weapons in your hand! This could lead to bugs where you'd get stuck picking up a weapon forever

- News shut off for now to give that a break for a little bit
- "firecrackers" capitalized to make it like all the other weapons

- Updated hats/shade texts for the unlock statues
- Swapping should now skip dead buddies in more cases
- Preventing a crash if swapping buddies when they're all dead


- Modders: Added .wielded_score so you can check how much a character values their current weapon
- Under the Hood: Further iOS version work

The Death Road to Canada Halloween event has been extended this year! Usually it only takes place on Halloween itself, but now it will be available from October 25th to November 1st.

Behold these features:

• Start the game with a Rare (Monster) Character, or a Chainsaw Hand. Or discard these choices for something goofy and have severe Halloween Regrets
  
• The usual jerks and dinguses you find in game may be replaced with costumed Trick or Treaters
  
• Throwable Jack-o-Lanterns! Rank S- in the Death Road to Canada Official Power Charts in the Throwable Produce Sub-Category

Shortly before the Halloween event, we're also going to launch our next Major Update, NERVE! We will post patch notes when this update is out, but here's a summary:

• AI revamp for how followers prioritize weapons. Weapons are arranged by Tiers now, and followers won't drop a higher tier weapon for a lower one. That means no more having your characters drop a claymore for a tennis racket
  
• New character customization options, and lots of them, both unlockable and standard
  
• New buyable upgrades using Zombo Points, including a way to buff Tnomey so you can make Tnomey Trades three times per game instead of just once

I hope everyone likes this update! It focuses on a major rework we've been wanting to do for quite awhile now. We're also going to look into extending other Holiday Events in the future, as so far Halloween is probably the biggest one we have.

Of note: mobile and console updates for MANDIBLE have been bogged down by a problem in the chain of how we get the updates out. Steam is the easy platform to get updates out on, and then the rest rely on each other a bit. The plan is to get MANDIBLE + NERVE out at the same time, to catch players up on updates for consoles + mobile! Sorry about the delay, it's unusual for it to get this jammed.

Today is the 6 year anniversary of the launch of Death Road to Canada! We're celebrating 6 years of updates, 6 years of The Last Bodybuilder grunting/flexing, and 6 years of your AI companions getting blown up by a propane tank that you hit with a baseball bat.

We have all the players of the game to thank for our success! This includes streamers that have played the game entirely because they loved the concept and gameplay. Death Road to Canada has always been sold by word of mouth, rather than the press or game industry in general. Despite this, the game has really thrived, and continues to do so!

Coming up, we have a new update as we continue quietly working on the next game in the series. This will be a more fantasy take on the Death Road, with pointier ear options, Zelda-inspired hacking and slashing, and ride-able attack chickens. We are currently trying to come up with a theme-appropriate and historically accurate replacement for the insult, "dingus". Maybe "dinguth", or just "Ye Olden Dingus".


The next update we've been making for Death Road to Canada is the NERVE Update, which should hopefully prevent your AI companions from dropping that claymore for a tire iron or piece of rebar. We're sorting out weapons in arranged tiers, and your AI buddies will use that to determine what to use and pick up. Before we were using a formula, but this lets us do more distinctions by "player feel and preference" instead of trying to get the formula perfect.

This is a pretty big change to the game, so we need a lot testers and feedback on this before we can launch it! You can help us a lot by joining the Testing Branch. To get on testing branch:

1. Right Click Death Road to Canada in Steam Library
2. Go to Properties
3. Go to the Betas Tab
4. Pick Beta - Testbranch from the dropdown menu

This update will also add new cosmetic options for your custom characters, some of which you can see on the Testing Branch right now. Send us any requests that you come up with, and we'll sort through the suggestions to add some more options.

The best way to get feedback to us is either here, or posting on our official Discord. Links to this are on the Death Road title screen, or just click here: https://discord.gg/J7HChAa

We will be updating the testing branch more as we get feedback on how the changes feel. I will probably make separate posts for these after major changes pile up. No estimate for the next update, it's entirely based on how things go.

Mobile and other platform updates are going a little slow right now due to some problems we've been wrestling with, but are still planned. I'll also post news about these coming up, on Discord/Twitter/Facebook. If NERVE goes really fast, it's possible that it gets rolled into the last update for mobile/etc and they come out at the same time.

And before I forget, here's an image of the current weapon tiers for the NERVE update. This is how the AI sees the value of each weapon, with G at the top and F at the bottom. They will try to ditch lower tiers for higher tiers, and if they have two melee weapons in the same tier, they will use the strength/fitness formula from before as a tiebreaker. Some of these are slightly out of date now, but the general tier placement is still correct:

*P tier means they'll do absolutely prioritize using the weapon, but won't pick it up by themselves.
*? means the AI doesn't even try to use it.