ASKA's Great Hall & Feasts update arrived on August 31, 2026. Most of it — the Great Hall itself, feasts, wheat and bread, wall building, a long list of villager-AI fixes — plays exactly the same on a dedicated server as anywhere else, so we will not repeat the patch notes here. This article covers the part the notes do not spell out: what the update means for a server that is already running, and for the world your tribe has already built.
Lake fishing changed, and existing settlements feel it most
This is the one change that reaches back into a world you have already built. Lake fishing and sea fishing are now separate systems: each body of water has species-based limits, stocks vary by season, and fished-out waters replenish slowly, day by day. Before the update, a settlement with a decent lake never had a reason to fish the sea. The studio is direct about who this lands on: "Players who have settlements dependent on lake fishing will be affected most by this update."
Nothing needs changing on the server side. But if your village eats mainly from a lake, expect your food logistics to tighten after the update, and expect sea fishing to matter for the first time. Worth telling your tribe before they notice the hard way.
Custom worlds now come from presets
The update replaced the long list of individual custom-world settings with a single preset system: you build a preset in the game client, upload it to the server, and select it in the panel. The new system covers ground the old settings never did, including per-season lengths, starting gear and victory conditions. The full walkthrough is here: Creating and Using Custom Game Presets.
Existing worlds are not touched by this. Per the config file's own documentation, world customization applies when a world is created — a world made before the update keeps the character it was created with, whatever happens to the settings screens afterwards.
Your saves got safer
The update reworks the savegame system with local backups and safety features aimed at reducing the risk of save corruption. There is nothing to configure and nothing to do; it is simply the sort of change a server owner likes to know exists, because the world file on the server is the only copy of your tribe's progress that matters.
Fixes you may have been waiting for
A few long-standing multiplayer problems are fixed in this build. Joining password-protected servers works again, so if your group hit that wall, the fix is simply being on the new version. Also fixed: carts disconnecting players who join late, the delay before creatures appear when a player joins, Steam rich presence join, and a rare host disconnect involving dead animals.
Getting your server onto the new build
Players on the new game version cannot join a server running the old one. The Steam Update button in your panel brings the server onto the latest build; after that, everyone on the current version joins as normal.
One patch-note trap
If you read the full notes, you will see a "whitelisting rework". That is village logistics — assigning specific villagers and jobs to buildings inside the game — not a server whitelist. ASKA server access control is still what it was: your server password.
No server yet? ASKA server hosting comes with the new preset system already wired into the panel.
