Updates

Thole is still being built, and it changes most weeks. Rather than restart the game every time something is ready, the changes are saved up and go out together once a week, on Tuesday mornings, about 10:30 Atlantic time. Some weeks there's nothing to send, and then nothing happens.

When an update is coming, everyone who's out gets a note 10 minutes ahead, and again at 5 minutes and 1 minute. The game is gone for a minute or so while it restarts, and then your page reloads by itself and you're right where you were. Nothing in the world is lost. If you're halfway through something long, like a trip across the lake, it's worth finding a good spot to stop.

Once in a while a fix can't wait for the week, say when something is broken for a lot of people. Then it goes out sooner, still with a word in the chat first where there's time.

Each version is named for a tree of the north woods, going through the alphabet, so you can tell which came first without looking at the numbers. When you come back after an update, the game tells you which version you're on, and the menu beside the clock always shows it.

0.1 Alder, November 10, 2026#

• The first version with a name. Everything in the game up to now is part of it: the 16 km world, the underground, winter, farming and livestock, boats, carts and the rest.
• From here on, updates go out together once a week instead of whenever a change was ready, so the game restarts far less often.
• You get a ten minute warning before the game restarts for an update, and a note when you come back saying what version you're on.