This is a big update, focusing on some all-new systems for both multiplayer and singleplayer! There are also numerous tweaks and fixes. Read on for changes in this update, and what we're planning next, including a new game in October and another update in about 2-3 months! NOTE: The Fireproof trait got removed, with fireproofing being merged in with Phoenix. You'll have to change any Custom Character that has the old Fireproof trait!

MAJOR CHANGES

We wanted to spend some time on multiplayer co-op features, as Steam Replay lets you play online. One big thing we wanted to do is a complete revamp of the character select process. Before it confused a lot of players, and it was extra hard to do when under attack. So we made it so that any player that isn't Player 1 can hit start to bring up a new character select menu.
Additionally, if the party is out of normal recruits, any player can select the big ? icon to turn into a Vermin Recruit. These are temporary recruits with low stats and one health, but they regenerate every mission so that all dead players can run around as rats as long as the last non-vermin recruit doesn't die! If this feature is popular, we have some plans to expand it later with rare "vermin" types (pinchy crab that does more damage, fast blue hedgehog, and so on).
By popular demand, we've added MORE HATS, finally. You can get these by paying Ugnomey in Unlock Town AKA Zombotown. He will let you access a Challenge Hut to get the hats. Currently both Challenges involve beating different game modes, but I'd like to expand this system in the future to unlock new things, mostly cosmetics such as character parts. Let me know if you have any requests for new character parts you'd like to see! We've added two new game modes, both of which are based on letting you start with 4 characters instead of the usual two. Four Jerks Mode is not locked, and Four Jerks EXTREME is unlocked simply by beating Four Jerks Mode. This was mostly put in for co-op, but it can be used as a singleplayer game if you just want to start with extra people. There's also a lot of extra tweaks, additions, and bugfixes. Read the bottom section of this announcement for a full list! The biggest things are probably all the Perk and Trait rebalances, including a nerf to Civilized and a big buff to Trademark Weapon and Bow and Arrow. There's also Vsync support, a fix for the accursed Pronouns Bug, car headlights, and the Road Punchers and Rare Arcade Trading Camp finally being accessible.

Future Plans

We're launching a new game in October, called Cannibal Crossing. It has some similarities to Death Road, but is more focused on faster-paced action and base-building in an open world. You can currently wishlist that on Steam, here: Cannibal Crossing Steam Page In 2 or 3 months from now, we're launching another Death Road to Canada update. This one will be focused more on Perks, and also add more locations to the game. After that, we're planning another update 2-3 months after that one hits. In the coming month, we're also going to get this newest update out to more platforms, such as sending it to the console porters and getting it on mobile. Thanks for all the support so far! It keeps us updating our games and making new ones, especially the word of mouth. If you like this update, please tell all your friends about Death Road to Canada and also to COOL IT. As always, you can follow us on Twitter for constant news on what we're up to: Rocketcat Games Twitter

Full List of Changes for KIDNEY Update

• NEW UNLOCKABLE HATS (insert flashing text here), accessed via a Ugnomey location that can be bought for Zombotown for 30 ZP. This will unlock Challenge Statues that will lead you on the path to getting your sweet new hats
• New pop-up Character Select menu for co-op multiplayer! Have a non-leader player press start to bring this up
• In co-op multiplayer, players can control Rat Recruits if there are no normal recruits to pick. These are very weak, but still get to influence the world with their claws. The goal is to have less waiting around if you run out of people in a multiplayer game. More work on this system is coming!
• NOTE: Your old custom characters that used Fireproof (which was removed) will become unable to move. You will have to change their trait manually to fix this.
• Four Jerks Mode added. This lets you start the game with the option to recruit an additional 2 Custom Characters, so that you can start with a full car. Zombie amount is increased +30% to compensate, but you still get easy bandits.
• Four Jerks Mode EXTREME added. +150% zombie amount, with cruel bandits.
• Four Jerks Mode gives 3 zombo points per win, EXTREME gives 10 per win
• Four Jerks EXTREME now gets the harder ending, like O*P*P does
• Vsync support added in Options
• Added support for car headlights/taillights
• Rare Arcade Special Trader Camp back in, after a major bugfix
• New arcade machine added to Rare Arcade, that gives the fireproof stat to one character for 10 food
• Bryu and Saguts stats changed a little, and they can no longer take weapons
• Long hair options for characters now draws over the back properly, instead of getting hidden
• New button in New Game Start to randomly pick custom characters for the leader and buddy
• Added extra smileys for over the usual max or under usual minimum levels, with flashing effects
• New randomization options for randomizing specific character parts, instead of the whole character
• New Trait! Dingus Savant gives 1 extra max point to shooting, mechanical, AND medical, but has a -1 max health and -2 max morale penalty. It's intended for someone that wants a super "win every skill check" support character, but without Civilized's "win every personality check" benefit, less severe downsides to Civilized/Berserk, but also lacking the early game power. Let me know what you think! It's pretty nerfed from the original implementation of it
• Phoenix gets fireproofing now, and loses it on death
• Nurturing and Inventive now give +1 to the maximum of mechanical/medical, respectively!
• Civilized gives 1 point less each to mechanical/medical
• Over-max medical (7 or higher) now lets you heal up to 5 times, previously 3!
• Over-max mechnical now gives a tighter repair variance, 71-100%, up from 50-100%
• Top Seller now gives you more food, generally about 50% more than base. Let me know if this should be even higher, dimly considering making it double the food
• Travel Light now gives a point of fitness, just a little buff to make it more enticing
• Ex-Wrestler loses the -1 penalty to Strength and Fitness maximums, now gets -3 to max shooting
• Bow and Arrow now gets +2 strength as a freebie
• Trademark Weapon Perk change: Loses extra stats, but upgrades replace the Aluminum Bat with a Sturdy Machete
• Removed the weaker Trait-specific Special Trademark Weapons, as the Sturdy Machete is stronger than many of the old ones
• Buffed some additional Special Trademark Weapons: Nurturing gets a Bonesaw now, Inventive gets an Electric Leaf Blower that recharges, and Light Eater gets a Sturdy Cleaver. Specialist now gets a Knight Sword as its (only) weapon
• Bows now get a lot more from Strength stat, and draw much faster at all levels of strength
• Bows now take count over-max values for Strength. A TSTC character with a bow will draw it nearly instantly
• Bows now take stamina for drawing and holding the string, and draw much slower if fatigued
• Bow draw effects are more obvious when you're at max draw, if not fatigued
• Bow and Arrows + Specialist starts with the full 60 arrows now, and loses the extra phantom bow in slot B
• THE JERK STORE is back and better than ever.
• OPP mode expanded to add the following characters: Broom, Hermit, Bryu, Saguts, Clown
• Hardware store loot rebalanced a little, snow shovels put in as possible spawns
• Samedi gets a resurrect saying now, and her death saying is changed slightly
• Samedi gets something that is exactly like Phoenix, except for the new Fireproofing
• .unfireproof word added, used currently so that Phoenix loses fireproofing on the first death
• Phoenix trademark weapon is now the Hot Poker. I'm vaguely interested in buffing Trademark Weapon, so this is a first step there
• Fixed a UGnomey typo: "Toilets will also now have a higher loot chancez!"
• Roaming Capybara moved more Northeast, hopefully not too far
• If the console is enabled, extra error reporting will get turned on for modders in all builds
• If the console is enabled, enable CTRL+R, F5, and CTRL+number script hotkeys for modders
• Fixed a bug where smoke was leaving numbers in the stack
• Car beep pitch is now higher
• The PRONOUN BUG in the endings is finally fixed!!!!!
• Changes to chars_recycle() function. This should hopefully make the game become less buggy in very long playthroughs, such as Endless Mode. Needs more testing to see if this screws anything up
• Some small tweaks to character customization graphics.