Roman Triumph: Survival City Builder news & patch notes

Hey everyone!

The Steam Awards 2025 have begun, and if Roman Triumph has ever crushed your defenses, starved your settlement, burned your temples, or let the Gods smite your carefully planned city, you probably already know which category fits it best.

If you rebuilt after collapse, survived another wave from the North, reforged your army, fixed your food chains, and tried once again to hold the line against the Minotaur, Hydra or the wrath of Jupiter himself, consider nominating Roman Triumph for Best Game You Suck At ⚔️🔥

This category celebrates the games that demand grit and persistence. The ones that punish sloppy planning. The ones that wipe your city from the map because you forgot a single wall segment. The ones you restart anyway because victory feels that good. Roman Triumph was created very much in that spirit.

Of course, you can also nominate Roman Triumph in any other categories you feel match your experience. Steam lets you choose multiple categories for the same game.

Your support this year has been incredible. Seeing you experiment with city layouts, argue with the Gods, optimize farms, rebuild after disasters, share screenshots, offer suggestions, report bugs, and discuss strategies in Discord helps us understand how you face and overcome the brutality of Roman survival.

Thank you for marching with us, surviving with us, and proving again and again that Rome does not fall easily 🇮🇹🛡️🔥

– Philippe and the Forklift Interactive team

🏛️ Roman Triumph 1.0 is Live! 🏛️

Hey everyone!

After years of work, Roman Triumph has finally reached 1.0. This marks a huge milestone, but it’s not the end of development, far from it. I’ll continue to improve systems, fix bugs, and bring in new content. For now though, let me tell you about what’s new in this update.

A New Frontier: The Desert Biome

Rome’s ambitions were never limited to Europe. The legions marched across the seas, into the burning sands of North Africa, where survival was as much a battle as any campaign.

Now you too can try your hand at building in this unforgiving land. But beware: the desert is not for beginners.

• Open Terrain: Unlike the northern forests, the desert offers few mountains or choke points. Expect your defenses to be tested out in the open.

• Barren Soil: Crops won’t grow without water. You’ll need to construct aqueducts to supply farms, or turn to alternatives: animal farming, hunting, fishing, or trade. If you earn Ceres’ favor, her blessings can temporarily turn sand into fertile soil.

• Scarce Timber, Rich Minerals: The desert lacks trees, so wood will be precious. But in exchange, the sands are rich with iron and stone, giving you strong trade leverage.

• Wildlife: Camels, zebras, and even elephants roam the land. They’re vital hunting targets early on, though not without danger.

The desert is harsh, but for those who master it, riches and glory await.

A Monstrous Threat: The Minotaur

Forged in the forgotten labyrinths beneath Crete, the Minotaur has awoken. A beast of both man and bull, born of the gods’ judgment and man’s hubris, it now stalks the scorching desert.

The Minotaur is no ordinary foe: it can cut through entire legions with terrifying force. Surviving its arrival will require cunning, preparation, and sacrifice.

Spikes & Traps

You can now place spikes around your city. These cheap, early-game defenses damage enemies that step onto them, though they wear down with each use. They’re not a replacement for walls, but in desperate times, spikes may save your city. Spikes can also be upgraded with poison which makes them even deadlier.

Other Additions

• New blessings from the gods, offering fresh strategies and opportunities.

• Many QoL improvements and bug fixes to polish the experience.

This 1.0 release is a huge step forward, but it isn’t the end. I’ll keep building on this foundation, just as Rome itself grew from a small city into an empire.

Thank you for being part of this journey, it’s been incredible seeing the community grow around this game, and I can’t wait to see the cities you’ll build in the desert.

The best way to support us right now is by leaving a Steam review🌟. It makes a huge difference on the first day of a 1.0 launch.

Philippe

Another Forklift-published game Space Scum is running an Open Playtest right now.

Jump in, explore the galaxy, fight hostile factions, and share your feedback 👇🏻

Today we finally announce the date. Roman Triumph reaches 1.0 on September 16 and steps out of Early Access. This milestone was forged together with you through feedback, playtests, experimental builds, and countless conversations on Discord!

Thank you for every wishlist, every bug report, and every idea. The launch build focuses on stability, balance, and quality-of-life improvements, and adds fresh content for veterans who want more of a challenge.

Here’s what’s coming in the 1.0 update:

🏜️ The Desert Map

Rome’s legions once marched into North Africa, carving out settlements in the sands. This new, procedurally generated biome reflects that history, bringing both danger and opportunity:

• Farming: The soil is barren. Crops only grow with aqueducts, and even then at roughly 80% efficiency

• Timber: Few trees grow here, trade will be vital for wood

• Terrain: Wide, open spaces make choke points rare, demanding new defensive strategies

• Resources: Minerals are plentiful, mine early to prosper

• Wildlife: Camels, zebras, and elephants roam the desert

• Threat: The Minotaur prowls these lands

🐂 The Minotaur

Forged in the forgotten labyrinths beneath Crete, the Minotaur emerges, a monstrous reminder of mankind’s hubris and the gods’ cruel judgment. It will test both your legions and the strength of your city’s defenses.

✨ New Features

• Traps to fortify your defenses

• QoL improvements across the board

Roman Triumph 1.0 will mark the end of Early Access, but not the end of development. More updates, ideas, and improvements will continue to come!

🎉 Celebrate with us on X: Daily Key Giveaway!

From September 2 through September 15 we will post one tweet per day on the official Roman Triumph account.

How to take part

Hey everyone!

A small but super useful quality-of-life update for you today:

You can now place buildings and roads even if there are trees or small rocks in the way! Previously, you had to cut down those trees or mine those rocks before placing your building. Now, you can plop your building or road right on top of them.

Here’s how it works:

• If there are trees or small rocks in the construction area, they’ll automatically be marked for cutting/harvesting.

• Your builders will first remove them, then get to work on construction as soon as the space is clear.

• No more tedious manual clearing before building, just place it and let your workers handle the rest.

This should make expanding your city feel a lot smoother, especially in those dense forest areas.

As always, let me know how it feels and if you run into any issues :)

Philippe

Hey everyone,

I hope your summer is going great! I’ve been busy with some personal matters recently, so this update doesn’t have as much content as usual, but I still tried my best to make it meaningful with some exciting new features and big optimizations!

Update 0.4.0 brings two things many of you have been asking for:

Hey everyone,

I’m excited to share the biggest content update yet for Roman Triumph! This update introduces powerful new siege weapons, a new mythical threat, and combat related mechanics which bring even more chaos to your battles. I’ve also squashed a ton of bugs and added some long-requested features.

🏛️ Major New Features

🐦‍🔥 New Mythical Enemy: The Phoenix

A terrifying new enemy has descended upon your cities: the Phoenix, a creature of flame, fury, and myth.

• In Roman Triumph, the Phoenix is a divine weapon of destruction, born in the smoldering heart of Mount Vesuvius.

• With wings of flame and a shriek that scorches the skies, it soars over your walls, bypassing traditional defenses and raining fire upon your settlement.

• Every few ages, it's said the gods grow restless with mortal pride and from the ashes of punishment, a cursed and tormented Phoenix rises to remind humanity of its fragility.

Prepare well, or watch your empire burn.

🪨Catapults

You can now construct catapult units that are fully movable, just like your regular soldiers. These siege engines hurl massive boulders at enemies, dealing devastating splash damage that can wipe out entire groups of barbarians in a single shot. A direct hit inflicts even greater damage, making them incredibly effective against both clusters and tougher targets.

While they’re slow, heavy, and costly, their ability to relocate and reposition makes them one of the most versatile and powerful weapons in your arsenal. When used in combination with other units and walls, they can completely turn the tide of battle.

2 variations exist:

• Standard Catapult: Hurls massive boulders that deal area damage and crush clustered enemies.

• Fire Catapult: Launches flaming shots that ignite enemies (also cause high splash damage), dealing burn damage over time.

🔥 Roman Flamethrower Turret

A terrifying new defensive structure for your walls: the flamethrower turret rapidly sprays fire towards enemies, melting them at close range.

• Short range, but extremely high DPS.

• Perfect for placing at key choke points, gate entrances, or wall corners to vaporize hordes before they can even swing a club.

While there's no direct historical record of Roman flamethrowers, this invention is said to be a forbidden design retrieved from the archives of Alexandria, combining pressurized bronze tanks and flammable oils in ways even the priests of Mars fear.

Other Additions

🏹 Poison Arrows

Archers can now be upgraded with poison-tipped arrows, allowing them to slow down and apply a powerful damage-over-time effect to enemies.

• Ideal for slowing down large enemies (dracos, hydras, and even the phoenix).

• Poisoned enemies suffer high damage-over-time.

🔥 Fire Status Effect

Enemies can now catch fire from flame-based attacks like the fire catapult or flamethrower turret.

• While burning, they take continuous damage and may die mid-charge — creating chaos in their ranks.

• Combined with poison, you can now create stacking DoT effects for total area denial.

🧱 Sandbox Mode

A proper sandbox mode is finally here!

• All buildings, units and technologies are unlocked from the start.

• Great for creative building, stress testing your city layout, or trying wild experiments.

🛠️ Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed Hydra/Baby Hydra spawning inside your cities!

• Fixed building upgrades costing double the resources they should.

• The bug where an Iron Mine, Brickworks or Quarry stopped producing resources should be fixed. Please let me know if that happens for you again.

• Demolition refunds now scale with building health.

• Fixed (not 100% sure) a bug where invasions wouldn’t end if one barbarian was left. If this happens again, please let me know.

• Fixed ballista shots going through Hydra (when they should've been a hit).

• Fixed rotation bugs on catapults and scorpios.

• Fixed Tavern upgrade olive oil upkeep.

• Double builders button now capped by your actual citizen count.

• Fixed Level 3 archer unit icons not showing the right icon in the army training window.

• Added the forester building to the tutorial.

• Improved the performance of roads on the GPU.

• Fixed some missing text characters in Russian.

• Gold is now easier to get in easy mode.

Thanks again to everyone who’s been playing, leaving feedback, and helping the game grow! I’m building this solo, but your support makes it feel like I’ve got a full legion behind me.

Here's a recap of all the updates I've brought to Roman Triumph so far since the Early Access launch back in April:

I'm super excited to hear what you think of this update. Talk to you guys soon :)

Philippe (Coreffect Interactive)

📖 The Imperial Ledger

📊 Charts & Graphs:

⚙️ Resource Overview:

🧑 Citizen Directory:

🏗️ Building Lists:

🍇 New Production Chain – Olive Oil & Wine

✅ Fixes & QoL Changes & Other

• 🏛️ Added a Library building which massively helps in increasing your population's Culture metric!
• 🪨 You can now delete large rocks and iron nodes with a new tool.
• Fixed a major bug causing double resource consumption on the last month of the year.
• ⛏️ Fixed issue where quarry would say "object in the way" instead of correctly pointing out why it's not placeable there.
• 🧾 Trade cities no longer show negative quantities.
• 🐉 Hydras pathing now takes priority on all other pathing (before, the hydra could be waiting for a while after spawning before moving when many pathing calculations were being done, at high populations).
• ⏩ Pressing space at speed 3 now resumes back at speed 3 instead of defaulting to speed 1.
• 🚧 Replaced immigration toggle with a population limit (more useful)
• 🔇 Lowered the volume of quarries and iron mines.
• Fixed bug allowing you to place Fishing Huts near each other when not fully built.
• 📚 Fixed "Aprilis" typo.
• 🏆 Removed the 100-year achievement.

How to Access the Experimental Branch

Hey everyone!

Hey everyone!

QoL & Changes

• Moving food storage will now transfer the food in it to a another food storage if there is space (instead of you losing that food).
• Pressing Escape while an overlay panel is open (construction, rubble, upgrade) now closes the panel instead of opening the pause menu.
• Added ability to cancel Research mid-progress.
• Rebuilding rubble now puts it at top construction priority.
• Added option to show/hide resource indicators.
• Buildings in normal and easy mode now only suffer from lack of upkeep starting the second month without upkeep.
• Fixed emissive material of Cabbage farm and Academia

Bug Fixes

• Resolved a bug which allowed enemies to walk through walls sometimes.
• Fixed bug causing players to not be able to trade.
• Fixed an issue where players could place buildings on gate doors.
• Fix a bug that cause buildings to get built on top of each other when using the mass upgrade tool (example upgrading Domus into Luxury Domus)
• Fixed a bug that was preventing saves from loading.
• Fixed edge panning not working while armies were selected.
• Fixed bug where pressing numkeys while editing UI settings (e.g. worker limits) would still trigger army group hotkeys.

Settings

• Added option to disable shadows.
• Added option to disable chromatic aberration.

UI, Resolution & Settings:

• Added option to disable/enable screen edge panning.
• New resolution option: 1600x900.
• Fixed formatting issue affecting 5120x1440 resolution (UI panels, tutorial, etc.).
• Added an FPS limit option (limit your fps).
• Added option to hide upkeep numbers for a cleaner UI.

Gameplay & Bugs:

• Fixed (for real this time) villa not getting supplied with water by reservoir bugs.
• Fixed issue where gatherers got stuck trying to cut/mine a tree/rock
• Hydras no longer spawn in unreachable zones (preventing them to get stuck and unkillable).
• Hydras will now despawn if stuck for too long.
• Barbarians now prioritize gates a bit more and gates have received a +50% health buff.
• Resolved an issue where archers stationed on walls prevented building ballistae or other structures on that section after being disbanded.
• Fixed wheat farm ground texture flickering when multiple farms adjacent when zoomed in
• Fixed an issue where if you order multiple groups to man the walls in the same area, the units could stack with each other.
• Fixed Bathhouse workers appearing as Arena workers.

Fixes:

• Added support for 3840x1600 resolution.
• Fixed issue related to un-assigning army groups to hotkeys (Shift+Key to un-assign)
• Achievement for founding a new settlement now correctly unlocks even if the tutorial is skipped.
• Fixed bugs related to trading (not being allowed to place a trade route when supposed to be)
• Fixed issue where aqueducts would not properly supply villas.
• Fixed bug preventing aqueducts from being rebuilt in the same position after destruction.
• Resolved issue where aqueduct rubble icon would appear and stay there, but no rubble was shown, allowing placement over it.

It’s finally happening: Roman Triumph is out in Early Access!

To celebrate the launch, the game is available for $24.99 with a 25% discount.

Early Access is just the beginning and there’s still a lot to build, improve, and expand in future updates.

New Features & QoL

• Added better game customization options
• Added a new Hard mode
• Icons now appear when a building is missing workforce or has other issues
• Lack of upkeep no longer causes buildings to crumble (other negative effects)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug preventing moving buildings if they overlap their old position
• Fixed fishing hut workers dying randomly
• Fixed happiness debuff staying after all treasuries were destroyed
• Fixed rare white screen bug when loading a new game
• Fixed selection box glitching out in some situations

Roman Triumph just hit the spotlight with a brand-new trailer! And, finally, we can share the release date:

April 3, 2025 – Early Access on PC!

Check out other Forklift Interactive demos:

Roman Triumph is thrilled to be in Steam Next Fest, with a huge update: Armies. Your Legions await, take command now and lead your city to glory for Rome!

Train and Command Your Own Legion

• They need manpower and resources to train them, so you'll want to plan ahead;
• You have full control over them, allowing you to set formations and issue orders (like attacking on sight, holding position, etc.);
• They’re incredibly effective in combat, so use them wisely!

Other Additions

• Autosave feature – No more losing progress when you forget to save.
• Fisherman Hut – A brand new food source for your city.
• Move buildings – You can now reposition structures instead of demolishing them.
• Enable/Disable tool – Turn buildings on and off when needed.
• In-game brightness control – For those who think its too dark/bright in winter.
• Rename saves – You're no longer locked to that one name.
• Added an icon seasons indicator - For when the weather itself isn't enough of a clue.
• Improved tutorial tasks – Now covers roads, armies, and the taxation.
• Column decorations – Because every Roman city needs a little extra flair.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• Fixed pathfinding issues (especially when terraforming, which would cause some enemies to pass through walls).
• Fixed builders getting stuck.
• Job priorities now persist properly when loading saves and when jobs are disabled/have no workers and re-enabled.
• Treasury now has a limit of number of people it can collect taxes from. So bigger cities need multiple treasuries instead of just one collecting everything.
• Fixed winter effect hiding defense overlay.
• Hunter hut efficiency updates more smoothly.
• Trees Cutters & Rock Gatherers are way more optimized.
• Research now doesn’t charge you twice if interrupted (e.g. by disabling an Academia).

Try It Out And Let Me Know What You Think!

Check out other Forklift Interactive demos:

Roman Triumph – A Revamped Demo Coming Your Way On February 24th!

Legionaries with Gladius

Legionary with Pilum

Sagittarii (Archers)

Hey everyone!

Want to join?

• Players who love strategy and city-building games with unique challenges.
• A couple of hours of your time to explore the new features and mechanics.
• Honest feedback – whether it’s good or bad, it all helps us improve!
• (Optional) If you can record your gameplay, that would be super helpful!

Terrain and World Generation

• Improved Terrain Generation: Maps now have a lot more usable space at the edges.
• Small terrain deviations blocks a lot less construction. Roads will automatically flatten the ground when placed.
• Terraforming Tools: Flatten small mountains or raise land in lakes. You can even create a passage between 2 parts of the maps if the mountains are low enough.
• Walls can now be built further into mountainous areas.
• New World Generation Settings:
  • Adjust mountain and lake sizes.
  • Control resource richness.
  • Control the frequency of Large Stones (require quarries) and Iron Ores (require iron mines).
  • Control the fertility levels of the map.

Quality of Life & Other

• Rubble Indicators:
  • Icon overlays to be able to spot quickly where enemies destroyed buildings.
  • Option to highlight all rubble and rebuild destroyed structures in one click.
• Upgrade Tool:
  • Upgrade multiple buildings in-place (e.g., Wood Archer Tower → Stone Archer Tower).
  • Batch upgrade multiple buildings using the last selected upgrade (e.g., furniture upgrades for all houses).
• Resource Gathering Prioritization: Hold Shift while selecting trees and rocks to prioritize them. Workers will cut down/gather prioritized trees and rocks first.
• Duplicate Building Hotkey: Duplicate buildings using middle mouse button (rebindable).
• Hunter Hut Simulation: Hunter Hut efficiency now updates live which is more realistic. Animals no longer flee unless other buildings are constructed nearby.
• Building Balance:
  • Adjusted baseline number of builders required for faster construction.
  • Reduced upkeep for key buildings like Domus and Hospitium.
• New "Forum" building model: Cool looking and more impressive, with stone pavement.
• Prevented zooming too close to the ground.
• 2x Speed Button added.
• When placing walls, the ones you can't afford now show in red (instead of not appearing).
• Deleting roads now refunds wood.
• Balanced food storage and warehouse capacities.
• Arena: Updated the scale.
• Comfort Indicator: Comfort debuff radius now appears orange to differentiate it from archer range.
• Added hotkeys for more actions.
• Overlays now stay when activating them manually and placing buildings.
• Added a "gather all" tool (to select trees and rocks at the same time).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some bugs causing save files not to load.
• Fixed bug causing immigration to stop working.
• Hydra going through walls fixed (let me know if this happens again).
• Fixed citizens walking in circles when framerate is too low.
• Fixed lag when opening the save game panel when the player has a lot of saves.
• General stutters should be reduced now.

Hey, City Builders!

Big news, city builders! 🏛️

Hey there, fellow city builders!

So, what’s in the demo? You’ll get access to:

• A tutorial to guide you through the basics of city-building and defense.
• A selection of starting upgrades to help you develop your settlement.
• The chance to experience a few waves of enemy attacks, where you’ll defend your city against barbarians and other foes.
• Unlimited playtime, so you can take your time exploring everything the demo has to offer

Steam Playtest

October Development Update

Building Upgrades & Wonders

Environment Updates

Expanded Production

New Enemies & Difficulty Options