[2023] Sail the Path of the Ocean Today!

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Hey Polytopians!

After months of development, we’re releasing the Path of the Ocean Update! In this update, you’ll find new units, new techs, new maps, and plenty of changes! To celebrate, we're even giving you a 40% discount here on Steam, starting at 10am PST.

We all agreed that the game’s naval aspects were lacking and needed some reworking, and this update does just that! So, let’s get you up to speed on all the new, fancy things that you can find in this update. If you were hoping to find our previous blog posts for further details, you can find them by clicking these links: Blog #1, Blog #2, and Blog #3.

If you want to read a specific section, use this Table of Contents:

1. New Philosophy[//]
   
2. New Units[//]
   
3. New Maps[//]
   
4. New Resources[//]
   
5. New Buildings[//]
   
6. Special Tribes[//]
   
7. Other Important Changes[//]
   
8. Changelog[//]

New Philosophy
No, not the Tech, we mean we’ve changed how we view the game’s naval aspects and the role they play in the game as a whole. As part of this, we’ve swapped the positions of the Sailing and Fishing Techs, as well as reduced the cost of the Port to 7*, making it easier to get on the water earlier. We want players to not be locked behind some very expensive techs and buildings, and felt it’d be much better if “going naval” was an easier experience and good way to start expanding.

We’ve also added Fish resources to Oceans, as well as added the new Aqua Crop resource, so that growth on the Oceans isn’t so punishing since we’ve reduced the Population gained from Ports from 2 to 1.
New Units Raft
Replacing the Boat, the Raft is the new baseline unit you get when you place a unit onto a Port. It has no attack, a movement of 2, and can be upgraded into the other naval units in friendly territory.
Scout
Unlocked at Fishing, this fragile naval unit has the Scout ability, allowing it to see 2 tiles away! It also has a range of 2, and excels at putting pressure on enemy Bombers, which we’ll discuss in a moment.
Rammer
Unlocked at the new Aquaculture Tech (which replaces “Whaling”), Rammers are tough, robust melee ships that are designed to close the distance to enemy Scouts. They’re also really good for sieging an enemy costal city.
Bomber
Unlocked at Navigation, Bombers are long-range bombardment ships, able to to use Splash damage to injure groups of units at once. Of course, this comes at a cost, as they’re slow and don’t have Dash, forcing them to wait a turn to set up before they can fire. They’re also good at removing hordes of enemy Rammers, despite not being able to deal retaliation damage.
Juggernaut
The Juggernaut isn’t a standard naval unit, but what you get if you put a Giant onto a Port (since they’re too big for Rafts). The Juggernaut will deal damage to all adjacent tiles every time it moves due to its Stomp ability, and this will even happen if it disembarks. Much like Bombers, though, it can’t deal retaliation damage, so you’ll need to keep them defended.

New Aquatic Resources Aqua Crop
Much like their land-based equivalents, Aqua Crops can be turned into Aqua Farms after you’ve researched Aquaculture, gaining 2 Population at the cost of 5*.
Starfish
The source of the Stars that Polytopians use as currency, Starfish have replaced Whales. They function similarly, but with some differences - Starfish need to have a unit on their tile in order to to be harvested for 10*, and they can be harvested in neutral or enemy territory, making it a race to get them all! You’ll be able to harvest Starfish with the Navigation Tech.

New Buildings Bridges
The Roads Tech now allows you to build Bridges across 1-tile water gaps between landmasses. Now you can use them to cross those little rivers that might show up, allowing for a sneak attack or easier expansion. They cost 7* and can’t be placed diagonally.
Market
With cheaper, easier-to-get Ports, we took the opportunity to re-design the Custom House. They’ve been transformed into the Market, which will level up and gain +2* for each unique Sawmill, Windmill, and Forge adjacent to it. Its Star income will be doubled if it’s next to a Port, granting you a maximum of +12* if you’ve managed to get a Sawmill, a Windmill, a Forge, and a Port next to it. We did this because we didn’t want the Market to only be useful on water-based maps, and now it can be used on all map types! We also wanted to encourage some clever city planning in order maximize Star income, so you’ve gotta plan a little more. 🙂
Lighthouse
Unlike the other two buildings, the Lighthouse isn’t built, but found. In each of the 4 corners of the map, you can find one of these, and finding them all will give you the Explorer Task (which was changed from “Explore all tiles” to “Find all Lighthouses”). Finding a Lighthouse will also grant your Capital 1 Population for free and add your color as a tier, so the Lighthouse will grow with every tribe that finds it.

New Maps Continents
A common complaint was how poor the Continents map was, so we’ve decided to overhaul it! You’ll now find rivers separating some landmasses (which are good for Bridges), or you might find maps where everyone gets their own continent, or maybe even find maps where everyone’s equally spread on a few landmasses. There’s a lot of variety in what you will find, and we hope it spruces up the gameplay around both land and water!
Pangea
Pangea is a new map type that is summarized as “a single landmass surrounded by water”. Like a fusion of Drylands and Continents, we expect Pangea to have a lot of fighting in the middle, while also providing you options for sieging cities on the coasts. Both Continents and Pangea maps will try to prioritize putting capitals on the coast, meaning you’ll have to watch both land and water when trying to defend.

The Specials These new philosophies and units have forced us to make some changes to the Special tribes as well. We’d like to point out that we’re not done with adjusting these tribes and plan to give each of them a more proper rework in the near future, but for now, we’ve had to adjust them to bring them to this new baseline so they can play with the new features.

So, without further ado, let’s look at what’s changed for each of them.
Aquarion
Aquarion, getting some love in the first time in forever, has gotten some very interesting changes in order to get them on the water faster, as well as to specialize them a little more for the water..

• Aquarion now begins with the Riding Tech and an Amphibian
  
• Crabs now have 2 movement and 5 Defense
  
• Tridentions now have 10HP
  
• Amphibians, Tridentions, and Crabs now don’t get a movement bonus from Roads

Elyrion
Elyrion doesn’t really get any adjustments in this patch, but due to the game losing Whales, they lose the Navalon (which astute readers probably noticed in the picture earlier), which has been completely removed from the game. Much like the other Specials, they’ll get a rework in the near future, so don’t be sad for too long. 🙂

• Elyrion loses access to the Navalon, but is able to harvest Starfish like any other tribe

Polaris
Our icy friends have gotten the most dramatic changes of any Special tribe in this patch, Since the Regular tribes get access to the water much faster, we had to ensure that the Polaris could keep up, and decided to give the Mooni Auto-Freeze, so it will freeze adjacent tiles (and units) by simply moving. In order to ensure that this isn’t too strong, the units of all the other tribes can now break ice after moving, creating a more dynamic push-and-pull for ice spread.

• Mooni gain AutoFreeze, but now have 1 Defense and lose the power to manually Freeze
  
• Gaami defense moved to 3, instead of 4
  
• The Frostwork tech replace Fishing, which allows for Mooni & Outpost
  
• Ice Fishing replaces Aquaculture, allowing for harvesting Fish
  
• Battle Sleds are now in Sledding, which replaces Sailing
  
• Ice Fortresses are in Polar Warfare, which also allows for harvesting Starfish
  
• The Ice Bank now makes +2 stars for each level instead of +3 stars

Cymanti
Cymanti hasn’t gotten much in the way of changes, but some things were rearranged for them, such as putting the Raychi in Pescetism, their equivalent to Fishing. We’ll be taking a look at them in the near future, so don’t worry.

• Hydrology replaces Sailing, allowing for earlier Algae
  
• Raychi are now in Pescetism, which replaces Fishing
  
• Cymanti's "Fishing" tech now replaces Aquaculture, granting the power to harvest fish. We know it's confusing.
  
• Oceanology grants the ability to harvest Starfish
  
• Exida now has 2 movement and creep

Other Changes Here’s all the other small balance and design changes that don’t directly correspond to the main focuses of the update.

• Swordsman no longer has “Fortify” ability
  
• Lumber Hut costs 3 stars
  
• Roads cost 3 stars
  
• Parks give +1 star per turn
  
• Network Task unlocks automatically when connecting your first city
  
• Explorer Task unlocks automatically when you find your first Lighthouse
  
• Improved AI
  
• Killing a unit with a Cloak will ensure that a Dagger will spawn in the city

Changelog: General

• Sailing and Fishing techs swapped place
  
• Ports now cost 7 stars and give 1 population
  
• Ships can only upgrade in friendly territory
  
• All normal ship types are replaced
  
• Sailing gets Ocean movement and Scout ship
  
• New tech: Aquaculture (replaces Whaling) which adds Aqua Farms and Rammer ships
  
• Aqua farms that improve Aqua Crop resource
  
• Navigation get Bomber ship and ability to gather stars from Starfish resource (replace Whales)
  
• Bridge building (7 stars) in Roads lets you connect two land masses
  
• Market (replace Customs House) gives 2 stars for each unique type of production building nearby (Windmill, Sawmill or Forge). Income is doubled if next to a Port.
  
• Windmills also grow from Aqua Farms
  
• New Pangea map type
  
• Improved Continents map type
  
• Giants turn into Juggernauts when embarking
  
• Find 4 Lighthouses for Explorer task (instead of revealing the whole map)
  
• Finding a Lighthouse gives 1 population to your capital

New Naval Units:

• Raft (replaces Boat) - defenseless transport
  
• Scout - fast and fragile exploration vessel
  
• Rammer - sturdy naval melee ship
  
• Bomber - Slow but powerful long range destroyer
  
• Juggernaut - Powerful and inflexible melee ship with area damage

New Resources:

• Starfish - Replaces Whales. Must have a unit on it to harvest it for 10 stars, even in neutral or enemy territory
  
• Aqua Crop - make farms on water

Aquarion:

• Start with riding and an Amphibian
  
• Crab get 2 movement on water and improved defense
  
• Tridentions now have 10hp
  
• Amphibious units can no longer use roads

Polaris:

• Autofreeze Moonies with reduced defense
  
• Gaami defense now 3 (was 4)
  
• The Frostwork tech replace Fishing, which allows for Mooni & Outpost
  
• Ice Fishing replaces Aquaculture, allowing for harvesting Fish
  
• Battle Sleds are now in Sledding, which replaces Fishing
  
• Ice Fortresses are in Polar Warfare, which also allows for harvesting Starfish
  
• The Ice Bank now makes +2 stars for each level instead of +3 stars

Cymanti:

• Hydrology replaces Sailing, allowing for earlier Algae
  
• Raychi are now in Pescetism, which replaces Fishing
  
• Cymanti's "Fishing" tech now replaces Aquaculture, granting the power to harvest fish.
  
• Oceanology grants the ability to harvest Starfish
  
• Exida now has 2 movement and Creep

General Changes:

• Swordsman no longer has Fortify ability
  
• Lumber hut costs 3 stars
  
• Roads cost 3 stars
  
• Parks give +1 star per turn
  
• Network task unlock automatically when connecting your first city
  
• Explorer task unlock automatically when finding a Lighthouse
  
• Improved AI
  
• Killing a unit with a Cloak will ensure that a Dagger will spawn in the city