By Espark on Sun 15 Oct, 2023.

Ai-Mo Times

Path of the Ocean Special Edition

October, 2023

“The only literate tribe deserves the best in information and entertainment.”

Path of the Ocean Beta

The Path of the Ocean (PotO) Beta was launched October 12^th, 2023. Upon release, PotO was only available on Steam. The Beta introduced changes in the technology tree, balance changes, a new map type, and new naval units.

To join the Beta, go to Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/874390/The_Battle_of_Polytopia/ and use the code polytopiabetatesters.

New Tech Tree

First let’s look at the updated tech tree.

Ports have moved to the fishing tech. Now, ports cost 7 stars and give one population. When a troop moves onto a port, it becomes a raft. More on naval units later.

Sailing is in the same spot, but now gives access to deep water movement and allows a new unit called the scout.

Navigation allows harvesting of Starfish and the ability to build bomber units. Starfish basically replaced whales. But now, you have to move a unit onto the starfish tile to harvest it and get the 10 stars. Even if the starfish is within the borders of another tribe’s territory, if you get there first, you can harvest it. Finally, no more whales also means no Navalons, which is a bummer for Elyrion.

A new tech called aquaculture replaced the spot where whaling used to be. This tech allows aqua farms and rammer units. Like land farms, aqua farms cost five stars and give two population.

Lastly, roads have a new option for bridge building. Bridges cost 10 stars and span one water tile, (horizontal or vertical), and the bridge acts as a road. Bridges do not prevent naval units from crossing the water tile the bridge is on.

New naval battle system

Once a land unit goes into a port, it becomes raft with the carry ability. Rafts cannot attack, they merely carry another unit inside. When a raft moves onto a land tile, the unit disembarks.

Rafts can be upgraded to a rammer, scout, or bomber if you have the right tech. Rammers require the aquaculture tech, scouts need sailing, and bombers need navigation. Once you upgrade a raft to one of those three units, you cannot change it. Also, rafts cannot be upgraded outside your territory. You can only upgrade naval units in your own waters.

As before, naval units’ hit points equal the health of the land unit inside. So a warrior in a raft can become a 10 hit point scout, rammer, or bomber. A defender raft creates a 15 hit point naval unit. If you put a veteran swordsman in a raft you can turn it into a 20 hit point bomber.

The scout unit replaces the sailboat. They have ranged attacks that can reach two squares. These units have the scout ability, which means they have the vision that battleships used to have.

Rammers do not have any ranged attack, only melee. They do gave the sneak ability which means they can move past enemy units without getting stopped by the zone of control).

Battleships are now bombers. With the splash ability and the area of effect attack, the bomber feels a little like a dragon. However, the bomber doesn’t have dash, which means it cannot move and attack on the same turn.

When a giant goes into a port, it becomes a juggernaut. They have better defense than bombers, but one less attack. Unlike Bombers, juggernauts have dash so it can move and attack on the same turn.

New Map type

Pangea is a new map that spawns all tribes on one large landmass surrounded by water. Here are some example Pangea maps.

Although it’s not new, Continents map is a bit different. It either puts tribes on their own continents or tries to equally distribute spawns on a handful of continents.

Both pangea and continents are now coded so capitals are more likely to spawn on the coast.

Balance Changes

There are a couple of significant balance changes in this beta. Let’s run through them.

• Roads now cost three stars. So sorry Yadakk.

• Lumber hut costs also increased to three stars.Condolences to Hoodrick and Bardur.

• Parks now provide 1 start per turn in addition to giving points.

• Custom houses are now called Markets. They give 1 star per turn for every adjacent port, forge, sawmill, or windmill. This means you can now use the trade tech on maps with no water.

Special tribe changes

Aquarion got several changes. The tribe now starts with the riding tech and an amphibian. Crabs now have 2 Movement in the water and 5 defense. Tridentions now have 10hp instead of 15hp. Amphibians and Tridentions have lost the ability to use Roads on land.

Polaris also got some updates. Moonis now have the auto freeze ability but they must move to freeze their surroundings. In addition, the Mooni defense was reduced. Also, Polaris Ice bank now gives 2 stars per 20 frozen tiles instead of 3. Ice bank provides 2 stars per 20 frozen tiles. Finally, dash now allows for the break ice skill.

Miscellaneous

When a unit lands on a village, it now provides the fire animation. This means when you see fire in the fog, it could be an opponent about to siege a city or a village.

The explorer task is a bit different. Instead of removing all the fog on the map, you get the Explorer monument from uncovering all four lighthouses in the corners of the map. You can see which tribes have found which lighthouses by the colored bars on the building.

Fan reaction to the Beta

Fan reactions were mixed. Many liked the new naval units, but fans of Yadakk, Bardur, and Hoodrick were disappointed. Most people were simply happy that the long promised “Naval Rework” had finally arrived.

RobinHoodrick said, “Too little too late disappointed in Midjiwan he’s been hinting this since 2020 and is finally getting around to it”

Justeeni said, “Wow, rammers can do some crazy aggressive plays. You can take advantage of the fact that they can move onto land if they kill a land unit and siege stuff out of nowhere. Defender rammers seem insanely strong.”

Pi said, “Seems alright imo.Port and CH change feels weird to me. Aquarion should have had riding from the start. Bridges are very interesting”

Squashoo said, “The new beta is an overall improvement to the game, deepening its complexity and strategy. The new collection of naval units provides for more interesting army compositions… However, the increase of lumberhut and road costs to 3 stars has made tribes like hoodrick and Yadakk absolutely terrible, and land combat is now slower and less interesting due to roads being more costly.”

Citillan said, “I really like many of these changes. The rammer seems like it might cause some problems and the bomber obtaining a splash is too much. I really don't like the idea of there being aquaculture in the game and I feel like whaling should be restored.

[As for] the starfish, Iactually have to give it to the devs for designing an interesting mechanic for the resource, but it would be nice if the resource can be collected through previous means if in your own territory as well. I really didn't like how they replaced the whale for aesthetic reasons (comes with Navalon removal) and I don't like the design of the starfish at all.”

Fanart

Opinion

OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF WAR BY THE KHANATE REPUBLIC OF YADAKK Joint statement co-authored by Azur Ul-Khizuz, Yădakk Grand Vizier, and Ulber Khazir, Yădakk Minister of War

On this day of X·XIII·MMXXIII, our nation, the Khanate Republic of Yădakk, declares war against the Polytopian Square-wide Government in protest to their monopoly and forced increase in the prices of common construction materials (thus making road-building significantly more expensive), and the sudden heavy restriction in road-building all across the Square.

For thousands of turns, our tribes have relied on trusty roads for travel - and in Yădakk's case, roads have become our very lifestyle, embedded within the souls of our people. This new law - on top of its utter disrespect to our ancestors and culture - threatens to drastically change our lifestyles for the foreseeable future.

Yădakk prides itself on being resilient, but changes as drastic as this take a heavy amount of time, and that time tends to be one of chaos and upheaval, before peace can be attained. After thousands of turns our tribe is finally stable - free from all the wars that scarred its history, from the various changes it has endured ever since Murez Chanyu left the eastern lands in search of refuge - and I cannot let our peace be compromised any more.

I say, there are some traditions that should not be changed. By increasing the price of roads you insult our tribe: our people, our workers, all those before us, our culture and legacy. The Khanate shall not stand for this injustice, and so we declare war!

We will fight and protest! By Lord Tizjhan above, and in the name of ROADS and all that is good, roads shall NOT be three stars!

Credits

A big thanks to Artemis for setting up and maintaining the website for the newspaper. Thanks to Espark for contributing articles.

If you want to submit a piece to the newspaper—art, news article, opinion piece, puzzle, etc.—let us know in #article-suggestions.

Keep up, Ai-Mo!