There’s something in the water in PC gaming right now. Specifically, ships. Lots of ships. Earlier this month, Facepunch Studios weighed anchor on Rust’s massive naval update, adding player-made boats and a vast offshore region for survivors to explore. Now, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is getting in on the seafaring action, with its latest update careening Microsoft’s refurbished vessel to scrape the barnacles off the hull of its naval mechanics.
The elegantly named update 169123 is a typically hefty patch from developer Forgotten Empires, addressing a wide range of bugs and balance issues. But the most significant change is the addition of the Hulk-line, a new main ship type designed to counter fire ships.
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Even fishing vessels have been tweaked, making them more fragile and slower to gather fish, but adding the ability to gather gold from whales, a new aquatic resource. I’m guessing Forgotten Empires glosses over exactly how you extract gold from a whale, unless those aquatic mammals are just really into free-to-play games.
More broadly, the update adds cross platform voice chat, plus accessibility options like text-to-speech and speech-to-chat. There’s a big flag update that adds regional garrison flags and waypoint/gather point flags that are specific to each civ, though I doubt this will stop players disingenuously asking “do you have a flag?”
Finally, there’s a rework to the Inca civilisation, which adds a new unit called champi warriors, removes access to eagle warriors, and also removes several buildings like lumber camps, mining camps, and mills.
These changes tie into the launch of the Definitive Edition’s latest DLC, The Last Chieftains, which bulks out the game’s roster for medieval South America. It introduces three new factions, the Mapuche, the Muisca, and the Tupi, each of which comes with its own campaign. Each faction also has unique units like the Mapuche’s bolas rider and the Muisca’s guecha warrior, a specialist javelineer who heals other guecha warriors when they die.
