Age of Empires 2 DE adds new warship line and major naval changes

Ships have become a focus across recent PC releases. Earlier this month, Facepunch Studios weighed anchor on Rust's massive naval update, adding player-made boats and a vast offshore region, and now Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has received update 169123 from developer Forgotten Empires, a hefty patch addressing a wide range of bugs and balance issues while overhauling naval mechanics.

The update introduces the Hulk-line, a new main ship type intended to counter fire ships. Fishing vessels have also been tweaked: they are more fragile and gather fish more slowly, but can now collect gold from whales, a newly added aquatic resource. Beyond naval changes, the patch adds cross-platform voice chat and accessibility options such as text-to-speech and speech-to-chat.

There’s a flag update that brings regional garrison flags and waypoint/gather point flags specific to each civilization.

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