Ice Ocean changelog/2026

Ice Release 2026-05-28

• Ship restock cut is now limited to 3 times the value of stock consumed. The restock percent is effectively lowered when exceeding this limit, so the excess is distributed to the crew.
• Ship moves are now automatically hidden when setting the voyage to "blockade".
• Station performance is now erased when you do not appear on a duty report, rather than preserved for an entire sea monster encounter.
• Various popups (settings, event blockades, etc) now have a scroll bar when their height would exceed available space.
• Fleet swabbie no longer allows you to send from a blockaded island.
• Island job listings now hide shops that do not need any labor.
• Island job listings can now be sorted by pay at each tier.
• Order list while puzzling is now scrollable.
• Sea battle spawns are now filtered more carefully to avoid rock traps.
• Booty division is now more efficient and should not cause the whole server to lag. This will be monitored to see if further improvements are needed.
• There is now a message when you log in warning you of shops and stalls that have overdue taxes.

Ice Release 2026-05-22

New /freeflag command added to assist in blockade testing. You must be captain of your crew or not in a crew to use it.

Ice Release 2026-05-20

• Sealed-bid blockades: a new 1v1 contention blockade format is now live on Ice! During the declaration window, multiple flags may submit secret bids on a contestable island. The highest bid wins the right to attack; ties at the maximum bid are broken randomly. Losing bidders are refunded automatically. Extra declaration windows will be set so you have a chance to try it out without waiting for the regular window.
• Bid window and limits: bids must fall between a per-island-size minimum and a maximum cap. Bids may be raised at any time while the window is open, but never lowered. While bidding, you see only your own bid amount and preferred start time. No other bidders are visible, not even a count. This keeps the format resistant to alt-flag shield-dropping. The initial values are set much lower than the final numbers to ease testing cost.
• Pick your blockade time: when placing or raising a bid, you also choose a preferred blockade start time from an hourly slot list inside the schedulable window (the declaration window translated forward by the configured lead time). Slots that conflict with an already-scheduled blockade on the same island are filtered out. If you win, your preferred slot becomes the blockade start time.
• The bid funds skilled-swabbie pay: the winning bid is moved into an island-locked defense-buffer purse owned by the attacking flag. During the blockade, this buffer is drawn first to pay skilled swabbies before falling through to the regular flag-funded job offer purse. Flag treasurers still fund their own war chest for player jobbers as usual; the buffer only covers skilled-swabbie wages.
• Defense-buffer carryover: when a sealed-bid blockade ends, unspent skilled-swabbie funding can carry forward:
  • Attacker wins: up to 50% of their original bid stays in their buffer for the island they just took. Any excess above 50% is consumed.
  • Defender holds: the defender's buffer ends at the larger of (a) what they already had after spending in this blockade, or (b) up to 50% of the attacker's bid.
  • If a flag loses the island, their buffer on that island is forfeited.
• 100% to mercenary pay: the winning bid is entirely allocated to skilled-swabbie wages and carryover; none of it goes to the island governance's coffers. The legacy war-chest fee paid to the defender's palace on a successful defense does not apply to sealed-bid blockades.
• Flag financials: the flag info page now shows a “Flag financials” section to the flag's monarch and royalty, listing any non-zero defense buffers and any in-flight active bids the flag holds. The blockade job offer panel also displays the flag's defense buffer balance for that island. The buffer is read-only, so flags cannot deposit to or withdraw from it.
• Notifications: the winning bidder receives an in-game message at resolution (or queued for next login if offline) confirming the win and the scheduled start time. Losing bidders are notified when their refund arrives, with the reason for the refund.

Ice Release 2026-05-06

• Added a warning message about the upcoming requirement to have a valid email address linked to your account to log in to the standalone (non-steam) client.
• Fixed a bug that could cause ships to wrongly receive the golden citadel rewards.
• Fixed the haul bounty not being granted when the "Skip Golden Citadel" checkbox was already checked at the moment infamy maxed out.

Ice Release 2026-04-27

• Logging into the game now uses a new "email a login link" authentication system.

Ice Release 2026-04-19

• Atlantis now grants chests more frequently during haul bounty when you skip the golden citadel.
• If a golden citadel fails to spawn, the haul bounty is granted instead.
• Citadels can no longer despawn on the same turn you move into them.
• Citadels are now more difficult the more pirates you send into them.

Ice Release 2026-04-12 v2

• Atlantis now has a disclaimer about being actively balanced when you enter.
• CI spawns should now behave closer to how they did before the Atlantis update.
• Planking should now work in vampire lairs.

Ice Release 2026-04-12

• MAA panel collapse now works more consistently.
• Haul reserve can now grant chests even if the ship is not next to the treasure.
• Added a "Skip Golden Citadel" checkbox to the sabotage panel in Atlantis. When enabled, the golden citadel is forfeited and the bounty is granted immediately, while the full back-off period still runs.
• The post-backoff wanted level is now capped at 75% maximum.

Ice Release 2026-04-07

• Group citadel treasure sharing now gives the ships who did not enter the citadel a smaller reward.
• Ships that enter after a golden citadel spawns no longer get a reward from it.
• Break time display format is adjusted slightly.

Ice Release 2026-03-29

• Ignoring the citadel is now a rewarded choice: if you wait out the regrouping period without entering the citadel, you receive a haul boost and half your boarders are cleared. No new boarders can join during regrouping, so there is no rush to clear them if you do not intend to engage the citadel.
• Defeating the citadel no longer grants the haul boost; the citadel's treasure is the reward for engaging it.
• The golden citadel will now sink if you do not engage with it before regrouping ends.
• Monster kills during regrouping now contribute to your infamy.

Ice Release 2026-03-25

• CI jobbing while at the island is no longer possible.
• Monsters that despawn now play a sinking animation instead of vanishing.
• Swabbies that were not removed due to being in a fray are now trimmed when the fray ends.
• Citadel placement is now more reliable on tight maps.
• Atlantis maps are no longer less likely to be awarded than other sea monster maps.

Ice Release 2026-03-24

• Increased break time text size.
• Tokens no longer carry over across breaks.
• It should be harder to overfill a ship with players now.

Ice Release 2026-03-10

• Added a forfeit button to the fray panel, allowing you to surrender an active fray early. This should be used before entering a citadel, as you will be ejected from it if you have an ongoing fray.
• Boss citadels now have a more distinct visual appearance.
• Steam purchases now open in a browser window instead of the Steam overlay.
• Boarding and departing messages are now batched together instead of spamming one per person.
• Reduced swabbie chat spam when searching for duty stations.
• Fray participants can no longer take a duty station until the fray ends.
• Magic water repair spots now expire after several turns.
• Fixed swabbie share messages being sent to the wrong ship.
• Fixed all stations not appearing on the duty report.
• Fixed various treasure haul buffer UI issues.

Ice Release 2026-03-07

• Experimental: Treasure hauling no longer requires staying parked next to sunken treasure for a full turn. Sailing near or through treasure spots now builds a reserve that lets you haul while maneuvering. Navigators can see the reserve gauge on the score panel.
• Vessels are now more eagerly ejected from citadels if they are not ready to participate. This includes vessels with an active fray in progress and stray sea monsters.
• MAA selected volunteers now persist between the nav view and the ahoy tab.
• Nautilus: Reduced collision damage and rams now only apply once per target per move, preventing excessive damage from multi-step maneuvers.
• Turtle: Sharp turn wave bilge reduced. Chain shots no longer strip the last of any movement token type. Turtles no longer passively repair damage between engagements.
• Narwhal: Special maneuver tokens now take longer to generate.
• Citadels are set to spawn the turn after they go away for easier testing. This will be set to a more realistic value later for the payout balancing phase.

Ice Release 2026-03-04

Patrol group spawning and zone boundaries have been reworked for better pacing.

• Respawn Delay: Wiped patrol groups now wait several turns before respawning, giving you a breather after clearing a group.
• Zone Boundaries: Patrol groups now stick closer to their own ring instead of chasing deep into neighboring zones.
• Inner Ring Density: Reduced monster spawn targets in the two inner rings to better match their smaller area. Outer rings are unchanged.
• Wanted Citadels: Wanted citadels now spawn closer to your ship and are restricted to the inner rings.
• Updated wanted level text to be more thematic (Infamy, Monsters Regrouping, Atlantean Spoils).
• Mercenary Stock Reimbursement: Skilled swabbies (mercenaries) now reimburse a share of ship stock (rum, rum spice, cannonballs) consumed during sea monster encounters. The reimbursement is proportional to the mercenaries' share of the crew and is paid directly to the vessel coffers. Mercenaries must have earned enough treasure to be satisfied before they'll chip in.

Ice Release 2026-03-01

Atlantis Batch 3: Alliance Groups. Ships from the same flag or allied flags now share wanted level, citadel rewards, and back-off state as a group.

• Shared Wanted: Allied ships in the same battle share a single wanted bar. The wanted cap scales with total group firepower, so each kill is worth more toward a smaller group's cap. A larger group needs more kills to hit max, but earns a bigger citadel payout.
• Citadel Ownership: When a group hits max wanted, the citadel that spawns is locked to that group. Your group's citadel glows golden; other groups' citadels appear red. Non-members are ejected on entry.
• Citadel Candidates: Only ships present when max wanted triggers can enter and earn rewards from that citadel. Latecomers who join the group afterward share the wanted bar but cannot leech the citadel.
• Group Citadel Rewards: Treasure from your group's citadel is split across all candidates, with each member's share capped to the defeating vessel's crew count. Random-spawned citadels still pay out only to the single ship that beats them.
• Group-Owned Bonus: Your group's citadel always gives the full wanted bonus regardless of how long it takes to beat, since the bonus is tied to the citadel itself.
• Flagless Ships: Ships without a flag get their own solo group and function the same as before.
• The MAA panel is now visible to navigators below the score info.
• The MAA panel now has select all checkboxes for each duty category.

Ice Release 2026-02-28

• The /blockade and /flotilla chat commands have been combined into a single /battle command that works in any battle type. The old command names still work as aliases.
• You can now click a swabbie and select "Watch game" to watch their fray.
• Hovering over the break timer now shows how long your vessel has been in the battle.
• Wanted level no longer decays while in a citadel.
• The MAA can now choose which crew members enter a citadel fray. When a ship enters a citadel, the crew has 60 seconds to volunteer before the fight begins automatically. Non-participants stay at their stations and continue puzzling. Citadel plunder bonus scales by how many crew enter the fight. The MAA also has an "All Hands" button to force the full crew in.
• Ships inside a citadel now continue generating sail tokens, repairing damage, and draining bilge at normal rates. Damage and bilge can only decrease, not increase, while in the citadel safe zone.
• Entering a citadel while boarders are already aboard forfeits the active fray and carries the existing boarders into the citadel fight. The citadel enemy count is at minimum however many boarders are already on board.
• Ships being overtaken by boarders (ship at stake) are now ejected from a citadel instead of entering, since forfeiting would lose the ship.

Ice Release 2026-02-27

• Wanted Stages: Wanted level now has defined thresholds. Turtles only spawn once you hit 50+ wanted. At 75+ wanted, all monsters spawn at +1 difficulty (elite narwhals in the second ring).
• Zone Borders: The two inner zone boundaries are now marked with subtle warm-colored edge lines on the map, making it easier to see where you are.
• Plunder Bonus: Defeating a citadel grants a plunder bonus for several turns, boosting treasure from monster kills. Shown on the score panel alongside the wanted bar.
• Patrol Spawning: Patrol groups locked onto a player no longer directly respawn individual monsters — the whole group must be wiped before it respawns.
• Disabled the fortress map template for now.
• Fixed an animation jump bug caused by wanted level updates interfering with vessel state broadcasts.

Ice Release 2026-02-26

Atlantis Batch 2: Wanted Level. A per-vessel escalation system that rewards aggression without punishing a cautious approach.

• Wanted Level: Every monster you sink raises your wanted level, shown by a new color-coded bar on the score panel (green to red). Tougher monsters give more wanted. The bar has a tooltip explaining the mechanic.
• Escalation: Higher wanted draws tougher monsters and increases their spawn rate around you. Citadel treasure payouts scale with wanted level, up to 50% bonus at max.
• Zone Cap: Wanted level caps at 75% in the easier outer zones. You need to push into the two hardest zones to reach max and trigger the payoff.
• Max Wanted: Hitting max wanted triggers a back-off window: a citadel spawns near you, monsters disengage and actively avoid your ship, half your boarders bail out, and you're immune to new boarders for several turns. Use the window to crack the citadel or haul what you've got.
• Decay: Wanted decays naturally after a few idle turns. Retreating to the edge safe zone resets it instantly.
• Spawn Rebalancing: Base monster spawns reduced by 30% so the wanted-driven boost doesn't snowball. Monsters that push a zone over budget now despawn naturally.
• Kill Credit: Monster kill credit (wanted level, scoreboard, stats) now goes to the vessel that dealt the most total damage, not the one that landed the killing blow. Applies to all sea monster encounters.

Ice Release 2026-02-19

• Reduced saboteur counts from archelons.
• Atlantis monster spawning now maintains better class variety across zones.
• Free ships now have the same starting tokens as normal ships (2 4 2).
• Free ships now generate special tokens passively.
• Skilled swabbies can now fill the whole ship, rather than being limited to number of stations.

Ice Release 2026-02-17

• Fixed various rendering issues when using 2x UI scale.
• Fixed border offset on Rumble attack indicators.

Ice Release 2026-02-16

• Fixed screen flickering when playing at 2x UI scale. Also significantly improved rendering performance on Linux.
• Tuned Atlantis encounters: monsters now patrol more naturally instead of teleporting, with better coordination between zones and more Narwhals in harder zones.
• Fixed voyage type sometimes displaying incorrectly when entering a sea monster battle. Fixed a potential crash when hiring crew during a sea monster break.
• Fixed swabbies not being removed when a player joins a vessel during a sea monster break, which could result in an oversized crew.
• Another attempt at fixing the black screen bug.
• Added a subtle top border to the sea monster break timer for better visual separation.

Ice Release 2026-02-15 v2

• Added even more puzzle start timing protection to prevent blue screens.
• Fixed some timing issues that could cause a flickery black screen when starting a fray.

Ice Release 2026-02-15

• Crew members who leave during a break are now replaced.
• Monsters now only teleport once if their spawn is too far from their group.
• Abandon messages are hopefully fully filtered to skip players involved in a fray now.
• Fixed saboteur panel race condition that caused it to only sometimes show when joining on break.

Ice Release 2026-02-14 v2

• Three square map variants now rotate randomly, each with a different centerpiece: whirltemple, fortress, or ruinwalls.
• The map will now regenerate every time it is emptied, to allow testing of different templates.
• Reduced spawn rings from 5 to 4, making each ring wider.
• Minimum monster difficulty on the outer ring increased from 1 to 2.
• Citadel monsters now defend a zone around their citadel instead of wandering the ring. They are sunk when the citadel is defeated or expires.
• Monster respawns now maintain class variety instead of always producing the smallest type.
• Posting a jobbing offer on break no longer gives an error.
• Ordering a ship defence fray no longer spams abandon station messages.

Ice Release 2026-02-14

Atlantis Batch 1: Map layout, monster behavior, and quality of life improvements. See the thread in the Ice section of Discord for full details and feedback.

• Map: The map is now a 50x50 square instead of the original 100x25 rectangle. Difficulty increases toward the center in concentric rings, with safe zones around all edges for entry and exit.
• Monster Behavior: Monsters now patrol their rings in rotating groups, creating wave-like encounter phases with windows of safety between sweeps. Each patrol group only engages nearby targets.
• Citadels now spawn close enough to be reached before they despawn.
• Citadel monsters do not count towards the ring cap.
• You can now rejob inside Atlantis during breaks.
• Puzzle indicators are now preserved across breaks and when leaving duty stations to treasure haul.
• TH contributions now decay slowly over time instead of dropping to zero instantly.
• Time until the next break is now shown while puzzling.

Ice Release 2026-02-13

• The port view stock info has been simplified to an icon indicating if a ship has stock. You still get the full info by hovering the ship.
• From and to island names added to swabbie transport logs.

Ice Release 2026-02-11

• Fix for long distance fleet swabbie transport. The ships should no longer port before their destination.
• Possible fix for linux client lag in various puzzles.
• Enabled Direct3D acceleration by default on Windows. This fixes the Steam overlay and may improve rendering performance. If you notice any new visual glitches, please report them and try disabling the setting in Options > General.

Ice Release 2026-02-10

• Treasure share now gives the hauling ship a larger configurable share. The exact value is subject to change, but this gives us another lever to balance treasure sharing.
• Potential fix for blue screen errors when spam clicking to start a puzzle. This was most common in lairs.
• Players who already have all four injuries will now receive the new "all injuries" trophy automatically on login.

Ice Release 2026-02-07

• In-Game Poll System: A new polling system allows gathering player feedback directly from testers.
  • Polls appear as a new tab on the Notice Board when active.
  • Players are notified of new polls with an 'Ahoy' panel notification.
  • Recent polls remain visible for 7 days after closing for transparency.
• Deed holder name added to fleet management panel when available.
• Fleet swabbie payment now has a confirm dialog.

Ice Release 2026-02-06

• Fleet swabbie transfer now makes sure your destination is an island before taking payment.
• Ships set to swabbie transport now empty when abandoned in port as they used to.

Ice Release 2026-02-05

• Changed "swabby" to "swabbie" for consistency with existing terminology.
• Fixed a bug where bulk swabbie transport required PoE in the ship's coffers.
• Fleet transfers no longer work on locked ships you do not own, or sunken ships.
• Port and Fleet Transfers panels now share the same search and sort options.
• Added "Lock Status" sort option (battle ready first, then unlocked, then locked).
• Ship class sorting now sorts from smallest to largest rather than alphabetically.
• Port panel now shows more ships per row based on window width.
• Fleet transfers no longer duplicate stock.

Ice Release 2026-02-04

• Bulk Swabby Transport: The Fleet Transfers panel now has a "Swabby Transport" button to send multiple empty ships sailing to your charted destination at once.
• Bulk swabby will take the money from your pocket instead of the ship's hold, but it will still show up in the vessel logs for traceability.
• Ctrl+f (Cmd+f on Mac) focuses the search field in any panel with a search box.

Ice Release 2026-02-03

Thanks for the helpful feedback on the recent port view improvements!

• Fleet Transfers: Senior Officers can now transfer stock to multiple ships at once from the ship hold panel.
  • New "Fleet Transfers" tab in the ship hold panel (SO+ only).
  • Define a stock template with up to 4 commodity types and target quantities.
  • Select multiple vessels docked at the same port to transfer to. Ctrl+click to select multiple. Shift+click to select a range.
  • Transfer fills each ship up to the template amount (doesn't remove existing stock).
  • Recall pulls selected commodity types back from fleet ships to your current vessel.
  • Search and filter vessels by name, class, or current stock.
  • Hover over vessels to see their current stock levels.
  • Rate limited to 1 second per ship to prevent abuse.
• Vessel Report lock controls: The "Where are my vessels?" panel now lets you change lock status without boarding each ship.
  • Click the lock icon on any in-port vessel to change its status (Lock/Unlock/Battle Ready).
  • Bulk buttons to lock, unlock, or set battle ready for all your vessels at once.
  • Island filter to scope bulk operations to a specific island.
• Further port view improvements:
  • Added "my ships first" sort option.
  • Fixed case on "Show all x ships" button.
  • Added help icon with tooltip beside search bar.
  • Reworded filter status text to be more clear.
  • To clarify, "Default" sort shows active vessels first; vessels that are at sea, have players on them, etc.
• Commodity market search: Added a search box to the Buy/Sell Commodities panel that filters by commodity name or store name.

Ice Release 2026-02-02

• Port view improvements:
  • Ship stock is now visible (FO+ only for crew vessels).
  • Search bar filters by vessel name, class, and stock contents.
  • Sort dropdown to order by name, class, or stock quantity.
  • Only shows first 10 vessels by default, with "show all" option for crowded islands.
• Broken island previews now kick themselves back into shape, rather than waiting for an OM.
• Edge fog now has some variation, not a straight edge on the outside of the map.

Ice Release 2026-01-28

• Treasure share clarifications:
  • If a vessel sinks before treasure is hauled, their share is forfeited. The remaining ships are free to share it as if the sank ship was never there.
  • Vessels that leave the map before treasure is hauled will have their share consumed by the void. It would be too easy to exploit otherwise.
  • The vessel doing the actual hauling is guaranteed a share even if they were not part of the original shares.
• Blockade payment overhaul: The payment system for blockade jobbers has been restructured to be more predictable and fair.
  • Skilled swabbies now receive exactly their advertised pay rate, instead of up to 320% due to performance multipliers being incorrectly applied.
  • Total payment budgets are now fixed based on headcount: if you hire 10 jobbers at 1,000 PoE per segment, the total cost is exactly 10,000 PoE, regardless of performance variation.
  • Performance still matters - better performers receive a larger share of the fixed pool, while underperformers receive less.
  • This makes it much easier to budget for blockades, as costs are predictable based on the number of jobbers hired.
  • Elite pays 5 shares for incredible, 4 for excellent, 3 for good, etc.
  • Performance is the same as elite but starts at 10 shares for incredible, 9 for excellent, 8 for good, etc. This makes it a less aggressive version of elite as lower performance has a slower pay dropoff.

Ice Release 2026-01-24

• New treasure sharing mechanic introduced as a possible replacement for mercenary mutiny. When a treasure spot is generated, it notes all player vessels within 4 tiles of it. When treasure is hauled from that spot, the treasure is shared among those vessels. Each vessel receives a share proportional to the number of crew on that vessel.
• Atlantis and HS now have more appropriate fog colors. The fog appearance will be adjusted further in an upcoming update.
• Free ships no longer recover from fog at an accelerated rate.
• Citadels now match your current crew count rather than what you entered with.

Ice Release 2026-01-21

• Fog now sits outside of the map and only moves in if you sit near it for a few turns.
• Pause swabby mutiny for special actions (like citadels).
• Pause swabby mutiny timer when in the safe zone.
• Limit HS + Atlantis fog to a more reasonable damage and bilge value per turn.

To clarify how mercenary loyalty works:

All treasure that is taken by the mercs is saved for the entire entry. The calculation of how much treasure is needed for the mercs to remain loyal only considers the number of mercs currently on the vessel, how much treasure they have taken in total, and how long you have been in the map. This means that when a merc turns against you, they forfeit their share of the treasure and you can sustain the rest of them for longer.

Ice Release 2026-01-20

This is an experimental update to address balance issues that turn some SMH runs into PoE fountains. These are not the final systems or configurations, so constructive feedback is welcome in the Ice section of the Discord server.

• There is now damaging fog at the back and sides of Atlantis and HS boards.
• The fog currently behaves the same as CI fog, minus the movement.
• Skilled swabbies now gradually trend towards mutiny if you take them into an Atlantis or HS map without bringing enough treasure in.
• It is currently configured to give you 10 minutes before they expect treasure. They will join the saboteurs two per turn after that if you still haven't given them enough treasure.
• They are paid by treasure haul and chests taken aboard and expect 100 PoE per swabby per minute. NOTE: This comes from the cut they already take, it is not in addition to their normal pay.
• There is a warning before swabbies start to mutiny, so you always have a chance to adjust your strategy.
• Announce who triggered a ship defense fray.

Ice Release 2026-01-17

• Fixed yoweb css.
• Used ship budget now resets when a new round starts.
• The notice board now lags less when opening.
• The old client will now close more reliably when an update is triggered.
• The client will now check for an update before you try to log in. This will only be noticeable on the next update because you need this update for it to work.
• Battles should no longer freeze for up to a minute randomly.

Ice Release 2026-01-04

This is mainly a behind the scenes update, so if you don't notice anything different, that's great!

• Pirate info pages should no longer blank out randomly when clicking links.
• The buy/sell csv is now properly escaped and gzip compressed if your client supports it.