The Ocean is not Water

The shark remembers every patch. This is the one where the bottom stopped being theoretical. 2.0 is on the default branch. There is nothing to opt into and no dropdown to find — Steam updates you the next time you launch. It comes off the experimental branch with its pacing measured rather than hoped at, and to everyone who ran it there and told us where the climb sagged: thank you. You are the reason the numbers below are numbers. Before you launch: 2.0 starts you over That is deliberate, and your 1.2.2 run is not deleted. The economy was rebuilt from the seabed up. Every value in an old save was earned against a ladder that no longer exists, and there is no honest way to reinterpret it inside the new one. So 2.0 does not read your old save at all. It writes to its own files, in its own namespace, and leaves the 1.2.2 files exactly where they are, at the hour you left them — not migrated, not converted, not overwritten, not deleted. Even "delete all saves" inside 2.0 refuses to reach across into them. What you will see on first launch is a fresh set of slots and a note on the title screen saying why. Start there. The first hour of 2.0 is not the first hour you remember. The game can be finished now This is the change everything else serves, and it is worth repeating for everyone who did not read the beta post. 2.0 got a rebuilt simulator — a deterministic clock, an agent that plays competently rather than optimally, and a probe that measures what a fully-bought economy actually earns. We pointed it at the endgame to tune the pacing. It came back and told us the endgame was not reachable at all. Every scaling path stalled 25 to 32 orders of magnitude short of the first Submersion gate and then sat flat for the rest of a simulated thirty days. The softcap system, the Pressure rites, the weakening relics, the entire late-game constellation — all of it was carefully modifying a wall that no economy could reach in the first place. Four hunt abilities shipped unreachable...

The shark remembers every patch. This one it would rather you forgot, and then saw fixed. The game can be finished now Here is the thing we found and could not un-find. 2.0 got a rebuilt simulator that is a deterministic clock, an agent that plays competently rather than optimally, and a probe that measures what a fully-bought economy actually earns. We pointed it at the endgame to tune the pacing. It came back and told us the endgame was not reachable at all. Every scaling path short of the first Submersion gate and then sat flat for the rest of a simulated thirty days. The softcap system, the Pressure rites, the weakening relics, the entire late-game constellation, all of it was carefully modifying a wall that no economy could reach in the first place. Four hunt abilities were shipped and unreachable. The ladder had rungs above the ceiling. So the wall moved to where play actually happens, and every gate got re-anchored to a measured number instead of a hopeful one. All three play styles now complete the full Submersion ladder. The first gate is roughly twelve to thirteen focused hours. Each depth after it is a real climb rather than a decorative one. That is the change this branch exists to test. Everything below is in service of it. How to opt in Right-click The Ocean Is Not Water in your Steam library Properties → Betas Select experimental from the dropdown Steam downloads the 2.0 build. To go back, pick None from the same dropdown. Read this before you click 2.0 starts you over, and that is deliberate. The economy was rebuilt from the seabed up; there is no honest way to reinterpret a 1.2.2 run inside it. The experimental branch opens a fresh set of save slots. Your existing save is not touched. It is not migrated, converted, overwritten or deleted. 2.0 writes to its own files and does not read yours. Leave the branch and your run is exactly where it was, at the hour you left it. We built it this way specifically so that trying the beta costs you nothing. What...

The ocean is not water. But it is, apparently, full of you.OceanFest came and went like a feeding frenzy like brief, violent, and somehow nourishing. The launch went well. Better than the shark dared hope when it first broke the surface, blinking and confused and ready.If you picked up The Ocean Is Not Water during the fest (or at any point, really): thank you. Genuinely. Every purchase, every hour spent hunting in the abyss, every save file the shark now carries in its memory it matters. The abyss noticed. So did I.You are the reason this thing exists outside my machine.The game is still young. The depths are deep. Reality is still occasionally negotiable. If you find something broken like a fish that refuses to be devoured, a number that shouldn't exist, a dream that won't end, a vortex that vortexes where it shouldn't please say so. Steam discussions, the issue tracker, a comment on this post. I read them all. The shark has many eyes now.If something is missing such as a feature you wish the hunger had, a quality-of-life current you want shifted, a mechanic that should descend further please tell me that too. I can't promise every request gets implemented, but I do promise they get heard. The abyssal backlog is real and it is growing.And if you've spent time in the deep and the experience fed you, even a little, I'd be grateful for a positive review on the store page. Not because the shark demands tribute. Because reviews help other hungry things find their way down here. Word of mouth, but with teeth.Until then: keep devouring. Keep descending. Keep listening when the ocean whispers.— Sharkey "Stars are visible below you. The abyss has no bottom. Neither, apparently, does your support."