The latest update for Sunless Sea is now available to Explorer-level backers via the Humble Bundle download site. This is the last major update before we hit Early Access proper! Key elements are a bunch of stability fixes, four new areas, and, chiefly, a substantially altered combat system.

IMPORTANT! Before you do anything else, Check for New Content with the menu button and update your content.

ALSO IMPORTANT! The Updating Content experience is now both quicker and less enigmatic.

REGRETTABLE! Saves from 0.1.2 and earlier will no longer work - sorry. There shouldn't be any more breaking changes on saves.

Combat

Combat abilities now run on warm-up not cool-down: you can see what your enemy is planning, change your action on the fly, and queue up more actions.
Monsters move at different rates. Pathfinding has been tuned.
Beasties will tend to honour their territories rather than chase you all the way across the map.
You'll now be ambushed by bat swarms, and should probably avoid Mt Nomad.
We've made some important underlying changes which allow a more sophisticated variety of combat abilities - go into combat with a Strange Catch in your hold to see an example.
Land battles are now possible, although there's only one out there right now.
The combat UI is a bare-bones prototype! Please let us know how you get on with the system - we're listening intently to feedback.

Content

The Cumaean Canal, the Sea of Voices (with Polythreme), Void's Approach (with the Chapel of Lights and the Avid Horizon) and the Snares (with Pigmote Isle) are all now live. There's only a smattering of content in there right now, but I recommend a look at Void's Approach in particular, which contains probably the eeriest art so far.
More content updates have popped since the last major patch - see /sunless-sea-content-updates

Misc

Terror effects have been tuned.
Log dates now vary. (In saves from the last version, you will see weird dates: in newer saves, it'll work OK.)
We're experimenting with a different docking indicator. See how you get on with it.

Fixes

Various shenanigans with engines, ports and fuel should now be resolved.
The blank map issue is fixed (except in saves earlier than 0.1.2, which will do you no good, I'm afraid.
Quit to Main Menu added
You can no longer disappear off the north of the map; we've added an invisible wall. Being able to sail off and disappear was actually intended functionality, but it looked buggy, so we've fallen back on tradition. There will be a way to travel further north, which is hinted at in this update.
Lightships now have ports to discourage collision or assault.