Amazing game, I played this for a loong time to beat it :)
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I think I focused on trying to max out the ship upgrades and the docks and industry on every city, so I tended to try and get gold more than explore for the city. My discovery of the later islands took a longer time for some reason. Maybe a faster gold progression would have made it take less time but still allow me to max out everything. I also was maxed out for a bit but due to the way I navigated around had runs where I died before exploring the map fully