Megaquarium News

Hello all, a new update has just gone live with a bumper crop of new features and improvements. Let's take a look.



You can now bring up a new search menu in-game which allows you to filter the contents of the build menu to just the items you are interested in!

For example: by writing "tropical shoaler count:0" you will see only tropical animals with the shoaler care requirement, which you currently have zero of in your aquarium.

For more examples check out the latest episode of the official Megaquarium vlog:

https://youtu.be/BKINwrUdP9U

You can bring the menu up by pressing the Return key (this is rebindable) or by clicking the search button at the top of the build menu.


(Click on thumbs to enlarge)


5 new plants have just been added to the game. The focus here was adding more large plants and also adding more variety in terms of the gameplay purpose of each plant.

For example, the all new 2x3 Shellweed is only worth a few additional plants but adds a lot to the rock count and a whopping 50 filter power!

Meanwhile the Velvet Horn is more balanced with a mixture of plants, rocks and filter power.

I've also rebalanced some of the existing plants to make the differences between them more drastic. Some are excellent for plant count, while others are strong passive filterers and then there are the ones which give a range of minor benefits.


The final big feature is an expansion to the sandbox mode. There are now additional options which allow you to unlock all animals and equipment from the start of your game, as well as toggle access to unlimited money.

I know some people have missed having a fully "creative" mode with absolutely no restrictions and these new settings allow you to do that.

I've also added a set of new presets to challenge you to try the game in different formats. Let's take a look:

Full unlock - here you have access to everything from the start but don't have unlimited money, so you still have to create a balanced aquarium. It's harder than it sounds!

Research mode - here you have unlimited money but you still need to work through the ranks to unlock all the animals and equipment. This is definitely a relaxed mode where you can proceed at your own pace however it does reduce the burden on managing your staff efficiently.

Creator mode - the ultimate sandbox experience. Everything is unlocked and you have unlimited money.

Just like all the other presets you can tweak individual settings to your own preferences.


That's the major stuff out of the way, but the update comes with all these minor improvements/fixes too:

• Added drag-to-paint for tiles.
  
• Added rebindable hotkeys for all the buttons in the top left.
  
• Rebalanced plant/rock/cave lover requirements. Some are also worth extra prestige.
  
• Added info panels for any animal given to the player as a gift in the campaign so you can see what its needs are before picking it up.
  
• Added difficulty to save game info.
  
• Switched to proper fullscreen borderless window mode. If you click on your other monitor it won't minimise the game.
  
• Fixed animation speed going faster than simulation.
  
• Optimised build menu so that it loads quicker.
  
• Optimised animations in general for better FPS in large aquariums, especially on low detail mode.
  
• Redesigned point bubble system to increase performance.
  
• Optimised objective checking to increase performance.
  
• Zoning interface now scales/wraps when it gets to full.
  
• Slightly increased opacity of build menu UI.
  
• Added feeding skill requirement to Blue Spotted Ribbontail Ray.
  
• Striped boxfish no longer eats starfish.
  
• Danger to tooltip now says "Starfish with size x or less".
  
• Fixed bug where tank counts were calculated incorrectly.
  
• Slightly increased size of tooltip text and width.
  
• Fixed mega light lights.
  
• Megalopolis tank enquiry objective tells you to check log.
  
• Fixed objective tooltip in level 1 tutorial with incorrect description of button.
  
• Tweaked active swimmer icon so that it always says the required volume even when met.
  
• Added rounded tank and kreisel tank icons.
  
• Fixed minor display bugs for needs rounded, needs kreisel and congeners only icons.
  
• Fixed supersonic walking bug.
  
• Fixed issue where tooltip hangs over edge of screen on higher than 1080p resolutions.
  
• Added kreisel tank description.
  
• Fixed a number of portraits positions.
  
• Fixed double unlock of some science items in sandbox modes
  
• If you have already unlocked everything at a new rank it skips the "newly available" screen.
  =Modding=
  
• Animal mods can create a new animal category without updating gui.data, see Azure Demoiselle for example.
  
• Game is slightly more resilient to mods being added/removed midgame
  

Hope you enjoy the update guys, please let me know if you notice any bugs via the Steam discussion forums as usual. https://steamcommunity.com/app/600480/discussions/0/ ːsteamhappyː

Hey all, quick patch with a few bug fixes.


- Fixed bug where one of the Chicago tanks was always available regardless of the rank you started at. Unfortunately the fix only affects new sandbox games. Sorry about that!
- Cursor is now hidden in first person mode.
- Altered the way the game calculates whether a deep tank has been correctly connected to the floor in level 3.
- Fixed a minor graphical issue caused by moving stairs.

There's still a ton of smaller tweaks/features that I'm itching to get into the game over the next few weeks but the next major feature I'm planning to work on will be some kind of smart search/filtering system for the build menu to make it easier to find things (especially animals) in the later stages of the game.

Exciting stuff!

Howdy all and happy holidays!

The brand new Winter Update for Megaquarium is brimming with new features, improvements and even some new stuff to build!


Managing your staff just got a whole lot easier with a new and improved 'Manage' tab and zoning tool



The new 'Manage' tab shows your staff in a vertical list rather than a grid. Each row has enough space to show useful information such as what they are currently doing, which zone they are assigned to and what their skill priorities are.

What's more, you can directly adjust the skill priorities right from this tab, rather than having to bring up each individual staff window.

You can also get directly into the new and improved zoning tool by clicking on the zone button itself...



I'll be the first to admit that the old zoning tool needed some improvement, but I'm really proud of its replacement!

As you can see in the screenshot above, all the zones are shown at the same time and in different colours, so it's way easier to get a overview of how your zones are set up.

Even better you can now directly edit zones and reassign staff with a few easy clicks, all from inside the tool, no more having to go find each individual staff member just to edit a few zones.


Players have been calling out for a new rounded tank that is larger than the Belfast or Small Tunnel Tank but not quite as big as the Mega Tank. One that comes out early enough in the ranks for your fully grown Spotted Eagle Rays.

Well, I listened! Introducing the brand new Chicago tank. Rather than just being a large version of the Belfast tank, I've tried to design something interesting.



This tank comes in two variants, one with the access on the inside edge, and one with the access on the outside. This means it can be used as an internal or external corner of your wall of tanks.


The update also comes with 6 new decorations spanning sizes between 2x2 all the way up to 6x3.



I'm also planning to add some brand new plants in the early part of next year. They are fully designed, I'm just waiting on the assets from my artist.


Some of you might wonder why the game didn't release with Steam Cloud support. The truth is that I had a fully functional version working pre-launch using Steam's own "auto-cloud" feature.

However, literally days before launch I discovered that the system had serious flaws including being unable to delete saves from the cloud, once they were up there. For me, this was totally unacceptable.

Therefore, I waited until now, when I had some more dev time, to implement a really robust version using the more complicated Steam Cloud API.

The bonus news about this is: with this in place, I'm halfway to implementing Steam Workshop, which should also land in the early part of next year!

• Added information about the max size an animal can eat when fully grown to its tooltip.
  
• Slightly reduced volume of small tunnel tank.
  
• Swapped Angel and Lemon shark ranks so that you have access to the Mega Tank at the same time as the Lemon Shark
  
• Added difficulty tooltips on the main menu.
  
• Redesigned animal animation system to avoid clipping issues and weird movement of larger animals.
  
• Fixed various issues to do with animals eating each other.
  
• Fixed bug where negative prestige would not show on prestige bar on load.
  
• Fixed various minor graphical bugs.
  

As always, please let me know if you notice any bugs. I'm around until this Thursday and then I'm on my hols for a couple of weeks.

Happy holidays everyone! ːsteamhappyː

Hey guys, I've been super busy with a house move over the last week but I've still managed to squeeze out a little patch for you!


- Added staff priorities to level up messages.
- Added fully grown active swimmer requirement to tooltip.
- Fixed bug where cashflow was misreporting the costs of food, drink and gift shop items.
- Fixed bug where guide book and balloon refills were too cheap.
- Fixed bug where calcium reactor was free.
- Reduced number of horse eye jacks given as gift in Myra level from 5 to 3.
- Fixed bug with deep outcrop tank where staff would go inside temporarily if you dropped it on top of them.
- Fixed bug where Blue Whiting had no ecology point value.
- At end of day we don't auto drop items that are being carried by the player unless they are tanks or animals.
- Scenery no longer produce negative prestige if a guest sees it over and over.
- Clicking cancel task now drops the item making it slightly easier to force staff to do a particular job. (More stuff coming in this area!)
- Fixed bug where staff learned slightly slower on fast mode.

I'm still very busy with the house move but after I've moved I'll be back with more update goodness! ːsteamhappyː

Hey guys, big update for you today. There really is something for everybody in this one!


a) Important message toggle - filters out unimportant messages like autopsy and growth reports after they have been read. Also trades, merchants and missions that have already been completed.
b) Delete message functionality with the option to "delete all" of the same type e.g. autopsy and growth messages.


Staff level ups are now just messages which sit in your log until you are ready for them. This was a highly requested feature from players who found the constant interruptions annoying.

The good news is that staff continue to accrue skill points even when they are ready to level up. Therefore there is no penalty if you delay levelling up while you are busy with something else!


I have added 14 brand new staff to the game. That is a 50% increase on the existing staff cap.

I have made this change in reaction to requests from players whose aquariums were being constrained by the old staff cap, especially in sandbox mode. This boost should help a lot!

If you already have a large sandbox aquarium you should be able to load it up and you'll immediately gain access to new staff!

I am not ruling out additional increases to the staff cap in the future but I want to change things gradually, to avoid breaking the game.

One thing I'm keen on, is staff not feeling like mindless drones like you get in RTS games. I want to keep the total number low enough that the player is familiar with their staff and can manage them effectively.

To that end, the next area I want to focus my attention on is improving the productivity of each staff member via additional control settings, improved zoning, a better staff manage tab and by tweaking certain mechanics.

My hope is that by improving overall staff productivity we can allow for huge aquariums but without resorting to the blunt instrument of hundreds of unmanaged staff, which I believe would reduce the overall fun of the game.


- Massively increased performance of the simulation when running on fast speed setting.
- Build menu now remembers its place if you return to the same menu as last time.
- Min and max volume of tanks is now shown in the build menu.
- Fixed bug where hats and hair appear to lift off guest and staff heads on low and medium detail graphical settings.
- Fixed bug where guest animations would stop when too close in first person mode.
- Added two new hair colours for guests and staff!
- Slightly reduced point bonus when giving talks with a very high talking skill.
- Added missing food boxes to Hartcliff, Myra and Carbon City levels.
- Calcium Reactor no longer gives Prestige points (whoops!) and will stop providing coral growth benefit if broken down for too long.
- Corrected coral growth bonus provided by Calcium Reactor. The bonus was being incorrectly inflated before.
- Slightly increased staff salaries.
- Renamed Other Inverts to "Anemones, Clams and Gorgonians". There were two sections named "Other Inverts" before.
- Added missing string to end of level 10.
- Fixed issue where daily sales objectives were blank in French language.
- Sandbox mode always starts with at least one "cleaner"
- Large tunnel and Kreisel tanks are now paintable.
- You can now paint underneath Belfast and Kreisel tanks.
- Fixed various Kreisel tank issues: off-centre task bubbles, could not build across back wall.
- Fixed bug where certain walls on Deep Outcrop and Large Tunnel Tank could not be built across.
- Fixed bug where info box on message would escape its message window when you scroll.
- Tweaked words on level 3 to point player to message log for two of the corals.

Enjoy! ːsteamhappyː