Megaquarium News

Megaquarium: Architect's Collection is out now. What are you waiting for? Go get it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339440/Megaquarium_Architects_Collection/

I hope you enjoy it!

[h2]New achievements[/h2]
To celebrate the launch of the Architect's Collection, I've added three new achievements to the game:

Decorator - Have 1500 Prestige income from decorations and paint.
Sell sell sell! - 4000 daily revenue from food, drink and gift shop sales.
Helpful - Complete 30 side objectives.

All three achievements can be completed whether you own the new expansion or not. However, I have designed them around the themes of the expansion and the update that comes out alongside it.

[h2]Update[/h2]
As you're probably aware, the game has also got a huge update alongside the launch of the expansion.

If you missed them, here are some blog posts I wrote about the major features:
Sandbox improvements New mechanics

For a full list of the changes see below.

Tim Twice Circled

[h3]Changelog[/h3]

• Feature: Decorations can be placed outside of tanks.
  
• Feature: Paints generate prestige.
  
• Feature: Added one-way gate.
  
• Feature: Improved arrow behaviour.
  
• Feature: Guests will actually steal from gift shop supply boxes now. ;)
  
• Feature: You can place guests and staff at different heights e.g. platforms, bridges (AC).
  
• Feature: 1st person mode respects height. But you can still walk through walls.
  
• Feature: Added 3 new objectives.
  
• Sandbox: Improved opportunity variety
  
• Sandbox: Animal rarity affects animals which are excluded/unlocked
  
• Sandbox: Max objectives = 6.
  
• Sandbox: Added abandonment of objectives.
  
• Sandbox: All messages can be deleted after you have finished interacting with them.
  
• Sandbox: Increased starting money.
  
• Balance: Staff talks now have difficulty levels. Low skilled staff will find high difficulty talks very time-consuming. Guests will wander off if a talk is too long and you will receive only partial point income.
  
• Balance: High value food and drink dispensers and massage chairs can break down.
  
• Balance: Decreased breakdown rate increase on higher difficulties. (hard:10%, brutal:25% faster breakdowns).
  
• Balance: Food, drink and gift shop default margins are now 200% (increased revenue from these sources). The highest value food and drink base values were decreased though.
  
• Balance: Added negative thoughts when a guest cannot reach the exit and when an unfulfilled need is making them want to go home.
  
• Balance: Larger decorations have a much greater prestige enjoy chance (internal and external)
  
• Balance: Decoration prestige enjoy change affects cost.
  
• Balance: Increased prestige difference between ranks to allow for increased prestige gain from decorations and paint.
  
• Balance: Guest entrance rate is now constant for a given prestige value, even if distance between ranks is modified by DLC or campaign level.
  
• Balance: Increased prestige from feeding tank (FF).
  
• Balance: Slightly increased entrance ticket rates at ranks 1-6.
  
• Balance: Slightly reduced prestige value of biggest decorations and increased cost.
  
• Balance: Tweaked some animals sizes.
  
• Balance: Gift shop shelves now arrive empty. But they cost less.
  
• Balance: Higher value gift shop items have a lower chance of attracting guests, you need to keep guests near them longer to get the sale!
  
• Balance: Tool dispensers sell for 0 if they are empty.
  
• UI: Split disallowed skill levels into different roles.
  
• UI: Added hotkey to 'copy object'.
  
• UI: Added hotkey to 'copy paint'.
  
• UI: Added tooltip to prestige value on prestige window. Tells you your current base prestige.
  
• UI: Added build menu category to all objects when you hover over the (i) or the portrait on its individual window.
  
• UI: Improved message formatting.
  
• UI: Added many additional icons to non-animal game objects to better describe their behaviour.
  
• UI: Added thousand separators to many numbers.
  
• UI: Objects in the build menu always have the default blue theme.
  
• Graphics: People smoothly transition between different floor heights.
  
• Graphics: People show the object they are holding when you pick them up.
  
• Fixed bug: Poster not updating when animals are added to attached tank.
  
• Fixed bug: 'Floating stuff'
  
• Fixed bug: entrance flag waving.
  
• Fixed bug: sound load paths are escaped so any path can be valid.
  
• Fixed bug: delete bench with guest on it, guest animation resets and item follows guest.
  
• Fixed bug: dislikes food competitors requirement was always met for growing up purposes.
  
• Fixed bug: FF aquascaping types were not increasing costs. FF aquascaping has therefore become more expensive.
  
• Stability: Check for missing staff members on load to avoid error.
  
• Stability: Clamp staff talents and skills at 50 (even via modding).
  
• Optimisation: Improved loading time of staff manage tab.
  
• Optimisation: Spread out objective checking code.
  

The Architect's Collection will launch alongside a huge update the base game on 11th November 2021.

In the last post I went in-depth on the new sandbox mode. This time I'll shed some light on the other most exciting new features.

[h3]External decorating[/h3]
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed in the trailer and screenshots that some of the guests are paying more attention to decorations outside your tanks than before.



Previously, decorations only earned you prestige when a guest viewed them inside a tank, but once this update goes live they will earn you prestige when placed externally too.

One of the neat things about launching this alongside the Architect's Collection is that the expansion contains a set of dividers (like the velvet rope you can see in the picture above) that can be used to cordon off your decorations while still allowing your guests to view them.

Fun fact: guests can view external decorations from up to 3 tiles away!

[h3]Paints earn prestige[/h3]
Staying on the theme of making the spaces between your tanks as important as the tanks themselves—in the new update paints will earn you prestige!

As your guests traverse your aquarium they will note all the painted objects they encounter (including the floor itself). Once they have encountered a sufficient amount of an individual paint, they'll earn you some prestige.

I really like this mechanic because it rewards you for making a beautiful aquarium—something you'll probably want to be doing anyway. I also like the way it requires a build up of a single paint style which incentivises you to theme your aquarium in blocks - much like a real aquarium!

NB If you're not a paint enthusiast, don't worry! Painting is not mandatory. It's just another opportunity to convert your design skill into prestige.

[h3]Arrows[/h3]
I've upgraded the floor arrow to give a more intuitive behaviour. It attracts guests to it and then sends them on their way in a straight line in the direction it points.

Guests will explore all the attractions in an area first, before paying attention to the floor arrow. This makes floor arrows really helpful for moving guests along to the next area, rather than dawdling about getting lost!

Overall this new behaviour is more transparent and provides better feedback than the old arrows did, so it's easier to tweak them to your liking.

[h3]One-way gates[/h3]
I've wanted to add one-way gates to the game for a long time. They are another example of a deceptively simple idea which took a significant system rewrite to get working. The result is really nice though.



You can use these gates to enforce a one-way system around a small part of, or even your entire aquarium! Thankfully staff can still pass through the gate in either direction.

With their inclusion it's easy to automatically trap guests so they cannot leave. To combat this I've included some new negative guests thoughts when guests want to leave but cannot find a path to the exit.

So be warned: while it's very easy to trap guests inside your aquarium, your prestige will take a significant hit if you try it. ;)

[h3]Per-skill task controls[/h3]
This one is straight out of the community suggestion inbox. Previously you could prohibit a staff from carrying out tasks of certain skill levels. However, this was applied to all roles at once.



This meant that if a staff member was good at fixing but poor at feeding, you couldn't prevent them from doing the high skill feeding tasks without also stopping them doing the fixing ones too!

In response to player feedback I have split this control so there is a separate set of toggles for each role.

I'm so pleased with how Megaquarium continues to evolve. Thank you all for your ongoing attention, I hope you enjoy everything when it goes live on November 11th.

Tim

The Architect's Collection will launch alongside a huge update to the base game on 11th November 2021.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339440/Megaquarium_Architects_Collection/

In this post we'll take an in-depth look at the changes I've made to sandbox mode as part of this update.

Before we get started I'd just like to clearly state that this update will be available to all players regardless of whether they own any of the expansions.

[h3]A scalable sandbox[/h3]
I had many goals when redesigning the sandbox mode. Primarily I wanted to create a more scalable sandbox—one that could respond to however many expansions or mods you have installed.

Secondarily I wanted to create a more responsive and varied sandbox, where every playthrough is different and where the challenges and opportunities you are offered depend on your actions as a player.



[h3]Unlimited opportunities[/h3]
One of the problems with the previous sandbox mode was that there were a finite number of opportunities (side-objectives, trades and merchants) that appeared in your inbox.

These opportunities were linked to your prestige value rather than time, so even if you spent a lot of time at the same rank, no new opportunities would appear.

The first change I made was to unlink the opportunity generation from prestige and have them become available based on the passage of time instead.

This means that, if you wait long enough, eventually every single animal will be available via an opportunity, even if you have hundreds of animals from various expansions and mods.

[h3]More responsive, more varied[/h3]
If we are generating new side-objectives etc. as we go along, rather than at pre-determined prestige levels, we can also make those objectives respond to other factors within the simulation.

For example, the game might offer an objective which encourages the player to use an animal or item they've not used yet.



The game can also create progressive objectives challenging the player to keep pushing further in various metrics such as animal diversity, combined point totals or guest count.

To achieve this I have designed a system where objective "styles" can be defined. These comprise:

• A set of conditions which need to be true for the objective to be offered.
  
• A reward definition which allows an appropriate reward to be chosen based on the current state of the aquarium.
  
• A set of objective goals which can also be programmed to adjust based on the current state of the aquarium.

Put all this together and you have a system capable of incredible variety while also being responsive to ensure balance and good gameplay.

[h3]Highly moddable[/h3]
It won't be a surprise, then, to learn that this system is incredibly moddable. I've covered all the basics so that all animals will fit into one opportunity or another. But a modder could be much more targeted and specific.

Imagine a mod which adds 1 or 2 animals but also includes special objectives which are the only way to obtain said animals. This is 100% possible.

I'm excited to see what modders are able to do with this!

[h3]Rarity factor[/h3]
One of the things I'm most excited about with the launch of this new sandbox is the creation of more of a rarity factor among animals in the game.

Unless you set animal availability to "Everything Available" when creating the sandbox, a selection of animals will be excluded so that they are not available to unlock with ecology.

Previously this selection was purely random, but with this update, the selection is now based on a rarity factor for each animal. Put simply, it's much less likely for you to be able to access high prestige animals like whale sharks and ocean sunfish with simple ecology.

Instead you're going to have to complete difficult objectives or trades for them. I think this will create a really nice rarity factor that I've wanted in the game for a long time.

[h3]Expansion-specific objectives[/h3]
Finally, I'm pleased to announce that both Freshwater Frenzy and the Architect's Collection will include unique sandbox objectives that only appear if you have the expansions active.

For example, with Freshwater Frenzy active, you'll be offered special breeding objectives from the master breeder himself Emmanuel Tosh!



Likewise, with the Architect's Collection, you'll be offered architect challenges where you are incentivised to make use of all the new content in the collection.

This model allows me to create tailored content for each expansion, all accessible simultaneously via sandbox mode. With each new expansion the gameplay becomes richer, more varied and hopefully more fun!

So that just about sums things up. For me this update is integral to the future of Megaquarium. Just like the optimisation updates earlier this year, it creates a foundation upon which future content can be built. I'm thrilled to share it with you finally.

Tim

Introducing the Architect's Collection: a brand new expansion for Megaquarium!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I'm going to talk about the design process for some of the key features later in the post but before we get started, head over to the store page for a full rundown.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339440/Megaquarium_Architects_Collection/

The expansion will be priced at $7.99 or your regional equivalent and will launch on 11th November 2021 on both GOG and Steam. Remember to wishlist if you want to be notified when it goes live! ːsteamhappyː

This expansion will be launching alongside a big upgrade to the base game introducing more quality of life features as well as some brand new mechanics. More on those another time.

[h3]Spaces between the tanks[/h3]
Now I love designing tanks in Megaquarium as much as the next person, but wouldn't it be cool if you could spend as much care and attention over the design of the spaces between the tanks?

This is what the Architect's Collection, and the update that releases alongside it, are all about.

[h3]Layering up[/h3]
You may not realise, but up until this point Megaquarium has been limited to just a single layer of objects. In other words, you can't build objects on top of one-another.

For an expansion all about architecture and design, this limitation had to go!



It took a major system rewrite but adding multiple layer functionality paves the way for all manner of new objects in the game. Without it, archways, roofs, bridges and tunnels simply wouldn't be possible.

[h3]Over and under[/h3]
Have you ever built yourself into a corner? You finally finish that Mega Tank and then you realise there's no route for your guests to continue their journey further into your aquarium. Enter bridges and tunnels...



This is just one of the many uses of bridges and tunnels! I also think they add so many possibilities in terms of layout, design and aesthetic.

[h3]Paintable = Customizable[/h3]
Painting offers a wonderful opportunity to make our aquariums unique. It was only earlier this year when designing this expansion that I realised how powerful this tool could be.

By making almost every object included in the expansion paintable (major props to my artist here as this was not the easiest task!) it allows almost infinite creative possibilities.

Plus it gets better, all paints are back-compatible, so as new paints are added in the future the creative space grows even more.

[h3]Aquatic VIPs[/h3]
Let's talk about the animals. This expansion was the perfect opportunity to go all out on the inclusions.

If you're an aquatic enthusiast, you will already know and love so many of the animals on this list. If Megaquarium is your entry point to the world of aquatic life - well you're in for a treat, this eclectic mix of the weird and wonderful may just ignite an interest you didn't realise you had.



[h3]Designed for Sandbox[/h3]
We believe the Architect's Collection is best enjoyed alongside the content from other expansions (both past and hopefully future!). For this reason we decided that a standalone campaign wasn't the right fit.

Instead, the Architect's Collection is launching alongside a huge update to the game's sandbox mode!

My goal: to generate a campaign-like experience but where all your expansions (and even mods) can intermingle to create the deepest and most varied experience possible.

I will be releasing a separate post specifically about the new sandbox mode closer to release, but here's a taste of what to expect:



Until then,

Tim Twice Circled