Build 0.2.91 Adds Achievements, Student Admissions, and more!
Hey everyone, we're back with our last update of the year! This update brings achievements, student admissions, bank loans, and more!
Achievements :
Note: The implementation of the achievements is such that some of your past achievements will be recognized by the games, and others will not. This was done so that you don't accidentally “achieve” an achievement without intending to, which would ruin the fun.
Achievements have now been added to the game. We're excited by this and put a lot of work into thinking about how to make the achievements an interesting aspect of the game. You can check the achievements by going to the settings menu or by buying a trophy case object and clicking on it.
We're still thinking of other achievements to add and how to make them relevant to the game so if you have ideas feel free to write them in the comments!
Note : The cafeteria and vending machine series of achievements lists the requirements as 10,000 "amount". That should actually be $10,000. This will be updated soon.
Student Admissions:
You will now have to choose how many students to accept during the build phase of the school year. This means that you will no longer be forced to accept students at the start of the school year. However, your performance is now more important than ever! Your school evaluation at the end of the year will decide how many students will be interested in joining your school the next school year, so there's more pressure to get up those rankings.
Priority:
This one is a long requested addition. You can now prioritize tasks for workers and janitors. Workers will prioritize build tasks and janitor will prioritize dirt to clean up, wherever you decide. Take note that similar to routing, you will need to research these.
Bank Loans:
Running out of money? You can now take out a loan with the bank in case you are running out of money. But make sure to keep track of the interest payments!
New Research Items:
We've added quite a few new research items! Improve your staff's speed or range, or research some cost-saving measures to help you with your budget. If you're feeling desperate, you can even sell naming rights to your school!
Continue Game:
A player requested that we add ad button to easily continue the last saved game, which made total sense! So now there is a continue game button in the main menu.
Bugs:
Fixed WashingDishes animation not rendering
Fixed bug where multiple students are using the piano
Fixed bug where removing a teacher from a department is not sent to teachers pool
Use the orientation of the kitchen sink slot when washing dishes
Fixed cases where players can't hire teachers
Fixed bugs related to canteen and vending machine cashflow
Fixed Worker not saving some properties
Added button hover changes to buttons in bank loan
Optimized usage of Achievement icon assets
Updating Naming Rights research
Fixed bug where research complete is called twice
Removed Student Limit display
Added tooltips in Admission Panel
Fixed crash due to nonSteam achievements
Internal bug fixes
Renamed Routing to Logistics
Escape to close Admissions Panel
Fixed UI stretching bug and comma separated values
Fixed bug where class count uses seat count instead of actual students
Implemented 'Priority' Research
Clear cafeteria tables on start of school year
Fixed bug where door context panel no longer shows
Updated playing field to have calisthenics as research requirement
Fixed floor tasks are rendered under bushes
Changed price of Trophy Case
Improved worker AI regarding working on reparing objects to be dismantled
Removed student limit in evaluation panel
Fixed Bug of interested students not updating properly after loading a file
Added black BG in Input Text of Admissions Panel
Fixed numbers in Admission Panel to be shown as comma separated
Optimized objects and ground sprites (faster and less memory)
Agents now attempt to reach unreachable areas so that players can see where they try to go
Aesthetic adjustments to achievement panel
Added hi res achievement icons
Added grants to add normal transfer students
Added highlights to Reports Panel tab
Workers and Janitors get the earlier tasks if they have the same priority
Fixed routing paths shown bug
Fixed cancelling dragging bug
Fixed auto selection in Hire Teachers panel when moving to different department tabs
Implemented prevention of tracking achievements if player is loading the same save file
Tweaked student admissions balancing
Fixed interested student count
Fixed bug where admissions panel remains open when loading another save
Fixed bug where Clicking Reports Panel Tab opens Report Card
Fixed bug where Student Admission input black background is covering the caret
Reverted to using slash in achievement entries
Fixed recurring senior grant
Added "League" achievements
Changed workers building behavior to stick on current task even if a new task is made
Fixed inconsistent research items due to new changes
Removed student subsidy during build phase
Academia : School Simulator Roadmap
Hi everyone, while we've been busy at work on the game, the updates have slowed down a little bit, and we've noticed some people expressing concern about development. Rest assured we are still fully developing the game, and we have quite a few plans in store for you. We know we've not been as good as giving you guys a roadmap to look forward to, so here is a quick summary of what you can expect from us in the next few months.
Achievements
As mentioned before, we've been adding Achievements to the game. This is currently in the testing phase, and assuming everything is working well, it should be out very soon.
More Research Items
We're currently adding more research items, including some fun ones to give you even more options with how to upgrade your staff and your school.
Priority Building and Cleaning
A very popular demand that we're happy to finally be able to release soon.
Student Admissions
Once this is implemented you'll now have a lot more control about how many students to accept at the start of the school year.
Bank Loans
Running out of cash? We're working in a way you can loan some money (but mind the interest!)
Student Relationships
This is something we've put off for a while but are actively designing right now. Ideally we'll have this out by Valentine's Day!
Student Dropouts
Some of you have been asking for more of a challenge, well here it is. Soon, students will start dropping out if you manage your school poorly, meaning you lose revenue and prestige!
Room Templates
An easier way to quickly build rooms is something people have been asking for, and we're happy to provide.
Bigger Maps
Another thing a lot of people have been demanding!
There is no fixed timeline for these features because we'll adjust them as necessary, but we wanted you guys to at least know what we're planning for the next few months. We'll do another update like this in the future so that you can all be aware of what we've got planned. That's it for now, back to work!
Build 0.2.79 adds Optimization and more Reports
Hi everyone, we're back with an update for you guys. This month's update is mostly based on optimizations and bug fixes, new stuff will be added next month.
Optimization
Players on 32bit OSes have been encountering problems with the game because of memory issues. We've spent this month focused on fixing those issues, and hopefully brings some optimization fixes to the rest of the game as well. This optimization will render the game in half size for anyone with a 32bit OS, which is a compromise we have to do for older systems. Anyone with newer computers or playing on a 64bit OS should still see the game in full resolution.
More Reports
We've added reports for the Cafeteria, Kitchen, and Clinic to round out our reports panel. These should help you get an idea of which of these are most used, and help with planning for more efficient schools.
New Hairstyles
In the previous update we added new school uniforms for students. In this update, we've added new hairstyles for the students and staff. This should allow for more combinations, and unique looking characters!
Teachers Sorted by Subject Ability
When hiring teachers, clicking on the department tabs will sort teachers by subject ability, with the best teacher located in the upper left position. You can now easily find the best teacher to assign to a department easily.
Spanish, Russian, and French Language mods
Thanks to maxwellnewage, ghost, and haru-dr for the Spanish, Russian, and French language mods respectively. Hope you all can subscribe and help them out!
In Game Feedback Form
We added an in-game feedback form which you can access from the settings menu. This should allow players to give us non bug related feedback much more easily.
Localization Tool Improvements
The following improvements were added to the localization tool:
Optimization: Lessened loading time for categories with a lot terms
Added hotkey: Ctrl+space for moving to the next unDone term
Sneak Peek : Achievements and more Research
Even if it's necessary, we know it's a bit disappointing to not have any fancy new updates. So we want to share that we've been working on achievement for quite some time. Here's a sneak preview to give you some ideas as to what kind of achievements to expect.
We're also planning on some more research items to implemented in the future, to complement the already existing research.
Bug fixes:
- Routing gets cancelled when user switches from Add Route to Complete
Route
-Incorrect layering of some hand items during animation.
- Preview and count get stuck when pressing ESC while building.
- Medicate animation looks wrong on low res
- Head of Cook cannot be seen when carrying supply crate
- Wheels of dump truck and delivery truck are detached on low res build
- Hand sometimes appear small when performing actions
- Janitor is not holding the mop on low res build
- Supply crate appears to held one handed by cook on low res build
- Chalk appears too big and seems to float on low res build
- Fod cauldron seems floating when being carried by cook
- Missing book when students are reading in the library on low res build
- Some scool department bufs when removing teachers
Balancing Changes:
-Some changes to the sickness mechanic to fix the rampant sickness some players are experiencing.
- Delinquent students are now more likely to do their delinquent actions because of lowered starting discipline.
Build 0.2.71 Adds Research, Selectable Uniforms, Routing Range, and More School Settings
Hey everyone, we're back with a new update! We're starting to get some more feedback on our Test and Candidate Branches so just wanted to do another quick thank you to everyone who is trying out those branches! We've got a couple of big updates for you in this update, so let's get to it.
Research
This update brings research to the game! You can now research upgrades to workers, teachers, and other stuff to improve your school. Certain zones, objects, and staff will also be locked until they are researched. More research items and tracks will be added in the future, so if you have any suggestions, make sure to comment here and in the discussion boards.
Sandbox mode will also have research, but the research will be done instantly instead of having to wait.
Old save files will still work, but some items may be locked and need to be researched before they can be used again.
Selectable Student Uniforms
Selectable student uniforms (including casual wear!) are now added to the game and can be selected in the school settings panel. Unfortunately you will have to start a new school in order to take advantage of this. As with Research, please let us know if you have any special uniform requests, and we'll do our best to add these in the future.
New School settings
You can now adjust littering and (object) durability settings in the custom school screen. Difficulty settings have also been added so you can easily select if you want an easy normal, or hard difficulty.
Routing Range
There was always a lot of confusion as to why staff on routes would sometimes wander off. They were actually being led astray by litter and dirt that was just within their range! To make this clearer, we've added a visibility range for both routed janitors and workers so that it's more clear when and why they are wandering off route. Routing range is only visible when the routing menu is open.
New Blueprint Objects
For the planners out there, we've added a couple new blueprint objcts for you to play with, like the floor, bushes, and trees, as well as updated the wall object to give it a little more depth.
Reports Updates
The new toilet report shows how often toilets are used and how much they cost in upkeep. The sanitation report now shows correct amount of dirt.
This build also includes numerous balancing and bug fixes, which will be detailed in the final update.
Bug Fixes and Improvements:
Fixed bug where day 1 is skipped when starting a school year at 8:00pm
Fixed multiple broken object indicator in one object bug
Remember and restore the last time scale when opening modal panels
Fixed bug where multiple workers would repair a broken object
Added average daily use in toilet report
Fixed bug where cancelling a dismantle or destroy gives money
Added plus sign when selling and minus sign when repairing objects
Fixed cooks not going to another stove when its target stove is broken
Students will now bus dishes more instead of leaving them on the table.
Close context panels when camera moves
Fixed orientation of characters when sitting
Fixed bug where loading is stuck in some save files
Cook looks for another kitchen sink if the one in its assigned kitchen is not reachable
Janitors now prioritize taking trash bags to garbage truck over their needs and other cleaning
Remove dirt, pee, and litter whenever an object with physical blocker is built over it
Implemented better behaviour for routed Janitors
Close object and staff context panel when camera moves or zooms
Fixed non routed Janitor cleaning the same tile.
Counselor and Principal will now tend to students more
Make pee more visible
Fixed error when removing Delivery zone
Known Issues
Closing or quitting the game bring up the "...has stop working" warning on Windows. This happens when applying mods as well. This is a known issue and we are trying to sort this out. Don't worry, your mods will work.
We advise you to go to Task Manager and end the academia.exe process if this happens to you.
Mac users are reporting having an issue running mods. We are communicating with Steam on this issue, because everything is working on our end, but there seems to be something wrong when subscribing to mods from Steam.
Some visual issues with the routing range.
25% Off for World Teachers' Day!
Hey everyone, I'm sure we've all had a great teacher that has impacted our live in a meaningful way. To celebrate World Teachers' Day, we're taking 25% off the game. Unfortunately we weren't able to schedule a sale on Steam in time, so we're doing this sale through our Humble Widget. Don't worry, all humble widget sales come with a Steam key!
Edit: Our Steam rep came through and the sale has is now on Steam, woo!
Access the Humble Widget here:
http://buy.academiagame.com/
In addition to giving you 25% off, we're also giving 25% of our profits from this weekend to a program called Teach for the Philippines! You can find out more about them and possible donate to them here:
http://teachforthephilippines.org/about/
Thanks everyone, and look forward to an update coming soon!
Build 0.2.59 : New Special Teachers, Earning Income, Updated Reports, and more
Hey everyone we're back with an update at the start of the month and we're moving the Test branch to both Candidate and Default. Thanks again to everyone that helped us out by trying out the Test branch. We could always use some more help though, so if you want to get the latest updates but are willing to deal with bugs, please do sign up for the Test branch!
New Special Teachers
Some of you may have noticed that our trading cards featured notable historical teachers. We were able to finally get them in the game! The teacher stats are still randomly assigned, but you can now select people like Plato, Charles Babbage, and our national hero, Jose Rizal.
We've also tweaked the teacher stats a little bit to make finding just the right teacher just a little bit more challenging.
Income
This is something folks have been demanding for a while now, but finally you can earn a little extra income for every use of the vending machine or cafeteria.
We've also updated the UI a little bit so you can now check your daily spending by clicking on your money on the top panel of the screen, instead of listing all your expenses on the whole screen like we used to.
Sanitation Reports
The player can now see some dirt related information through the sanitation reports tab, which can be accessed through reports. Check how much dirt is actually in your school, and also see which trash cans are always full so you can place a couple more.
We've also updated the Delinquency reports screen to show you how long a student has been in counseling.
Special Rooms
Your special rooms have been oddly unused during class hours, but that's all changing now! Special rooms will now be used during class hours. Only one class can use a special room at any given period. Classes nearest to the special room will be prioritized. and they will take turns using the special rooms. Classes held in special rooms will give students more learning, which gives you an additional incentive to build them.
Note : Classes will have priority over special rooms during free time, and most special rooms will now have a chalkboard as a requirement.
Varied Paintings
Similar to the variable snacks coming from the vending machine that we shared last update, new paintings can now be created when the students are painting in the art room. Can you recognize the paintings?
UI Updates
You can now see the number of available chairs per year by hovering over student icon. Now you can easily tell when you don't have enough chairs for your students!
Dismissal/Detention has been added to scheduling, to show you when students are going to detention.
Added don't show again checkbox to instructions at start of game.
Tooltips have been added to school evaluation to explain how the school is graded.
New Grants
We added a couple of new grants to help explain the usage of the worker routes and the playing field.
Balancing
Slightly reduced chances of objects losing durability
Some dirt and hygiene related balancing to reduce sickness
Known Issues
If you are having trouble loading a save file, especially a large school, please try restarting the game and loading it again. We're investigating the problem but it seems some save files will randomly have trouble loading, but then work fine the next time.
Bugs Fixed
Fixed bug where Delinquency grade was wrong.
Students not going to clinic - increased priority of students going to clinic
Janitors are ignoring their routes - reduced janitor range to reduce chance
of them being distracted by litter.
Workers are not building when assigned to route - this is expected behaviour but we added text to the worker route info box to explain this.
Daily spending assertion error on load
Minor grammar error in delinquency tooltip - changed settings to setting for the delinquency tooltip on the school creation screen
Disciplinary action grant unlocked without completing prerequisite grant - fixed by setting the right parent grant.
Only 2 paintings are being completed in the art room - fixed by adding the new paintings
Road can be deleted by right clicking
When there are no garbage in garbage area notification say 'you have no dumpsters in garage area' - fixed typo
Principal can't find office and not being assigned to office
User gets stuck when they start the school year minutes before the day ends
School timer stops when the user clicks the Start School Year button on Year 2 before the day ends
Clicking on the Notification for a Broken Object Moves the Camera to a Random Place
The "Start School Year" button remains green after firing the Principal
Fixed some issues where player is unable to load save files
When unticking the Detention Room checkbox, the Schedule does not update accordingly
Students sometimes stuck in principal's office - fixed by prioritizing going home over going to the principal's office
Build 0.2.49 Adds Maintenance, Teacher/Student Ratio, and Reports
Hey everyone, we are moving the candidate build to the default build today and are excited to share some new mechanics with you. Thanks to everyone who tried out the Test and Candidate builds and helped us find some bugs! We're hoping this update should be relatively bug free *finger crossed*.
School Maintenance:
The big mechanic this month is maintenance (see above). Certain objects will become damaged over time, and you will need to assign a worker to repair them. You can now also set up routes for workers so that they automatically repair any broken objects they find.
Reports:
Reports help you understand what's going on in the school. Currently we have classroom reports and delinquency reports, but we will slowly roll out other reports over the next few updates.
Classroom Report and Teacher/Student Ratio:
The teacher to student ratio is now in effect in the game, which means no more giant classrooms! The larger a classroom is the worse the kids' learning will be. You can see this information, amongst other things, in the classroom reports.
Delinquency Report:
The Delinquency Report shows you how many monitors and counselors you have, as well as the different kinds of delinquents. You will also see when delinquent students are currently in a counseling session.
Object Variety:
We're working on having random items come out of objects to add a little visual variety in the game. The first thing we added this to was the vending machine, which should now spew out chocolate and granola bars, sandwiches, and even onigiri!
This will be added to more objects in the game in the near future, like having different musical instruments and different artworks in the art room.
Tooltips:
We've added quite a few tooltips now to help you better understand how everything in the game works.
Game Adjustments:
We made a few adjustments in the game, including the following:
- Learning outside the classroom: During class hours, students who go outside the classroom to use the toilet or eat will still get learning points but at a lower rate.
- Faster movement during class hours:During class hours students who go outside the classroom will move faster.
- Faster time: Game time has been returned to 1 minute per game hour.
- Teachers only have one specialty subject:Teachers will have one specialty subject in which they will have a 'high' stat. While the rest of the subjects will have low values.
- Updated utility costs: Electricity and water costs for some objects have been lowered.
- Clicking hire teacher button moves teacher immediately into selected department:Teachers will be automatically assigned to the current selected department, whereas in the past the player needs to click the slot in the department,or else the teacher will be assigned to the teacher pool.
- Increased probability for littering: The chance for students to litter has been slightly increased.
- Lowered probability for delinquent students: Some balancing updates have been made to reduce the amount of delinquent students in the game.
Bugs Fixed:
- Objects became immediately broken at the start of the day
- Unable to create additional Janitor and Monitor Routes
- Exam Results UI is sometimes blank
- Incorrect repair fee for broken objects
- Cooks are glitched stuck on the canteen benches when cleaning up the leftover plates from the tables
- Improveed janitor cleaning
- Sound stop playing when zoning a classroom
- Cafeteria and PE teacher observed as bug (PPA-5281)
- Hire button does not work and can't hire new teachers (PPA-5278)
- Routed workers do not repair almost broken objects
- Repair Button Does Not Appear When Clicking on Broken Objects
- Funds not being deducted after repairing
- Repair Icons Left Even After Dismantling Object
- Black screen after loading a game and going to main menu (PPA-5240)
- Construction workers are unable to repair some broken objects in different zones
- The piano does not appear after placing or building it
- Clicking the broken object notification sometimes redirects to to a vacant tile
- Objects with 2 words are not separated with a space in between on the broken object notification
- User gets stuck on the loading screen after loading a save file, plays a few minutes then loads another save file
- Janitors are unable to clean some pee spots on some toilets and urinals, and they get stuck
- Subject scores on the Report UI can result to negative values
- Durability decreases even before school year is started
- "Electricity" and "Water" texts appear on Zone Edit
- School did not close down on the first day making the school have negative funds
- Almost Broken Object icon does not change to the Broken Object icon when durability reaches 0
- Dirt error when saving and loading a file
- The lower-left part of the close button on the Report Card UI is not responding
- Mac build will not launch.
- Routes from previous game persists when loading or starting a new game
That's it for now, we'll be back with more soon!
New Branches and Guidelines
Hey Everyone, we're making some changes to day in the way we release updates to the game. We're doing this to satisfy the different player types out there, as well as to help us with finding bugs. We've just updated the Test branch with the maintenance mechanic and student teacher ratio so please go ahead and check it out!
We've also added new discussion boards to specifically discuss the Test and Candidate branches, please keep these discussion boards on topic.
Test Branch - Updated ~1x/week
This branch will have the newest features but will have many bugs. We need help from brave souls to use this branch and help us test new features.
Candidate Branch - Updated ~2x/month
This branch will have some newer features and be more stable than Test branch.
Default Branch - Updated ~1x/month
The default branch will be the most stable, we recommend this for players who want to deal with less bugs and just enjoy the game. We will make update announcements when we release to this branch.
To access the different branches, please follow these instructions:
1) Go to your game library and right click on Academia School Simulator
2) In the pop up window, find and click on Properties.
3) In the properties window, click on the Betas Tab
4) Under Enter beta access code to unlock private betas type :
Candidate : academiacandidate
Test : academiatest
5) Click on "check code"
6) Under "Select the beta you would like to opt into" click on the dropdown menu and click on the branch you unlocked
7) You should now have access to the branch
Note : to return to the default build, simple click on the dropdown menu and select NONE.
Build 0.2.40 Moved to Default Branch
Hi all,
We only received one bug report over the past couple of days So we're moving Build 0.2.40 to the default branch so everyone can play it.
Build 0.2.40 Brings bugfixes, optimizations, and a PE Field Zone
Hey everyone we're back with a small update that brings bugfixes, optimizations, and a PE Field!
New Field Zone
The Field zone is where the kids go out to exercise! We finally have an area where the kids will go out to exercise during PE class. Classes will take turns using the Field. As of now the exercises they do are pretty limited (ie they just do jumping jacks) but we will be updating this much more in the near future.
Bugs Fixed:
-Less slowdown when accepting new transferee students
-Made optimization to game code to (hopefully) make the game run smoother
-Fixed bug where workers no longer work after lunch break (we are pro workers' rights, but this was too much!)
-Students hanging out and not going to class from 6th to 8th periods
-Delivery trucks now arrive, when previously they were observed not to make deliveries (we were able to come to an agreement with the truck drivers' Union)
Important Note
To make sure this build is safe, we will be uploading it to the Candidate build first. If you want to try out the new field zone and check if your bugs have been resolved, please move to the Candidate branch.
To access the Candidate Branch :
1) Go to your game library and right click on Academia School Simulator
2) In the pop up window, find and click on Properties.
3) In the properties window, click on the Betas Tab
4) Under Enter beta access code to unlock private betas type :
academiacandidate
5) Click on "check code"
6) Under "Select the beta you would like to opt into" click on the dropdown
menu and click on "candidate"
7) You should now have access to the latest candidate build
