It's been a little while since the last update so I thought I'd let you know what I've been working on.
More performance improvements
I'm currently in the middle of a significant update on the performance side of things. As the game continues to grow both via official content and user generated mods, great performance is a must.
At this point, a lot of the "low hanging fruit" has already been harvested, so to make significant performance improvements I need to make fundamental changes to the game engine.
I'm currently working on a new system which utilises the CPUs additional cores (currently the game only uses 2 cores at a time) to crunch the numbers for objects which move and are animated (animals, guests, staff).
As you can imagine this is a big update which is taking time to do right. But early signs are pointing to a good performance boost, especially on very high spec CPUs which have many cores.
Perspective mode
Another feature I'm excited to share once it's ready is a new perspective camera mode. I know that this is really important to some players out there so I'm glad to finally be able to add this.
It's a subtle difference but for people who find the orthographic perspective unpleasant I imagine it'll be a real blessing.
It's not ready to go live just yet, but once it is you'll be able to switch between the two modes at will so it's up to you how you play. Will you switch to perspective or continue with the "classic" orthographic camera?
25% off Freshwater Frenzy DLC
Thank you to everybody who's had kind words to say about the expansion. The response has been overwhelmingly positive which is really great.
If you've played the expansion, please consider leaving a review to let other know what you think of it. This will help other players decide whether it's something they're interested in. You can do this via the store page if you own it:
And finally, just a quick note that there's currently 25% off Freshwater Frenzy for the next week. If you've been sitting on the side-lines not sure whether to dive into the world of freshwater, now might be a great time to get stuck in!
v2.0.13 patch
Small patch in between larger updates to stay on top of recently reported bugs.
Balance/Improvements
Added message about search feature to 5. Napalos.
Moved search examples tooltip to a little info 'i' to the right of the search bar so it's easier to find.
Bugs
Fixed issue where tasks say they are inaccessible to staff when they are not.
You can no longer sell the Manatees in FF 5. Diamond River.
German: Steinkoralle renamed to Montipora
v2.0.12 patch
Balance/Improvements
When zoned staff don't have a task they will return to and stay in their zone. They can still exit their zones to complete any part of an assigned task e.g. to reach a dispenser or if the shortest route to a task is outside the zone.
Zoned staff are assigned tasks before non-zoned staff. This means when a new day starts, they will have first pick of the tasks and then non-zoned staff will collect tasks from the ones that are remaining.
Guests will not be attracted to podiums if they have already heard the current talk.
Prestige generated by guests who have left the aquarium will continue to count toward your prestige total until they decay in the normal way (1 game day after the prestige was generated). Previously, you lost the prestige immediately when the guest left.*
Smoothed out work done when a new day starts to reduce the frame spike in large aquariums.
Bugs
Sandbox: merchants and trades which provide shoalers will give 1 extra animal so it can be traded away.
Fixed bug where guest thoughts would show the thoughts that were generated the latest in the day, rather than most recently, first.
Removed large margin on right hand side of dropdown items to make more space for the text.
Fixed bug where accessory icon stayed grey in staff manage tab even after it has been collected.
French and Russian: money symbol next to current money will not roll onto next line.
*In practice this won't make a large difference. In medium to large aquariums, guest prestige tends to decay before they leave anyway. However this small tweak will make the mechanic easier to understand. Your prestige total is simply the amount of prestige generated in the last game day.
v2.0.11 patch
This patch fixes an issue in the Chinese version of the game, where the cashflow window did not appear correctly.
I have a more substantial update coming soon with some nice (much requested) improvements to the staff behaviour when they don't have a job, plus some optimisation improvements which will hopefully smooth out some of the frame spikes that occur when you are operating a large aquarium. ːsteamhappyː
v2.0.10 patch
Balance/Improvements
Bred animals appear at the location of eggs/fry.
Bugs
Updated Chinese and Japanese fonts with missing characters.
Altered Japanese font to use Japanese variant of shared characters.
Fixed typo in Portuguese.
Fixed bug where Piranhas were not affecting all animals.
Fixed bug where larger animals would get stuck in the corner of the tank.
Improved stability of game when starting a new day.
Fixed bug where tiles painted with default paint would switch to current default paint when save as loaded.
Fixed a rare bug with ledger table when switching tabs.
Fixed a bug where correct accessory bonuses were not shown in all locations.
Fixed bug where tooltip would not disappear after bringing up sell confirmation dialog.
Fixed bug where land animal animations would flicker on low detail mode.
Modding
Game can now recover if a save is loaded and the current research has been removed because it was a mod.
v2.0.9 patch
Balance/Improvements
Added 4 extra staff to 4. Kairobi in case they are needed.
Improved land animal movement so they smoothly enter the water after climbing down from the land.
Feeding platform and viewing platform tanks no longer accept lights. Existing lights on these tanks will continue to work correctly, but you can't add them to any tanks from now on.
Bugs
Fixed issue with lights not appearing in the correct place.
Fixed issue where the tooltip would hang around after deselecting the sell tool while hovering over something.
Fixed a bug where the move tool would get stuck on and would only deselect if you clicked the button in the top left or pressed the hotkey.
Improved save behaviour to check for and remove 'read only' flags on save files.
Fixed bug where new save thumb would be blank if you returned to the save menu multiple times before returning to the game.
Fixed a bug where the coldwater icon on an animal would not indicate that the animal was insufficiently chilled.
Fixed a typo in 1. Hitama.
Modding
Removed the limit on the number of research projects available (properly this time, I hope!).
v2.0.8 patch
Balance/Improvements
Hybrids have a hybrid name when they appear e.g. Emerald Cobra Guppy 1.
Added the name of the animal to the tooltip for the animal portraits in the ledger.
Merchants and trades give a minimum of 2 animals so that you always have 1 extra to trade away.
Slightly reduced initial health decrease when an animal is at the wrong pH to give you a little more time to fix the issue.
Posters now always generate prestige. A guest can enjoy up to 3 posters. The prestige generated is a random number from 1 to the prestige value shown on the poster.
Slightly increased various chances of mutation during hybrid breeding to speed up the initial process, without removing the skill and challenge from the overall process.
Tweaked target animals on level 3 'Rare Guppies' objective so that the colors are slightly closer to the starting color.
Bugs
Fixed some translations strings.
Fixed a bug where the wrong message was deleted in the message log.
Fixed a bug where a tank would changing between saltwater and freshwater incorrectly when pumps were involved.
Fixed a bug where a tank would highlight as connectable to via pump, but wouldn't actually connect when you clicked it.
Fixed a bug where the naming process would not complete due to leading or trailing space.
Fixed a bug where a animal which requires a supplement would grow from a fry and immediately say it had missed a supplement.
Fixed a bug where points floating off guests were not correct, under representing low numbers of points within a large group of a different type of point.
v2.0.6 & 2.0.7 patches
I released two small patches today.
Balance
Made it so autofeeder cannot feed live foods.
Bugs
Fixed/tweaked some text in French, Italian and Chinese version.
Fixed bug where destruction events were not deletable.
Fixed issue where floating plants could be placed over bridges/platforms at some tank rotations.
Made it so you have access to the starting paint in level 3 and 4.
Added autofeeder textures for roach, vegetables, brine shrimp and bloodworm.
Fixed issue where sandbox could create objectives which you couldn't complete. If your save is affected by this it will automatically upgrade when you load it so that all quests are completable! ːsteamhappyː
Fixed icon for "dislikes rocks".
v2.0.5 patch
Version 2.0.5 is live with some bug fixes.
Changelog
Fixed an issue in level 4 where mussels, vegetables, sand eel and supplement dispensers didn't start unlocked. Unfortunately the fix will only affect new starts on the level. Sorry!
Fixed an issue where land animals got stuck walking on the spot.
Fixed an issue where animals could do breeding interactions the day they grew into "full" animals.
Fixed issue where unlocking live mysis did not automatically unlock zoo plankton.
Fixed issue where after moving a tank which had a poster attached, you couldn't attach another poster until the game was reloaded.
Fixed issue where you could build under the stairs of the platform/bridge tanks. Any that have already been placed will continue to have the issue but newly built tanks will be fixed.
Fixed issue where the science/ecology windows didn't update when something new became available.
Fixed issue in level 2 where additional grant funding was not released.
Fixed an issue in level 4 where mussels, vegetables, sand eel and supplement dispensers didn't start unlocked. Unfortunately the fix will only affect new starts on the level. Sorry!
Prevented strange bug where timer at the start of level 1 did not start properly (hopefully!).
Modding
I believe I have fixed an issue where some modded tanks' rotations and offsets were wrong when built at the smallest size and in the menu.
The issue where some tank mods crash the game remains. I believe the modders are aware of the solution (swap 'w', 'W' and 's' codes from the "multicode" of the tanks for other letters, and update the codes in "tileFbx" too). But please be patient with them as this issue has been sprung on them unexpectedly and they haven't had much time to fix it yet.
Now available: Freshwater Frenzy!
A new chapter in Megaquarium history. Freshwater Frenzy is the first Deluxe Expansion for Megaquarium. It adds a brand new environment for you to explore and master – freshwater!
Today I want to draw your attention to two features which I'm excited to share with you.
Land animals
Freshwater Frenzy introduces the first land animals to the game. They are:
Eastern Long-necked Turtle
Dwarf Crocodile
Green Anaconda
All three are reptiles and have some extra requirements compared to most of the other animals in the game.
First off then require tanks which provide some land out of the water. This is provided by a set of new tanks called "beach tanks".
Another interesting requirement of the reptiles is that they need light to flourish. Only a select few other animals in the game have this requirement (mostly corals) so it's nice that the lights have some additional use in the expansion.
Accessories
These are a brand new mechanic unique to Freshwater Frenzy. Each staff can now be assigned a single accessory which helps them as they go about their work. There are 4 to choose from:
Backpack - doubles the food carrying capacity of the staff member.
Sneakers - increase the fitness talent of the equipped staff member, increasing their speed and making them better at cleaning and gift shop tasks.
Feeding stick - increases the feeding skill of the equipped staff member, but only if they are feeding an animal which 'requires skill'.
Tool belt - increases the fixing skill of the equipped staff member, while also removing the need for them to carry a toolkit.
I spent days carefully designing each of them to make the choice between them as interesting as possible. I think there is room for each of them even in a fully ranked-up aquarium.
Full animals list
To finish, here is a full list of the animals in the game.
Convict Cichlid
Midas Cichlid
Red-Striped Eartheater
Amazonian Angelfish
Butterfly Ram
Discus
Guppy
Gardner's Killifish
Cardinal Tetra
Congo Tetra
Blind Cave Tetra
Tinfoil Barb
Giant Hatchetfish
Boeseman's Rainbow
Red Bellied Piranha
Pacu
Adolfo's Cory
Redtail Catfish
Ripsaw Catfish
Sunshine Pleco
Porcupine River Stingray
Electric Eel
American Paddlefish
Arapaima
Fan Shrimp
Panther Crab
Eastern Long-Necked Turtle
Dwarf Crocodile
Green Anaconda
American Manatee.
I hope you enjoy the expansion. Don't forget to leave a review once you've made an opinion on it. :)
