New DLC!
If you've not heard, Megaquarium's getting a new DLC. Head over to the store page for a rundown of what's included. Remember to wishlist if you want a reminder on the day it comes out.
View game pageFree update
As I've mentioned in previous posts, there will be a free update that releases alongside the new DLC on the 25th February. If you missed the first blog post about the update, we looked at UI improvements. Today, we look at the changes to gameplay coming your way.
Advanced priorities
Strictly speaking, the following change is an UI improvement, but it has such a big effect on the gameplay, I thought it deserved to go in this post.
In the advanced tab of a staff member's window, you can already Disallow the use of specific items and tasks based on skill level. The update will add the option to Prioritise as well.
In this busy playthrough of level 5. Napalos, I used this new feature to great effect. Quinn and Anna share the feeding tasks on the left side of the aquarium. There's a few tricky tasks that we want Quinn, our better feeder, to tackle. These are the higher skill tasks, the supplements and the large quantity of green pellets that need feeding to the Unicorn Surgeonfish.
By prioritising these on Quinn, and doing a mix of prioritising and disallowing on Anna, we can get our aquarists allocated correctly. Our orders are flexible too: When Quinn's finished with the hard tasks, he'll help Anna with the easier ones, so no-one is sitting idly.
Calcium revamp!
While working on the Invertebrilliant Collection, I was inspired to change how calcium works across the game.
Calcium will become a hard requirement for animals that need it, similar to how plants and rocks work for other species. Each animal will add to the total calcium requirement for the tank, so large displays of calcium-hungry stony corals will need a lot!
Each calcium reactor supplies a chunk of calcium and requires regular refills to maintain operation. Balancing the needs of your calcium-demanding animals, limited equipment space and staff time makes for some really interesting gameplay.
Lights on any tank
Eagle-eyed players may have already noticed from the trailer and screenshots that it will soon be possible to place lights on any tank - even those with rounded edges.
I wanted to give players more flexibility as to which tanks they used for their light-demanding animals. if you want to create a dazzling display of corals surrounded by your favourite round-tank loving sharks, go for it!
I've balanced this added flexibility by increasing the cost of rounded tanks by a small percentage.
Backpacks - the flexible accessory
Since the release of Freshwater Frenzy, the backpack accessory has only doubled the carrying capacity of food items. This will be changed so the carrying capacity of gift shop refills, RO membranes and calcium refills will be doubled too. I'm hoping this change will bring new utility to the humble backpack.
Base campaign polish
I've learned a lot over the years about what makes a good Megaquarium campaign. With that in mind, I went back and polished up the original base game campaign to make everything run as smoothly as possible.
Improvements include:
Less re-researching of animals and equipment unlocked in previous levels.
More varied animal availability and less re-use of animals in the side-objectives.
Some research costs and prestige requirements have been tweaked for better pacing.
In summary: it's the same campaign - only better!
Achievements
As an added bonus, 2 new achievements will go live next week. I can reveal that they will be:
Sandbox Trials - Species time trial
In Sandbox mode, have 80 different species in your aquarium before the end of Day 100, using the Limited Supply preset on normal difficulty or higher.
Sandbox Trials - Prestige time trial
In Sandbox mode, accumulate 8000 Prestige before the end of Day 100, using the Quick Start preset on normal difficulty or higher.
These are the first achievements where the number of days matters. This adds some interesting gameplay decisions.
For example, on the Species time trial, when attempting to access more species, will you prioritise gaining ranks or completing side-objectives?
In the Prestige time trial, the quick start preset means you start at rank 7. This gives you many options for what to build and research, especially if you're playing with DLC. Which strategy will help you hit the Prestige goal the quickest?
Just one week to go
And just to avoid any confusion, these changes are not currently live. This is just a sneak preview of what's to come. All these improvements and more will be going live next week on the 25th February.
Until then,
Tim Twice Circled