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

Upgraded message log

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

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!

Staff cap increased

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.

Other changes

- 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! steamhappy

[ 2018-10-12 15:49:22 CET ] [ Original post ]