Good to see you again! We are back with some amazing works by the community. It has been a relaxed month for all of us, but we saw some amazing work that we wanted to share with you. Very soon we will also get an amazing optimization update to make your games run smoother!

The theme of this month is Back in Time, focussing on the early days in the game. So starter animals and no mods! Are you excited?

For this month’s community build that fit the theme we asked our Discord members to create a vanilla build. No mods and therefore true to the game’s beginning.

Creator Endy3032 made this nice aquarium for you to enjoy!



A small but cozy public aquarium. But as you can see, even without the usage of mods, you can make good looking tanks and facilities!



As you can see even in the early days we could create amazing builds. With the addition of the DLC and our workshop our works are only going to get nicer. What is your favourite decoration item in the vanilla game? Let us know in the comments.

For this spotlight we want to give you a look at one of the oldest mods around in the workshop. One created by the early birds when the workshop just opened for this game. Crazy thought right?


Introducing a brand-new species for your aquarium: Banana Moray Eel (Gymnothorax miliaris).

This yellow moray is amazingly created and was one of the very first creatures we could download from the workshop.



Get this unique mod right https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1775009308.






Range: Indo-West Pacific
Habitat: Reefs
Size: up to 7 cm (2.7 inch)
Diet: Plankton and Algae

• Warm waters
  
• Eats Orange Pellet
  
• Water quality at least 50%

• Damselfish are egg layers.
  
• First they clear a site ready for a nest, then engage in a mating dance with rapid swimming and fin movements, during this time the males will often turn a shade or two darker and may display white blotches. Spawning occurs at dawn.

Each Fishblast we try to inspire you to try and create new things. Last month we asked you to try and give a go at the ‘All around you’ theme! As you can see user Wolfi created an amazing Aquarium looks around all the fish!

• It can be a singular tank or a themed area
  
• You can use vanilla or add mods to spice up the build
  
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh and ask for a helping hand. :)

We can’t wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium.

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Want to be more involved in our community? Join our https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast.

See you in the next one!
Your community liaison, Timmiegun

Hey there, welcome back to the third edition of the Fishblast. This time we have some amazing new creations for you to explore in the community. We will be talking about how to use heights in Megaquarium. Using those heights can really spice up your creations and challenge you to (literally) a whole new level.

Heights can really add to your aquarium and spice up the way you and your visitors experience the creatures of the oceans. User RickReptile gave us an in-depth look at how he uses heights in their builds.



Using platforms and stairs, RickReptile created various viewing points for visitors to enjoy a tank from. By also having the ‘Building Kit’ mod RickReptile was able to hide the supports for the platforms, this really adds to the idea of the second floor.

RickReptile said to us: “People have been requesting multiple floors since the release of the game. By being a little creative you can already achieve this as you can tell from the images. Using multiple floors will change your aquarium from stale looking to something more diverse and interesting.”



Have you tried something similar yet? Or how would you use this technique in your aquarium? Let us know in the comments.

Last month we looked at animals that love to live at the bottom of your tank. So let’s take a look at those that live on the water’s surface this time.


Introducing a brand-new species for your aquarium: White-faced Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata).

This mod adds ducks into your aquarium. Perfect to add some variety into your beach tanks, and have unique interactions between these feathery friends and the other animals living in their enclosure.



Get this unique mod right https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196279147.

Note: You need Freshwater Frenzy to use this mod.






Range: Amazon Rivers
Habitat: Ponds, swamps and rivers with heavy vegetation
Size: up to 9 cm (3.5 inch)
Diet: Mosquito larvae & bloodworms

• Warm waters
  
• Eats Brine Shrimp
  
• Wimp
  
• Shoaler of 3+
  
• Likes plants
  
• Likes floating cover
  
• Needs open space
  
• Water quality at least 80%

• This species of Freshwater Hatchetfish is able to jump and glide over the water surface for almost 3 meters (9 feet)
  
• There are saltwater Hatchetfish (Sternoptychinae). However, these live in the deep sea. They are also not related to the freshwater Hatchetfish

Each Fishblast we try to inspire you to try and create new things. Last month we asked you to create a dock! As you can see user Sardine created an amazing dock-themed viewing platform for a mangrove tank! The platforms used to create a dock floating on the water makes this such a creative build!

• It can be a singular tank or a themed area
  
• You can use vanilla or add mods to spice up the build
  
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh and ask for a helping hand. :)

If you're planning to take part in this month's building challenge, post in the comments below!

We can’t wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium.

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Want to be more involved in our community? Join our https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast.

See you in the next one!
Your community liaison, Timmiegun

A brand-new month and that means, another Fishblast! This edition we investigate an amazing community build and check out a great mod to add to your aquarium. But first we start off with some news for those that want to start making mods for the game.

In the past month a big revolution happened regarding creating mods for our beloved game. User Synchrolight created a guide for making your own mods using Blender. This means that modding will be more accessible for Megaquarium and gives all of you a chance to make the fish and scenery you always wanted.

[Click here for a tutorial on that]

Awesome right?!

You might have noticed that on the workshop there is a flood of mods being released within a regional theme every two weeks. After these two weeks we ask the members to build a themed area with the fish from that region. Today we take a look at the build of Ark-a-saurus Rex.



The build’s theme was the freshwater fish of Melanesia, which is the region of Papua New Guinea and a few surrounding islands. In this region we know that there are a lot of rainbow fish, however, there is so much more to be seen. Ark-a-saurus Rex really captured the beauty of the region with a nice variety of tanks.



In real life, every tank has multiple layers in which your fish prefer to live. While some like to explore at all depths, some only swim near the water surface or in the middle of the tank. However sometimes you want to have a fish that stays near the bottom. Reef tanks will instantly become more interesting when you must look for these creatures.


Introducing two new species of goby for your tanks.
- Orange Stripe Prawn Goby (Amblyeleotris randalli)
- Two Spot Goby (Signigobius biocellatus)

By adding these into your tank, your guests will also have to look down and search for these rapid bottom dwellers!



Get this unique mod right https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1847113815.






Range: Australia and New Guinea
Habitat: Shallow tropical waters
Size: 70 to 90 cm (27 to 35 inches)
Diet: Crustaceans, worms and small fish

• Warm waters
  
• Eats Sand Eel
  
• Rock Requirement +5
  
• Supplements
  
• Damages crustaceans
  
• Water quality at least 70%

• This shark prefers to walk rather than swim, using its stiffened under-fins to walk across the sea-bed.
  
• Epaulettes can survive outside the water for three hours. And during this time, it can even ‘walk’ back to the ocean!

Next month’s edition will need a brand-new build to be featured. Submit your best build fulfilling the following theme and your aquarium could be in the next Fish Blast!

• It can be a singular tank or a themed area
  
• You can use vanilla or add mods to spice up the build
  
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh and ask for a helping hand. :)

If you're planning to take part in this month's building challenge, post in the comments below!

We can’t wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium.

--

Want to be more involved in our community? Join our https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast.

See you in the next one!
Your community liaison, Timmiegun

Hey everyone and welcome to the very first FishBlast.

Written by the community, for the community: The FishBlast is your monthly update on what is happening within the Megaquarium community, their creations and more.

Don’t you love it, when the aquarium is well decorated, and the visitor emerses themselves in the theme of your aquarium? User 100_pourcent_clafoutis really showed us what your builds could look like by using some of the many mods on the Steam workshop. This cave-tunnel adds depth and style to your builds. Causing all your visitors to feel like they are in an underwater cave-adventure!











You might be wondering; these items are not in the game, are they? These are some of the top-notch mods that are available for you on the workshop. Look for the Building kit, Custom Rocks, and maybe you can create this build yourself!

This edition’s spotlight will be focussed on a mod that changes the way your aquarium looks. Not in the way of the fish collection but the way you can display the fish.

We are talking about the “Raised Tanks” mod by Flishster.

These tanks change the way your aquarium looks by putting the tank floor on eye-level for your guests. Now everyone can easily spot those hermit crabs and look through the caves to see that one tiny chromis in the back of the tank. This really is a mod you would need to have in your game.


Build of the tank is by Bosjesman

Get this amazing mod right here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1996820999&searchtext=raised






Range: Indo-Pacific and predominately along the coast of Mexico
Habitat: Lagoons and seaweed reefs
Size: 15CM (6 inches)
Diet: Small sponges, mollusks, algae, and other small marine life

• Warm waters
  
• Greedy
  
• Dislikes Food Competitors
  
• Armored

• Males of the Spotted Boxfish are more likely to swim in open waters than females
  
• Juveniles of the Spotted Boxfish stay usually near rocky areas, while the adults tends to go near reef crests.
  
• All Juveniles are born as a female; some can change biologically to become males over time.

Want to be more involved in our community? Join our discord and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we feature your work in the next FishBlast.

https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh

See you in the next one!
Your community liaison, Timmiegun

It's been a little while since the last update so I thought I'd let you know what I've been working on.

I mentioned back in August that I've been working on a significant performance update. I've achieved what I originally set out to and am currently looking at a potential fps (frames per second) improvement of 64% over the current live version!

However while working on this I've delved into the engine more and discovered that even greater gains could be possible. The figure mentioned above would probably only be available to those with quad core CPUs because it relies on a lot of multithreading.

The next stage has the potential to deliver the same sort of performance to those with lesser systems by making greater use of the calculation potential of the graphics card.

It's an exciting development and if all goes to plan should pave the way for bigger and better aquariums than ever! I'm hopeful to release the update early in 2021. Thank you for your patience!


Beyond the performance update, there are many exciting things on the horizon.

For starters, I have an ambitious redesign of the sandbox mode planned. My aims are to:

• Improve the way Sandbox mode interacts with DLC and mods. Lots to talk about here, maybe enough for an entire blog post! ;)
  
• Make a truly everlasting sandbox where trades and quests are generated forever rather than at specific prestige values.
  
• Increase the variety and complexity of side-objectives.

But these are just ideas. How would you like to see sandbox mode improved?

I also want 2021 to be an even bigger year for Megaquarium than 2020! It'll be a tough year to beat, but I'm going to give it my best shot!

I would love to be able to release new official content more often and I'm working on some ideas which might help with that. I'll hopefully have more to share next year.

All that remains to be said is: Happy holidays!

• Fixed bug where you couldn't delete miscarriage reports.
  
• Fixed bug where some items would not appear in build menu at ultrawide resolutions.
  
• Fixed typo in 4. Valberg. "less" -> "fewer".
  
• Removed unused eater tags from midas cichlid.
  
• Reduced width of cashflow window so it can appear in very narrow resolutions.
  
• Staff with all level 10 skills will not create a level up message. Existing messages created before this patch will stay around.

• Fixed another issue that was preventing custom sounds in mods. Should be working now.

After spending the last week on the public beta branch, v2.1.1 is now live for everyone. Apart from a couple of minor bugs which I've now fixed, the latest update appears to be going down really well.

Thank you to everybody who switched over to the beta branch to test the new features, I appreciate all of your feedback!

I've posted the same information as appeared in the original beta announcement below, for reference.

This update is crammed full of great suggestions that have come directly from the community. From an improved build menu interface to a button which allows you to toggle all your mods at once - this update is all about making it easier for you to play the game. A better interface allows you to concentrate on what's important - all of the fishies!

For a full changelog see the bottom of this post, but first let's take a closer look at the heavy hitters.

I mentioned this in the last dev blog but perspective mode is now live!



It's a subtle difference but for those who find the orthographic camera mode disorienting, this small change will make the game much more accessible. For the rest of us, it's a matter of personal preference.

I wasn't 100% sure about this feature prior to implementing it, but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.



It's now possible to collapse individual categories in the build menu so that you're not looking at everything at once. Coupled with a button at the top which allows you to collapse/expand all the categories at once, it's now really easy to find a particular group that you're interested in.

I think this feature will be especially helpful to those players who have a lot of mods installed.

NB Don't forget about the search function though! If you know the name of what you're looking for, the search function is still the fastest way to find it IMO. Remember you can use the Enter key as a hotkey to start a search!

Another feature that I never considered until it was suggested by the community. There is now a toggle at the top of the animal build menu which allows you toggle between showing Tropical or Coldwater animals.



Given that these animals will never safely occupy the same tank, I can see how dividing them like this makes a lot of sense.

When you hover over the growth icon of an animal that isn't fully grown there is additional information now. As well as telling you how long until it grows up, it also lists any further stages of growth afterwards.



In addition the mechanic has been flipped around to make it easier to understand. Instead of an increasing count e.g. 0/3, 1/3. 2/3 etc. It's now just a simple day countdown. 3 days until growth, 2 days until growth, 1 day until growth.

It's a small thing, but in my testing it made an immediate impact on how easy it was to keep track of things.

Modding enthusiasts rejoice! You can now enable/disable all mods with the click of a single button at the top of the Modding Manager.

Another one for people who use a lot of mods. If a mods causes the game to fail to load, then all mods will be automatically disabled and the game reloaded.

This will at least allow players to get into the game. From there, they can re-enable mods one at a time (or in groups) via the mod manager to try to determine which mod is causing the issue.

The most common cause of the game failing to load was when a mod depended on another mod for extra animal food types, but this depended upon mod was not installed. If this specific case is detected by the game, it will now automatically insert "Orange Pellet" as the required food for the animal, rather than fail to load.

• Added perspective mode.
  
• Added collapsible headings to build menu.
  
• Added coldwater toggle.
  
• Improved growth icon.
  
• Added a note about when certain breeding locations unlock to the breeding tooltip.
  
• Added a count to the messages when fry and eggs grow up.
  
• Added a bubble above the poster when it's not connected to a tank.
  
• You can now build walls up against the edge of all tanks.
  
• Staff don't prioritise tasks for which they have the required item quite as much. When comparing tasks, those which don't require the staff to fetch a new item are considered slightly closer than those that do require an item switch. Previously, they were considered infinitely closer and prioritised above all tasks that required an item switch.
  
• Increased performance of build menu.
  
• Slightly improved efficiency of some graphical operations. (More substantial performance improvements are still on the way!)
  
• Fixed bug where if a Biter caused the death of another animal, no cause would be shown in the resulting message.
  
• Added a message when a pregnant animal loses their baby (miscarriage).
  
• Corrected autofeeder food tooltip.
  
• Added light icon to lights when you select them.
  
• Fixed bug where center of feeding platform tank was wrong.
  
• Calcium reactor (and other external "aquascaping") no longer counts towards explorer count.
  
• Increased stability of camera to stop it going out of alignment. 'home'/'h' shortcut should always correct issues.
  
• Fixed bug where staff animation kept playing when assigned a single square zone.
  
• Fixed bug where water quality would go above 100%.
  
• Fixed bug where long necked turtle, dwarf crocodiles, green anaconda and manatee could not be eaten. IE They can be eaten now!
  
• Improved aeroplane objective on 5. Diamond River so that freshwater subcondition will only tick if the aeroplane is in a freshwater tank.
  
• You can no longer sell the aeroplane on 5. Diamond River.
  
• You can no longer sell the panther crabs on 5. Diamond River.
  
• Fixed bug where you couldn't search for communal animals.
  
• Fixed bug where guests got stuck in toilet.
  
• Fixed bug: "Tank not listed in Ledger for some Animals" - blue knuckle hermit crabs.
  
• Fixed bug in 4. Kairobi where the small beach tank did not start available.
  
• The random seed is used for more things in sandbox mode.
  
• Fix type in Chinese on 10. Megalopolis.
  
• Fixed bug where highlight in game world would persist when moving over UI.
  
• Vending machines no longer sell an item to a guest when they reach them if they have run out.
  
• Removed shadows from animals while placing them.
  
• Added 1st person tutorial to 3. Elmshorn.
  
• Added ledger tutorials to 6. Hartcliff and 2. Paskovka.
  
  
  Modding
• Added Enable/Disable all mods button.
  
• If a mod causes the game to fail to load, all mods are disabled automatically and the game is restarted.
  
• If an animal food is detected as missing, the animal is set to eat "Orange Pellet" instead.
  
• Added support for land predation. This is not currently used by any vanilla animals but can be added to a land egg with the following:
  
  "predation":{ "landOnlyPredators":true, "parentProtection":0.06, },
• Fixed bug so that mods can use custom sound effects EDIT 19-10-20: This doesn't appear to be working after all at the moment. This will be fixed in a later update.
  
• Added additional logs during mod loading to help identify which object/mod is causing the issue.
  
• Regarding change "Staff don't prioritise tasks which use the same item quite as much." the parameters can be tweaked inside a data file:
  
  "parameters":{ "taskfinderHasItemTaskDistanceMultiplier":1, // When taskfinder already has required item, the distance away is multiplied by this number. "taskfinderHasItemTaskDistanceAddOn":-11, // When taskfinder already has required item, the distance away is added to this number. }

• Fixed bug which occurred if W, A, S or D was held while transitioning out of 1st person view.
  
• Fixed issue where animals without a temperature requirement would not appear regardless of which temperature filter was selected. They now appear all the time.
  
• When a guest is selected, negative thoughts now appear with the number in red while positive ones appear green. This matches the color coding in the main guest thoughts list.

This update has progressed from beta and is now live for everyone:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/600480/announcements/detail/4711287564971852993

It's been a little while since the last update so I thought I'd let you know what I've been working on.

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.

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?

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:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1315300/Megaquarium_Freshwater_Frenzy__Deluxe_Expansion/

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!

Small patch in between larger updates to stay on top of recently reported bugs.

• 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.

• 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