April 22nd is known as International Mother Earth Day, and to mark the occasion, we’ll be rounding up an update for Aquatico. World might be devastated in our game, but in reality, we still have time to protect the crib of humanity.

For all of you that will still try to undo some of the damage in your Aquatico playthrough, here are some of the things to expect in upcoming update that will release by Saturday this week:
- A collection of bug fixes for issues reported since last update
- Another round of very targeted optimizations aimed at improving performance on lower-end GPU’s
- Ingame events and expeditions will receive additional tweaks and balancing treatment

Stay safe and watch your oxygen levels!

After last couple of updates we've been wrapping the smaller elements like additional optimization details, some bugfixes and also finished two new underwater maps. With today's update these two maps will be available for selection when setting up a new game. New maps are called "Oceanic" and "Leviathan".

Besides that this update also contains several small fixes for various glitches and ironing out few optimization details mainly introduced in recent updates.

Have a pleasant descent to the ocean floor!

It’s the peak of summer (at least where we are), and during these intense heat waves, some underwater cooling might come in handy. And for all of you preparing to dive into the world of Aquatico, it’s perfect time for next round of improvements.

For this update, we’ve been working mostly on further optimizations and reducing loads on your hardware, and then adding several specific features that many of you frequently asked for. All these elements are part of QoL upgrades that were talked about on community discussions and that will continue further.

To name a few highlighted improvements: Added another faster ingame speed, tweaked camera movement speed, changed camera panning, optimizations of additional models and shadow drawing… Most of these things will manifest itself in smoother gameplay and ease of gameplay.

Ofcourse as mandatory part of every update, several technical glitches has also been addressed as well.

List of changes in below, alongside description how it works:

CHANGELOG

• ADDED: Another maximum simulation speed – 12X (be careful to not use it too much when deciding on next strategic moves)
  
• ADDED: Next batch of 3D model rendering optimizations to decrease GPU usage
  
• ADDED: Additional shadow drawing optimizations
  
• ADDED: Optimizations to rendering of windows and other transparent underwater surfaces
  
• IMPROVED: On the minimap, you are now able to click and drag to move the area around, rather than just clicking individual spots
  
• IMPROVED: The camera movement speed when using WASD now scales better with zoom level – faster panning when using higher zoom level
  
• IMPROVED: When panning the camera using WASD keys, transitions are now smoother
  
• IMPROVED: Current position of research tree will now be saved eliminating the need for long scroll when game is loaded
  
• FIXED: When starting the game, ESC button accidentally loaded last save. Now it will happen only if “Continue” button is pressed
  

Hope this will help make your experience another notch better. We’ll continue to be present on forums and other channels, listen to your feedback and you can expect further updates to arrive in the near future!

Keep an eye on your oxygen levels!

Greetings Sea Mayors!

This is the first of several incoming updates focused on performance. The improvement will be most visible on GPUs 1070 and below.

Changelog v1.510.0

• Heavy optimization of 3D models, which explains why this update is somewhat bigger than usual.
  
• Model rendering improvements
  
• Fixed an exploit where you could refund too much resources on demolishing buildings
  
• Polished a couple of late-game balance issues, when the colony gets bigger
  
• Fixed a potential startup crash on some older GPUs

After this, we're preparing a couple of more fixes and optimizations, but also new content as well!

Have fun and see you soon with the next update!

Aquatico, our latest underwater colony sim, is now available with hefty 40% discount - only for the duration of current Daily deal. If you're interested in giving this interesting experience a try, this is a great opportunity to dive in!

Game has been heavily updated and expanded in the past several months, so that will make the gameplay experience even better. If you're new to the game, we invite you to test your building and management skills in this unusual environment, and if you're already a veteran player and you liked the experience, we invite you to use the current discount and challenge your friends to be as successful as you are :)

For this occassion, we'd like to emphasize what additional game elements have been added after release:

- Atlantis Project questline
- Expedition system
- Additional Polar biome map
- New events
- Derelict system
- Overhaul of post-apocalyptic visuals
- Addition of 3 distinct game modes (storyline, sandbox, free building mode)
- Lots of optimizations and difficulty tweaks
- Cutscenes and ambient expansions
- Lots of community suggested features

Lastly, we'd like to remind you that the work on further improvements will continue!

Big thanks to everyone that already supported our work, offered ideas and feedback, and we also extend our gratitude for everyone that will join Aquatico during following days!

Hello to all of you, Sea Mayors!

As promised a little while ago, today we’re releasing a second part of community frequently requested improvements for Aquatico. Some of these things have been mentioned soon after the game released, so we apologize for the delay. Combining all updates that came after release, there were a LOT of changes so we had to make priorities for each individual update. Hope everyone seeking the specific elements found in this update won’t hold it against us for having to wait a little bit.

The center point of the upgrade to v.1500.0 are numerous QoL game elements. They range from introducing new gameplay features to further pinpointing next optimization avenues. Before listing the specific technical changelog, a few words on what changes include:

Research stacking – this was asked by a huge number of players, and these requests were completely legit. Given the sheer number of researches available, and their importance in timely development of your colony, you were right to ask for an easier and quicker way to organize your steps. From now, when you decide which research to start next, you can click a few of them in advance. If you select more then one research, each one will get a numerical designation (what is first to be researched, then second and so on…). These researches will then be executed in a designated sequence. Should you wish to cancel the selected sequence, simply click on second research in line to cancel it, then you can reselect the new sequence. If some research is yet unavailable, you’ll be prompted it cannot go to currently selected sequence.

Further optimizations – after several rounds of global optimization runs (on background gameplay calculations and some graphics corrections), we’re now taking it deeper to objects, models and textures. Main aim is to further slash the memory requirements and to improve performance in later game stages.

Additional Steam achievements – ever since we’ve added bigger chunks of additional gameplay layers (expeditions, Atlantis project missions, derelicts…), many of you asked for an additional Steam achievements that would validate the completion of these additional tasks. So, in this update, we’re including 7 new Steam achievements – Atlantis Project, The final chapter, Lord of the sea, The scavenger, The scavengers King, The protector, Master of disaster.

QoL suggested improvements – this time we’re including tweaks to severity of people leaving colony due to lack of food tiers and variety. Also, deselection mouse option is now present to avoid accidental mis-clicks with wrong option activated, then addition of framerate limiter to options, improvements to photo mode and camera interactions, overlapping of map opening with notification icons, and many more details you’ll notice during your play-sessions.

It is our sincere hope that this update will make your playtime more cozy and your colony planning more straightforward. We wish to demonstrate that Aquatico is being refined every day and will continue to be refined, and more importantly, that we’re present on every community channel we have and will continue listening to what you have to say. Thank you for huge amount of ideas and suggestions we received in past few months. Many of them found their way into post-release updates already, and many more are yet to be discussed, designed and introduced in future updates!

CHANGELOG

• ADDED: Research stacking – select several researches in advance to initiate an entire automatic research sequence
  
• ADDED: New Steam achievements linked to post-release added gameplay content
  
• ADDED: Framerate limiter slider in the options menu
  
• OPTIMIZATION: A number of additional 3D models
  
• OPTIMIZATION: Improvements to performance in later stages of the game when colony is bigger
  
• IMPROVED: Pace of colonists leaving colony due to food related issues is now decreased
  
• FIXED: Dome upper hull doesn’t disappear with camera zooming in photo mode
  
• FIXED: Overlapping of map and notification icons when accessing expeditions is corrected
  
• TWEAKED: Right mouse click deselection of previously activated option

Dive back to your underwater colony and remember to watch your oxygen levels!

Hi good people of the undersea!

Few weeks ago we've made and released a video called „Tips & Tricks“ with some suggestions and best practices to tackle mid to later game challenges in Aquatico. Since there are a number of fresh players coming into game, we've decided to make another video more focused on first couple of ingame years.

In this video we're covering the initial tasks you should be mindful in the early game. There are only a few possible „hardships“ that can hamper your advance in first couple of years, and in this video you can see several ways to help yourself get a good headstart. It's always tricky in early game because you tackle lack of resources and lack of manpower at the same time. However, start of the game also offers some opportunities that aren't present later, so the better you use these early opportunities, the easier it will be going forward.

You'll see all the details in the video itself, but some highlights for early game would be the following:

- Try planning ahead. When underwater colony is still small, you have a chance to set the stage for all subsequent development. Observe the grid view and determine where your future locations for extracting certain resources will be. Plan the pipeline system and be mindful that this system will eventually be very extensive. Note that certain buildings have bonuses when contructed near some other building

- If you're low on resources, and you can't yet produce everything you need, remember there are number of essential resources that can be scooped from the environment in early game – plastics, iron, stone, various advanced resources from dismantling derelicts on the seabed. If you decide to pick up a lot of these resources, make sure you have additional depots to store them

- To avoid severe worker/drone shortages in early stages of the game, try conducting as many upgrades to production buildings as you possibly can. These will significantly increase efficiency without the need to dramatically increase worker numbers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFiI0Fh2JqQ

Aquatico is a game where dozens of elements are interlinked, and you'd be surprised how big of a difference good foundations can have on longer playsessions. If you set up everything smoothly and efficiently, you'll always have enough time and resources to tackle advanced challenges that come later. And viceversa – unefficiently created basic layout can cause chained hickups later, and it is always harder to reorganize already existing colony then to try making it work from earliest stages.

When it comes to other things we've been working on – in about a week we'll be releasing second part of „community suggested“ improvements. In next update that will include the upgrade to research system that will allow for stacking of multiple researches in advace, additional Steam achievements linked to new content introduced after release, another batch of memory and graphics optimizations and more…

That's it from us on this fine Thursday. Have fun and see you next week with next update!

Hello Sea Mayors,

As many of you already came to expect, another weekend is approaching, and we have yet another update ready for you.

For this occasion we’ve dived into list of improvements and suggestions that originated from our discussions with players. Next two updates will mostly contain your own suggestions, but few things are little bit more work so they will wait another week or so.

Anyways, back to today’s content – one of the biggest changes is relocating of your citizens. As your underwater colony expands and you create new workplaces, there is a need for people to change places of residence and have them live closer to their jobs. System that controlled this already existed, but based on you feedback it was insufficient. For that reason, relocation system has been reworked and this process will now be faster and more precise. It will allow your production chains to work more efficiently and adapt to any change better.

Another frequently asked change was the display of main resources on the main game screen. With changes made today, resources displayed on main HUD are grouped into categories, similar to how various “tools” items are shown under tools section. If you hover your mouse over each resource, you’ll see not only that specific resource, but several other that are similar or belong to the same frequently used category. Basically, every resource that you’ll need often (whether they are some resources needed for construction of building upgrades), will now be displayed on the main screen and there is no need to constantly open depot manifests to look for the current status of each individual resource.

From other update elements, few bugs with expedition system have been resolved and we’ve continued the optimization work on numerous building models.

CHANGELOG

• REVAMPED: Relocation of citizens – your people will now move between houses and places of residence in dependence of where they work, cutting travel time and making worker efficiency better
  
• TWEAKED: Tidal turbines will now accurately display movement in accordance to tide movements
  
• IMPROVED: Frequently used resources are now displayed in groups on the main HUD making it easier to find and track them constantly
  
• FIXED: Expedition world map and local colony view are now properly separated avoiding errors in selections and navigation
  
• FIXED: Error where expedition mission objective wanted to remove too many batteries from stock is now corrected
  
• FIXED: A number of text errors corrected
  
• OPTIMIZED: Several additional object models optimized for better performance

Hope you’ll like the changes, and we’re off to second part of community suggested tweaks. That update you can expect in just over a week time!

Have a nice weekend!

Today we don't have an update, but while next batch of improvements is being worked at, there is something we wanted to cover a little bit.

From a large amount of data we received by players in recent months, we realized our players out there are employing s lot of very different tactics to complete goals in Aquatico. That is perfectly ok, we left the game open intentionally so players can use all sorts of tactics to advance through the game.

Looking at your playthroughs we also learned a lot about various possibilities, about what you prefer, like or dislike. And we also learned about several mechanics that some of you find more difficult then others

To address these difficulties, we tried to cover several tips & tricks in following video. They are related to mid and later game content, and to cover early game difficulties we'll be preparing another video concentrated at first couple of ingame years alone.

A few highlights among advices for later game content would revolve around a single point – plan ahead. Once your underwater city becomes extensive, number of challenges will increase, but if everything is properly set, you shouldn't be in too much trouble:

- While you'll probably have sufficient space to physically expnd your city on most maps, beware of how you expand. Some buildings have bonuses related to other buildings, resources are dependent on depot and warehouses locations… As your city grows, distances can become more troublesome and workers and drones spend more and more time going between larger distances. Place your depots strategically, relative to sources of produced gooda and places of consumption

- By later game, you'll be fully aware of your consumption, but when you expand production further, don't overdo it. Sometimes attempts to secure a very comfortable excess of some resource can lead to shortage of something else, or to a shortage of drones producing them

- When you build in upper domes section, be mindful that at one point you'll likely have a lot of independent domes. People will need to travel between them to use various amenities. It's unlikely you'll have everything in a single dome, so plan to buil a connections via cable car between domes

- Multiple underwater farms will likely be a necessity, and if that is the case, it is wise to randomize what farms are producing. More various food resources can open a path to more complex products, and amend the emerging needs for advanced food diversity later on

- As your city becomes bigger, your pipeline system will expand too. Creating an automated repair building for pipelines is highly recommended

- There are also some options that you might not want to explore too early. For example, when you build an expedition house, expedition submarines become available. Each expedition you send will be a drain to your resources until they complete their task. Remember that before you commit to explore beyond your colony

- If you end up in trouble regarding any of your resources or production chains, don't forget you can always adjust your input/output by temporarily shutting down any building or reallocating production elsewhere

- When colony is large and contains dozens of buildings, remember you can paint each one individually, or paint all buildings of the same type in a certain manner. It helps finding your way around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bveatbOBZSY

Hopefully, some of you will find this useful. We're looking forward to your continuous feedback!

Maintain your oxygen level and until next time!