Great game - some suggestions

[clvnhbs]

First off, thank you Tim for such a great tycoon game! I've been following you since before Big Pharma launched and love both games.

But after just an hour of playing, I found a couple of things to improve:

1. Change key bindings - I really hope an upcoming patch will fix this. I'm not used to WASD movement (prefer the arrow keys) and play on a laptop without a mouse so the mouse buttons aren't exactly the best way to move.

2. Allow staff door placement by automatically deleting existing walls

3. Clearer explanation of how prestige works - I'm still only on the second level but so far, how and why prestige goes down is sort of vague. I'll be steadily earning prestige only for it to drop suddenly for no apparent reason. Does it decay with time or something?

4. Search filter for animals, things, plants etc

5. List of all existing machines, animals etc you have in your aquarium - I don't know if I missed something but don't see a way to see a list of all animals I currently have. Does this pop up in a later level?

6. List of keyboard shortcuts (M for move, X for demolish etc) - It doesn't have to be in the main game UI but a list of this somewhere in options or something would be a huge help!

7. Reduce interrupting pop ups please! - This one is mildly annoying now but I'm guessing it will become much more frustrating in bigger aquariums with more things. I like how you did these in Big Pharma, sliding onto the screen and you've to click on it. I know you have the messages inbox but maybe some of the pop ups could move there as well? Certain things like distributing staff points or seeing what animals you've unlocked can wait until I finish building my current tank no?

8. Option to enlarge existing tanks - This is sorely needed! Sometimes I put fish in tanks that are ok now but need more space when they grow. Right now I have to create an entire tank off to the side, move the animals over, move the existing tank somewhere and then put the new tank in place. Please, please allow us to add on to existing tanks similar to the aquarium floor!

In spite of this list, I'm loving this game. And I still haven't completed all the levels in BP. Please keep making more fun games like these!

[akeyes]

I've never played a game in this genre, or many other genres, that doesn't use WASD. I'd love to see QE added for rotate. However, I'd be in support of an option for it to be manually changed to something else if the user prefers.

Popups, yes, some of them have been too annoying, but only because I'm scrolling through the buy screen to buy something, or actively placing something, and when that popup appears, I'm reset back to the start of what I was doing.

Enlarging tanks, I like that I can't expand them (however, I'd love for more of custom tank building option). If an actual aquarium was to expand a tank, they'd still have to take all the fish out and drain the tank first, so an additional tank would still be needed.

[Jdoki]

Some good suggestions.

Strongly favour #4 and #8

But I'd disagree with #2. I like being able to place a door against a wall, and then later remove the wall piece. This helps me when planning my build and stops me having to fill in unintentional gaps.

For #5 - When you hover over the fish in the window where you buy them, it does show the total amount you have in your aquarium (it's a little orange number in the bottom left of the highlighted tile iirc). But I agree, this is not a perfect solution. I would at least like the number to be either always on, or a toggle in the options to be always on or hover only. Or maybe even some sort of data overlay as well.

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Some other QoL things I would like to add

- In any of the purchasing menus, allow us to right click the thing we are hovering over (fish / machine / tank etc) and every time we right click scroll the map to the next instance of where we have this. So if I have some Puffer Fish in Tank 5 and some more in Tank 3 it will jump between each tank as I right click on Puiffer Fish in the Fish purchasing screen.

- A Data overlay that shows Tank Name above each tank. It would be useful if I could toggle this on so that when I am working with a number of info windows open I can easily see which Tank on the map relates to which info window (apologies, if I have overlooked this one, but I couldn't find it). This would be useful when moving fish around and comparing tank stats

- Consistency in the UI colouring for things that are on or off. For example: When I click on an icon to buy something it turns Orange (from blue). When I turn on an Overlay, it turns Orange when on. However, some overlays are On by default (such as problems notifications) and others in the top right. But they appear blue by default (when on) and orange when turned Off!

- I still haven't figured out exactly what the calculation is for how water quality is affected by filters and skimmers. Maybe I am just being a bit thick, but on a few occassions I have bought a smaller than needed filter, thinking it will do the job based on presented numbers, but it does not. Either need something in the tutorial to let us know it's not a 1:1 ratio like tank size and heating is, or somewhere where this is explained (or is it intentionally left vague?) I'm assuming it's some combination of tank size, number of fish, and how much 'dirt' they each make which influences how much the number on the filter/skimmer actually improves quality

- An additional third stage toggle on the Wall Height option so we can see all walls at full height. I find even with Walls On, some are still shown at lower height

- Button to toggle a view that hides any staff only areas. I'd love to see my Aquarium in all it's glory and hide the inner workings from even my view! The reason I'd like this is, sometimes my staff areas are a huge mess, but my public aquarium is pristine :) - it would be nice to look at it! And it would also be good for planning.

[Twice Circled]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

[clvnhbs]

I'm not sure what you mean about the staff doors and walls (#2) but I mean the fact that when placing a staff door, I have to manually delete the piece of wall that used to be there before selecting the door. If there is a wall already, I wish the game would automatically delete the wall.

I agree with all your points about QOL improvements. I understand there's a lot of information that needs to be on screen at one time but the toggling (blue and orange for on/off) really bugs me too.

@Tim, I love your UI work on big pharma. For some reason, Megaquarium simply doesn't look as polished - interface and UI wise - at launch.

[clvnhbs]

Originally posted by akeyes:

I've never played a game in this genre, or many other genres, that doesn't use WASD. I'd love to see QE added for rotate. However, I'd be in support of an option for it to be manually changed to something else if the user prefers.

Popups, yes, some of them have been too annoying, but only because I'm scrolling through the buy screen to buy something, or actively placing something, and when that popup appears, I'm reset back to the start of what I was doing.

Enlarging tanks, I like that I can't expand them (however, I'd love for more of custom tank building option). If an actual aquarium was to expand a tank, they'd still have to take all the fish out and drain the tank first, so an additional tank would still be needed.

Hmm I guess it makes sense from that perspective. I didn't think about that. Also I think QE already rotates but only for objects, not the screen. I agree, QE should rotate, instead of the current setup. It's not very intuitive.

[grantthejester]

I agree with the staff doors suggestion, It should just replace the wall it goes over.

[fredreed2000]

You can rotate using Q&E. The only other issue I have is that there needs to be more of a variety of fish there's not enough of them.

[Spukky]

Originally posted by clvnhbs:

2. Allow staff door placement by automatically deleting existing walls

Yes please, and if would be nice to be able to do the same with a new tank.

[Jdoki]

Originally posted by clvnhbs:

I'm not sure what you mean about the staff doors and walls (#2) but I mean the fact that when placing a staff door, I have to manually delete the piece of wall that used to be there before selecting the door. If there is a wall already, I wish the game would automatically delete the wall.

Just to expand on what I meant. You can actually place a staff door against a wall (the door is obviously unusable at that point). You don't need to delete the wall first then place the door in the gap.

What I like to do is place all the doors and stuff where I want them, and then delete the piece of wall the door is attached to, to 'activate' the door. That way if I change my mind about where I want a door, I don't have to fill in the missing wall piece, I just move the door.

I found that the moment I remove a piece of wall for a new staff area (assuming I don't have the game paused), a member of the public trots merrily in to the area and I have to manually move them after placing a staff door.

[alexkm33]

Custom tank building would be perfect!

[ThrashNeon]

At first I was wishing for expandable tanks as well, but now that I'm on level 5, I've really grown to like having to plan ahead and manually manage fish movement/relocation. Usually, I'll just move the entire small tank out of the way, and build the larger tank in it's place. Then just move the fish and attached equipment when the new tank is set.

[AbvAvgJoe]

These are all great points.

I also wish the following 3 existed.

1) An overview page for your aquarium. Containing stuff like ecology/research, prestige, and profit trend lines. If it also had a counter for total tanks/fish and tanks/fish with issues so you could find any problems with a unhappy fish or faulty equipment from one spot as opposed to scanning over your entire aquarium.

2) A multi select tool. Being able to select multiple items when moving or deleting would be a huge time saver as opposed to individually clicking each wall and trash bin.

3) A clone tool. Trying to recreate a tank layout can be specific and annoying. If we were able to highlight an area and then paste a copy of it somewhere else and rotate it and mirror it, it would be amazing.

Overall loving the game and definitely hope some of the things in this thread get added.

[clvnhbs]

Originally posted by ThrashNeon:

At first I was wishing for expandable tanks as well, but now that I'm on level 5, I've really grown to like having to plan ahead and manually manage fish movement/relocation. Usually, I'll just move the entire small tank out of the way, and build the larger tank in it's place. Then just move the fish and attached equipment when the new tank is set.

Yes, after reading some of your responses I agree that manually moving tanks does sound better. And Tim's already pushed out an update with rebindable keys, yay!