Dear Stormworkers,

It is update week! This week is focused on fixes and improvements, as we regather ourselves from the big push getting the major update ready for release 2 weeks ago!

We have some important fixes including an important fix for some multiplayer issues. Please see the notes below for full details.

In addition to fixes, we also bring some quality updates to different aspects of Stormworks. Probably the most noticeable thing is a new warning notification that will appear on vehicle spawn. This warning only shows if there was not enough fuel in workbench inventory to fill all the vehicle tanks to desired level (a parameter that is set with a slider in the fluid spawner component, and premade fluid tanks).



We've also fixed some meshes and animations for occupational outfits and moved some of them under glasses category. You may need to re-equip your welding goggles or head-mirror in wardrobe and find some weird fun combinations there.

Small Steam Train Piston component got a slight re-mesh to be less tall and create bigger visual clearance on locomotives.

For all our addon Lua experts there, we've updated our API with new setSeated function that besides characters also support dogs. Old setCharacterSeated function will work as alias so your scripts will be fine.

Last but not least, we've improved the loop transitions for many sound effects that were recently added to our Buzzer component.



It seems that there also a good news for Stormworkers with AMD graphics cards. According to comments on our issue tracker and messages on our Discord server, it seems that the latest AMD graphics driver solves issue with Lua screens. We've tested both 23.3.1 and 23.3.2 drivers and can confirm that there is no more weird geometric artefacts, black pixels or entirely black screens on in-game monitors.

Thanks to all the players giving feedback on merch and sharing their suspicions of what could be in the upcoming updates! As usual, we will release details as we complete the new features so we can be completely confident in what we are announcing! This usually means that major updates are announced 3 weeks ahead and minor updates are announced as they release.

Work continues as normal on the upcoming new minor and major updates! We are having a lot of fun and can't wait to share more info on the really exciting things we are building at the moment :-)

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.7.2

Fix - #18587 #18618 Fix client sync issues with dynamic objects causing twilight-zone(lag/damage)
Fix - Added default oil survey addon to dedicated server default config
Fix - Several new outfit animation issues
Fix - #17620 Only reset display resolution after a crash
Fix - #17617 Display warnings when missing fuels on vehicle spawn
Fix - #17617 Update fuel rod description to mention uranium ingots
Fix - #17533 Adjusted small steam train piston mesh
Fix - #17336 Fixed Example Nuclear Reactor rods not dropping if spawned with inf-power enabled
Fix - #16470 #16380 Buzzer sound effect improvements
Fix - #16463 Added creature support to lua seat functions and callbacks
Fix - #11024 Speedster mission beacon not working correctly
Fix - #17564 Add safeguards to captain teleports for ai vehicles
Fix - #17794 Amended a minor typo

Rework - Moved welding goggles and head-mirror to glasses category (you may need to re-equip your outfits)

Addon Lua:
- Added seated_peer_id to seat data for seated players
- Updated setVehiclePosSafe documentation

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with last week and next week being content updates.

Thank you to all the players who tried out the new Oil Drilling Major Update! It is great to see all the creative drilling rig designs and how players are engaging with the new mechanics.



For a long time now, players have got in touch from time to time asking about official merchandise. We have remained focused only on the video game software, and wanted to avoid being distracted by other stuff. However, we would quite like to wear some Stormworks merch, and it would be good to make it happen for the players who want it. It may not be too big a distraction using service like Red Bubble. Is this something that you may want? Let us know if this is something you are interested in, and if it is something that players want, then we can make it happen!



We are continuing to plan out the rest of the year. We are planning 15 more free minor updates spread across the rest of the year (one for every second week), a free major update in summer time, a new paid DLC around October, and another free major update in early 2024!



Not all of these updates are fully planned out yet, while others are deep in development! We look forward to your ideas and theories on what these updates might be :-)

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Fix - Removed default coolant from fireboxes
Fix - Removed outdated info in wellhead description

Dear Stormworkers and Roughnecks,

The Oil Drilling Major Update is live now!

This new update introduces oil drilling to the world of Stormworks.

This update includes many new components and systems to allow players to design and operate oil rigs. Oil drilling is a massive business, with many different ways to drill oil, and loads of engineering. We have simplified oil drilling from real life to work with a set of blocks, but many of the design considerations, mechanics, and logistics remain. Lets talk about what this means:



Surveying For Oil

Players can just start drilling in the hope of striking black gold, but it's probably more sensible to purchase surveys. You can discover oil fields by purchasing survey data from the existing oil sites in game. Industrial Frontier DLC owners can also drill on land at any of the pre-established oil wells on the Meier Isles that include static workbenches for creating rigs.

Establishing A Well

The new oil well component is large and heavy. When placed down level and flat, it can be activated and will lock to the ground. This can be logistically difficult when drilling in the ocean, so you may need special purpose vehicles such as submersibles to assist in positioning the well.



Feeding Rods

The new drill rods are 10m lengths of drilling pipe. They can be stored in the rod holders, picked up and fed using the rod clamps, and threaded together using the rod threading clamp. You will need to thread together a long drill chain of rods as you feed it into your well.

Drilling

Once you have your rods assembled and fed into the top of your well, it is time to start drilling! For this you need to rotate the rods (by feeding them through a rod driver), and pump drilling slurry (using the rod pivot) into the rods to work as cutting fluid.



Extracting Oil

Once you have drilled down to the depth of the oil deposit, it is time to start extracting! For this you need the well pump, a huge piston type pump that needs to be actuated mechanically. Make a pump jack or otherwise drive the piston to pump oil!

Refining

Once you have extracted your oil, you can refine it in a tall custom tank with distillation. Heat the oil using a coal burner, or the new diesel burner or electric heater to 300C and the oil will start to separate. It can be extracted using the distillation taps which will condense jet fuel or diesel depending on their height in the column.



We can't wait to see what oil industry inspired creations players come up with and hope you enjoy these new components and mechanics! And we look forward to your feedback!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.7.0

Feature - Oil Industry Major Update

Oil drilling is a new late-game activity for Stormworks, with high start up costs but a large return on investment.
Oil can be found under oil rig workbenches or under random ocean tiles (Purchase survey data from an oil company to reveal them on your map)
Once you have located an area rich in oil it's time to set up an oil rig and start drilling!

Oil Survey:
- Randomly generated ocean oil deposits
- Oil Data Vendors which sell oil deposit location information
- Oil deposit below the static oil rig base
- 4 Oil Well locations on the Meier Isles (Industrial Frontier DLC)

Attach a wellhead to the terrain above an oil deposit (These are pre-placed on the Meier Isles)
Drill Rods can be fed into the top of this component with assistance from Drill Clamps and Connectors to pick up and join the rods.
A rotary table and swivel provide rotation and slurry flow which are required for running the drill.
Once the drill is spinning and has a supply of slurry, the rods need to be physically pushed into the wellhead to advance the drill.
Drilling will saturate the slurry with mud and stone, which can be cleaned and recycled using a slurry filter and fresh water.
After the drill arrives at the oil deposit, the oil can be extracted with a Pumpjack component paired directly to a swivel. The Pumpjack requires mechanical action to draw up the oil from the well.

Oil Drilling:
- Drill Rod Storage
- Drill Clamp
- Drill Connector
- Rotary Table
- Drill Swivel
- Wellhead
- Pumpjack
- New Fluids: Slurry and Saturated Slurry
- Slurry filter

Now that you have an excess of oil you don't just have to sell!
Fractional Distillation is the process of separating crude oil into its more useful components.
Heat up oil inside a contained volume to >300 degrees and use the distillation port to tap off diesel and jet-fuel fractions.

Fractional Distillation:
- Diesel Furnace
- Electric Furnace
- Distillation Port

We have deprecated the fluid filter in this update for a much more simplified version of the component to emphasize the design challenge of fluid system building.
When we deprecate parts they remain in the game files, and a replacement version is added; this means that your old vehicles will still work as usual, but the old version of the part will no longer appear in the edit inventory.

General:
- New Fluid Filter

Fix - #1698 Improved terrain at scxeech trading yard
Rework - #16315 #15892 Resource trading addon now has surge pricing
Rework - Temperature Sensor now uses compartment temperature if placed inside a sealed volume
Rework - Radar now ignores moveable class objects
Balance - Desalinator re-balance

Addon Lua:
- Added getOilDeposits()
- Added large keypad support to setVehicleKeypad

Dear Stormworkers & Roughnecks,

The Oil Drilling Update drops next week on Thursday 16th March 2023 at 5pm UTC!



This update includes loads of new components and systems to introduce oil drilling, designing and operating rigs, and refining your own fuel.

Please see the previous announcement on details of the various component types and mechanics.



Players can design their own ocean rigs to extract off-shore oil deposits. For owners of the Industrial Frontier DLC, we are also adding several static workbenches and pre-established well heads for convenient setting up of on-shore rigs on the Meier Isles.



We are really excited to release this new update and look forward to next week on Thursday :-)

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is a minor update week! We are adding new communication channels between add-ons and mods so that they can communicate with each other.

This is a useful new extension to the modding API to allow add-on creators to communicate between different add-ons. This means you can have add-ons that can extend each other, or otherwise just react.



We have been using this new API ourselves and now the hospital ships will travel to some missions where they can be useful. This means that you will have a floating hospital en-route to mission locations to assist in career mode.



As well as this new extension, we have implemented some fixes and improvements. Please see the patch notes below for full details.



We continue working hard on the new Oil Industry Major Update! It is almost ready and we can't wait for release.



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.15

Feature - #8113 Cross script commands

This week's update features a new addon lua feature and 3 small fixes as we prepare for the release of the upcoming major update.
Cross script commands allow addon scripts to send commands to each other as if they were a player.
For this week's update we have also updated the default AI hospital boats to navigate towards emergency missions to provide closer hospital destinations for missions at sea.

Fix - #16497 #16886 #17848 Fix equipment not being dropped from characters respawning with the UI button before death
Fix - #16480 Removed non-functional clear axis button from gamepad controls
Fix - #16779 Buzzer sfx blending speed (volume near sfx start)

Addon Lua:
- Added server.command(message)
- Default ai now save their current paths
- Hospital boats navigate toward missions
- Hospital boats now wait for much longer at the end of their path

Dear Stormworkers & Roughnecks,

The Oil Drilling Update - our next major update, is due out on Thursday 16th March 2023 at 5pm UTC!

Drilling for oil is coming to Stormworks via a series of new components and systems to facilitate creating and operating rigs.

Oil drilling is very complex and there are a lot of nuances, and a variety of techniques, with differences between on-shore, off-shore, geology considerations, and generational changes. While Stormworks will simplify drilling, the principles remain, and our goal has been to encourage design with logistics and operation in mind. Lets talk about what that means:



Oil Deposits

Under the world of Stormworks there will be hundreds of oil deposits, of varying depth and size. Survey data for these deposits can be purchased from various oil sites.

The Well Head

Well heads will be a new component that form the starting point of a well. They can be established on any flat surface, above or below the ocean. They incorporate the drill head, and some plumbing, and act as the interface for the well.

Drilling Rods

Drill rods will be new 10m long physical rods that can be chained together to form longer rods. These rods can be fed into and recovered from a well.



Rod Handling

There will be various robotic parts for grabbing, handling, feeding, joining, separating, and driving rods. For example, you will need the rod threader to merge two rods together, and the driver is required to turn the rods for drilling.

Slurry

Slurry, or drilling mud, is required for drilling. Slurry must be pumped down the rods into the drill head to lubricate drilling and transport the cut stone and material away from the drill head. The slurry must be circulated and cleaned in mud scrubbers to remove the debris and keep the well drilling.

Refining

We are also adding some new parts to allow fractional distillation of oil into diesel and jet fuel!

We are really excited to launch this new update and look forward to sharing it in a few weeks. In the mean time we have next weeks minor update, and we continue work on finishing this update and many others!



We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this new update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Today we release the Physics Sensor Minor Update! This includes the new physics sensor, which is a new component giving composite logical output including positional and rotational information.



This data output is particularly useful for microcontroller designers who are interested in building their own gyros and other motion control systems, which should now be much easier and practical.



This component is in response to player requests on the issue tracker and we continue to enjoy hearing your thoughts and ideas and implementing them when possible!



As well as this new component feature, we have several useful fixes and improvements! Please see the patch notes below for full details.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.14

Feature - Physics Sensor (#10065 #10119 #3793 #4465)

The physics sensor component combines functionality of several other sensors into a convenient single block.
The sensor outputs position, rotation, linear and angular speeds over 14 composite channels detailed on the component.

Fix - #16642 Wheel secondary physics issues for clients
Fix - #17831 Seafloor generation issue
Fix - #15856 No longer convert rescued survivors to static NPCs, instead update their display name to 'Rescued'
Fix - #13931 Ai boats/aircraft now track damage and despawn after 2 mins if above threshold
Fix - #13936 Return value of getZones not including Zone parent vehicle data
Fix - #14017 Added editor arrows for wings
Fix - #14835 Fixed teleporting under the map through very tall terrain
Fix - #13078 Rotor physics mirroring issues
Fix - #14848 Metal ore foundry mesh issues
Fix - #14851 Gold foundry mesh issues

Addon Lua:
- Added setCharacterTooltip and setCreatureTooltip for renaming non-player Characters and Animals

Dear Stormworkers,

It is announcement week! Next week is minor update update week, and next week we will be releasing the recently announced physics sensor, as well as other fixes and improvements.

A new major update is on the way! We were hoping to announce this week, but as always, we are very cautious to announce anything until it is ready, and there are some more improvements that we want to get finished.



Our Update Announcement Strategy

Big updates are exciting, and when you are working new features, it is very easy for developers to get carried away with enthusiasm. We are no exception, and it is thrilling to see things come together and think about the new possibilities that this new work unlocks! We would love to share every step with players, but this can result in an overall negative player experience, as players would see the many ideas that don't work out, get cancelled, or de-prioritized. We are also big believers in doing rather than talking, and the focus has always been about the product and real value, rather than words or promises.

So, our strategy is to get new features to a stage where we are happy, then share the news to players with the confidence that we can deliver.



Studio Plans and Development Strategy

Stormworks released on Early Access on 28th Feb 2018, almost 5 years ago! And we had the invite-only beta 6 months prior. For years we released updates every week, and now every 2 weeks. There have been dozen of major updates and even two DLCs. Players have amassed over 6000 years of playtime.

We are very fortunate that Stormworks is a popular game, and making updates for players and seeing their reactions is very rewarding. This is something that must continue and we want to do our best to serve our players as best we can.

The challenge we are increasingly facing is that after 2 years of pre-release development and 5 years of servicing, the code becomes more and more fatigued. The Stormworks source code excluding third party libraries and comments is over 15 million characters. On top of this, we have made all the easy updates, and a lot of the not-so-easy ones. Stuff that should be easy turns out to be very complex to integrate with those 15m characters of existing source code. What is left tends to be difficult to deliver.

Our current strategy is to just get on with it and do the jobs, no matter how difficult. Obviously, this is a short term strategy and in the long term, there are better ways to serve our players.

So, our long term strategy is a new game and we have some very ambitious plans. Moving forward is important, so the new game won't be Stormworks 2, but it will be design and vehicle building game, taking lessons from Stormworks and from what our players have told us. We are discussing a lot about player authorship, modding, gameplay and purpose, and a lot of things never done before in a game.

Stormworks updates will continue, and we will work on our new game in parallel.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback! Catch you next week for the minor update.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is update week and we have added 24 new occupation themed outfit items for your characters!

These new outfits can be accessed and tried out via the wardrobe in game. These new outfits are based on workplace attire and include clothing from surgeon and nurse uniforms to park rangers and fishermen.



This update also includes several important fixes and improvements. Please see the patch notes below for full details.

We have a big announcement to make next week about a new update so please be sure to come back for that!



We look forward to your thoughts and feedback on this new update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.13

Feature - 24 New Occupation Themed Outfit Items

Rework - Steam Train Wheels balance and fixes (#16227 #14723 #14697 #16960)
Rework - Updated and improved the default cargo containers (#9615 #10724)
Rework - #7841 Updated the Helicopter preset vehicle and added a Default Container preset
Fix - #5126 #4135 Fixed various hangar door sounds, indoor zones and airstrip lights
Fix - #12983 Police station door and other physics fixed
Fix - #15564 Fixed thin tile physics issue
Fix - #16221 Prevented memory leak caused by LODS when there are no tile sin LOD range
Fix - #14595 Rope length output node now updates dynamically
Fix - #15169 Sync resource storage data on game join
Fix - #16146 SpawnVehicleRope using the wrong data for loaded vehicles
Fix - #16288 Respawn issues when respawning under delayed damage
Fix - #16404 Ski mirroring issues
Fix - #16184 Coal hopper network events for sub-bodies

Added new sound effects for the Wildcat and

Addon Lua:
- #16090 setVehiclePosSafe behavior reworked to avoid unreliable internal data
- #3854 Added setAudioMood which allows setting the audio mood to a higher level for a peer which naturally decreases over time
Added setAudioMood calls to the default missions script
- #15918 Add support for map label type 0 to prevent crash

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with minor updates happening last week and next week!

This week, we discuss the Stormworks community, as well as provide a short overview for newer players.

Stormworks now has over 500,000 players. As a designing and building game, many of our players have passion and enthusiasm for making things, or have interest in mechanical sciences, and a fascination for how things work. Our players can be any age, but even our younger players are often mature and thoughtful. The community is so often a bright, positive, and engaged place, and we pay tribute to all the kind and talented players who make it what it is.

As a developer, it is hugely rewarding to have a role in a positive, intelligent community, and see players teaching and learning, creating and thinking. We find the creation aspect of making software to be rewarding, but to see this community grow from just a piece of software means so much more, so thank you to all players.

If you are driven to create, or otherwise interested in simulation games and vehicle operation, we recommend checking out the community and sharing your experiences with others.



Official Discord Server: https://discord.gg/stormworks

The official discord server is a great place to share what you are working on, check out other people's creations, and chat and learn from the other 50k players on the server. There is the vehicle showcase, which is an image only channel where people post images of their creations, and is awesome to browse and source ideas and inspiration. There is also a dedicated channel for discussing lua in Stormworks, as well as add ons. There is even a fan-art channel (although this is mostly Stormworks memes!).



Official Issue Tracker: https://geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks

The official issue tracker is where players can report bugs and request features for Stormworks. This is the best way to reach out to the developers. We review all requests and have frequent meetings where we discuss new and old issues. Players can only log in to the official issue tracker through the game menu but can browse with the link above. With over half-a-million players, the issue tracker has been essential to managing the volume of communication and requests, and lets us order and organize. It's actually version 2 and there is an old issue tracker which we replaced to improve player experience and our own efficiency.



Steam Community: https://steamcommunity.com/app/573090

The Steam community has some great content, and you can browse players screenshots, videos, guides, and more, as well as see the news (where this announcement gets posted!). These posts are weekly, and are the place for official announcements!



Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/app/573090/workshop/

The workshop is just incredible and brings the entire dev team so much joy. The creations that players have made are breath taking and you can add them to your game with just a single click. Many items have taken players hundreds of hours to create, and the top items can have over 50k subscriptions! Thank you to all the players who have shared their creativity here.



Unofficial Communities

There are also loads of unofficial communities, including other Discord servers, sub reddits, Youtubers and their subscribers, and more. The above is only the tip of the iceberg.

If you want to get involved, please treat others with respect and be positive!

Next week we will be bringing you new outfits and other improvements in the minor update! And we are still working on other updates including the next minor update which we will share info on soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This weeks minor update is focused on fixes and improvements. While there is no headline feature, the update does contain a variety of reworks, rethinks, improvements, and fixes. All these changes are in response to player feedback on the official issue tracker so many thanks to all those players who have been in touch!

We have reworked the benchmarks to be a single benchmark application that uses the same vehicles used in the Weapons DLC AI conquest mode.



We have also added a new vehicle spawning warning for vehicles that contain a lot of data. There are internal limits on max data payload of a vehicle. These limits are very rarely hit but the warning is useful if they are hit. These limits relate to the data size of an internal format rather than the xml save file format that players would be more familiar with.

As well as these, there are many other changes. Please see the full list below for details.

We have many updates planned, in development, and in testing, that contain new features and are due for release in the coming weeks and months. We will continue working hard to get these updates ready!



We look forward to your thoughts and feedback on these new changes!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.12

Todays update features various bugfixes and quality improvements.

Misc - #3755 Display a warning when spawning vehicles with large file sizes
Fix - #14986 Replaced old benchmarks with a single new benchmark with updated AI vehicles
Fix - #14293 Missile laser sensor erroneously culling data points
Fix - #14597 Search filtering including filepath as vehicle name
Fix - #14677 #14784 #14751 Improved editor arrows for steam train pistons to indicate orientation
Fix - #15079 Audio playback rates for some sound effects differing from preview
Fix - #15769 Render eyebrows in armor outfits
Fix - #15827 Editor symmetry erase highlighting
Fix - #15817 Addon editor issues with cyrillic/unicode filepaths
Fix - #14678 Removed bottom voxels from train wheels and pistons to reduce collision issues
Fix - #8603 Fix Magall light not updating for multiplayer clients
Fix - #15828 Remove parented addon zones when their parent despawns
Fix - #15863 Restock tooltips now show the correct item name
Fix - #16013 Update Spycakes hangar resource storage placement
Fix - #16062 Fix localization generation for files with missing xml nodes
Fix - #16075 #16983 Fix mesh and physics issues at North Harbor
Fix - #16127 Vehicle selection grid lists no longer reset scroll on open
Fix - #16178 Fix creatures being spawnable without the DLC (and crashing)
Fix - #16186 Fluid nozzle description update
Fix - #16258 Fix physics mesh at Donkk Ruins
Fix - Fix addons not rebuilding internal locations correctly on reload, fixed these cases in default missions and weapons dlc scripts

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with minor updates releasing every two weeks (next one is next week!).

This is a short post, discussing the upcoming updates.

As usual, we are planning minor updates every 2 weeks, with a few major updates per year. Upcoming minor updates include bug fix focused updates, new occupational outfits, new compact physics sensors, cross-script communication support, and more.



We are also hard at work on some of the upcoming major updates, one of which we hope to announce soon.

We are also reviewing many of the older feature requests submitted on the issue tracker as we plan more updates for the year!



We will return next week with the next minor update and look forward to sharing more minor and major update details soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Many players have let us know that multiplayer is a top priority for Stormworks, and this week we are releasing an important update for many players.

This update greatly optimizes the game simulation for multiplayer clients. This update will fix desync and input delay for many players.



For some players, an issue has occurred in the past when playing multiplayer, and their PC has been much slower than the server PC. Despite clients running less calculations than servers, if the server is a great deal faster, then sometimes the client cannot keep up and is left behind. This has had the effect of input delay that slowly increases as the server gets further and further ahead. As you can imagine, this was a huge issue if your PC could not keep up.

To resolve this, we have greatly optimized the simulation performance of clients. There is much less calculations being performed on clients (particularly physics) and this means clients have much less work to do.



In our testing, we have been able to push multiplayer much harder, including spawning more complex vehicles and lots of animals and zombies. However, we have not made changes to the servers, so the usual rules still apply - creating complex creations with lots of vehicles and objects can still slow the server down for everyone! So please keep this in mind.

This update is a huge step forward for multiplayer, but doesn't fix every issue and development does continue.



As well as these multiplayer fixes, we have many other fixes and improvements. Please see the patch notes below for details.

We hope these changes improve your multiplayer experience and look forward to your feedback!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.11

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - Multiplayer client physics optimization

Fix - Several gameplay managers ticking their state while simulation is paused
Fix - #15336 Arid map colour discrepancies, added lua functions to support rock and gravel map colours
Fix - #14792 Default cargo container timer displaying negative values
Rework - #14626 Visually revised the mating surfaces for steam train parts to clarify that they need to be the same size and also oriented correctly to connect
Balance - #14967 Increased despawn times for processed metals dynamic objects
Fix - #14996 setTileInventory lua documentation
Fix - #15088 #15570 Lua documentation content issues
Fix - #15210 Updated default resource storage vehicle
Fix - #15142 Updated missiles on default weapons AI destroyers
Fix - #15371 Default rescue scripts showing decimals for some numbers
Fix - #1554 Re-exported Warner docks map tile geometry
Fix - #15655 Observatory landmark vehicle guard rail updates
Fix - #15683 Removed newlines from dog whistle description
Fix - #15688 Fixed block damage not parsing correctly (and optimized empty value parsing)
Fix - Optimized trainline generation speed
Fix - #16044 Updated desalinator description

A high volume of reports on the issue tracker have made us aware of a multiplayer issue regarding the old style wheel components.
While we hope players are very happy with today's performance improvements we were unable to fix this issue for this release and hope to resolve it for a future update.

Dear Stormworkers,

It is update week! This week we are adding seasonal skins for many of the animals including dogs and farm animals!



This new feature is entirely cosmetic and just a bit of fun, to make players smile for the winter holiday. It is time limited and is only active during the winter holiday in-game event (which is controlled by the date setting on your computer).



Fixes and Improvements

Of course, most of the content in this update is fixes and improvements! Please see the patch notes below for full details.



Steam Sale

Stormworks is in the Steam Winter Sale! Discounts are active during the whole Steam Sale until January 5th.

We hope you enjoy the new update, have a great holiday, and we will catch you in the new year for more updates!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.10

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - #12768 Seasonal skins for animals

Rework - #14617 Lock derailing behind vehicle damage setting
Fix - Lua scripts memory leak crash
Fix - Ocean thread memory leak
Fix - Beginner Island missing seasonal assets
Fix - Added default storage zone to meier outpost garage
Fix - #14925 Fix typo in kahrstrom gas station
Fix - #15024 Only tick world raycasting vehicle components if scene is ticking
Fix - #15015 Fix building fires not failing to spawn if their tile is not in range and the player is near world origin
Fix - #15503 Removed rps nodes from small and mid steam train wheels
Fix - #15764 Unopenable door, and Invisible door hitbox in Aljon Hospital
Fix - #15791 Arctic train signals missing
Fix - #14620 Reserved voxels on x3 train wheels
Fix - #14673 Fixed missing physics voxels on large train wheels
Fix - #14623 #15228 #14897 #15063 Fixed small train wheels force resolution issues
Fix - #14662 Derailed train wheels damping
Rework - #14953 Removed dysfunctional vehicle editor resource usage hints
Fix - #15226 Fix negative uranium fuel levels
Balance - #15226 Reverted balance change to rod consumption rate (now 100x longer)
Fix - #15000 Reload scripts now reloads from the autosave directory
Fix - Mesh height on large steam drive piston
Fix - #15414 Check NPC damage setting before applying injuries in default missions
Fix - #15598 Train Bridges Causing Random Explosions on Trains
Fix - #15833 Trainline issue near Serpentine Trainyard
Fix - Updated main menu tile render priority for arid and seasonal events

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with the new Christmas minor update due out next week!

Christmas mode has already activated in Stormworks! During the holiday period, there is a time-activated winter wonderland mode where rain always appears as snow, trees are the snow type, and some locations have seasonal decorations.



Next week, this will be further enhanced by many of the animals joining the fun with their own decorations! These cosmetic changes are just a bit of fun, but next weeks update also includes lots of fixes and improvements which are worth checking out.

On 6th January, we are also planning a multiplayer optimization update which we expect to be a big improvement for a lot of players.



We are excited about sharing the next few minor updates, and are deep into work on the upcoming major updates!

We asked for player feedback on what is most desired for upcoming major updates a month or so back. Thanks to all the players who gave their feedback, this has been really useful and we have some great updates in the works.



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

It is minor update week! This week we are increasing the number of inventory slots for carrying first person items.

This is a long requested feature, from almost immediately after the release of first person items! Carrying more items has become increasingly important as we have added new items and increased their importance over the last year.



This update also includes loads of fixes and improvements! Please see the change notes below for full details, as it is these fixes that we have been spending most of our time on!

We will continue working through the mini roadmap that we recently announced! We have loads in progress and in testing and we look forward to sharing more updates.



We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on this new update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.9

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - #15692 Increased number of small equipment slots
Feature - #15213 Weapons addon Arid base locations
Feature - #14388 Particle effects graphics option

Fix - #14677 #14784 #14751 Added editor arrows to steam train drive pistons to help place them correctly
Fix - #13910 Character editor skin tone issue
Fix - #13948 Fix controller move axes not working for noclip mode
Fix - #14313 Camera Set Origin Broken In Selection Grid
Fix - Dogs picking up non-equipment items
Fix - #12627 Moved overlapping train edit grid
Fix - #14607 Prevent crash when changing to an invalid resolution from fullscreen
Fix - #14730 Submarine island workbench physics mesh
Fix - #14762 Add delay between dropping equipment / using equipment boxes to prevent equipment duplication
Fix - #14843 Creatures not spawning blood effects when hit by rotors
Fix - #14847 Arid train terminal road geometry
Fix - #14852 Floating bridge geometry
Fix - #14876 Light on bridge not moving
Fix - #14880 Clipping through stairs on bridges
Fix - #14894 FJ warner boat dock physics mesh issues
Fix - #14907 Mineral funnel sound stuck after running out of material
Fix - #14909 Fixed physics mesh for ladder in Olli switch yard
Fix - #15249 Addon lua docs formatting
Fix - #15014 Fix characters falling through floor after being released by a dragging animal
Fix - #15017 Invisible train barrier at Serpentine Trainyard
Fix - #15096 Thin physics at Beginner Base Fence
Fix - #15208 Brainz Train Yard Doorway Collision
Fix - #15272 North harbour lighting issues
Fix - #15308 Fix crash when despawning creature being carried / carrying equipment via LUA
Fix - #15313 Fixed overlapping terrain at kobold quarry
Fix - #15372 Prevent rope connections from disconnecting when entering 3rd person mode in seats
Fix - #15407 JSI dock teleport location
Fix - #15462 Fixed some trainline terrain issues
Fix - #15470 Not transparent windows
Fix - #15500 #15501 Brainz terminal lights
Fix - #15581 Road geometry issue

Addon Lua:
Please take note that functions which interact with character inventories will need updating in accordance with new slots.
SLOT_NUMBER |
1 = Large Equipment Slot,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 = Small Equipment Slot,
10 = Outfit Slot

Dear Stormworkers,

Nvidia have been in touch with us to add Stormworks to Geforce NOW, and this has just launched in their December update!

You can now play Stormworks on the Geforce NOW cloud streaming service. Simply launch the Geforce NOW software and you should see Stormworks if you have your Steam library connected. The those who have lower spec PCs, but don't have Geforce NOW, I believe there is a free account type to try it out, with limited session lengths.



Players have been asking for Stormworks to be available on Geforce NOW for years, so we are very pleased to finally join the service. Contrary to what you might expect, we don't have direct contact or behind-the-scenes access to all the big hardware manufacturers, but credit to Nvidia to reaching out and getting in touch with a smaller business like ours.

As previously discussed, we are continuing work on minor and major updates, with the Inventory Slots Update due next week with many other fixes and improvements.



We hope this new launch on Geforce NOW is useful to some players, and we look forward to more updates over the coming weeks and months!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is minor update week, and we are introducing some new and reworked audio effects!

We have added new sounds for premade engines and modular engines. These sounds have different layers that blend with each other based on RPS. Similar to the old sounds, there are different sets of sounds for engines classified as "small", "medium", and "large". Commercially available sound samples for engines are surprisingly uncommon and it has been a challenge to rework these sounds, but we are very pleased with the result, and we hail an end to lawnmower engines!

New lightning and thunder sound effects give a more authentic sense to thunder storms, with different layers of sound used based on distance, and better effects overall.



Boat propellers also have new sounds, with new layer blending and different effects based on RPS. As with many Stormworks sound effects, the challenge here is decomposed sounds - the propeller component in Stormworks can only make the sound of the propeller interacting with the water. However, in the real world, propellers are always accompanied with the sound engines so these have also been a big challenge!

And there are more sound effects, including new sirens, buttons, and gearboxes!



As usual, these minor update features are accompanied with many fixes and improvements. Please check the notes below for full details!

We are already working on another audio minor update, as well as all the other updates discussed last week.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the new sounds!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.8

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - New sound effects and audio updates
Feature - Addon editor component copy and paste support

In this minor update we are including some of the planned audio changes we have been developing;
Engines and modular engines have new sounds with improved blending.
Gearboxes now have a sound when changing ratio to give feedback to the player.
Lightning/Thunder now have a selection of sounds based on the range of the storm.
Marine propellers have new sounds with improved blending.
Key buttons and circuit breakers have new sound effects.
Throttle levers now make a button sound when pressed.
Added a many new sound effects to the buzzer block (Sirens / Horns / Klaxons / Bells)

Rework - #11569 Characters now only drop equipment on death instead of incapacitated
Fix - #15693 Common creature physics crash
Fix - #11619 Removed some unnecessary surfaces from windows that prevented raycasts
Fix - #13348 Winch up and down editor warnings inverted
Fix - Lights sometimes rendering a light flare with 0 power
Fix - #13613 Updated function block to handle very small values
Fix - End effector no longer interacts with manual components
Fix - Improved vehicle editor loading time
Fix - #3196 Increase text length for detailed tooltip nodes
Fix - #14082 Army outfit mesh issues
Fix - #14088 Pilot Seat (Hotas) incorrect control display
Fix - Fixed animal interactions when incapacitated in beds
Fix - #15075 Restored debug.log() behavior
Fix - Creature sync inconsistencies
Fix - Dogs fetching animation issue
Rework - Removed minor healing from normal beds
Rework - Static vehicles electric reworked, batteries on static vehicles have infinite charge, components on static vehicles no longer act as if they infinite electric

Dear Stormworkers,

In this weeks announcement, we discuss specifics on our plans for upcoming minor updates. In this announcement we share our plans and intentions because it is useful for players to have some roadmap for what to expect. However, plans can change, and this information is a guide only. Nothing is certain until it is released!

All minor updates are minor! They will include mostly fixes and improvements, as these are what we spend most of our time on, but also include some small features which we will discuss below.



25th November:

Next week we are planning to release an audio update! We have multiple updates planned, and this is the first. This update will include engine, propeller, siren sound effects and some others.

9th December:

Expanded equipment inventory. We plan to increase the number of items that the player can carry. While only a minor change, this is a popular request and important to many players.



23rd December:

Christmas update! The usual Christmas event will return with decorations and snow, but with animals joining the fun! We plan to take a break over the holiday but are preparing this update ahead of time.

6th January:

Multiplayer optimization! Many players have told us that this is the top priority. We have been making progress on this regularly and several multiplayer improvements have happened in the patch notes that have not been the headline of the week and may have been noticed. On the 6th Jan, we plan to release a bigger improvement that we hope will prevent input delay and lag that many players have reported.



We look forward to sharing these updates along with all the fixes and improvements we are working on soon!

We also continue to work on major updates, and our goal is to release 3 major updates during 2023.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers