Dear Stormworkers,

In this week's minor update, your engines can explode!

Advanced engines that have overheated will emit a plume of black smoke from their exhaust. If you don't act quickly to reduce their temperature, they can burst into flames before completely shutting down.

There are new particles that show the flow of water gushing between compartments in your vehicle, as well as improvements to the way fluid connectors work. You will also find a new electrical connector for use in advanced vehicles, and looking at the engine of a spawned vehicle will show some information to help you monitor its status!

We've also been continuing to balance the new vehicle mechanics based on the feedback you've been giving us. This is an ongoing process, so expect more changes coming in the next few patches. If you're having any issues with the behaviour of a particular vehicle, remember to email it to stormworks@mcro.org with a brief description of the problem, or post an issue on the Stormworks Issue Tracker (accessible from the main menu and pause menu in-game) and leave a link to your vehicle on the workshop. Having vehicles with consistently reproducible problems makes it a lot quicker for us to find and fix specific bugs.

The full list of fixes and features in this update and the patches from earlier in the week can be found below.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.4.21-22

Feature - Vehicle state is saved when vehicles despawn and restored when a vehicle comes back into range (logic and physics state)
Feature - All connectors can be picked up in the same way as handles
Feature - Fluid connector no longer requires electricity to connect (sending an on signal to the connector will detach it instead of attach, can also be detached manually by grabbing it while it is connected)
Feature - Engines can now catch fire and explode when overheated too much
Feature - Looking at an engine in advanced mode will show a tooltip with its current status to make it easier to diagnose issues (fuel, electricity, coolant, exhaust, air, overheated)
Feature - Circuit breakers can be renamed and a default state can be set
Feature - New particles show the flow of water between two volumes when a door or hatch is opened
Feature - Added electrical connector component

Fix - Rebalanced aerofoil forces in advanced mode
Fix - Rebalanced engine temperatures
Fix - Coolant in engines filters to water only
Fix - Component mass now shows mass value correctly when less than 1
Fix - Increased generator capacity
Fix - Rotors dampen when in water
Fix - Engines with 2 exhausts produce smoke from both
Fix - Increased engine pitch by 25%
Fix - Increased aircraft engine mass
Fix - Fixed radiators not working as well in one direction
Fix - Engine fuel consumption, coolant operation and exhaust particles reduced
Fix - Fixed rotor physics desyncing in multiplayer
Fix - Fixed being kicked out of seat in multiplayer when another player returns a vehicle to the workbench
Fix - Fixed trim not being updated properly after parsing seat state
Fix - Separated fluid/torque/electric from data logic in component info panel
Fix - Buzzer and foghorn now use electric
Fix - Increased volume of foghorn
Fix - Fixed some vehicles with custom doors getting stuck in an infinite load
Fix - Improved performance of vehicle damage system when many collisions are being generated
Fix - Vehicles no longer fly into the air when exiting the character editor in singleplayer
Fix - Character special outfits belonging to a vehicle are correctly reset when returning the vehicle to the workbench
Fix - Engines now state that they use diesel in their descriptions
Fix - Fluid tanks can be set to spawn empty
Fix - Fixed missions with fire crashing multiplayer games
Fix - Reduced wheel grip to improve stability of wheeled vehicles in multiplayer
Fix - Reduced brightness of paintable sign additive
Fix - Fixed circuit breaker rendering incorrectly when flipped
Fix - Fixed water not draining from compartments to open air when above water level


v0.4.14-20

Feature - fluid tanks have weight relative to their contents
Feature - engine temperature rebalance so engines will overheat if run at full throttle for too long

Fix - rebalanced underwater propellers to consume more power
Fix - electric motors reversing
Fix - underwater propeller no longer makes particles when above water
Fix - electric generator pulls less power at low rps
Fix - additive surfaces in editor
Fix - docking doors now allow water through
Fix - resolved crash involving handles
Fix - rebalanced electric consumption / production
Fix - fluid nozzle in advanced mode
Fix - fluid hose in advanced mode
Fix - clutch no longer drains a lot of electric
Fix - fluids spawn in tanks and compartments when spawned from mission
Fix - modified scaling of pump force
Fix - suspension now passes power through
Fix - rotors now turn faster in normal mode
Fix - inventory boxes now have buoyancy surfaces
Fix - resolved reversing gear with gear box
Fix - resolved issue with power components that are not attached to anything
Fix - flooding buoyancy pipes issue

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings a load of fixes and improvements in the wake of Wednesday's major update, but we have a couple of components for you as well!

We've had a lot of great feedback from you all about the new advanced vehicle mechanics and have been working hard to balance the new systems and resolve the bugs that you've found. We'll be continuing to balance the fuel, electrical and engine components, as well as expand the new survival mode in future patches.

This patch also brings two components that we've already received innumerable requests for since the major update - the clutch and gearbox. These are advanced mode components that will give you the ability to disengage your engines from their attached rotors, as well as put propellers into reverse without stalling. You will also find an working example engine in the presets tab in the vehicle editor if you're having trouble getting started with all the new components.

The full changelog for the last few patches is down below.

As always, if you have any suggestions for new features you'd like to see in a future update, leave a card on the Stormworks Issue Tracker (accessible from the main menu and pause menu in-game) so that the community can discuss and vote on your idea!

Have a great weekend <3

The Stormworks Developers

v0.4.2-13

Feature - Added clutch component
Feature - Added gearbox component
Feature - Added example engine to the advanced vehicle presets tab

Fix - Example helicopter fixed (engines don't overheat quite so easily)
Fix - Starter components added for career with advanced vehicles
Fix - Fixed fluid intake component
Fix - Fixed leaking pipe blocks
Fix - Buzzer audio works correctly
Fix - Inventory components show their stored outfit when vehicle first spawns
Fix - Fuel tanks spawn with diesel by default
Fix - Fixed issues with water cannon and wheels
Fix - Increased engine pump strength for air/fuel/exhaust
Fix - Connecting logic links no longer erases links of other types on the same voxel
Fix - Scuba mask no longer shows when in map and missions screens
Fix - Fixed special equipped outfit showing in the charater editor
Fix - Fixed special outfit not being visible after exiting the character editor
Fix - Checking if player is inside sealed volume is now more consistent with what the player is seeing
Fix - Player should no longer start losing oxygen when going from above to below water in a submersible
Fix - Improved quality of advanced vehicle thumbnail background
Fix - Doors and robotics no longer make noises when their electricity is drained
Fix - Pipes are now paintable
Fix - Renamed "transmission" components to "pipe" components to avoid confusion
Fix - Added more component categories and moved new components out of the blocks category
Fix - Coolant pressure on engines increased
Fix - Fixed rudders not working properly
Fix - Some improvements to desync of new components in multiplayer
Fix - Fixed fans not working in advanced mode
Fix - Underwater propellers no longer spawn with self-destructive physics
Fix - Balance changes to force emitting components
Fix - Fixed infinite load time when pipes are placed in a loop
Fix - Fixed heavy rotor not working in advanced mode
Fix - Fixed pumps in advanced mode
Fix - Fixed toggling controller input not working
Fix - Fixed wrong logic node tooltip showing when hovering pipe connection if multiple logic nodes were behind the connection
Fix - Hovered pipe connection tooltip shows regardless of which component is currently selected
Fix - Fixed fluid input on hose not working in advanced mode
Fix - Fixed some audio volumes not being set to the saved values until the pause menu was opened
Fix - Added purchase sign to starter base so it can be bought in career if using a different starting island
Fix - Various other rebalances to the new advanced vehicle systems

Dear Stormworkers,

The survival update is here! This major update brings a whole host of new gameplay options with tons of exciting features, including the hotly anticipated vehicle destruction and fuel.

Feature - Damage


You will now be able to toggle the ability for players to take damage. This will come from a variety of sources including: falling, fire, water pressure and more. You will now have to take extra care when this option is turned on.

Vehicles will now have a multitude ways of becoming damaged. This will result in a real impact on players’ progress. Components can break and will not function correctly, vehicles can leak, rotors break off with impact and engines can overheat and be destroyed.

Feature - Advanced Mechanics


Engines now consume fuel and air and produce exhaust fumes. A new electrics system requires power to operate equipment. Engines can overheat, stall, vehicles can run out of fuel or electrical charge.

Feature - Sharks

You are no longer alone in the water. Sharks will stalk, intimidate and attack characters in the water.

Feature - Tsunamis


100m tall walls of water can now be caused by localized seismic events.

For a full list of features in this patch, see the changelog below.

Thank you to all of our wonderful community who have shared the feedback and creations and made this update possible.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

v0.4.1 (Major Update 3 - Survival and Advanced Vehicles)

Survival Features

Feature - Player/NPC health system:

• Health bar
  
• Oxygen meter
  
• Fall damage
  
• Fire damage
  
• Cold debuff that affects movement in water
  
• Wet debuff that affects movement on land
  
• Pressure damage at low depths
  
• Impact damage when crushed by vehicles
  
• Rotor blades hurt

Feature - Mission objectives involving NPCs can be failed if the NPCs die
Feature - Using beds gradually restores health
Feature - Ragdoll physics for characters that have died
Feature - Sharks (sharks will roam the ocean, will stalk and attack characters and drag them underwater)
Feature - Sharks can be placed and used in missions similarly to characters
Feature - 4 new vehicle components for equipping special outfits:

• Scuba Outfit (increases oxygen and maximum depth before pressure damage begins)
  
• Deap Sea Diving Outfit (increases oxygen and maximum depth before pressure damage begins)
  
• Firefighting Outfit (absorbs ~95% of damage dealt by fires)

Feature - "New Game" screen reworked to allow full customisation of game mode and difficulty (mix survival and creative, disable certain difficulty settings, change which island you spawn on etc.)
Feature - Additional new game settings for hardcore modes (view locked to first person, no manual saving)
Feature - Tsunamis can now be spawned from the creative menu (tsunami will build up close to the player who spawned it and will last a few minutes)
Feature - Added mission trigger for spawning tsunami at a zone
Feature - New particle and sound effects for player damage

Advanced Vehicle Features

Feature - New advanced vehicle mechanics:

• Fuel requirement for engines
  
• Electrical requirement for many existing components
  
• New engine behaviour in advaned mode (they will stall if going too slowly, require an air flow to prevent overheating, require a connected exhaust output)
  
• Pipes used to transfer power and fluid instead of logic links

Feature - 23 new vehicle components for use with the advanced vehicle mechanics:

• 3 sizes of battery (provide electricity to components that require it and will store electricity produced by a generator)
  
• 3 sizes of generator (converts torque into electricity)
  
• 3 sizes of electric motor (a new type of engine that consumes large amounts of electricity instead of fuel)
  
• Electric circuit breaker (interactable switch for controlling flow of electricity between two systems)
  
• Electric relay (controls flow of electricity between two systems using on/off logic)
  
• Fluid exhaust (expells exhaust from an engine)
  
• Fluid filter (allows fluid of a specific type to pass through)
  
• Fluid heat sink (cools fluid that is passed through it)
  
• Fluid radiator (cools fluid that is passed through it)
  
• Fluid spawner (fills an enclosed area with a selected fluid type when you first spawn your vehicle for making custom fuel tanks)
  
• Transmission pipes (angle, straight, T-piece, enclosed angle, enclosed straight, enclosed T-piece)
  
• Electric cable (small electric winch)

Feature - Vehicles can be damaged by high impact collision
Feature - Damaged vehicle components will behave differently (logic components can fail, lights will blink etc.)
Feature - Rotor blades have physics and will break off if hit too hard (no physics on rotor blades when damage is disabled)
Feature - New particle and sound effects for vehicle impacts
Feature - New particle effects for vehicle exhaust and tyre smoke
Feature - Vehicle editor logic mode shows data, power, fluid and electrical nodes separately

Dear Stormworkers,

The wait is almost over.

Major Update #3, the Survival Update, is releasing on Wednesday 26th September at 1800 UTC.

The survival update introduces a host of consequences to the game, and introduces many thrilling aspects to the gameplay. All the new survival features can be turned on and off in the new game settings screen. The headlines are vehicle and player damage, sharks, tsunamis, equippable outfits, and fuel system.

The full change log is huge and will be released with the update on Wednesday.

Thank you to all of our wonderful community who have shared the feedback and creations and made this update possible.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Today's minor update includes 2 more community requested components!

Double-sided versions of the Push Button and Push-To-Toggle Buttons have been added so you can now simplify doorways that previously required a button to be wired up on each side.

We've also added a new Fluid Nozzle component. This works similarly to the Fluid Cannon, but is more compact, making it easier to build custom firefighting equipment. It also has a number input for controlling the spread of the water spray, from a wide mist to a narrow stream.

The full changelog for this patch is available below.

We're currently putting some of the finishing touches on Major Update 3. This will be our biggest update yet, introducing multiple game-changing mechanics that have been highly requested within the community. We're excited to announce that a full list of the new features will be revealed on Monday 24th September!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers


Patch Notes

v0.3.13

Feature - Added 2-sided Push-To-Toggle and Push Button components for placing in walls
Feature - Added Fluid Nozzle component (sprays water with a controllable spread)
Feature - Character creator defaults to the character you last created

Fix - Fixed vehicles that have been offset using the move tool not spawning in the correct place
Fix - Reduced the chance that random characters in the character editor will be wearing masks

Today marks 1 year since the first public alpha opened up for Stormworks. A big thanks to everyone in the community who has supported us and the game over the past year. We can't wait to see what the next one brings!

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings a set of features that we see frequently requested within the community - custom sealable doors!

A selection of door frame components let you build a custom doorway opening. This will behave in the same way as regular doors that have been opened, enabling the creation of open-hull boat designs. Water will flood the area on the inside when it goes below the water line in the same way as existing doors.

New door panel components let you build a custom door panel to seal your frame. When a frame is sealed with a panel of the correct shape and size, it will form a seal. This means you can now build large cargo doors that will prevent water from entering the interior areas of your ship when closed!

For a full list of fixes and features in this patch, see the changelog below.

We're continuing to work on the next major update, and can't wait to share more information about the new features in the coming weeks.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers


Patch Notes

v0.3.9

Feature - Added 6 new components for building custom sealable doors:
- Door Frame Edge, Door Frame Corner (allow you to build a frame that will form an opening into a sealed compartment)
- Door Panel Edge, Door Panel Corner (for building panels that will seal the door frame when they are sufficiently closed)
- Door Frame Controller (a special frame piece that lets you check if the door is closed and lock it when sealed)
- Robotic Door Hinge (a robotic hinge that can be placed flush with a door frame and has a 90 degree range of motion)
Feature - Added save game prompt when quitting to menu with warning that data in autosave may be lost
Feature - Added more information to multiplayer "failed to connect" screen with potential solutions

Fix - Reworded "saving game" text to make it clearer that it's using the autosave slot
Fix - Fixed physics desync when clients get out of seats in multiplayer
Fix - Fixed some multiplayer issues caused by data from previous game not being cleaned
Fix - Removed extra voxels from the front of small/large docking doors so that ladders can be placed there
Fix - Water flow rate between compartments is based on size of door
Fix - Fixed missing faces on part of medium oil rig mesh
Fix - Fixed cut/paste not preserving external logic links correctly in some cases

v0.3.10-11

Fix - Fixed issues with docking doors not sealing properly
Fix - Fixed some boats no longer floating after previous patch

v0.3.12

Fix - Fixed docking doors not connecting
Fix - Resolved remaining issues with vehicle components not working correctly after v0.3.9
Fix - Vehicles no longer spawn underwater when spawning from workbench (they spawn where they appear to be in the editor world view)

Hey Stormworkers,




If one thing has become very clear to us while working on Stormworks: Build and Rescue it is that the community loves to create amazing vehicles, once again we have decided to showcase some of our favourite creations in typical top 10 fashion!

Top10

Much love <3

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have added 7 new under-surface locations, and 4 new submersible missions, including rescuing stranded submariners and maintaining oil well equipment.

We have also re-worked the vehicle physics optimisation, to make vehicle physics calculations a bit faster, in our ongoing performance improvements.

Soon we will give more details on the new major update, but in the mean time you will have to make do with analysing past and present gifs for hints on upcoming features :-)

We still have a few more things we want to get in this update, but it won't be too much longer now.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers


Patch Notes

v0.3.8

Feature - new physics optimization for generating vehicle physics
Feature - added 7 new under surface locations
Feature - added 4 new ocean floor submersible missions

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have added a new player base, on an oil rig structural frame, allowing players to create their own oil rig or just build an outpost off shore!

Please see the change log below for a full list of changes, including fixes.

We are really busy with a few different things, including some upcoming minor updates and the next major update.

We have seen some rumours on Discord about the next major update, and a lot of people are calling it "the Fuel Update". This is not true.

The next major update is not just fuel. Fuel is a tiny part of it. We are working on loads of new systems that we are bringing together in a new game mode, designed for players who have been asking fuel and a host of other features. We are so excited about this one, and can't wait to share it with you. We will release more details soon!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers


Patch Notes

v0.3.7

Feature - Added Large Oil Rig Base island (features a structure workbench on top of prebuilt oil rig legs for building custom rigs. Available to purchase in career mode and in the mission editor)

Fix - Fixed pilot seat hotkeys being pressed when interacting with keypad components
Fix - Added missing descriptions to clamp logic gate nodes
Fix - Fixed more issues with uploading vehicles to workshop on Mac
Fix - NPCs no longer fall under the floor when fast-travelling away from an island