Dear Stormworkers,

Today's minor update brings some long-awaited graphics improvements!

We have spent this week improving the quality of water and spotlight rendering and have resolved several of the most commonly reported visual bugs. Some of these improvements include fixing fluids in tanks rendering through vehicles, foam and ocean surface clipping into sealed vehicle compartments, spotlights appearing grainy and having seams, and lights not being affected by the cloudiness of the ocean.

We have also introduced new options to completely disable shadows and control the quality of lighting for players on lower spec hardware. This means that players will achieve higher framerates on minimum settings.

This patch has been largely focused on bug fixes, the full list of which can be found in the changelog below.

We are also excited to announce an opportunity to join our team as a full-time programmer at our studio in Leamington Spa in the UK. More details about the available roles, including contact information to apply can be found at mcro.org/jobs.

Have a great weekend, and stay tuned for next week's minor update which will be bringing a versatile new vehicle component...

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.6.3

Feature - Many rendering improvements (see fixes for full list)
Feature - Improved quality of lighting underwater (light now takes some colour from the water)
Feature - Added option to completely disable shadows
Feature - Added quality options for light volumes including an option to disable them
Feature - Added world seed to pause menu
Feature - Added mouse aspect setting for scaling horizontal mouse speed relative to vertical

Fix - Fixed fluids in compartments rendering through vehicles
Fix - Fixed foam and ocean surface clipping into sealed compartments
Fix - Fixed rendering artifacts on spotlights (graininess, seams)
Fix - Fixed spotlight shadows not rendering at far distances
Fix - Improved performance of omni light volume rendering
Fix - Fixed flickering squares artifact on doors and some other components when underwater
Fix - Spotlight flares render correctly on vehicles and some islands where they were previously not rendering at all
Fix - Potential fix for water rendering on MacOS
Fix - Reduced GPU memory usage by ~40MB
Fix - Fixed NPC health not showing on tooltip when seated
Fix - Fixed camera being constrained in photo mode when attached to a ladder
Fix - Fixed game always resetting to windowed mode after exiting
Fix - Added beanie to arctic outfit so characters no longer look bald
Fix - Fixed physics and meshes being in the wrong place on some islands when loading saved game after previous patch
Fix - Increased max fluid flow volume for doors filling/emptying by 6x
Fix - Fixed some dropdown lists on various UI screens not updating properly when selecting items using the keyboard
Fix - Added light switch for creative base hangar lights
Fix - Fixed gaps between some trainline segments
Fix - Fixed logic nodes on copied selection grid jittering
Fix - Corrected some spelling mistakes
Fix - Fixed some rail junction switches not working
Fix - Workshop upload now correctly fails if writing to thumbnail file fails
Fix - Ski components render correctly in the vehicle editor
Fix - Ski components spawn correctly when rotated and flipped
Fix - Fixed some more invalid trainline generation cases
Fix - Map zoom level no longer resets when closing/opening the map
Fix - Map no longer centers on player when opened by default (will still track the player if you right-click, select "center player" and then don't pan the map)
Fix - Slot duct now has non-physics voxels to protect it from being covered over in vehicle editor
Fix - Slot duct correctly acts as fluid port when inside a sealed volume
Fix - Fixed magalls connecting incorrectly to rotated island physics
Fix - Fixed animals and icebergs having incorrect bounds causing some spawn issues
Fix - Fixed dynamic ice flipping around immediately after spawning
Fix - Autosaving can be disabled via save file editing for debug purposes
Fix - Fixed animal animations not playing correctly
Fix - Lighthouse spotlights are now brighter and more visible from long distances

v0.6.4-6

Fix - Fixed returning vehicles to workbench not spawning player/vehicle in correct location
Fix - Fixed low framerate caused by some shaders being recompiled every frame
Fix - Updated GLFW to resolve crashes for some players

v0.6.7

Fix - Fixed vehicle foam rendering in the wrong place
Fix - Fixed ocean not rendering through windows when underwater
Fix - Fixed more jittering meshes in vehicle editor when away from the world origin

v0.6.2

Fix - Fixed arctic missions spawning before purchasing an arctic base
Fix - Fixed edit grid being in the wrong place on custom boat player base
Fix - Fixed seal and penguin idle animation positions
Fix - Slowed down penguins and seals forward speed to prevent them from beaching so often
Fix - Fixed some map labels not rendering
Fix - Waypoint no longer floats high in the air
Fix - Fixed cable length node missing on large winch
Fix - Fixed logic links not rendering when dragging
Fix - Fixed logic node jittering when in the arctic with TAA enabled
Fix - Dynamic icebergs now cause vehicle damage
Fix - Reworked trainline generation to no longer fail to link some terminals
Fix - Added more information to log.txt file when starting the game to diagnose some startup issues
Fix - Updated plane crash mission to make it harder to get stuck in the plane's pilot seat
Fix - Added signals to fork train piece and Arctic terminals
Fix - Fixed characters spawned with special outfits sometimes rendering accessories in the wrong place
Fix - Fixed not being able to select animals in the mission editor after they've been deselected
Fix - Added some missing islands to mission editor
Fix - Fixed arctic airstrip dock not having spotlights
Fix - Fixed arctic mining island not having spotlights
Fix - Fixed some terrain issues at container depot, shipbreaking yard and arctic outpost
Fix - Added physics to ramps at arctic outpost train terminal
Fix - Fixed walls of railway at shipbreaking island being too close on corners

Dear Stormworkers,

Major update #5 has just landed!


This update brings a huge expansion to the world of Stormworks in the form of a new biome. Over 20 new island locations have been added in the northern region of the world, including new purchasable player bases, mission locations, a second "mega" island, and a hundred kilometres of procedural trainlines.




The sub-zero temperatures of the Arctic biome bring with them new dangers and challenges to overcome in survival mode. Characters can now freeze in the cold, so make sure you bring your thermal clothing and keep the heating on. The weather can quickly turn from gentle snowfall to treacherous icy blizzards.




12 new missions have been added, including our first set of search and rescue missions. This is a new mission type that will require you to locate and respond to crashed planes, derailed trains and stranded civilians before the deathly cold consumes them.



A big thanks to everyone in the community for your contributions to this update, whether it was ideas, suggestions, testing, helping with the community or sending us pizza. Be sure to report all bugs and feature suggestions on our issue tracker, and check below for the full patch notes!

Much Love <3

The Stormworkers Developers



v0.6.1

Feature - Added arctic biome with new islands to explore including a second "mega island" (located roughly 100km north of the main spawn area)

• Arctic mainland island with research outpost, train terminals, oil platform
  
• Arctic survey base
  
• Underwater mining facility
  
• Multiple ice shelf variants
  
• Many new trainline sections
  
• Shipping container depot
  
• Several new train terminals
  
• Ship breaking yard
  
• New purchasable player bases including a huge airstrip
  
• Arctic volcano island

Feature - New islands are available in the mission editor for creating missions
Feature - Added new player bases to main menu island selector when starting a new game
Feature - 4 new vehicle components

• Added arctic outfit inventory component (increases temperature to protect from freezing to death)
  
• Added heater component (provides heat to characters within 10m radius)
  
• Added 2 ski components for building Arctic ground vehicles (small/large with built-in steering similar to wheels)

Feature - 12 new missions (a variety of search/rescue and logistics, taking place around the Arctic. Unlocked in career mode by purchasing any Arctic base)
Feature - Rain transitions to snow as you go beyond ~60km north
Feature - Added cold/freezing damage to the Arctic biome (becomes colder when snowing and/or windy)
Feature - Going inside buildings in the Arctic biome will warm you up
Feature - NPC's temperature is visible on the tooltip when looking at them if NPC damage is enabled and they're cold enough
Feature - Characters can now be spawned with special outfits in mission editor (diving, firefighting, scuba, arctic)
Feature - Snow on islands is visible on the map
Feature - Procedural 100km trainline connecting the Isle of Donkk to the Arctic mainland
Feature - Movable ice will spawn in the ocean around the Arctic
Feature - Ice can now be placed as a mission object
Feature - Whales can occasionally be found in the Arctic ocean
Feature - Penguins and seals can be found perched around the Arctic
Feature - Whales, penguins and seals can all be placed in the mission editor
Feature - Stars can be seen on clear nights

Fix - Fixed flow rate of tank components being 10x too low
Fix - Potential fix for MacOS water rendering bug
Fix - Increased wheel power in normal mode by x3
Fix - Increased jet engine thrust
Fix - Fixed z-fighting artifact when rendering shadows on some islands
Fix - Fixed flickering on nuclear cooling tower mesh
Fix - Fixed spotlights on islands sometimes not rendering
Fix - Fixed tube lights not rendering when travelling far from the origin
Fix - Fixed lighting in creative mode hangar
Fix - Added buoyancy data to medical bed component
Fix - Fixed localisation text saving incorrectly
Fix - Removed some duplicate localisation text
Fix - Fixed fire debuff appearing near unlit fires
Fix - Solar cell is now advanced mode only
Fix - Fixed carried object orientation on ladders
Fix - Fixed particle trail artifact where some particles stretch infinitely
Fix - Graphics data now resets to windowed mode after game crashing
Fix - Fixed object sync priority not being calculated correctly in multiplayer
Fix - Fixed buoyancy issue where buoyancy appeared to not be working linearly on some vehicles
Fix - Increased ladder attachment hitbox size to make it easier to grab non-vehicle ladders
Fix - Removed fluid connection from large winch
Fix - Houses on Isle of Donkk no longer require nearby bases to be purchased to enter
Fix - Civilian NPCs no longer spawn with the shark or umbrella hats
Fix - Sharks spawned by missions are no longer removed when despawning if the mission is still active
Fix - Fixed z-fighting on logic nodes in vehicle editor when far from the origin

Dear Stormworkers,

The Stormworks world is about to get a whole lot bigger, with a new and huge major update arriving on Wednesday 27th February (next week!).

We won't spoil all the details right now, but this update will dramatically increase the size of the world, as well as adding new game mechanics and depth. All will be announced as the major update goes live on Wednesday.

We are in the final stages of testing, and are busy adding the final touches, so there is no minor update this week.

If you have not got Stormworks yet, please keep in mind that the price goes up with the launch of this update.

Catch you on Wednesday for the update launch!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The 5th major update for Stormworks: Build and Rescue is launching at the end of this month, it has been a year since the Early Access launch and with all the additional content that has been added we feel now is the right time to adjust the game's pricing to reflect this.

On the 27th of February, the SRP will be going up to £15.49 / $19.99 / €16.79 we want to ensure we have given every opportunity for those who wish to support Stormworks: Build and Rescue can purchase it at the discounted price.

As you probably know we have a strict no discount policy. The game will not be part of any discount on Steam or any other platform. This basically means that purchasing before the 27th of February is the only way to buy the game cheaper than the increased release price.

We want to once again extend our thanks to you the Stormworks: Build and rescue community for your continued support and helping shape the game to what it is today, we have even greater expectations this year and can’t wait to launch the 5th major update very soon.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

If you feel a duty to be environmentally responsible, or just want to avoid being stranded out at sea with a flat battery, this weeks update is for you...

We just added solar power! The new block is a single cell but can be built up to form panel arrays of any size.

The solar cells react to time of day, direction towards the sun, fog, and rain.

Electrical production is low but paired with battery storage, it can provide essential energy when needed.

We have also added new mission features including the ability to add areas to missions, for new search missions that are on their way.

This week also brings plenty of smaller changes and fixes listed below in the patch notes.

The next major update is getting close and we will share more info next week!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.5.22

Feature - Added solar panel component (generates electricity, amount generated varies based on whether it is covered/facing the sun/day/night/cloudy)
Feature - Added "radius" type for mission zones that will show on the map as a dashed circle area
Feature - Added "Search Area" mission objective type to make search and rescue missions easier to create (similar to "Travel to Zone" but different zones will be visible on the map)
Feature - Error is displayed when hovering warning icon of language on settings screen to give information about why a language is incomplete

Fix - Fixed fuel location prices having randomness that causes them to give bad prices
Fix - Increased effect of distance on fuel prices by x2
Fix - Removed some duplicate localisation text
Fix - More optimisations to map rendering when many islands have been revealed
Fix - Graphics no longer appear broken at high altitudes
Fix - Fixed rain particles taking some time to spawn after fast travelling long distances
Fix - Fixed buoyancy being reduced from previous patch
Fix - Fixed GPS sensor requiring 50% charge to work
Fix - Fixed propellers rotating faster backwards than forwards causing some vehicles to go quicker backwards
Fix - Fixed crash when failing to spawn a tested mission from the mission editor
Fix - Increased width of community link buttons for localisations
Fix - Even more text added for localisation
Fix - Optimisation for train wheels when searching for rails to connect to
Fix - Mission zones now have a 1m hitbox instead of full size hitbox in the mission editor to make large zones less obstructive
Fix - Fixed crash when attempting to read an ANSI encoded language file


v0.5.23

Fix - Fixed localisation issues causing logic nodes to have wrong text displayed
Fix - Fixed trains not connecting to rails correctly

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have completely overhauled the visual design of the map screen.

Islands have visible patches of grass and sand, there are multiple depths of shallows visible around coasts, fog of war has a softer edge and contours are now sharper at close zoom levels. This has been part of an effort to reduce the amount of memory required from your graphics card. Previously, the map used multiple layers of textures to render islands, but this has now been upgraded to use generated geometry, which looks crisper and is a lot more compressed.

Some additional optimisations have been made to the map to improve framerates when large numbers of islands have been discovered, and overall this week's changes should make Stormworks a lot less demanding on integrated graphics with not much memory. We have also made the decision to remove the minimap for the time being due to it lacking enough detail to really provide any decent use. We may explore some different ideas for maps and compasses on the main HUD in the future, and are looking forward to hearing your feedback on the new design!

There are a few other fixes and features in this week's minor update, including expanded character support for players who are translating the game's text. As always, see below for the full changelog.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.5.21

Feature - Visual overhaul of the map screen including:

• Grass and sand are now visible on islands
  
• Island shallows have more layers
  
• Contours are sharper and closest zoom level has been increased slightly
  
• Fog of war is smoother
  
• Ocean is now blue instead of white
  
• Improved performance of map rendering

Feature - File thumbnails in vehicle load/save view are loaded only when visible
Feature - Expanded font support for Greek and additional latin characters

Fix - Optimisations to reduce GPU texture memory usage by roughly 90% (may resolve some crashes for players on integrated graphics)
Fix - Loading from main menu to game is now quicker
Fix - Removed minimap
Fix - Fixed microcontroller editor crashing when loading a different MC when component property window is visible
Fix - Fixed vehicles getting stuck in infinite load if they contain voxels that extend to the edge of their voxel tree
Fix - Fixed gripper connectors not attaching properly after being flipped vertically
Fix - Added localisations for more text
Fix - Fixed fuel prices being too high
Fix - Fixed being able to pick up deceased characters

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings another big feature: support for different languages!

The settings screen on the main menu now has a language tab from which you can choose to play Stormworks in a different language. We are not going to be adding any official translations at this time, but we have added the option for the community to create and upload translation files to the Steam Workshop for anyone else to subscribe to. We know how wide-reaching the Stormworks community is, and hope that this will ultimately make the game more accessible and enjoyable for players who are not native English speakers. Currently we have support for Latin and Cyrillic characters, and we will look at expanding these in the future.

You will find a brief guide for creating and uploading a translation here.

See the changelog below for a full list of the fixes and features in this week's patch.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.5.20

Feature - Added language tab to settings menu where you can change your game's language
Feature - Added workshop support for player-created language files

Fix - Increased max fluid flow
Fix - Removed cooldown on fluid generation at oil rigs and refineries to help speed up fueling large ships
Fix - Fixed orange colours on vehicles rendering as white
Fix - Fixed falling through the floor when exiting a harness
Fix - Fixed ocean floor rock physics not always lining up correctly
Fix - Fixed ocean floor rocks disappearing when viewed from some angles
Fix - Possible fix for vehicle damage not rendering in some cases
Fix - Updated font to have better support for Cyrillic characters

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings a major change to the physics of Stormworks!

Over the past week and a half we have been working hard to upgrade our physics and game engine to use 64-bit precision instead of 32-bit. In short, this means that you will no longer experience any shakiness or jittering physics as you travel a significant distance from (0,0) on the map. We can now begin to introduce islands that are hundreds of kilometres away whilst maintaining the same stability.

This has been a big change, so we are anticipating some bugs. As always, please report any bugs you encounter on the Stormworks issue tracker so we can get them fixed as quickly as possible.

The new physics are important for the next major update where we will be adding a new biome distant from the green islands currently in the game. We are working hard on this major update and will announce more soon.

See below for the full changelog for this week's patch, including some rebalances and a handy new railing component.

Much Love <3

The Stormworkers Developers



v0.5.17

Fix - Fixed fluid slot port fluid connection
Fix - Improved water stream rendering for fluid jet
Fix - Fixed fluid slot port component mass
Fix - Fixed fluid jet deflector bucket rotation direction

v0.5.18

Feature - 64-bit physics upgrade (you can now travel to the edges of the world without physics becoming unstable)
Feature - Added "Railing Incline Extension" to make it easier to build railings beside stairs

Fix - Rebalanced electric motors to be more powerful but with a maximum torque output
Fix - Electric generators now limit their generation at 100rps
Fix - Gearboxes are now 95% efficient instead of 100%
Fix - Ocean plants are now disabled by default
Fix - Fixed going beyond edge of world with ocean plants enabled causing crash
Fix - Reduced jet engine afterburner fuel comsumption by x10
Fix - Increased effectiveness of jet engine afterburner
Fix - Rebalanced jet engine power production
Fix - Updated creative island crane with new railings

v0.5.19

Fix - Fixed broken multiplayer from v0.5.18
Fix - Fixed wave height near islands being too high from v0.5.18

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have added water jet propulsion!

Connect engine power and a water supply to the new water jet component, and a powerful impeller will produce thrust from a jet of water.

The new component can be trimmed up and down to get your boat balanced just right, as well as having bucket deflectors that will divert the stream of water to the side to add powerful steering.

This comes along with a mix of other changes and fixes listed below in the patch notes.

Soon we will start to announce some of the stuff in the next major update, and we are will into planning what 2019 will bring for Stormworks!

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below :-)

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.5.16

Feature - Added Fluid Jet component (water jet that produces thrust and has thrust vectoring)
Feature - Added Fluid Slot Port component (a larger fluid port that produces a slight downforce on the ocean surface)
Feature - Improved keybinding support for mice with more than 3 buttons

Fix - Jet exhaust light fades away as temperature decreases when switched off
Fix - Ctrl-S hotkey no longer interrupts free mode camera movement in vehicle editor
Fix - Saving and loading the game whilst grabbed by a shark will no longer cause shark to never let go
Fix - Fixed painting additive layer on mirrored paintable signs
Fix - Fixed additive on mirrored throttle levers not rendering properly
Fix - Updated creative island crane with some minor fixes and improvements, courtesy of XFury and Gardiner
Fix - Fixed "7" on digital display missing part of additive