Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have added fuel efficiency curves to engines, so that, similar to real engines, there is a most efficient RPM where the engine generates the most power from fuel.

We have also improved the torque behavior of engines, where they now produce more torque at higher RPM.

Along with this are a long list of improvements and fixes in response to player feedback.

These changes are part of our current focus of quality improvement, as we are tightening up some game mechanics, as we also focus on the performance optimization major update.

We hope you find these new changes interesting, and as always, we look forward to your feedback!

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers


v0.7.14-17

Feature - Added engine fuel efficiency curve

Fix - General torque system rebalances
Fix - Components that have been recently added to the game are now unlocked in career mode if their parent research has already been completed in a saved game
Fix - Fixed small winch not being available when advanced mode vehicles are disabled
Fix - Moved small winch from electric research to rescue equipment research
Fix - Rebalanced winch component masses
Fix - Fixed player being dropped in the ocean/through the ground on some islands when returning vehicles to the workbench
Fix - Increased generator capacitance by 10x
Fix - Engine audio volume scales with throttle
Fix - Reduced engine fuel consumption by 33%
Fix - Updated engine names and descriptions
Fix - Fixed winches no longer transferring fluid
Fix - Fixed some connectors not connecting correctly when rotated/flipped in some cases
Fix - Megalodons will swim back to open ocean if they get within ~450m of an island
Fix - Fixed winch descriptions and lengths
Fix - Gearboxes lock up when connected in a loop
Fix - Electric motor torque scales with throttle value
Fix - Velocity pivot electric consumption and applied force are correctly scaled by "max power" property
Fix - Renamed gear ratios to no longer be inverted
Fix - Gearboxes now have 95% efficiency that propagates through connected torque links
Fix - Added friction to water jet impellers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have made some updates to winches. We have added a new, very long winch (500m!) intended for use with remote operated submersibles and other functions.

Winch cables are now more buoyant and will float on the surface of the water. They also all now transmit fluid via new fluid nodes.

In response to feedback, we have spent time this week looking at the electrical system and have made further changes. Generators and motors now operate at around 75-90% efficiency (with larger being more efficient). Generators convert more torque into electric, the faster they spin, meaning their resistance gets higher with rotation speed. The new balance is closer to what is expected while still ending infinite power designs.

We hope you enjoy the new winch mechanics!

In the background, we are also working on the next major update (focused on improving fps) and we are hard at work.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers


v0.7.13

Feature - Added Huge Winch component (cable length of 500m, renamed other winch components accordingly)
Feature - Added fluid nodes to all winches and deprecated old fluid hose
Feature - Winch cables have buoyancy

Fix - Multiple electricity system rebalances
Fix - Rebalanced generators and motors to have greater efficiency
Fix - Generator resistance increases with speed
Fix - Rebalanced basic wheels to not generate as much electric
Fix - Robotic velocity pivots consume 10x more electric
Fix - Fixed underscore missing from base character set

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have added font support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters as well as other regional character sets. It is now possible to create these localisations and share them on the workshop!

This new support means it is now possible for Stormworks to be localised to most languages.

We are working hard on the optimisation update and looking forward to sharing it with you in the coming months. We will share more information on our progress as the new update comes together.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.10

Feature - Updated font and localisation support for CJK characters

Fix - Fixed logic on laser beacon component being erased when spawning vehicle
Fix - Balance tweaks for electric motors and generators
Fix - Tsunami state is saved and loaded correctly between games
Fix - Monitors update when in photo mode with the game paused
Fix - Added help text to F1 profiler/F11 gpu profiler/F2 debug rendering to make it more obvious how to hide them if accidentally opened
Fix - Fixed flipped connectors not correctly connecting
Fix - Fixed returning static vehicles to the workbench from the map causing player to be teleported to (0,0)
Fix - Fixed rotors not applying forces in the correct direction when flipped
Fix - Fixed research UI headings not having correct spacing

Dear Stormworkers,

If you have been watching the Steam discussions or Discord, you may have seen old sailors tales of something in the water. Something really big, attacking ships.

2 weeks ago we silently added a 40m long Megalodon prehistoric giant shark, and it may have been stalking you out in the open ocean.

This week we have added the Megalodon button to the creative menu, as well as in missions. If you play with sharks turned on, you may now encounter a megalodon by chance, with 1 per 1000 square kilometers.

It wouldn't be fair to add the meg without giving you a little training on how to survive first.

1. Keep your eyes open. The megalodon often swims with its fin above the surface and often stalk and investigate targets first before considering an attack.

2. Head quickly for shallow water. Megalodons are not fans of shallow water and may abandon a pursuit if you can outrun them and hide in the shallows.

3. A bigger boat probably isn't going to help. If you are caught out in the open ocean, you should request air rescue if you are in multiplayer, or otherwise just hope it's not hungry. Maybe it has already eaten?

There are also lots of fixes and small changes this week. The full patch notes can be found below.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.8

Fix - improved shark behavior

v0.7.9

Feature - Added Megalodon button to the creative menu
Feature - Added Megalodon to missions editor
Fix - Changed wavelength to be a number input rather than composite on the laser components
Fix - Improved Megalodon behavior and made spawning much rarer
Fix - various mesh and physics changes to islands 14, 15, 18, 33_21 and 33_22
Fix - lasers now collide with player characters
Fix - improved buoyancy data for HUD monitors
Fix - all animals now 10% more buoyant
Fix - resolved crashes when rendering lua screens with too many elements
Fix - resolved crash when loading a game where the player is looking at a screen
Fix - resolved crash when loading game related to workshop subscriptions
Fix - updated tilt sensor description
Fix - updated altimeter description
Fix - 'fluid' tag no longer appears twice in all fluid components
Fix - secondary winch part name is capitalized when highlighted
Fix - fixed typos in some mission text
Fix - fixed typos in some component text
Fix - exiting character editor during tutorial with exit button no longer breaks the tutorial
Fix - removed pilot seat sensitivity sliders for axes 5, 6, 7, 8
Fix - added light switch to Coastguard Station TT
Fix - loading game saves with non-default day-night cycle time now loads with the correct time of day

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings a new type of laser sensor!

The laser point sensor will detect a laser light within it's vision upto 2000m away. There is also a new laser beacon component that emits a detectable light on the component. The new sensor acts like a camera, sensitive only to specifically laser light. It will output if a laser is detected, and the XY position of the point most central to it's field of vision.

This new component will help players build AI systems, helping accurately position and coordinate drones, create laser guided missile behavior, or other such systems.

The full patch notes can be found below.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.6

Fix - fix crash when respawning while in sharks mouth
Fix - fixed crash when vehicle microprocessor was damaged

v0.7.7

Feature - new component - laser point sensor. Detects laser light points and outputs their position within it's field of view, with same light wavelength
Feature - new component - laser beacon. Creates a laser type light at it's position, with wavelength
Feature - added light wavelength to laser distance sensor
Feature - vehicles with keep-active block now load when game loads, missions can now tag vehicles as keep-active
Feature - animals now produce water foam and spray
Fix - AMD graphics no longer crash when returning to main menu
Fix - camera meshes appear correctly when flipped
Fix - distance sensor no longer collides with characters
Fix - cameras now render water correctly when inside vehicle compartment
Fix - resolved issue where could not sometimes select an object in the mission editor
Fix - advanced wheels no longer require physics collision to activate
Fix- increased medium and gimbal camera max zoom, made zoom characteristics the same for both cameras

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings a new type of distance sensor!

The laser distance sensor will detect the distance to an object that it is pointing at and has an increased range of 2000m. It projects a visible beam to make it easier to distinguish where the sensor is hitting, and has a selectable infrared mode so that the beam is only visible to IR cameras.

The full patch notes can be found below.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.4

Fix - Fixed sealed compartments not working on static vehicles
Fix - Fixed player sensor not working correctly on static vehicles
Fix - Fixed map not rendering in lua scripts
Fix - Fixed fps issues following v0.7.3

v0.7.5

Feature - Added laser distance sensor (visible laser, can be set to IR mode, range of 2000m)

Fix - Fixed microcontroller slider property value resetting when returning to the microcontroller editor
Fix - Added localisation support for all tech tree research items
Fix - Fixed crash in microcontroller editor when undoing placement of currently selected component
Fix - Fixed gimbal camera position when flipped
Fix - Clamped gimbal camera pitch rotation so it can't look inside itself
Fix - Fixed all cameras being able to see through walls when placed against them
Fix - Fixed crash caused by attempting to render text using drawTextBox in lua script when box is too small for a single character to fit
Fix - Fixed vehicle damage not correctly damaging surfaces of microcontrollers
Fix - Additive part of lights render correctly when set to infrared mode
Fix - Fixed total rotation output of pivots losing accuracy after rotating many times

v0.7.2

Fix - Fixed gimbal camera render position
Fix - Updated some component descriptions

v0.7.3

Feature - Added more information to script help tab about touchscreens (with example) and available lua functions
Feature - Added several global functions to the lua API (pairs, ipairs, next, tostring, tonumber)
Feature - Updated mission editor objective UI with new multiline editboxes to make it easier to add long descriptions to objectives

Fix - Fixed editor arrows for gimbal camera not rendering in the correct place
Fix - Monitors now show an error if you try to use input/output functions outside onTick or screen functions outside onDraw to make it clearer that this doesn't work
Fix - Fixed monitors not rendering text on MacOS
Fix - Rotors lose their RPS when folded
Fix - Fixed monitors rendering their screen incorrectly when flipped
Fix - Fixed completed research not being synced for clients when joining a multiplayer game
Fix - Fixed gimbal camera not rendering the correct colour when it's the only component on a body
Fix - Particles no longer appear to face the wrong direction when a camera is active
Fix - Fixed first monitor sometimes failing to render static when several are active with no signal
Fix - Limited max force of water jets
Fix - Flipped gimbal camera axis polarity

Dear Stormworkers,

Major update #6 has arrived!


The most highly-requested Stormworks features are finally here. Place cameras on your vehicles for remote operation, surveillance and night-vision capabilities. Use monitors to display video feeds, status information, heads-up-displays and scriptable touchscreen interfaces.




Composite data can now be transmitted wirelessly between vehicles using multiple sizes of antennas. Send video feeds over long distances to create and control drones and ROVs, and use the new "Keep Active" block to keep your vehicles persistent in the world even when you travel away from them.




The script editor and simple Lua API give you even more power over your vehicle's design and behaviour. Write functions to draw text and shapes to monitors on your vehicle, replicate real-world flight systems, and perform complex logic calculations.



We've been looking forward to this update for a long time and had a lot of fun implementing these features. Thanks to all of the great community members who have contributed to this update in one way or another, and we hope the wait has been worth it for all of you that have been requesting these components since the Alpha days. If you find any bugs or have suggestions for future expansions to these new components, let us know on the Stormworks issue tracker or by joining us on Discord.

Full patch notes for this update can be found below.

Looking to the future, we would like to announce that our next major update will largely focus on optimisation and performance improvements. This comes up a lot on the forums and was the second most requested feature in our community poll back in March. We've been planning this update for a while and have some good ideas of ways we can greatly improve performance for all players across a range of hardware, particularly when spawning large vehicles. We'll share more details of this update and the improvements it will bring as we make progress.

Much Love <3

The Stormworkers Developers



v0.7.1

Feature - Added 3 camera components (small, medium and gimbal)

• Medium camera has zoom and night vision
  
• Gimbal camera can be rotated without needing to attach to pivots (similar to spotlights)

Feature - Added infrared mode to light components
Feature - Added 4 monitor components to view camera and video feeds

• Monitors have a composite output with touchscreen data to detect when and where a player is pressing the screen

Feature - Added 2 hud components (small monitors that are transparent)
Feature - New microcontroller components

• Lua scripting components
  
• Video switchbox
  
• Text property (allows players to enter custom text that can be used inside a lua script)

Feature - Lua script editor

• Accessible from the property menu of the lua script microcontroller component
  
• Allows custom scripted tick and draw logic
  
• Simple API that lets you output draw commands to a video link for custom rendering, including drawing lines, basic shapes, text and the world map
  
• Scripts have a composite logic input/output for reading and writing data to the regular logic system
  
• Script editor includes syntax highlighting, a button to check your script compiles and a help tab with some information about available functions
  
• Monitors that are connected to lua scripts will show error messages if the script fails to execute for easier debugging

Feature - New video logic type used for transferring camera and video feeds between components

• Video logic can be chained through several scripts to layer many draw commands together, making it possible to build self-contained UI microcontrollers

Feature - Added 4 radio antenna sizes

• Larger antennas have higher range (up to 40km)
  
• Antennas can send and recieve composite data on a set channel
  
• Antennas have jiggle physics
  
• Radio signal is reduced when travelling through water

Feature - Added 2 video radio components (transmitter and reciever)

• Similar to radio antennas, but they transmit a video signal
  
• Quality of video signal will degrade over long distances

Feature - Added "Keep Active" block (a special component that will keep islands/objects/vehicles around it loaded, allowing it to stay spawned in the world at all times)
Feature - New research in career mode for unlocking camera and radio equipiment
Feature - Train junction signals can be switched by broadcasting an on signal on radio channel 440

Fix - Fixed advanced wheels not rotating freely when connected to torque
Fix - Added tyre pressure slider to advanced wheels to mitigate bouncing issues on light vehicles
Fix - Added track tension slider to tank track wheels
Fix - General fixes and improvements to the torque and grip mechanics of advanced wheels and tank tracks
Fix - Vehicles with advanced wheels no longer roll forwards/backwards on flat ground
Fix - Advanced wheels no longer cause anti-gravity vehicles when placed on their side
Fix - Logic nodes across disconnected vehicle bodies are removed when spawning vehicle ("magic" logic connections will now need to use radio signals)
Fix - Improved folding rotor feature (rotors render in folded position when physics has been disabled by interacting with the rotor head)
Fix - Advanced mode components no longer unlock in normal mode when completing research and vice versa
Fix - Minor improvements to SSAO shader
Fix - Fixed island state not saving (lights, doors etc.)

Predator drone with control terminal by MrNJersey

Dear Stormworkers,

As a reminder, this Wednesday 15th May, we are releasing Major Update #6, including cameras, monitors, data and video transmission, and more.

We are really excited to share this update. The new components and features unlock a lot of new game-play and possibilities in your creations, from camera controlled vehicles, to advanced computing systems and intelligent logic.


CH-146 with gimbal camera by MrNJersey

The new camera optics allow you to see further, magnified, and in infrared night vision.


Cockpit HUD with systems computer by WhiteNoise

The new screens allow video and UI feeds, to efficiently provide information to the player.


Signal triangulation and UI system by Tajin

The new lua scripting functionality allows programming of UI and complex systems.

Please join us on Discord, and chat about Stormworks and the new update in anticipation of the launch on Wednesday, and start working on your remotely operated vehicles, ready to plug in the cameras, screens, logic and radio equipment as the new components go live.

https://discord.gg/stormworks

Much love,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The next major update is coming on Wednesday 15th May at 16:30 UTC.

On the discord feature poll, you asked us for cameras, monitors, and radio equipment, these were the highest voted features. Over the last 6 weeks we have been hard at work adding these new features to the game.

And then, we added some more stuff too, such as lua programming blocks, custom screen UI rendering, and night vision.

Here are the details:



Cameras and Monitors

New camera and monitor blocks allow the player to view video feeds in game. Monitors display a video feed, allowing new control station and cockpit designs.



Night Vision

Infrared mode on cameras allow camera vision in low light conditions. Extended vision is possible through the use of IR band point and spot lights.



Radio Transmission

Data can now be transmitted over the air for connecting logic and remote control between separate vehicles. 6 new antennas allow data transmission over different ranges for composite signals and video.



Lua Programming

A new microprocessor block allows injecting lua scripts into your microprocessors. This allows for programs to be built within the logic units. The lua interface can output to a composite signal, and also add UI to a video signal for rendering overlays over video.

We can't wait to share this update with you on the launch of Major Update #6. Thank you to all who have provided your thoughts and feedback and helped make this update happen.

We are just adding the finishing touches. There is no minor update this week or next week as we complete this update.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers