Dear Stormworkers,

For the last couple of months, we have been hard at work improving the frames per second of Stormworks. This has involved re-engineering many parts of the engine, and re-writing parts of the game.

The time is almost here to share these performance improvements! This Wednesday at 16:30 UTC, we will be launching this major update.

What level of performance improvement should I expect?

This depends. In some situations on some hardware, the performance can be the same, in other situations the game can run 250% faster.

Most players will notice a significant improvement.

The best improvements will occur for situations with heavy physics such as large ships, for computers with slower CPU, and for computers with AMD graphics.

What has changed to make the game run faster?

We have split up the core work load of the game into 3 chunks, and placed each chunk on it's own thread. Physics, logic, and rendering now run in parallel rather than in sequence.

Ocean simulation, some vehicle calculations, loading vehicles, and loading islands already ran in parallel.

These changes are part of our mission to improve the quality in Stormworks and tighten up several areas we have marked for improvement.

We really look forward to sharing these with you! See you on Discord this Wednesday for the usual update hype, voice chat shenanigans, Sheepdog's singing and more!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update includes 3 new control fins!

Small, medium and large control fins have been added to expand the available set of rudders and control surfaces. The design of these fins makes them well-suited for fitting to the sides of a variety of vehicle types, including rockets, planes and submarines!

As always, see below for the full changelog, and let us know of any bugs or feature requests on the Stormworks issue tracker website which can be accessed in-game from the main menu and pause menu.

We're excited about the progress of the performance and optimisation update and are getting some promising results. We look forward to sharing this update with you, and the full extent of the changes that have been made, in the coming weeks.

Much Love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.20

Feature - Added 3 control fins (small, medium, large)
Feature - Added equipment swapping by interacting with an outfit inventory while already wearing an outfit

Fix - Rebalanced mass of passenger and pilot seats
Fix - Fixed infinite generators with starter motors and connectors
Fix - Connectors consume more electricity when applying a larger attraction impulse
Fix - Flashlight state is saved/loaded correctly
Fix - Fixed custom day/night cycles not saving/loading correctly
Fix - Fixed fans not applying force in correct direction when mirrored
Fix - Fixed being able to toggle buttons using logic input when broken
Fix - Added short period of invincibility after respawning to prevent death loops
Fix - Solid rockets now work underwater
Fix - Improved rudder shaking issues at high speeds
Fix - Fixed placement issues with some multibody components
Fix - Corrected multiple spelling and formatting mistakes

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have expanded on last week's solid rocket booster update...

Three larger sizes of booster have been added for creating large missiles and rockets. We have also split the boosters into separate nozzle and fuel parts. This should remove some of the logic clutter that last week's booster component was causing for longer rockets. If you've used last week's component in your vehicle, you will need to update it to have a nozzle on the end.

This is a small patch as most of our effort is currently focused on the next major update, however there are still some small fixes and improvements. See below for the full changelog.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.19

Feature - Added medium, large and huge solid rocket boosters
Feature - Solid rocket boosters now have separate component for extending fuel to reduce logic nodes
Feature - Added separate difficulty option for disabling megalodon attacks when creating a world

Fix - Player health/oxygen/debuffs are visible when sleeping
Fix - Fixed vehicles disappearing and not returning to workbench on some islands
Fix - Fixed crash when despawning track connector with grippers attached that are part of a different vehicle
Fix - Fixed pilot seat controls remaining visible after despawning a mission vehicle
Fix - Fixed solid rocket booster producing thrust in wrong direction when mirrored

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's minor update brings a new compact method of propulsion...

A small solid rocket booster has been added that will burn and produce thrust for a limited duration. These boosters can be stacked on top of each other to increase their capacity, and are ideal for building small rockets, ejector seats and missiles.

This patch also includes a number of bug fixes and improvements, including a minor rebalance to mission rewards that we hope will improve the pace of progression for those of you enjoying career mode. See below for the full changelog.

If you find any bugs or want to request a feature, don't forget to head over to the Stormworks issue tracker (accessible from the main menu and pause menu) to leave your feedback.

Have a great weekend <3

The Stormworks Developers



v0.7.18

Feature - Added small solid rocket booster component (can be stacked to increase the fuel capacity of the booster. The booster at the bottom of the stack controls ignition and burn rate of the whole stack)

Fix - Rebalanced amount of research points awarded by loot crates and missions to be slightly more generous
Fix - Missions scale the number of research points they give by the number of stars awarded on mission completion
Fix - Fixed video signal continuing to transmit over connectors after disconnecting them
Fix - Fixed double rewards being granted from loot crates when pressing E and Q at the same time
Fix - Fixed crash when copying save directories if the source directory doesn't exist
Fix - Fixed being able to resume a game if the save file has been deleted
Fix - Fixed players being able to join a singleplayer game immediately after host has quit a multiplayer session
Fix - Fixed being able to send empty chat messages in multiplayer
Fix - Solar cells are draggable in the X/Z axes

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