Dear Stormworkers,

It's happened! We have added search bars to the open dialogs and multiplayer server browser!

This is something you have been asking for, for years. Our updates rely on your ideas and requests, and this feature is no exception.

How It Works

There are new search boxes at the top of the server browser, load vehicle, and other open item dialogs.

Type in any text into the search box, and the results will be filtered down to only items containing that text. The filter is not case sensitive.

This makes it a lot easier to find the item you are looking for by name, quickly and easily, when you may have many items subscribed on the workshop.



With 50,000 of your creations now available on the workshop for download, your subscription library can get very full so this has been an increasingly important feature.

We have also made some fixes and improvements in response to issues you have reported using the bug tracker.

In the mean time, we are using the extra time saved from releasing minor updates every other week (as opposed to every week) to work on more major update features, and we have loads of exciting stuff to announce in the coming weeks.



Please do keep sharing your ideas and letting us know what you want for the game and help us shape the future of Stormworks!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.10

Fix - Player list now focuses correctly
Fix - Several crashes

v0.10.11

Feature - Search bars for Server lists, Saves and Vehicles
Feature - ?save can now OPTIONALLY take a savename parameter eg. ?save my_save

Fix - Crash on despawning mission with claimed loot box
Fix - Local multiplayer games overwriting server config
Fix - Server overwriting config after encountering a parsing error
Fix - Lootboxes and flares duplicating with environment mod missions
Fix - Quick chat continuously blocking Player list
Fix - Several crashes
Fix - Player death upon loading a deceased NPC

Dear Stormworkers,

One of your most frequent requests are more tools to mod Stormworks, with more control and power over what you can do.

This week we want to announce a new upcoming feature that we have been working on:

LUA scripting for game, player, mission, and/or multiplayer management!

In a major future update, we are adding a LUA editor that allows you to create, share and download game mode scripts!

Adding the ability to create stuff is what Stormworks is all about. We are particularly excited about this one because of the wide scope to mod the game, create new gameplay and new experiences. The possibilities will be very broad and as usual, you players will surprise us with your amazing creations and ultimately surpass what we are able to do ourselves.

So, what will be possible with the new LUA game mode modding?

Create Your Own Mission Systems!

Spawn cargo at cargo terminals, track delivery and reward the player? Create complex search and rescue operations with search areas marked on the map, track delivery of survivors to any of a number of hospital facilities? Trigger fires, trigger vehicle logic and more, with many new powers to author your missions.



Create Your Own Game!

With the ability to programatically position players, spawn vehicles, and present information to the players on their UI, you can create new rule sets for games. Set up team role-play games? Track vehicles racing around a track, implement rules and reset the track to start a new race?



Server Bots!

Want to automate your multiplayer server? The LUA script can detect when players join, leave, spawn vehicles or take other actions allowing you to respond to these actions. This will allow some automated moderation, or other server side systems that you can install on your server.



This is all part of a theme that we have discussed before - expanding what you do in the simulation part of the game, including improving the search and rescue gameplay. We have not forgotten about this, and in fact, this part of the development has grown to a much larger component and much larger update that we are very excited about. This is just one part of a huge update we have planned.

Want to help? Let us know what you might like to create and what API you would need to do it!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have released the further multiplayer improvements that we discussed last week!

Responsive Inputs

The client now has much lower delay between sending inputs to the server and the vehicle moving. This means you can fly the most agile aircraft in multiplayer without issues.

Authorised Players

Something you have been asking us for is the ability to control which players have the power to spawn vehicles, return to workbench, change time and weather, etc. This is because the ability to do these things can have significant effect on a server and other players. Now, in multiplayer, an admin must authorise a player to have the power to spawn vehicles on that server. This means public servers without passwords are now possible. This is done using simple type-in commands, see the patch notes for full details.

Server List

You can now browse Stormworks servers in the Steam server browser! Simply select the internet tab, set the filter to game:Stormworks, and it will show you the list of active servers!

Dedicated Server Providers

Dedicated server companies can now specify the user data folder and ip binding for game servers, which is a request several game server companies have made to us in the last couple of weeks.

Fixes and Improvements

We have been focused on improving the quality of the multiplayer and the game in general, and have made big improvements to a long list of issues. Thanks to everyone who helped let us know what needed improving on the issues site and using the "report bug" in-game button! Please see the patch notes for the full updates.

For server admins running servers, we hope these tools help with running your communities, but please keep letting us know how we can improve the game using the issue tracking website, with the ingame buttons. Please remember to authorise only your trusted community members who will spawn vehicles responsibly and remember to clean up vehicles before they leave the server! You can also create un-manned servers with pre-defined sets of vehicles using the missions and environment mod features.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.3-v0.10.5

Fix - Mission timers being updated to 0
Fix - Crash with network compression on particularly large vehicles
Fix - Client vehicles never loading due to packet discrepancies
Fix - Crash when detecting null peers while spawning a new player
Fix - Removed various unimportant and misleading logs from dedicated server console
Fix - Server TPS varying based on machines in a state where clock accuracy is reduced
Fix - Magall crash
Fix - Magall not grabbing static physics
Fix - Dedicated server not clamping setting values correctly

v0.10.6

Fix - Mac crashes due to resource destruction order

v0.10.7

Feature - Dedicated server Authorized list
Only Authorized/Admin players can spawn vehicles and access the creative menu
Whilelisted players are automatically Authorized

Rework - Resized several ui elements, including server list and player list
Rework - Server now shows seed
Balance - Buffed Arctic Outfit temperature boost

Fix - Servers allowing only max_players -1 to join
Fix - Multiplayer shaking and sliding on vehicles
Fix - Unlock all components on dedicated server
Fix - Sleeping on dedicated servers
Fix - Vehicle rendering jitter
Fix - Nameplate rendering
Fix - Jumping issues
Fix - Players capsule not recognising that they are touching the ground
Fix - Host fps display in player list always reading 60
Fix - Player list not scrolling 100% of the time
Fix - Door sound and water particle issues
Fix - Admins being able to ban/kick other admins
Fix - Environment mod object and vehicle functionality as part of missions
Fix - Video feed sometimes persisting through connectors
Fix - Some inconsistencies with steam rich presence
Fix - Magall issues in multiplayer
Fix - Survivors not taking damage
Fix - CTD when returning a transmitting lua-video vehicle to workbench
Fix - Loading and saving now both leave '_' intact for game save names
Fix - Research timers desyncing in multiplayer
Fix - Several infrequent CTDs

Dedicated servers now appear in the Steam server browser
Dedicated servers are now sorted by Status and Number of players

Dedicated server new commands:
?add_admin <id>
?remove_admin <id>
?add_auth <id>
?remove_auth <id>

Dedicated server new settings:
despawn_on_leave <true/false>: Whether to despawn player survivors upon disconnecting from the server (Default false)

Dedicated server new command line arguments:
+server_dir <dir> : Server working and config directory, default: Same as Game directory (OS specific appdata path)
+ip_bind <ip> : Local ip bind : defaults to all local IPv4 addresses

v0.10.8

Fix - Server commands not working for local games
Fix - Auth access to mission editor

v0.10.9

Added some feedback messages for server commands

Fix - Crash caused by magall while a vehicle is loading
Fix - ?save being useable on local games
Fix - Remove mission button not sending event to server
Fix - Client side water leaks occurring through sealed doors
Fix - Auth list allowing addition of duplicate ids
Fix - Other player nameplates failing to render if they reconnect

Dear Stormworkers,

Last week we release the huge new multiplayer update! Since then we have been playing with you on dedicated servers, reading your comments, issue reports, discussion on discord, watching Camodo, NJersey videos and even watching Raptor's 3 hour long stream!

It has been great fun, and really exciting to launch this next chapter of playing Stormworks together. We have been carefully listening to your comments and next Friday, we will be releasing a multiplayer minor update to address these issues.

Input Latency

In some situations, input latency can build up when players are using a fast vehicle, and the server slows down for a brief moment every now and again, for example when loading tiles. This can make it difficult to control aircraft with sensitive controls, and was a major concern for many players. We have re-written the timing code so that clients now stay very close to the timing of the server. This reduces input latency to very low values, making it possible to fly nimble aircraft with great responsiveness!

Authorised Players

Many of you are concerned about any and all players being able to join and start spawning vehicles immediately. This can cause problems where players spawn vehicles inside other vehicles, spawn flare factories, or other behavior which can negatively impact the server. Most servers have become passworded to control who can join. We are adding admin controls to authorise specific players with the ability to spawn vehicles, as well as return vehicles to workbench and the creative menu. We are also adding a setting to despawn players who have left the game. These changes will greatly ease the practicalities of running a public server.

Dedicated Server Providers

Many of you want to be able to rent servers, so we have been talking to some server companies about the support they need. We are adding new dedicated server command lines to set the working directory and IP binding when starting a server.



We also have a very long list of fixes, including some really important changes, and are adding more fixes every day.

Thank you for helping with all your thoughts and feedback, it is greatly appreciated. We can't wait to share the new updates with you next week as we continue to improve the quality of the game experience!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

It is time!!! The new multiplayer is out now!

New Smoother Multiplayer

The biggest change in experience is that now, multiplayer games no longer slow down to the speed of the slowest client. Instead, the physics is calculated on the server and sent to all clients. This means that clients run much faster and smoother, with fewer physics calculations, and games don't slow down just because 1 player has an old computer.

Faster Physics

We have also made some big optimisations to physics which are particularly effective in multiplayer. This means that servers now run much faster with lots of players spread over a large area.



Dedicated Servers

A Stormworks dedicated server tool is now available in the tools list in the Steam Library. Be sure to run the tool exe file rather than through Steam for the best experience. The dedicated server is currently for Windows, and runs in a command prompt window. No dedicated GPU is required, and otherwise, servers use the same recommended spec as the main game. CPU speed is the most important factor.

Public Server Lists

Dedicated servers are listed on the new "Internet Games" tab in the multiplayer menu. This means you can jump into public games without needing to arrange before hand, or add everyone on Steam!



Limitations

The usual limits within Stormworks do still apply - spawning huge mission vehicles that have been made via a modded version of the game will cause slow down, as will spawning large numbers of creations. In some simulation or network conditions, there can be extra input lag which makes some vehicles more suitable for multiplayer than others.

Feedback

We are really excited to hear what you think of the new multiplayer! We are aware there will be loads of new opportunities that this opens up for new features, so please let us know your ideas! We are already talking about loads of things within the development team, but want to hear your thoughts before we decide the next steps.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.2

Feature - Dedicated Server Build
Feature - New Multiplayer Sync
Feature - Gyro Throttle Tuning

Rework - Improved Network Compression
Rework - Huge performance boost for base-level island physics
Rework - Greatly Improved experience when picking up objects
Rework - Chat messages now appear in the Quick-Chat box; which fades out slowly
Rework - Local Voice Chat quality and logic improvements

Fix - Fixes for most major voice chat crashes and issues
Fix - Desync between mission timers and debuff ticking
Fix - Winch sound cutting out at low length
Fix - Prevented crashes from occurring due to missing geometry
Fix - Reduced client shaking issues
Fix - Glass lighting showing the horizon through opaque objects
Fix - Video only transmitting on channel 0
Fix - Error message about RAM appearing when mistakenly detecting 0GB RAM

Dear Stormworkers,

The Multiplayer Update is coming... on Thursday 13th February at 17:00 UTC!

Countdown Timer

2 weeks ago we announced that we were planning a huge multiplayer update very soon. You overwhelmingly told us that you would like dedicated servers and public server lists so that you can join games without needing to organise a big group of friends before hand.

We agree. With the multiplayer max player count being increased to 32 players, you need public server lists. We also think that dedicated servers are a great idea. The multiplayer major update will also come with the dedicated server (initially for Windows) so games can be hosted without the need to run the client or have a game license.



We are having a great time testing the game! Without the frequent slow downs, and with the improved physics performance, the multiplayer experience is so dramatically improved, and has come so far. This is a really exciting update for us, and we can't wait to share with you.

Some of our games in testing have involved competitive play, with 1 or 2 players driving off into the night in heavy weather, with a head start, and the rest of the players launching a search and detain operation with combined ground, sea and air vehicles. It's been a great framework to test the game, and have a lot of laughs together :-) There is so much more that is possible, and the most exciting part for us is seeing what interesting game modes you set up and play, using vehicles and environment mods.



Another special thank you to all the testers who continue to work hard helping us improve this new update. Thank you!

Thanks for all the support around this new update. Not long now!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we are adding the ability to increase the resolution of videos on your in game screens!

You can now have upto 4x resolution on your video feeds, making cameras much more useful and easy to use.

When we initially introduced the screens, many players asked for higher resolution. It has taken a while! But we are very pleased to be improving screens and ultimately, improving the cameras and monitor systems in game. One reason is that we have been finding the cameras to be very useful in our multiplayer testing!

LUA UI remains at the same resolution to keep compatibility with existing scripts so nothing will break.

You now have a new in game screen resolution setting in your graphics settings - be sure to set this to maximum if your PC can handle it!

This is a small update while we continue to work hard on the upcoming multiplayer update.

Grexit

Tomorrow is a historic day... Stormworks is leaving the Green Man Gaming publishing portfolio! We are taking over the publishing ourselves as an independent studio.

The reason for this is that the term of the publishing agreement has come to an end, and we have decided to self-publish like many other building games, as opposed to continue with a publisher. This is no reflection on GMG who have been a fantastic partner and we wish them all the best in the future. Special thanks to Gary, David, and Peter at GMG who have worked hard for us. Thank you.

What does this mean for Stormworks players? Not much. It goes without saying, if you purchased the game from GMG, Humble, or any of their partners, your game key continues to be valid. We are simply taking over the promotion of the game.

Please note that we are ending distribution agreements with other retailers, so from 1st Feb 2020, the only authorised distributor of Stormworks will be Steam (although we may expand this in the coming months).

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.9.28-31

Fix - 3D Mission markers not disappearing
Fix - Large Black / White square artifact when staring at flares close-up
Fix - Some editor logic tooltips not using light colour (Invisible text)
Fix - Buoyancy mesh for Keypad Button Large
Fix - Camera feed visually not disappearing completely on signal loss
Fix - Wind velocity for flare smoke
Fix - Camera feed and lua overlay transparencies fighting

v0.9.32

Feature - Added new options to increase video resolution

Dear Stormworkers,

Thank you for the response last week to the flares! We love what you have been making and how you have been using the new flares, and were blown away to see almost record concurrent users just from a minor update!

We have been working very hard this year on revising some old areas of the game code, and making some fundamental changes. The biggest area of work as been multiplayer.

The New Multiplayer!

Many of you have raised concerns about your multiplayer experience. The way the system currently works is that all players run at the speed of the slowest player - to stay in sync. This has had the unfortunate effect that if your friend has a PC far below the minimum requirements, your multiplayer game will be slowed down to their speed. If a player connects or a large creation loads in, the game also slows down for a few moments while someone catches back up.

We have reworked this system to remove these slow downs, and the results are a huge improvement. Players now run at their own speed, while the server is responsible for the physics of the vehicles, and no longer waits for clients who have slower PCs. This means all players now get the same vehicle simulation speed as the server, removing the vast majority of the lag.

We have also reworked the physics system to perform better when players are more spread out, and the server has more islands and vehicles loaded. We are seeing improvements of 20-40% increase in simulation speed in these situations.

More Players!

These improvements have meant that servers can now handle many, many more players. We have tested 12 players together playing the new multiplayer. We experienced very little overhead and we think the max player count is probably much higher. Stormworks is still bandwidth intensive and the server host does need good internet. We will carry on testing!



More Possibilities!

With smoother, faster multiplayer with more players, this is opening up a lot of possibilities for what can happen in Stormworks multiplayer games. Within the closed testing group, we have been playing cooperative, competitive, and role-play game modes, with many players coordinating helicopters and ground vehicles, to perform search operations. Playing together is a huge amount of fun, with multiplayer being much smoother and more stable.

The new multiplayer also provides a great framework to better test your vehicles, and aligns well with our current focus of building more point, more challenges, and more feedback to your vehicles, and a great way to apply and test your vehicle designs.



We are really excited to share these new changes and are looking at when we will be able to do that. There is a bit more we want to work on, but we will get these improvements to you as soon as possible!

A special thanks to all our wonderful testers who have provided so much help in improving the quality of this upcoming update.

MrNJersey who is one of our testers, has made a short video with some moments from testing.

As previously announced, we continue our work on missions and world narrative, to expand what you can do in the game, as we build more big updates to Stormworks.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we are releasing the flares that we announced last week!

The new flare launching block fires a flare when triggered from logic. There are various types of flare, with options for illumination, smoke, parachute, and projectile power.

The illumination flares produce a huge amount of light, making it brighter at night when over 1km away from the flare. The illumination flares can also be seen at a distance, making them useful for signalling and finding your friends in multiplayer.

Parachute flares catch the wind, and slow the fall of a flare as it falls through the sky.

Smoke flares produce smoke, in a similar way to the old flares you can spawn in missions.



Flares produce heat, making them a useful emergency tool in the arctic to warm players back up quickly. But please use flares responsibly, they are very hot, so don't use them too close to trees...

We have had tonnes of fun making and testing the flares, and are testing loads of cool new features at the moment. We have some really great changes on the way and can't wait to share more info about this next week in the announcement post.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Path Notes

v0.9.25

Rework - Game temperature general system rework
Fix - Temperature falloff for heated/safe zones
Fix - Tree fires are now hot for the temperature probe
Fix - Temperature probe mesh errors
Fix - Temperature probe description updates
Fix - Deprecated components sometimes appearing in inventories
Fix - Rare CTD with multibody components
Fix - Removed "The Orb"

v0.9.26

Feature - Flare Launcher

Fix - 3D markers showing in photo mode
Fix - Editor logic tooltips font colour incorrect
Fix - Editor tooltips not showing for certain logic types
Fix - Time flickering on creative menu slider
Fix - CTD caused by speaking into a mic for an extended duration

v0.9.27

Fix - Resolved development issue

Dear Stormworkers,

Upcoming Minor Update - Flare Launchers!

This week we are announcing an upcoming minor update... flare launchers!

This is a new component block coming soon, that you can place on a vehicle. When triggered, it will launch a flare. There are multiple types of flares, with some being useful for signalling a location, illuminating an area at night, or marking a location.

We have had great fun building this feature, can't wait to share it with you in the next few weeks as a minor update.

Our current focus remains building Stormworks out as a search and rescue game, and this kind of feature marries well with this concept. This new component will be very useful, for example at night where the player needs more illumination to aid in locating people and objects, as well as the possibility for allowing survivors to launch flares in a search senario in the future.

Upcoming Major Update Feature - Game Modes!

We continue to work hard on the next major update, were we aim to push the simulation gameplay much further. As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, this major update will introduce more things to do, and more things that can happen in the world.

A while ago, we also asked for your feedback regarding normal mode, which revealed very few players playing that mode.

We are planning on rethinking the game modes in Stormworks. Our plan is to replace normal mode with some creative mode tools, as well as lots of other new powerful creative tools, and completely rework career into a much clearer and better defined game mode, with much better progression and gameplay.

The New Creative and Career Modes

We have been listening to your feedback regarding the game modes, and there are 2 clear directions that players are looking for - you want more control over what you can do in creative mode, and you want a more engaging search and rescue career experience.

This major update is designed to solve these problems. Creative mode now includes many of the existing game options, with lots of new options and abilities, and the ability to toggle these options within the game, rather than setting them when starting a new game. This greatly broadens how you can play the game within creative mode. We will share more details on exactly what these new options are soon.

Career mode will now be a specific set of game settings, the way the persistent game is meant to be played. This game option will pit the player against peril and consequence, making for a more exciting and engaging simulation type game mode. We are removing some concepts from career which just didn't work - games now start with all components unlocked, as limiting components also limited the roles and things players could do at the start of the game.

We look forward to your feedback on these upcoming plans and can't wait to start sharing more on the next major update soon.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers