Dear Stormworkers,

On September 17th 2020, we will be releasing v1.0 of Stormworks to mark the 3 year anniversary since we first launched the public alpha. Since then, we have released over 250 updates, and you have spent over 1400 years playing the game, shared over 70,000 workshop creations, all while helping us understand where to take the game next.

And, this is only the beginning.

The next chapter of Stormworks kicks off with the Stormworks v1.0 Update - we are leaving Steam Early Access with several major updates rolled into one colossal mega update. The new updates are listed below in detail.

Updates will continue as normal, with major updates every 2 or 3 months, and minor updates every other week. Development will continue at a pace as least as fast as you have been used to during the last 3 years of live development. Just because we are leaving Early Access doesn't mean there isn't more to do.

Features

First Person Handheld Equipment



The new first person system gives you a body in first person, with a 5 inventory slot system. 18 new hand held items add new rope, medical, navigation, and radio mechanics to the search and rescue gameplay. The new items include a fire extinguisher, binoculars, night vision, compass, defibrillator, first aid kit, flares, flare gun, rope, cable, hose, flashlight, radio, welders, and more.

New Procedural Missions



We have completely reworked missions to be dynamic, procedural events. You are unlikely to ever see the same mission twice, with the new mission scripting system providing many more tools to allow even more creativity. Mission information is now displayed on the map, with many missions displaying a search area rather than a location. You will have variable levels of information, and parameters can change as situations evolve. The new first person equipment allows medical emergencies, fires, and more sophisticated search and rescue mechanics. Be ready for a much more in depth experience.

Logistics and Transport Missions



The new logistics system adds cargo depots and terminals, with new cargo objects addressed to various locations. Transporting these cargos provides financial rewards, while cargo comes in various shapes, sizes, and weights from small crates to huge containers. This is another new layer of the game powered entirely by a new game scripting system, and is extendable and adaptable by players and on the workshop.

Game Mode Scripts and Modding



The new game scripting system is huge. We are using it to create the new missions system and tutorial, but the potential uses are endless. You will have control over game settings, server operation, NPCs, missions, vehicles, weather, UI, and much more. This allows new modding possibilities - from NPC vehicle traffic to whole gamemodes.

We have also reworked the base rules for the game. Basic vehicle mechanics are removed in favour of a host of in-game options, changeable in real time, to customise your experience exactly as you wish to play. Simply select between 'Career' mode to play with the fixed, SAR focused rules, or select 'Custom' to start playing with the new creative options menu where you can toggle damage, infinite money, electric, fuel, clear the fog, teleport, no-clip, and more.

Weather Simulation



The new weather simulation brings dynamic localised weather to the Stormworks world. Be ready to brave huge storms, take shelter, or navigate around weather systems. Weather will be more predictable and play a bigger part in the Stormworks world.

New Tutorial



With this release, we are adding an all new tutorial comprising new starter vehicles, starter mission, and many new tools and help for new players getting started in Stormworks. The tutorial is designed to help without being intrusive.

Quality Improvements



We have been working on (and continue to work on) a huge number of quality improvements and fixes. This is version 1.0, and we want the quality of the release to reflect the significance of this milestone. Expect a huge change list with many important boosts to the quality of the game.

The Future Of Stormworks

Experimental Branch



We are launching a new experimental public branch of the game - available to all players - sharing development changes as they happen, giving (the players who are interested) the earliest possible insight into new features, and the chance to discuss and feedback input. This means we can design future updates closely with the community, and changes can be much better considered as they go live on the main branch of the game.

The experimental branch launches with v1.0, where we will begin testing the next major update - modular engines! We are already thinking ahead on where next to take Stormworks, and modular engines were chosen by the community as the most popular new feature in the recent poll. Thank you for sharing your feedback!

Price Update

With the launch of v1.0, the price will be increased to ($24.99 / £19.49 / €20.99) to reflect the new stage in development, and to acknowledge all the players who have bought the game early and supported us in early access. The price will remain at the current lower price up to the release date. Stormworks has never been on sale on Steam and we have no plans to run a discount, so buying before Sept 17th is the cheapest way to get Stormworks.

From The Developers



When we started Stormworks, we didn't imagine the game would be as big as it is, have such a kind, intelligent, and creative community, or continue to be growing years after initial release. We are a small independent team of game developers, and it is a huge privilege to be servicing the game for such a wonderful community of players. We look forward to continuing to do our best for years to come to make Stormworks the best possible game it can be. Thank you so much for supporting this game, it has had a huge impact for all of us.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworks,

This week we add the ability to communicate with a http server from within a lua script.

What does this mean? Get ready for an extremely technical update announcement!

Telemetry

With the ability to send and receive data to and from a http server on your computer, players could connect telemetry systems for their home cockpits. You can use this new feature to control any connected system such as real world cockpit lights, indicators, dials, the lighting in your room, hydraulics, force feedback and more.

For our more technical players who are interested in electronics and software, this means Stormworks can start to enter the real world. Piloting could become much more in depth for players with with cockpit hardware, introducing a whole new dimension to vehicle building.



Rich Presence

Players can send any data they wish from a LUA script to their own http server software. If you can script a http server, then buttons or information in Stormworks can be fed anywhere. When you eject, do you want to announce your coordinates as a distress message on Twitter? Do you want your Discord status to reflect your speed and heading? Perhaps you run a server and you want time and weather data with a real time ATC style map showing where all vehicles or radar contacts are?



Data Display

The new LUA functions mean you can read any data outside of Stormworks into your LUA block. If you can script a http server, you can send any information you want into game. Get real world news headlines on screen, have an in-game Discord chat, or get notifications of what games have just been discounted on Steam.



Limitations

In multiplayer, these scripts are run locally, so while a script may read cockpit buttons correctly in single player, the script does not know what information should be replicated on the network, and thus a players own cockpit telemetry will not affect the simulation on the server. This is only a minor limitation as Stormworks already supports 48 button inputs via the Direct Input API, which work over multiplayer.

We can't wait to see what players do with this new feature and are really excited to see what new intelligent systems are created.

While we respect that this feature doesn't necessarily impact all players immediately, it is the kind of feature that Stormworks should have, and many players have asked for. There is also the usual list of improvements and fixes in the patch notes below.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.29

Fix - Physics acceleration client desync

v0.10.30

Feature - Microprocessor Telemetry HTTP Requests
async.HTTPRequest(fail_callback, success_callback, url, method, headers, body)

A further example can be found in the lua help tab.

Rework - Editor warnings no longer generate on vehicle load if they are toggled off (this should boost load times back to previous rates, editor warnings are now generated when the setting is toggled on)
Rework - Winch physics nodes now more consistent and less buoyant (reduced winch physics issues in water)
Rework - Removed blood particles from heat-box damage
Rework - Reduced number of blood particles when damaged by propellers

Fix - macOS several issues including shader issues and crashes

Dear Stormworkers,

The Big Announcement

Many of you have asked us questions about when this major update will release, what is in this update, and what is in future updates, We will answer all these questions on the 24th July (in 2 weeks). We will announce the release date, full details on what is in the update, our new plans for allowing players to be more involved in the development, our plans for more major updates, and another secret announcement which may be the most exciting part of all.

This will be a huge announcement with a lot of information and we cannot wait to share it with you all. Make sure to check the news on 24th July for the big announcement.



The New Weather Simulation

In the upcoming major update, there is a new weather simulation system. Weather is now different in different places, and you can view this information in real time on the map. Simulated data includes wind, temperature, precipitation, lightning and fog.



Weather slowly changes as the simulation progresses. While the simulation is turbulent, it is possible to estimate what the weather is going to do over the next few days.



With localised weather, players will need to consider conditions and plan routes to avoid the worst weather as they travel across the world of Stormworks. Players will also need to make sure they have the correct equipment as the weather has such a significant impact on gameplay.



Temperature will also fluctuate with seasons. This means players will have to battle different temperatures at different times of the year. Personal equipment and the need to stay warm will play an increased role during the winter months, even when outside of the arctic.



With the new temperature system, we are also looking to integrate temperature more closely with other systems within the game, to give greater impact to the significance and consequence of the new weather simulation.

In the mean time, please know we are continuing to work hard on this huge update which is getting bigger and bigger. The end is in sight!

We also have some great minor updates and fixes planned. We will catch you all soon for more minor updates and the big announcement!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have returned to focus on water jets, turbine jets, and solid rocket booster improvements! We have made a series of changes, improvements and fixes to improve the player experience. This update was inspired by a group of feature requests from the issues board.

Jet turbine engines and solid rocket exhausts now damage the player (when player damage is turned on) so players must now use care when around live engines.

We have also fixed rotor and propeller damage so now these are back to being extremely dangerous. When player damage is turned on, they will apply huge force and damage if they come in contact with a player or survivor.

Water jets are back! We have re-balanced water jets to be more powerful, but with a power ceiling, making jets most suitable for small boats or manoeuvring thruster control on larger boats.



Please see the patch notes below for the full list of all changes.

Please stay tuned for many, many more fixes and improvements yet to come. If there are specific changes or fixes that are important to you, please make sure we know using the "feature request" and "report a bug" buttons in game.

Make sure to check in next Friday for more info on the upcoming major update!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.27

Fix - CTD when updating a microprocessor that has connected logic nodes

v0.10.28

Feature - Solid Rockets and Jet Engine Damage Hitboxes

Balance- Water Jet now requires electric to modify controls
Balance - Ski now requires electric to steer
Balance - Water Jet thrust now more powerful

Fix - Multiplayer physics frame acceleration leading to stuttering
Fix - Editor warnings on offset nodes disregarding component rotation
Fix - Manual hinged doors faces missing
Fix - Network desync between open state of custom doors
Fix - Door physics raycasting overwriting closer raycasts
Fix - Removed redundant electric nodes from Gripper and Fluid Connector
Fix - Propellers not applying damage
Fix - Component centre of mass calculations improved

Dear Stormworkers,

Many of you have been suggesting hand held flares and flare guns to be included with the new hand-held items in the next major update. In response, we have been looking carefully at your ideas and the concept of signal lighting as a search & rescue gameplay mechanic.

This week, we are announcing new hand held signal lights as part of the next major update.

Hand Held Flares



We have added a new hand held flare item that can be lit and thrown to illuminate an area or mark a target location. The flares burn for several minutes and are of significant use when searching at night time, on board a ship with electrical failure, or signalling your own distress to other players.

Hand Held Flare Gun



For illuminating a larger area or signalling from a-far, players will have the hand held flare launcher, and a box of flare launcher ammo to accompany it. These flares will travel high into the sky and incorporate a parachute, allowing them to fall slowly and provide illumination from above for a few minutes.

Wearable Strobe Beacons

New strobe beacons can be activated by turning them on, or simply when submerged in water. These beacons will flash visible or IR light and are very useful as man-overboard systems or tracking a rescue team in operation. They can remain active while on the belt.

Hand Held Torch



The torch is now a hand held item, rather than the current "head torch". The new torch feels far more realistic and immersive. But be warned, as with all the new inventory items, battery charge is limited and you can run out of juice if you use the item for long enough!



Many of you are as desperate to get your hands on the new updates as much as we are to share them with you. This update is going to be really huge, and as you can see, we are still adding really significant features. We will share more information on dates and other details soon, and thank you for your patience.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we are announcing a new set of 4 manually operated door components that we are adding to Stormworks!

These new door components do not need electric or buttons - the player can simply interact with them to open and close them.



This feature has been requested many times over the years and is very useful and practical for being able to operate doors in the event of a power failure, or just when logically operated doors are not necessary and it is preferred to have a simpler way of using doors.

If you are concerned about security, these new doors do also include an electric lock to disable mechanical operation. Simply set the input signal, and the door will no longer open.



The doors are similar to the set of electrically operated doors - they come in both small hatch and large door sizes, and hinged and sliding variants. Their appearance and sound effects are different to the electrically operated doors, and their visual style may be preferred by many players looking to add a more realistic look and mechanic to their boats and ships.

In the meantime, we are also continuing to work on the next major update, and a series of minor updates that will be available soon. Next week we will announce even more about the next major update, as we continue to develop and add more content and features.



We hope you enjoy the new components and look forward to your feedback!

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.23

Fix - CTD when entering vehicle editor

v0.10.24

Fix - Warning signs persisting in mc editor under various circumstances

v0.10.25

Fix - Greatly reduced effects of multiplayer lag on particle trails
Fix - Min/Max FPS reporting in Benchmark Mode
Fix - Removed memory warning as some systems report their memory differently

v0.10.26

Feature - 4 New Manually Operated Doors

Fix - Interactions through all doors being blocked by invisible voxels

Dear Stormworkers,

Previously we have announced some of the new handheld items we have planned to come to Stormworks in a huge upcoming update. We are putting a huge amount of work into this, and have been carefully looking at your feedback and suggestions.

In response, we are announcing new radio-based hand held items that we are adding to this upcoming major update.




Radio Communication

We are adding a hand-held and short range radio. This radio has a channel selector and can be turned on and off. When on, it will monitor the frequency it is set to. Switching inventory item will not turn it off, and it will remain active on your belt. You can select the radio and use the primary action to activate and transmit to other players on the same frequency. This new radio is fully compatible with the other radios in the game, so players can relay communications, broadcast with speakers, and more.

Radio Control

We are adding a new hand-held radio control unit. When active, this unit takes over the player input as if they were in a seat, sending their control outputs over radio. This could be used for any remote control function, from controlling vehicles, drones, cranes, or more. This is fully compatible with the existing radio data system.

Radio Location

We are adding a wearable locator beacon, and a hand-held radio beacon locator. The beacon can be activated and remains active even when on the belt, rather than in the hands. The beacon is also activated in contact with water, for use as part of a man-overboard system. This beacon works in the same way as the existing locator beacons in Stormworks and is fully compatible. The hand-held beacon locator also works in a similar way to the vehicle component version, and sounds pulses as the signal increases, allowing the player to locate distress beacons.




These new hand-held items bring a huge amount to what you can do and how you can interact with the world of Stormworks. We are really excited about the new building possibilities and the impact these new components will have on the new career.

We are also running a poll on other features we are considering adding to the game, so please visit our discord and vote in the #announcements channel.



Please let us know your other ideas for the upcoming hand-held items and we will continue to add new items! We really enjoy reading your feedback and ideas.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we bring a new warning and notification update to the Stormworks vehicle editor!

We have been looking at many of the suggestions and requests from players on how we can make Stormworks easier to play and make the game mechanics easier to understand. These improvements follow the same theme as our previous realtime component info update - explaining the mechanics of Stormworks and being as transparent as we can about the systems within the game.

We have added an optional warnings system to notify players where there are likely vehicle logic errors. These warning display in situations where a component has almost certainly been linked up incorrectly, following simple rules to detect obvious errors.



We have also added a new warning to detect if a vehicle may be obstructing the spawn zone to help players avoiding spawning a vehicle within another vehicle.

We have really enjoyed producing these quality of experience features, and look forward to hearing what you think and how helpful you thank them. We hope they are an important step forward in improving the experience of building vehicles in Stormworks.

We have also added additional fixes and improvements, please see the patch notes below for full details.



In the meanwhile, we continue to work hard on the next major update and are working on lots of exciting new features that we can't wait to announce soon.

Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.19

Fix - Physics engine collision issue

v0.10.20

Feature - Warnings when returning to workbench if there is a vehicle obstructing the zone
Feature - Vehicle editor component logic node warnings

Balance - Increased Gyro mass from 1 to 10
Balance - Radio parts now consume electricity proportionate to range. x4 when transmitting.

Fix - Wind sensor angle smoothing instability
Fix - Recategorized cameras and speakers
Fix - Increased button audio range

v0.10.21-22

Fix - Various fixes to the new features in v0.10.20

Dear Stormworkers,

As we have already announced, first person equipment is coming to Stormworks as part of a new massive update this year.



This week we are announcing the addition of first person fire fighting equipment to the new first person inventory. This is in response to the many fantastic ideas players have been sharing with us for the new first person kit.



The new fire extinguisher first person item is a hand held extinguisher with a limited quantity of charge. It can spray a fire at relatively short range in order to put that fire out. It is ideal for rapidly extinguishing smaller fires, or fires where larger equipment is less able to reach. The extinguisher can be stowed in a 3x1x1 inventory bracket, and can be mounted on or within vehicles.



The new first person fluid hose equipment can be attached to a pressurised water fluid connector, and when connected, can be activated to open the hand held valve in order to spray water. This is ideal for attaching to a fire truck, or on-vehicle pressurised water system, and then manually directing precise water to extinguish fires. The hose has a limited length but it would be possible to use extensions to increase the range, as can be done with real firefighting hoses.



These new components dramatically expand the potential for fire fighting gameplay and helps us further develop the possibilities for new missions, emergencies, problems to be solved in the new procedural missions system that we are continuing to develop.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

By popular request, Stormworks is now available in 64 bit!

This week we have added a new 64 bit version of Stormworks, so players with 64 bit processors can play the game in the most native form possible. This has been an overwhelmingly popular request, and we have continued to listen carefully to the communities vision for what is next with Stormworks.

Steam will automatically decide which version to launch - 32bit or 64bit - depending on which version of Windows you are running. You will see text in the bottom left showing which version is in use. Note that the MacOS version of Stormworks has always been 64bit.



What Does This Mean?

If you have 64bit Windows, Stormworks will now run as a 64bit application. This means Windows no longer has to convert the 32bit game code to 64bit code, which has a small overhead. The game may run 1% to 3% faster.

The game also has access to the new instruction sets available on 64bit processors. Stormworks doesn't really have any use for these extra instructions so this will have limited impact.



The game will also have access to more memory if it's available on your computer. This typically won't have an effect as Stormworks rarely uses above 2gb of memory. However, in some rare cases, perhaps when there is a lot of complex vehicles and structures in the scene (especially custom environment mods), this could potentially help. Because some values are now stored with 64bits of data, memory usage may increase around 10%.



Stormworks already uses 64bit physics precision, even on the 32bit version of the game, as the FPU on your 32bit processor natively does 64bit maths.

The game will of course, be running in a more native form of your operating system, which many players consider more elegant and a cleaner way of doing things. Some players have also expressed concern that Microsoft could decide to withdraw support for 32bit software in the future, and we hope this new update addresses these concerns. Stormworks is around to stay!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.10.18

Feature - Added Windows 64bit version
Fix - F11 vehicle editor now correctly exports wheels