Dear Stormworkers,

This week, we are adding new building fire missions, and various quality improvements to the missions system!

The new building fire missions can occur across the world of Stormworks in places where there are buildings or structures. They are similar in some ways to some of the vehicle emergency missions where vehicles can set on fire. The building fires are typically larger and can develop and spread over time. There are survivors and casualties to rescue, and reward will also be given to extinguishing fire.



A great many improvements have also been made to the missions. These changes touch many different parts of the system and are a mixture of bug fixes and needed improvements, and are mostly thanks to the many kind players who have reported these issues. Please see the full change log for details on exactly what is fixed.



This is the first stage of our improvements to missions that we discussed in last weeks announcement. We are really excited to revisit the missions systems and career, and bring some much needed improvements to this part of the game.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.3

Feature - Mission QOL and Frameworking
Feature - Building fire missions
Feature - Improved responsiveness of inventory searchbox
Feature - Improved fluid system to be more stable

Summary of mission qol changes:
Huge world load time optimization
Difficulty is now tied to no_clip instead of custom_menu so custom career players get correctly scaling missions
?mstart now has mission type and difficulty parameters
Clean up missions with ?mclean
Survivors can now spawn with strobes which activate when in the water,
Missions that are loaded no longer despawn to prevent expiry mid-mission,
Fixed several framework issues including misison objects not randomizing for each mission spawn
Mission survivors/fires now scale with difficulty
Characters and objects now display their names in game
Rewards for delivering survivors now scales with their health
Better flavor text for missions expiring
Rescaled mission spawn rate to be ~hourly
Fix missions not spawning in the first few days of career
Missions vehicle size now sacles with difficulty
Transport missions passengers also become NPCs on delivery
Transponder mission radius balancing
Bleeding survivors no longer stop bleeding if fully healed but no longer start at low health. Not all survivors now bleed.

Balance - Increased SRB thrust by ~4x
Balance - Buffed steam turbine generation
Rework - Added new inventory category for windows
Fix - Lua documentation for getTileTransform
Fix - Additive rendering for the firebox
Fix - Firebox consuming an extra coal than expected
Fix - Firebox tending to go out occasionally
Fix - Radiation detector now tracks and tests its compartment
Fix - Ocean missions always spawning at tile center
Fix - Coal funnel not reserving voxels for spawn coal physics

Lua API:

+ TILE_DATA, is_success = server.getTile(transform)
TILE_DATA =
["name"] = tile_name
["sea_floor"] = sea_floor_height
["cost"] = purchase_cost
["purchased"] = is_purchased

+ is_success = server.addDamage(vehicle_id, amount, voxel_x, voxel_y, voxel_z)

+ is_simulating, is_success = server.getObjectSimulating(object_id)

+ is_success, voxel_x, voxel_y, voxel_z = server.getVehicleSign(vehicle_id, sign_name)

~ server.setPopup(peer_id, ui_id, name, is_show, text, x, y, z, render_distance, [vehicle_parent_id], [object_parent_id])

Dear Stormworkers,

Thank you to everyone who has been playing around with the new nuclear and coal power! It is incredible to see the new creations, from the fully working Brinkfield Nuclear Power Station and enhanced resource trading add-ons to nuclear submarines and coal freighters. We have been carefully reading your feedback and reports, and will be bringing fixes and improvements soon.



If you are not already aware, there is currently a free playtest on Carrier Command 2 (another game which we are involved in developing). If interested, simply click "Request Access" on the CC2 store page!

In this announcement, we are announcing a series of improvements to the missions in Stormworks! Many of you have given great feedback on how you would like to see missions and career being improved, and we have been hard at work implementing these changes. Career continues to be an area that we are very interested in improving, and these will be some much needed upcoming changes.

Add-on Script Quality and Performance

We are adding new simple type-in commands to spawn specific missions, clean up existing missions, and other frequently requested functions. We are greatly improving the load times of the official add-ons, so games will load faster. Missions will scale in custom mode when noclip is disabled rather than when creative menu is disabled, to make it easier for players to play career with custom settings such as third person. Survivors will sometimes spawn with strobe man-overboard-beacons to make locating them at night easier. Existing missions will no longer despawn mid mission when they time out. We will be improving some of the difficulty scaling, particularly with certain mission types. Rewards for delivering survivors will scale based on their health.



Building Fires

We are working on adding a new mission type - building fires! These will be missions where there is a fire on a structure and survivors are at risk. It will be similar to crashed vehicle missions, except that the survivors are most likely within the structure and more at threat. This type of mission will be able to spawn at many locations across the game world, with many buildings rigged to set on fire.



Support Vehicles

We are working on new special AI vehicles - an aerial refueler that patrols the skies, and if you can intercept it, you can take fuel. There will also be a new hospital ship that acts as a moving hospital location where you can deliver casualties as part of the normal missions system. There is a helipad and rope connector points. This ship will be constantly moving, so be prepared to transfer casualties while underway.



New Mission Types

We are also looking at a variety of new mission types. We are considering buoy array operations where you install, remove and repair an array of ocean research buoys, underwater operations were you salvage sunken items such as lost anchors, missing persons where you are searching for an individual reported missing in a large area, man-overboard emergencies where vessels have reported a person overboard, delivering fuel, retrieving animals or objects, nuclear emergencies, and more. This is an evolving list and as always is subject to change. This also means we are looking for more feedback and suggestions, so if you have ideas for new mission types, please let us know!



These new missions updates will arrive over the next few months as some of the minor updates we have planned, along with the usual fixes and improvements that we are also working on. There will also be other minor updates such as new components and other stuff!

We are also working on the major updates discussed in a previous post! We will share more on these soon.

As always, we look forward to your feedback!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The coal, nuclear and steam major update is out now!

The new coal system includes the new coal resource, coal handing with physical particles, hoppers, ducts, and funnels. Coal can be burnt in the new furnaces to heat water.



The new nuclear system includes fuel rods, fuel assemblies, and control rods. You can make your own reactors by arranging these new components in an enclosed space and filling with water (coolant). You can insert and remove fuel rods to renew your nuclear fuel and control the rate of reaction with control rods. You decide the size and design of your nuclear reactor, but consider the mechanics of disposal of spent fuel and maintenance!



The new steam system allows you to turn water into steam (using the boiler), turn steam pressure into mechanical energy (using the turbine) and turn steam back into water (using the condenser).

When these new energy systems work, expect long fuel life and high persistence. However, when they go wrong, expect disaster. Steam components will explode if the steam pressure gets too high, and nuclear reactors will melt down if they get too hot.



We give you new Geiger counters and hazmat suits to help deal with the dangers of radiation, but any mishandling of radioactive materials, damage to reactors, or losing control of your nuclear reaction and melting down will have severe environmental consequences. Nuclear fallout may last a long time, rendering areas of the game world dangerous to visit.



As well as these new systems, we have also re-made the fuel trading system with the new lua API. You can now buy and sell coal as well as oil and liquid fuel across many new locations in the game world. The market is dynamic and will move and adjust based on supply and demand.



We have also rebranded: Sunfire Software is now Geometa! We renamed a while back and have just got round to setting up our new website. It's still the same company and the exact same team.

There are also a series of bug fixes and improvements included in this update! See the change log for the full details.

We hope you enjoy the new content and we look forward to hearing your feedback on this new major update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.1

Feature - Coal & Steam Power
Feature - Nuclear Reactors & Radiation
Feature - Resource Trading Addon*

*The new resource trading addon replaces the old fluid gantries addon, and the trading code has been moved from the game into the Lua so players can customise or add their own locations/vehicles much like our other addons.

Added Clear Radiation button to custom menu to remove fallout zones
Added a Preset Reactor and Firebox setup

Rework - Added a second port to fluid tanks for better integration into coolant loops. New behaviour only occurs when both ports are connected.
Rework - Adjusted monitor borders
Rework - Signs now render tooltips if they have a custom name
Rework - In singleplayer edit modes, damage is now paused
Rework - Removed Hazmat suit from default wardrobe
Rework - Fluid system pipe flow division better fits pipe demand

Fix - Tanks storing more than their maximum
Fix - Ocean floor triangle rendering winding backwards
Fix - Restored missing update to modular engine audio
Fix - Misnamed variable in default mission script
Fix - Increased string buffer for addon vehicle names (could not place vehicles)

Lua Changes:

+ server.setVehicleHopper(vehicle_id, hopper_name, amount)
+ coal_level, hopper_capacity, is_success = server.getVehicleHopper(vehicle_id, hopper_name)
+ d, m, y = server.getDate()

~ tank_level, **tank_capacity,** is_success = server.getVehicleTank(vehicle_id, tank_name)

+ function onButtonPress(vehicle_id, peer_id, button_name)

setVehicleTank and getVehicleTank now use Litres instead of centiLitres

Dear Stormworkers,

The Coal and Nuclear Major Update will release next week on Thursday 27th May!



Included in this major update:

Coal

• New coal resource and coal particle system
  
• Coal handling, hoppers, ducts and funnels
  
• Coal furnaces
  
• Coal trading and new fuel trading system

Nuclear

• Nuclear fuel rods, assemblies, control rods
  
• Nuclear fission mechanics
  
• Radiation mechanics, environmental damage, sickness
  
• Handheld Geiger counter and Geiger counter vehicle component

Steam

• Boilers and condensers to change water into steam and vice versa
  
• Steam turbines to convert steam pressure into mechanical torque

Coal engines are designed to be large and heavy, but the fuel to last a long time. These high endurance engines are best suited to ships, trains, and large land vehicles.

Nuclear reactors are designed to be larger and heavier but produce large amounts of power, and are ideal for the largest scale creations. The fuel rods have a very long lifetime, but require careful management due to the risks and dangers of radiation.



We are really excited to share this new major update next week!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This weeks update goes out in honour to all the Stormworks builders making walking vehicles!

We are adding a new "friction block" that is a sort of rubber pad that has very high friction. While it is intended for walking robots, there is actually a wide range of potential applications where you want a creation to stick to a surface rather than slide around such as feet for containers, grabbing claws, stabilizer legs, and more.

This is a highly physical and generalized block, and we expect players to find many more applications and uses for it.



We have been blown away by some of the incredible walkers produced by the community. The logic being made by the community is really impressive, and we hope this new block is a help to these creators.

This week, we also bring a series of updates, improvements and bug fixes, please see below for the full list of changes and fixes.



Next week, we plan to announce the release date for the next major update! We are really looking forward to this release, the new power sources are interesting to build, the coal handling mechanics are really fun, and the dangers of radiation add a new consequence and peril to the game.

We look forward to your thoughts and feedback in the comments!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.1.25-26

Feature - Friction Pad component - attempts to grip nearby surfaces

Rework - Re-Added default elevators
Rework - Updated monitor meshes
Fix - Multibody sleep activation for child components
Fix - Addon editor main bar "edit location" button not working for enironment mods
Fix - Hide data tooltip for signs on default detail
Fix - Tutorial boat transponder locator broken. Renamed emergency beacon to transponder.
Fix - Crash when spawning addon zones
Fix - getTilePurchased() returning additional broken data
Fix - Transponders on character belts overwriting each other
Fix - Linear tracks breaking when flipped in y axis
Fix - Lua documentation issues
Fix - tree fire and rustle sfx not updating when dragging the pause menu slider
Fix - Addon zone dynamic loading
Fix - Addon zone parenting

Dear Stormworkers,

In this announcement we will discuss the many upcoming features and updates we are currently working on in Stormworks.

We are also involved with the development of Carrier Command 2, which is the spiritual successor to the original Carrier Command (1988) where you control a military carrier and compliment of autonomous air and amphibious vehicles. A free playtest is launching soon and you can apply to join the playtest beta over on the Carrier Command 2 Steam page (just click Request Access).

So, what upcoming Stormworks updates are currently in development?

Steam and Nuclear Power

We are adding new coal, steam and nuclear components in the next major update, and we will announce the release date soon!

Coal is a new tradable resource, and can be burnt in furnaces. Players can also design their own nuclear reactors and react fuel rods to produce heat. Heat from both systems can also be used with the new steam boilers, turbines and condensers to generate mechanical torque.



Weapons DLC

Weapons are coming to Stormworks in an upcoming paid DLC this year! They include modular gun and cannon components, warheads, and new hand-held equipment. We are also working on new gameplay content where you fight an enemy force for control of the Stormworks world.

We have been testing weapons internally, and they are great fun to build, experiment, and operate, particularly in multiplayer. We still have some work to do, but we are really excited.



Missions Content

We are extending the existing missions and adding new add-ons to add more things to do in Stormworks. Career is a frequently discussed topic in the community and is an area of focus for us. New missions will include stuff inspired by the old missions, as well as many new ideas.

We are also extending the existing AI add-ons to include new AI vehicles that support the player in passive ways, as well as reworking other parts of the game such as fluid and resource trading.

Natural Disasters

We are just starting work on the Natural Disasters Major Update! This is a really exciting area to create new and thrilling events in the game that can have a missions aspect. We won't announce details here as we are really early in the development process, but please let us know your ideas and requests for types of natural disaster!



New Biome

We have just started work on a new biome, to extend the world of Stormworks, giving players new places to explore, and new territory to populate missions. We are early in the development process and cannot guess when it will be finished.



Quality Updates and Bug Fixes

As usual, we are also spending a lot of time investigating issues and fixing bugs. The new issue tracker website is in progress to support this effort, and we will continue to drop bug fixes and improvements on a regular basis, along side developing the big new features discussed above.

You can get even more details in the latest Questions and Answers video! Thank you to everyone who submitted questions, and thanks to MrNJersey for hosting.

We hope this announcement is informative and helpful! We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week, by popular request, we are releasing an update focused on optimization and bug fixes.

What is in the Optimization Update?

The new physics detail setting allows players to reduce the detail of physics calculations in exchange for more performance! In our tests we saw performance could double in some physics-intensive situations, when changing the detail from full to low. The setting is in Options -> General.

We recommend setting physics detail to "Full", because with reduced detail, the simulation can struggle with small or narrow objects. However, if you want to spawn in very large or complex creations, or if you just play Stormworks on a potato, reducing the physics detail setting can be a game changer.



Physics is further improved by a new system that pauses updating of objects that are not moving or interacting with other physics objects. This means in many situations, vehicles parked up or lying on the bottom of the ocean floor have a very low physics computation cost.



A new red warning system lets you know if an unsupported vehicle has been spawned (modded workbench). We don't control what content players upload to the Steam workshop, and some creations are made in a modified version of Stormworks rather than the version we created. Many of these creations are awesome, but can also cause issues for some players, and the red warnings are designed to explain this.

There are also new yellow warnings if a vehicle has excessively complex physics or too many lights. The intention is to provide players with more information on how vehicle design impacts the frame rate of the game with particularly complex creations.

Minimum Specs

Players considering getting Stormworks must carefully review the minimum spec requirements. Stormworks is a CPU intensive game and you do need to meet all the min specs, including the CPU requirements. We know many players play without having the minimum hardware, and we ask these players to have realistic expectations about their frame rate. We love that you play the game, but it's not meant to work on your hardware. We would like to help, but there are limits to what is possible.



Bug Fixes

We have addressed a huge number of issues in this update! Please see the full list below in the change log. Many thanks to everyone who reported issues - it is a huge help to us and we thank you for your patience as we address them.



Questions & Answers

We are going to do a new Questions & Answers video soon! To help us give the most complete answer, keep your question short and also be specific. Submit your questions hereThanks for all your questions!

As always, we can't wait to hear what you think about this new update! It has been a lot of work, and we are very excited to hear your feedback!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.1.23-24

Feature - Physics detail level (Found in general settings. Override for dedicated servers in server_config; acceptable values are 60, 120, 180.)
Feature - Default script performance increases (2ms -> 0.5ms average)
Feature - Physics Engine now allows more objects to sleep
Feature - 'Low performance' warnings on intensive vehicle load
Feature - Improved performance for lua functions that search through vehicle components
Feature - Small Sonar (Released with 1.1.18)

Rework - First person surface swimming camera tracking improved
Rework - Rescued survivors now have a 3s grace period when entering a hospital before becoming an NPC
Rework - Tutorial QOL changes: Named tutorial survivors, Extra info on popups, Changed some popups to screenspace
Rework - Limited maximum number of vehicle fire spreads per tick (Greatly reduce lag)
Rework - Tutorial can only be started in first 7 days
Rework - Several component editor warning updates
Rework - 1x1 Gearbox defaults to unlocked in Classic Career
Rework - Updated tutorial boat to prevent players getting stuck on the back
Rework - Removed default elevators

Fix - Vehicle state is now fully reset when returning to workbench
Fix - Transponder signal not despawning with the equipment
Fix - Tutorial missing popups on final stage after reloading
Fix - Handheld radio and remote control range being larger than described
Fix - Vehicle component damage being attenuated to 0 for large components
Fix - Pipes rotating when dragging in the editor
Fix - Dynamic objects / characters not saving their time alive
Fix - Handheld transponders overwriting each others locations
Fix - Prevent lightning playing in the vehicle editor
Fix - Sharks dealing very little damage
Fix - Equipment duping when dropping unconscious characters
Fix - Crash when linking from a deleted component
Fix - Crash when dragging from a deleted MC component
Fix - Modular engine composite data for fluid volumes now reflects the display value (x10)
Fix - Rope buoyancy in internal volumes
Fix - Crash using invalid unicode characters from lua functions
Fix - Skis, Cameras, Water Cannons draining electric when motor is not active
Fix - Vehicle fires ignoring environment audio slider
Fix - Trees ignoring environment audio slider
Fix - AMD vega fire graphics glitch
Fix - Linear track input values not working
Fix - Several occasional crashes
Fix - Ocean foam clipping inside buoyancy volumes
Fix - Improved water surface transition for camera
Fix - Prevent survivors taking damage on attach and detach from ladders
Fix - Player equipment not dropping correctly while dying during a ragdoll (Shark drag)
Fix - Torque components showing full detail labels by default
Fix - Electric relay not showing state on normal detail label
Fix - Cost tooltip for hotbar components not showing in custom mode
Fix - Powered linear rails being connectable on the backside face
Fix - Multi-target radar can now detect 8 targets instead of 7
Fix - Cut/Paste sometimes disconnecting logic nodes on components
Fix - Several components not placing correctly in mirrored mode
Fix - Dropped moveable transponders all sharing the same transponder ID
Fix - Air ram and Air filter unable to transfer fluid from the environment
Fix - Vehicle markers now use the center of the primary body instead of the center of the build zone
Fix - Equipment hotbar UI not updating correctly when running out of charges
Fix - Underwater camera mode not activating when inside filled volumes above ocean level

Reworked/Redocumented AI info

server.getVehicleData() now returns .mass and .characters
.mass = vehicle mass
.characters = a table of object_ids attached to the vehicle { id_1, id_2 ..etc }

Removed "Vehicle Button" addon component
Consolidated "Zone" and "Cargo Zone" component types:
Spawning a zone with spawnAddonComponent() will now add it to the list of active zones (that are seached with getZones())

Removed misleading "name" field from spawnAddonComponent() and getLocationComponentData()
Added .tags table to spawnAddonComponent()
Added .tags table to getVehicleData()
Added .tags_full string to all the functions that return .tags for custom parsing

vehicle_id = server.getCharacterVehicle(object_id) -- To get the vehicle a character is currently in
is_dev = server.isDev() -- To check if the game host is a Developer

Dear Stormworkers,

In this upcoming announcement, we discuss the mechanics of nuclear reactors in the next major update!

Nuclear reactors in Stormworks are designed to be a power source with very long fuel life and high energy output, but also very heavy and large. They are modular so that players can design them to the size and specification that they need, and manage their internal mechanics, from the simplest reactor to the most advanced refuelable reactors with safety features.



Safety features are important. As with real nuclear energy, the risk of melt down or radiation leak is a huge downside with significant consequences. We are adding the concept of radiation to Stormworks, where radiation can be contained within compartments, or otherwise leaked into the environment. Radiation is harmful, and will persist for a long period of time. It is essential to handle nuclear materials carefully and dispose of waste responsibly.



Nuclear reactors are created from just 3 new parts: fuel rods, fuel assemblies, and control rods.

Fuel rods are the nuclear fuel that slowly reacts and depletes, generating heat and radiation. They are radioactive. When submerged in fluid, they will pass their heat to and also irradiate that fluid.

Fuel assemblies are a sort of connector for fuel rods. Like real nuclear reactors, rods are arranged in arrays of several rods in order to achieve the critical mass required for the reaction to build up. Fuel assemblies placed next to each other allow the fuel rods within the assembly to interact with each other.

Control rods are placed adjacent to fuel assemblies to absorb reactivity and reduce the energy. They can be used to control the heat output of the reactor.

As with other reactors, this heat can be used to heat water to generate steam, to power steam turbines. We will talk more about steam power soon!



We look forward to hearing your thoughts on nuclear reactors and the upcoming major update.

In response to player feedback, we are also trailing some optimization improvements to Stormworks over on the experimental branch. If this is of interest to you, check out the experimental branch and read the experimental changelog on Discord. Be sure to check back next week, as we are trying further optimizations and we are excited to share any progress with you!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The week we are adding new screens! The new screen sizes are:

• 1x2
  
• 1x3
  
• 2x3
  
• 3x3

This new update is in direct response to community requests, and was discussed in the most recent Q&A video.

These new screens function just like the original ones! They have the same pixel density, and work in the same way. They are in addition to the original screens rather than replacing them. This set of parts allows for players to fill their cockpits, bridges and vehicles with the correct screen size to meet their needs.



We continue hard at work with the upcoming major updates, minor updates, fixes and improvements. We are largely on-top of the upcoming major updates and are finding more time for fixes and improvements. Expect some quality and fix updates coming soon. If you have specific feedback on exactly what issues you want to be fixed, please let us know on the bug tracker, along with clear steps to reproduce the problem.



We also have new components, new features and new systems planned as part of upcoming minor updates, and we have plenty more details to announce with regard to steam and nuclear.

As always, we look forward to any thoughts and feedback you have for us!



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.1.20-22

Feature - New Monitor Sizes: 1x2, 1x3, 2x3, 3x3
Rework - Ai aircraft vehicle updates
Rework - Fluids now spawn at ambient temperature of spawn location
Fix - Modular engine manifold temperature not saving
Fix - setBattery always setting to 100% (Now uses 0-1 range)
Fix - Equipment bar reappearing when clicking an empty item slot
Fix - Radiator fans spinning while paused
Fix - Added classic career research tiers for modular engines
Fix - Node names and descriptions for fluid radiator and air scoop
Fix - Removed broken scoop intake 1x2

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we are announcing part of the upcoming steam engines update - coal power!



Coal is a new resource in Stormworks. It takes the form of small physical particles, that can be poured through funnels, troughs, and stored in hoppers. This new resource can also be burnt in furnaces to heat up water.

Coal hoppers can be linked together by connecting their mating surfaces, merging them into larger hoppers. Some hoppers have open tops that coal can fall into, while others are closed containers.

A coal funnel allows you to pour coal from the hopper, releasing lumps of coal as individual, physically simulated particles.



Furnaces take coal and combust it along with air, produce exhaust, and heat fluid up.

This is obviously a useful component of steam engines, and we will let you know more about these new systems soon.

This week, we are also releasing a bug fix update with several much needed fixes and improvements. See the patch notes below for a full list of changes.



We look forward to hearing about what you think of coal, and the ways in which it could impact gameplay in Stormworks! Should we expand the logistics side of the game with coal transportation?

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback!

We are really excited for some upcoming minor updates, which include features and components requested by the community. More info due soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.1.19

Rework - Removed gearbox torque damage
Rework - Gearbox ratios 1 & 2 are now named On & Off
Rework - Increased min and max range for missions to reduce clutter
Fix - Corrected gearbox descriptions
Fix - Added new sensors to the research tree
Fix - setFire function causing instant explosions
Fix - Buoyancy damping on small bodies
Fix - Small rocket parts missing buoyancy surfaces
Fix - Fluid rate tooltip showing 10 times less than the value
Fix - Radar/Sonar small tracking issue
Fix - Sonar not correctly tracking submerged targets
Fix - Mirrored rendering and constraints for pressure sensor
Reverted fix for emissive lights underwater as it caused other render issues