Dear Stormworkers,

This weeks minor update is a quality improvement focused update, and today we launch the new Stormworks issue tracker.

The new issue tracker replaces the old issue tracker that came up short in many ways - the new tracker is faster, more responsive, more scalable, uses https, styled for dark mode, and has many features under the hood to help us to keep track and organize our work to address the issues.



This new tool is essential for us to keep track of all the issues and requests for Stormworks - with hundreds of thousands of players, there are many viewpoints on the future of Stormworks, what the most important issues are, and what is and isn't a bug. We expect this tool to be hugely useful in managing our workload, communicating with players, providing technical support, and organizing the tens of thousands of player requests we receive.

To post on the issue tracker, use the in-game "Report Bug / Feature" button to be taken directly to the tracker. Right now, you can only log in through the game but we plan to change this in the future so you can log in through the browser.



Please consider that while Stormworks has been out for almost 4 years, we are still thinking about how we can further improve the bug fixing workflow and improve our communication with players. We remain committed to improving Stormworks and are thinking about the long term as well as the short term.

We are also releasing a bug fix patch, please see below for the full patch notes.

We look forward to reading your feedback and using the new tracker to deliver the best updates we can in coming weeks and years!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.25-26

Feature - New Bug Tracker!

Rework - Reverted the recent change to MP packet processing, in favor of the most responsive/performative version based on a stable connection.

Fix - GetVehicleButton returning a number instead of bool
Fix - Several minor crash fixes

Addon Lua:

Added fluid_type to getTank data
Added onObjectLoad(object_id) callback
Added onObjectUnload(object_id) callback

Dear Stormworkers,

In the coming weeks, expect the launch of the Weapons DLC store page, including the announcement of a release date. We also have some minor updates planned that pave the way for Weapons DLC, providing much needed functionality that isn't specifically a weapon and can also form part of the main game.

We are currently working on the store page, the weapons components, some weapons first person items, and the AI enemy air and sea force game mode. We are really excited for the weapons update, and we still want to add more to this update. The wait is coming to an end and thank you for everyone's patience.



We have some changes planned for seats to make it easier to aim vehicle mounted weapons, some changes to radar to make them more effective for detecting distant not-yet-loaded-in vehicles , more analogue radar signals, add-on settings, and several others.

We are also planning to do more community engagement and are planning to start doing Steam live-streams of Stormworks where we can chat directly with players and answer your questions. Keep an eye out here for scheduled streams!



This is all going on while we continue to work on a series of other minor and major updates that we will announce when they are more developed. Our preference throughout the development of Stormworks has been only to talk about new features as we complete them to avoid disappointment.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we are adding the hopsital ship to Stormworks! This ship is an AI operated floating medical facility to which you can deliver casualties. You can find the new ship underway across the world of Stormworks in a similar way to the new refueler - this AI operated ship will roam freely conducting it's own patrol.

This hospital extends the existing missions system - you can deliver casualties to the hospital ship like any other hospital. You must consider weather and sea conditions when delivering casualties - while the ship is underway, it can be challenging to land on the helipad or moor to the ship.



To create this update, we have refined the mission zone parenting system and lua API to allow better parenting of zones to vehicles. This means missions can now use zones attached to vehicles for any task such as delivering containers or cargo or persons. This is a really useful update for our mission plans as we extend what happens in career missions.



As well as the hospital ship, we have continued to look at player reported bugs and issues. Please see the full change log for details on this updates fixes and improvements.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.21

Feature - Hospital Boat AI Vehicle

Rework - Addon Zone parenting now uses the relative transform from the editor, zones in the world should now be correctly aligned with their parent
Rework - isInTransformArea now uses oriented bounds to perform checks (previously using axis aligned bounds)
Fix - Addon zones now despawn after returning a mission test to the editor
Fix - Missing small triangles in the creative island floor (wheel raycasts failing in hangar and toward the runway)
Fix - Ladders now apply a stronger exit force and attempt to push characters over the top

Dear Stormworkers,

Our new game, Carrier Command 2 is available now on Steam!

Carrier Command 2

Carrier Command 2 is the RTS and mil-sim successor to Carrier Command (1988). You command the ACC Epsilon Carrier, navigating across an archipelago of 64 islands, remote controlling aircraft and amphibious vehicles, managing manufacturing and logistics, firing support weapons, battling the enemy navy, and duelling with the enemy carrier, while the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

On the bridge, every screen, button and switch has an important function that impacts your strategy. Your tactics are your own to design and author, in this deep simulation where load outs, detection, logistics, positioning, timing, weather, ocean currents, coordination and communication all matter. There is no other game like Carrier Command 2.



What About Stormworks?

Stormworks development continues as usual. We are continuing to add new components and new AI behaviour to Weapons DLC (and excited some new weapons this week), working on other major updates and preparing minor updates and quality improvements.



We are not quite at the final-runup-to-release stage for the Weapons DLC, and are holding a lot of details back for the run up to release. This is different to what we usually do, and we are just trying different things to see what players prefer.

Following on from our recent suggestion that we may stop minor updates, we have read the player feedback and many players really enjoy the regular updates and info to sit down and relax with at the end of a buy week. Our experience is similar, we really enjoy building these updates and seeing players react.



The recent quality-focused-updates have been very popular, and we are considering having minor updates alternate between new features and quality updates.

We look forward to reading your thoughts and feedback!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

You can now refuel your aircraft air-to-air using the new official aerial refueler!

The aerial refueler is a new AI plane that patrols the skies of the Stormworks world. It is visible on revealed areas of the map and flies at a steady heading and direction. The fuel tanker aircraft carries auxiliary fuel for delivery via hoses on the left and right wings.



When joining the aircraft, you can refuel via a simple fluid connector. When connected, pressurised fuel is fed to your connector, and consumption is charged in a similar way to buying fuel from a fuel gantry, except at a high flat rate. While it is the most expensive way of taking fuel, the refueller can roam anywhere across the Stormworks map and can extend the range of aircraft operations.



We look forward to seeing how Stormworks pilots react to the new refueller! This has been created using the existing add-on system and is very similar to AI planes.

As well as this new update, there are many fixes and improvements included in the update. See the patch notes below for more info!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.18-19

Feature - Refuelling Aircraft AI Vehicle

Fix - MP client simulating physics without data from the server (vehicle rubber-banding)
Fix - isInZone now correctly checks all zones with the specified name instead of returning after one check
Fix - Magalls causing a crash when exiting from a game
Fix - setButton and setKeypad now search by name only from their respective types
Fix - Zones should now despawn after testing a location

Added the following functions:

CLOCK = server.getTime()
CLOCK = {
["hour"] = hour (24),
["minute"] = minute (60),
["daylight_factor"] = midday factor (0-1),
["percent"] = day_cycle_percent (0-1),
}

WEATHER = server.getWeather(transform_matrix)
WEATHER = {
["fog"] = fog factor (0-1),
["rain"] = rain factor (0-1),
["snow"] = snow factor (0-1),
}

Added .voxels field to getVehicleData

The following functions have been reworked to return a table and is_success instead of individual parameters to make them more scalable/neat:
data returns null if is_success is false

data, is_success = getVehicleDial
data = { value = value_primary, value2 = value_secondary }

data, is_success = getVehicleTank
data = { value = current_amount, capacity = capacity }

data, is_success = getVehicleBattery
data = { charge = charge_factor }

data, is_success = getVehicleHopper
data = { value = current_amount, capacity = capacity }

data, is_success = getVehicleSign
data = { pos = { x, y, z } }

Dear Stormworkers,

We have been fixing crash issues! Thanks to all the players who submitted their crash dumps via Bugsplat, we have already solved 80-90% of crashes, with more crash fixes going live in todays hot fix.



This graph shows the crash data submitted to us, colour coded by where the game has crashed. In this data, you can see where we initially launch the crash dump reporting, and then 70% along the graph we launch v1.2.15 which fixes the main crashing issues and majority of crashes in the game.

These fixes follow several recent quality improvement updates in our recent focus in this area. While there are undoubtedly more of these updates to come, crashes are the most severe errors and it is really exciting for us to make such a significant improvement in this area.



We are also planning various lua API changes over the coming weeks and are sharing info on these changes ahead of time, after discussing with players involved in running servers and communities. Please see the change log for full details.



Recently we announced the Carrier Command 2 release date, and the VR version of the same game (including a new trailer). This game is out on 10th August which is just over a week. After this release, our announcements will turn to focus more on the upcoming Stormworks major updates, which are very exciting.



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



v1.2.15 (Hotfix)

Fix - MP client teleport crash / defer tile removal on clients
Fix - Crash when blending toward a missing animation

v1.2.16-17 (Hotfix)

Fix - addon script missing base_price in older saves
Fix - crash when overloading an MC lua script (microcontrollers will now display a tick error should they fail)
Fix - crash when accessing an invalid bird perch
Fix - crash when attempting to render mc icons
Fix - crash when ending benchmark before a frame is captured

Upcoming Future Lua API changes:

The following functions will be reworked to return a table and is_success instead of individual parameters to make them more scalable/neat:

data, is_success = getVehicleDial
data = { value = value_primary, value2 = value_secondary }

data, is_success = getVehicleTank
data = { value = current_amount, capacity = capacity }

data, is_success = getVehicleBattery
data = { charge = charge_factor }

data, is_success = getVehicleHopper
data = { value = current_amount, capacity = capacity }

data, is_success = getVehicleSign
data = { pos = { x, y, z } }

Dear Stormworkers,

This week's update is entirely focused on quality improvement and fixing bugs and crashes in Stormworks!

We are trialling the Bugsplat crash reporter to help us see information about game crashes on 64bit Stormworks. As mentioned last week, the in-built Steam crash reports sadly doesn't support 64bit - so when we introduced the 64bit version of Stormworks, we stopped getting the valuable crash data that helps us understand how stable the game is, and what is causing crashes. With the new crash reporter, players who experience crashes can submit them for us to analyse.



Our previous quality improvement update also focused on multiplayer, as was discussed in a previous Q&A video. We have continued to look at this, and have made some important fixes to multiplayer that resolves several problems that players have frequently spoken to us about. These include various ways the game desynchronizes between players in multiplayer.

We have also made various add-on and lua fixes and improvements. Thanks to all the players who have been using and given feedback on the add-on system.



We are aware that for some players, an update that doesn't contain new content is less exciting - but these updates are important and we remain committed to working our way through the issues and helping players enjoy Stormworks as best we can.

Last week we discussed a potential change to how we release updates. We have no intention of making a decision soon as we have plenty of minor updates in the pipeline, but have been reading feedback and will consider the best way our updates can serve players over the coming months. Expect new minor updates with new content soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.14

Feature - New crash dump reporting
Feature - Small physics optimizations (~10% improvement)

Fix - Clients now correctly simulate the server in the background (Cause of several desyncs)
Fix - Static vehicle secondary bodies now simulate their buoyancy
Rework - Updated various AI vehicles with new window parts
Rework - Relocated military base fast travel node
Rework - F1 Profiler logic sections reorganized
Rework - Improve protection against twilight zoning
Fix - Hardpoint connector buoyancy surfaces
Fix - Return nil when getAddonData/getLocationData/getLocationComponentData fails
Fix - Outdated function name in lua example code
Fix - setGameSetting(unlock_all_islands) should now trigger correctly
Rework - Default AI vehicles addon now supports additional seated crew, placing NPCs in seats with the same name
Fix - Test location not despawning after a save/load
Fix - Hose pressure dropping with absolute world height

Dear Stormworkers,

We recorded the Questions and Answers video! It's 50 minutes of answering player submitted questions. With over 980 questions submitted, we couldn't answer them all. However, many questions were duplicated so we answered a good portion.

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions, and to MrNJersey for hosting!



In this weeks upcoming announcement, we will discuss the general development and release plans.

We continue to work on a bunch of minor updates that we are excited about, including the missions content updates that we discussed recently, some quality assurance updates, new components, features, fixes and minor improvements.

We are also working on weapons DLC, and the natural disasters major update, as well as another frequently requested major update that is rumoured to involve a new biome! (Watch the Q&A video above for hints!).

We are also looking at a new crash reporting tool (did you know that Steam crash reports only work with 32 bit?) and the new issue tracker (apologies that it is so far behind schedule).



So, we are working on a lot, with many changes in progress, and many near completion. Our plan is to continue to close these updates out and release as minor and major updates on the usual schedule.

This has also given us chance to reflect on the update schedule for Stormworks, and the question of how minor updates fit in. We are genuinely unsure if we should continue to release minor updates every 2 weeks, or build these changes into the major updates which could become bigger, more significant mega-updates every 3 to 4 months (but with regular bug fix updates).



The benefit of changing schedule would be to be able to test minor updates more thoroughly as they become part of the bigger releases, and make major updates bigger, more exciting events.

What do you think? We are very open to player feedback and no decision is made yet.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week, we are adding a new connector type - the hardpoint connector!

In preparation for the weapons DLC, we are adding this new connector type to help players prepare for weapons and start the discussion around weapons standardization.



The new connector has a primary part - the grabber that would be placed on the vehicle, and the insert that would be placed on the droppable part. The two halves of this new connector have a leader-follower relationship - the vehicle is very much in control of the droppable object.

Once connected, a vehicle can choose to either "launch" or simply "release" the droppable. Launching will arm the droppable and trigger it's "launched" on/off node, to simplify the logic required in arming droppables and deployables.



There is also composite and video pass through, so you can communicate, or more specifically, program the targeting data of the droppable.

The insert connector has a property setting for declaring the type of droppable object it is. The intention is that your vehicle knows the mode of operation that your droppable item requires so it can automatically display the correct HUD or send the right kind of data to program the droppable.

Of course, these new connector parts can be used in any way you like, and are bi-directional fixed connectors which will have many new and valuable uses, as well as the usual cosmetic applications!



We can't wait to hear what you think and what players thoughts are on if and how use of this part could be standardized to promote interchangeable droppable items!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.2.12

Feature - Hardpoint Connector
The hardpoint connector allows you to attach different types or ordinance to your vehicle, and outputs a behaviour type so that the parent vehicle can dictate the logic of activating the child.

Fix - Added a 5 min cooldown for mission spawning when no valid locations detected (Lag with sawyer island career)
Fix - Crash when accessing an invalid playlist_index

Lua API Updates:
Removed script halting lua error exceptions when a function fails

getCharacterData() now returns its values in a table on success, and nil on failure
{["hp"] = hp, ["incapacitated"] = is_incapacitated, ["dead"] = is_dead, ["interactible"] = is_interactable, ["ai"] = is_ai} = server.getCharacterData(object_id)

is_in_zone, is_success = server.isInZone(m, name) now returns is_success when the zone is found
is_lit, is_success = server.getFireData(object_id)now returns is_success when the fire is found

Dear Stormworkers,

We are going to do another Q&A video!

Submit your questions over the next few days, and we will do our best to answer as many as possible in the upcoming developer Q&A video.

Please submit just one, short question by clicking here! Thank you everyone who has submitted questions! The form is now closed.



These sessions have been very useful in the last, with the 1, 2, 3, 4 previous sessions covering many players questions. Many questions have prompted new updates, changes, and improvements, and we really enjoy the transparency and communicating our plans.



These sessions are really useful for us - your questions give vital insight into the priorities of our most engaged players, and helps us stay in touch with how you are playing and what you are expecting.

We are not planning on running a poll soon, mainly because we are still implementing the major updates you asked for in the last poll, of which there are 2 or 3 in development and yet to release. Rest assured, polls will return once we are able to react to them!



We have really exciting minor and major update plans, and much is still deep in development, so please let us know your questions and we look forward to answering them soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers