Dear Stormworkers,

In this update, we add 4 new outfits: light, medium and heavy body armour, and bomb disposal. If you have the Weapons DLC enabled, these outfits give additional ballistic protection from small calibre rounds, or in the case of the bomb disposal outfit, explosions!



Many players have been asking for Weapons DLC updates, and we are really excited to bring this new update. Even if you don't have the DLC, these new outfits are still available with cosmetic only function.

We are also adding several important bug fixes and improvements, please see the patch notes below for full details.



As always, we are continuing to work on more fixes and imrpovements, minor updates, and major updates! The next few minor updates will include new components and we will announce more soon!



We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on the new update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.6

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - Functional Weapons Outfits (#7960 #3217)

In this update we have added 5 new outfits that protect the player against projectile and explosive damage at the expense of slowing down the player's movement speed.
Most of the new outfits include a helmet which will additionally reduce headshot damage.

Fix - Player now orients to the look direction when walking (using walk hotkey)
Fix - #10701 Audio settings tab sliders not applying correctly
Fix - #11200 Fix default weapons script breaking when failing to spawn a turret
Fix - Fix onButtonPress event interactions with instrument panel buttons
Fix - Updated several component descriptions that were using hard coded hotkeys in descriptions
Fix - #11642 Adjusted mounted end-effector raycast to begin within the component
Fix - #11676 Mesh issues between arctic airport and main island
Fix - #11717 Gyro now creates editor warning when electric is not connected
Fix - #11746 Speargun inventory spelling error
Fix - #11805 #11754 Leaks now occur for voxels that take more than 1 damage in a single instance

Dear Stormworkers,

In this announcement post, we discuss next weeks minor update including new weapons outfits, as well as other upcoming minor updates and major updates.

Next week we are releasing new outfits! These outfits spawn in inventory boxes in a similar way to scuba, firefighting, etc. outfits. While they are available in the base game, they only function cosmetically. With Weapons DLC enabled, these outfits provide enhanced ballistic protection.

The new outfits include various grades of body armour / helmets, as well as a bomb disposal outfit with protection specifically to explosives.



Of course there will be more than just these new features, and many fixes and improvements will also be included in next weeks update.

We are getting further ahead with our updates, and have managed to extend our lead-in time (the time between completing or near-completing an update, and releasing it). This is giving us more time for quality control and testing, and is generally just a calmer way of working. This also means we are working on various minor and major updates at any one time!



We previously discussed a new major update that we have been working on, that we would like to extend and expand into a much bigger DLC update. We are still considering this and working on other new features that are related and could become part of this, if not their own update.

We are also working on other major update features, and while it is too early to talk about specifics, there is a lot of really fun and interesting stuff that can add a lot to the life of the world of Stormworks.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we add the new steam piston and steam whistle components!

The new steam pistons come in various sizes. As discussed last week, the steam pistons are designed to work with a similar mechanic to real steam pistons, where the difference in pressure on each side of the piston pushes the piston from end to end. There are 2 ports on each side of the piston, and the valves for these ports are driven by the crank rotation.

Try out the new steam tractor preset, or design your own steam engine! Simply supply high pressure steam to the input ports, and allow the steam to exhaust by adding exhausts or steam whistles to the output ports.



As the crank rotates, the torque acting on the crank varies. The pistons are most efficient mid-stroke, while at the ends of the stroke, the pistons do not apply force efficiently, creating dead zones. To counter-act this, placing pistons next to each other links their crank shafts, and you can offset their crank offset in the properties.

The new steam whistles are similar to output ports, except with the flow of steam, they produce a whistling sound! You can play around with the pitch in the whistles properties so you can customize the tone of your whistle, or just serenade your friends with a musical steam organ creation.



These components have requested ever since the steam and nuclear major update! So we are very excited to bring this update to players.

There is plenty more in this update, so be sure to read the patch notes below for info on all the fixes and improvements included in this minor update.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.5

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via the Official Issue Tracker which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - Steam Piston Components (#3043)
Feature - Steam Whistle

A Steam powered tractor has been added to the preset vehicles list.

Fix - #10271 Underwater lighting fog shaders
Fix - Rocket fin mirroring not reflected correctly in mesh visuals when turning
Rework - Add vehicle destroyed mission outcome to relevant default mission types
Rework - Non-urgent mission types now display as orange instead of red
Fix - #11283 Default underwater missions not using zone size offset
Fix - #10322 Weather and Time overrides not persisting between save and load
Fix - #10856 Updated default mission title generation
Fix - #11032 Allow the Kraken to be placed in the addon editor
Fix - #11150 Missing triangle on the medium control surface
Fix - #7705 Added velocity limits to explosions to prevent twilight zoning the player
Fix - #11306 Survivors not updating their constraints when revived in a bed
Fix - #11358 Small fins editor mesh too big
Fix - Minor addon lua documentation QOL changes
Fix - #11381 Weather state reverts to start of game conditions on load
Fix - #11575 Rotor mesh gap issue
Rework - Updated network code to deal with cases where the thread sleeps for longer than expected

Dear Stormworkers,

It is announcement week, with an update being released last week and one planned for next week!

Next weeks minor update includes several new components that many players have asked for over a long period of time for various reasons!

One component being released next week is the new steam piston! Players have been asking for other ways to make steam engines, including smaller engines for some time and this new update will do this. The new steam pistons come in various sizes, and are designed for low-speed high-torque applications.

The steam pistons work in a very mechanical way, similar to real steam pistons. There are 4 steam ports on each piston cylinder, with 2 ports above the piston head, and 2 below. There is also a connecting rod and a crank shaft that rotates in the expected way. The valves opening and closing each port are controlled by the position of the crank shaft. A typical way to use this new component would be to supply high pressure steam to the input ports, and add exhausts to the output ports.

In one direction of the stroke, the piston will open the input valve of the compressed side of the piston, and the output valve of the expanded side. The difference in pressure between the two side of the piston will create torque and motion. As the piston reaches the other end of the cylinder, the valves reverse, exhausting the high pressure steam, and allowing high pressure steam into the other side.

Like a real steam engine, either a flywheel or multiple out-of-phase pistons are advisable to avoid stalling. This is because the torque action on the crank shaft has low-efficiency zones at the ends of the strokes, just like real pistons. Adjacent pistons placed next to each other are locked together, but can be spawned with player-defined crank cycle offsets. This allows a huge amount of control over how engines are built.

Along with steam pistons, there are several other related components that we will announce next week! And of course, there will be the usual bug fixes and improvements!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

In this weeks update, we have re-engineered train signals so that they are an add-on rather than being baked into the world.

The implications of this is that train signals can be replaced with an add-on. This is something that the train community has been asking for, for a long time. It means that different styles of signals can be used, as well as mechanically different signals that follow different logic, unlocking the potential for automation and other mechanics.



This update is of course, a minor step in expanding what can be done with modding. While the headline might be "train signals", the majority of this update is actually bug fixes, as we continue to work through all the issues and defects in the game, and tighten up the quality of experience. While plenty remains to be done, we have made huge progress so far this year, as we have rebalanced our time and processes to avoid adding new issues, while clearing out the backlog of existing problems. While it can be difficult to measure from playing the game, we are counting the issues, and only a fraction remains compared to how the year started out.



There are many different ways to play Stormworks, and we want to make all players happy, so the minor updates focus on different areas as rotate our focus around the different Stormworks communities. This can cause friction in the comments section.

Our advice is not to take the comments too seriously. We make an active effort to count and measure players requests, and we won't count one opinion over another. To the vast majority of players giving calm, constructive, and valued feedback, thank you. We do our best to be fair with our release plans, and while everyone may not benefit from this weeks headline as we show some love for the trains community, hopefully all will notice benefit from the fixes, and all will enjoy something more relevant to their community in the next few updates.

Please see below for the patch notes with the full list of fixes and improvements.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.3

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via 'geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks' which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - #2181 Train Signals Addon

The default train signals have now been converted to an addon, with an updated default signal. This conversion much like the other default playlists makes it very easy for players to replace with their own and upload to the workshop to share with the Stormworks community.
Additionally, in this update we have reworked ropes and winches to fix several longstanding issues including crashes, freezes and unexpected rope based deaths.

Fix - #3360 #8720 Winch lengths reverting to default length on vehicle load (sometimes crashing/freezing the game)
Rework - Winches now auto spool back to their max length and winch max length no longer includes the attached rope's current dynamic length
Rework - Slightly increased winch rope max lengths to compensate for the above change
Rework - Players can no longer detach ropes that are longer than the first-person-rope maximum (40m)
Fix - #5016 Held ropes no longer detach when a vehicle spawns

Fix - Damage rendering desync issues for clients when loading vehicles
Fix - #8391 Fixed Host voice chat not working
Rework - #4903 #9022 Greatly improve multiplayer fire sync

Rework - Rail signals now toggle their state client-side to improve sync
Rework - Added size=null tags to certain default ocean path nodes to prevent bad paths generating under diagonal train bridges
Rework - #8185 Updated workbench disabled messages to indicate if the setting is disabled or the client is unauthorized
Balance - #1829 Rebalanced the repair speed of the handheld welding torches

Fix - #258 Vehicle editor undo not remembering sub-component colours
Fix - #7749 #8972 Updated some default mission zones that were too close to terrain
Fix - Path node tags are now correctly combined for overlapping nodes that get merged
Fix - #7737 Flares black square graphical glitch
Fix - #8052 Moon glare rendering issue
Fix - #8156 Lightning intensity visual glitches
Fix - #8194 Buttons no longer trigger the lua event when the player is out of interact range
Fix - #8394 Updated logic node descriptions for coaxial rotors
Fix - #8419 #8689 Fixed several issues around floating geometry
Fix - #8742 Fixed Nataera ruins physics mesh height issue
Fix - #8716 Passive sonar hits no longer have a projected y bounds of 5m
Fix - #8731 Fixed turret ring mesh issues
Fix - #8781 Fixed search light odd coloured mesh
Fix - Fixed additive rendering as yellow in the component inventory
Fix - Fixed train-line geometry at Terminal Trinite
Fix - End effector no longer triggers onButtonPress when releasing for all dynamic components

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week where we discuss our development plans and release new information. There are no huge announcements this week so we will keep it brief.

The Steam Summer Sale is now on, and for the first time in Stormworks history, we are in the sale! Stormworks is currently 30% off, and 20% off for the DLC.



Next week we have a new minor update planned with many fixes, and some reworks, including replacing some existing game content with add-on content to make the game a little bit more moddable. More info on this next week with the release!

While we are testing next weeks minor update, we are also adding the finishing touches to the following one. In the following minor update, we plan to add some new equipable outfits! These are new outfits that fit in inventory boxes in a similar way to scuba / diving / firefighting, except with a different function.



Other projects in progress is the next major update which is looking awesome but sadly not due for release for a few months, and some technology tests for the new game engine that we are working on. We are having a lot of fun working on all these new updates and improvements and there is a lot for players to look forward to over the rest of the year and beyond.

Catch you next week for the minor update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

In this weeks minor update, we are adding the new vehicle mounted welders and end-effectors, designed for use with autonomous and unmanned vehicles, and manned submarines.

The new welder is an electric type welder and works underwater. As you may expect, when active it repairs any damaged blocks immediately in front of it.

The end-effector component can interact with any button immediately in front of it, as well as interacting with doors.



With the combination of these 2 new parts, players can now achieve a great many tasks previously requiring manual operation. This can be particularly useful when in hazardous or hostile environments such as high temperature, deep under water, or around radioactive materials.

As well as these new components, there are many important bug fixes and improvements. Please see the full changelog below for full details.



We look forward to reading your feedback, and seeing what players create and get up to with the new components!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.2

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via 'geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks' which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - #587 Mounted Welder and Mounted End-Effector components
Feature - #656 Solid Rocket Nozzle Max Power slider

Fix - #8588 #8613 Fixed default damage values for collisions
Fix - #7101 #7505 #7619 Natural disasters sirens can now be disabled globally with a button on them
Fix - Old saves will now initialize damage_tracker in mission lua script

Rework - #8717 Sonar active ping reworked*
Fix - #8838 #8728 Radar does not detect tilted vehicle
Fix - #8790 Inactive sonar jammer consumes power
Fix - #8562 Sonar Jammer node mislabels
Fix - #8593 Sonar description spelling mistake
Fix - #8668 Sonar Data node info

Fix - #7633 Fix being able to save while dead when quitting to main menu
Fix - #7640 Scroll bar not appearing for updated ui containers
Fix - #7650 C4 placement rendering when in a seat
Fix - #7827 C4 placement on moving vehicles for clients
Fix - #7652 Pilot mask rendering issue with some outfits
Fix - #7702 Wrong editor mesh for Camera Gimbal and Stabilizer Camera
Fix - #7862 Floating terrain at Terminal Trinite
Fix - Optimized parsing for some scene values
Fix - Coaxial rotor entire mesh rotating

Fix - State data network messages being sent for vehicles with no stateful components
Fix - #1197 Game occasionally getting stuck on audio mutexes

*Sonar ping input must now be held to continue receiving information from that ping; passive data is no longer output while actively pinging.

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is an announcement week, with the new major update launching last week, and we have a minor update planned for next week including 2 new components and loads of fixes!

Next weeks update includes 2 new components for performing tasks normally performed manually - with a vehicle. We are adding a new welder component that can repair vehicles, and a new interaction component that can press buttons and open doors. This enables players to create remote operated vehicles that can perform repair and maintenance tasks. These new components are in response to the fantastic player feedback we have received about the new underwater update, and they will go a long way to giving new functionality and purpose to ROVs.



Our development plans continue as normal, with several minor updates in the works. The next few minor updates include new features, many of which are interesting new components. As always, we prefer to share info only once the update is ready to avoid disappointment. We look forward to releasing this new minor updates to the usual schedule, which is every 2 weeks.



We have also been working on several big updates, which we expect to release as major updates or over time as minor updates. One update in particular is coming together really well, and we are getting really excited about other ways we could improve and expand it into something much bigger. So, we are considering greatly expanding that update into something far bigger than a major update, and perhaps a whole new DLC, but no decision has been made yet. It will all make more sense when we are further along and can share more info and made more decisions!



As always, we look forward to your thoughts and feedback. See you here next week for the minor update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The new underwater major update is out now!

This update includes:

Underwater Biome

The new biome includes a series of volcanic islands, based on many of the volcanic islands in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Many of these new islands are active volcanoes and can erupt at random or on request from the custom menu.

The biome also includes new under-sea features, including a trench, sea floor cabling, ruins, wrecks, and many kilometers of winding an interlinked underwater tunnels. The tunnels can be accessed from underwater, and also new caves on some islands.

There are many new locations, named in honour of great community members and workshop creators. Thank you to the selfless and kind people who give up their time to help other players, and thank you to the talented creators who have reached high popularity with incredible creations on the workshop. There are many more community heroes and creators than we have had chance to honour, and look forward to naming more locations in the future.



Underwater Missions

There are several new mission types, including submersed rescues, salvage, and repairs. These missions can spawn in many locations across the world, as well as specific new locations in the new biome.

It is now easier to see underwater as we have increased visibility and lighting, to help with underwater operations.



Glow Sticks

To help keep track of locations and add some softer illumination at night or underwater, we have added new glow sticks! The color of the glowsticks can be painted in the editor, and they will last a long time when deployed.

Sonar

We have added new sonar components, that behave in a more realistic manner. Sonar can now listen in all directions at once, and can operate in active and passive mode. In active mode, the sonar emits a loud ping which travels far through water, bouncing back off vehicles and other objects with a delay relative to the distance travelled. Passive sonar simply listens and can detect propellers, engines, and other noisy parts.



We are really excited to release this new update and can't wait to hear back from players on your thoughts and feedback! Thanks to all the support and feedback we have received that has made this new update possible.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



v1.5.0 Underwater Update

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via 'geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks' which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.
Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

While we made no infrastructure changes in this update we still recommend creating a new save file as various new environment zones have been added to the default scripts to allow the new mission types to spawn.

Feature - New Volcanic Archipelago biome (#5171 #879 #2019)
Feature - New underwater themed missions and mission improvements
Feature - New Glowstick Equipment (#801)
Feature - Advanced Sonars and Sonar Jammer (#337)

The new 40x40km volcanic archipelago biome is located south-west of the sawyer isles and is the new home of the Kraken.
The region features a series of small volcanoes interspersed with deep trenches, sunken landmarks and an intricate network of submerged passages.

With the addition of several underwater themed mission scenarios we also made various fixes and improvements to the existing mission infrastructure.
Missions should now have an easier time spawning as some theme filtering was previously limiting mission spawning too strictly, meaning some mission scenarios were previously unable to spawn successfully.
The Repair mission objective has been expanded in functionality to several mission types; players can expect to require an underwater welder for some of the new missions, with search-and-rescue missions sometimes offering an optional reward for repairing the vehicle in distress.

Feature - Added additional hospital-boat AI ships that now patrol specific biomes
Feature - New icon for addons with editable settings (in the addon selector menu)
Feature - #6898 Spawn Kraken button added to custom menu
Feature - Addon editor ocean toggle
Feature - 'Show timers' and 'Show rewards' mission addon settings
Fix - #1200 Vehicle save/load not serializing basic block damage & not generating damaged mesh on load
Fix - Ropes now use a constant number of physics nodes
Fix - Fixed 3 map icons sharing names internally causing them to render as a different icon
Fix - #5663 #6568 Missions/Cargo now check if spawn area is clear before spawning
Fix - Mission zones with no size now default to large instead of never spawning
Fix - Zone filtering causing certain mission locations to never spawn
Fix - #3132 Relative to seafloor mission tag behavior restored
Fix - Breakers/relays/chargers are no longer explode on damage
Fix - #7993 SRB fins now work underwater
Fix - Corrected buoyancy surfaces for large and medium warheads
Rework - The Kraken now only naturally spawns within the underwater biome.
Rework - Updated how mission descriptions are generated
Balance - #5026 Rebalanced mission rewards to be more generous
Balance - #5026 Rebalanced ocean lootboxes to be rarer
Balance - Increased cost of diving outfit to 2000

Addon Lua Api:

Added isLocationClear(transform, size_x, size_y, size_z)
Added getOceanFloor(transform)
Added "static" to getVehicleData()
Added to "parent_vehicle_id" and "parent_relative_transform" getZones()
Updated getCharacterData().interactible -> .interactable (Legacy spelling remains available)
Added radius param to addDamage and unlinked magnitude value from the radius.
Added a voxel pos optional override for setCharacterSeated instead of requiring to use the name
getVehicleData now includes a table named "components" which currently contains tables for seats, buttons and signs

Additional info is included in the in-game addon lua help tabs.

v1.4.20-24 (Hotfixes)

Fix - Issue with radar detection
Fix - Game audio issues / Mac audio crackling
Fix - Crash caused by door particles

Dear Stormworkers,

The next Stormworks major update is almost here! (Release date: 2nd June 2022) The new major update includes a new "ring of fire" biome with a series of fault-line volcanoes, underwater tunnels and trenches, new missions, and new sonar components! Here is some more info on what to expect:



New Sonar!

With the major update, we will add new sonar components. These new sonar parts are much more true to life, as they can listen in passive mode, as well as operate in active mode.

In passive mode, the new sonar parts detect noise producing components such as propellers, engines, etc. Sonar continuously listens in all directions at once, and this info is output to a composite channel in a similar way to radar.

In active mode, sonar emits a "ping" on command. This ping travels through water at 1480m/s and reflects off vehicles, returning their contact with a delay relative to their distance. Pings are considered noise producing, and are visible to passive radar.



New Missions!

The new missions include a variety of new types. Ocean floor rescue missions involve rescuing divers or submariners from below the surface, in a similar structure to the existing rescue missions. The depths of these missions is usually known and the player may need specialist rescue equipment. Occasionally these missions can occur where cave divers require rescue. These missions are probably the most dangerous as the underwater tunnel network is vast and it is easy to get lost.

Salvage missions involve recovering anchors, live munitions, or wrecked ships from the sea floor, and transporting them to their destination. These missions are more passive, with much longer timers as they are not emergencies and much less urgent. This allows more time to prepare, time to wait for the best weather, and perhaps even complete these missions in stages or in groups for maximum efficiency.

Repair missions introduce a new objective type where vehicles may need repairing with a repair torch. Some of these vehicles are on the surface, while others may be on the sea floor.



We are really excited to release this major update in just a few days on 2nd June 2022! Thank you to all the players who have given us feedback and support to make this update possible.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers