Dear Stormworkers,

This week is the announcement week, while next week will be a new minor update!

We want to dedicate this weeks announcement to saying a few words about creators. We wake up every day with a need to just make something. We are particularly lucky that this game is aimed at people who share this passion. Playing Stormworks is all about designing and creating, sharing what you have built, and thinking about how to improve it. We know how time consuming and difficult it is to make many of the Stormworks creations we see on the workshop. We really value our players passion for design and building. This type of game is not for everyone, and so there is a lot of excitement, joy, and pride to know that these qualities are shared with so many.



We have also talked about content creators and Youtubers before. The processes may be different, but I am sure there are a great many players who like us, appreciate and admire the determination, energy, creativity, and craft that goes into creating this kind of content. Building things is awesome.

But we also want to talk about the many other great building games on Steam. Steam has proven itself as the best platform by far, for supporting an ecosystem of specialist and niche games, that can only exist on PC.

I think around 9 years ago, when I was starting out as an indie game dev, I discovered Space Engineers and Kerbal Space Program. These games are technically creative, and innovative, but at the time, I was most amazed that they had proven viable. It seems obvious now, but 9 years ago, the idea that a highly technical building game for an audience who likes to geek out about science and build stuff, was crazy. These developers took the leap that has lead to a whole generation of new games for people like us. Thank you.

Other big games that deserve a lot of recognition is Scrap Mechanic, Astroneer, Satisfactory, and Stationeers. Each have pushed the genre in their own style, and their enthusiasm to believe in their vision, put everything behind it, and continue to love and support their players for years, is inspirational to all developers. Thank you guys, you are awesome.

This post is getting long, so sorry that we can't list more games or give all the praise these games deserve. Please do check them out and let us know about other games and why they are important in the comments!



Some quick notes:

AMD fixed their drivers!! If you have been crashing with AMD graphics recently, please update your drivers.

Potential new DLC! We are considering a huge update before the end of the year, including loads of new big features that we have been working on for over a year. Some will be part of a free update, while some of the optional stuff might be in a DLC.

Incoming minor updates with new content and components! We have the next few minor updates in testing and there is some great new content to come! Come back next week for the next one.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

In this minor update, we are adding a new size of tank tracks between the small and medium sizes. These tracks will be 2 blocks wide, which has been frequently requested by tracked vehicle creators who are struggling to get the look they are going for, because the 1-wide tracks were too narrow, and the 3-wide tracks too wide. These new tracks otherwise work just like the others!



We have also been continuing to look at multiplayer. A popular request is for servers with players on to be sorted to the top of the list. This makes it much easier to find servers with players already on. We have also been looking at a rare issue where some players found themselves such in place and unable to move in multiplayer. We have made some improvements to this, and it should be resolved for most users.

This update also contains the usual bug fixes and improvements. Please see the full patch notes below.



Thanks to all the players giving great feedback on potential audio changes! We have been planning many of these suggested changes, and they should make for some great minor updates.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.7

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 - New medium size tank track wheels (#9371 #5466)

Rework - Updated dedicated server sorting algorithm to lower the priority of empty servers
Rework - Amended multiplayer client event processing for more consistent ticking

Fix - #9783 Adjacent hatch buoyancy generation preventing vehicle spawn
Fix - #5456 An issue with door buoyancy surfaces with water entering
Fix - #10013 Fix resize selection grid crash
Fix - #10794 Lighting flare billboards are now based on light intensity
Fix - #11054 Addon editor focus now raycasts correctly when the target point is below height 0
Fix - Fix some components requiring more charge to activate than they use
Fix - #10716 #2622 Special colours (orange) are now ignored for character meshes
Fix - #11365 Removed input/output labels from two way logic node types
Fix - #11486 Fixed some issues resolving refunded cost when removing asymmetric vehicle components in symmetry mode
Fix - #9657 Fixed mirroring issues for the Fluid jet
Fix - Prevented some cases where inputs can be sticky while interacting with buttons
Fix - Crash caused by parsing states of vehicles with microcontrollers
Fix - Crash when attempting to send data to a server that has been disconnected from

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with a minor update due for release next week!

We are working hard to improve Stormworks in many directions! Some of these directions are less interesting to talk about in an announcement, such as fixing crashes and digging through netcode, while more cosmetic changes tend to be easier to write about.

One such direction we are exploring is improvements to audio! For a long time, players have been asking for improvements to various sound effects, and asking for new sound effects where audio would be useful feedback. For the last 8 years we have been lucky enough to work with Chris Randle and Jon Daou across various games.

For sound effects it has worked best in the past to order in batches, but for Stormworks we have frequently found ourselves needing sound effects on a weekly basis for a new component or interaction. This has encouraged reuse of SFX, or missing SFX out, and there are many places where we would want to improve.



Instead of ordering in batches, we will now be having a sound engineer work weekly with the team to improve all these missing and borrowed sounds, but also work creatively on the sound design. We hope this will bring a big improvement of quality of audio over the coming months, and we will be looking to players to let us know where they think we should start, and where the highest priorities are in terms of improving audio.

In the mean time, we will also be getting on with all the various fixes and improvements, minor updates (including new frequently requested components), major updates, potential new DLC, and more.

We look forward to your audio ideas!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

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.