Dear Stormworkers,

Today we release the Physics Sensor Minor Update! This includes the new physics sensor, which is a new component giving composite logical output including positional and rotational information.



This data output is particularly useful for microcontroller designers who are interested in building their own gyros and other motion control systems, which should now be much easier and practical.



This component is in response to player requests on the issue tracker and we continue to enjoy hearing your thoughts and ideas and implementing them when possible!



As well as this new component feature, we have several useful fixes and improvements! Please see the patch notes below for full details.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.14

Feature - Physics Sensor (#10065 #10119 #3793 #4465)

The physics sensor component combines functionality of several other sensors into a convenient single block.
The sensor outputs position, rotation, linear and angular speeds over 14 composite channels detailed on the component.

Fix - #16642 Wheel secondary physics issues for clients
Fix - #17831 Seafloor generation issue
Fix - #15856 No longer convert rescued survivors to static NPCs, instead update their display name to 'Rescued'
Fix - #13931 Ai boats/aircraft now track damage and despawn after 2 mins if above threshold
Fix - #13936 Return value of getZones not including Zone parent vehicle data
Fix - #14017 Added editor arrows for wings
Fix - #14835 Fixed teleporting under the map through very tall terrain
Fix - #13078 Rotor physics mirroring issues
Fix - #14848 Metal ore foundry mesh issues
Fix - #14851 Gold foundry mesh issues

Addon Lua:
- Added setCharacterTooltip and setCreatureTooltip for renaming non-player Characters and Animals

Dear Stormworkers,

It is announcement week! Next week is minor update update week, and next week we will be releasing the recently announced physics sensor, as well as other fixes and improvements.

A new major update is on the way! We were hoping to announce this week, but as always, we are very cautious to announce anything until it is ready, and there are some more improvements that we want to get finished.



Our Update Announcement Strategy

Big updates are exciting, and when you are working new features, it is very easy for developers to get carried away with enthusiasm. We are no exception, and it is thrilling to see things come together and think about the new possibilities that this new work unlocks! We would love to share every step with players, but this can result in an overall negative player experience, as players would see the many ideas that don't work out, get cancelled, or de-prioritized. We are also big believers in doing rather than talking, and the focus has always been about the product and real value, rather than words or promises.

So, our strategy is to get new features to a stage where we are happy, then share the news to players with the confidence that we can deliver.



Studio Plans and Development Strategy

Stormworks released on Early Access on 28th Feb 2018, almost 5 years ago! And we had the invite-only beta 6 months prior. For years we released updates every week, and now every 2 weeks. There have been dozen of major updates and even two DLCs. Players have amassed over 6000 years of playtime.

We are very fortunate that Stormworks is a popular game, and making updates for players and seeing their reactions is very rewarding. This is something that must continue and we want to do our best to serve our players as best we can.

The challenge we are increasingly facing is that after 2 years of pre-release development and 5 years of servicing, the code becomes more and more fatigued. The Stormworks source code excluding third party libraries and comments is over 15 million characters. On top of this, we have made all the easy updates, and a lot of the not-so-easy ones. Stuff that should be easy turns out to be very complex to integrate with those 15m characters of existing source code. What is left tends to be difficult to deliver.

Our current strategy is to just get on with it and do the jobs, no matter how difficult. Obviously, this is a short term strategy and in the long term, there are better ways to serve our players.

So, our long term strategy is a new game and we have some very ambitious plans. Moving forward is important, so the new game won't be Stormworks 2, but it will be design and vehicle building game, taking lessons from Stormworks and from what our players have told us. We are discussing a lot about player authorship, modding, gameplay and purpose, and a lot of things never done before in a game.

Stormworks updates will continue, and we will work on our new game in parallel.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback! Catch you next week for the minor update.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is update week and we have added 24 new occupation themed outfit items for your characters!

These new outfits can be accessed and tried out via the wardrobe in game. These new outfits are based on workplace attire and include clothing from surgeon and nurse uniforms to park rangers and fishermen.



This update also includes several important fixes and improvements. Please see the patch notes below for full details.

We have a big announcement to make next week about a new update so please be sure to come back for that!



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

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.13

Feature - 24 New Occupation Themed Outfit Items

Rework - Steam Train Wheels balance and fixes (#16227 #14723 #14697 #16960)
Rework - Updated and improved the default cargo containers (#9615 #10724)
Rework - #7841 Updated the Helicopter preset vehicle and added a Default Container preset
Fix - #5126 #4135 Fixed various hangar door sounds, indoor zones and airstrip lights
Fix - #12983 Police station door and other physics fixed
Fix - #15564 Fixed thin tile physics issue
Fix - #16221 Prevented memory leak caused by LODS when there are no tile sin LOD range
Fix - #14595 Rope length output node now updates dynamically
Fix - #15169 Sync resource storage data on game join
Fix - #16146 SpawnVehicleRope using the wrong data for loaded vehicles
Fix - #16288 Respawn issues when respawning under delayed damage
Fix - #16404 Ski mirroring issues
Fix - #16184 Coal hopper network events for sub-bodies

Added new sound effects for the Wildcat and [REDACTED]

Addon Lua:
- #16090 setVehiclePosSafe behavior reworked to avoid unreliable internal data
- #3854 Added setAudioMood which allows setting the audio mood to a higher level for a peer which naturally decreases over time
Added setAudioMood calls to the default missions script
- #15918 Add support for map label type 0 to prevent crash

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with minor updates happening last week and next week!

This week, we discuss the Stormworks community, as well as provide a short overview for newer players.

Stormworks now has over 500,000 players. As a designing and building game, many of our players have passion and enthusiasm for making things, or have interest in mechanical sciences, and a fascination for how things work. Our players can be any age, but even our younger players are often mature and thoughtful. The community is so often a bright, positive, and engaged place, and we pay tribute to all the kind and talented players who make it what it is.

As a developer, it is hugely rewarding to have a role in a positive, intelligent community, and see players teaching and learning, creating and thinking. We find the creation aspect of making software to be rewarding, but to see this community grow from just a piece of software means so much more, so thank you to all players.

If you are driven to create, or otherwise interested in simulation games and vehicle operation, we recommend checking out the community and sharing your experiences with others.



Official Discord Server: https://discord.gg/stormworks

The official discord server is a great place to share what you are working on, check out other people's creations, and chat and learn from the other 50k players on the server. There is the vehicle showcase, which is an image only channel where people post images of their creations, and is awesome to browse and source ideas and inspiration. There is also a dedicated channel for discussing lua in Stormworks, as well as add ons. There is even a fan-art channel (although this is mostly Stormworks memes!).



Official Issue Tracker: https://geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks

The official issue tracker is where players can report bugs and request features for Stormworks. This is the best way to reach out to the developers. We review all requests and have frequent meetings where we discuss new and old issues. Players can only log in to the official issue tracker through the game menu but can browse with the link above. With over half-a-million players, the issue tracker has been essential to managing the volume of communication and requests, and lets us order and organize. It's actually version 2 and there is an old issue tracker which we replaced to improve player experience and our own efficiency.



Steam Community: https://steamcommunity.com/app/573090

The Steam community has some great content, and you can browse players screenshots, videos, guides, and more, as well as see the news (where this announcement gets posted!). These posts are weekly, and are the place for official announcements!



Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/app/573090/workshop/

The workshop is just incredible and brings the entire dev team so much joy. The creations that players have made are breath taking and you can add them to your game with just a single click. Many items have taken players hundreds of hours to create, and the top items can have over 50k subscriptions! Thank you to all the players who have shared their creativity here.



Unofficial Communities

There are also loads of unofficial communities, including other Discord servers, sub reddits, Youtubers and their subscribers, and more. The above is only the tip of the iceberg.

If you want to get involved, please treat others with respect and be positive!

Next week we will be bringing you new outfits and other improvements in the minor update! And we are still working on other updates including the next minor update which we will share info on soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This weeks minor update is focused on fixes and improvements. While there is no headline feature, the update does contain a variety of reworks, rethinks, improvements, and fixes. All these changes are in response to player feedback on the official issue tracker so many thanks to all those players who have been in touch!

We have reworked the benchmarks to be a single benchmark application that uses the same vehicles used in the Weapons DLC AI conquest mode.



We have also added a new vehicle spawning warning for vehicles that contain a lot of data. There are internal limits on max data payload of a vehicle. These limits are very rarely hit but the warning is useful if they are hit. These limits relate to the data size of an internal format rather than the xml save file format that players would be more familiar with.

As well as these, there are many other changes. Please see the full list below for details.

We have many updates planned, in development, and in testing, that contain new features and are due for release in the coming weeks and months. We will continue working hard to get these updates ready!



We look forward to your thoughts and feedback on these new changes!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.12

Todays update features various bugfixes and quality improvements.

Misc - #3755 Display a warning when spawning vehicles with large file sizes
Fix - #14986 Replaced old benchmarks with a single new benchmark with updated AI vehicles
Fix - #14293 Missile laser sensor erroneously culling data points
Fix - #14597 Search filtering including filepath as vehicle name
Fix - #14677 #14784 #14751 Improved editor arrows for steam train pistons to indicate orientation
Fix - #15079 Audio playback rates for some sound effects differing from preview
Fix - #15769 Render eyebrows in armor outfits
Fix - #15827 Editor symmetry erase highlighting
Fix - #15817 Addon editor issues with cyrillic/unicode filepaths
Fix - #14678 Removed bottom voxels from train wheels and pistons to reduce collision issues
Fix - #8603 Fix Magall light not updating for multiplayer clients
Fix - #15828 Remove parented addon zones when their parent despawns
Fix - #15863 Restock tooltips now show the correct item name
Fix - #16013 Update Spycakes hangar resource storage placement
Fix - #16062 Fix localization generation for files with missing xml nodes
Fix - #16075 #16983 Fix mesh and physics issues at North Harbor
Fix - #16127 Vehicle selection grid lists no longer reset scroll on open
Fix - #16178 Fix creatures being spawnable without the DLC (and crashing)
Fix - #16186 Fluid nozzle description update
Fix - #16258 Fix physics mesh at Donkk Ruins
Fix - Fix addons not rebuilding internal locations correctly on reload, fixed these cases in default missions and weapons dlc scripts

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with minor updates releasing every two weeks (next one is next week!).

This is a short post, discussing the upcoming updates.

As usual, we are planning minor updates every 2 weeks, with a few major updates per year. Upcoming minor updates include bug fix focused updates, new occupational outfits, new compact physics sensors, cross-script communication support, and more.



We are also hard at work on some of the upcoming major updates, one of which we hope to announce soon.

We are also reviewing many of the older feature requests submitted on the issue tracker as we plan more updates for the year!



We will return next week with the next minor update and look forward to sharing more minor and major update details soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Many players have let us know that multiplayer is a top priority for Stormworks, and this week we are releasing an important update for many players.

This update greatly optimizes the game simulation for multiplayer clients. This update will fix desync and input delay for many players.



For some players, an issue has occurred in the past when playing multiplayer, and their PC has been much slower than the server PC. Despite clients running less calculations than servers, if the server is a great deal faster, then sometimes the client cannot keep up and is left behind. This has had the effect of input delay that slowly increases as the server gets further and further ahead. As you can imagine, this was a huge issue if your PC could not keep up.

To resolve this, we have greatly optimized the simulation performance of clients. There is much less calculations being performed on clients (particularly physics) and this means clients have much less work to do.



In our testing, we have been able to push multiplayer much harder, including spawning more complex vehicles and lots of animals and zombies. However, we have not made changes to the servers, so the usual rules still apply - creating complex creations with lots of vehicles and objects can still slow the server down for everyone! So please keep this in mind.

This update is a huge step forward for multiplayer, but doesn't fix every issue and development does continue.



As well as these multiplayer fixes, we have many other fixes and improvements. Please see the patch notes below for details.

We hope these changes improve your multiplayer experience and look forward to your feedback!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.11

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 - Multiplayer client physics optimization

Fix - Several gameplay managers ticking their state while simulation is paused
Fix - #15336 Arid map colour discrepancies, added lua functions to support rock and gravel map colours
Fix - #14792 Default cargo container timer displaying negative values
Rework - #14626 Visually revised the mating surfaces for steam train parts to clarify that they need to be the same size and also oriented correctly to connect
Balance - #14967 Increased despawn times for processed metals dynamic objects
Fix - #14996 setTileInventory lua documentation
Fix - #15088 #15570 Lua documentation content issues
Fix - #15210 Updated default resource storage vehicle
Fix - #15142 Updated missiles on default weapons AI destroyers
Fix - #15371 Default rescue scripts showing decimals for some numbers
Fix - #1554 Re-exported Warner docks map tile geometry
Fix - #15655 Observatory landmark vehicle guard rail updates
Fix - #15683 Removed newlines from dog whistle description
Fix - #15688 Fixed block damage not parsing correctly (and optimized empty value parsing)
Fix - Optimized trainline generation speed
Fix - #16044 Updated desalinator description

A high volume of reports on the issue tracker have made us aware of a multiplayer issue regarding the old style wheel components.
While we hope players are very happy with today's performance improvements we were unable to fix this issue for this release and hope to resolve it for a future update.

Dear Stormworkers,

It is update week! This week we are adding seasonal skins for many of the animals including dogs and farm animals!



This new feature is entirely cosmetic and just a bit of fun, to make players smile for the winter holiday. It is time limited and is only active during the winter holiday in-game event (which is controlled by the date setting on your computer).



Fixes and Improvements

Of course, most of the content in this update is fixes and improvements! Please see the patch notes below for full details.



Steam Sale

Stormworks is in the Steam Winter Sale! Discounts are active during the whole Steam Sale until January 5th.

We hope you enjoy the new update, have a great holiday, and we will catch you in the new year for more updates!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.10

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 - #12768 Seasonal skins for animals

Rework - #14617 Lock derailing behind vehicle damage setting
Fix - Lua scripts memory leak crash
Fix - Ocean thread memory leak
Fix - Beginner Island missing seasonal assets
Fix - Added default storage zone to meier outpost garage
Fix - #14925 Fix typo in kahrstrom gas station
Fix - #15024 Only tick world raycasting vehicle components if scene is ticking
Fix - #15015 Fix building fires not failing to spawn if their tile is not in range and the player is near world origin
Fix - #15503 Removed rps nodes from small and mid steam train wheels
Fix - #15764 Unopenable door, and Invisible door hitbox in Aljon Hospital
Fix - #15791 Arctic train signals missing
Fix - #14620 Reserved voxels on x3 train wheels
Fix - #14673 Fixed missing physics voxels on large train wheels
Fix - #14623 #15228 #14897 #15063 Fixed small train wheels force resolution issues
Fix - #14662 Derailed train wheels damping
Rework - #14953 Removed dysfunctional vehicle editor resource usage hints
Fix - #15226 Fix negative uranium fuel levels
Balance - #15226 Reverted balance change to rod consumption rate (now 100x longer)
Fix - #15000 Reload scripts now reloads from the autosave directory
Fix - Mesh height on large steam drive piston
Fix - #15414 Check NPC damage setting before applying injuries in default missions
Fix - #15598 Train Bridges Causing Random Explosions on Trains
Fix - #15833 Trainline issue near Serpentine Trainyard
Fix - Updated main menu tile render priority for arid and seasonal events

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with the new Christmas minor update due out next week!

Christmas mode has already activated in Stormworks! During the holiday period, there is a time-activated winter wonderland mode where rain always appears as snow, trees are the snow type, and some locations have seasonal decorations.



Next week, this will be further enhanced by many of the animals joining the fun with their own decorations! These cosmetic changes are just a bit of fun, but next weeks update also includes lots of fixes and improvements which are worth checking out.

On 6th January, we are also planning a multiplayer optimization update which we expect to be a big improvement for a lot of players.



We are excited about sharing the next few minor updates, and are deep into work on the upcoming major updates!

We asked for player feedback on what is most desired for upcoming major updates a month or so back. Thanks to all the players who gave their feedback, this has been really useful and we have some great updates in the works.



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

It is minor update week! This week we are increasing the number of inventory slots for carrying first person items.

This is a long requested feature, from almost immediately after the release of first person items! Carrying more items has become increasingly important as we have added new items and increased their importance over the last year.



This update also includes loads of fixes and improvements! Please see the change notes below for full details, as it is these fixes that we have been spending most of our time on!

We will continue working through the mini roadmap that we recently announced! We have loads in progress and in testing and we look forward to sharing more updates.



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

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.6.9

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 - #15692 Increased number of small equipment slots
Feature - #15213 Weapons addon Arid base locations
Feature - #14388 Particle effects graphics option

Fix - #14677 #14784 #14751 Added editor arrows to steam train drive pistons to help place them correctly
Fix - #13910 Character editor skin tone issue
Fix - #13948 Fix controller move axes not working for noclip mode
Fix - #14313 Camera Set Origin Broken In Selection Grid
Fix - Dogs picking up non-equipment items
Fix - #12627 Moved overlapping train edit grid
Fix - #14607 Prevent crash when changing to an invalid resolution from fullscreen
Fix - #14730 Submarine island workbench physics mesh
Fix - #14762 Add delay between dropping equipment / using equipment boxes to prevent equipment duplication
Fix - #14843 Creatures not spawning blood effects when hit by rotors
Fix - #14847 Arid train terminal road geometry
Fix - #14852 Floating bridge geometry
Fix - #14876 Light on bridge not moving
Fix - #14880 Clipping through stairs on bridges
Fix - #14894 FJ warner boat dock physics mesh issues
Fix - #14907 Mineral funnel sound stuck after running out of material
Fix - #14909 Fixed physics mesh for ladder in Olli switch yard
Fix - #15249 Addon lua docs formatting
Fix - #15014 Fix characters falling through floor after being released by a dragging animal
Fix - #15017 Invisible train barrier at Serpentine Trainyard
Fix - #15096 Thin physics at Beginner Base Fence
Fix - #15208 Brainz Train Yard Doorway Collision
Fix - #15272 North harbour lighting issues
Fix - #15308 Fix crash when despawning creature being carried / carrying equipment via LUA
Fix - #15313 Fixed overlapping terrain at kobold quarry
Fix - #15372 Prevent rope connections from disconnecting when entering 3rd person mode in seats
Fix - #15407 JSI dock teleport location
Fix - #15462 Fixed some trainline terrain issues
Fix - #15470 Not transparent windows
Fix - #15500 #15501 Brainz terminal lights
Fix - #15581 Road geometry issue

Addon Lua:
Please take note that functions which interact with character inventories will need updating in accordance with new slots.
SLOT_NUMBER |
1 = Large Equipment Slot,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 = Small Equipment Slot,
10 = Outfit Slot