Dear Stormworkers,

Oil Disasters Major Update - 23rd June

In one week (on 23rd June) the new Oil Disasters Major Update will release!

This major update includes the new oil spill system where oil can leak into the environment, disperse, and spread with the current. Oil can be removed and the pollution cleaned using the new oil separators.

New mission content involves damaged oil tankers, pipeline leaks, requiring ocean cleanup as well as submarine repairs! Submersible ROVs will have new value and purpose with these new mission types.

As well as oil disasters, we are adding some new improvements to oil mining.



Anti-Cheat Update

A few weeks ago we announced that some multiplayer communities had asked for our help with some hackers who were using modified clients to impersonate other peoples Steam IDs, spawn weapons with infinite ammo, crash servers, pirate DLCs, etc. We take this cheating and hacking behaviour very seriously and we announced new anti cheat support.

It was a very sad day to add anti-cheat to a non-competitive, sandbox game, with an overwhelming majority of kind and creative players. Our strategy is to close the ability to use these exploits, as well as detect and ban these hackers so they cannot return with more creative attacks. Bans are only issued after multiple developers have carefully and thoroughly considered the technical evidence, and there is certainty.

Modding is not affected by this. We love checking out many of the creative mods that players have made, and are inspired by the incredible work and effort that goes into building them! We are only concerned with modified machine code that attacks servers or enables piracy.



Future Development

We remain hard at work preparing minor updates, major updates, and this years DLC which we hope to announce in the next couple of months! We are also already planning major updates for 2024 as we continue to support the game and the community.

We look forward to your thoughts and feedback! Join us next week for the launch of Oil Disasters!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Rework - Improved anti-cheat support

v1.7.9

Fix - fix crash with setVehiclePos if global vehicle is not found

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we add 3 new animals to the Industrial Frontier biome: the buffalo, the bighorn sheep, and the roadrunner! We have also added crates to this biome.



These peaceful beasts, and crates, can be found across the arid biome for owners of the Industrial Frontier DLC.

For all players, there are a series of fixes and improvements, many of which are important, so please check the patch notes below.



For Discord users, we have added a new verification and Stormworker role system! You can now use /verify and /stormworker commands to confirm your Steam account and request the Stormworker role (to verify you must own the game, and for Stormworker you must have 1000 hours in game).

This is important because, as with all Discord servers, there is a long standing problem with people and bots who do not own or have any interest in Stormworks, joining the server just to grief or offend. The hope is that we can get a high number of players verifying their accounts, and then could restrict posting images and links to verified players, or something like that.



We have also launched a new Stormworks merchandise webpage because many players have found the Red Bubble store confusing, and we are inclined to agree.

The major update launches in just 2 weeks! The Oil Disaster Major Update launches on 23rd June so be sure to check back then for the update.



Beyond that, we also have loads of minor updates in the works (for release every 2 weeks), and we hope to announce the upcoming DLC in the next couple of months.

We look forward to your feedback on this new update!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.7.8

Feature - Arid Island Herbivores

Greater Roadrunner
Bighorn Sheep
Buffalo

Rework - Improved anti-cheat support
Fix - #17851 Align medium tank tracks to their wheels
Fix - #17938 Slow doors on creative island
Fix - #18104 Monitors turning off when not looking directly at them
Fix - #18112 Fix controller losing focus in UI after binding ui navigation button to an action
Fix - #18345 setVehiclePosSafe now returns result position even on failure (fixed ai aircraft script error)
Fix - #18401 Added loot crates for arid and underwater islands
Fix - #18567 Mesh issue on the top of the Oil rig pumpjack
Fix - #19690 Hose int affecting rope length
Fix - #19692 Stopped clearing attach states for characters or creatures attempting to reattach to their current seat

Dear Stormworkers,

The Oil Disaster Major Update is our next major update and arrives on the 23rd of June!

Oil spills and slicks are introduced in this major update. Oil that leaks from wells, ships, pipelines, or anything else will pollute the ocean. This pollution will create an oil slick that sits on the surface of the ocean, and will disperse and be carried by ocean current over time.

The environment can be cleaned up by pumping this damaged sea water out of the ocean and through the new centrifugal separator. This separator takes in the mixture of oil and water, and uses an impeller to spin the fluid, pushing the less dense oil to the centre of the vortex, and the more dense water to the outside. One output port then filters off a more oily mixture, while the other outputs more water. The separator does not completely separate the fluids, so a multi-stage system is recommended as the most efficient.



New missions introduce oil leaks to rigs, ships, and pipelines, and these damaged systems will slowly leak oil until repaired. Significant leaks will create new missions to clean up the pollution, and these missions are tracked across the ocean as the current disperses the spill.

Further improvements are also introduced for the previous major update, including a small pivoting rod cap for simpler and more convenient interaction with rods, and other fixes and improvements.



Thanks to all the players who contributed oil industry ideas and suggestions! We have had a lot of fun working on this update and look forward to releasing this new major update soon!

Next week we have a minor update focused on the industrial frontier, and we continue work on compressible gasses (thank you for all your feedback on that!) which we hope to share in the next couple of months.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

It is update week! This update is smaller than usual, and is a handful of fixes. Some of these fixes will be important to some players, such as fixes for workshop upload on Mac, but obviously, not all players will be affected by every fix.

Next week on the 2nd June, we will be announcing the release date and details of the next major update! This major update is in the final stages of development and we are really excited to share more info.



The following week on 9th June, there will be a new normal-sized minor update which will also include some new features for Industrial Frontier owners.

A long standing request we have had from some players is to add support for compressible gasses into Stormworks. This is useful for a bunch of stuff, especially submarines. This is something we have been looking at, because we think it is a great idea and because it is something that many players need. Air and exhaust can already be pumped through pipes and it makes most sense that it should also be able to be stored and compressed in pre-made tanks and custom tanks.



With any change to the mechanics of the game, we are mindful to keep existing behaviour the same, and are testing loads of vehicles as we experiment with changes. Allowing gas to be stored in tanks is a subtle change, and while it may not affect most vehicles, it may be that 1 or 2% of vehicles with unusual piping designs may rely on air not flowing into a tank and would require updating with a filter.

This is a typical problem that we often face, where the desire to improve the game and move forward comes into direct conflict with the risk of breaking a small number of vehicles, and there are many players pushing us in both directions. Obviously, it isn't possible for the game to change and also remain unchanged at the same time!



What do you think. Should we add compressible gasses after testing, with the risk of causing 1 or 2% of workshop creations to require update? Or is this a bad idea and we should leave the game as it is?



We continue work on the updates and will return next week with the big announcement!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.7.7

Fix - #13169 Add-ons fail to upload to the Steam workshop on Mac
Fix - #18007 Fix mixing inverted and non-inverted tank track wheels causing wheels to spin backwards
Fix - #18014 Reversed srb fins animations and editor arrows to match their physics behavior
Fix - #18167 Fix missing voxels on the large engine
Fix - #18589 Updated clarke airfield road mesh
Fix - #18630 Fix multi-segment rods being disconnected by rod connector component incorrectly

Dear Stormworkers,

Today we are launching some designs for official Stormworks merchandise on Red Bubble.

Check out the Stormworks Red Bubble store page here.

For years now, players have been asking for physical goods like t-shirts and mugs, and we have had loads of fun discussing ideas and designing! The Red Bubble store makes it very easy to do, and it has entirely been an art exercise - no engineers were distracted from developing the game.



We have started off with some simple logo designs, as well as our new kraken-attack illustration. We have also ordered our own stuff and have been wearing t-shirts and hoodies to check the quality before launch. We have started off with a bunch of the t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers.

Do you have ideas for designs, or think we should do other types of product available on Red Bubble, like phone cases etc.? Let us know! We plan to occasionally launch more designs, as it is easy and fun to do, and a great announcement to make in the weeks between minor updates.



We expect merch to only be a tiny part of our business, and have left the mark-up low. We wanted to do it because some players want this stuff, and it has been fun to design. However, if this doesn't interest you, we are just happy you play our game, and have plenty of updates and new game content on the way :-)

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

v1.7.6

- Fixed build issue where some natural disaster mission files were not being packaged

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is update week, and we are adding new features to ropes in Stormworks!

Rope inventory equipment now has a new option to set the length of the rope when placing it in first person. This makes it possible to place equal length ropes rather than the ropes always being sized based on the distance of the connector anchors. You can still use the auto-length mode, or cycle through a series of fixed lengths.

Ropes will also be destroyed when their rope anchors take damage! If you are using ropes for structural or tethering purposes, this means that your vehicles will react to damage in a new way, making their response to damage a little richer.

Ropes are also now less elastic or stretchy, particularly with heavier objects. If you are using ropes to attach vehicles together using an intermediate connector or block, we recommend either skipping the intermediate connector block, or adding weight blocks to it. This will improve the rope simulation stability and make the ropes less stretchy.



There are also several bug fixes and improvements which you may find useful! Please see the patch notes below.

Some players have also reported to us that they suspect a small amount of hacking in multiplayer servers. Yes, you heard that right. Hacking in a non-competitive, non-esports, vehicle building game. Why??? We can't understand. Anyway, this is against our terms of use, and the Steam subscriber agreement, so we will be protecting our players from this kind of thing. We can detect this kind of behaviour, and we may issue bans and revoke licenses in the future.



We are continuing work on several new updates, so expect another minor update in 2 weeks, and we should hopefully be announcing more info on merch, the next major update, upcoming DLC, and more over the next few months!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.7.5

Feature - #2429 First Person Rope lengths

This update welcomes a new feature for ropes in Stormworks and also some behind the scenes changes to improve their behaviour.

- First person rope items can now be cycled with the secondary action key to change their length:
Dynamic(40m), 1m, 2m, 4m, 8m, 16m
The Dynamic 40m behaviour represents the old auto-spooling behaviour where the length is set when attached to a second anchor. All other lengths represent new non-elastic lengths.

- Ropes, hoses and cables are now less elastic and behave more consistently with high mass bodies.
- Ropes, hoses and cables will now snap when their anchor is damaged.
- Ropes will return to the default dynamic length when detached and picked up by a player.
- Improved handling of ropes for unloading and loading vehicles.

Fix - #16738 Animal biting characters releasing character physics partially underground
Fix - #16738 Fix creatures being unplaceable in seats, correctly remove creatures from seats on death for clients
Fix - Animals revived with defibrillator killing multiplayer clients with physics collision on bite
Fix - Clients applying forces to carried creatures with kinematic physics
Fix - Characters being incapacitated while already in ragdoll state from creature not syncing to multiplayer clients
Fix - #14119 Rotate buttons not disappearing while in micro-controller menu
Fix - #17932 Render moustaches under new hats
Fix - #17820 Fixed safari male mesh
Fix - Reactors now consider all fluid types when determining fluid volume to heat (prev. just water and seawater, leading to unexpected behaviour)
Fix - C4 on vehicle twilight zone for clients
Fix - Several uncommon physics crashes

Notes for Addon Lua:

Due to the new ropes changes it is no longer possible to create ropes with a length less than the attach distance and this may affect some existing scripts using spawnVehicleRope.
For distances less than 40m you should still be able to pass length 0 to automatically create a rope using the distance between anchors as the length.

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with a new feature planned for release in the minor update next week!

This week we have launched Steam login for our issue tracker. This is something that players have been asking for, ever since we launched our first issue tracker. This is something we continue to work on as we plan to continue and improve our support into the future.

Previously, the issue tracker didn't have a login, and players would just click the "report a bug" or "request a feature" buttons. They would then be asked to approve the creation their support account, where the username and password was just generated. This was super easy for players, but in the situation where you delete your settings file, change Windows user account, or reinstall Windows, your account would be lost.



With Steam sign-in, you don't need a Geometa account, and sign-in is handled by Steam. We don't see your Steam username or password, we only see your Steam account number which is just the number in the address of your public Steam profile webpage. This allows us to hold the least possible info about you, and still provide support.

This means you will be safe from losing access to your issue tracker account in the future. Signing in with Steam will also automatically connect to your existing Geometa issue tracker account so still have your current issues and comments.

This also means you can now login through the website rather than only through the game! We do need PC specs to reliably provide support, so you will need to login through the game for the first time. However, from then on, you can just login through your browser. This is a trial feature as this means that we don't get the info on what version of the game you have. We will see if this works, or if we need that info.



Steam sign-in also has the benefit to us for verifying game ownership! Stormworks piracy remains rare, but there have been occasions where we have spent hours and hours helping players solve their technical issues, only to discover the cause is a dodgy pirate exe file! Yeah, that's pretty frustrating when that happens...

We will continue hard at work on all the upcoming updates, and catch you next week!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers