Dear Stormworkers,

In this post, we discuss the upcoming changes to fluid pressure, and new support for compressed gasses. This update isn't planned to release for months, but we have been working hard on these mechanics and there is loads to discuss.

Context

Players have been asking for compressed gasses for years. We recently asked for community feedback regarding if we should rework this mechanic, with the condition that this would mean a change to the way the game works (hopefully of limited effect to existing vehicles). The feedback was overwhelmingly supportive of a rework to add compressed gasses.

The existing mechanics don't allow air to be contained in custom tanks, or be compressed into a smaller container. This isnt realistic but the idea is to make the game simpler. Where a container is already full of air, there is no space for fuel unless you allow air to compress, and also allow back flow, or add some kind of relief valve. The risk is that (like in real plumbed systems) you can get airlock where trapped air can block flow.



A New Approach

Simply adding special compressed air tanks isn't great, because it doesn't make sense that air behaves differently in different containers, and it doesn't match up with the existing simplified fluid flow and pressure mechanics.

So, it is better to rework the existing pressure and flow system to generally allow compression, and for flow and pressure to also consider compression.



Compression and Pressure

We are developing a new system where pressure is in real world units (atmospheres). Pressure directly relates to compression, where gas occupies a tenth the volume at 10atm compared to 1atm. By adding compression, and directly deriving pressure from this compression, you get a simple system that better reflects the real world.

Fluid flows from high pressure to low pressure. The rate of flow is driven by the difference in pressure, and once pressure equalizes, flow stops.

Compartments

Custom tanks and sealed areas can now contain air, and this air can be compressed and flow. This makes resolving flow through doors much more complex but has been interesting to develop. The existing mechanics only allow for fluid to overflow from one compartment through a door to the next. With compressed gasses, now you can have gas blow out or rush in, while fluid still needs to level out. This is quite complex: consider the situation where on one side of a door, there is high water level but low pressure, while on the other, there is lots of highly compressed gas but only a little water. What happens when the door opens, moment by moment?



Delta Height

Within pipe systems, currently delta height equates to pressure. This is a mechanic we plan to remove, because of the complexity it introduces, and how confusing it can be when playing Stormworks, especially with the introduction of compression. By giving compartments a single pressure value, its a lot easier to play and understand, compared to pressure being different based on height inside the compartment.

Airlock

If air can no longer be created or destroyed, this does mean that air can be trapped and build up pressure, or a lack of air can mean that a vacuum resists a tank from emptying fluid. This is the downside of this rework, as while it might be realistic, you may sometimes need to understand a bit about pressure and plumbing. We are adding new gas and liquid relief valves to allow air pressure to escape or be drawn back into vacuums to solve this issue. What do you think? Is this a more powerful fluid system or more difficult to play?

There is loads more to discuss, but this post is already quite long!

We are working on this update, many other new improvements and fixes, as well as major updates and a new unannounced DLC.

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

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Fix - temporarily removed AI vehicles due to teleport issue

Dear Stormworkers,

The Oil Disaster Major Update is live now!



Ocean Oil Spills

The new oil spills system leaves a thick layer of oil on the ocean surface. This system is linked into Stormworks fluid system, so any oil that leaks from a vehicle will pollute the environment, and to clean up, the ocean must be pumped and filtered using the new oil-water separators.

These oil slicks will spread with ocean currents over time, as well as slowly diffuse outwards across the surface of the ocean.



Oil Disaster Missions

New missions introduce oil disasters to career mode. If not repaired quickly, damaged oil pipelines, or ships, can begin to leak oil, spilling huge quantities of oil into the ocean and creating huge environmental clean-up tasks.

The oil pollution runs on it's own mission system, similar to the forest fire system. Any oil spills will create new pollution clean-up tasks.



Oil Drilling Updates

We have added a new pivot-type pipe connector that is small, to make handing pipes much easier in many situations, as well as other fixes and improvements.



Lua Support

We have also added new lua functionality for add-on creators to interact with the new oil system.

Stormworks & DLCs is also on discount to celebrate the launch of this new major update!

We hope you enjoy the new content, system, and missions and look forward to your feedback! We have loads of new exciting updates in the works and will share more info soon!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.8.0

Feature - Ocean oil spills
Feature - #18571 Preset Oil Rig Example
Feature - Centrifugal Separator
Feature - New small oil rod end connector
Feature - Oil strike effect
Feature - Oil spill default missions

In this new update, oil that leaks into the ocean builds up and forms a visual film on the water surface.

Rework - Reduced playable area to 256km*256km
Rework - #18629 Removed length limit on drill rod segments
Rework - Improved anti-cheat support
Fix - #18764 Pumpjack multiplayer sync
Fix - Reduced oil drilling sfx radius

Addon Lua:

Added onOilSpill callback
Added getOilSpill and setOilSpill
Added new capability=oil tag support to the default missions script for oil spill missions

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