Dear Stormworkers,

Last week we released the Fishing Rod Major Update and we have enjoyed seeing all the adventures that players have been going on, ways players have been fishing, and the huge trend of players taking screenshots of themselves holding fish!



We have also enjoyed reading your feedback and even watching the feedback videos that several Youtubers have made with their communities. A lot of this stuff has been noted down and we can discuss it more in an upcoming Q&A session. We are very busy and not sure when this will be, but hopefully we can set a date in the next few weeks.

Yesterday we released hotfix v1.10.2 with several important fixes. Please see the previous Steam post for patch notes.



Next week on Wednesday is update week, and we have a slightly larger fixes and improvements update, which also includes one new component! Be sure to join us then!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

v1.10.2 (HOTFIX)

Fix - #22989 Flow issues with default fuel stores
Fix - Fish storage in equipment boxes
Fix - #24117 Disabled fish collision with players
Fix - #24103 Fixed misaligned fish ids in default Addon
Fix - Fixed some misc addon lua return values
Fix - Fixed some misc addon lua docs issues
Fix - #24104 Improved fish support for addon lua:
Fixed fish equipment spawning as binoculars
Fixed pickup and drop callbacks for fish equipment

Addon Dev Note: Fish are not creature or animal type and do not have an object associated with them for technical reasons. However, they can now successfully be spawned with spawnEquipment similar to ores.

Dear Stormworkers,

The Rod Fishing Major Update is out now!

In this new update, you can catch fish with the new fishing rod, store and transport your catch in hoppers, and sell them at fishing trading points in harbours.



It has been huge fun developing this update, and it has been great to see players getting excited about it! We have been reading your thoughts, comments, feedback, and even watching some on Youtube. Thanks for all the time and effort to let us know your thoughts. Making trailers takes a lot of energy, and we were very impressed by the epic trailer made by ProfNCognito! Check it out below:



Please see the patch notes below for detail on this new update.

As a reminder, updates now happen on Wednesdays.



We are planning on doing a live Q&A session soon, we will keep you posted.

We are still interested in player feedback on fishing and particularly, their requests for future commercial fishing updates.



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

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.10.0

Feature - Fish system overhaul; behaviours, items, animations and sounds
Feature - Physics based first person fishing rod
Feature - Item Vacuum hopper-block
Feature - Default trading addon fish markets
Feature - New map-label icon types, including hospital boat and refueler plane
Fix - Rope buoyancy issues
Fix - Resolved several issues with addon lua rope support
Fix - JSI dock physics mesh issues
Fix - #14434 Bug tracker not showing warning when attempting to post large files

Dear Stormworkers,

There are 2 things you need to know:

Rod Fishing Major Update

Next week on Wednesday 31st January, we are introducing fishing with a rod to Stormworks.

The new fishing rod inventory item allows players to cast a lure into the water. Over time, fish may become interested in the lure and have a nibble, or occasionally bite. With a fish hooked, you can reel in to collect your catch.

Fish can now be picked up with hands, and dropped on the floor. Their new mechanics are similar to ore particles, and so can also be stored and transported in hoppers.



A new hopper vacuum component can extract ore and fish from hoppers by pressing against it, pulling the contents out.

Fish can be traded at special fish gantry locations in some harbours.

Many thanks to the many players who have been asking for fishing and inspired this update. There are many requests on the issue tracker, and even youtubers have been very vocal, with Camodo sharing his ideas for years, and 454 doing a recent video.

But, is this the fishing update you wanted? I see many incredible fishing trawlers on the workshop! If you have ideas for commercial scale fishing, we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback for potential future updates.



Releases Moved to Wednesdays

Thanks to Vandalich who got in touch on the issue tracker to share their development experiences and advice to help us reduce the stress of regular updates. We are following their recommendation and moving releases to Wednesdays, to give better breathing room around update timing and reduce the number of weekends we work.

We have also reviewed what other games do. Very few developers do their updates on Friday, probably for this very reason. Most are also on Wednesdays.



We are also looking at frequency. Very few developers do updates every 2 weeks on a schedule, and it probably makes sense to either reduce frequency or move to a non-regular schedule. This would mean less frequent but larger updates, and for us it means that we have more time to test each update.

However, we won't make this change right away, and so please expect updates every 2 weeks on Wednesdays for the time being.

We look forward to your thoughts on feedback on these new announcements!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is update week, and we have a small update focused on fixes and improvements!

While this may be a minor update, there are many important changes which players have been asking for. These improvements include a new "space" tag for the workshop, to help organize and find these creations.



Sadly, the bug allowing players to fly with a fire extinguisher has been addressed! Fire extinguishers still apply force in space allowing you to propel yourself around, but on Earth they don't apply any force any more.



For a full list of changes, see the notes below.

Next week we have a reelly big announcement so be sure to join us for the new info. We won't say any more as to spoil this update so catch you then!



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.9.25

Feature - #22081 Added space and train tags to workshop uploads
Feature - #22258 Added rotation, angular speed and tilt to the astronomy sensor
Fix - Multiplayer rope render sync
Fix - #23781 Winch speed setting appearing on rope hooks
Fix - #21497 Hide addon popups during photo mode
Fix - #21797 Disable editing of vehicles with passengers
Fix - #21815 Skybox rendering issues
Fix - #22168 DLC icons on server list overlapping
Fix - #22376 Compartment internal fluid height issues (fires extinguishing under waterline)
Fix - Fixed tractor and engine preset issues
Balance - #21773 Reduced fire extinguisher force

Dear Stormworkers,

Thank you for all the feedback on pulleys! It was really fun to release a physics based component, and seeing players engage with the mechanics and engineering of pulleys has been awesome. The new and updated crane creations are incredible!

While the last couple of minor updates have included features, next weeks minor update will focus on just fixes and improvements.



Beyond that, we are continuing to work on the major and minor updates, and the new game.

We are also planning on doing a live Q&A session soon - time and date to be announced!

We will keep this weeks update short - please join us next week for the fixes minor update.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Grab your block and tackle and start calculating your mechanical advantage - rope pulleys are now in Stormworks!

Rope pulleys work in the way you might intuitively expect - a pulley allows rope to pass through, with equal tension on each side of the pulley. Pulling on one side of a pulley will pull the rope through from the other side.

You can create an array of pulleys to create mechanical advantage with a block and tackle style arrangement, or just use pulleys to better design your cranes by separating your winch from the top of your gantry arm.



Two blocks are provided - the 'U' arrangement with rope anchors on the same side, and the 'L' arrangement with rope anchors at right angles to each other.

We have also reworked the preset vehicles a lot, so expect many improvements and new presets.

We have also added several fixes and improvements, please see the notes below for full details.



We hope you enjoy the new update, and look forward to your thoughts, feedback, new cranes and inventive ways of using pulleys!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.9.22-23

Feature - #4053 New Rope Pulley Block
Feature - #21412 New/updated preset vehicles
Feature - Decorated sawyer bases with seasonal meshes
Fix - #19513 Train wheels slower in reverse
Fix - #21611 Hide player option in camera mode not working
Fix - #21484 Fixed and optimized lights in hangar offices and hangars
Fix - #21477 Electric valves not working if below 90% charge
Fix - #21442 MC editor logic gates descriptions not showing in hotbar
Fix - #21342 Removed mega_island_16_3 floating trees

Dear Stormworkers,

Happy Holidays!

It is update week, and this update includes new variable pitch ship propellers!

These new propellers have a pitch input that allows you to adjust the pitch angle of the blades. This controls the amount of energy transferred by the propeller and controls the amount of thrust generated. Small, medium and large variants are included.



As well as these new components, there are several fixes and improvements included. Please see the patch notes below for details.

We have now included the dedicated server exe with Stormworks. Please can we ask server owners to transition over as we plan to discontinue the separate dedicated server app after 16th Feb 2024.



We look forward to your feedback on the new components and fixes!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.9.21

Feature - Variable pitch ship propellers (small, medium, large)
Fix - improved positioning of player when leaving a seat, particularly at high speed
Fix - fixed looping equipment sfx not playing if 2 items with looping sfx were on the hotbar
Fix - fixed oil deposit placement sea floor height calculation
Fix - fixed typos in the radio antenna transmit logic nodes
Fix - fixed typo in description of the Uran Wind Powerplant
Fix - allow player inspect raycast to ignore ghost physics for hovering NPCs
Fix - Lua addons, added missing documented alias, fixed -1 support for seated_id and seated_peer_id
Fix - resolved issue where looking at NPC wouldn't always bring up the context menu
Fix - oil spills no longer cleared by pumping through fluid jets and improved stability of oil simulation
Fix - fixed occasional crash when spawning vehicles related to body mass calculation
Fix - hid data logging blocks which are used for our unit testing
Fix - fixed crash related to spawn vehicle add events
Rework - renamed 'gender' to 'body type' in character editor

Dear Stormworkers,

This is announcement week, with a new minor update planned for next week.

Updates will continue as normal over the winter holiday, although we will close the office for a few days so we may not make the interim announcement.



We have some really important fixes on the way, as well as really exciting major updates, and progress on our new game. At the moment, we only talk about stuff as it releases, and this is because it makes it much easier for us to change what is in an update and when an update will release. It also helps avoid disappointment - no expectations can get built up before release if we don't hype it up too much before hand.

This strategy is aimed at minimizing release pressure, and allowing the most focus to go to actual development. However, we are aware that different developers do stuff in different ways, with some doing something similar, and others being very open.



What are your thoughts? What stuff would you like to see us do?

We should probably also do another live Q&A session in the new year.

We look forward to your feedback!

Please call back next week for the minor update.

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers

v1.9.20

Fix - Resolved crash when deleting vehicle from vehicle editor