Dear Stormworkers,

This week we are releasing a new update!

Along with many fixes and improvements, we have added a new vehicle editor change - sticky rotation. A components rotation no longer orientates based on the direction of the surface you are hovering, but rather responds to the rotation keys. This change is intended to reduce the issue of it being unclear which key produces which rotation. Why is it always the last rotation key that you try?



This change obviously reworks a fundamental vehicle editor behaviour that many players will be used to. While we expect most players will be relieved that this has finally been changed, we are also aware that some players may feel that they are used to the old behaviour, however confusing it was. Let us know your thoughts and feedback!

As well as this change there are many fixes and improvements in response to player feedback on the issue tracker. Please see the patch notes below for full details.



A big thank you to everyone who turned up last week for the live stream!

Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.10.4

Rework - #21443 Orientation is now sticky when placing components in the editor
Fix - #23076 Leaks not using their bounding when resolving with the ocean (Boats not sinking)
Fix - Crash fix for occasional issue with character input resetting
Fix - Hand item not clearing when teleporting (Fishing rod physics issues)
Fix - Seats applying an offset to character position when testing for drowning
Fix - #22332 Advanced rotor counter-torque forces applying in space
Fix - #22419 Waypoints are now grid based and distance restraint has been removed
Fix - #22457 Removed inert electric node on liquid fuel rockets
Fix - #22601 Addon references to removed node locationData.is_env_mod
Fix - #22652 Fixed lights issues on the arid island
Fix - #22766 Updated classic mode description
Fix - #22792 Reworked raycast interactions to fix several issues with rays from recent character network physics changes
Fix - #22813 Reworked visual effects of fluid jets
Fix - #22817 Directional rx description error
Fix - #22845 Distance sensor high electric consumption
Fix - #22916 Resolved buoyancy mesh generation issue for gas tanks
Fix - #23184 Enabled keypad waypoints to work on the moon (shows universal coordinates and not moon-relative coordinates, for lua addon compatability)
Fix - #24099 Fishing rod inventory description
Balance - #22846 Large solar cell price
Balance - Rebalanced hopper mass

Dear Stormworkers,

We are doing a live questions and answers session this Thursday, 22 February at 18:00 UTC.

This live stream will be found at the top of the Stormworks store page.

Please join us with your questions. Click "Set a reminder" on the menu to the right!

See you on Thursday!



Much love <3

The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is minor update week, and we have added a new component, the map icon component!

Use this component on your creation to determine which part of your vehicle is considered the primary part of your vehicle for map purposes. Other parts will be considered secondary and will not show an icon.



As well as this new part, this update is a particularly large fixes and improvements update, with many important changes. Please see the patch notes below.

There are many more minor updates and major updates in the works, as well as work continuing on our new game.



Let's do a developer live questions and answers session on Thursday 22nd Feb at 18:00 UTC. I will answers questions live for at least an hour. While we won't confirm any new unannounced features in development, we will discuss the pros and cons of any ideas and suggestions, and do our best to answer your questions.

Please do join us for this on the Stormworks store page where the stream will appear! We will create a Steam event shortly.



Much love <3,

The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.10.3

Feature - #21954 Map icon block

This new block allows the player to choose which vehicles in their vehicle-group should render on the map.
If no map icon block is found the default behaviour will remain to be rendering all vehicles in the group.

Fix - #23281 Fixed zero pressure transfer through doors when in complete vacuum
Fix - #23076 Leak rate issues at equal pressures
Fix - #23076 Fluid backflow issues with vehicle damage leaks
Fix - #21818 Seawater turns to freshwater across doorways
Fix - #21326 Mis-tagged arid mission zone (Boat spawned in road / lag)
Fix - #21772 Liquid rocket logic node typo
Fix - #21940 Missing stars in skybox
Fix - #22078 Space seats description
Fix - #22234 Day night length sliders when above default length
Fix - #22306 Transport supplies missions typos
Fix - #22365 Fixed CO2 poisoning not working
Fix - #22658 Workshop author map icon info broken

Fix - #21638 MacOS game icon
Fix - #24096 MacOS missing clouds
Fix - #21637 MacOS game close crash
Fix - #21636 MacOS quit multiplayer crash

Fix - Leak at map border crash
Fix - Animation blend crash
Fix - Slider gripper brake crash
Fix - #23012 Addon lua ropes resources crash
Fix - Remove connectors crash

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