Stationeers News

For a few years storms have been an important part of Stationeers, creating challenges for players to plan and build around. In this update we’ve overhauled their visuals and resolved a number of long-standing issues. A lot of the aspects of Stationeer's storms were hardcoded to be a certain way, and we needed to do some refactoring work to increase their performance, and create a system we could start using for multiple storms. This is only the start of storm related content we can now do, so in the future expect to see more storms roll in.

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The old storm effects relied on thousands of particles, which was expensive, visually inconsistent, and often leaked through walls. We’ve replaced this with a new volumetric system that’s cheaper to render and produces a better result. Storms now integrate more naturally with the terrain, and we’ve fixed problems where storm effects would incorrectly appear in areas like the interior of your base. Overall, storms are now more consistent, better looking, and less costly to simulate.

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We’ve added a new type of weather event to the Moon: the Solar Storm. During a solar storm, the sun becomes significantly brighter and the world heats up rapidly. Solar heating inside bases and EVA suits increases substantially, and Stationeers outside will burn through oxygen faster as their suit’s emergency cooling system works overtime.



Hiding in shadow or wearing the new HARM suit are your best options if you need to leave the base during a solar storm. Plants and solar panels benefit from the increased solar output, but keep an eye out for blown cables.

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The HARM suit is a heavy, water-cooled protective suit designed for harsh environments. Normal movement speed is reduced to 60%, but while wearing it you’ll experience no movement penalties during storms. It’s also tougher than other suits, taking less damage from impacts and significantly less damage from lava.



The HARM suit introduces new suit mechanics: it uses water cooling for superior thermal performance and provides strong protection during both storms and solar storms. However, it comes with trade-offs. You can’t wear a jetpack, and the reduced movement speed makes it restrictive. Even so, the protection it provides makes it a valuable option in challenging conditions.

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Solar panel outputs are now uncapped. Panels will over-produce on worlds with higher solar irradiance. This provides a small power increase on the Moon and a much larger one on Venus. Vulcan’s highly elliptical orbit means solar panels will now generate significantly more power as the planet approaches its orbital perigee.



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We’ve added two new suit storage options. They’re functionally identical to the existing storage but provide more visual variety for your bases and airlocks. A great way to store and organize your new HARM suit.



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A massive thanks to Marcelo for submitting updated Brazilian Portuguese localization files!


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We wanted to highlight some of the excellent videos being created for Stationeers. Internally we’ve been enjoying a lot of it, and here are a couple of creators we regularly follow:

[h3]God, creator of the universe[/h3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa8mdiuOsqg
[h3]Cows are evil[/h3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvS-QGaFd0Q

Go check them out and support your favourite Stationeers content creators. Thanks to everyone who streams and makes videos about the game.

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https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2624/Stationeers_Complete_the_Set/

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[h2]Change Log 0.2.5954.26176[/h2]

• Fixed Error spam from Solar Storm due to weather fade in effect not accounting for solar storm data.
  
• Fixed Solar Storm visual effect not always being applied correctly.
  
• Updated Portuguese Brazilian localization (Thank you Marcelo!)
  
• Added Localised Font components to DeepMiner and GPS Cartridge text fields.
  
• Fixed Storm effect fadeIn/fadeout throws errors on Clients
  
• Fixed Interior storm sound not playing.
  
• Fixed Solar Storm light was being applied twice.
  
• Fixed Storm sounds were playing during Solar Storm.
  
• Fixed compile error from reference to removed weather settings method.
  
• Updated HARM suit interior mesh and prefab for new visor opening animation.
  
• Added two new Suit Storage variants: Suit Storage Frame and Suit Storage Locker
  
• Missing meta file change for storm audio.
  
• Tweaked mars dust storm colors to be a little lighter.
  
• Removed some duplicated lighting code for the storm effect.
  
• Made storm effect fade in and out rather than suddenly appearing.
  
• Updated Storm sheltered audio clip.
  
• Moved shared storm effect material setting code into helper class.
  
• Updated Stationpedia page for HarmSuit.
  
• Added a number of un-localized GameStrings to english.xml
  
• Fixed HARMSuit had worse thermal Radiation performance than HardSuit.
  
• Reverted the changes to tooltip opacity as they were causing issues with empty tooltips
  
• Fixed storm distance thickening effect not starting from actual start point of the march.
  
• Updated storm effect parameters for mars.
  
• Updated how storm effects are colored. Added a distance falloff so we can thicken the storm up over distance as desired. Added the ability to use the noise as a mask for a secondary color such as ember particles on vulcan. Moved a lot of common functionality into the helper cginc file. Updated colors for vulcan and europa.
  
• Re-enabled storm audio it is now hooked into the new storm rendering system.
  
• Added Storm direction can come from any direction and is not limited to cardinal directions.
  
• Moved shared marching code into helper for storm shaders. Removed old storm shaders that were using generated noise.
  
• Fixed Minable ores were not being generated around aimee. This meant that when the aimee was not able to explore for ores and aimees near un-modified ore viens after loading a save would not see them.
  
• Removed unused normal calulation from storm card mesh shader.
  
• Fixed. When storm stopped when player was outside the wind audio would continue playing (beta).
  
• Removed half res storm rendering on screen space effect as the new approach is performant enough to render at native resolution.
  
• Clean-up of storm shader code, which appears to have solved several visual issues.
  
• Moved ReconstuctWorldRay function into the storm helper cginc.
  
• Fixed default value for storm card normal offset being too high making storm cards clip into the room.
  
• Removed some unused code from the old storm effect shader.
  
• Fixed outline effects showing up on the storm camera. Added camera check to OnRenderObject to skip if the current camera is the storm card camera.
  
• Improved blending between noise sample slices in weather effect shader;
  
• Added Higher res noise 3dtexture
  
• Moved storm card normal offset into the vert shader so we can have differnt offests for the depth only cards and the actual storm cards shown on the main camera. This removes some gaps around the edges of cards when the storm is being clipped to a room.
  
• Added emissive sparks effect to Vulcan Ash storm.
  
• Fixed outdoor storms going appearing inside rooms. Added back in the secondary camera for storm cards and are now clipping the storm marching to the back faces of the storm cards.
  
• Reauthored Storm effect 3d texture to leave the blue channel free to do a third type of noise.
  
• Fixed Storm Effect mesh in incorrect place in render queue (move to transparent-1)
  
• Optimised Storm effect. It now uses a 3D noise texture instead of calculating the noise procedurally on the GPU. Different levels are baked into the red green and blue channels, which allows for a single texture lookup to handle several different layers. This reduces the time taken to render the effect from 8ms to 0.5ms.
  
• Changed Storm screen-space shader to run at half resolution.
  
• Tweaked Mars storm values to look Ok with 12 raymarch steps.
  
• Thickened up mars storm effect.
  
• Fixed the StructureComputerUpright prefab so that inserted datadisks no longer have the wrong orientation.
  
• Fixed a small typo in the ScriptHelpWindow where the word "charactwers" has been changed to "characters".
  
• Fixed storm cards not being created for some doors and shutters.
  
• Removed item basic suit shoulder pad
  
• Fixed Tooltip so that it now respects the Tooltip opacity setting. previously it would only respect it if the setting was changed while the player was hovering over something, then would revert back to an opacity of 1 when the player looked away and then looked back at the object.
  
• Slightly reduced the storm card offset distance to minimize gaps as much as possible.
  
• Fixed partially built frames showing storms inside them. Now partially built frames will exclude storms.
  
• Added Storm lighting now uses 8 closest lights.
  
• Added Shader settings for Venus, Mars and Vulcan storms.
  
• Reduced Number of sample steps in storm shader to improve performance.
  
• Removed All references to old storm effect system and removed StormLocal script from Brain prefab.
  
• Added XML data classes for new storm effect.
  
• Added New storm effect material settings are now authorable inside weather.xml.
  
• Added Switching between screen-space and world space variants of storm effect when inside room and outside room.
  
• Fixed Items would sometimes get blown in the wrong direction during a storm.
  
• Removed storm audio. It will need to be replaced with a new system.
  
• Fixed storm cards showing over windows on outer grids. Pushed the storm cards out slightly. This can leave a small gap on some corners which will be addressed in a future fix.
  
• Tweaked spotlight lighting anisotropy on storm effect mesh to match headlamp lighting cone size.
  
• Fixed brutal spawn data so that the minimum supplies crate would be closer to the lander and easier to find when you spawn on Mars, Lunar, Europa, MimasHerschel and Venus on Brutal difficulty.
  
• Added variant of storm shader to be applied directly to storm card mesh. This removes the need for another camera. Have removed the storm card camera for now but left the screen space shader in incase we want to use it later.
  
• Polish Pass on Storm Screen space lighting.
  
• Added Support for spotlights in storm shader
  
• Fixed nullref when setting material property on storm effect (beta only).
  
• Updated indoor storm effect to use a different noise function with significantly less artifacting. Set some default material values for a good staring point for a europa storm.
  
• Added Rudimentary lighting effect to screen-space weather shader. The 8 lights closest to the camera are sampled to light the storm effect.
  
• Fixed a bug with indoor storm effect where artefacts could appear on nearby geometry. Removed a few unnecessary parameters. Marching radius is smaller now but effect looks much better and thicker.
  
• Updated indoor storm effect to take ambient light into consideration. Also allowed for more dense clouds.
  
• Fixed a rounding issue that could happen when wearing the HARM suit and standing on a frame. The Harm suit would try to sample the atmosphere below the player causing a divide/0 error in the suit convection code and creating run-away heating.
  
• Further balance work on HARM suit atmospheric values for liquid cooling function.
  
• Added a few tweaks to the indoor storm effect for better control of light absorbtion.
  
• Turned off the indoor storm effect by default.
  
• Fixed DevicePipeMounted from having unusual rotations under certain circumstances when mounting on vertical pipes. This was caused by the forward axis vector in the transform being treated differently to the up and right axis vectors, and the resulting rotation being incorrect.
  
• Refactored lava damage to move the damage behaviour into virtual functions in individual classes. this allows more more clearly defined edge case behaviour.
  
• Changed HARMSuit and helmet to be much more resistant to Lava damage.
  
• Fixed when player is in a suit & helmet. Internal items and glasses etc will take no damage from lava until suit is destroyed.
  
• Fixed Solar Storm Localisation error in new world screen.
  
• Fixed storm card mesh gameobject position was offset incorectly.
  
• Added first pass on indoor storm effects. Storm card meshes will be generated around exterior walls/windows from which a screenspace storm effect will start.
  
• Updated the cost for the ItemKitVendingMachine: All costs are halved. Large vending machine requires two kits while the small vending machine requires one. Kits now stack to five.
  
• Fixed harmSuit helmet not spawnable.
  
• Removed duplicate harm-suit helmet prefab
  
• Fixed Blocking area of medium radiators. All variants now only occupy the space defined by the object itself. (previously they would occupy all adjacent small grids as well.
  
• Removed Hard-Cap on SolarPanel panel output. Solar Panels will now over-produce power on worlds with higher solar irradiance. This change effects the maximum solar output of panels on the following worlds: Moon 750W, Venus 1.15KW, Vulcan 500W-to-1.2KW (Vulcan's highly elliptical orbit means solar irradiance fluctuates greatly throughout the year). Output of solar panels on other worlds are un-changed.
  
• Changed Solar Storm now increases output of solar panels by roughly 4x.
  
• Added new Stationpedia values for HARMSuit. The harm suit uses a new system for determining heating/cooling. Expressed are the operational range and the safe range. Inside the Operational range of external temperatures the suit is able to hold a steady temperature with minimal cooling. Inside the safe range the suit will be able to maintain temperature via the inbuilt AC. The suit is not guaranteed to operate correctly outside the safe temperature range.
  
• Fixed Canisters hidden in slots could still receive heating from the world atmosphere in some cases.
  
• Added Solar Heating Factor to Stationpedia (this expresses how quickly the sun will heat up the internal atmosphere of an object.
  
• Fixed HARMSuit page not displaying in Stationpedia.
  
• Tweaked HARMSuit Thermal balance values.
  
• Added HARM Suit. New super heavy suit with a much greater damage resistance and higher thermal performance. The HARMSuit is cooled via a liquid canister. It is effectively immune from the increased solar heating of solar storms. Due to its weight a jetpack cannot be used while wearing a HARMSuit, however a Hard backpack or mining backpack are still able to be worn.
  
• Improved Liquid canister tool-tip to show a little more precision in its fullness tool-tip.
  
• Added recipe for HARMSuit and HARMSuit Helmet to Tier2 tool printer.
  
• Fixed build error.
  
• Added back several accidentally removed poi's from europa that were present on the map view but could not be discovered.
  
• Fixed missing scene commit from rev26073
  
• Fixed bug where waypoints would get registered twice from their OnRegistered function.
  
• Fixed bug where building a single waypoint and trying to set the next waypoint could crash the game. Have set max iterations when looping over waypoints.
  
• Fixed spelling error on save list items days 'past' should be 'passed'.
  
• Added Prototype Solar Storm weather event. It can be triggered using the command "Storm Start SolarStorm". Atmosphere cells and atmospheric containers exposed to the solar storm will experience greatly increased solar heating, solar panels will experience increased power output.
  
• Fixed suits were not being effected by solar heating due to them being technically hidden in their slot.
  
• Fixed console screens turning off when they are on the floor and the player is nearby. Have moved the player-in-range bounds slightly further back behind the console.
  
• Fixed issue where having non .save files in your autosave or quicksave folder would cause saving to get stuck. Non .save files will now be ignored, however it is recommended to keep these folders for .save files only.
  
• Fixed loading game with bad save data could get stuck on black screen. Some deserialization failures would return instead of throwing an error to be caught in the outer loadgame task. Have changed these returns to throw. Now, if load fails in this way, user should be returned to the title screen.
  
• Fixed error in Russian language localization with wrong number of arguments
  

[h3]Thank You![/h3]
First of all, thank you all for the support. The terrain update was a massive undertaking for us and the response from the existing community, as well as all the new players, has been absolutely amazing.

We immediately broke our all time concurrent player record and then repeated that for several more days in a row.

Recent reviews rocketed up to overwhelmingly positive which is heartwarming to see.(if you haven't already, consider going and leaving a review, it helps a lot!)

Thank you!

 
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At a fraction of the capacity, with 12 slots, the small vending machine serves as some useful compact storage for anything from food to ingots. It's just one by three small grids in size, so much smaller than the large version. This repeatedly came up as something we wanted during a play session, and now here it is.



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We’ve heard from many of you that you’re experiencing lower than expected fps with the new update, especially on Vulcan. We’ve done some optimisations under the hood to help improve terrain performance as well as exposed some new settings to give you better control when tweaking your performance.

[h2]Terrain Tessellation[/h2]
Tessellation is a process performed on the GPU. We use it to define small details in the terrain like rocks and cracks. The Terrain Tessellation setting controls how finely the mesh is subdivided, these small subdivisions are then pushed inwards or outwards using a heightmap texture that matches the terrain color texture.



[h2]Terrain Detail[/h2]
In order to render terrain out to 1.5KM, as we get further from the camera we sample voxel data at increasing steps to form terrain LODS (levels of detail). The Terrain Detail setting controls the thresholds at which we switch to lower detail LODS. Lower detail LODS bias downwards and tend to be smoother; distant features appear “flattened” at the lower quality settings.



[h2]Minable Render Distance[/h2]
The Minable Render Distance setting controls the distance at which mineable ores are drawn.

NOTE: if this is set higher than the “Terrain Detail” setting distant ores will appear to “float” over the terrain.

[h2]Shadows[/h2]
The Shadows setting affects the number of Cascades (Shadow LODS) and the distance that shadows are drawn. At lower quality levels we only allow large objects to cast shadows.




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A big thank you to the community members who have provided us with comprehensive translations for Chinese(MRhythm), French(CedricDx and Gosti_FR), and Russian(AlexusYT) languages.

They created a git repository that's maintained and allows us to easily pull their updates directly into the game.

A big thank you to everyone involved!

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On some large bases people were experiencing game lag during saving. This was due to saving locking some processes for the entirety of the save process, including zipping the save. Saves now only lock game threads while necessary and release them before compressing the serialized data.

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There was a visual glitch with the terrain data on Vulcan causing extremely weird normals on steep mountains. This means that we have regenerated the terrain data for Vulcan but we have kept the old map in the game but hidden so that those with a current save on Vulcan will not have to update their terrain data, this will mean that they will still see the weird normals on existing saves.



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There was an issue with causing indirect addressing that was fixed by community member on Discord provided the fix for. Send your thanks to Elmotrix!

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https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2624/Stationeers_Complete_the_Set/

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[h2]Change Log 0.2.5919.26060[/h2]

• Fixed Jetpack sometimes not working when very close to ground. This could happen if the sphere cast started inside the terrain collider, added a sphere overlap to check for this case.
  
• Added Deprecated flag to Vulcan WorldSetting.
  
• Changed updated Dedicated Server help tip for valid worlds to hide tutorials and flag deprecated worlds.
  
• Updated icarus suit helmet animation to fix visor poking through mesh when open.
  
• Updated icarus suit helmet mesh with new mesh, fixing a few minor uv and vert issues.
  
• Added function to format all commands as a markdown table for the dedicated server guide. Commented out for now but leaving there in case we want to regenerate it.
  
• Reduced High minable render distance range a small amount.
  
• Added Small y offset to distant minables to help prevent "floating" effect.
  
• Changed scale in range of minables shader to be a fraction of the total render distance.
  
• Fixed Jetpack would loose thrust when flying over lava. It now also evaluates the lava height when determining thrust efficiency.
  
• Fixed un-localised slot tooltip for lander mkII.
  
• Fixed a typo for one of Jupiter's moons. name has been corrected from "Hamilia" to "Himalia"
  
• Added savetype 'manual' to possible types for loadlatest command.
  
• Fixed Deep Miner destroyed state was invisible, caused destroyed Deep Miners to block constructions.
  
• Fixed deep mining regions not showing up on the map motherboard for lunar, mars and mimas.
  
• Added StructureVendingMachineSmall to the vending machine kit
  
• Fixed Some Issues with the voxel data on Vulcan. This fix will only apply to new games created on Vulcan after this patch.
  
• Fixed Some cases where regions and start locations were being direct referenced when interacting with a WorldSettingData.
  
• Changed increased the distance of emissive terrain effects.
  
• Fixed Grammatical errors in Moon and Mimas descriptions
  
• Fixed Grammatical errors in Vulcan world description.
  
• Fixed saving on very large bases was pausing the game thread for a very long time. Have moved unpausing the game tick to immediately after the snapshot of the world data has been acquired. After this the serialization and zipping will continue in the background. This should get the game tick pause time down to sub one second.
  
• Added more logging to each save step.
  
• Removed unused replaysaveload class.
  
• Added a few more restricted characters to save names which where causing saves to fail.
  
• Fixed an issue with indirect addressing for IC10 scripts. Thanks @Elmotrix for the fix.
  
• Added missing blueprint for flaregun.
  
• Removed some related assets, blueprints, animators and audio from already deleted weapon prefabs.
  
• Fixed advanced composter not connecting to chutes correctly.
  
• Terrain settings pass. Reworked and added some settings to help performance scale better on low-mid range hardware.
  
• Reworked Terrain Tessellation Settings to more performant values. Added Extreme Setting and an off Setting.
  
• Added Minable Render Distance Setting. This effects the render range of minable ores.
  
• Added Terrain Detail Setting. This effects the Lod radius of the terrain meshes (at lower settings the near-to-mid distance terrain meshes will be less accurately rendered)
  
• Added missing isKinematic checks to a few places where rigidbody velocity is set.
  
• Removed references to missing scripts on a few cosmetic items.
  
• Added Hidden Setting "MaxConcurrentWorkers". By default this is set to processorCount-1. Some users are reporting crashes or errors on load due to the 100% all-core-work-load terrain initialisation. This setting can be used to help mitigate application CPU usage for those users effected.
  
• Fixed save folder names were being incorrectly trimmed if they contained dots.
  
• Updated French, Russian, and Simplified Chinese localization files. (Credit: CedricDx(FR), Gosti_FR(FR), AlexusYT(RU), and MRhythm(CN))
  

This hotfix resolves three issues:

• Error spam on death
  
• An error when starting dedicated server
  
• Aimee causing error in multiplayer
  
• Fixed exploding canisters not destroying terrain
  

Change List

• Fixed Clients would get interaction locked when picking up an Aimee.
  
• Fixed Aimee Animation update was not getting formed correctly causing any Aimee on a server to break the bite-array de-serialise function and de-sync clients.
  
• Added check to major update popup to not appear on dedicated server
  
• Fixed error spam on respawn due to missing null check (thank you tom_is_unlucky)
  
• Fixed Explosions from Canisters, Furnaces, Rocket and Trader collisions not digging out terrain.
  

[p]This fixes the missing map motherboard recipe.[/p]

We believe this major overhaul of Stationeers was a necessary investment to help the project reach the wider audience it deserves. However, bringing this update to you meant taking a huge risk: pausing our regular 2-3 week updates. This has a direct financial cost, as player numbers and revenue taper off immediately without them. This project has always been more than just a job; it's taught us so much about development and, most importantly, how to build a meaningful relationship with you, our community. We've always strived to be transparent, and you've repaid us by being incredibly active and supportive. We believe this update can bring in many new players and this is where you can make a huge difference:

Spread the word: Make some noise on socials like Reddit and recommend Stationeers to everyone you think might enjoy it.

Welcome new players: Continue being the engaging and welcoming community that you are.

Leave a review: If you haven't already, please consider leaving a review for the game!

Support us directly: If you want to support us in the most impactful way, please consider purchasing our DLC.

Simon Brown - Project Lead

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2624/Stationeers_Complete_the_Set/
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[h3]We had to rewrite the terrain system to resolve some extremely buggy behavior as well as performance issues caused by even small amounts of exploration within the game. We did this by moving a lot of the terrain tasks to make better utilization of your GPU and have frontloaded a lot of the ram usage.[/h3]
There are a number of new or changed settings. Two of the major ones that have an impact on performance are Tessellation, Shadows, and Distance Shadows.

This Stationeers update completely redefines the how terrain looks, how the game performs, and how connected you feel to the world while playing. Pictures below will do the speaking, but the new terrain looks amazing, and blows the previous worlds away. The maps are now hand authored with meaningful thought put into kilometers of expanses to explore. Yet at the same time, with this new approach performance has increased, terrain hitching has disappeared, and save files are a tiny fraction of what they used to be.


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The terrain is rendered with a completely new material that supports a range of features. The largest improvement is the ability for multiple sets of textures, representing multiple voxel types, to dynamically blend together. This is leveraged in many different ways and is a powerful tool for creating new and interesting planets. For example, on Vulcan there’s glowing rocks around the lava, while on Europa there’s a thick layer of ice and snow contrasting the black rock that lays beneath.




The maps are layered with regions that are used for different things, including names to help you become familiar with the maps and navigating. Additionally, points of interest add flavor, and more functional things such as deep mining regions and playarea bounds.



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The new terrain system can render kilometers of voxel landscape. Multiple voxel types can create mountain vistas with contrasting rocky peaks and snow layers. The voxel system also allows us to create several layers of perfectly integrated LoDs of decreasing resolution. With the old system the view distance was limited by the culling system and terrain loading requirements. This previously resulted in a short terrain rendering distance which was stitched together with a very low resolution distant terrain mesh.

Looking about 1.5km along the mars canyon

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At the core of this update is the shift from a 8x8x8 voxel chunks to a voxel 'octree'. While the old system required data for every single voxel, data in the octree is only present where it needs to be. Large solid underground or open-air areas result in very little data needing to be stored. Only where there is actually complex topology does the data storage get more dense.

Multiple data structures are used to achieve the final terrain while avoiding performance problems. The world voxel data, which is a fixed size in memory and never changes allows for quick access due to its static nature. This is combined with another ‘delta’ octree, which starts empty and records the changes in the terrain. When the terrain is modified, we only dirty the delta octree. When we render or interact with the terrain we read first from the delta octree, and if nothing is there, we read from the read-only world data. Additionally, ore veins are now defined in their own tree-like data structure to not dirty the voxel structure unnecessarily. This provides us with definitions and controls to make them generate in continuous structures that subtly make mining different ores feel unique.

A visualization of how an octree segments the data

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A foundational goal for this overhaul was to make the entire world-creation process moddable and data-driven. We built a toolchain that allows anyone to create a world without ever needing to open the Unity game engine editor. We used this same process for our official maps; assets were generated in external tools and then imported directly into the built game. This opens the door for the community to use free tools to create and share entirely new worlds. However, be aware that generating a world is a memory and CPU-intensive process, so powerful hardware is recommended for it to complete quickly.



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We’ve always wanted Stationeers to invoke a sense of exploration. Landing on a hostile planet and needing to construct systems to stay alive makes the planet the core antagonist. However, the previous terrain system just wasn’t up to task, as we discovered with our attempts to make Loulan an interesting place. Greater stress placed on the terrain and exploration would functionally remove performance that was needed for the base game. But with the new approach to world creation, we had the ability to make each map much more its own character.

Instead of the map being generated from random noise, each mountain can now feel unique. When you travel, you get a sense of position, and recognize far away features as points of reference. There are now vast frozen lakebeds, map dividing canyons, or towering ridges for the player to see and traverse. Additionally, we’ve used the opportunity to create biome like regions, named points of interest, and unique areas with ore distribution changes. This all contributes to you feeling much more connected to the map, and actually feeling like you are going somewhere else when you travel.

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We needed to redesign each of the planets in this new paradigm, but we didn't want to lose what made the old worlds unique. Rather than trying to replicate any specific elements of the old terrain properties, we used the mood that the old planets invoked to define the baseline for the new planets. Instead of trying to cram too much into one map, we made each world’s terrain interesting, believably consistent. The choices of terrain features didn't have to be the definition of the planet, since there are so many intriguing map ideas for us to make. This decision allows us in the future to create even more maps for planets without having to completely change what already exists.

[h2]Mars: The Canyon[/h2]
We identified early on that one of the things that made the worlds feel different was the silhouette of the horizon. For Mars we wanted to maintain its characteristic rolling small hills that build into larger ones. With the new voxel types we were able to give it rockfaces and cliffs that gives it an open epic vibe. On of the test maps we used initially was a height scan of the Grand Canyon which we really liked and we decided to integrate a massive canyon into the Mars map as well.



[h2]Moon: Great Mare[/h2]
The Lunar map was the first map we tackled and felt like it was an easy choice as there was not a lot of unknowns. We knew we wanted it to be a relatively flat surface cluttered with craters. To make it more interesting the map is set on the edge of a mare with some dramatic height elevation that cuts across the map.



[h2]Mimas: Impact[/h2]
We considered the old Mimas felt a bit like a ‘Moon 2' but were not going to just replicate the moon for the new one. At its core it’s still a crater-ridden terrain but Mimas's point of difference is dramatic craters that rise much further up, and it features a crater so large that you barely know you’re in it if you’re standing near the center.



[h2]Europa: Colosseum[/h2]
This is an example of us taking a dramatically different route. Europa is completely covered in snow with rocky, exposed mountainous ranges. Initially we wanted to create some areas that were representative of the original Europa with massive ice spikes, but it did not feel right and was hard to make work technically. This was a good example of us working to the limitations of what we built and playing and iterating with the world building team until we were satisfied. We had an awesome time playing on Europa for over two weeks and we only saw a fraction of the map.



[h2]Venus: Miasma[/h2]
When looking at the old version of Venus the core feeling was best described as oppressive. We leaned into that with steep, towering, hostile ridged mountains permeating the map. The only respite from these mountains are the occasional shallow basins with toxic looking terrain colors, as well as dried up sulfur flats.



[h2]Vulcan: Foundry[/h2]
The old Vulcan map was probably the most unique of the old planets and invoked a feeling that we wanted to fully capture in the new map. Everyone on the team felt that it was important to get this one right, so we slowed down and decided to expand our world building feature set to allow for more interesting lava and the ability to add fractures. The map itself went through many iterations until we landed on a craggy landscape covered in fractures and giant volcanoes. The lava means you can’t dig down too far, while the hostile landscape and environment make it hard to traverse on mining missions.




Our previous terrain system had a critical flaw: it never unloaded parts of the world from memory. The more you explored, the more RAM the game would permanently consume, leading to unavoidable performance degradation. This functionally limited how far you could travel before the game became unstable. This core inefficiency led to other problems, such as bloated save files with long load times and noticeable in-game 'hitching' when actions like mining or explosions occurred.

Creatively, the system was a dead end; while the worlds were procedurally-generated, they were also homogeneous, with almost no meaningful variance. Traveling in any direction presented more of the same landscape, which limited the feeling of true exploration and prevented us from creating the unique, authored experiences we envisioned.



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The old save system was often described as unintuitive. It had confusing components, such as the backup system, which didn't always behave how people expected. A single save file misunderstanding could ruin hours of work and sour a day-long play session. So, there are two main new concepts to understand about the new save system - save files are now compressed into a single .save file and the save file structure has been changed to be a lot clearer.

The different kinds of saves we have are:



The save menu has been significantly updated, and each of these save types are displayed visually differently in the expanded save menu, to help you better understand your saves. In normal practice when restarting the game, you don't need to even expand this advanced save information, and just pressing the load button will continue your game.



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With all the changes to the terrain and save systems all previous saves are broken. The community has already created various tools for porting your old saves. Here's a link to JacksonTheMaster's(Discord Handle) tool. There's also a workshop mod that you can find from this website.

Stationeers Save Transformer by JacksonTheMaster



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[h3]We highly recommend not connecting using Steam P2P for multiplayer as it can cause desyncs and is not nearly as reliable. If the game tries to connect via Steam P2P you will be warned in game.[/h3]

A major cause of client-side hitching was fixed: a bug that caused unnecessary waiting for atmospheric network updates. In our tests on large bases, this eliminated a 20-30ms frame spike that was occurring twice a second.

You may have caught EJ playing Stationeers with up to 20 players recently. Check out his Twitch here.

Beyond this, we made dozens of small changes and fixes that massively improve the multiplayer experience. Connecting to and disconnecting from servers is now much smoother and more reliable. During our internal playthroughs, once we had made these improvements, we regularly had up to 10 players online at once without any issues.

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Three excellent walkthroughs using our tutorial system (Airlock, Smelting, and Manufacturing) made by community member, BigFootMSR(with his approval), have been officially integrated into the base game. Give him a big thanks for helping explain some of the more advanced parts of the game to new players.

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At RocketWerkz one of the most important things we do is play our games. Once we had our first new terrain complete enough to play, Europa, we stopped our regular development for over two weeks to simply play. Playing the game the same way as customers allows us to see where the game actually needs work. This is the core foundation for what we call project clinics. So, besides the Terrain work we have done a massive amount of bug fixing, adding content, as well as hardening and improving systems.

Beyond bigger stuff like the save and multiplayer improvements bellow you can quick fire list of all the things we’ve added or changed:

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[h2]Move All Inventory Actions[/h2]
You can now hold Left Control while dragging to move all items in a container, or hold Left Shift to move all items of the same type.



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[h2]DensePool[/h2]
A common cause of stuttering in complex bases is the process of adding and removing objects from large lists. To solve this, we implemented a new high performance data structure we call a DensePool. This system uses a "swap and pop" method, ensuring that our lists of objects are always kept tightly packed and efficient. We've refactored nearly every major system in the game to use these DensePools, resulting in a significant reduction in stuttering and memory usage, especially for large bases and busy multiplayer servers.

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[h2]Multi-block Pipes and Chutes[/h2]
Something that has been long requested, and during the construction of a big and spread-out base we once again saw a need for long pipe segments. While this is handy from a station construction point of view, it significantly helps reduce the number of things in the world which has a non-trivial performance impact. We then expanded this to also include chutes, which have a higher performance cost than pipes.



[h2]Logic System Upgrades[/h2]
For our dedicated IC10 architects, this update delivers one of the most significant expansions to the logic system yet. We've focused on making your code simpler to write, more powerful, and far more intelligent, allowing you to create robust scripts that can dynamically adapt to their environment without throwing errors.

[h3]Streamlined Code with Direct Addressing[/h3]
We've fundamentally streamlined how you reference devices. Previously, to read a variable from a specific device, you often had to load that device's ID into a register and then use a dedicated instruction like ld.

Now, core instructions like l (load), s (store), and all device branching instructions have been upgraded to support Direct Addressing. This means the instruction itself is smart enough to know if you're giving it a register, a device screw (like d0), or a raw Device ID. In short, you can skip the middleman, which makes your code cleaner and more intuitive.

Here's a practical example:

# THE OLD WAY
# You had to use 'ld' after moving the ID into a register.
move r0 123456789  # Move the Reference ID of a switch into r0
ld r1 r0 Open      # Load the 'Open' state

# THE NEW, SIMPLER WAY
# The 'l' instruction now does it all.
# You can use the ID directly, or an alias.
alias myswitch 123456789
l r1 myswitch Open # Load the 'Open' state directly

[h3]Smarter Scripts with Dynamic Device Checking[/h3]
We're also introducing powerful new branching instructions that allow your script to ask a device a question before trying to interact with it: "Can this variable even be read?" or "Is this variable writable?". This prevents your script from throwing an error and halting, allowing you to create universal scripts that can intelligently check what a device is capable of.

bdnvl   

Branch if Device Not Valid to Load: Jumps to the specified line if the logicType on the device is not readable.

bdnvs   

Branch if Device Not Valid to Store: Jumps to the specified line if the logicType on the device is not writable.

[h3]New Tools and Helpers[/h3]
We've also expanded your creative toolkit with several new instructions. You can now create smooth value transitions using LERP (Linear Interpolation), and perform highly efficient data packing with EXT (Extract Bit Field) and INS (Insert Bit Field).

To assist with complex calculations, the Universal Gas Constant (rgas) and Tau (tau) are now available as built-in constants. In the IC Editor, these constants and all your variables will now display their live numerical values in yellow text, making debugging much easier.

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[h2]A New Lander[/h2]
A lander replacement has been implemented that replaces the old one and bring it in line with the drop pod you spawn in.



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[h2]Planetary Mapping System[/h2]



A new gameplay loop has been added that allows you to scan and view the entire map. By building a Map Motherboard and connecting it to deep scanners, you can launch a rocket into orbit to slowly reveal the planetary surface on screen. This also allows you to toggle the deep ore region overlay, so you can find new regions with different deep ore mixes.

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[h2]New Computers[/h2]
To better display your new planetary discoveries, two new computer variants have been added: a standing and a wall mounted version. These provide an excellent canvas for the new Map Motherboard, which connects to your rocket's deep scanning head to reveal the planetary surface as it orbits.



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[h2]Rocket Gas Filtration Kit[/h2]
This new machine is designed for harvesting resources directly from the atmospheric gas clouds of planets like Jupiter. To support this, you'll find new cloud mining nodes appearing on the space map.



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[h2]Large Rocket Tanks[/h2]
Two new large landing pad tanks have been added: a Gas and a Liquid variant. Each is 3x2x4, and holds 3000L.



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[h2]Wide Airlock[/h2]
A new, fully functional double-width (2x1) airlock, constructible from the Airlock kit.



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[h2]Logic PID Controller[/h2]
A PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controller is a powerful tool for automation. It constantly works to minimize the error between a desired setpoint and a measured variable, making it perfect for tasks like precisely regulating temperature or pressure.



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[h2]Compact IC Housing[/h2]
A new, smaller IC housing variant with combined power and data connections for tighter placements.



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[h2]Hard Hat[/h2]
A new helmet that contains a built-in light.



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[h2]Ice Crusher Rework[/h2]
The Ice Crusher has been significantly reworked to be more intuitive, especially for new players who found the old version's lack of feedback confusing. It now features a new status panel that clearly displays what the machine is doing and any error states, a color-changing heating indicator light for at-a-glance feedback, and a physical temperature dial for direct and easy control over the heating process.



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[h2]Cryotube & Sleeper Rework[/h2]
The Sleeper now features a status panel that clearly shows how it works and if it's functioning correctly. The Cryotube has received a more significant overhaul and now requires a piped supply of cooled Liquid Nitrogen to operate. To make this new requirement clear, it includes an improved info panel that not only educates you on what's needed for it to function, but also displays critical medical data, including the organ damage values of any occupant.



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[h2]Tracker Cartridge Upgrade[/h2]
The functionality of the GPS Cartridge has been merged into the Tracker Cartridge. The old GPS Cartridge is now deprecated.



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[h2]LED Display Upgrades[/h2]
LED displays can now be set to show units (Kelvin, Celsius, Pa, etc.) and can display short strings of text sent from an IC.

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[h2]High-Speed Mining Drill Buffs[/h2]
The mineral drill's speed boost has been increased from 120% to 150%, and the ice drill's boost has been increased from 20% to 50% to better justify their high energy costs.

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[h2]Improved Computer Interaction[/h2]
You can now use Alt + click on computer screens, which makes UI interaction much smoother. This also allows you to open the IC editor while holding the laptop in your hand.

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[h2]Emote Commands[/h2]
You can now express yourself in-game with a range of new facial expressions, controlled via the emote console command. This system also includes automatic expressions for 'Death' and 'Unconscious' states for added immersion. The available commands are:





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• Some explosions, such as canisters, do not destroying terrain
  
• The use of dr in IC10 scripts is not fully supported yet
  
• Some rich ore deposits are not working correctly on the moon map
  

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Pre-Terrain Branch

[h3]We've locked of a branch on steam called 'preterrain'. You'll always be able to go back to this if you choose.[/h3]

Change Log 0.2.5903.26007

[h3]This post is too long to display the change logs so we have create a pastebin containing all the changes:[/h3]
[h3]pastebin.com/LsbVNS7X[/h3]