Dear Stormworkers,
Today we are releasing a hotfix (v1.9.16) with some improvements in response to player feedback. This is the 5th such update this week as our focus has been improving the balance of the fluid system for the best compatibility with existing creations. Check below for patch notes and check the news feed for info on the dozens of other fixes we have released this week.
This is part of our plan to improve the fluid system performance for old creations. Lets talk more about where this started and where it is heading:
The SituationIt's time for some RP. Imagine that you are a Stormworks developer and the Space DLC released about 24 hours ago.
The space update negatively impacted many existing player creations. This is Stormworks. Many of these creations took hundreds of hours to make. This is a huge deal.
Firstly, and most obviously, some ships (particularly large ships) computed their mass slightly differently which meant they might sat differently in the water. Fortunately, this was just one line of code to update and you have already fixed this.
Secondly, it turns out that you didn't test the new compressed gas fluid system on enough workshop creations. A lot of steam powered vehicles, water jets, and some others didn't behave the same with the new fluid system. You had been working hard on our quality processes over the last couple of years, so, to make such a mistake is really disappointing. And so avoidable.
While
you did discuss the fluid system rework and the potential impact with players long before the update, it was the intention that creations generally continued to work. This impact is far greater than you intended and too many player creations are impacted.
The Space DLC is now live, and it depends on these fluid changes, and the space portion of this update is well tested and working. In the past, you may roll back a change, but in this case, with most of your players currently in orbit, that would make the situation so much worse.
The player backlash is gaining momentum, to the point where players are getting involved who have not played the update or are unaffected.
Discord is out of control. There is at least a dozen people posting threats and your actual location. They are probably just kids, right?
The last time you checked, there were 500 negative Steam reviews. You decide not to look again, it isn't helping. You are feeling the pressure.
A new email, its from a youtuber. "Sorry to hear about the backlash!" it reads. "Just keep doing what you do and things will work themselves out". What a kind message to receive. It is good advice.
The SolutionI think that in life, these stressful times come along once in a while, and for some people, the situation can be much worse than this. How you respond to the situation matters a great deal.
You cannot change what is done, so you must look ahead for the best path forward. You need a clear head to see the best solution, and you can't allow the pressure to affect you.
For us, it is about pressing on with development, reading the player feedback, understanding the problem, and working through it in a pragmatic way.
This is what we have been doing. The game is in a much improved place thanks to the player feedback and the dozens of changes we have released. We have made huge progress on reworking the fluid system, working with players directly on experimental branch, hot fixing issues, and the new unit tests system is in development so that we can record metrics on vehicle behaviour and compare each game version.
Learning involves making these changes to avoid the same issues in the future. We are now in year 7 of live Stormworks development, with years yet to come, and exciting times ahead!
Much love
The Stormworks Developers
Patch Notes
v1.9.16 HOTFIX
Rework - diesel burner now works much better due to changes to air flow, exhaust, diesel flow
Rework - fluid labels now show pressure in atmospheres rather than storage to better explain pressure driven system
Rework - increased max effective pressure delta from 10 to 20 atmospheres
Rework - fluid resolves slightly differently at low pressure to improve flow at low pressure
Fix - water jets no longer produce force from negative rps
