Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is announcement week, with a minor update due for release next week!

We are working hard to improve Stormworks in many directions! Some of these directions are less interesting to talk about in an announcement, such as fixing crashes and digging through netcode, while more cosmetic changes tend to be easier to write about.

One such direction we are exploring is improvements to audio! For a long time, players have been asking for improvements to various sound effects, and asking for new sound effects where audio would be useful feedback. For the last 8 years we have been lucky enough to work with Chris Randle and Jon Daou across various games.

For sound effects it has worked best in the past to order in batches, but for Stormworks we have frequently found ourselves needing sound effects on a weekly basis for a new component or interaction. This has encouraged reuse of SFX, or missing SFX out, and there are many places where we would want to improve.



Instead of ordering in batches, we will now be having a sound engineer work weekly with the team to improve all these missing and borrowed sounds, but also work creatively on the sound design. We hope this will bring a big improvement of quality of audio over the coming months, and we will be looking to players to let us know where they think we should start, and where the highest priorities are in terms of improving audio.

In the mean time, we will also be getting on with all the various fixes and improvements, minor updates (including new frequently requested components), major updates, potential new DLC, and more.

We look forward to your audio ideas!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

In this update, we add 4 new outfits: light, medium and heavy body armour, and bomb disposal. If you have the Weapons DLC enabled, these outfits give additional ballistic protection from small calibre rounds, or in the case of the bomb disposal outfit, explosions!



Many players have been asking for Weapons DLC updates, and we are really excited to bring this new update. Even if you don't have the DLC, these new outfits are still available with cosmetic only function.

We are also adding several important bug fixes and improvements, please see the patch notes below for full details.



As always, we are continuing to work on more fixes and imrpovements, minor updates, and major updates! The next few minor updates will include new components and we will announce more soon!



We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on the new update!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.6

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via geometa.co.uk/support/stormworks which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - Functional Weapons Outfits (#7960 #3217)

In this update we have added 5 new outfits that protect the player against projectile and explosive damage at the expense of slowing down the player's movement speed.
Most of the new outfits include a helmet which will additionally reduce headshot damage.

Fix - Player now orients to the look direction when walking (using walk hotkey)
Fix - #10701 Audio settings tab sliders not applying correctly
Fix - #11200 Fix default weapons script breaking when failing to spawn a turret
Fix - Fix onButtonPress event interactions with instrument panel buttons
Fix - Updated several component descriptions that were using hard coded hotkeys in descriptions
Fix - #11642 Adjusted mounted end-effector raycast to begin within the component
Fix - #11676 Mesh issues between arctic airport and main island
Fix - #11717 Gyro now creates editor warning when electric is not connected
Fix - #11746 Speargun inventory spelling error
Fix - #11805 #11754 Leaks now occur for voxels that take more than 1 damage in a single instance

Dear Stormworkers,

In this announcement post, we discuss next weeks minor update including new weapons outfits, as well as other upcoming minor updates and major updates.

Next week we are releasing new outfits! These outfits spawn in inventory boxes in a similar way to scuba, firefighting, etc. outfits. While they are available in the base game, they only function cosmetically. With Weapons DLC enabled, these outfits provide enhanced ballistic protection.

The new outfits include various grades of body armour / helmets, as well as a bomb disposal outfit with protection specifically to explosives.



Of course there will be more than just these new features, and many fixes and improvements will also be included in next weeks update.

We are getting further ahead with our updates, and have managed to extend our lead-in time (the time between completing or near-completing an update, and releasing it). This is giving us more time for quality control and testing, and is generally just a calmer way of working. This also means we are working on various minor and major updates at any one time!



We previously discussed a new major update that we have been working on, that we would like to extend and expand into a much bigger DLC update. We are still considering this and working on other new features that are related and could become part of this, if not their own update.

We are also working on other major update features, and while it is too early to talk about specifics, there is a lot of really fun and interesting stuff that can add a lot to the life of the world of Stormworks.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we add the new steam piston and steam whistle components!

The new steam pistons come in various sizes. As discussed last week, the steam pistons are designed to work with a similar mechanic to real steam pistons, where the difference in pressure on each side of the piston pushes the piston from end to end. There are 2 ports on each side of the piston, and the valves for these ports are driven by the crank rotation.

Try out the new steam tractor preset, or design your own steam engine! Simply supply high pressure steam to the input ports, and allow the steam to exhaust by adding exhausts or steam whistles to the output ports.



As the crank rotates, the torque acting on the crank varies. The pistons are most efficient mid-stroke, while at the ends of the stroke, the pistons do not apply force efficiently, creating dead zones. To counter-act this, placing pistons next to each other links their crank shafts, and you can offset their crank offset in the properties.

The new steam whistles are similar to output ports, except with the flow of steam, they produce a whistling sound! You can play around with the pitch in the whistles properties so you can customize the tone of your whistle, or just serenade your friends with a musical steam organ creation.



These components have requested ever since the steam and nuclear major update! So we are very excited to bring this update to players.

There is plenty more in this update, so be sure to read the patch notes below for info on all the fixes and improvements included in this minor update.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.5

Changes that include a #NUMBER relate to fixes or features submitted by the Stormworks community via the Official Issue Tracker which can be accessed via the 'Report Bug/Request Feature' button in-game.

Posting a submission to this tracker ensures we review your suggestion/report since we may not see reports submitted via other channels.

Feature - Steam Piston Components (#3043)
Feature - Steam Whistle

A Steam powered tractor has been added to the preset vehicles list.

Fix - #10271 Underwater lighting fog shaders
Fix - Rocket fin mirroring not reflected correctly in mesh visuals when turning
Rework - Add vehicle destroyed mission outcome to relevant default mission types
Rework - Non-urgent mission types now display as orange instead of red
Fix - #11283 Default underwater missions not using zone size offset
Fix - #10322 Weather and Time overrides not persisting between save and load
Fix - #10856 Updated default mission title generation
Fix - #11032 Allow the Kraken to be placed in the addon editor
Fix - #11150 Missing triangle on the medium control surface
Fix - #7705 Added velocity limits to explosions to prevent twilight zoning the player
Fix - #11306 Survivors not updating their constraints when revived in a bed
Fix - #11358 Small fins editor mesh too big
Fix - Minor addon lua documentation QOL changes
Fix - #11381 Weather state reverts to start of game conditions on load
Fix - #11575 Rotor mesh gap issue
Rework - Updated network code to deal with cases where the thread sleeps for longer than expected

Dear Stormworkers,

It is announcement week, with an update being released last week and one planned for next week!

Next weeks minor update includes several new components that many players have asked for over a long period of time for various reasons!

One component being released next week is the new steam piston! Players have been asking for other ways to make steam engines, including smaller engines for some time and this new update will do this. The new steam pistons come in various sizes, and are designed for low-speed high-torque applications.

The steam pistons work in a very mechanical way, similar to real steam pistons. There are 4 steam ports on each piston cylinder, with 2 ports above the piston head, and 2 below. There is also a connecting rod and a crank shaft that rotates in the expected way. The valves opening and closing each port are controlled by the position of the crank shaft. A typical way to use this new component would be to supply high pressure steam to the input ports, and add exhausts to the output ports.

In one direction of the stroke, the piston will open the input valve of the compressed side of the piston, and the output valve of the expanded side. The difference in pressure between the two side of the piston will create torque and motion. As the piston reaches the other end of the cylinder, the valves reverse, exhausting the high pressure steam, and allowing high pressure steam into the other side.

Like a real steam engine, either a flywheel or multiple out-of-phase pistons are advisable to avoid stalling. This is because the torque action on the crank shaft has low-efficiency zones at the ends of the strokes, just like real pistons. Adjacent pistons placed next to each other are locked together, but can be spawned with player-defined crank cycle offsets. This allows a huge amount of control over how engines are built.

Along with steam pistons, there are several other related components that we will announce next week! And of course, there will be the usual bug fixes and improvements!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers