Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

The next Stormworks major update is almost here! (Release date: 2nd June 2022) The new major update includes a new "ring of fire" biome with a series of fault-line volcanoes, underwater tunnels and trenches, new missions, and new sonar components! Here is some more info on what to expect:



New Sonar!

With the major update, we will add new sonar components. These new sonar parts are much more true to life, as they can listen in passive mode, as well as operate in active mode.

In passive mode, the new sonar parts detect noise producing components such as propellers, engines, etc. Sonar continuously listens in all directions at once, and this info is output to a composite channel in a similar way to radar.

In active mode, sonar emits a "ping" on command. This ping travels through water at 1480m/s and reflects off vehicles, returning their contact with a delay relative to their distance. Pings are considered noise producing, and are visible to passive radar.



New Missions!

The new missions include a variety of new types. Ocean floor rescue missions involve rescuing divers or submariners from below the surface, in a similar structure to the existing rescue missions. The depths of these missions is usually known and the player may need specialist rescue equipment. Occasionally these missions can occur where cave divers require rescue. These missions are probably the most dangerous as the underwater tunnel network is vast and it is easy to get lost.

Salvage missions involve recovering anchors, live munitions, or wrecked ships from the sea floor, and transporting them to their destination. These missions are more passive, with much longer timers as they are not emergencies and much less urgent. This allows more time to prepare, time to wait for the best weather, and perhaps even complete these missions in stages or in groups for maximum efficiency.

Repair missions introduce a new objective type where vehicles may need repairing with a repair torch. Some of these vehicles are on the surface, while others may be on the sea floor.



We are really excited to release this major update in just a few days on 2nd June 2022! Thank you to all the players who have given us feedback and support to make this update possible.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This weeks update is dedicated to bug fixes and improvements, as we prepare for the big major update in just 2 weeks!

There is a huge list of fixes and improvements, with the full change log below. Once major change is that we have completely replaced the audio code, to fix a range of audio issues, including those on Mac. The new audio code is based on our new audio library that we developed for use in Carrier Command 2. This was a lot of work but was an important change as it fixed some wide ranging issues.



In our ongoing mission to improve multiplayer, we have also greatly reduced freezing when a vehicle loads in. This freeze was caused by the vehicle data being sent in order to load the vehicle on clients. This is now done in the background, with only a small amount of compressed info being time-critical for the final stage of spawning the vehicle. This freezing was causing players to experience a few seconds of lag immediately after a vehicle loaded in which made vehicles unresponsive for a few seconds. This delay is greatly reduced and responsiveness greatly improved.

Thanks to everyone who has reported issues using the official issue tracker. The issue numbers are included in the change notes below for extra detail.

With just 2 weeks to go, we are adding the final touches to the upcoming underwater major update! We will release more info next week about a new component included in the major update, changes to the ocean, and the new missions! We are really excited for this update and can't wait to share more in this new release!



We recommend preparing with submarines, remote operated submersibles, and diving equipment!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.4.19

In this update we have reworked the sound library that underlies all of Stormworks' audio effects, these changes should result in a much more stable experience especially for MacOS players.

Fix - #756 Sound library rework
Fix - #2765 Sliding Connector not connecting in certain circumstances
Fix - #2852 Train wheels now activate when applying torque
Fix - #1899 Water falling effect render issues around turret ring
Fix - #6636 Vehicle overwrite save file warning was case insensitive
Fix - #7154 Time and weather overrides not saving correctly
Fix - #6995 Prefab rocket launchers mirror incorrectly
Fix - #7388 Npcs not taking vehicle fire damage
Fix - #7473 Terrain issues near Mount Goldblum
Fix - #7524 Clouds / Lightning not generating correctly
Fix - #7555 Fixed mesh issues with monitors
Fix - #7558 Audio settings not updating
Fix - #7615 Laser point stops showing when moving 170m away
Fix - #7673 Updated small warhead meshes to match with SRBs and radar
Fix - #7690 Several minor component graphical defects
Fix - #7692 SRB nozzles using wrong force direction when flipped
Fix - #7705 Corrected cannon belt mass values
Fix - #7854 Voice chat range issues
Fix - #7868 Propellers repair

Dear Stormworkers,

The next major update is almost here - and it will be the new Underwater Biome Major Update!

The new underwater biome includes over 40 square kilometres of underwater landscape, a volcanic ring of fire with several active volcanoes, underwater trenches, ruins, wrecks, and a vast network of underwater tunnels!



The new biome has many new named locations, in honour of the great community members and vehicle creators in the Stormworks community. These players have been selected because of their dedicated and selfless help given to other community members, or because of their incredible workshop creations that have risen to popularity on the workshop by community choice. We look forward to honouring these players in this major update.



There are also new missions including ocean floor submarine emergencies, ship salvage, sea floor cable maintenance, and more! Many of these new missions are ideal for spawning in the underwater biome, but can also appear all over the world of Stormworks.

We are adding a new glowstick first person item which can be used in a similar way to flares except is much less bright, has a much longer lifetime, and greatly assists location and path marking underwater.



The much-requested Kraken button will also arrive with this major update, allowing players to summon the kraken from the custom menu.



We can't wait to share this new major update on the 2nd June at 4pm UTC! Join us then for the big launch. And until then, be sure to check back here next week for an exciting minor update!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

In this weeks minor update, we bring new train bridges to make it easier to get taller ships past the trainlines!

The trainline has long been a difficult obstacle for large ship creators, and a solution to this issue has been a frequent request from players.

With these new bridges, there are frequent passing places for tall ships to be able to cross the boundaries. We are also including AI pathing data for these new tiles, so that AI ships can better navigate across the trainline.



This update is also a huge bug fix update, with at least 40 new fixes! As previously discussed, we have been putting more focus into bug fix updates recently, with huge progress on the backlog of issues, and few new issues being introduced.

Please see the changelog below for full details of these new fixes and improvements!

EDIT: Here is the developers Q&A video as promised!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.4.18

Feature - Bridge Train Track Tiles (#3507 #2197 #1090)
Feature - Expanded Addon Lua pathfinding (#7030)

Rework - Client movement now always uses client camera direction instead of server authored direction
Fix - #3873 Suspension rendering when flipped
Fix - #3904 Jet Exhaust rendering when flipped
Fix - #1840 Pick-block raycast not accounting for sub-mesh offsets
Fix - #4570 SRB fin mirroring issues
Fix - #6426 #6877 Hotkeys still activating when typing in a text field
Fix - #6558 Removed ability to place C4 on characters
Fix - #6295 Improved voice listener position data when transmitting audio
Fix - #7218 Assorted typos
Fix - #7113 Can't spawn mission editor test on Mac
Fix - #7100 Vehicle editor allowing multi-body components to go beyond bounds
Fix - #7099 Cleaned up old Bugsplat files
Fix - #7077 #7256 Reworked ?reload_scripts so that it now correctly reloads workshop addons. Removed unused addon data from scene.xml.
Fix - #7074 Documented server.dlcWeapons()
Fix - #7056 Fixed empty inventory names
Fix - #7054 Heli rotor blades wrongly detected by lasers when folded
Fix - #6967 Respawn button not getting un-focused with controller
Fix - #6895 No underwater effect with window when shooting underwater
Fix - #6884 Updated description for onButtonPress callback to be clearer about its function
Fix - #6826 Different cameras in sealed container behave incorrectly while submerged
Fix - #4951 Wind direction not updating correctly
Fix - #2898 Robotic hinge rendering in select mode
Fix - #2467 Unconscious characters imparting force when loading a save
Fix - #2142 Coal does not get refunded when despawning a Vehicle
Fix - #2126 Ammo Belts not refunding when editing a vehicle
Fix - #2003 Inverting radars causes them to detect behind the radar/inverted detection
Fix - #132 Tanks with both ports connected pressure issues
Rework - Adjusted underwater welding brightness
Fix - #7250 #7270 #7431 Improved safeguards against logic thread freezing
Fix - #7253 Weapons can now fire underwater
Fix - #7360 Fix crouch speed horizontal movement being affected by look direction
Fix - #7372 Fix setVehiclePosSafe using sub-grids in bounds calculations
Fix - #7379 Fix component inventory sometimes rendering incorrectly
Fix - #7485 Robotic door hinge tooltip
Fix - Crash caused by invalid logic slot data
Fix - Lua vehicle spawning failing occasionally when the spawn point is very far from any islands
Fix - #7625 Updated propeller sounds
Fix - #7532 Added buoyancy surfaces to rotor/prop hubs
Fix - #7576 Removed animation from component inventory
Fix - Ai boats no longer initialize with a path that leads them straight ahead (into islands)
Rework - Reduced max particle buffer size to save memory
Fix - Updated dedicated server default playlists to include all playlists
Fix - Weather overrides now parse correctly

Addon Lua Changes:

Added {

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we invite you to submit your questions for an upcoming developer Questions & Answers video! In these videos, we answer questions submitted by players, chat about Stormworks, and just get into that bit more detail than we usually can. We really enjoy these videos and it is great to talk to players about their thoughts and ideas.

Submit your questions here within a few days of this announcement (Thank you for all the submitted questions!) and we will answer as many as we can in the upcoming video!



The results have been coming back from the new crash reporter, and we are pleased that last weeks update reduced crashes by 60%. We have more crash fixes in next weeks minor update and expect to continue making progress through any remaining crash issues.

The next minor update is due out next week and includes many new fixes, as well as a new content feature. We are just finishing testing this update and there is a lot of quality improvements included so it should be another big changelog, like last week.



We are also finishing off the next major update, and are almost ready to plan a release date! No promises, but the release date and other info may follow in the next announcement in 2 weeks.

We look forward seeing what questions you have, and are really excited about sharing the next few updates!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers