Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

Upcoming Minor Update - Flare Launchers!

This week we are announcing an upcoming minor update... flare launchers!

This is a new component block coming soon, that you can place on a vehicle. When triggered, it will launch a flare. There are multiple types of flares, with some being useful for signalling a location, illuminating an area at night, or marking a location.

We have had great fun building this feature, can't wait to share it with you in the next few weeks as a minor update.

Our current focus remains building Stormworks out as a search and rescue game, and this kind of feature marries well with this concept. This new component will be very useful, for example at night where the player needs more illumination to aid in locating people and objects, as well as the possibility for allowing survivors to launch flares in a search senario in the future.

Upcoming Major Update Feature - Game Modes!

We continue to work hard on the next major update, were we aim to push the simulation gameplay much further. As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, this major update will introduce more things to do, and more things that can happen in the world.

A while ago, we also asked for your feedback regarding normal mode, which revealed very few players playing that mode.

We are planning on rethinking the game modes in Stormworks. Our plan is to replace normal mode with some creative mode tools, as well as lots of other new powerful creative tools, and completely rework career into a much clearer and better defined game mode, with much better progression and gameplay.

The New Creative and Career Modes

We have been listening to your feedback regarding the game modes, and there are 2 clear directions that players are looking for - you want more control over what you can do in creative mode, and you want a more engaging search and rescue career experience.

This major update is designed to solve these problems. Creative mode now includes many of the existing game options, with lots of new options and abilities, and the ability to toggle these options within the game, rather than setting them when starting a new game. This greatly broadens how you can play the game within creative mode. We will share more details on exactly what these new options are soon.

Career mode will now be a specific set of game settings, the way the persistent game is meant to be played. This game option will pit the player against peril and consequence, making for a more exciting and engaging simulation type game mode. We are removing some concepts from career which just didn't work - games now start with all components unlocked, as limiting components also limited the roles and things players could do at the start of the game.

We look forward to your feedback on these upcoming plans and can't wait to start sharing more on the next major update soon.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Happy New Year!

This week we are releasing a small but frequently requested minor update - the temperature sensor update! This component tells you the current temperature at the block, allowing you to make thermostat systems for heaters, warning systems, and more. These are useful for example making heating systems much more efficient.

Thank you to everyone who have shared your thoughts, ideas, and your vision for the upcoming missions update! It is hugely useful and we are delighted for the chance to build your concepts into the new update. It isn't too late to post your ideas in the comments to this post, and we will continue to review your suggestions as we return to the office on Monday.

We are really excited about what 2020 will bring to Stormworks. We can't wait to share more of our plans and are excited to continue announcing our progress further ahead of releases. There is still so many highly requested features and updates that will add so much to the game, and this will be the year for many of these huge and impactful changes to Stormworks.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Path Notes

v0.9.21-24

Feature - added new temperature sensor component. Outputs the current temperature.

Dear Stormworkers,

Happy Holidays!

This week there is no minor update, and instead we are trialling discussion of our upcoming plans for Stormworks, which we plan to do every other week.

The Next Major Update

For a long time now, we have wanted to improve the career experience for Stormworks and for the next major update we want to focus on a fundamental rework of the game modes, and the narrative events that happen in game such as missions and other things to do in the world.

This involves making creative mode better, with more tools, options, and creative freedom, to customise the game rules and challenges. We will also clearly define career mode to be a single standardised set of survival based game rules with focus on vehicle operation, lasting consequence, and the risks of search and rescue.



For this to work, we need to improve events in the world around you and we are reworking the missions system to procedurally build situations and evolving narrative for the player to engage with and manage. Many of the current Stormworks missions are essentially "deliver A to B", but the missions that start to work are the ones where a situation is evolving - the forest fires, rescuing people from a burning oil rig, etc.

We want these missions to become more interesting and engaging. Perhaps an oil tanker fire can leave the player to decide if to tackle the fire or rescue the crew off the vessel. Perhaps there is a chance of explosion, damaging the vessel further and spreading fire. or creating a leak in the hull.

What else could happen? We need your help! Please share your ideas in the comments for missions and things that could happen, how they could evolve procedurally, what exciting surprises could be waiting for the player, and more! Your ideas and inspiration will be very useful over the next few weeks as we continue to build up the new missions system.



Our office is still closed for another week for the holiday break, but there will probably be a small minor update next week as usual.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

What a response to last week's update! We knew a lot of people had been voting for the new wedges on Discord, but we didn't expect last weeks update to be quite so popular! And we cannot believe what new shapes and forms you have created on the workshop, the new vehicle shapes that you are making are amazing! Stormworks has a whole new look.

A lot of you have asked for more wedges, and it was already something we were looking at, so this week we are adding new 4x1, 4x2 and 4x4 wedges and pyramids!

These new, much shallower slopes allow lots of new shapes and forms to be made, and compliment the 2 length wedges.

The physics is starting to get very thin on the narrow end of these 4-length wedges, so it is unlikely we will be able to add longer ones, and we recommend backing any narrow end of a wedge with other blocks so it isn't too thin.

We can't wait to see what you create with these new shapes! We will be on the workshop checking out your creations!

Happy holidays :-)

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.9.20

Feature - 4x1, 4x2 and 4x4 Wedges

Rework - Disabled some GPU queries that could give a performance boost for lower end graphics cards / integrated graphics

Fix - Sawyer Islands North Harbour Trainline issues
Fix - Rare CTD when returning a vehicle to workbench
Fix - Corrected Large Radio cost from 200 -> 2500

Dear Stormworkers,

Different sized wedges and pyramid blocks are very popular in the polls we have run on discord. This week we are bringing the first part of new wedges and pyramids with different slopes!

These new basic blocks allow you to create much smoother forms and looks to your vehicles.

They are also much more efficient in physics where they produce simpler forms, when making curved shapes.

The new parts include 2x1x1 wedges, 2x1x1 pyramids, and 2x2x1 pyramids, allowing lots of new forms in your vehicle bodywork design.

We can't wait to see what you create with these new parts, we will be watching the workshop :-)

Please let us know what further blocks you would like to see!

Last week we suggested we might make minor updates less frequent and asked for your feedback. There was a good mix of responses, so we are going to trial minor updates being every 2 weeks, starting in the new year, and see how it goes. In the intermediate weeks, we are still going to post an update focused on communication, talking about upcoming features and major updates. This will allow us to talk about updates further ahead and get your feedback. This is a temporary trial and we will be looking for your feedback on how we should best schedule updates.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.9.18

Rework - Classic colour palette now also uses white text for dark logic types

Fix - Winter mode incorrectly applying cold debuff outside of the arctic
Fix - CTD when placing decorative tyres
going on testing now to double check its all in place

v0.9.19

Feature - 2x1 and 2x2 Wedges

Fix - Updates for Arctic Mining, Fishing Community, Long Distance and Research Center mission playlists
Fix - Numerous issues with painting including: Symmetric Painting, Symmetric Plane Fill, Plane Fill Undo and some other smaller issues