Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

The Rod Fishing Major Update is out now!

In this new update, you can catch fish with the new fishing rod, store and transport your catch in hoppers, and sell them at fishing trading points in harbours.



It has been huge fun developing this update, and it has been great to see players getting excited about it! We have been reading your thoughts, comments, feedback, and even watching some on Youtube. Thanks for all the time and effort to let us know your thoughts. Making trailers takes a lot of energy, and we were very impressed by the epic trailer made by ProfNCognito! Check it out below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Please see the patch notes below for detail on this new update.

As a reminder, updates now happen on Wednesdays.



We are planning on doing a live Q&A session soon, we will keep you posted.

We are still interested in player feedback on fishing and particularly, their requests for future commercial fishing updates.



We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this new update!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.10.0

Feature - Fish system overhaul; behaviours, items, animations and sounds
Feature - Physics based first person fishing rod
Feature - Item Vacuum hopper-block
Feature - Default trading addon fish markets
Feature - New map-label icon types, including hospital boat and refueler plane
Fix - Rope buoyancy issues
Fix - Resolved several issues with addon lua rope support
Fix - JSI dock physics mesh issues
Fix - #14434 Bug tracker not showing warning when attempting to post large files

Dear Stormworkers,

There are 2 things you need to know:

Rod Fishing Major Update

Next week on Wednesday 31st January, we are introducing fishing with a rod to Stormworks.

The new fishing rod inventory item allows players to cast a lure into the water. Over time, fish may become interested in the lure and have a nibble, or occasionally bite. With a fish hooked, you can reel in to collect your catch.

Fish can now be picked up with hands, and dropped on the floor. Their new mechanics are similar to ore particles, and so can also be stored and transported in hoppers.



A new hopper vacuum component can extract ore and fish from hoppers by pressing against it, pulling the contents out.

Fish can be traded at special fish gantry locations in some harbours.

Many thanks to the many players who have been asking for fishing and inspired this update. There are many requests on the issue tracker, and even youtubers have been very vocal, with Camodo sharing his ideas for years, and 454 doing a recent video.

But, is this the fishing update you wanted? I see many incredible fishing trawlers on the workshop! If you have ideas for commercial scale fishing, we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback for potential future updates.



Releases Moved to Wednesdays

Thanks to Vandalich who got in touch on the issue tracker to share their development experiences and advice to help us reduce the stress of regular updates. We are following their recommendation and moving releases to Wednesdays, to give better breathing room around update timing and reduce the number of weekends we work.

We have also reviewed what other games do. Very few developers do their updates on Friday, probably for this very reason. Most are also on Wednesdays.



We are also looking at frequency. Very few developers do updates every 2 weeks on a schedule, and it probably makes sense to either reduce frequency or move to a non-regular schedule. This would mean less frequent but larger updates, and for us it means that we have more time to test each update.

However, we won't make this change right away, and so please expect updates every 2 weeks on Wednesdays for the time being.

We look forward to your thoughts on feedback on these new announcements!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is update week, and we have a small update focused on fixes and improvements!

While this may be a minor update, there are many important changes which players have been asking for. These improvements include a new "space" tag for the workshop, to help organize and find these creations.



Sadly, the bug allowing players to fly with a fire extinguisher has been addressed! Fire extinguishers still apply force in space allowing you to propel yourself around, but on Earth they don't apply any force any more.



For a full list of changes, see the notes below.

Next week we have a reelly big announcement so be sure to join us for the new info. We won't say any more as to spoil this update so catch you then!



Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.9.25

Feature - #22081 Added space and train tags to workshop uploads
Feature - #22258 Added rotation, angular speed and tilt to the astronomy sensor
Fix - Multiplayer rope render sync
Fix - #23781 Winch speed setting appearing on rope hooks
Fix - #21497 Hide addon popups during photo mode
Fix - #21797 Disable editing of vehicles with passengers
Fix - #21815 Skybox rendering issues
Fix - #22168 DLC icons on server list overlapping
Fix - #22376 Compartment internal fluid height issues (fires extinguishing under waterline)
Fix - Fixed tractor and engine preset issues
Balance - #21773 Reduced fire extinguisher force

Dear Stormworkers,

Thank you for all the feedback on pulleys! It was really fun to release a physics based component, and seeing players engage with the mechanics and engineering of pulleys has been awesome. The new and updated crane creations are incredible!

While the last couple of minor updates have included features, next weeks minor update will focus on just fixes and improvements.



Beyond that, we are continuing to work on the major and minor updates, and the new game.

We are also planning on doing a live Q&A session soon - time and date to be announced!

We will keep this weeks update short - please join us next week for the fixes minor update.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

Grab your block and tackle and start calculating your mechanical advantage - rope pulleys are now in Stormworks!

Rope pulleys work in the way you might intuitively expect - a pulley allows rope to pass through, with equal tension on each side of the pulley. Pulling on one side of a pulley will pull the rope through from the other side.

You can create an array of pulleys to create mechanical advantage with a block and tackle style arrangement, or just use pulleys to better design your cranes by separating your winch from the top of your gantry arm.



Two blocks are provided - the 'U' arrangement with rope anchors on the same side, and the 'L' arrangement with rope anchors at right angles to each other.

We have also reworked the preset vehicles a lot, so expect many improvements and new presets.

We have also added several fixes and improvements, please see the notes below for full details.



We hope you enjoy the new update, and look forward to your thoughts, feedback, new cranes and inventive ways of using pulleys!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.9.22-23

Feature - #4053 New Rope Pulley Block
Feature - #21412 New/updated preset vehicles
Feature - Decorated sawyer bases with seasonal meshes
Fix - #19513 Train wheels slower in reverse
Fix - #21611 Hide player option in camera mode not working
Fix - #21484 Fixed and optimized lights in hangar offices and hangars
Fix - #21477 Electric valves not working if below 90% charge
Fix - #21442 MC editor logic gates descriptions not showing in hotbar
Fix - #21342 Removed mega_island_16_3 floating trees