Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

This week is an announcement week, with the new major update launching last week, and we have a minor update planned for next week including 2 new components and loads of fixes!

Next weeks update includes 2 new components for performing tasks normally performed manually - with a vehicle. We are adding a new welder component that can repair vehicles, and a new interaction component that can press buttons and open doors. This enables players to create remote operated vehicles that can perform repair and maintenance tasks. These new components are in response to the fantastic player feedback we have received about the new underwater update, and they will go a long way to giving new functionality and purpose to ROVs.



Our development plans continue as normal, with several minor updates in the works. The next few minor updates include new features, many of which are interesting new components. As always, we prefer to share info only once the update is ready to avoid disappointment. We look forward to releasing this new minor updates to the usual schedule, which is every 2 weeks.



We have also been working on several big updates, which we expect to release as major updates or over time as minor updates. One update in particular is coming together really well, and we are getting really excited about other ways we could improve and expand it into something much bigger. So, we are considering greatly expanding that update into something far bigger than a major update, and perhaps a whole new DLC, but no decision has been made yet. It will all make more sense when we are further along and can share more info and made more decisions!



As always, we look forward to your thoughts and feedback. See you here next week for the minor update!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The new underwater major update is out now!

This update includes:

Underwater Biome

The new biome includes a series of volcanic islands, based on many of the volcanic islands in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Many of these new islands are active volcanoes and can erupt at random or on request from the custom menu.

The biome also includes new under-sea features, including a trench, sea floor cabling, ruins, wrecks, and many kilometers of winding an interlinked underwater tunnels. The tunnels can be accessed from underwater, and also new caves on some islands.

There are many new locations, named in honour of great community members and workshop creators. Thank you to the selfless and kind people who give up their time to help other players, and thank you to the talented creators who have reached high popularity with incredible creations on the workshop. There are many more community heroes and creators than we have had chance to honour, and look forward to naming more locations in the future.



Underwater Missions

There are several new mission types, including submersed rescues, salvage, and repairs. These missions can spawn in many locations across the world, as well as specific new locations in the new biome.

It is now easier to see underwater as we have increased visibility and lighting, to help with underwater operations.



Glow Sticks

To help keep track of locations and add some softer illumination at night or underwater, we have added new glow sticks! The color of the glowsticks can be painted in the editor, and they will last a long time when deployed.

Sonar

We have added new sonar components, that behave in a more realistic manner. Sonar can now listen in all directions at once, and can operate in active and passive mode. In active mode, the sonar emits a loud ping which travels far through water, bouncing back off vehicles and other objects with a delay relative to the distance travelled. Passive sonar simply listens and can detect propellers, engines, and other noisy parts.



We are really excited to release this new update and can't wait to hear back from players on your thoughts and feedback! Thanks to all the support and feedback we have received that has made this new update possible.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



v1.5.0 Underwater Update

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.

While we made no infrastructure changes in this update we still recommend creating a new save file as various new environment zones have been added to the default scripts to allow the new mission types to spawn.

Feature - New Volcanic Archipelago biome (#5171 #879 #2019)
Feature - New underwater themed missions and mission improvements
Feature - New Glowstick Equipment (#801)
Feature - Advanced Sonars and Sonar Jammer (#337)

The new 40x40km volcanic archipelago biome is located south-west of the sawyer isles and is the new home of the Kraken.
The region features a series of small volcanoes interspersed with deep trenches, sunken landmarks and an intricate network of submerged passages.

With the addition of several underwater themed mission scenarios we also made various fixes and improvements to the existing mission infrastructure.
Missions should now have an easier time spawning as some theme filtering was previously limiting mission spawning too strictly, meaning some mission scenarios were previously unable to spawn successfully.
The Repair mission objective has been expanded in functionality to several mission types; players can expect to require an underwater welder for some of the new missions, with search-and-rescue missions sometimes offering an optional reward for repairing the vehicle in distress.

Feature - Added additional hospital-boat AI ships that now patrol specific biomes
Feature - New icon for addons with editable settings (in the addon selector menu)
Feature - #6898 Spawn Kraken button added to custom menu
Feature - Addon editor ocean toggle
Feature - 'Show timers' and 'Show rewards' mission addon settings
Fix - #1200 Vehicle save/load not serializing basic block damage & not generating damaged mesh on load
Fix - Ropes now use a constant number of physics nodes
Fix - Fixed 3 map icons sharing names internally causing them to render as a different icon
Fix - #5663 #6568 Missions/Cargo now check if spawn area is clear before spawning
Fix - Mission zones with no size now default to large instead of never spawning
Fix - Zone filtering causing certain mission locations to never spawn
Fix - #3132 Relative to seafloor mission tag behavior restored
Fix - Breakers/relays/chargers are no longer explode on damage
Fix - #7993 SRB fins now work underwater
Fix - Corrected buoyancy surfaces for large and medium warheads
Rework - The Kraken now only naturally spawns within the underwater biome.
Rework - Updated how mission descriptions are generated
Balance - #5026 Rebalanced mission rewards to be more generous
Balance - #5026 Rebalanced ocean lootboxes to be rarer
Balance - Increased cost of diving outfit to 2000

Addon Lua Api:

Added isLocationClear(transform, size_x, size_y, size_z)
Added getOceanFloor(transform)
Added "static" to getVehicleData()
Added to "parent_vehicle_id" and "parent_relative_transform" getZones()
Updated getCharacterData().interactible -> .interactable (Legacy spelling remains available)
Added radius param to addDamage and unlinked magnitude value from the radius.
Added a voxel pos optional override for setCharacterSeated instead of requiring to use the name
getVehicleData now includes a table named "components" which currently contains tables for seats, buttons and signs

Additional info is included in the in-game addon lua help tabs.

v1.4.20-24 (Hotfixes)

Fix - Issue with radar detection
Fix - Game audio issues / Mac audio crackling
Fix - Crash caused by door particles

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