Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

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

Dear Stormworkers,

In this weeks update, we have re-engineered train signals so that they are an add-on rather than being baked into the world.

The implications of this is that train signals can be replaced with an add-on. This is something that the train community has been asking for, for a long time. It means that different styles of signals can be used, as well as mechanically different signals that follow different logic, unlocking the potential for automation and other mechanics.



This update is of course, a minor step in expanding what can be done with modding. While the headline might be "train signals", the majority of this update is actually bug fixes, as we continue to work through all the issues and defects in the game, and tighten up the quality of experience. While plenty remains to be done, we have made huge progress so far this year, as we have rebalanced our time and processes to avoid adding new issues, while clearing out the backlog of existing problems. While it can be difficult to measure from playing the game, we are counting the issues, and only a fraction remains compared to how the year started out.



There are many different ways to play Stormworks, and we want to make all players happy, so the minor updates focus on different areas as rotate our focus around the different Stormworks communities. This can cause friction in the comments section.

Our advice is not to take the comments too seriously. We make an active effort to count and measure players requests, and we won't count one opinion over another. To the vast majority of players giving calm, constructive, and valued feedback, thank you. We do our best to be fair with our release plans, and while everyone may not benefit from this weeks headline as we show some love for the trains community, hopefully all will notice benefit from the fixes, and all will enjoy something more relevant to their community in the next few updates.

Please see below for the patch notes with the full list of fixes and improvements.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.5.3

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 - #2181 Train Signals Addon

The default train signals have now been converted to an addon, with an updated default signal. This conversion much like the other default playlists makes it very easy for players to replace with their own and upload to the workshop to share with the Stormworks community.
Additionally, in this update we have reworked ropes and winches to fix several longstanding issues including crashes, freezes and unexpected rope based deaths.

Fix - #3360 #8720 Winch lengths reverting to default length on vehicle load (sometimes crashing/freezing the game)
Rework - Winches now auto spool back to their max length and winch max length no longer includes the attached rope's current dynamic length
Rework - Slightly increased winch rope max lengths to compensate for the above change
Rework - Players can no longer detach ropes that are longer than the first-person-rope maximum (40m)
Fix - #5016 Held ropes no longer detach when a vehicle spawns

Fix - Damage rendering desync issues for clients when loading vehicles
Fix - #8391 Fixed Host voice chat not working
Rework - #4903 #9022 Greatly improve multiplayer fire sync

Rework - Rail signals now toggle their state client-side to improve sync
Rework - Added size=null tags to certain default ocean path nodes to prevent bad paths generating under diagonal train bridges
Rework - #8185 Updated workbench disabled messages to indicate if the setting is disabled or the client is unauthorized
Balance - #1829 Rebalanced the repair speed of the handheld welding torches

Fix - #258 Vehicle editor undo not remembering sub-component colours
Fix - #7749 #8972 Updated some default mission zones that were too close to terrain
Fix - Path node tags are now correctly combined for overlapping nodes that get merged
Fix - #7737 Flares black square graphical glitch
Fix - #8052 Moon glare rendering issue
Fix - #8156 Lightning intensity visual glitches
Fix - #8194 Buttons no longer trigger the lua event when the player is out of interact range
Fix - #8394 Updated logic node descriptions for coaxial rotors
Fix - #8419 #8689 Fixed several issues around floating geometry
Fix - #8742 Fixed Nataera ruins physics mesh height issue
Fix - #8716 Passive sonar hits no longer have a projected y bounds of 5m
Fix - #8731 Fixed turret ring mesh issues
Fix - #8781 Fixed search light odd coloured mesh
Fix - Fixed additive rendering as yellow in the component inventory
Fix - Fixed train-line geometry at Terminal Trinite
Fix - End effector no longer triggers onButtonPress when releasing for all dynamic components