Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

Thank you so much for all the love and support around the natural disasters update! The feedback has been overwhelming and it is a joy to see so many players having fun battling the meteors, volcanos, hurricanes and whirlpools!

The update was a big success, with almost record levels of concurrent players (only beaten by the Weapons DLC!). We were also pleased with the quality of release, with very little required in terms of new issues. Our new quality assurance processes and better allowances and awareness of testing is working much better for us, which is really encouraging, as it is something we have been working on a lot the last 6 months. This was probably the major update with the least friction yet.



If you joined the launch party live stream, then you will know some info about our upcoming plans! One thing to note is that the good folk at Valve have sent us a Steam Deck, and we are working on improving general controller support as well as support for the Steam Deck. The hardware is really awesome, and we are really enjoying playing with it. You can check more info at The Steam Deck website. Its worth noting that there are joysticks, but also touch pads, touch screen and even a gyro.

We are initially planning on making some improvements to controller support, which is generally much needed anyway, but will make a big difference to Steam Deck players. Many players have been asking for improved controller support as well. These updates will hopefully start to arrive over the next few weeks.



Otherwise, we are planning a big bugfix update next week which we have been working on for a while now. The whole development team remain very interested in improving the quality of the game and review issues and discuss our plans together on a daily basis. As always, if you encounter issues or have ideas for the game, be sure to give us clear info including reproduction steps using the in-game report bug / request a feature buttons.

We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

The Natural Disasters Major Update is out now, and to celebrate, Stormworks is 30% off, in a Steam Weekend Deal!

Natural Disasters

This update includes a host of new hazards in the world of Stormworks, including active volcanos, meteor impacts, ocean whirlpools, and hurricanes. These new events can be disabled (by turning off the necessary add-ons), and can also be accessed via the creative menu. Otherwise, they spawn naturally within the world, and sometimes even as part of missions!

Keep an eye out on the map because sometimes you may receive early warning of an impending disaster, and listen for the chilling sound of warning sirens which will fire if a disaster is imminent.

New Fish System

With this update, there is an all-new fish system, with physics based fish. These fish roam the ocean, and flee from vehicles or players. There are many new species of fish, and are now biome based, so depending on where you are in the world and how deep you are below the surface, different fish will spawn.

Being physics based means the fish can be trapped, or wash up. Out of water, the fish will flip and flap in an effort to return to the water. Please do help them back to the water as they can die if they are out of the water for too long. Many boats and ships are faster than fish and should you impact a fish, listen out for a satisfying slap sound.

Patch Notes

Please see below for the full list of patch notes. This update also includes important fixes and improvements.

We continue to work hard on other fixes and improvements that players have kindly reported on the official issue tracker. The next update will be dedicated to bug fixes.

We hope you enjoy this new free update and look forward to your thoughts and feedback!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



v1.4.4

Feature - Natural Disasters
Feature - Weather System Rework
Feature - Disaster Relief Missions
Feature - Fish Wildlife System
Feature - Air Raid Siren Component

Radial Tsunamis
Meteor Strikes
Volcanic Eruptions
Tornados
Whirlpools

Fix - Crash in multiplayer when entering/exiting seats
Fix - Weapons addon tank damages itself when pitching turret
Fix - Default addon zones sometimes being mis-positioned
Rework - Mount Goldblum is now a volcano
Rework - Megalodon now have 5x more health

Additional Info:

Natural disasters can now spawn through the world, and are interlinked with the mission system.
Although rare, natural disasters will make missions more challenging and spawn more frequently as time passes.
A new save is recommended to enable the default_natural_disasters addon for the full experience.

Weather is no longer bound to the host's position:
- Custom menu sliders now display client-side local weather conditions when not overriding
- getWeather now correctly samples the target position

Fish can be enabled by toggling wildlife in general settings (moved from graphics settings); their spawnrate can be adjusted by the game host in general settings.

Volcanic ash can clog up air intakes, be careful when navigating them in vehicles.

We are expecting to make some balance changes on spawnrates, strength and other factors of natural disasters based on player feedback, the disasters may be very ferocious on launch day so keep a keen eye on the horizon!

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Dear Stormworkers,

The Natural Disasters Major Update is almost here! We will be hosting a launch party stream at 16:00 on Thursday February 3rd, which is 1 hour before the launch of this new major update. We will be chatting with players and answering your questions, playing and discussing the new update! Please join us for this live stream and the big launch!



The Natural Disasters Major Update includes new volcanic eruptions, tornados, meteor strikes, whirlpools, rogue waves, radial tsunamis, and new mission content. See the previous announcement for full details on the new main features!



In the live stream, we will be discussing more in detail, as well as some of the other features, improvements and fixes that have not yet been announced in full. We have finally got that new microphone that we have been promising so audio quality should be much improved.

We look forward to talking to you at the launch party live stream!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

In this weeks minor update, we are introducing dock bollards with integrated rope connectors to Stormworks! These new rope connectors are found all over the world of Stormworks at docks and other mooring locations to easily and conveniently tie up your vessels.

This feature has been frequently requested for a very long time, with some players even having a go at making their own mods and add-ons! We decided it was time this was officially part of the game so introduce this as an official add-on that is enabled by default. All new games will start with these rope connectors in the world. However, if you wish to disable this, you can do so easily by unchecking the add-on when starting your game.



Use the first person rope items to connect dock bollards to rope connectors on your own vehicles to secure them in place.

As always, this new feature isn't the only thing in this update, so see the changelog below for all the fixes and features that are packaged in this release. We are continuing to include the issue numbers in the patch notes where we can, to make it clear which specific issues have been addressed.



After the huge response players have given to the upcoming natural disasters major update, we are more excited than ever for the big release on Feb 3rd! We are working hard on the last few issues and tasks, to get this update ready to go live.

We will be back next week to announce more, so check in then for extra details about the launch!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers



Patch Notes

v1.3.21

Feature - Default Dock Bollards Addon

This Addon will be enabled by default when starting a new save.

Fix - #756 Fix macos audio issues with sounds not playing
Fix - #207 prevent no sleep vehicles from unloading
Fix - #4022 onPlayerUnsit now returns peer_id as expected instead of object_id
Fix - #4145 fixed missing faces on barrels for heavy autocannon
Fix - #3835 compass ball additive layer rendering
Fix - #3735 floating trees fixed on multiplayer base
Fix - #4454 auto cannon ammo drum fixed mirroring
Fix - #4446 resolve fluid slots even when off
Fix - #4313 clear network requests when disconnecting from a server
Fix - #4298 hosts now send map update lua events when closing the map
Fix - #4023 onPlayerUnsit() and onCharacterUnsit() now trigger on ladders
Fix - #3029 allow crouch animation to override jump animation to keep camera aligned with physics hitbox during crouch jump
Fix - #4453 fixed gaps in the air ram model
Fix - #4311 hole in oil refinery fixed

Added ?mclear alias for ?mclean

Dear Stormworkers,

Natural Disasters (the next major update!) is will be here soon! It will release on Thursday 3rd February 2022 at 5PM UTC.

What is in the Natural Disasters Major Update?

Players have asked for hurricanes, volcanoes, meteor strikes, whirlpools, improved tsunamis and rogue waves, so that is what we have been developing! These events are spawnable via the creative menu, as well as occurring naturally within the world, and impacting the missions system.



Volcanoes

Volcanic eruptions can occur at specific locations within the world of Stormworks. We looked carefully at the different types of real eruptions because we want to create convincing and authentic volcanic events. Volcano eruptions are divided into several stages, from smoking and increased activity, to explosive eruption, pyroclastic flow, debris, ash pollution, and more. Volcanic eruptions are terrifying and deadly.



Hurricanes

High winds can now result in twisters. These powerful wind events involve a vortex of rotating wind energy to descend from the sky, meeting a water spout or debris cloud at ground level. Wind dramatically accelerates near the hurricane, and is powerful enough to lift vehicles that get too close. The power is awesome, with the first signs that a twister may form being clouds forming a spiralling vortex in the sky.



Meteors

Meteor strikes can occasionally occur, where fields of rocks of varying size may begin falling from the sky at high velocity. Impacts can cause explosions, and if a particularly large meteor hits the ocean, the energy release can result in a new kind of radial tsunami.



Whirlpools

Huge vortices can form in the ocean, where adjacent currents can feed energy into a rotating body of water. In Stormworks, these whirlpools are kilometres across, where huge ships can easily be swallowed by the eye of the whirlpool. These swirling bodies of water create strong currents in a spiralling direction towards the center, pulling down deep below the surface.

With these new natural disasters, there also comes a host of other features such as API support, new missions, and more.

We can't wait to share this new update in just a few weeks! As always we look forward to your feedback on this news. Between now and release, we will continue finishing this update, as well as working on new minor updates, fixes and improvements.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers