Stormworks: Build and Rescue News

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have completely re-worked how vehicles are replicated over multiplayer, meaning vehicles now spawn in at long range rather than the very short range they used to load in at. This means you can see your friends vehicles from many kilometres away on the horizon.

This is another change we have wanted to make to improve multiplayer for a while, and makes the experience much more consistent between server and client.

Vehicle cameras should also be much improved on unmanned drones, where the vehicles would have previously been unloaded on clients when they went out of range.

We are continuing on with some really exciting new features for the game, and have really great plans for the coming minor updates and the next major updates.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.9.7

Fix - Removed damage from advanced wheel tire mesh
Fix - Wheel physics raycast causing flipping and sliding

v0.9.8

Feature - Streamlined multiplayer dynamic object sync
Vehicles and other entities are now visible at long range
The server will experience less slowdowns caused by clients loading vehicles

Fix - Lua Editor multiline selection
Fix - Rotor Blades physics rotating the wrong way
Fix - Rotor Blades never destroying fully
Fix - Removed dev tree debug rendering from F2 toggles
Fix - Buoyancy volumes causing bouncing at low LOD (weird submarine physics)
Fix - Multiplayer clients now wait for tile physics to load fully
Fix - Several backend audio errors
Fix - Large Generator hole in mesh

Dear Stormworkers,

This week we have added new user interface color palettes to the game to improve accessibility for the various types of color blindness.

Now the mainland is released, we are hoping you are enjoying the new forest fires, new things to do, and new locations to go. We are excited about the new possibilities the last major update opens up with the game and are considering focusing some minor updates on missions and career.

If you have ideas but have not yet shared your career based ideas with us, please do so using the feature request button in game. We are still planning where to do and how far to push these features. Do you just want more missions, or are you interested in rethinking missions and career altogether?

We look forward to hearing from you :-)

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.9.3

Balance - Engine damage and overheating reduced slightly

v0.9.4-5

Fix - Static vehicles spawning multiple times at certain places
Fix - Advanced wheels / Tank tracks vibrating
Fix - Twilight zoning should now happen less often
Fix - Game using developer colours for logic nodes
Fix - Various tile and mission fixes, including trees
Fix - Mission markers always disappearing when removing missions
Fix - CTD when survivors were attempting to follow themselves (After pressing both interact keys simultaneously)

v0.9.6

Feature - Colourblind Colour Palette options

Rework - Wheels and Tracks now have a grip slider for better vehicle tuning (Vehicles will slide when it is too low and shake when it is too high)
Rework - Added a very short cooldown on interaction with certain transient objects (eg. Loot Crates / Survivors)

Fix - Characters not following
Fix - Mesh Export functionality in the vehicle editor
Fix - Large Jet Intake capping entire jet engine RPS at 6
Fix - CTD on double interaction with certain transient objects (eg. Loot Crates / Survivors)
Fix - Small Fan blade length being incorrect thus outputting a ridiculous amount of force
Fix - Large and Small fans no longer have mass of 1
Fix - Distance sensor and Laser beacon no longer work when damaged
Fix - Memory leak from ocean
Fix - Advanced wheels colliding incorrectly with physics at high speed
Fix - Ocean rendering issues in start menu
Fix - Flashlight updating in Photo Mode
Fix - Tiles and Trees unloading when rendered by a Camera
Fix - Always rendering monitors
Fix - Misaligned additive rendering on Halloween costumes
Fix - Audio not updating correctly when viewing the map in third-person
Fix - Indicator additive rendering when damaged
Fix - Lens flares not appearing correctly
Fix - Flickering spotlights
Fix - Several small Mega-Island mesh and tile updates
Fix - CTD on Redo of Deprecated components

Dear Stormworkers,

The major update is live now!!

Get ready to explore the new 200 sq km mainland with improved view distance and battle fierce wildfires!



The Sawyer Isles

The mainland is 200 sq km, separated by rivers, mountains, and sea, composing a colossal new playground to explore. Find small towns and villages, airfields, industrial sites, train yards, bridges, docks, lighthouses, and more. New locations have been named to honour some players, youtubers, and other respected persons, with the Isles being named after legendary Scottish game programmer Chris Sawyer, creator of Transport Tycoon and others.

Wildfires

Hundreds of thousands of trees now grow over most islands, including snow covered trees in the arctic. These trees will set on fire, and that fire will spread over hours, quickly becoming difficult to fight, a threat to the location and it's inhabitants, and causing permanent damage to the environment.

View Distance

The max view distance has been increased from 4km to 20km which is a huge deal when playing the game, especially when out at sea or in the air. Your ability to navigate is greatly enhanced. This can be controlled from the graphics settings.

If you are having trouble getting the update, don't forget to restart Steam!

This update has been at least 6 months in the making and we are really excited to be finally sharing it with you.

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

v0.9.1-2

Feature - The Sawyer Isles (Mainland)
Feature - Extended View Distance
Feature - Trees
Feature - Forest Fires
Feature - Sawyer Isles Missions

Rework - Speakers signal strength influence
Rework - Increased raycast origin height of Phalanx Radar
Rework - Increased engine overheat rate
Balance - Increased cost of medium winch

Fix - Flickering Tiles
Fix - Return to workbench failing to capture the vehicle
Fix - Fluid valves now use their electric
Fix - Music volume slider interfering with Voice volume
Fix - Audio FX now generate correctly
Fix - Vehicle cameras not using graphics quality settings
Fix - Editbox and Lua Editor text highlighting
Fix - Several old mission fixes: Brilliant Fuels Oil, Research Center, Skye Power Company, Fishing Community, Arctic Search and Rescue

Dear Stormworkers,

For the last 6 months we have been working on a 200 square Kilometre mainland with airports, trainlines, rivers, mountains, fjords, towns, and hundreds of thousands of trees.

This is the next major update and it is arriving this Wednesday 16th October 16:30 UTC!

We are super excited to share this new update with you! Here is what to expect:

Huge Forest Fires



Trees now grow on most islands - hundreds of thousands in total. They can be uprooted and set on fire, and the fire will spread. Direction of wind and rain both effect how fires will spread. Tree fire can be extinguished in the same way as other fires, and fire breaks can be created by uprooting trees. The fire will continue to simulate and spread even if you are not nearby. As we understand, this is the first true forest fire simulation in a first person game.

While these fires can start with just 1 tree, they quickly get out of hand and can result in very challenging firefighting problems, permanent damage to the environment, and risk to life.

5x View Distance



We are increasing view distance in the game by x5. This means you can see up to 20km away, which is extremely useful when navigating, and especially when flying. There is a new view distance slider in the graphics settings so players can control their experience.

200 Square Kilometre Island



We have added a huge new island location to the world, with mountains, fjords or sounds, rivers, operable bridges, docks, airports, trainlines, towns and more. This new location also has new missions.

We can't wait to share this update with you very soon. Join us on Discord on Wednesday and celebrate the big update launch with us!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Dear Stormworkers,

By popular request, this week we have added microphones, speakers, and new logic links... this means PA systems, megaphones, and radios!



The new microphone block picks up the voice of any nearby player who is currently talking with the new voice chat feature. A speaker audio effect is also applied.

There is also a new "audio" logic link that can connect microphones, speakers, antennas, and microprocessors. This allows you to connect microphones and speakers together, and also any intermediate logic along the way such as switching or radio transmission.

Radio signals still have limited range, and signal quality degrades over distance, so expect crackles and low quality audio as you test the range of your radio system!

Radio antennas have also been reworked: (any existing antennas are unchanged so your vehicles won't break) when placing a new antenna, the antenna now switches between transmit and receive mode and an antenna has only one channel. This way, it is much easier to build radio systems and you can easily control when an antenna is transmitting or not, which players have been requested many times.

We hope you enjoy communicating with your friends in multiplayer with the new radio systems and mega-phone systems!

Much love
The Stormworks Developers

Patch Notes

v0.8.32

Feature - Microphone Component
Feature - 3 Speaker Components
Feature - Audio Switchbox Microprocessor Component
Rework - Radio Components V2 *

Fix - Greatly reduced effect of FOV on radar range
Fix - Voicechat and Quickchat can now be bound to inputs other than keyboard

* Old Radio components are now depreciated, but will still continue to work.

v0.8.33

Fix - Resolved issue with vehicle edit grids from v0.8.32