Dear Stormworkers,
Happy Holidays!
This week there is no minor update, and instead we are trialling discussion of our upcoming plans for Stormworks, which we plan to do every other week.
The Next Major Update
For a long time now, we have wanted to improve the career experience for Stormworks and for the next major update we want to focus on a fundamental rework of the game modes, and the narrative events that happen in game such as missions and other things to do in the world.
This involves making creative mode better, with more tools, options, and creative freedom, to customise the game rules and challenges. We will also clearly define career mode to be a single standardised set of survival based game rules with focus on vehicle operation, lasting consequence, and the risks of search and rescue.
For this to work, we need to improve events in the world around you and we are reworking the missions system to procedurally build situations and evolving narrative for the player to engage with and manage. Many of the current Stormworks missions are essentially "deliver A to B", but the missions that start to work are the ones where a situation is evolving - the forest fires, rescuing people from a burning oil rig, etc.
We want these missions to become more interesting and engaging. Perhaps an oil tanker fire can leave the player to decide if to tackle the fire or rescue the crew off the vessel. Perhaps there is a chance of explosion, damaging the vessel further and spreading fire. or creating a leak in the hull.
What else could happen? We need your help! Please share your ideas in the comments for missions and things that could happen, how they could evolve procedurally, what exciting surprises could be waiting for the player, and more! Your ideas and inspiration will be very useful over the next few weeks as we continue to build up the new missions system.
Our office is still closed for another week for the holiday break, but there will probably be a small minor update next week as usual.
Much love <3
The Stormworks Developers