Dear Stormworkers,
Yesterday was the launch of the Space DLC!
The bad news is there were some issues. The good news is that over the last 24 hours we have released some hot fixes, and some major issues are now resolved.
Many players have asked for details. Lets discuss:
Sinking Ships
Some of the new gravity mechanics had unintended interactions with some of the physics optimizations for vehicles, which resulted in some vehicle parts weighing slightly more or less than they should. This was often an issue with larger vehicles and vehicles with many movable parts. While the change in weight was only small, this could cause ships to sit deeper in the water or tilt.
This issue is now resolved.
Jet Turbines
With the new atmosphere mechanics, the air is thinner higher up, which means less air resistance, but also means that at some height, the air is too thin for jet turbine engines to be efficient. This is intended, but was way out of balance, with engines starting to lose efficiency only a few hundred feet up.
This issue is also resolved.
Steam and Modular Engines
There are issues with steam boilers and many modular engines. This is a reasonably big issue, caused by some of the compressed gas changes.
We are currently working on this and will deliver a fix asap. Update: this is now resolved in v1.9.3
Other Issues
Of course there are other things to look at, and we will get to them, but the above are the main ones that affect many players.
Testing
Believe it or not, we actually did several months of full time testing. Some of these issues were introduced more recently when addressing other minor issues, such as the sinking ship issue. We were too focused on testing the new features and specific changes, and simply didn't expect this stuff to break. However, a lot of the problems are so wide ranging that it would have been easy to discover them and we should have.
Community Reaction
The vast majority of the community have been very supportive. To those of you who have patiently stood by for fixes, or messaged us your support, thank you, and sorry for breaking your game.
A small minority have unfortunately launched their own campaign, and within minutes of the new update launch, were recruiting to their discord, where they have organized and coordinated attacks. We have received discord raids, review bombing, abuse, and death threats. To these players, we ask you to consider your actions. We understand your frustration, but we can't respond to aggression, demands and threats.
The consequences are significant to the game, and the people who make it. It is right that we are held to account, but when it is taken too far, the damage is permanent. Stormworks continues and our focus is on the many great and wonderful players who share their criticism constructively.
Next Steps
As usual, we will get on with resolving the remaining issues. We will work through these tasks one at a time, and expect to keep publishing improvements over the coming days.
Further ahead, we are also looking at how we change the way we work to ensure the same issues don't repeat in the future.
Much love <3,
The Stormworks Developers