FAQ

How to play multiplayer?
Stormworks use Steam networking, so all you need is to host a game and your friends can join you (or you can invite them). Just like in many other games that on Steam.

Why I can't access the vehicle editor?
Initially, only a host player is able to spawn vehicles so if you want to let your friends have access to workbench too then type a simple chat command:
?add_auth <id>

Where <id> is the player ID from the player list (a tilde ~ hotkey by default).

The same goes for the public servers - you will need to ask an admin to authorize you first using the same chat command.

Why can't I connect to my friend's server?
In most of the cases there shouldn’t be any issues, because modern firewalls can automatically allow all needed connections. But, if your friends can't see your game, then you should change settings of your firewall to allow Steam P2P inbound and outbound connections.

If your friends can see your game, but can’t join (“Waiting for server…” message) then you should allow inbound and outbound connections for Stormworks game in your Firewall.

Why game lag?
Being a physics sandbox game, Stormworks is very dependant on CPU* and GPU** performance. But unlike other games, we are trying to not limit the players by the number of physical bodies, light sources and picture-in-picture rendering. That means that there are vehicles and scenes that can and will lag on other systems (sometimes they even lag on the creators' systems as well).

Roughly speaking, spawning a huge ship with lots of light sources and cameras will be a nightmare for many systems. Or it can be multiple less big and less complex ships (see Benchmark 3 for example).

＊ Spawning large and complex vehicles will require more time for physics simulation and eventually can lead to slowing down the speed of the game. It may not affect your actual framerate so you can feel it as a slow-motion effect.

＊＊ Spawning vehicles that have many spotlights, flares, cameras and monitors will affect render and reduce your framerate.

Why multiplayer lag?
The things get more complicated here because is the server responsible for the physics of all the vehicles and many other simulations. Plus it requires a good network bandwidth to keep all clients in sync and, besides the quality of the network on both sides, the distance between player and server will affect latency no matter what.

In other words, if you want to play with friends then make the host be the one with a beefy PC and good internet.

As for playing on public dedicated servers please be responsible for the vehicles you spawn. Try to use multiplayer optimized vehicles and just small and medium-size vehicles only. Please, despawn your vehicles before leaving a server and despawn any abandoned vehicles too.

Otherwise, we afraid that server owners will start locking their servers from the public.

How to create a dedicated public server?
Please, read this guide on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1995371855

What are the system requirements?
CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 (3.10GHz) / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 (3.10GHz)
RAM: 4GB*
GPU: Intel HD 6000 / GeForce GTX 550 Ti / AMD R7 250 (AMD Radeon HD 7750)**
OS: Windows 7 / 8 / 10, Mac OS X 10.8+

＊ In most cases, the game takes less than 1.5 GB of RAM but for some complex scenes (with large vehicles or their number) it can go up to 3 GB. We recommend using a 32-bit version of the game for users with 8 GB of RAM or less to save up more memory for other applications and the system itself.
＊＊ Graphics card must support OpenGL 3.2 or higher [#i8a583c6]

How to report a bug?
We strongly recommend you to use the Report a Bug button which you can find in top right corner of the game menu. This way we will see much more info about possible issue.

If you can't get in main menu or you just want to make an suggestion then you can create a ticket here: http://mcro.org/issues/1

Please, always include detailed info about the issue. Especially a reproduction steps and a vehicle example (a link to an item on Steam Workshop for example). If you experience a game crash then upload the most recent minidump file and leave a link to it a ticket description. If there are no crash dumps generated then please, try to run the 32-bit version of the game and reproduce the issue.

Please, check your issue on the experimental branch first because many of the fixes are already there.

How can I get that new experimental verison of the game?
Open your Steam library > Click the right mouse button on the Stormworks > Properties > Betas > Select the experimental public testing branch > Close properties > The new version should be downloaded quickly after that

Where is the save folder?
All your vehicles are saved here: %appdata%\Stormworks\data\vehicles
Your mission playlists stored here %appdata%\Stormworks\data\missions
World saves are located here: %appdata%\Stormworks\saves

MacOS users will find those folders here Library/Application Support/Stormworks

Where is the game/minidump/log.txt folder?
Best and easiest way to find it is right-clicking Stormworks in Steam library then Properties > Local files > Browse local files…

What is the game engine/language?
It’s our own engine written in C++. We use Bullet as the physics engine.

Will there be more physics and multiplayer optimizations in future?
We always did, do and will keep doing many different optimizations in the rendering process, physics simulation and our netcode. In fact, it's a neverending process.

More equipment such a life jacket, lifebuoy, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, flaregun, radio and so on?
Yes, eventually we going to add more inventory items, including a bunch of rescue and repair tools, but you have to be patient.

Liquid fuel rockets, oxidizers, propellants, vectoring nozzles, RCS thrusters?
Might be, but not in near future.

More basic shapes, longer slopes, windows, portholes, engines, propellers, rotors, wheels, engines, boilers, reactors, sails?
We add new components regularly, and have a long list of items we want to add to the game.

Weapons and explosions (guns, cannons, shells, missiles, torpedoes, rockets and bombs)?
We see players' interest in that feature, but there are many other things we want to get through first. We want to be sure that we made all planned features before starting weapons update, so, for now, weapons have low priority.

Physical continuous tracks and icebreaking?
Both features are very CPU expensive because of physics calculations, so probably will never appear in the game.

Bigger build areas?
Larger edit zones are not an easy task right now. Even current default ones have issues with limits that we need to solve first. We have some ideas on a more comfortable way of creating large creations, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Search, filters, sorting and folders for the in-game file browser?
Yes, it's on our list including a search, filters and favorites support for Workshop items and server browser.

Natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes)?
Yes, all of that is on our list, but this is a little way off.

Coop vehicle editor for multiplayer?
We would like to try this eventually, but not in the near future as it's not a trivial task.

Drive shafts, half shafts, axles, differentials?
Well, maybe someday, but obviously only for advanced vehicles (AV).

What is advanced vehicles (AV)?
Advanced vehicle mechanics is a part of survival and hardcore modes where vehicle editor have many additional features for building much more realistic and complicated vehicles.

While building AV you will notice that fluid and power components will require connections through pipes. Also combustion engines will require fuel, coolant, air intake and exhaust. More than that - all the buttons, levers, engines, motors and most of the rest mechanical components will also require electric power from batteries or generators.

So to properly run simple combustion engine you will need:
• a button/seat to send ignition signal and a lever/seat to for throttle and idling speed (or engine will stall)
• a battery to power up the engine and buttons/levers (use generator to charge the battery)
• a fuel tank filled with right type of fuel
• a heat radiator or sink (you can start engines without them, but your engine may overheat quickly at high rotational speed)
• an air intake (fluid port or fluid intake)
• an exhaust (fluid port or fluid exhaust)

Keep in mind that combustion engines can’t run in reverse like electric motors, which means that you will need to use a clutch and a gearbox to have reverse speed.

Clutch and gearbox?
Combustion engine is not efficient on its own, without a proper power transmission system.

Use clutches to engage and disengage power transmission:
• from engine to gearbox and drive shaft
• from engine or gearbox to generator
• from drive shaft to wheels for part-time all-wheel drive vehicles

Use gearboxes with predefined gear ratios to provide speed and torque conversions from engines to wheels, propellers and rotors.

What is gear ratio?
By changing the gear ratio in the component settings, you can control torque of mechanisms: more torque = less speed, less torque = more speed.

Why is my vessel sinking?
Currently buoyancy is only calculated for completely sealed compartments. See starter boat and hull presets as examples.

Why is my helicopter uncontrollable?
Flight control is complicated. That’s why we added Gyro component - connect it to the pilot seat and your engines/rotors. See starter helicopter preset as example.

Is there hydrodynamics/aerodynamics?
Yes, so keep it in mind when designing your vehicle. Some of the components like wings and control surfaces have effect in both air and water.

Also making flat, smooth faces is better for the game performance than anything else. Boats with staggered wedges on the hull will be a lot worse in most cases than a boat that just has a regular V-shape made with wedges and inverse pyramids like the preset hulls. You can press F2 to see how the physics is simplified.

Is there a pressure simulation?
Yes, there is two types of pressure mechanics. For advanced vehicles (AV) there is a height-based pressure system that makes it harder to pump upwards than downwards (same kind of pressure physics as is generated by pumps). This also applies to pumping fluid in and out of a vehicle while underwater, as the pressure is higher with depth. Players and other characters are also affected by depth pressure.

What system of measurement is used in the game?
Game is set in Scotland so we use metric system:

Length is in meters (m). One block is 0.25 m (25 x 25 x 25 cm). Row of 4 blocks will be 1 meter long. Character is 7 blocks tall (1.75 m).
Radio antennas range:
• 100 m for small
• 1000 m for medium
• 4000 m for large
• 10000 m for video
• 20000 m for huge

Total range is combined of ranges of rx and tx antennas and also depends on electric power if you are playing with AV enabled.

Speed is measured in meters per second (m/s) so if you need speed in kmph, mph or knots, then you will need to multiply the speed by:
• 3.6 to show kmph
• 2.236936 to show mph
• 1.943844 to show knots

Rotational speed of engines and motors in rotations per second (rps), so to get rpm just multiply it by 60.

Volume in litres (L). Capacity of hollow block is 15.625 L. Capacity of placeable tanks are:
• 31.25 L for small
• 187.50 L for medium
• 703.125 L for large

Pressure is in meters below the sea level.

Temperature in degree Celsius (°C). Engines start overheating at 120 °C. Character starts freezing at 5°C but keep in mind that air humidity and wind speed (and character speed as well) creates wind chill effect.

The only thing that simplified here is electricity. There is no Watts, Hertz, Volts or Amps because we think that it will be complicated even for players who play with AV enabled. So we use our internal units to define electric charge. Batteries have next capacities:
• 400 Swatts for small
• 3200 Swatts for medium
• 64000 Swatts for large

What maximum size of vehicle?
Size of the vehicle depends on the dock or hangar that you are using for building:

• Medium Dock (longest for now) 56.75x21.75x19.75 m (Creative Base, Harbour Base, Mainland Dock, Arctic Island Base, Custom Base Large Boat and Custom Base Submarine)
• Medium Hangar (widest for now) 34.25x35.75x9.25 m (Creative Base, Military Base, Mainland Airstrip and Arctic Island Base)
• Small Dock 14.25x6.75x6.75 m (Starter Base and Custom Base Small Boat)
• Small Hangar 17.75x15.75x5.25 m (Helicopter Base and Airstrip Base)
• Train Depot 24.25x4.25x5.25(Mainland Dock, Keys Dock and Arctic Island Stations)

Keep in mind that you can build vehicles using multiple joinable parts, so basically there is no limit by size.

How big is the world?
Currently, it's a 256x256 km play area that is filled with uninhabited islands and wind turbines. In the middle of the map you will find a 32x32 km zone that has many unique islands of different size. Very far north you can find arctic islands surrounded by icebergs (it’s easier to find by following a railway).

How to throw and rotate handheld objects?
Tap Q/E to hold objects up in front of you, or hold Q/E to tether to the object.

Use arrow keys (←↑↓→) when holding object to rotate it.

Is there a hotkey for erase tool?
Yes, besides obvious TAB and 1-0 keys there are many other useful hotkeys:
• X - toggle remove/add modes
• Ctrl+LMB - copy pointed component
• Ctrl+LMB - copy pointed color (only for Paint tool)
• Ctrl+LMB - create selection for pointed component (only for Selection tool)
• Shift+LMB - expand selection to include pointed component (only for Selection tool)
• Ctrl+Z - undo
• Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z - redo
• Shift - changing drag plane when adding blocks
• UIO - block flipping (mirroring)
• JKL - block rotating
• Enter - spawn a vehicle
• P - toggle rotation controls hint
• F - focus on block you're hovering over but only for orbit mode camera*

＊Don’t forget that you can use free camera mode where you can move your camera with WASD and use E for up and Q for down. [#t7d9ad3b]