Dear Stormworkers,
This week we discuss the new modular engine mechanics recently added, the design intentions, and development plans.
We are also announcing that we are taking a 2 week break this winter for the holiday period. Yesterday we moved office, and over the next couple of weeks, we will be decorating and setting up the new office. Up until now, we have been sharing an office with other businesses, and are really excited to be getting our own small studio to make games in.
This means there will be no new announcements over the next couple of weeks, but main development will resume on January 4th.
Thank you to everyone who submitted questions this week for the Q and A session. Our plan is to record the answers for Youtube (perhaps with the help of MrNJersey) so keep an eye out on Youtube for the responses to your questions!
Modular Engine Mechanics
Over the last few weeks, with the help of player feedback, we have been reviewing the modular engine components, how they work, and how they interact with each other. We have added various new systems and updated existing mechanics:
Sea Water
We have split the “water” fluid type into two types – sea water and fresh water! Sea water comes from the sea, while fresh water can be spawned using fluid spawners or tanks. The critical difference is that fresh water is suitable for modular engine cooling, while sea water will cause engine scaling causing the engine to cool less efficiently.
Heat Exchangers
We have added new fluid-to-fluid, gas-to-fluid, and gas-to-gas temperature exchangers. In these parts, there are two routes for fluid or gas to pass through these components. Heat transfers between these routes so that temperature averages out between the two flows.
Be sure to use the right type of exchanger for your application. Heat will not efficiently transfer if you transfer gas through a fluid path or vice-versa.
Heat exchangers are very useful for modular engine cooling, particularly where you want to use sea water cooling systems. Using a heat exchanger rather than passing sea water straight through your modular engine is an effective cooling strategy.
Turbo Charging and Centrifugal Pumps
We have reduced the turbo charger to a single impeller type pump. This allows you to arrange your turbo from two pumps in any orientation you like, use it to make a supercharger, or just use it as a mechanical pump.
Gear Boxes
We have created a new set of gear boxes from the smallest 1 block gearbox, to much larger units. These new gearboxes have a max torque load, and if you exceed their specifications, the gearboxes can be damaged.
Smaller gearboxes does make it easier to create larger gear sets with more ratio combinations.
Electric Radiators
We have added new radiators that include electric fans. Running these fans provide improved cooling at the cost of electric consumption. These radiators can be particularly useful as secondary cooling for vehicles that use air scoops to use moving air to pressurize a primary cooling system. This kind of system may be particularly effective on fast moving vehicles such as jet boats or planes, but doesn’t have as much effect when the vehicle is not moving.
We plan to continue to improve modular engines with your feedback so let us know your thoughts and help us shape this next major update!
Much love <3,
The Stormworks Developers
https://steamcommunity.com/games/573090/announcements/detail/4813750160953228035
