Build or not ?

[tpostman67]

I know most of the fun is to build the vehicle. Is it possible to play the game without building my own vehicle, or do I still have to build ? I do want to purchase the game. Thanks for any comments.

[Phil]

You can download from the workshop and try to figure that out. I find it way more entertaining to build, where you can do exactly what you want.

[Aven]

Stormworks is about building. That's it. Yes, there is a career mode with various missions, there are combat/industry/space DLCs, and you can fish now. However, all of those aspects of the game are ultimately incredibly shallow if that is all you are trying to get out of the game. Stormworks is truly about designing, building, and tailoring a craft to your specific needs. Obviously the hours vary by player, but I personally have spent 98% of my Stormworks hours designing, building, and testing craft. If you are going to use the Workshop, do so for inspiration and learning, not as a crutch you need just to play the game.

[RipoffPingu]

you can build in stormworks, yes... but the builder is pretty bad. outside of camera/block manipulation, there's two keybinds - a quick block deletion tool and undo via control + Z (the latter of which isn't even seen in the games available keybinds). no keybinds for inventory access, logic overlay, symmetry, cross section planes, center of mass/thrust/lift/etc., no option for keyboard building as well... really there's just not much good to say about the builder.

if you want to buy stormworks for the builder, don't - you'd have a better time with from the depths if you care to learn how to do keyboard building, and even if you don't care to do keyboard building you can get a better experience out of space engineers, and hell, i've even gotten a better building experience out of a few roblox builder games.

you would get stormworks mainly for the search and rescue aspect. every other part of the game is pretty weak in my eyes, the weapons and damage model especially (even aurora 4x has a better damage model lol), and the devs have also shown they don't do any or exceptionally limited playtesting by pushing an update that broke buoyancy when they launched the space DLC. (side note: FtD also handles larger stuff a LOT better than stormworks does from what i've seen, so if you wanna build big boy boats that don't tank your performance you would be better off with FtD in that aspect)

game is mid - already said this, but really the only stand out feature of stormworks is the search and rescue aspect, and even then it doesn't have that much depth.

[Sir_James]

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

you can build in stormworks, yes... but the builder is pretty bad. outside of camera/block manipulation, there's two keybinds - a quick block deletion tool and undo via control + Z (the latter of which isn't even seen in the games available keybinds). no keybinds for inventory access, logic overlay, symmetry, cross section planes, center of mass/thrust/lift/etc., no option for keyboard building as well... really there's just not much good to say about the builder.

if you want to buy stormworks for the builder, don't - you'd have a better time with from the depths if you care to learn how to do keyboard building, and even if you don't care to do keyboard building you can get a better experience out of space engineers, and hell, i've even gotten a better building experience out of a few roblox builder games.

you would get stormworks mainly for the search and rescue aspect. every other part of the game is pretty weak in my eyes, the weapons and damage model especially (even aurora 4x has a better damage model lol), and the devs have also shown they don't do any or exceptionally limited playtesting by pushing an update that broke buoyancy when they launched the space DLC. (side note: FtD also handles larger stuff a LOT better than stormworks does from what i've seen, so if you wanna build big boy boats that don't tank your performance you would be better off with FtD in that aspect)

game is mid - already said this, but really the only stand out feature of stormworks is the search and rescue aspect, and even then it doesn't have that much depth.

Anytime I see you commenting on some sort of "Is this a good game?" discussion, you are always talking about how bad the builder is. People have made all sorts of things using the apparently "pretty bad" builder. I think you just need to learn something new, which is to build using a mouse. No offense intended, just pointing out.

[RipoffPingu]

Originally posted by Sir_James01:

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

you can build in stormworks, yes... but the builder is pretty bad. outside of camera/block manipulation, there's two keybinds - a quick block deletion tool and undo via control + Z (the latter of which isn't even seen in the games available keybinds). no keybinds for inventory access, logic overlay, symmetry, cross section planes, center of mass/thrust/lift/etc., no option for keyboard building as well... really there's just not much good to say about the builder.

if you want to buy stormworks for the builder, don't - you'd have a better time with from the depths if you care to learn how to do keyboard building, and even if you don't care to do keyboard building you can get a better experience out of space engineers, and hell, i've even gotten a better building experience out of a few roblox builder games.

you would get stormworks mainly for the search and rescue aspect. every other part of the game is pretty weak in my eyes, the weapons and damage model especially (even aurora 4x has a better damage model lol), and the devs have also shown they don't do any or exceptionally limited playtesting by pushing an update that broke buoyancy when they launched the space DLC. (side note: FtD also handles larger stuff a LOT better than stormworks does from what i've seen, so if you wanna build big boy boats that don't tank your performance you would be better off with FtD in that aspect)

game is mid - already said this, but really the only stand out feature of stormworks is the search and rescue aspect, and even then it doesn't have that much depth.

Anytime I see you commenting on some sort of "Is this a good game?" discussion, you are always talking about how bad the builder is. People have made all sorts of things using the apparently "pretty bad" builder. I think you just need to learn something new, which is to build using a mouse. No offense intended, just pointing out.

i've always said its bad. not unworkable. and regardless of your skill level, a lack of keybinds and shortcuts is *always* going to stand out, as well as some strange block variety problems (no 1x3 slopes for some reason...? and no good transition blocks either, and as far as i'm aware because there's no equivalent of mimics/decos in this game you're pretty limited in what you can do aesthetically as well).

people can make the designer work. i'm not saying they can't. i'm just pointing out that there's better options out there if you want to prioritise a good builder, especially if you want block and aesthetic variety, completely irrespective of the lack of keybinds and quality of life, and that the main attraction of this game is the search and rescue niche it fills, which is correct - its about the only game on the market that fills this niche *with* a vehicle designer of some kind.

[Aven]

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

i've always said its bad. not unworkable. and regardless of your skill level, a lack of keybinds and shortcuts is *always* going to stand out, as well as some strange block variety problems (no 1x3 slopes for some reason...? and no good transition blocks either, and as far as i'm aware because there's no equivalent of mimics/decos in this game you're pretty limited in what you can do aesthetically as well).

people can make the designer work. i'm not saying they can't. i'm just pointing out that there's better options out there if you want to prioritise a good builder, especially if you want block and aesthetic variety, completely irrespective of the lack of keybinds and quality of life, and that the main attraction of this game is the search and rescue niche it fills, which is correct - its about the only game on the market that fills this niche *with* a vehicle designer of some kind.

The career mode is the weakest aspect of the game period. People that actually get hours out of this game are not doing so because of the search and rescue aspect. They are doing so because of the incredible depth provided by the building system of the game. You are nitpicking the UI of the builder, which, sure, there are games with better UIs for their builders. However, there is no game currently on the market that offers a deeper experience when it comes to engineering and building our own creation. That it was keeps people plugging away in the Stormworks builder, and the lack of a hotkey to open a particular window is not on anybody's mind while doing so.

[Sir_James]

Originally posted by Aven:

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

i've always said its bad. not unworkable. and regardless of your skill level, a lack of keybinds and shortcuts is *always* going to stand out, as well as some strange block variety problems (no 1x3 slopes for some reason...? and no good transition blocks either, and as far as i'm aware because there's no equivalent of mimics/decos in this game you're pretty limited in what you can do aesthetically as well).

people can make the designer work. i'm not saying they can't. i'm just pointing out that there's better options out there if you want to prioritise a good builder, especially if you want block and aesthetic variety, completely irrespective of the lack of keybinds and quality of life, and that the main attraction of this game is the search and rescue niche it fills, which is correct - its about the only game on the market that fills this niche *with* a vehicle designer of some kind.

The career mode is the weakest aspect of the game period. People that actually get hours out of this game are not doing so because of the search and rescue aspect. They are doing so because of the incredible depth provided by the building system of the game. You are nitpicking the UI of the builder, which, sure, there are games with better UIs for their builders. However, there is no game currently on the market that offers a deeper experience when it comes to engineering and building our own creation. That it was keeps people plugging away in the Stormworks builder, and the lack of a hotkey to open a particular window is not on anybody's mind while doing so.

You have proved I'm not the only one who thinks that.

[RipoffPingu]

Originally posted by Aven:

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

i've always said its bad. not unworkable. and regardless of your skill level, a lack of keybinds and shortcuts is *always* going to stand out, as well as some strange block variety problems (no 1x3 slopes for some reason...? and no good transition blocks either, and as far as i'm aware because there's no equivalent of mimics/decos in this game you're pretty limited in what you can do aesthetically as well).

people can make the designer work. i'm not saying they can't. i'm just pointing out that there's better options out there if you want to prioritise a good builder, especially if you want block and aesthetic variety, completely irrespective of the lack of keybinds and quality of life, and that the main attraction of this game is the search and rescue niche it fills, which is correct - its about the only game on the market that fills this niche *with* a vehicle designer of some kind.

The career mode is the weakest aspect of the game period. People that actually get hours out of this game are not doing so because of the search and rescue aspect. They are doing so because of the incredible depth provided by the building system of the game. You are nitpicking the UI of the builder, which, sure, there are games with better UIs for their builders. However, there is no game currently on the market that offers a deeper experience when it comes to engineering and building our own creation. That it was keeps people plugging away in the Stormworks builder, and the lack of a hotkey to open a particular window is not on anybody's mind while doing so.

...from the depths outright offers more base block variety (has 1x3 slopes as a very basic example), MUCH more aesthetic freedom (via the usage of decos/mimics), more in depth weapon systems and damage model (blocks actually fall off), spinblocks, more proper modding (see: actually letting people upload modded stuff to the workshop lol)... and on top of all that, it also has keyboard building and a better UI.

stormworks is the best game on the market for the search and rescue aspect because nothing else that lets you build vehicles really DOES search and rescue. in pretty much every other area, it's outclassed one way or another - the builder is no different.

maybe if you want to compromise freedom for more real life accurate scale (i.e 0.25 meter cubes compared to 1 meter cubes) you'd go for stormworks? maybe? or perhaps more realism (which shouldn't be that important to people anyways) and not dealing with liquid mercury oceans? but for any other aspect i'd just play a different game.

[Sir_James]

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

Originally posted by Aven:

The career mode is the weakest aspect of the game period. People that actually get hours out of this game are not doing so because of the search and rescue aspect. They are doing so because of the incredible depth provided by the building system of the game. You are nitpicking the UI of the builder, which, sure, there are games with better UIs for their builders. However, there is no game currently on the market that offers a deeper experience when it comes to engineering and building our own creation. That it was keeps people plugging away in the Stormworks builder, and the lack of a hotkey to open a particular window is not on anybody's mind while doing so.

...from the depths outright offers more base block variety (has 1x3 slopes as a very basic example), MUCH more aesthetic freedom (via the usage of decos/mimics), more in depth weapon systems and damage model (blocks actually fall off), spinblocks, more proper modding (see: actually letting people upload modded stuff to the workshop lol)... and on top of all that, it also has keyboard building and a better UI.

stormworks is the best game on the market for the search and rescue aspect because nothing else that lets you build vehicles really DOES search and rescue. in pretty much every other area, it's outclassed one way or another - the builder is no different.

maybe if you want to compromise freedom for more real life accurate scale (i.e 0.25 meter cubes compared to 1 meter cubes) you'd go for stormworks? maybe? or perhaps more realism (which shouldn't be that important to people anyways) and not dealing with liquid mercury oceans? but for any other aspect i'd just play a different game.

Name a game that has a more in-depth builder than SW. And people can upload mods. Have you even seen the workshop?

[RipoffPingu]

Originally posted by Sir_James01:

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

...from the depths outright offers more base block variety (has 1x3 slopes as a very basic example), MUCH more aesthetic freedom (via the usage of decos/mimics), more in depth weapon systems and damage model (blocks actually fall off), spinblocks, more proper modding (see: actually letting people upload modded stuff to the workshop lol)... and on top of all that, it also has keyboard building and a better UI.

stormworks is the best game on the market for the search and rescue aspect because nothing else that lets you build vehicles really DOES search and rescue. in pretty much every other area, it's outclassed one way or another - the builder is no different.

maybe if you want to compromise freedom for more real life accurate scale (i.e 0.25 meter cubes compared to 1 meter cubes) you'd go for stormworks? maybe? or perhaps more realism (which shouldn't be that important to people anyways) and not dealing with liquid mercury oceans? but for any other aspect i'd just play a different game.

Name a game that has a more in-depth builder than SW. And people can upload mods. Have you even seen the workshop?

the name of the game is right there in the first sentence - from the depths. all the reasons i said it was more advanced is right after that. and i didn't say people couldn't upload mods. i said they couldn't upload "modded stuff", specifically, modded crafts - as per the asset modding major update announcement on steam, the devs do not allow you to upload modded vehicles on the stormworks workshop. my bad for saying "modded stuff" and not crafts, absolutely implying i said you can't upload mods - thats my fault, but the point still stands.

also, for clarification: i'm not saying all of this to try and convince the games existing community to switch to a new, unfamiliar game with a completely different default control scheme and mechanics. you guys already spent money on this, consider the builder bearable enough to not switch to other games, and are familiar with the games mechanics, compared to being near completely out of your depth if you went to a different game in the same genre (minus the experience of you playing a somewhat similar game (stormworks)) - i'm saying all of this as info for people who WANT to buy the game and highlighting what the games strengths and weaknesses are. because frankly, the strongest part of this game is the search and rescue aspect, because thats the niche it carves out - nothing else on the market really does that. everything else on the other hand is done better by other products, with *maybe* the sole exception of graphics (for people who actually care about that). and thats information that people should have access to when buying a game.

[Oakrotic]

You should learn the game by playing with other peoples vehicles, then start building your own.

[Sir_James]

Originally posted by RipoffPingu:

Originally posted by Sir_James01:

Name a game that has a more in-depth builder than SW. And people can upload mods. Have you even seen the workshop?

the name of the game is right there in the first sentence - from the depths. all the reasons i said it was more advanced is right after that. and i didn't say people couldn't upload mods. i said they couldn't upload "modded stuff", specifically, modded crafts - as per the asset modding major update announcement on steam, the devs do not allow you to upload modded vehicles on the stormworks workshop. my bad for saying "modded stuff" and not crafts, absolutely implying i said you can't upload mods - thats my fault, but the point still stands.

also, for clarification: i'm not saying all of this to try and convince the games existing community to switch to a new, unfamiliar game with a completely different default control scheme and mechanics. you guys already spent money on this, consider the builder bearable enough to not switch to other games, and are familiar with the games mechanics, compared to being near completely out of your depth if you went to a different game in the same genre (minus the experience of you playing a somewhat similar game (stormworks)) - i'm saying all of this as info for people who WANT to buy the game and highlighting what the games strengths and weaknesses are. because frankly, the strongest part of this game is the search and rescue aspect, because thats the niche it carves out - nothing else on the market really does that. everything else on the other hand is done better by other products, with *maybe* the sole exception of graphics (for people who actually care about that). and thats information that people should have access to when buying a game.

Just saying, the devs did announce that uploading things with mode items is not yet available. And that they will talk to modders to see what would be the best way to go with uploading modded vehicles. This is only a temporary restriction (I hope).