What other games are we all playing?

All this talk about Space Engineers, with me having had it in my Steam Library since 2014, I finally decided to give it another go.

Three days later...



It may not look like much, but it's a good decent ok start. ;)

I took me forever, processing rock for the stuff I needed to make a primitive rover so I could go looking for ore deposits in the plain below the hill. After much trial and error (mostly error) I got my base's conveyor system set up. With a proper source of iron and a source of cobalt, I was finally able to upgrade from the basic refinery and assembler.

Next Step: installing some upgrade modules on the refinery, and prettying up my base. Fortunately for me, I found silver and gold while hunting for the iron and cobalt. :D
That's my favorite part of this thread; I too have a bunch of old games languishing in my library that I've either never fired up, or just not given more than a passing glance. I find fresh inspiration here to dig in again. I forget who brought it up, but someone mentioned MGV and I'm busily playing it again and enjoying the heck out of it:)
 
All this talk about Space Engineers, with me having had it in my Steam Library since 2014, I finally decided to give it another go.

Three days later...
What I'm enjoying about SE is that it truly has a "blaze your own trail" feel to me. My pod landed in a pretty area, but devoid of any ores. I build a tiny little "base" (just the essentials, nothing more), then build the simplest of trucks to go find cobalt, which was some distance away. Using just these things mined by hand, I build that big land rover and set out for greener pastures. Finally I found a spot ripe with ores of various kinds and started work on my boring-looking but highly-functional factory. Then I build my first flying vehicle and went up and flew around my area for the first time. Just in the last couple of days I built my first spacecraft and set out to see what's up and beyond. Eventually I want to build a proper large spaceship, but I'm still figuring out exactly what I want to do with that (I use a separate creative save to experiment with). I suspect it will take me a couple more months to get to that point, then I can do some of these NPC missions until I get bored, then I can join a PvP server!

Anyway, my point is that all of this feels like my story. I feel nostalgia for the place I first landed, and when I climb into that rover after not driving it for awhile, I think, "I made this!" I'm trying to do as much on my own as I can, not copying other people's builds (many of which put my stuff to shame), so that I can enjoy the sense of accomplishment and ownership of figuring it out myself.

ps - I play in 1st person view, but often switch to 3rd person for selfies ;)
 

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Have you tried venturing onto a public server with any of your ship builds yet?
This Vulture is the only serious ship I've built so far, and I'm still working on it. Originally I made it out of light armor, and it just crumbled when fighting simple NPC drones. I don't want the entire thing to be heavy armor, so instead I've gone back and strategically replaced key sections of armor with heavy, thus giving me ED's equivalent of "reinforced armor". I also added some heavy armor strips along the hull, with is how I picture HRPs actually working, which also looks kinda cool. I did way better in my last battle with this modifications. Oh, and I'm using one mod - the shield mod, but I turn the power down so it's not OP.

I also added a third hardpoint to the bottom of the ship (missiles), since weapons in SE don't scale with weapons in ED. I may go back to two hardpoints if I download more powerful weapon mods like lasers or cannons.

My next ship to try to build will probably be based on the Anaconda (a boxyish ship that should convert well to SE). That'll take some time, even in creative mode! As for PvP - do you have any recommendations for servers? How does it work - do you play in creative and just copy in your ship's blueprint?

I've yet to even try flying this Vulture in survival mode, let alone build it. I want to get whatever ship I'm planning on building all figured out before committing the time and resources of putting it together in my main game.
 

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You guys realy got me interested in Space Engineers but it seems that even though it's been announced for Xbox One about four years ago it still isn't released.
I'll definitely keep an eye on this one untill it comes out.
 
Tried War Thunder once, years ago. The realistic mode was just too brutal. So, I have no current experience on the comparison. Sorry.

Hehe, yeah, if i had to play WT on it's hardest difficulty, i would have quit it after one try too.
It has 3 available settings though (arcade, realistic and simulator battles), so on arcade i feel it's comfortable....for a non-hardcore "sim'mer" like me.;)
But cool, thx for the reply.:)
 
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Got up this morining, and it suddenly hit me: “Why the frell am I building my main base on the side of the hill, far from my resource extraction sites?” So I decided to pop into SE quick before going to the health club, while waiting for my (microwaved) breakfast to cook, and scout out a site in the plain equidistant from the main resource sites.

Mental note: Never pop into this game in the morning again... it ain’t quick. ;)

Hour and a half, and one cold breakfast, later, I was scrambling to get ready for work because my thought process went something like this:
  • When I neared a suitable location, my ire scanner picked up an iron and cobalt site. Sweet, I’ll have an in site mine!
  • Sun’s coming up. I should put down a block so it’ll be aligned with the sun’s path in the sky.
  • While I’m at it, I should plan out my rover’s garage. 5x7 floor space, with space for doors, should do,it do it.
  • Better make sure it’ll fit. I’ll make the garage where my base’s batteries are located, with coveyours to accept the output from my rover and inevitable mining ship.
  • Better move the rover’s connector to the back. Shouldn’t take too long to do. I’ll install a backup camera , so I don’t have to go 3rd person.
  • I better layout towers for my windmills and solar panels. I still haven’t found uranium for reactors, nor ice for hydrogen.
  • Now that I know how to set up a build plan, I’ll get those large batteries started in the assembler back home
  • I should move my generators while I’m at it. The base’s battery is mostly charged, and I can’t move it or recovers the power cells, so I’ll keep this as a recharge point.
  • Crap, I forgot about working out! And my breakfast’s cold. I’ll let the assembler fun while I eat.
  • Looks I’m out of nickel. I still got some time, so I’ll go mine some and more iron while I’m nearby. I’ll get the power generators installed, along with one battery, at the new base along the way.
  • Ore’s been delivered, so do I have time for something else?
  • Where the frell did six o’clock go???
For the life of me, I don’t understand why I’m having a blast with this game, but could’t stand NMS even in VR. Both games are equally grindy, SE fakes a day/night cycle like NMS does, but one I lose track of time while playing, while the other one makes me question why I’m wasting my time.

I can only assume that the deeper building and vehicular mechanics make all the difference.
 
Got up this morining, and it suddenly hit me: “Why the frell am I building my main base on the side of the hill, far from my resource extraction sites?” So I decided to pop into SE quick before going to the health club, while waiting for my (microwaved) breakfast to cook, and scout out a site in the plain equidistant from the main resource sites.

Mental note: Never pop into this game in the morning again... it ain’t quick. ;)

Hour and a half, and one cold breakfast, later, I was scrambling to get ready for work because my thought process went something like this:
  • When I neared a suitable location, my ire scanner picked up an iron and cobalt site. Sweet, I’ll have an in site mine!
  • Sun’s coming up. I should put down a block so it’ll be aligned with the sun’s path in the sky.
  • While I’m at it, I should plan out my rover’s garage. 5x7 floor space, with space for doors, should do,it do it.
  • Better make sure it’ll fit. I’ll make the garage where my base’s batteries are located, with coveyours to accept the output from my rover and inevitable mining ship.
  • Better move the rover’s connector to the back. Shouldn’t take too long to do. I’ll install a backup camera , so I don’t have to go 3rd person.
  • I better layout towers for my windmills and solar panels. I still haven’t found uranium for reactors, nor ice for hydrogen.
  • Now that I know how to set up a build plan, I’ll get those large batteries started in the assembler back home
  • I should move my generators while I’m at it. The base’s battery is mostly charged, and I can’t move it or recovers the power cells, so I’ll keep this as a recharge point.
  • Crap, I forgot about working out! And my breakfast’s cold. I’ll let the assembler fun while I eat.
  • Looks I’m out of nickel. I still got some time, so I’ll go mine some and more iron while I’m nearby. I’ll get the power generators installed, along with one battery, at the new base along the way.
  • Ore’s been delivered, so do I have time for something else?
  • Where the frell did six o’clock go???
For the life of me, I don’t understand why I’m having a blast with this game, but could’t stand NMS even in VR. Both games are equally grindy, SE fakes a day/night cycle like NMS does, but one I lose track of time while playing, while the other one makes me question why I’m wasting my time.

I can only assume that the deeper building and vehicular mechanics make all the difference.

Two very different games, SE & NMS. I enjoy both, but certainly not for the same reasons.
However. I wrote in a video a long time back.. If the two could be combined ie. NMS planets could be put into SE, then I'd be pretty happy. ;)

SE has the only real space travel for me, no boxes. I love it for that.
Everything 'remains' on your tavels, even though you will constanly touch/change your universe as you travel through it.
It all remains for when/if, you return from your travels.
 
Got up this morining, and it suddenly hit me: “Why the frell am I building my main base on the side of the hill, far from my resource extraction sites?” So I decided to pop into SE quick before going to the health club, while waiting for my (microwaved) breakfast to cook, and scout out a site in the plain equidistant from the main resource sites.

Mental note: Never pop into this game in the morning again... it ain’t quick. ;)

Hour and a half, and one cold breakfast, later, I was scrambling to get ready for work because my thought process went something like this:
  • When I neared a suitable location, my ire scanner picked up an iron and cobalt site. Sweet, I’ll have an in site mine!
  • Sun’s coming up. I should put down a block so it’ll be aligned with the sun’s path in the sky.
  • While I’m at it, I should plan out my rover’s garage. 5x7 floor space, with space for doors, should do,it do it.
  • Better make sure it’ll fit. I’ll make the garage where my base’s batteries are located, with coveyours to accept the output from my rover and inevitable mining ship.
  • Better move the rover’s connector to the back. Shouldn’t take too long to do. I’ll install a backup camera , so I don’t have to go 3rd person.
  • I better layout towers for my windmills and solar panels. I still haven’t found uranium for reactors, nor ice for hydrogen.
  • Now that I know how to set up a build plan, I’ll get those large batteries started in the assembler back home
  • I should move my generators while I’m at it. The base’s battery is mostly charged, and I can’t move it or recovers the power cells, so I’ll keep this as a recharge point.
  • Crap, I forgot about working out! And my breakfast’s cold. I’ll let the assembler fun while I eat.
  • Looks I’m out of nickel. I still got some time, so I’ll go mine some and more iron while I’m nearby. I’ll get the power generators installed, along with one battery, at the new base along the way.
  • Ore’s been delivered, so do I have time for something else?
  • Where the frell did six o’clock go???
For the life of me, I don’t understand why I’m having a blast with this game, but could’t stand NMS even in VR. Both games are equally grindy, SE fakes a day/night cycle like NMS does, but one I lose track of time while playing, while the other one makes me question why I’m wasting my time.

I can only assume that the deeper building and vehicular mechanics make all the difference.
I suspect the addiction factor is the creativity/build sandbox aspect. Which IMO NMS is on the lighter side of because of its heavier focus on the RNG world exploration component.

For me, the addiction in SE is the same obsession I had playing the Sims 2 and 3 and SimCity. Complete innovative control and customization of my gaming environment. From the design and construction of the game world/map, to the buildings, flora/fauna spawns, to the sims I want to add to the world, right down to the very freckles on my Sim's noses. I have literally spent 12+ hours of real life in single gaming sessions playing Sims 3 on weekends (the greatest time black hole of my calendar week). My addiction to SE is exactly like this. Has greatly detracted from being able to play Sims 3. Too many competing titles the likes of my heavily modded Skyrim and Fallout 4/New Vegas. Or newer games like The Outer Worlds, RDR2, Kingdom Come Deliverance (which recently released modding support on Nexusmods WOOHOO FINALLY! Yet another time black hole). And Stellaris, X4, Mafia 2, Metro, and of course Space Engineers. Too many games to list and even more ADHD I've been suffering from with so many awesome games demanding my attention. LOL
 
My next ship to try to build will probably be based on the Anaconda (a boxyish ship that should convert well to SE). That'll take some time, even in creative mode! As for PvP - do you have any recommendations for servers? How does it work - do you play in creative and just copy in your ship's blueprint?

I've yet to even try flying this Vulture in survival mode, let alone build it. I want to get whatever ship I'm planning on building all figured out before committing the time and resources of putting it together in my main game.

None really. For starters, keep it simple and easy by just joining a public one i.e. an official Keen server. Or you can join a private server

...which are shown in red below. Note that you have to get leader invite first.

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But as you scroll through the list on the right, note that the public servers you can immediately join are the ones in white like here:

.....and keep in mind the extent of your network lag (the game will show you this when you attempt to join a group).

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Some servers will explicitly list the nature of game play like PVP Server in the title. Others don't. So you'll have to contact the server/faction leader(s) to see what sort of game play they have i.e. exploration, survival, competitive creative building, PvE, PvP or combo of all these etc.

TL DR: chosing a server is really random. Some servers are dedicated to PvE or PvP or both. Others to exploration etc. So choosing an SE server to join is as Forest Gump said. "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get". SE servers are exactly like that too :ROFLMAO:
 
Hehe, yeah, if i had to play WT on it's hardest difficulty, i would have quit it after one try too.
It has 3 available settings though (arcade, realistic and simulator battles), so on arcade i feel it's comfortable....for a non-hardcore "sim'mer" like me.;)
But cool, thx for the reply.:)
Just installed War Thunder.

Gut reactions:

It's lots prettier than World Of Everything
Looked at all the research trees...very grindy. Surprise.
Tried some dogfights. Again, very pretty. But, not as enjoyable as I might have thought. They start you out in some horrid aircraft. Even in arcade mode, it was not much fun to fly, as World Of Warplanes.

I think that the key thing is which game captures you as a customer, first. You get used to the playstyle, and the grind. I've got too much invested in World Of Everything. Their cunning plan has worked. War Thunder may, in fact, be the better product. But, a second grind isn't looking like much fun.
 
Just installed War Thunder.

Gut reactions:

It's lots prettier than World Of Everything
Looked at all the research trees...very grindy. Surprise.
Tried some dogfights. Again, very pretty. But, not as enjoyable as I might have thought. They start you out in some horrid aircraft. Even in arcade mode, it was not much fun to fly, as World Of Warplanes.

I think that the key thing is which game captures you as a customer, first. You get used to the playstyle, and the grind. I've got too much invested in World Of Everything. Their cunning plan has worked. War Thunder may, in fact, be the better product. But, a second grind isn't looking like much fun.

Fair point that.
I agree, it's either/or in this case, doing both with the same amount of engagement for each wouldn't be viable for me either.
So, i fully understand the argument made about hanging with the game you're already heavily invested in.
I'd usually follow that line of thought too, as i said, had a few thousand games in WoT myself, even managed to get into soviet Tier 10s.
I was really interested about World of Warplanes back then, could do with a break from tanks y'know, but was somewhat disappointed when it finally arrived.
That's when WT caught my attention, which had planes as their primary (and back then only) theme.
Meaning, at the time they were already as established with planes as WoT was with tanks (of course now both games cover all three military branches).
Ultimately WT convinced me and swayed me over to Gajin , and since my WoT progress would never be "lost" i thought "well, you can always go back if you want to".
Only, i never wanted to, i simply enjoyed the game enough to not even worry about what i had "left behind".
As always, it's down to preference in the end, isn't it ?
Happy hunting, and watch out for them JPs ;) (my fav WoT vehicle)
 
Bought X4 and expansion to XCOM2 on sale yesterday. fiddled a bit around with controls in X4 and promptly managed to travel through jump gate in space suit. Which is achievement only 4% of players have - seriously, it's the very first thing to do!
Always planned to play War of the Chosen but didnt get to it. Not sure which one to play first - probably XCOM - and wait for the Split expansion maybe.
 
Still chugging away at Space Engineers.

Good news: I've moved my conveyors down to floor level, making my secondary base much more compact, and will probably look nicer, than it was before.

Bad news: My attempt to build a mining atmospheric ship at first seemed to go well. Test flight went as expected. Docking test went as expected. Actually using it to mine?


Did not go as expected. Not sure if it's recoverable. 😱 Curse you gravity!!!
 
Aside of the usual bunch of games I'm playing these days (Warships, Mutant Year Zero, Hearts of Iron IV), I bought Transport Fever on the cheap... surprisingly similar to the classic Transport Tycoon - feels like a great game, unfortunately even more of a timesink than HoI IV. :)

Fair point that.
I agree, it's either/or in this case, doing both with the same amount of engagement for each wouldn't be viable for me either.
So, i fully understand the argument made about hanging with the game you're already heavily invested in.
I'd usually follow that line of thought too, as i said, had a few thousand games in WoT myself, even managed to get into soviet Tier 10s.
I was really interested about World of Warplanes back then, could do with a break from tanks y'know, but was somewhat disappointed when it finally arrived.
That's when WT caught my attention, which had planes as their primary (and back then only) theme.
Meaning, at the time they were already as established with planes as WoT was with tanks (of course now both games cover all three military branches).
Ultimately WT convinced me and swayed me over to Gajin , and since my WoT progress would never be "lost" i thought "well, you can always go back if you want to".
Only, i never wanted to, i simply enjoyed the game enough to not even worry about what i had "left behind".
As always, it's down to preference in the end, isn't it ?
Happy hunting, and watch out for them JPs ;) (my fav WoT vehicle)

Interesting points, though for me it is irrelevant as I'm playing ships (I prefer the slow paced action) and I am led to believe in WT they are very underdeveloped.
 
This week, Ships had a Veterans Day event, and Planes was celebrating its anniversary with a 5 times normal XP week, and discounts on just about everything.

To say I am ground out isn't sufficient. When ARX begins to look attractive, it's time for a nap... :(
 
Still chugging away at Space Engineers.

Good news: I've moved my conveyors down to floor level, making my secondary base much more compact, and will probably look nicer, than it was before.

Bad news: My attempt to build a mining atmospheric ship at first seemed to go well. Test flight went as expected. Docking test went as expected. Actually using it to mine?


Did not go as expected. Not sure if it's recoverable. 😱 Curse you gravity!!!
What I was going to say before the gravitas comment below the pic.
i.e is that on the ceiling or the floor? :ROFLMAO:
Then again are you in a micro G planet or earth like planetary environment? In which case, I guess it really doesn't matter 😛
 
What I was going to say before the gravitas comment below the pic.
i.e is that on the ceiling or the floor? :ROFLMAO:
Then again are you in a micro G planet or earth like planetary environment? In which case, I guess it really doesn't matter 😛
For my first play through, I started on an Earthlike world, so I could learn the mechanics without having to worry about dying of asphyxiation. And I’m looking down into the hole it dug after I lost attitude control as I started to dig.

When I woke up, I realized I should’ve tested it full as well as empty, especially when pitched down. I resisted the temptation to fix things “quickly” in the morning. I want to avoid gaining weight during “not Winter.” Edit: during Winter, obviously. I’m way too active during “nit-Winter” for that to be a problem. :)
 
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