Empyrion: Galactic Survival - First Impressions
- Thread starter Darkfyre99
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It’s still in the “experimental build” phase on Steam, aka the Beta of the next Alpha release. The current live version is Alpha 11.5.8. The Dev’s warned last week that the next phase of Alpha 12 will break current saved games, so I don’t blame you for waiting to pull the trigger. When I get the urge to play Minecraft, I always started a new “snapshots” game, on hardcore, because I very much enjoy the early game in these kinds of games. Learning a new build will break my save doesn’t bother me too much, because I get an excuse to start a new game. YMMV.
The next Zirax attack actually came from the general direction I was concerned about as I was building the third defense pylon... not sure if it’s a coincidence or not. A pair of rocket drones managed to trash half my roof solar panels, destroyed my farm, and actually killed me... because I was foolish enough stand by the big open windows of said farm as I remotely loaded the third cannon and took direct control to ward off the attack.
I think I would’ve been more effective out in the open, using the pulse rifle I looted from a wreck. Which, given my lack of 1337 FPS skills, is really saying something.
On a more positive note, I’ve discovered the wonderous devices known as “ramps” and “shutters”. These can give me access to a vehicle’s, or base’s, inner workings, without having to waste resources on removing and replacing blocks to do so. They make removing, installing, or upgrading internal components so much easier.
Next up, repairing the damage, moving the surviving panels to the ground, and other necessary maintenance tasks. Then it’s time to start working on my basement level, so I can move the more vulnerable equipment below.
For some strange reason, I focus on details that won't be seen by me after a project is done. This is me laying the groundwork for western bank of solar panels. The conduits are purely decorative.
With the dawn come another wave of Zirax drones, four this time. This is the second time they've approached from the most vulnerable side of my base.
I'm not sure how effective I was on foot, but I realized after the fact that I had a perfectly good armed flying brick on the north side of my base, just sitting there. The turret closest to the attack was almost destroyed, and the last drone shot down crashed into my base.
The game only permits a total of fifteen solar panels per base, so you have to rely on other power sources as well. Still, fifteen panels provides a lot of power when used sparingly. I ended installing the last three on the roof. I may want to expand the base to the south, as well as build a bigger landing pad to the north. And yes, the solar panels are facing to the north, since my base is slightly south of the equator. Planets have axial tilts, apparently, even though they don't actually orbit their stars. It looks like you can get more daylight by building closer to the sunward pole.
The grey stuff is "filler," which you can use to fill in gaps when building structures into the ground. One of the problems I keep having is that sometimes I can't place a block half way into the ground. It seems completely arbitrary to me, but I end up digging away the terrain to place the block, and then comes the fun of trying to fill it back in so it looks decent. The handheld drill has four modes: dig, fine detail dig, flatten, and fill. Even the "fine drill" is a bit of a bludgeon, IMO, but not every game can be Minecraft, I guess.
You can see the ramp to my future underground garage to the lower left.
As I was working on the garage itself, there was this hideous screaming noise coming from outside. I equipped the shotgun, wondering what new monstrosity the game was inflicting upon me. I cautiously opened the garage door, nothing. I raced to the top of the ramp, turned towards the noise, and saw a flock of the local proto-avian herbivores I'd seen in the distance near my base. At that point, I whipped around to my left, and was actually disappointed there wasn't a toothy predator creeping up behind me.
Eventually, the underground garage is finished. It's a tight fit, but I could probably get both of my crude vehicles into it if I wanted to. The garage/hanger door is 5x3, which is the smallest door of this type available. Once a door kit has been constructed, it can be used to build about a dozen different doors of various sizes. This is true for many item kits in the game.
The next part of my master plan was to connect the garage to the main structure. Stage one was digging a tunnel straight out from the door at the back of the garage. Stage two was digging a shaft down from the main structure for the eventual elevator. (Not an proper enclosed elevator, unfortunately, but a kind of "anti-gravity" thing.) Stage three was digging another tunnel to connect the two at a right angle. This was the result:
As I started to construct a proper underground corridor out of concrete blocks, I noticed a curious spot of light. Looking up, I noticed that my excavations had breached the surface. I thought I had more room than that. This is going require some more work repair the surface around my base, especially if I don't want to mess with they cycle of fill>flatten>and fine dig.
At last, the corridor is completed. This is the view looking out from the elevator, towards the garage. The door on the right leads to a rock mining area. My need for crushed stone to produce concrete blocks is voracious, and I can potentially use the excavated area for other purposes. To the left, I'm thinking of rebuilding my farm, as well as a proper storage area.
Finally, I return to the surface to check out how bad the damage to the surface is.
The damage to the terrain above the tunnel wasn't too bad. I think if I round the edges of the top of the tunnel, chip away at the dirt, add a little paint, and it won't look half bad. You can tell there's something there, but I don't have the option of adding dirt, sand, or grass, just that grey "filler" junk.
That will have to wait, though. I'm expecting another attack by the Zirax "soon."
With the dawn come another wave of Zirax drones, four this time. This is the second time they've approached from the most vulnerable side of my base.
I'm not sure how effective I was on foot, but I realized after the fact that I had a perfectly good armed flying brick on the north side of my base, just sitting there. The turret closest to the attack was almost destroyed, and the last drone shot down crashed into my base.The game only permits a total of fifteen solar panels per base, so you have to rely on other power sources as well. Still, fifteen panels provides a lot of power when used sparingly. I ended installing the last three on the roof. I may want to expand the base to the south, as well as build a bigger landing pad to the north. And yes, the solar panels are facing to the north, since my base is slightly south of the equator. Planets have axial tilts, apparently, even though they don't actually orbit their stars. It looks like you can get more daylight by building closer to the sunward pole.
The grey stuff is "filler," which you can use to fill in gaps when building structures into the ground. One of the problems I keep having is that sometimes I can't place a block half way into the ground. It seems completely arbitrary to me, but I end up digging away the terrain to place the block, and then comes the fun of trying to fill it back in so it looks decent. The handheld drill has four modes: dig, fine detail dig, flatten, and fill. Even the "fine drill" is a bit of a bludgeon, IMO, but not every game can be Minecraft, I guess.
You can see the ramp to my future underground garage to the lower left.
As I was working on the garage itself, there was this hideous screaming noise coming from outside. I equipped the shotgun, wondering what new monstrosity the game was inflicting upon me. I cautiously opened the garage door, nothing. I raced to the top of the ramp, turned towards the noise, and saw a flock of the local proto-avian herbivores I'd seen in the distance near my base. At that point, I whipped around to my left, and was actually disappointed there wasn't a toothy predator creeping up behind me.
Eventually, the underground garage is finished. It's a tight fit, but I could probably get both of my crude vehicles into it if I wanted to. The garage/hanger door is 5x3, which is the smallest door of this type available. Once a door kit has been constructed, it can be used to build about a dozen different doors of various sizes. This is true for many item kits in the game.
The next part of my master plan was to connect the garage to the main structure. Stage one was digging a tunnel straight out from the door at the back of the garage. Stage two was digging a shaft down from the main structure for the eventual elevator. (Not an proper enclosed elevator, unfortunately, but a kind of "anti-gravity" thing.) Stage three was digging another tunnel to connect the two at a right angle. This was the result:
I love it when a plan works.
As I started to construct a proper underground corridor out of concrete blocks, I noticed a curious spot of light. Looking up, I noticed that my excavations had breached the surface. I thought I had more room than that. This is going require some more work repair the surface around my base, especially if I don't want to mess with they cycle of fill>flatten>and fine dig.
At last, the corridor is completed. This is the view looking out from the elevator, towards the garage. The door on the right leads to a rock mining area. My need for crushed stone to produce concrete blocks is voracious, and I can potentially use the excavated area for other purposes. To the left, I'm thinking of rebuilding my farm, as well as a proper storage area.
Finally, I return to the surface to check out how bad the damage to the surface is.
The damage to the terrain above the tunnel wasn't too bad. I think if I round the edges of the top of the tunnel, chip away at the dirt, add a little paint, and it won't look half bad. You can tell there's something there, but I don't have the option of adding dirt, sand, or grass, just that grey "filler" junk.
That will have to wait, though. I'm expecting another attack by the Zirax "soon."
I think they look decent myself, especially given that this is a voxel game. The play of shadows and light has especially good IMO, which doesn't translate well in screen shots. Admittedly, there's been moments where I've wished that there was a bit more variety in the types of trees in the game, especially in the swamp biome, but unlike certain games I could mention, this isn't advertising that it has procedural life.
Graphics have never been high on my priority list, especially the kind of graphics that requires the latest video card to get more than single digit frame rates. Far more important to me is the gameplay and the replayability of the game, and this game has done a good job with delivering on the former, and promises to do likewise on the latter.
I'm sitting on a tightrope, reputation wise, with the Zirax. The constant attacks have me hovering between "unfriendly" and "hostile" with them, which is limiting how long (and thus how far) I can leave my base. On a more positive note, the constant attacks have also been boosting my reputation with the other two, less aggressive factions in the game. Depending upon how the next Zirax attack goes, I may be designing a dedicated fighter to defend the base with, as well as a hover-tank.
Its because they are. One of the reasons i didnt get excited of Empyrion is because it looks like its like 10yrs old.
I have mixed feelings about MMOs. I grew to dislike ESO because it felt like Disney World where the players are just tourists lining up for scripted "rides" that reset over and over again. But Elite Dangerous has made me really desire to live in a shared galaxy with other players. Even when I'm out exploring thousands of LY away from the Bubble, just the knowledge that hundreds of other CMDRs are actively doing things and changing things (BGS and discoveries) in my galaxy makes it feel alive. I can and have encountered the random player "out there" (usually at remote asteroid bases), and that adds a thrill to the game that I've grown accustomed to. In this regard, ED has "ruined" solitary games like Space Engineers for me. Life is lonely enough, I don't want to be all alone in my games as well.
I'm hopeful that Starbase and Dual Universe will be big enough to allow me to avoid griefers while at the same time allowing me to venture out and encounter other players and their amazing constructions, along with trading with other players. In a game like Space Engineers, just having a couple other players to trade with would be amazing! I've built a refinery on a very rich location with a variety of ores, but I'm miles away from water. Another player could build a separate hydrogen refinery and we could set up automated trade between our two bases, for example. Granted, I could do this myself, but there comes a point where I'm like, "No way just a single guy like myself can build and maintain an empire block-by-block". Now if SE were to implement highly-believable NPCs with advanced options like setting up trade routes, that would go a long way to making the game feel more believable to me. I just think Starbase / Dual Universe will beat it to the punch.
If you ever get back into Space Engineers, you should set up a server and let me join you. I'd set up my own server if I had the bandwidth to support it! I've tried the public servers, but once you get more than a couple of players, SE starts to lag pretty badly.. This is another reason my hopes are on games like Starbase that are built from the ground-up with multiplayer in mind.
All that said, I hear where you are coming from. Second Life was supposed to be a utopian "let's get together and build something great!" game, and we know how that turned out.
Does anybody know (and are allowed to say) when Starbase is scheduled to be released to the general public? Even if it's early access, I'd be very interested!@Old Duck keep on eye for Starbase related videos and streams tomorrow as the CA embargo ends for the first group of players and they get to release their footage and stream freely.
I know i am going to.
Personally, if I can't have great gameplay with great graphics, I'd much rather have great gameplay with decent graphics. The problem with many games these days is that the developers concentrate on great graphics, but the gameplay itself doesn't even rise above mediocre.
Also, to borrow a Star Citizen meme, "its an Alpha." The developers seem to be adding new gameplay loops with each major update (Alpha 12 will allow the player to leave their starting solar system, and explore the galaxy), and quite frankly I'd rather have them focus on that, than polishing the graphics up to modern standards. The polishing can come after everything is in place, and they're moving towards release. And if it never comes at all? I'd be fine with that as well. I think the graphics look decent, and I can see this game as one I'll be playing for years to come.
When we last left our stranded heroine, Commander Inga Stevenson was bracing for an imminent attack by the Evil Aggressive Zirax Empire. That would come any time now... any time now...
Okay, it was time to start excavating my future "hydroponics" room. Given how close to the surface the my underground corridor really was, I decided to dig downwards, so I wouldn't disrupt the surface any more than I had already. I got about as far as building the ramp downwards when the base alarm started wailing. The Zirax had come. I grabbed my trusty shotgun and ran:
Thankfully, it missed the eastern solar panels when it crashed.
Safe for a few more days at least, I continue working on the farm. Soon enough, my base's latest addition is complete. Or more accurately, rebuilt in a safer location.
Having run low on silicon, I decided to finish unearthing the nearest deposit. Checking my stocks of perishables, I then traveled down to the nearby swamp to scrape up more fire moss to make medicines. While there, I also went diving for more pentaxid, since apparently the warp drives I'd recently unlocked on the tech tree use that as a power source. I also take a mission from the Polaris corporation to scout for minerals. It was time to start doing a proper survey of this world, in order to see what's out there.
Out of curiosity, I headed south to confirm my hypothesis that the days do get shorter the farther south I go.
Hypothesis confirmed.
Eventually, its time to return to base, and prepare for another Zirax attack. Once again, they attack from the same direction. As the old saying goes, "One is happenstance, twice is coincidence, everything after that is enemy action." The question now becomes why are the Zirax attacking from that direction? At least the drones didn't do nearly as much damage as their last attack did. Why mine for promethium, or harvest biomass for fuel, when I can get fuel I need from destroyed drones.
It was at about this time I decided to head south again, and confirm another suspicion that had been brewing. I'd been noticing something weird about the distances I'd been seeing to waypoints I'd set. When I'd first crashed on the planet, I'd measured the circumference of the planet along the equator, and gotten 32 kilometers. When I set waypoints last time, I'd noticed the four waypoints I'd set along the latitudinal line I was going to follow also seemed to be about eight kilometers apart.
So I decided to do another scouting run further to the south, set up the waypoints a third time, and got:
32 kilometers. That would explain the "Civilization Style" poles on the planetary map. I've crashed on a cylinder shaped world, not a spherical one.
I'll give them credit where credit's due. Despite their worlds not actually being spherical in nature, it took me much longer to notice the flaws of the illusion than No Man's Sky ever did. And NMS's worlds were actually spherical! If you're not going devote resources to fully simulate space in a space game, at least do a convincing job at faking it. 
Okay, it was time to start excavating my future "hydroponics" room. Given how close to the surface the my underground corridor really was, I decided to dig downwards, so I wouldn't disrupt the surface any more than I had already. I got about as far as building the ramp downwards when the base alarm started wailing. The Zirax had come. I grabbed my trusty shotgun and ran:
- up the ramp
- up the elevator
- out the front door
Thankfully, it missed the eastern solar panels when it crashed.Safe for a few more days at least, I continue working on the farm. Soon enough, my base's latest addition is complete. Or more accurately, rebuilt in a safer location.
Having run low on silicon, I decided to finish unearthing the nearest deposit. Checking my stocks of perishables, I then traveled down to the nearby swamp to scrape up more fire moss to make medicines. While there, I also went diving for more pentaxid, since apparently the warp drives I'd recently unlocked on the tech tree use that as a power source. I also take a mission from the Polaris corporation to scout for minerals. It was time to start doing a proper survey of this world, in order to see what's out there.
Out of curiosity, I headed south to confirm my hypothesis that the days do get shorter the farther south I go.
Hypothesis confirmed.
Eventually, its time to return to base, and prepare for another Zirax attack. Once again, they attack from the same direction. As the old saying goes, "One is happenstance, twice is coincidence, everything after that is enemy action." The question now becomes why are the Zirax attacking from that direction? At least the drones didn't do nearly as much damage as their last attack did. Why mine for promethium, or harvest biomass for fuel, when I can get fuel I need from destroyed drones.
It was at about this time I decided to head south again, and confirm another suspicion that had been brewing. I'd been noticing something weird about the distances I'd been seeing to waypoints I'd set. When I'd first crashed on the planet, I'd measured the circumference of the planet along the equator, and gotten 32 kilometers. When I set waypoints last time, I'd noticed the four waypoints I'd set along the latitudinal line I was going to follow also seemed to be about eight kilometers apart.
So I decided to do another scouting run further to the south, set up the waypoints a third time, and got:
32 kilometers. That would explain the "Civilization Style" poles on the planetary map. I've crashed on a cylinder shaped world, not a spherical one.
I'll give them credit where credit's due. Despite their worlds not actually being spherical in nature, it took me much longer to notice the flaws of the illusion than No Man's Sky ever did. And NMS's worlds were actually spherical! If you're not going devote resources to fully simulate space in a space game, at least do a convincing job at faking it.
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Well done CMDR.When we last left our stranded heroine, Commander Inga Stevenson was bracing for an imminent attack by theEvilAggressive Zirax Empire. That would come any time now... any time now...
Okay, it was time to start excavating my future "hydroponics" room. Given how close to the surface the my underground corridor really was, I decided to dig downwards, so I wouldn't disrupt the surface any more than I had already. I got about as far as building the ramp downwards when the base alarm started wailing. The Zirax had come. I grabbed my trusty shotgun and ran:
and into the cockpit my Flying Brick. Full of righteous determination, I turn the tiny craft towards the direction of the attack, just as the base's defenses send the approaching troop carrier plummeting from the sky! Poor souls didn't stand a chance. They were better off sending drones.
- up the ramp
- up the elevator
- out the front door
Safe for a few more days at least, I continue working on the farm. Soon enough, my base's latest addition is complete. Or more accurately, rebuilt in a safer location.
Having run low on silicon, I decided to finish unearthing the nearest deposit. Checking my stocks of perishables, I then traveled down to the nearby swamp to scrape up more fire moss to make medicines. While there, I also went diving for more pentaxid, since apparently the warp drives I'd recently unlocked on the tech tree use that as a power source. I also take a mission from the Polaris corporation to scout for minerals. It was time to start doing a proper survey of this world, in order to see what's out there.
Out of curiosity, I headed south to confirm my hypothesis that the days do get shorter the farther south I go.
Hypothesis confirmed.
Eventually, its time to return to base, and prepare for another Zirax attack. Once again, they attack from the same direction. As the old saying goes, "One is happenstance, twice is coincidence, everything after that is enemy action." The question now becomes why are the Zirax attacking from that direction? At least the drones didn't do nearly as much damage as their last attack did. Why mine for promethium, or harvest biomass for fuel, when I can get fuel I need from destroyed drones.
It was at about this time I decided to head south again, and confirm another suspicion that had been brewing. I'd been noticing something weird about the distances I'd been seeing to waypoints I'd set. When I'd first crashed on the planet, I'd measured the circumference of the planet along the equator, and gotten 32 kilometers. When I set waypoints last time, I'd noticed the four waypoints I'd set along the latitudinal line I was going to follow also seemed to be about eight kilometers apart.
So I decided to do another scouting run further to the south, set up the waypoints a third time, and got:
32 kilometers. That would explain the "Civilization Style" poles on the planetary map. I've crashed on a cylinder shaped world, not a spherical one.
I'll give them credit where credit's due. Despite their worlds not actually being spherical in nature, it took me much longer to notice the flaws of the illusion than No Man's Sky ever did. And NMS's worlds were actually spherical! If you're not going devote resources to fully simulate space in a space game, at least do a convincing job at faking it.
I feel the same way... to a degree. What attracts me to MMOs with certain degree of player... interaction is that very feeling of "Congratulations! You're the 14,375th hero to save the Princess!" Players have far more potential to be rather interesting. What has dissuaded me over the years from playing an MMO with too much player... interaction (see EVE Online) is that way too many players in those types of games are just not fun to play with, for one reason or another. And when I do find players fun to play with, my schedule to play online is so erratic that its hard to commit to anything in advance.
As for loneliness... I work retail, and neither my sister nor I moved too far away from our parents. Until this pandemic hit, we were pretty much swapping kids between all three households, as needs demanded. One of the reasons why I like single-player games is that they're they're a welcome respite from the demands of other people in my life, and I can drop in and out of them whenever I have the time.
I'm hoping that I'm wrong about Starbase. I'm also hoping that the development team for Dual Universe hasn't way over promised vs what they can deliver. Both games are giving me an EVE Online vibe, so I'm content to wait and see what happens.
I'm afraid I'm in a similar boat. Not to mention that if I was inclined to set up a private server, I'd be more inclined to set up an EGS one, now that I've gotten my hands on this game. Of the three "space based" survival games I've played, not counting Subnautica because its in a class of its own, I'd sum them up as:
- Space Engineers - Vehicle construction simulator first, survival game a very distant second.
- Empyrion Galactic Survival - Survival game first, vehicle designer game second.
- No Man's Sky - Management simulation game first, survival game a distant second... with an unskippable tutorial severely limiting its replay ability for me.
Which is why I'm kind of skeptical that both Starbase and Dual Universe will be a game I enjoy. Second life was designed to not have artificial conflict. In these games, PvP conflict seems to me to be an advertised primary feature, and I much prefer to that kind of gameplay to be a secondary option myself.
Hard to say. Closed alpha has just begun and if i'd have to take a guess, EA will launch in 4-5 months, maybe even later but during this year.
There will be streams and videos starting May 13th 1300hrs UTC when the CA embargo ends.
/end offtopic
@Darkfyre99 Would you give just a quick summary of "construction" vs "design" comparing SE to EGS? I've heard elsewhere that EGS is less "block-by-block" building, but the video I watched make it look very similar to SE so I'm a bit confused by how one is different from the other.
Certainly.
In Space Engineers, the basic building process is this:
- Design what you're building by placing the "scaffolding" of a single block
- Produce the individual components for block in the assembler
- Move the individual components from the assembler to the block
- Weld the block until its complete
- Produce the blocks of your project in your assemblers out of individual components
- Build your project by placing the assembled blocks either individually, or by using the in-game design tools, complete with symmetry modes. Edit: (Which I really should start taking advantage of more often.)
In EGS, on the other hand, thruster placement matters. You can affect how a vehicle handles by placing thrusters further from the center of mass of a ship... and shifting the center of mass by loading it with cargo can also affect how the vehicle handles. If you lose one of two port thrusters, you not only lose thrust on that side, but it also affects how yaw handles. In this respect, it very much reminds me of Kerbal Space Program.
Does EGS have blueprint projectors and automatic welders? I'm currently in the process of designing and building an automated factory that can build things for me. I do the initial design of more complex ships in creative (I imagine creative mode as a simulation inside survival mode, very Inception-like), create a blueprint, then use the projector in survival to much more easily build my vehicles. Right now I'm still welding manually, but like I said, I hope to create an automated factory for this. It's doable and actually very common, but I like designing my own stuff, not copying YouTube recipes. It's the design and testing phase of SE that I love the most.
The equivalent in EGS is the Factory, which is available anytime, anywhere, without any special equipment. Just select the option from the inventory screen, select whatever blueprint you want, feed it the resources it needs, wait for it to complete, and then spawn it in the game.
The blueprints can come from anywhere: the default ones, ones from Steam Workshop, or ones you've designed yourself in another game, including creative.
I've been avoiding it in my games so far, and I'll probably keep avoiding it in the future. In theory, the resources and the time it takes to assemble is identical to building them in a survival game. In practice, it's far too close to creative mode for my comfort. I don't like building in creative mode, even if I'm designing something to import into a survival game. I much prefer the trial and error (and error and error...) process of doing it in survival, because the inevitable errors have consequences.
edit: I have don't issues with breaking out on graph paper and designing things that way. I still have a lot of it lying around from my tabletop days. Trying to translate things from paper into the game can be a lot of fun, IMO. Especially when I wrote down the wrong value for something.
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BTW, I didn't believe you about thrusters in SE, so I tested it... I really wish you were WRONG about this, but apparently you are not. I never noticed because I always design my ships with COG in mind. ERRRGGH!!! Now I need to see if there is a mod that fixes this :fingers crossed:
This is so strange, because center-of-gravity DOES matter when it comes to wheeled vehicles. I actually built "ballast tanks" on my big wheeled cargo transport, otherwise the sags in the back as I load it down with ore.
This is so strange, because center-of-gravity DOES matter when it comes to wheeled vehicles. I actually built "ballast tanks" on my big wheeled cargo transport, otherwise the sags in the back as I load it down with ore.