SE still isn't fleshed out enough as a game to really "work" all by itself as a compelling experience. It's a lot of great systems, more like an engine/platform for creating scenarios than a game, and it really does require players and modders to go the extra mile to create something enjoyable if you want to have a genuine gaming experience. And then you start to run into performance limitations pretty quickly as you mod in more systems or use more features. In the end it's still just extremely sophisticated legos.
I've recently started following this youtube/twitch series called "Outlands," where a group of SE players have made up their own D&D-esque tabletop/boardgame type rules to play out a grand strategy spacefaring RPG kind of thing where all the encounters are played out on a series of prefab maps on a private SE server, with things like fleet movements and resource management taking place on their Discord. They have house rules for ship classifications and a whole points system for allocating block types, hardpoints, etc; as well as faction-specific perks which apply to ship capabilities as well as what types of moves you can make in the boardgame part.
It's very interesting and well thought out. And it's interesting to see which parts of SE they have repurposed to represent something other than its intended purpose. For example they have mandatory beacons on every ship, with rules for what the broadcast range must be set to depending on other rules around ship size, types of blocks used, ship class, etc; and this is all to (in a backwards fashion) simulate radar detectability and stealth mechanics. Like, for a "stealth" ship class, for every X number of blocks below a certain threshold in your build, you get to reduce your beacon's broadcast range by a certain amount.
The end result of all this is a very Expanse-esque multiplayer space RPG/strategy game, with interesting crewed ship combat and seemingly a decent amount of tactical depth.
I don't know if I would have the energy and time to participate in a thing like this, but it really highlights the strengths and shortcomings of Space Engineers in an interesting way, and does seem like a lot of fun.
