Space Engineers - "Open" Changes Everything

[LanceLord]

Gosh dang it. Cities: Skylines is on massive 75% discount on Steam for $7.49 USD until Jan 5th. THIS is what I get for being impatient

Somebody hasn't been reading my diary. I started on earth and maintain a base there, but now I have an FTL starship, so I can go wherever I want. I've been focusing my exploration to earth and the moon, though I did drop in on Mars for a very quick visit. I'll probably add an O2 tank to my atmo explorer and build one specifically for Mars someday.

Spoiler

View attachment 202374

Yes yes.

Bit of bad news that getting clanged up like that ole' bird. While I don't play the Japanese flute either, I'm not exactly banging on about it on here. Got to stiff chin up there old spoon. Bludger and pluck out all those rough bits. Comes with the turf!

Very artistic and functional looking bridge for such a small ship btw

drooling covetously

Now if it isn't too much of a bother, could you just go ahead and off load all off that hard work to the Steam Workshop?

PLEASE.

This slacker Cmndr has been on patient stand by for a while now....

#kthxbye

edit ps edit: THAT is the sort of repair/engineering emergent game play that ED is so sore lacking. This sort of game play would be the ultimate game changer for the Explorer and/or mining careers in ED IMO. About a year ago (in one of the many "why we need space legs" threads) I went on a wall of text rampage begging FDev to consider adding more immersive features Cmndrs had for space repair. Just like the way you were able to EVA and inspect/repair your ship Duck. As of now, we have a simple emergency module that uses Skyrim magicka to perform instantaneous off screen/non immersive repair. If we could get 10% of the immersive EVA game play from SE that you just described into ED, I'd be in NIRVANA. Once EDO drops, I'm hoping we'll be able to do some basic/rudimentary repair to our vehicles. Regardless of whether they're on planetside via our SRVs (like busted tires? engine failure?) and our ships both planet and space side (like how you can weld/fix ship surfaces/modules via EVA) in SE.

 

[Old Duck]

Ship has been repaired, considering some different options for mounting torpedoes. Might have to play in creative to see what can be done, as I may need a "creative" solution for quick and easy rearming, targeting, and firing (all in vanilla with no mods or scripts).

 

[Old Duck]

Me and another guy just performed our first rescue mission! A ally was adrift in a bad part of the galaxy where griefers are known to strike, so I had to push him clear, then I had to latch onto him has he drifted away, then I had to hyperjump both our ships to a safe location. It was quite thrilling and emergent gameplay

So I guess this makes me a Rescue Rat?

 

[Old Duck]

I've been working on a new torpedo design and delivery system. Instead of using subgrids, which introduce potential for clang and mess with the maneuvering of my ship, I'm now attaching the torpedoes directly to my ship. I've added a projector to my ship for this purpose (which I can also use for repairs and a cloaking device), and my station has welders positioned so I can fly over and have these torpedoes automatically assembled into place. Here are some pics:

Spoiler

To launch the torpedoes, I need to separate them from the ship. After auto-attaching them via station welders, I weaken the connector (catwalk ended up being the best) between each torpedo. This is the only manual work needed to prep these. When it comes time to fire, I activate the launch timer on the torpedo, then I use my defense turret to quickly destroy the block holding the torpedo to the ship, making the torpedo its own grid. It's a bit of a gimmick, but it's my version of explosive bolts, and it works!

Spoiler

For initial tests, I made a copy of my ship and gave it to the Space Pirates. Here are the results (first image of damage is after one torpedo, the second is after both torpedoes):

Spoiler

This is just with one warhead! I've added as many as four warheads, but you get diminished returns since the blast radius overlaps, so I've decided to stick with the single warhead for simplicity and keeping the torpedo small. Speaking of small, my next test was against a fully armed true NPC pirate. This is when I discovered the flaw in my current design - it melts under the defensive fire of an enemy ship covered in turrets, and the larger it is (more warheads), the more likely it's going to be hit. Working hard to overcome this problem, late last night I finished the design of a new stealth torpedo that can usually make it past these defenses and score a hit. However I won't be sharing screenshots of this special "TOP SECRET" torpedo

UPDATE - I should mention that these torpedoes are best used against stationary targets like space stations and parked capital ships. They could be used against a target moving in a straight line, but the firing solution would be very tricky (like WWII torpedoes). They do not track targets, they track a firing solution. They are not designed to be used in the heat of battle but rather as a first-strike surprise attack against enemy assets.

 

[Old Duck]

I confess my amazement that so few Elite Dangerous fans are interested in Space Engineers. I'm late to this game because I only recently learned about it. Part of my reason for maintaining this thread is to show how much SE has in common with ED. It's not just a space-themed Minecraft like I first assumed when I heard about it. It have many of the elements of Elite along with many things ED is currently lacking. The main "negative" is that people think ships look like they are made out of Legos, but there are many nice ships in the Workshop that feel like stereotypical SciFi ships, especially if you consider more practical "realistic" SciFi like The Expanse.

Anyway, it's too bad, because I think this game is amazing and has pretty much replaced ED as my #1 favorite space game. Maybe it's time I find a forum dedicated to SE..

 

[Darkfyre99]

I confess my amazement that so few Elite Dangerous fans are interested in Space Engineers. I'm late to this game because I only recently learned about it. Part of my reason for maintaining this thread is to show how much SE has in common with ED. It's not just a space-themed Minecraft like I first assumed when I heard about it. It have many of the elements of Elite along with many things ED is currently lacking. The main "negative" is that people think ships look like they are made out of Legos, but there are many nice ships in the Workshop that feel like stereotypical SciFi ships, especially if you consider more practical "realistic" SciFi like The Expanse.

Anyway, it's too bad, because I think this game is amazing and has pretty much replaced ED as my #1 favorite space game. Maybe it's time I find a forum dedicated to SE..

Space Engineers is pretty high on my space game list as well, but Kerbal Space Program will be at the top for the foreseeable future. SE and EGS are tied for second. ED should be second on that list, but Frontier's continued missteps on the MMO front have pretty much killed any sense of accomplishment I can get from the game, as well as what I find fun about MMOs.

I'm completely confused about why that is on the second issue, because based on what I had read in the DDF back in 2013, I had thought that Frontier had understood the missteps of earlier MMOs, and had a decent plan to avoid them. Unfortunately, that plan never materialized, and Frontier keeps making pretty much every mistake the early modern MMO pioneers made back in the 90's.

As for why more fans of Elite aren't interested in Space Engineers? I think its because survival style games are niche. Flight sim style games are also niche, and the two niches rarely overlap.

 

[Old Duck]

As for why more fans of Elite aren't interested in Space Engineers? I think its because survival style games are niche. Flight sim style games are also niche, and the two niches rarely overlap.

These days SE is more of a flight sim style game than a survival game for me. I spend most my time flying, exploring, testing different builds and designs, some combat, rescue missions, trading, etc. I'm actually glad SE isn't as survival oriented as say EGS or NMS, though I do enjoy the possibility of being shipwrecked and having to get myself out of trouble (but I don't want to have to virtually eat and drink every 10 minutes).

 

[Old Duck]

As for why more fans of Elite aren't interested in Space Engineers? I think its because survival style games are niche. Flight sim style games are also niche, and the two niches rarely overlap.

Just an additional thought to append to my last post, there are things that probably count as survival genre that I think of more as spaceship maintenance. One of the things I like about SE is that flying and maintaining a spaceship requires thoughtfulness and effort. Granted it's not KSP, but KSP is a very different game IIRC (very few of the adventures I've shared in this thread would happen in KSP). SE provides a nice compromise between ED's arcade-level ship maintenance (hit a button to instantly repair, refuel, and rearm your ship for pennies) and being Elon Musk.

For example, maintaining my war effort against an enemy faction costs considerable resources, much like a real war. So I need to make sure I keep my refuel, repair, and rearm facility well stocked. This is where mining comes in (which I find way more fun in SE than ED). This morning I had to resupply my iron ore so that I'll have enough steel and other components to build new torpedoes and drones. My torpedoes in SE are devastating, but they are also costly, kinda like real Navy torpedoes, so that's something I need (and enjoy) to consider.

I also have to keep my ship fueled both with propellant and power, again something that requires more thought and effort than ED's insta-fill menus. This means mining uranium and ice and processing these things into fuels. Now if I had to do this by hand all the time like some survival games, that would get old quick, but by building and operating a refuel station and a mining ship, this maintenance becomes easier without becoming too easy as it is in ED.

And then there are things like maintaining an airtight seal, watching my oxygen reserves, flying in a way to optimize fuel consumption, maintaining my ship's hull (again something that takes more effort than just pushing a button in a menu), etc. I feel like a true owner of a spaceship in SE, where in ED it feels more arcade-like even with the nice flight model. As you can see from this thread, I've blazed my own totally unique and story-filled path in SE, whereas ED really is not the sandbox everyone says it is. But going back to the title of this thread, multiplayer is what makes the difference for me in SE. If not for other players and the life they bring to the solar system, I'd still be playing ED instead.

Some pictures after returning from my latest mining run to resupply my outpost:

 

[Revenant69]

Honestly, it sounds like a lot of fun when you put it like that. For my part SE is the game I always want to play but ultimately never get around to. It's just sitting there, in my library, tempting me. I never feel like I have the time to get over the initial learning curve nowadays.

 

[Morbad]

Just an additional thought to append to my last post, there are things that probably count as survival genre that I think of more as spaceship maintenance.

A little survival horror makes anything better.

 

[Old Duck]

Honestly, it sounds like a lot of fun when you put it like that. For my part SE is the game I always want to play but ultimately never get around to. It's just sitting there, in my library, tempting me. I never feel like I have the time to get over the initial learning curve nowadays.

I highly recommend watching the tutorial videos I link to earlier in this thread. They are fun to watch even if you're not playing the game, and they definitely get you over the learning curve. It doesn't take too much learning to figure out how to do some basic SE gameplay, and that would let you give it a try to see if it's worth your time or not.

A little survival horror makes anything better.

A couple of weeks ago I was experimenting in creative mode when I crashed my explorer ship into an asteroid. The ship was ruined, and I found myself in a new crater surrounded by wreckage. It kinda reminded me of Gilligan's Island, and I began to wonder if I could survive and eventually get off this "island" with the materials I had in my wreckage. I didn't go too far with this, because I was in a creative experimental sandbox rather than the actual game, but just the thought process of "How am I going to get out of this mess?" was enjoyable. One of the nice things about playing on the server is that if I get into such a mess, I won't have any choice but survive or die, as there is no "load from last save" option on a live server. This is the kind of survival game I enjoy, whereas a game like NMS feels more like a grind than a challenging puzzle to be solved.

As for horror, there are spiders, but I don't think they are enabled on this particular server.

 

[Darkfyre99]

As for horror, there are spiders, but I don't think they are enabled on this particular server.

Not to mention that based on my own experiments, the only two predators in this game are deadly to an unprepared engineer... and by unprepared, I mean one that isn't in a heavily armed tank or heavily fortified base.

 

[Morbad]

As for horror, there are spiders, but I don't think they are enabled on this particular server.

It's the drudgery of resource extraction that horrifies me, even when I like the mechanisms in place from a rational perspective.

 

[Old Duck]

For those interested in my new skybox, I've uploaded it to my Dropbox here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t320nat6nfyejz8/BackgroundCube.zip

Copy the BackgroundCube.dds file into your drive:\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Textures\BackgroundCube\Final\ folder, backing up the original first. Unlike traditional mods, this will replace the skybox even on servers that have mods turned off.

Not only does this skybox look better IMO, it also removes ambient light at night, which makes dark truly dark, requiring proper lighting to operate at night (something that should appeal to hard-core survivalists).

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Space Engineers is pretty high on my space game list as well, but Kerbal Space Program will be at the top for the foreseeable future. SE and EGS are tied for second. ED should be second on that list, but Frontier's continued missteps on the MMO front have pretty much killed any sense of accomplishment I can get from the game, as well as what I find fun about MMOs.

I'm completely confused about why that is on the second issue, because based on what I had read in the DDF back in 2013, I had thought that Frontier had understood the missteps of earlier MMOs, and had a decent plan to avoid them. Unfortunately, that plan never materialized, and Frontier keeps making pretty much every mistake the early modern MMO pioneers made back in the 90's.

As for why more fans of Elite aren't interested in Space Engineers? I think its because survival style games are niche. Flight sim style games are also niche, and the two niches rarely overlap.

Designing and builiding is fairly time intensive. And then it looks like something I did and it can become demoralising.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

It's the drudgery of resource extraction that horrifies me, even when I like the mechanisms in place from a rational perspective.

It's better than in ED. And if one drill is to slow you take 32.
Refinery time is more grindy - so I always try to pair 4 minimum - but preferably 16.

 

[Old Duck]

Well the day finally came - my home base on earth has been discovered and infiltrated! I knew something was wrong when the main door was open and other doors broken. I was then killed by my own defense turrets! Respawning on my starship in orbit, I'm now doing a freefall in my suit to return to my base, assess damage, salvage what I can, and set demolition charges.

UPDATE - It appears my old "friend" who compromised my asteroid base somehow found my earth base as well, the "I tried to steal your ship, sorry for the damage!" guy. The good news is that he's not messed with my asteroid base since, so I my earth base may be okay since I've retaken it. That said, I'll be spending time modifying my space station as a backup base just in case. I'll also be fortifying my earth base with better defenses in case this dufus returns, and I've offloaded all my valuable ores and ingots (like uranium) to a safer place.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Coming Soon, to this thread:

The Adventures of Inga Stevenson, Space Engineer!
Humanity is the Final Frontier!

 

[LanceLord]

Duck forgot to ask if you got the SE Wastelander DLC as yet?

I d/l this a while back but didnt' get around to playing it during the Christmas season

So it's naturally driving me crazy how good the performance is for the new land buggy bloc modules. How it feels and operates (especially since I'm low on the artistic build end). If you've played the DLC update, does the medical icon shown in the console below do anything? Or is it just purely there for cosmetic purposes?

 

[Old Duck]

Duck forgot to ask if you got the SE Wastelander DLC as yet?

Yep I got it for myself for Christmas, primarily for some of the decorative blocks (I love the cement blocks). I've not done anything with rovers lately, however. Perhaps when I explore Mars I'll build a rover for this purpose.