Space Engineers vs Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition

Darkfyre99 · Jul 27, 2020

Slight correction... next up is Round 4 of Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition... Radioactive ☢ Update!

The morning of round four dawns clear and sunny, as I prepare for yet another expedition to the south. I really need to know how I ended up stranded on an alien planet 2.5 million light years from home. I'm still relying on the Hoverbike for transportation... one of these days, I really should do something about that.

First stop: that strange station near where my escape pod landed. Naturally, as soon as I got close enough, my quest lead me straight to that wrecked capital ship, the UHC Heidelburg.

I do delight in doing things the... interesting way, don't I?

Just as I reached the wreck, wouldn't you know it? Another radioactive storm arrived. Since I now have a way to easily treat minor radioactive exposures, I don't immediately race home. There were answers to find in this wreck, as well as stuff to loot. I even found some medical equipment, although its far too bulky to carry home at this time. By the time I was done, my Hoverbike was fully loaded. I also found two more multi-cores for my multi-tool... absolutely vital since I still haven't found a source of promethium.

By the time I returned home, the sun had set. I stored my scavenged prizes, picked whatever crops had matured, washed off the radioactive particles on my skin, and went to bed. The next morning, I harvested whatever had matured while I slept, and instead of doing the reasonable thing, like going back south to salvage that Dart, I instead departed north, to see what I could find on the nearby subarctic plains.

Which turned out to be some rather good hunting. In addition, I decided to brave the radioactive badlands nearby. There was a resource deposit in there, and I wanted to see if it was promethium. This also gave me an opportunity to harvest some a couple of surface promethium rocks, so at least I could build a proper drill, as well as additional charges for both tools. The deposit turned out a very small deposit of gold. Past experience has taught me that such small deposits require an auto-miner to exploit, and IIRC, the core for one of those is quite expensive.

I did some more scouting, hunting, and a second pass through the radioactive badlands, looking for more promethium bearing rocks, but didn't find anything. Quite happy with my haul of meat and eggs, as well as the good will of the local Talon tribe by killing some dangerous predators, I turned in for the night.

Next up in EGS - Sidewinder Edition: a salvage operation, and building my first flying vehicle.

Before that: Space Engineers - Sidewinder Edition: building my first mining machine, and excavating my main base.

Either way, there's going to be a whole lot of ship construction going on.

Arioch · Jul 27, 2020

Peter Pan shadow bug?

Time to make some impromptu Lascaux-style cave art!

Darkfyre99 · Jul 27, 2020

Arioch said:
Peter Pan shadow bug?

Time to make some impromptu Lascaux-style cave art!

I was underground at the time, so the light of the pre-dawn sun penetrated kilometers of solid stone. The same thing happens above ground, but there it usually looks like the sun is lighting up the tops of mountains before it rises. It’s weird because SE can tell when you’re underground, and artificially darkens the environment. Underground is much darker than night time.

Arioch · Jul 27, 2020

-VR- Darkfyre99 said:
I was underground at the time, so the light of the pre-dawn sun penetrated kilometers of solid stone. The same thing happens above ground, but there it usually looks like the sun is lighting up the tops of mountains before it rises. It’s weird because SE can tell when you’re underground, and artificially darkens the environment. Underground is much darker than night time.

Now those are some mighty powerful photons. Make sure you’ve got some Factor Pb sunscreen on!

Darkfyre99 · Jul 27, 2020

Round 5 of SpaceEngineers: Sidewinder Edition

Construction of my Termite boring machine has begun! I start construction outside, mostly out of sheer habit, but partly because I hadn’t been thinking ahead. I started with the “interior” and critical parts first, and then worked my way out.

I wish I could say I thought of moving the ship inside once I had sufficient thruster capacity installed, so it could recharge while I worked, but I didn’t.

I also decided to try a slightly different landing gear configuration than normal. It wasn’t until it’s test flight that I realized why this wasn’t a good idea,

Extending the landing gear slightly below the connector makes it much easier to land on slopes. Yes, they’ll get damaged occasionally, but the benefits outweigh the costs IMO. This necessitated digging out its own hanger, but that turned out to be inevitable anyways.

Building this simple mining ship really highlights the difference in philosophy between the two games. Space Engineers makes me feel like I’m building the ship. Hauling parts, using the blowtorch to weld them into place, grinding away flaws, selecting individual hull plates, and putting them into place. It’s a very visceral process. What I find particularly frustrating is that the game doesn’t provide you with any important information about what you’re building, either individual components, or the vehicle as a whole. You’re reliant on a fan maintained wiki, that’s hopefully up to date, for information about individual components.

Empyrion: Galactic Survival puts the emphasis on ship design. Not only is the game’s flight model better, but the level of information available to you is simply divine. From the performance profiles of individual thrusters, through overlays like center of mass to the torque summery screen, the game provides everything you need to, design a ship to your needs, wants, and aesthetic tastes.

As the dawn approached, and I waited for the Termite to charge, I decided to take a tour of the base using in-situ lighting:

Next on my agenda for Space Engineers? Setting up a temporary base at my future main base. I’ll need an assembler, refinery, connector to charge the Termite, wind generators, and a way of collecting the stone I’l be mining as I dig into the mountainside.

But coming up, EGS, round 5, which will also involve building a ship.

Darkfyre99 · Jul 28, 2020

Empyrion: Galactic Survival - the Sidewinder Edition, Round 5: Another ship build!

Having prepared many of the individual components for the ship ahead of time, I immediately start building it. The first thing I do is take advantage of a weird property of new small vehicles: if you start to build them on a raised platform, and remove the support, they won't fall until they receive power. It's similar to how in SE you can support the weight of an entire ship on one landing gear and a very long line of small block "scaffolding." In this one case, it's an acceptable break from reality, especially since I have to build from the ship's core, outwards.

This ship is going to be an armed transport ship. It needs to as light weight as possible, capable of lifting about 27 tons, with a minimum cargo volume of 1.8 kilo-liters. Body is going to be as many carbon-fiber panels as possible, while still allowing for some aesthetic touches. Function over form, in this case.

I start with the front of the ship, starting with the cockpit. I include an armor locker, O2 station, and the cargo controller. I realized after the fact that I could've also installed the inevitable mini-fridge at this end as well, but this is par for the course for me. I'll be installing the generator, oxygen tank, and fuel tank at the opposite end, along with the fridge, at the end of the ship in an attempt to balance the weight a little bit.

I then install the absolute minimum cargo capacity I need. I'll be adding more later, because cargo modules weigh very little, are fairly durable, and can be used to to "fill in" unused space.

It wasn't long afterwards that my base experienced its first Zirax raid. Thankfully, I had armed my Hoverbike, so I was able to make quick work of the raiding party that transport dropped. It won't be long before my reputation with the Zirax goes hostile. How dare I resist them trying to kill me! Their blood is on my hands!

AIDA, my personal hand brain, estimates that I’ve got another 10 day’s before the Zirax attack again.

I continue to work on the ship well after sunset, adding the thrusters at the back, and forgetting to install the non-cargo components when it would be easy to do so. That Zirax attack had rattled me a bit. I also add some of the paneling to give my ship some shape.

I head inside, and harvest whatever crops have matured. This is why I put my living quarters off the green house. I can harvest in the morning and the evening as I pass through.

Eventually, I realize my mistake, and install what I should’ve installed before adding the paneling. I also install weapons and a spotlight. I then add wings, with placeholder utility pods on the wings. Finally, I add a small amount of detailing, because night is approaching, and I’ve lingered on this thing long enough. I’m sure I’ll be adding more detail later when I’m in the mood.

Next on my agenda for EGS, salvaging the Dart, adding it’s thrusters to this ship. IIRC, it has three I can use, so I’ll be adding one to the bottom for extra cargo lift capacity, and two at the rear for speed. Then I’ll be transporting the medical equipment back to base. Finally, I’ll be continuing the quest for answers.

But first... it’s time to start construction in my main base in Space Engineers!

Fishy · Jul 28, 2020

Thought I'd leave a word to let you know that this is an entertaining read. I find that I generally like more the idea of survival/crafting games than actually playing them, so reading it like this is great. Love the parallel between the two games, great concept. I didn't know much about EGS but it looks pretty neat as an "SE-like" if this ever picks up as a genre.

Darkfyre99 · Jul 29, 2020

Fair warning: last night's round of Space Engineers was rather screen shot heavy. There's a reason for this: the more the things I'm working on, the less likely it is for me to remember to take screen shots.

Last night's session could be summed up as:

"Fail to plan, plan to fail"
or
"Look before you leap"
or
"Measure twice, cut once"

but mostly,

"Would it really have killed you to use the Termite to survey the land, before you decided to start excavation on your main base?"

More on this later. The round started with it already raining. Right away, I started my assembler producing the components for the bare minimum I'd need to start my main base construction: battery, assembler, refinery, and wind turbine, and about a dozen steel blocks. With those constructed, I would be able to build my main base in-situ, using the resources I'd already gathered, as well as the refined stone I'd be excavating as I dug out the base.

That's when I heard the first rumble of thunder... and then a second... and then a large bang overhead. Once it stopped, I headed to the surface to check out the damage.

It struck the platform I built, which was right above my workshop, as opposed to the tall metal structures nearby. Actively malicious lightning: confirmed.

While I was waiting for the storm to pass, I stumbled upon a flaw in my plan: the Ladybug didn’t have nearly enough cargo capacity for what I needed to carry. Powercells, in particular, are massive in both senses of the word. So I needed to make a modification...

Looks a bit like a thruster less Scarab, doesn’t it?

Just as I finished loading up, another thunderstorm rolled in...

So I passed the time feeding my refinery iron ore. I’m going to need a lot of iron in the near future, after all. Several times, I heard lightning strikes right above me, but the generators were spared. Unfortunately, by the time it cleared up, the sun had already set.

I had intended to use the sunset to align the initial block with the sun. I didn’t want a repeat of last time. I looked at the rapidly darkening sky, then the surrounding mountains, and chose a likely cliff side to dig into. I wanted a cliff side hanger to build my Sidewinder in.

Location chosen, I started digging into the cliff side. I had intended to dig straight into the cliff, but without any kind of guide, I ended up digging down at an angle. Once I realized my mistake, I placed a block at the entrance, and used that as a guide to keep things on an even keel. Once I had carved a big enough hole, I walked out to check on the night’s progress, and had a horrifying realization. I hopped into the Ladybug, and drove towards my first base. After a few kilo-meters, I turned the SRV around, and confirmed my fears: I’d started construction on a western facing cliff.

I decided to build into the northern foothills instead. Having learned my lesson last time, I placed a temporary block, aligned with where the sun had come up at my starting base. Which was, of course, at the base of the cliff where I started originally started digging.

Take note... this is going to be important later.

I dug out another hole, and found myself still waiting for the dawn. Rather than risk a repeat of last time, I retrieved the blocks I’d already laid down, and headed back to my starting base. Time to mine some more iron ore.

Every so often, I checked the time. There’s a planet or moon to my “north.” Since only the sun moves in the sky, which side is lit is a good guide for figuring out where the sun currently is.

When the “dawn” bug reared it’s ugly head again, I decided to get ready to construct the main base’s starting kit.

Thanks to @Arioch for the idea.

Have I mentioned how much I hate waiting?

Take a look at where the sun came up. It looks like in this game, the sun literally revolves around the player.

I had a little bit of time left in my evening, and I was anxious to get everything in place, so I borrowed a bit of time from the next round to get my base starting kit up and running.

I'm planning on putting in some quality time with Elite: Dangerous tonight, so there won't be an update tomorrow. Feel free ask questions or just comment. It'll give me something to do while on lunch at work.

Darkfyre99 · Jul 31, 2020

Last night's session ended earlier than I expected, primarily because I wasn't interrupted nearly as often as I normally am, so I had enough time to do three days rather than the normal two. It also turns out at the latitude my base is at, each "day" is slightly less than 50 minutes long. Consider this a "leap" day to get back into sync with SE, and not because I was infected by "just one more thing..." syndrome.

I had five things on my agenda:

1) Salvage the damaged Dart.
2) Complete "chapter one" of the main quest. This'll give me some badly needed XP to unlock better equipment. Only problem is, it'll get the Zirax even more angry with me than they already are. Given that defending myself from their base raids makes that inevitable, I might as well get it over with.

3) Complete "chapter two" of the main quest. Besides the XP, it seems like this quest is the only source of a fruit bearing seedling on this planet. I need fruit juice to make "Emergency Rations," which I believe is the only food in this game without a shelf life. It's good to have a couple packs on you, just in case you forget to pack a lunch while out and about.

4) Start the first part of "chapter three." It starts at a Polaris trading center, which provides good opportunity to do some scouting for resources.
5) Get friendly with the Talon, so I can get access to mining rights in their territory.

Naturally, I started with the dart. It had thrusters I wanted to install on this cargo hauler. It would also serve as a proper test flight of the ship.

The Dart turned out to have five thrusters, so I installed three at the back, and two on the bottom. Four of the five new thrusters I reserved as "extra lift" thrusters, for when the ship is under heavy load. That way, they're not consuming fuel unnecessarily, and I still didn't have a lot of promethium. This required harvesting trees for fuel... lots and lots of trees.

I decided to work on #5 next. Another round of hunting predatory proto-avians will get me most of the way there, and since there's a nearby savanna, I can also gather alien thorns for the advanced medicines... as well as meat to food, and eggs for medicines, from my prey. Four bangs for my proverbial buck!

Is it cheating if I go hunting with my ship's twin machine guns?

Mission accomplished, I return to base for some badly needed rest.

Fuel had been getting critically low again, and I still hadn’t found any promethium. Time to do some industrial scale tree chopping. Each log produces three cans of fuel, or about 3% of small ship fuel tank. Most trees provide six logs on average, so I decide to cut down ten.

I ended up with seventy. I pop 30 into my two portable constructors, and have them churn out fuel. The remaining ten I put into my raw material container, for use by my constructors. I then fly south to complete “chapter one” of the my quest for answers. As expected, the Zirax turned up to ruin my day.

At the end, I was directed to contact the locals, who were having a problem with the local wildlife.

Fuel being critical, I investigate on foot. Thankfully, I brought a lot of bandages with me.

Now in friendly terms with the Talon, and bearing two fruit tree saplings, I return to base once again.

It’s at this stage my transport ship’s plain appearance bugs me. In particular, the rear is rather ugly. I added some detail paint work, as well as moving the top flaring forward up to the utility access shutters. I also decided on a name: the Micro Hauler.

Once I’d finished the rework, I felt I had enough time before bedtime to make a run to talk to the “Totally Over-Powered!” manager about a little freelance work. Along the way, I spotted something too tempting to ignore:

Promethium, at last! I love the fact that I still had “hours” of daylight back at my base, but in this part of the world, the “hours” of daylight are rather short.

With nearly 14 tons of stone and ore on board, the ship was sluggish enough to activate the auxiliary thrusters. Soon enough, I arrive at the Polaris trading post, to talk to a sophant about a job. I was kind of surprised to find that the manager was human, unlike my last play through. Which made the initial dialog, already a little weird, downright surreal.

I would love to know the reasoning behind the decision to refer to this particular alcoholic beverage as “root beer” in the dialog of this game. Apparently sophants in this galaxy take their soft drinks seriously.

Not only is it a tempting target for pirates, but the Zirax, unable to find any puppies to kick, are trying to destroy it.

It was a wee bit past my real-life bedtime before I returned to base. It was also the middle of the night in the game.

Next on my agenda for EGS: Expanding my base, including construction of my hanger.

Coming up next in SE: excavating my future hanger, including planning out the conveyor system.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 1, 2020

And now... Space Engineers: Sidewinder Edition - Round Seven!

Where failing to pay attention to critical details, eventually leads to... interesting results.

The day was already well underway when I began work on this base's conveyor system. The basic refinery doesn't have connections on the bottom, so I had to add extra conveyors to hook it up to the back, loop it around under the floor, through an automatic sorter, and to the Termite's docking station. Again for extra redundancy, I decided to keep this "base starting set" in place, and will be using it to process stone.

Once I'd gotten the docking station built, I hopped into the Ladybug, and returned to base for the Termite. Naturally, it turned out that I needed to dig my way first...

Check out how much power the Termite is using at the moment. It can barely can carry about half its own weight in cargo, and its single battery can barely power its lifting and translation thrusters when under full load. I had to unload the Termite twice by hand before I dug enough room to dock it on its station.

Once inside, I decided to expand the starting area a bit, paying no attention to a rather critical detail... how much battery life the Termite had. I just continued to merrily diggy diggy hole into the hillside, depositing the stone right before the Termite got too heavy to remain airborn. Eventually, the inevitable happened: I ran out of power. Thankfully, it happened while I was trying to dock, so no damage was done. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite aligned with the connector yet.

Unfortunately, my plan on having a small back up battery had just enough juice to inform me that I'd screwed up.

I suppose I could've transferred the power to the main battery, in order to get it docked properly, but I reasoned that expanding the Termite's capabilities needed to happen sooner or later. So I reworked the back of the Termite a bit, and added a second battery.

As it turned out, while I may have gotten sufficient iron from refining stone, as well as silicone, my nickel stores weren't up to the challenge of adding a new battery to the Termite. So I ended up using my jetpack to fly down to my nickel mine, and dug up a load to bring back and refine. A second battery meant I could also increase my lift capacity by 33%... in theory. I guess I'll find out what it the result is in reality.

At any rate... Behold, the Termite Mark II...

... estimated time to a full charge, 14 hours???

Needless to say, this base needs moar power than just a single wind turbine! Time to expand this base's power generation station. I added a second wind turbine, as well as four solar panels. I then turned off the base's battery, so that most of the power would go into the Termite.

That accomplished, I decided to head back to my main base, and do something productive. Once there, I checked the time:

Not much more time before the dawn... and a fey mood fell upon me. Rather than doing something practical, like mining resources to bring back to my main base, I did this:

By the time I had finished, the sun was up, so I decided to give it a quick test. It turned out that I needed to add additional controls to get it to work, but eventually I get it to do what I wanted... kind of. I was a bit surprised at the results.

Thankfully, I had my finger hovering over the "cut power" button, just in case. I find this result fascinating, because it means that torque actually exists in this game... but only when a vehicle has wheels that are touching the ground!

At any rate... that bout of foolishness over with, I return to my future main base to check on the power situation. Yes, I was borrowing from the next round of SE, but I wanted to see how things were going.

So... about two hours before I can start using the Termite again. I guess the next round is going to be me digging the hard way again. But before I do that, I'd better add more power generators. I have a large hole to excavate, and I don't want to do it by hand!

But first, base building in EGS. I have a defenses to install before the Zirax attack again, a medical bay to install, and an enormous hanger to build. Plus I want to stop living in a grey, concrete block, so I'll be doing some decorating. I just need to remember my priorities.

Arioch · Aug 1, 2020

Yup, tumbling all over the shop barely under control, defo SRV DNA

Great write-up as usual, it’s like reading a more futuristic version of The Martian, just with less poo & potatoes.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 2, 2020

Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition... Round Seven!!!

The day dawned bright and early. My handbrain AIDA predicted that the Zirax would be attacking tomorrow, so I hurriedly added a pair of defense turrets. Did I say "hurriedly?" I meant that I started working on the additional rooms of my base, and then realized I was forgetting something. The day was half gone before I remembered "I might need defenses in place soon."

Fun fact... I really should've planned this out better. They were too low to be useful once I got the hanger built. I wasted half a multi-charge, plus 600 rounds of ammo, correcting this mistake.

Right outside the Greenhouse, I placed my first aid station, oxygen station, and armor locker. All three are in temporary locations, until I decide where I want their permanent homes to be. On the right, an elevator whose location I'm not really happy with. It'll probably get moved later.

The next day dawned bright and clear again, and since the Zirax would be attacking "soon," I activated base's defenses, and set the Micro-Hauler to "standby." That way I could hop right into action, without having to worry about its startup sequence. I then continued to expand my base. As I'm working, I remembered that I'd left my two portable constructors producing Biofuel. Still no Zirax attack. Apparently, the Zirax operate on Frontier Time.

Suddenly, I heard the alert siren. The Evil Zirax Empire were attacking! I hopped into the Micro-Hauler, and checked the map, so I would know what direction they were attacking from.

They were attacking from the north, along the coast! That made my job a little easier, because I left the Micro-Hauler facing north to begin with. Its twin machine guns, with an assist from closer of the two the turrets, made short work of the three drones the Zirax sent.

This annoyed the Zirax again. But then again, the Zirax don't like anyone, so what else is new?

I love how they consider destroying plants in their territory a good thing. Just to make sure we know they're the bad guys.

By sunset, I'd prepared the floor of my hanger. It needed to be large enough to build the Sidewinder in, plus room to work around it. This necessitated extending the hanger slightly south, but this building is boxy enough as it is. Still hadn't gotten around to blinging out my boxy building yet.

As I headed to bed, I once again harvested my crops. I'm especially pleased to see space orange trees finally producing fruit. Nothing like concentrated orange juice packets to liven up emergency rations. Its the little things in life that count.

The next morning, finding my supplies of raw stone dangerously low, I decided to get more. I thought about harvesting one of those huge vertical slabs of stone that dot the forest landscape, but it was slightly out of range of my base's logistics network, so I concentrated on excavating stone from below my base instead. If I ever need to expand downwards, I'll have plenty of room.

By the end of the day, my base still hadn't been completed. Primarily because I ran out of stone to produce concrete again. Besides working on the hanger, I was also extending the rest of my base upwards, and spreading out my solar farm. They were too close together, so the front rows were partially shading the back row.

If you all are keeping count, three days have passed in this round already. This round was played in short bursts throughout the day, between golf, some pre-fall cleaning, a video conference call with my sister and parents, and some quality family time. I found myself with about an hour to play a game before bed, and I couldn't decide if I'd played two or three days in EGS. I'd noticed that my earlier estimate of 50 minutes per "day" was also off, because I'd based it on how long the night was, which is just short of seven "hours" in the game at this latitude. It turns out that I wake up about two "hours" after the dawn, with slightly more than 14 "hours" of daylight left. Or about 44 minutes of real time. So I'll be going with three day rounds in the future.

I had looked at my screenshot folder, and thought I only saw two days worth of screen shots there, so decided I wanted to finish the exterior of the base before turning in. I'd forgotten by that point that the Zirax attack had happened on the second day of the round, not the first. So you're getting four days of EGS this round.

At any rate, I'd again ran concrete blocks to build with, so I ended up harvesting more stone so I could make more concrete. I also decided that it was time to expand my solar array to the maximum of 15 solar panels allowed per base. Naturally, I finish the hanger and building construction first, and then install the remaining solar panels. Don't want to be harvesting that solar energy for use at a later date.

I also expanded my base's storage a bit.

As I worked on installing the solar panels, an unwelcome visitor arrived.

Thankfully, I remembered my drone, which allowed me to continue working on installing the solar panels. The darn thing is fidgety, though, which is why I don't use it all that often to build things. I also keep forgetting that I can use it to scout ahead while exploring ruins full of deadly creatures. Night falls soon enough, so I harvested the few crops that had matured, and went to bed.

Next on my agenda for EGS: gathering enough wood to build carbon fiber blocks, so I can start roughing out the outer hull of my Sidewinder. I'm rather anxious to start working on it, so I can know exactly what tech level of thrusters I need to get this thing to fly. I've leveled up a couple times, so I have some tech points saved, but not as much as you'd think.

But first, the next round of Space Engineers! I'm planning on finishing what's left of the current day, and then getting back in sync with the day/night cycle. I have a huge to-do list for SE that doesn't necessarily require the Termite:

I've got a power grid to expand
Ores to mine
A conveyor system to design

CMDR Dizzy · Aug 2, 2020

I didn't realize that SE had added in an option to do survival on a planet so you have encouraged me to go back and play it

.
On my first attempt my wind turbine gets struck by lightning and destroyed. I happened to be standing on the metal platform at the time

Researching weather currently and different causes of death so I can try and mitigate/anticipate some of them.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 2, 2020

Welcome, boys and girls, to the next installment of the Adventures of Inga Stevenson: Space Engineer! Episode 8... The Miners of Ceti Alpha III

When I last logged off in this playthrough, it was already getting close to noon.

With the Termite requiring about two hours of charging before I'd want to use it again, and faced with the unappealing option of mining by hand, I decided to expand my main base's power generation system. This, of course, quickly depleted what little iron I had on hand. So I returned to my main base, to grab the small stash of supplies I'd left there, and mine some more. On the way back, I also decided to bump the graphics quality a notch. I was really getting tired of some of the LOD oddities that kept creeping up.

By the time night had fallen, I'd constructed two more wind turbines, along with their supports.

Two more solar panels soon followed...

Anxious to start digging, I checked the status of the Termite...

Unwilling to wait for a full charge, I decided to start digging...

As I waited for the refinery to unload and process the raw stone, I was struck with an idea. I knew how large I wanted the entrance to this underground hanger to be, so why not rough it out, so I wouldn't end up with a hole too big. One of the advantages of Space Engineers has over Empyrion is that base blocks can blend seamlessly with the surrounding terrain, as opposed to having to dig out the terrain around them.

Another round of digging followed, which is when I noticed something interesting about my ship's performance. Theoretically, the six atmospheric thrusters should be able to lift about 58 tons, whereas the Termite was only carrying 48 tons. Plus, it was only at 77% power capacity.

So I made a slight modification to the Termite...

During one of the cycles of digging, unloading, and waiting, I decided to check the time.

With the dawn approaching, I decided to test an idea I had... assuming that this game even allowed for adjustments that fine.

I then settled down to do some more digging, checking on my little experiment's progress periodically.

I was digging in the rain when there was a flash of lightning, a crash of thunder, and something went bang on the Termite... and it started to lose altitude. The Termite had been struck by lightning, which had all but destroyed one of the engines. Thankfully, it wasn't carrying a full load yet, so all I needed to do was level it off and get it into shelter.

I just wish I had remembered to take a screen shot of the damage, because the billowing smoke from the destroyed thruster was a sight to behold.

Besides taking out a thruster, the lightning had also damaged one of the drills, completely destroyed their connecting conveyor, damaged the ship's spotlight, the cockpit, and the gyroscope. Not to mention the damage to some of its connective armor blocks.

Once the damage had been repaired, I returned to digging out the hanger. It felt like it was taking forever! As the dawn approached, I decided to add a control station to the solar panels. Unfortunately, it turned out that most of the buttons I added did more harm than good, so I settled on a simplified control scheme.

During the inevitable unloading waits, I worked on roughing out the design of the hanger.

I've actually dug out about 75% of the hanger space I'll need for when I start construction of SE's version of the Sidewinder. The only problem is all the iron I'm going to need to make it solid. Even if I replace the full blocks with half slabs, that's a lot of iron. And then there's the hanger doors I'll need to add. What I wouldn't give for concrete blocks in this game!

On my agenda for my next SE session: finish the excavation of the hanger, and start excavating my main work space. I've got a large refinery and assembler to construct, as well as a conveyor system to connect everything together. Not to mention, I really need to find a source of silver. I don't want to rely on one survival kit, given how malicious the weather can be in this game.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 3, 2020

CMDR Dizzy said:
I didn't realize that SE had added in an option to do survival on a planet so you have encouraged me to go back back and play it .
On my first attempt my wind turbine gets struck by lightning and destroyed. I happened to be standing on the metal platform at the time

Researching weather currently and different causes of death so I can try and mitigate/anticipate some of them.

The new weather they added really changes the game, even on the "easy" Earth-like planet. The exact same thing is what caused my second game of SE:Sidewinder Edition to come to a premature end. The first came to a premature end when the escape pod crashed into the side of a mountain before as the chute deployed, destroying the survival kit.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 4, 2020

Prepare yourselves, for a torrent of screen shots. The following episode of Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition has it all: base building, resource gathering, suspense, environmental dangers, alien attacks, a surprising revelation, and most importantly: construction of my Sidewinder has begun!

All on EGS - Sidewinder Edition, Episode 8!

The day started out with a logging expedition. I knew I’d be needing a lot of wood to produce the carbon fiber blocks I’d be using for my Sidewinder, so I too out my Hoverbike to harvest a full load of wood. The bike, with wood harvester attached, is rather front heavy, which makes operating it rather “fun.”

While I was waiting for the small constructor to produce my first order of 300 small carbon fiber blocks, I moved on to relocating my various elevators into one central shaft, which extends from the basement to the roof. While doing so, I was also motivated actually finish the basement of my base: basically completely seal the basement so it's air tight, so that in the unlikely event that I need to be down there during a radioactive storm, I won't get exposed to radiation. With the elevator shaft opening in to the greenhouse, I'd rather not risk my food and medicinal plants, if I don't have to. Finally, I also added a landing pad on the roof for my Micro-Hauler, and moved it up there.

I was just ordering some parts for the catwalk I wanted to install in the hanger, when the alerts sirens started to wail. The Evil Zirax Empire were attacking again! By the time I got the base defenses online, and made my way to the roof, the Zirax troop ship was already in visual range. Thank goodness for clear blue skies. I spotted them right away. No need to check the planetary map.

The nice thing about troop ships is that they only count as one kill... assuming I can stop them before they land. Otherwise I'd be killing up to half a dozen soldiers. Thankfully, I remembered in time that I might want to remain out of the firing solution for my base’s turrets.

These things can take a lot of damage, though. I started with a full 600 rounds, and that's not even counting what my two turrets unloaded into this thing.

Once again, the Zirax reacted rather poorly to me defending myself. Fine. If they aren’t willing to extend the hand of friendship, or at the very least the hand of polite disinterest, then they’ve created their own worst enemy. OK, it's more like their 37,517th worst enemy, given my current resources, but I have every intention of ascending that list.

The next day, I continue working on the functional details of my hanger. In addition, I rediscovered that one of the components of the emergency ration pack requires buds from the alien flower. With plenty of grain and vegetables in my fridges, I replace one plant of each staple with the alien bulbs. Then I started working on the hanger's catwalk.

Unfortunately, as I'm working on the corner elevators, I ran into a shortage of a key mineral. It was time to do some mining.

As I approached the deposit, I could see that the Zirax stationed a drone near it. Well, tough. You brought this upon yourselves!

The ship made short work of that single drone. While I was in the area, I also grabbed the nearby copper.

It’s at this point, looking at the twisted plant life nearby, that I decided to venture into the radioactive badlands in search of Pentaxid, Cobalt, and Promethium. I hate going into these lands. It’s hot, in both the temperature and radioactive sense, the lighting is dim, nasty things live in there, and I swear I can hear the tortured screams of the damned coming from underground. If all three minerals weren't so important in the near term, I wouldn't bother until I can outfit a decent EVA suit and mine some of that stuff in space. Since I'm nowhere near that stage at this time, it's time to be uncomfortable.

I stayed in there until I could get about 30 cobalt ore. I forgot to take a screnshot of my haul, but it was pretty good, all things considered. I did take a screenshot at one point, though...

On my way back to base, I kept an eye out for alien flowers. There’s usually other plants to harvest nearby as well, so it was worth my while. At one point, I see some old friends in the distance.

It’s a Talon patrol.

I returned to base near nightfall. I deposited my haul into the appropriate containers, checked my crops, and went to bed. The next morning, I got up, ready to face a new phase of this play through. It was time to start my Sidewinder!

I started the build by dropping a small ship starting kit over a pillar in my build area. The core needs to go somewhere, so I dropped it about where I’ll be putting the cockpit. If I need to, I can always build a new one later.

I next, I measured out the length of the main body of the ship: 14 meters. This’ll allow me two blocks to add detailing to the back of the ship. The nice thing about EGS is that their ship summary screens tell you how big they are. No need to try to count blocks.

Next, I turned on build symmetry, and roughed out the perimeter of the ship. Based on the blueprints I'm using, I made it 21.5 meters wide. This'll allow the wider door to be centered at the back. Finally, the plan is to make it 5.5 meters high, so I’ll be putting three layers of blocks below, and seven blocks above.

I started out this build with 300 blocks. I hadn’t even finished the first lower row before I ran out!

I ordered up another 500 blocks, and decided that gathering wild herbs along the lake shore was a better with use of my time than just putzing around the base. So I hopped into the Micro Hauler, and headed out into the rainy evening.

I’m about half way around the lake to the east, when I spotted one of those slug-like predators apparently attacking something. I brought the ship in for a closer look, and saw what looked like a body.

It turned out to be something called a creeper. I've only seen them at night, and they don't seem to be too aggressive. Could it be that there's now predation in the game?

Fridge full of medicinal mosses, I returned to base, just as the sun was setting. As I circled the lake, I was hovering just on the edge of sunset.

As always, before going to bed, I checked the garden that's keeping me alive.

With the day done, I turned in for the night. Next on my agenda for EGS? Continuing construction of the Sidewinder.

But first, Space Engineers, round nine: excavating the hanger continues. I shudder to think about how much iron ingots I'm going to need to actually finish it. Don't expect an update tomorrow, though. I've got an opportunity to play Elite tonight, so I'm planning on taking it.

Space Menace · Aug 5, 2020

-VR- Darkfyre99 said:
Prepare yourselves, for a torrent of screen shots. The following episode of Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition has it all: base building, resource gathering, suspense, environmental dangers, alien attacks, a surprising revelation, and most importantly: construction of my Sidewinder has begun!

All on EGS - Sidewinder Edition, Episode 8!

The day started out with a logging expedition. I knew I’d be needing a lot of wood to produce the carbon fiber blocks I’d be using for my Sidewinder, so I too out my Hoverbike to harvest a full load of wood. The bike, with wood harvester attached, is rather front heavy, which makes operating it rather “fun.”

While I was waiting for the small constructor to produce my first order of 300 small carbon fiber blocks, I moved on to relocating my various elevators into one central shaft, which extends from the basement to the roof. While doing so, I was also motivated actually finish the basement of my base: basically completely seal the basement so it's air tight, so that in the unlikely event that I need to be down there during a radioactive storm, I won't get exposed to radiation. With the elevator shaft opening in to the greenhouse, I'd rather not risk my food and medicinal plants, if I don't have to. Finally, I also added a landing pad on the roof for my Micro-Hauler, and moved it up there.

I was just ordering some parts for the catwalk I wanted to install in the hanger, when the alerts sirens started to wail. The Evil Zirax Empire were attacking again! By the time I got the base defenses online, and made my way to the roof, the Zirax troop ship was already in visual range. Thank goodness for clear blue skies. I spotted them right away. No need to check the planetary map.

The nice thing about troop ships is that they only count as one kill... assuming I can stop them before they land. Otherwise I'd be killing up to half a dozen soldiers. Thankfully, I remembered in time that I might want to remain out of the firing solution for my base’s turrets.

These things can take a lot of damage, though. I started with a full 600 rounds, and that's not even counting what my two turrets unloaded into this thing.

Once again, the Zirax reacted rather poorly to me defending myself. Fine. If they aren’t willing to extend the hand of friendship, or at the very least the hand of polite disinterest, then they’ve created their own worst enemy. OK, it's more like their 37,517th worst enemy, given my current resources, but I have every intention of ascending that list.

The next day, I continue working on the functional details of my hanger. In addition, I rediscovered that one of the components of the emergency ration pack requires buds from the alien flower. With plenty of grain and vegetables in my fridges, I replace one plant of each staple with the alien bulbs. Then I started working on the hanger's catwalk.

Unfortunately, as I'm working on the corner elevators, I ran into a shortage of a key mineral. It was time to do some mining.

As I approached the deposit, I could see that the Zirax stationed a drone near it. Well, tough. You brought this upon yourselves!

The ship made short work of that single drone. While I was in the area, I also grabbed the nearby copper.

It’s at this point, looking at the twisted plant life nearby, that I decided to venture into the radioactive badlands in search of Pentaxid, Cobalt, and Promethium. I hate going into these lands. It’s hot, in both the temperature and radioactive sense, the lighting is dim, nasty things live in there, and I swear I can hear the tortured screams of the damned coming from underground. If all three minerals weren't so important in the near term, I wouldn't bother until I can outfit a decent EVA suit and mine some of that stuff in space. Since I'm nowhere near that stage at this time, it's time to be uncomfortable.

I stayed in there until I could get about 30 cobalt ore. I forgot to take a screnshot of my haul, but it was pretty good, all things considered. I did take a screenshot at one point, though...

On my way back to base, I kept an eye out for alien flowers. There’s usually other plants to harvest nearby as well, so it was worth my while. At one point, I see some old friends in the distance.

It’s a Talon patrol.

I returned to base near nightfall. I deposited my haul into the appropriate containers, checked my crops, and went to bed. The next morning, I got up, ready to face a new phase of this play through. It was time to start my Sidewinder!

I started the build by dropping a small ship starting kit over a pillar in my build area. The core needs to go somewhere, so I dropped it about where I’ll be putting the cockpit. If I need to, I can always build a new one later.

I next, I measured out the length of the main body of the ship: 14 meters. This’ll allow me two blocks to add detailing to the back of the ship. The nice thing about EGS is that their ship summary screens tell you how big they are. No need to try to count blocks.

Next, I turned on build symmetry, and roughed out the perimeter of the ship. Based on the blueprints I'm using, I made it 21.5 meters wide. This'll allow the wider door to be centered at the back. Finally, the plan is to make it 5.5 meters high, so I’ll be putting three layers of blocks below, and seven blocks above.

I started out this build with 300 blocks. I hadn’t even finished the first lower row before I ran out!

I ordered up another 500 blocks, and decided that gathering wild herbs along the lake shore was a better with use of my time than just putzing around the base. So I hopped into the Micro Hauler, and headed out into the rainy evening.

I’m about half way around the lake to the east, when I spotted one of those slug-like predators apparently attacking something. I brought the ship in for a closer look, and saw what looked like a body.

It turned out to be something called a creeper. I've only seen them at night, and they don't seem to be too aggressive. Could it be that there's now predation in the game?

Fridge full of medicinal mosses, I returned to base, just as the sun was setting. As I circled the lake, I was hovering just on the edge of sunset.

As always, before going to bed, I checked the garden that's keeping me alive.

With the day done, I turned in for the night. Next on my agenda for EGS? Continuing construction of the Sidewinder.

But first, Space Engineers, round nine: excavating the hanger continues. I shudder to think about how much iron ingots I'm going to need to actually finish it. Don't expect an update tomorrow, though. I've got an opportunity to play Elite tonight, so I'm planning on taking it.

Very detailed and very good.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 6, 2020

And now, Space Engineers: Round Nine... even more digging!

The day started out much like the previous two days: hopping into the Termite, and chipping away at the rock. I was actually rather optimistic about that 75% completed. It was closer to 50%.

But given how lightning is a definite threat, it needs to be done.

Part of my plan for night time it to convert the static solar panels into ones that will (roughly) follow the sun. Now that I know its possible without having to learn SE's scripting language, even if it requires some fidly work, it'll be worth my while. Of course, I don't want to do this during the day, I need all the power I can get. This does require me dropping the cross supports one block, so there's room for them to rotate.

At one point, the weather turned rather threatening. No lightning, thankfully.

Eventually, the sun dipped towards the horizon. It was time to the solar panel refit... while I was waiting for the Termite to unload, of course.

It’s not a perfect setup, but should I take the time to learn a new scripting language, it’ll be Thrustmsster’s TARGET script, not SE’s.

The night became a blur of mining, grinding, unloading, and welding.

All the while, I’m keeping an eye on the test panel as it moves back to it’s starting position.

Periodically, I check the “Moon o’Clock.” I want to make the final adjustments when it’s near dawn.

Check out my power levels. Yikes!

In a rare stroke of luck, the power levels of the Termite, which had been dropping throughout the night, died just as I was about to hit the button to secure the Termite to its docking cradle. At first, I thought I’d hit “recharge” accidentally, then I noticed the meter. Switching on the emergency batteries allowed it to dock completely.

I really need to pay closer attention to this kind of thing.

Unlike EGS, the power indicator doesn’t turn red when low. The fact that I have emergency power batteries tells you how frequently this happens to me.

At any rate, as soon as I got the Termite settled, I got the solar rotors set up: lower limit, upper limit, and speed. ~~I really wish I could just input these values, rather than work with the sliders. There probably is, it’s just counter-intuitive, butif anyone knows, please tell me.~~ Google is your friend. It’s control - left mouse button.

Once that’s set up, I check out my progress on the hanger.

Finally! Now I just need to connect my temporary work space with the hanger underground! And lay down the conveyor system, and build my primary workshop... all of which means more digging.

But first, on EGS: Sidewinder Edition... Sidewinder construction, phase two!

Iron Golem · Aug 7, 2020

-VR- Darkfyre99 said:
And now, Space Engineers: Round Nine... even more digging!

The day started out much like the previous two days: hopping into the Termite, and chipping away at the rock. I was actually rather optimistic about that 75% completed. It was closer to 50%. But given how lightning is a definite threat, it needs to be done.

Part of my plan for night time it to convert the static solar panels into ones that will (roughly) follow the sun. Now that I know its possible without having to learn SE's scripting language, even if it requires some fidly work, it'll be worth my while. Of course, I don't want to do this during the day, I need all the power I can get. This does require me dropping the cross supports one block, so there's room for them to rotate.

At one point, the weather turned rather threatening. No lightning, thankfully.

Eventually, the sun dipped towards the horizon. It was time to the solar panel refit... while I was waiting for the Termite to unload, of course.

It’s not a perfect setup, but should I take the time to learn a new scripting language, it’ll be Thrustmsster’s TARGET script, not SE’s.

The night became a blur of mining, grinding, unloading, and welding.

All the while, I’m keeping an eye on the test panel as it moves back to it’s starting position.

Periodically, I check the “Moon o’Clock.” I want to make the final adjustments when it’s near dawn.

Check out my power levels. Yikes!

In a rare stroke of luck, the power levels of the Termite, which had been dropping throughout the night, died just as I was about to hit the button to secure the Termite to its docking cradle. At first, I thought I’d hit “recharge” accidentally, then I noticed the meter. Switching on the emergency batteries allowed it to dock completely.

I really need to pay closer attention to this kind of thing. Unlike EGS, the power indicator doesn’t turn red when low. The fact that I have emergency power batteries tells you how frequently this happens to me.

At any rate, as soon as I got the Termite settled, I got the solar rotors set up: lower limit, upper limit, and speed. ~~I really wish I could just input these values, rather than work with the sliders. There probably is, it’s just counter-intuitive, butif anyone knows, please tell me.~~ Google is your friend. It’s control - left mouse button.

Once that’s set up, I check out my progress on the hanger.

Finally! Now I just need to connect my temporary work space with the hanger underground! And lay down the conveyor system, and build my primary workshop... all of which means more digging.

But first, on EGS: Sidewinder Edition... Sidewinder construction, phase two!

Productive day!

Navigare Necesse Est · Aug 7, 2020

There is weather in SE now? Don't remember that when I last played (April? March?).