Space Engineers vs Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition

Darkfyre99 · Sep 16, 2020

At last! Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition 2 - Episode Five is finally done!!!

Here's hoping Real Life settles down sometime soon...

The day started with me going to the small constructor to order up some powercells for the multi-tool, and to build a drill... only to realize that I needed to advance a level in order to do so. Ah, hard mode... you always make things more difficult.

I was going to waste a little fuel to produce solar panels in parallel within the large constructor, but instead I ordered up the parts I needed in the small. No need to waste costly to synthesize fuel if I don't need to.

Of course, it turned out that the direction I build my solar array goes uphill, so I needed to start tearing up the landscape to ensure that they wouldn't be covered in dirt all the time.

The area I was expanding into was also overshadowed by the nearby trees. Since I was going to need more wood to build a lot of carbon fiber blocks anyways, I decided to clear them away. It's a pity that I needed one more level to construct the proverbial chainsaw attachment to a hovercraft as well. I ended up doing the clearing by hand.

New Solar Panels installed, I went in search of XP. The nearby Savanna had some. It's a pity there's not much meat on their bones...

I also did a lot of gathering resources while on the prowl, since that also grants XP. Eventually, I achieved my goal.

A lot later than I expected, I arrived at the wreck of the Heidelberg. The sun set soon afterwards, but I was determined to gather as many useful blocks as possible.

It didn't take long to fill up my Hovercraft with the parts I'd gathered. Of course, the main culprit was the medical device. It filled nearly half of my available space.

As I returned to the Hovercraft, I saw a new creature in the distance. I started to move towards it for a closer look, then I remembered how often things like that had worked well for me. Plenty of time to investigate the (usually deadly) night life when I'm actually prepared to do so.

It was interesting to watch the western skies grow lighter, and begin to glow red, as I approached my base. I got home not too long after local sunset. Just enough time to climb into bed and go to sleep.

I end up spending the entire day redoing my living quarters, without taking a single screen shot. I like the final result: A large living room/kitchen, with doors leading to the bathroom and the bedroom. It could use more furniture, but that'll have to wait for further salvage work. I also really should take the time to start installing some lights. The view faces north, after all. Not to mention adding some paint to the place.

That'll have to come at a later date, though. There's still plenty of priority work that needs to be done.

The next step of my master plan was to do some salvage work at the I'd located. Since nearest one was half way around the world, I had the brilliant idea of taking a short cut by crossing the nearby poles.

The first wreck turned out to be too cold, too waterlogged, and too buried, to be salvaged at this time.

As I was traveling towards the second, I realized that it was in similar environmental conditions, though not nearly as buried. I decided to do some scouting instead. I still need to find a new source of silicon, since my current reserves are almost depleted. Since it was night-time locally, I also got a peak at the local nocturnal night life.

Right on the border of a radioactive zone, I stumbled upon a rather familiar sight. I also decided to see if there was anything worth my while on board, but the cold overcame me rather quickly.

^^^
Look! Hypothermia!

That pretty much depleted my limited food supply, so I returned home, pretty much accomplishing nothing of what I'd hoped to do.

And I just realized that there's a lot of wrecks to salvage at the crash site, which is much more temperate.

But next time, on EGS:SE2... Episode Six: More Salvage Work

But first... SE-Squared: Episode Twenty-Three - Expanding the base and preparing to go into Space!

Darkfyre99 · Sep 18, 2020

And now... on Space Engineers - Sidewinder Edition...

Episode Twenty Three... Base and Fleet Expansion!

It's sometimes interesting to go through my screenshot folder, trying to reconstruct my though processes and events that happened during my playthrough. Frequently, the approximately two hours of each SE "episode" is interrupted by real life, so individual sessions will be separated by hours, and occasionally scattered across multiple days. EGS, with its much shorter days, is a bit easier. I distinctly remember trying to take more dynamic views of my tunnel borer in action. Apparently, I failed.

At any rate, installing my base's "living areas," including bed, kitchen, and bathroom (all cosmetic without the use of mods) primarily required excavating a large chunk of rock. It also required some plumbing work, as well as a slight rework to the small craft docking bay.

Sadly, I only took two screen shots of the entire process. The before picture...

And when I had the floor installed and access corridor lowered for the "living quarters"...

Here's the view of everything after everything was in place. The door leads to the medical room. I'm actually surprised there isn't a better "table and chairs" set. I had to move two "desks" together to make a dining table.

Here's what the bathroom looks like. I really like this particular set of decorative blocks. The "space toilet" door actually closes, and the shower has only two sides, so it's possible to have only one entrance to the bathroom. The shower block even includes a hand sink.

Living quarters finished, I turned my attention to building an “Orbital Shuttle,” basically a small hydrogen powered ship that will serve as my link between my base on the ground, and whatever base I build in space. My plan is for it to lift 20 tons of cargo into space. I’m planning on creating a roof hatch in the hillside. Hopefully, this area isn’t too far underground, so I can have a piston lift it through the hatch.

Naturally, I’ve had to dig out space for the docking base.

I used my new strategy of constructing the ship over a docking port, so that it’s main battery could charge while I built it. Of course, I needed to add the battery before the two connectors would...well... connect.

What I’m starting to think of as the “head” of my utility vehicles is starting to become old hat. Which works for my whole “insect” Elite: Dangerous theme naming convention.

It wasn’t long after this that I noticed that it was getting light out, so I went out to greet the dawn.

Coming up next time on SE-Squared: Voyage Into Space!

But first, on EGS:SE2... more salvage and base building.

Darkfyre99 · Sep 19, 2020

Welcome to another episode of Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition Two!

Episode Six... More Salvage Work and Base Construction!

The first day of the episode saw our intrepid survivor heading south in search of salvage. The crash site has numerous debris fields, any of which could have useful parts. Sadly, I only had enough resources for three cores, which are required to salvage blocks intact. Silicon remained in short supply, and synthesizing it from crushed rocks is resource intensive, so it's time to consider doing some aerial reconnaissance.

Frustratingly, most of the wreckage in the area lacked window blocks. If I wanted steel blocks (both regular and destroyed), there's plenty of iron deposits that I've discovered so far. I'd barely scratched the surface of the crash site deposit, in fact. Part of the fun of salvage work is that quite frequently, the bulk of the wreck is underground. Which is where the drill comes in handy.

Eventually, I found a wreck with glass panels.

^^^
Note how low on O2 I am...

After a brief bout of oxygen deprevation, I eventually managed to excavate and salvage the wreck. There was just one problem... I was a little too successful. The Hovercraft wouldn't move.

I managed to unload 32 tons into nearby storage containers, which was sufficient to get the Hovercraft up and running... slowly. I was moving a few blocks into my personal inventory, in an effort to lighten the load for the Hovercraft since just like in SE, your avatar in EGS has "magic pockets," when I noticed a weird effect. I moved the iron blocks to the "connected toolbar," and suddenly the Hovercraft started to move.

By the time I returned, the sun was low in the sky. I used what little time I had to start laying out my future landing pad and/or hanger, as well as starting the process of creating my workshop. I then harvested my crops, and went to bed.

The next day, I headed south again, to retrieve the "damaged" blocks (which oddly have no volume), and more importantly to investigate a resource signal I had noticed the day before.

It turned out to be another iron deposit. I need silicon! Silicon!

Since I was a good distance to the east, I decided to scout my way back. I set three waypoints to investigate, and headed off. Since I was moving to the east, I soon passed the terminator.

That resource on the horizon turned out to be yet another iron deposit, but that lead to an abandoned shelter. Not only did it have regular window blocks, but also some shutter blocks, and plenty of steel blocks as well. I used my "bags of holding" to lighten the load enough to return home.

Along the way, I passed a little closer than I would've liked to a guarded Promethium deposit, due to my primitive Hovercraft being unable to cross deep water. Thankfully, the Zirax drone ignored me for long enough to skirt along the shoreline.

Since I was travelling west, I slowly started catching up the the terminator again.

I arrived at my base just as the sun set, so I harvested my crops, and went to bed. My third day was spent building my base, placing and tuning motion sensors, and setting up the base's logic. Sadly, I didn't think to take any screenshots during this period. I used five of the eleven windows I'd salvaged to rework the passage to the greenhouse.

I was on a bit of a roll this morning, so I decided to continue working on my base. As I was doing that, I also ordered some medicine, as well as more a wider variety of food. Burgers are great, but so is pizza, and of course the ingredients of the stew is fit for saurian royalty.

I wanted to install that solar capacitor I'd salvaged, so I needed to get into the basement. There wasn't enough room for me to wiggle my way down there, so I sent my drone instead. It can be a bit fiddly to work with, but sometimes you gotta work with what you've got. While it was down there, I also decided to finish the basement.

After I'd (mostly) finished the basement, I turned my attention to starting construction of a scout ship. I ordered up the parts I was missing, and spent the time harvesting my crops.. I was just getting ready to start construction, when a radioactive fog rolled in.

I opted to place the starting block, and removed the unwanted steel blocks around it. After harvesting my crops, I cleaned off the radioactive particles in my bathroom, prepared my tool bar for the next day, and finally turned in for the night.

Next time on EGS:SE2 - Episode Seven... Building a Scout Ship!
But first, on SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Four - Into Space!

Darkfyre99 · Sep 20, 2020

Welcome to Space Engineers: Sidewinder Edition!
Episode Twenty Four - Into Space!

First things first, I have decided to modify this game a bit more. I've also added the "Sleep" mod. I've also readjusted the day/night cycle to last one hour, rather than the two hour cycle of past episodes. Quite frankly, I've gotten sick and tired of not being able to keep track of time in this game the same way I can in EGS. Four "half hour" blocks is much easier to deal with, especially since a single episode tends to be played over multiple sessions.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see how the change in day length affected my saved game:

Thankfully, all it took to correct this was taking a nap.

The first day was pretty much spent completing my orbital shuttle's bodywork: the cockpit, the hydrogen thrusters, the landing gear, and the attachment points for the thrusters. Thankfully, I remembered the effects thrusters can have on small blocks, and placed the thruster attachment points so that they wouldn't hit the landing gear attachment points.

My brilliant plan was to angle the maneuvering thrusters down in landing mode, so that the ship would be able to lift much more than the two downward thrusters individually. And so, I spent the entire next day installing hinge blocks one by one, renaming them so I could easily find them, and adjusting their settings. It was late afternoon by the time I'd finished the hinge work alone.

Satisfied with my changes, I installed the first of ten thrusters, and that's when things started to get a little... wonky. Sparks were flying, things were banging, and it was quite obvious that my little plan wasn't going to work.

Needless to say, I spent the remainder of the day, and most of the morning of the third day, tearing down what I'd done, and installing a more traditional thruster cluster. I also added two additional gyros... which I'll need to relocate because I just realized I placed them directly in the path of the rear thrusters.

Since the Orbital Shuttle was ready to fly, it needed good way of doing so. A classic "roof hatch" would be ideal. Naturally, I started by finding the point directly above it, and started digging my way down. By this point, I had so many raw materials handy (except iron) that I no longer felt compelled to use the Termite (I just realized I called it the Dragonfly out of habit last write up) to excavate. Not when clearing space with the hand drill is faster and more accurate.

By the time I'd finished with the roof hatch, night had clearly fallen, so I turned in for the evening. The next day, it was time to take the orbital shuttle on a test flight into space!!!

The next day dawned bright and sunny, the perfect conditions for a test launch! I had only a third of a tank of fuel (because I had run out ice), but I felt it was more than enough to get up into space and back down again.

Why do I tempt fate like this? WHY???

By the time I passed 30,000 meters, my hydrogen fuel was starting to get uncomfortably low. Still, I felt that 10% of a fuel tank should be sufficient to for me to land... assuming I used a suicide burn. A suicide burn is where you wait until the last moment before turning on your engines in full. Thankfully for this tactic, there's pretty much a hard limit on how fast you can be going in this game. I had about 1g of upward thrust available. With a maximum speed of 100m/s, it would require both downward engines, firing for twelve seconds, to completely stop the ship before impact. By this point, I'd been firing the thrusters continuously for over five minutes already, and consumed two-thirds of the available fuel. Plenty of room to account for a margin of error.

Again... there's nothing like tempting fate...

At 33k, gravity was low enough that I started feathering the thrusters. After all, I wanted to come to a stop just outside of the pull of planet's gravity.

At 38k, I got the notification that I'd made contact with another faction, one that appeared neutral to me. They were, of course, awfully far away, as far as SE scale is concerned.

At 42k, I officially broke free of the planet's gravity. I was in space!

I even had an extra 1% of a tank from the launch. Do I do the safe thing, and immediately return to base? No, of course not. Instead, I decide to use a little bit of hydrogen to slowly move over to a nearby asteroid cluster... that was obviously within the planet's gravity well.

Not only was I tempting fate, but I decided to up the ante and taunt Murphy as well... by using my suit's jet pack to check for ore!!!

Assuming I remember to rename the boring bookmark I originally created...

For my next brilliant move, I decided to check out another "nearby" cluster. After all, I still hadn't reached my safety margin... oh, wait, by the time I got there, I had.

It also turned out to be farther than I thought...

Again, I used my suit's hydrogen thrusters to take a closer look. I found iron and silicon there.

The Sun was low on the proverbial horizon, and my fuel was down to 10%, so I finally decided it was time to return to base. I aligned my Orbital Shuttle with the ground, gave it a gentle nudge with the hydrogen thrusters, and then let gravity do all the work.

Not content to start consuming my safety margin, I then decided that I had enough fuel to spare for a few course corrections.

I'd decided that with Fate and Murphy already at my party, it was time to invite Finagle as well. Since I had so much time on my idle hands, I decided to triple check my calculations, using precise numbers instead of the approximations I'd used. I was originally going to fire my thrusters at 1 kilometer as a safety margin. I decided that 600 meters would suffice.

The results were... interesting.

At least I managed to walk away...

In the sense that I decided not to attempt docking the ship.

As you can see, I still had 1% of a fuel tank left to avoid crashing into the ground.

My plummet from space actually turned out to be almost on target, though.

Having arrived safely (for a given value of safe) on the ground, I made my way to my base, and turned in for the night. If I wanted to salvage my orbital shuttle, I had some work to do.

Next time, on SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Five - Recovering the Orbital Shuttle, and Returning to Space!

But first... on EGS:SE2 - Episode Seven... Building a Scout Ship!

Navigare Necesse Est · Sep 21, 2020

I like the orbital shuttle design. It's lean and small. I tend to overload the design with huge cargo boxes (so I need not run to and fro all the time) and then they fill up with rock...

Darkfyre99 · Sep 22, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
I like the orbital shuttle design. It's lean and small. I tend to overload the design with huge cargo boxes (so I need not run to and fro all the time) and then they fill up with rock...

It’s something I stumbled upon quite early in SE, the concept of hidden storage. Both the cockpit and the connector have rather "spacious" storage, which allows me to carry quite a bit for cargo, without requiring external storage. Furthermore, the core design is modular, which means I can expand its capabilities quite easily.

My immediate plans for the orbital shuttle, once I manage to get it docked and refueled of course, is to carry the parts for a basic assembler and a pair of solar panels, 25 steel plates for framework, as well as many ingots as it can carry, to kickstart a transit base at the "orbital insertion" point directly above my base. I've already found "nearby" source of iron, so once I get a basic refinery going, I should be able to construct the rest of the base in situ.

As the old saying goes... once you get into orbit, you're half way to everywhere.

Navigare Necesse Est · Sep 22, 2020

I'm not a numbers guy and so I tend to have more than needed. I know the "hidden storeage" - the drill has it, too - but it is a hazy knowledge with no idea how much it really is. It's like me finding the sweet ratio of engine to fuel/mass in KSP - trial and error.

CMDR Dizzy · Sep 22, 2020

Darkfyre99 said:
It’s something I stumbled upon quite early in SE, the concept of hidden storage. Both the cockpit and the connector have rather "spacious" storage, which allows me to carry quite a bit for cargo, without requiring external storage. Furthermore, the core design is modular, which means I can expand its capabilities quite easily.

My immediate plans for the orbital shuttle, once I manage to get it docked and refueled of course, is to carry the parts for a basic assembler and a pair of solar panels, 25 steel plates for framework, as well as many ingots as it can carry, to kickstart a transit base at the "orbital insertion" point directly above my base. I've already found "nearby" source of iron, so once I get a basic refinery going, I should be able to construct the rest of the base in situ.

As the old saying goes... once you get into orbit, you're half way to everywhere.

Don't forget your oxygen farms. They use a lot of silicon as I recently discovered.

Darkfyre99 · Sep 23, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
I'm not a numbers guy and so I tend to have more than needed. I know the "hidden storeage" - the drill has it, too - but it is a hazy knowledge with no idea how much it really is. It's like me finding the sweet ratio of engine to fuel/mass in KSP - trial and error.

I've always been a fan of doing the math first. While it can be quite amusing watching something crash and burn, I prefer to minimize that as much as possible. It happens too often for my comfort as it is.

Besides, these days the time I have to plan (or post on forums for that matter) is much greater than the time I have to play games. I'd rather not waste an hour redoing something that could've been prevented by taking ten minutes of preparation ahead of time.

CMDR Dizzy said:
Don't forget your oxygen farms. They use a lot of silicon as I recently discovered.

Don't worry, I'm also a big fan of breathing... and IIRC I've got about six tons of silicon from all that stone I processed.

⛏

Darkfyre99 · Sep 24, 2020

Welcome to Empyrion: Galactic Survival
Sidewinder Edition Two
Episode Seven... Building a Scout Ship!

This time around, I had a lot of screen shots to choose from. I took almost 41. I'll try to keep it down to a reasonable level.

As luck would have it, I was no where near ready to build a scout ship. Neither the small ship sensor package, nor the small ship basic thruster, had been unlocked, and I didn't have the points to do so. My silicon was almost depleted... barely enough to build the ship's generator and fuel cell. So I did what anyone else would do in this situation, and sealed my workshop with concrete slabs, so I would have one less thing to worry about. 🏗

As night fell, I built what I could of the scout ship. I thought about adding the carbon fiber armor, but realized that that can wait for last, since it's primarily cosmetic.

The next morning, I loaded some food, fuel, and oxygen into my Hovertruck, and went scouting! Not only was I looking for silicon, but dangerous critters to hunt for food and XP. I also ordered my food processor to make a few emergency rations, as well as restock the meals in my fridge.

As I moved south to the first waypoint of my search pattern, I passed by this building.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to cry. This building is very close to my base, and has tons of glass windows, just waiting to be salvaged! And there I was, searching many wrecks, hoping for a few windows, when this thing was there all along.

Nearby was a few alien bugs, as well as a large spider. It wasn't enough to level up, but it certainly did give me a lot more than simply picking plants. Thankfully, I remembered to accept an extermination contract from the Talon ahead of time.

And so, the search continued. I eventually found silicon... deep in Polaris territory, with a Zirax drone protecting a nearby copper deposit. I'd need to make friends with Polaris Corporation if I wanted to mine that silicon, and I'd probably have to shoot the drone to do so. My suit's AI reports that the Zirax have finally taken notice of my base, so it was only a matter of days before their first raid happened. Once I have to defend myself against their attacks, it's only a matter of time before we're officially at war.

I need to find a minable source of silicon before that happens.

As I crossed a rocky desert, I stumbled upon a rock golem. I still needed XP, and I wanted to see what these things were like. It turned out that it was hostile. I managed to avoid taking too much damage taking it down, thankfully, because it took a lot of shots to do so.

I got a huge surprise when I examined the specimen...

Rare Ores... including gold!

If I can hunt down a few more of these things, I might be able to construct some "multi-function" upgrades for my light environmental suit. It won't be enough to survive in space, but it would be enough to survive comfortably in the more severe environments on this world.

Now that wanted to find these things, of course they were going to be scarce. But I continued my scouting path anyways. Eventually, I found a second silicon source. There was just one little problem...

Remember that creature on the dunes that I decided not to take a close look at? Turns out I didn't have too much to worry about.

I found my second Rock Golem just before I was going to cross the terminator, into daylight. While it didn't yield as much of the good stuff as I'd hoped, it did give me enough XP to level up!

Eventually, I found an unguarded source of silicon. There was much rejoicing!

It was a small deposit, sadly enough, but it did give me almost 200 units of silicon ore. When you're thinking about reprocessing rock to get silicon, that's a lot! I'll say this about the new sensor mechanics... they may be more annoying to use, but their range is a lot larger... almost too large IMO.

I was searching the northern hemisphere...

The rest of the scouting run passed without major incident. I found a deposit of iron guarded by a Zirax drone, and did a brief scouting run on behalf of the Polaris Corporation, which raised my status with them to Friendly, thus granting me mining rights.

It was mid-day by the time I finally returned home, and after depositing the fruits of my adventure, I ordered up some parts, and went back to work on the scout ship.

One of the first few things I ordered were some weapons for my scout ship. I'd have to fight the Zirax sooner or later, and I preferred not to do it on foot.

Night fell soon enough, but before I went to be, I added some power cells to my water purifiers, put some wooden logs into a portable constructors to turn into fuel, and made sure that the base's oxygen tank was full, and more oxygen was in the pipeline. I checked my base's computer one last time before bed.

It estimated that there were less than two days before the Zirax would attack my base...

Next time, on EGS:SE2 - Episode Eight... Finishing the Scout Ship, and Even More Salvage! And maybe even an attack by the Evil Zirax Empire???

But first... SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Five... Recovering the Orbital Shuttle, and Returning to Space!

Darkfyre99 · Sep 28, 2020

SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Five... Recovering the Orbital Shuttle, and Returning to Space!

In the last EGS writeup, I talked about how many superfluous screenshots I took. SE then said, "Hold my beer..." I took 64 this time around... mostly of me in my Orbital Shuttle... drifting through space from asteroid to asteroid.

Now that I’m in space again, I’m very much reminded that the space flight portions of this game leaves much to be desired, at least on my part. This game very much needs some form of time compression, given the scales and speeds involved.

At any rate, on with the show!

I woke up in the morning with a plan to get the orbital shuttle on its docking collar. Sadly, it turned out that there’s now way to empty portable hydrogen bottles into the tanks. At least i didn’t have to build extra. So I went with plan B instead.

All it took was a quick trip to the nearby snow field in my Termite to get it up and running. The excess replenished my base’s hydrogen synthesis capacity as well.

I spent the rest of this day, and all of the next, finishing the orbital shuttle’s gate, installing additional lift thrusters to the shuttle, and assembling the parts needed to start my transit base.

Naturally, all this construction and assembly required more iron.

The next day dawned with the shuttle ready for launch. However, I realized one more thing remained to do:

With an antenna, I can actually open the gates remotely. Sadly, the buttons I installed on the shuttle itself only work when I’m connected to the base.

Before launch, I did my usual visual inspection...

Double checked the controls...

And made sure the cargo was secure.

And launched. I spent most of the ride up watching the world recede using the docking camera. As it turned out, I only needed the launch thrusters for a few seconds, . The Mav Thrusters were barely sufficient to hover under its current burden. Considering how much of that mass was refined metals, that’s really saying something.

Once I finally got into space, it didn’t take long for me to frame out the basic structure of the starting structure. I have a plan for this one, so I needed to include connections for the plumbing. Sadly, I forgot to bring any interior plates to do so.

I finished constructing the solar panels and assembler, ordered up a battery, and started scouting nearby while I waited for the day to begin, and the assembler to do its job. There was just one teeny, tiny problem... two solar panels wasn't enough to actually build anything 95% of the time. I needed more power... and most importantly a battery to keep power levels stable. So back to the surface I went.

Needless to say, I was rather alarmed when I saw smoke billowing from my little shuttlecraft when I stepped out of the cockpit. A brief inspection revealed the problem. Greater use of the thrusters had cooked the gyroscopes that I'd left in their path.

I ordered up the parts I needed for the station, the repair work on the orbital shuttle, and made some improvements as well.

The nice thing about the cargo pod, is that I can can break it down for parts once at the platform.

Once in space, I installed the battery, the extra solar panels, and the started to work on the piping and connections, starting with the connections required for oxygen production and storage.

I ran out of supplies, mostly iron, rather quickly, so I returned to the surface one more time to get the remaining refined metals I left behind...

All those screenshots I took, and I didn't take a single one of the completed portions of the station. Brain... where are your priorities?

Coming up next on SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Six... More Space Construction

But first... EGS:SE2 - Episode Eight... Finishing the Scout Ship, and Even More Salvage! And maybe even an attack by the Evil Zirax Empire???

Navigare Necesse Est · Sep 29, 2020

I've wasted my whole Sunday with Stormworks. It is supposedly 1.0 but looks like 80% of the last pre-release update and the missions are busted. Somehow I don't see a point playing this game anymore. I really liked it once about a year ago. Has intricate engine design system. Piping, physics.
Yesterday found finally a somewhat unbroken submarine on workshop - they broke so many things is not funny. My old designs, too.

Darkfyre99 · Sep 29, 2020

Welcome to Empyrion: Galactic Survival
Sidewinder Edition Two
Episode Eight... Salvage, Scoutships, and Stalking!

The round started off with my favorite weather phenomenon... a radioactive storm had rolled in during the night. Since I have access to a shower, it's less a dangerous threat, and more of an annoyance, but it's still unpleasant to work outside in such conditions.

At any rate, I worked through the clicks of the Geiger-counter, the green skies, the sound of distant thunder, and the spooky wind, and finished the upper half of the carbon fiber armor that would protect the functional components from light arms fire.

I lifted the ship up briefly to install the landing gear, before lowering it again to start work on the underside armor.

I launched it briefly a second time, to add additional underside thrusters, remove the initial one, since I decided on a larger ship than I'd first planned, and complete the underside armor. The cold sent me scurrying back indoors to warm up more times than I'd care to count. It’s funny... radioactivity is less of a danger than the heat or cold, primarily thanks to the cascade effects they can have on stamina, hunger, and health.

The next day was mostly spent on painting my new vehicle. I was working on detailing the ship when the Zirax finally decided to attack. Four drones, coming in from the east. I’m so glad the ship’s sensors can easily detect distant incoming Zirax ships. If I had to rely on the map and the “radar,” I would’ve intercepted them a lot closer to my base.

Despite the ship not being very maneuverable, due to a lack of iron necessary to build additional thrusters, they were eventually destroyed with minimal damage to the ship. That being said, another attack like that, and the Zirax will become hostile to me.

With the Zirax attack repulsed, I returned to the last of the detail work, which primarily consisted on using my multi-tool to rotate a few of the blocks, so that they were oriented correctly. I was really hoping to make "intakes" on the raised portions at the back of the ship, but they simply never looked good IMO.

At any rate, it's time for that EGS tradition...

Behold! The unimaginatively named Medium Scout Ship! Mark I, of course.

A good portion of the next day was spent harvesting iron...

And salvaging the windows from the abandoned tower nearby.

After adding more thrusters to the back of the ship, I then spent the rest of the “day” hunting for rock golems by crossing the terminator, and searching the rocky terrains east of my base.

Sadly, after much searching, I failed to find a single one. I guess that’s why they call it “hunting” and not “finding.”

Next time, on EGS:SE2... Episode Nine - Finishing the Base!

But First... on SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Six... More Space Construction!

Navigare Necesse Est · Sep 30, 2020

Darkfyre99 said:
Welcome to Empyrion: Galactic Survival
Sidewinder Edition Two
Episode Eight... Salvage, Scoutships, and Stalking!

The round started off with my favorite weather phenomenon... a radioactive storm had rolled in during the night. Since I have access to a shower, it's less a dangerous threat, and more of an annoyance, but it's still unpleasant to work outside in such conditions.

...

I'm pretty sure you're doing the radioactive storms on pupose. It's like a motto of yours now when starting off.

Darkfyre99 · Sep 30, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
I'm pretty sure you're doing the radioactive storms on pupose. It's like a motto of yours now when starting off.

They’re really one of the few weather phenomena worth mentioning on this world. With the exception of heat waves when I’m near the equator, the other weather effects on my character aren’t extreme enough to matter, especially when compared to the effects of day/night or latitude. I very rarely notice the difference between a sunny or cloudy day, but night-time temperatures will send me scurrying indoors.

Darkfyre99 · Oct 5, 2020

Welcome To Space Engineers: Sidewinder Edition!
Episode Twenty Six
More Space Construction!

The round started out with another launch into space, with my remaining supply of ingots on board and in my inventory. The load of ingots was so heavy, I had to keep the launch thrusters going for longer than I expected.

Eventually, I reached a point where I could let the ship drift into zero-g. Which was about 15km from the station. The next time I do this, I’m going to install a topside camera so I can actually aim at the station. Soon enough, I was approaching my station.

As soon as I got an oxygen tank built and connected, I built some oxygen farms. Looking at this picture, I realize that I should’ve stacked them “vertically,” to maximize light exposure.

Minimal oxygen production established, I turned to building a basic refinery. This depleted the last of the iron I brought with me.

There was only one deposit of iron found in space so far...

I had a plan to conserve hydrogen...

Its tradition

I’m pretty sure I missed a few chunks of asteroid. Thankfully, the planet below isn’t inhabited. Next time, I’ll construct something to catch it all. At any rate, I soon had a full load, which was quickly turned into iron. I used that to plan out the next phase of construction, as well as expand power production.

Since I had a little hydrogen left, I decided to use it to explore another nearby asteroid cluster.

It turned out to be a good choice, because I saw signs of resources right away...

Turned out to be Nickel and Cobalt. That's all four of the "fundamental" metals accounted for, all of which are near my orbital base. This did

Hydrogen thrusters have a lot of power, but I currently lack a space-borne source. I think it’s time to investigate that trading post mentioned on my starting data pad. I keep meaning to go there...

Next time, on SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Seven... Exploring Other Options!

But First... on EGS:SE2... Episode Nine - Finishing the Base!

Just a note: This'll be my second to last post on this thread for a while. I'll be enjoying Star Wars Squadrons for a while. No wonder the Empire lost... their cockpits have lousy visibility! I did get in a round of EGS while waiting for it to download some patches, so I'll be working on that during away from home "free" time tomorrow and/or Wednesday.

Navigare Necesse Est · Oct 7, 2020

Isnt there ice on asteroids in space engineers? Pretty sure there was at some pount

Darkfyre99 · Oct 7, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Isnt there ice on asteroids in space engineers? Pretty sure there was at some pount

There are ice deposits. The problem is finding them, just like all the other resources. It’s an interesting conundrum for me, once I get into space: speeds are slow, distances are vast in comparison, and resources are hard to find. Until I find either platinum (needed for ion thrusters, which use electricity) or ice (to produce hydrogen in space), my supply of hydrogen is planet-bound. I have limited time to play games, so drifting from asteroid cluster to asteroid cluster at 10 m/s isn’t an option, which leaves me looking for other options...

Darkfyre99 · Oct 7, 2020

Welcome to Empyrion: Galactic Survival
Episode Nine - Even More Base Building

The first day of the round was spent replacing all temporary concrete slabs I’d placed with the glass windows I’d scavenged. No living in a concrete cube this time! I finished construction construction just as the sun set.

The next morning, I got up, took a picture of the exterior, and then checked my supplies.

Turned out I was short of copper. I hopped into my ship, and headed out to the nearest source of copper. As was customary by this time, I used my drone do do the actual mining...

On the way back, I made a detour through Talon territory, looking for predators. I was just on the cusp of making friends with them. Removing one more aggressive creature from their land would do the trick.

That accomplished, I visited the Talon village, and bought a berry push sapling, the one crop I couldn’t find on this world. After planting the bush and gathering my crops, I ordered a brace if concrete blocks for the next phase of my construction project. I also decided to finish up my base's basement as I waited for concrete blocks to be constructed.

Maybe I should add better lights...

The next day, I started work on the main hanger of the base, where the Sidewinder would be housed. I started out by laying the foundation. I thought I had ordered a lot, but it turned out that it wasn't nearly enough.

I ordered another batch, and while I waited for that to build, I decided to head east. Along the way, I decided to do a high altitude scouting run into Zirax territory, on my way to the night side in search of golems. Eleon must’ve changed the distances required recently, because I didn’t resolve a single POI.

Once again, I didn’t find any golems. On the way back, I made a low altitude pass. I took some small arms fire from the drones, but despite the low level pass, I still missed resolving one of their buildings...

It was just shy of sunset when I returned to base, and inspected the damage. A few panels had been blown clear off, and others were dented, but all in all, considering the volume of fire I took, it was inconsequential.

^^^
I’m getting O2 by standing near a window?

I had just finished repainting the damaged sections, when an alarm sounded.

I topped off the tanks, and oxygenated my I really need to add more oxygen tanks to this base...

Next time, on EGS:SE2... Episode Ten - Preparing to build the Sidewinder, Mark II!

But First... on SE-Squared: Episode Twenty Seven... Exploring Other Options!

SW Squadrons is, unsurprisingly, revealing why I don’t usually play combat focused games. Thankfully, I bought it for the VR. I’ll probably be ready for a break in a week or two. Just enough time, I hope, to get some things done before CP2077...

CMDR Dizzy · Oct 8, 2020

Darkfyre99 said:
There are ice deposits. The problem is finding them, just like all the other resources. It’s an interesting conundrum for me, once I get into space: speeds are slow, distances are vast in comparison, and resources are hard to find. Until I find either platinum (needed for ion thrusters, which use electricity) or ice (to produce hydrogen in space), my supply of hydrogen is planet-bound. I have limited time to play games, so drifting from asteroid cluster to asteroid cluster at 10 m/s isn’t an option, which leaves me looking for other options...

I managed to find an asteroid that contained both ice and iron which was just outside the gravity well. However it took a lot of searching and time to find it. As I mentioned I changed my space ship design to 2 hydrogen tanks to give me more search time in space. Interestingly after searching about 30+ asteroids I have found every thing except silicon.

I setup my initial space base in that asteroid and I think I have found only 3 deposits of ice so far therefore I am treating the ice in my space base like gold. As I have both platinum and uranium now I can switch to ion thrusters and nuclear reactors but only for space use. Maybe I should try a multi-stage space ship design with hydrogen for the planetary lift part.