Space Engineers vs Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition

Darkfyre99 · Aug 7, 2020

Speaking of productive days... last night I barely managed to finish the second day in EGS: Sidewinder Edition, round nine, which I had started on Wednesday. I’m actually anxious to start round ten of SE:SE, despite facing more digging, so I’m calling it good.

The day started with 500 blocks ready to place, and after tending my Garden, I started production on 300 more. I then finished off the bottom edge of the Sidewinder. I only went two layers down, because I want to use the third layer for detailing.

After that, I fill in the “floor”of the Sidewinder with thin blocks. It isn’t a true floor, but rather a temporary surface which I can stand on when working on the top part of the ship, as well as a surface on which to add detailing blocks. I’ll remove it at a later date.

As I was working on the false floor, unwanted visitors decided to show up.

I’m tempted to post a warning sign near the hanger door: “No Tresspassing. No Soliciting. Violators will be shot!”

Soon enough, night comes. I’m relieved to see that my solar panel bank is able to keep up with demand during the day. I’m starting to think about adding automatic power management to my base. Manually turning devices on and off is going to get unwieldily soon.

Last thing I do before bed is to order up some more “space orange” seedlings. I’ve got enough berries and coffee beans for now, so I reduce their production in half.

Once the “floor” was finally finished, I start thinking about preparing to rough out the underside. I start out by making out locations for primary ventral maneuvering thrusters. Thanks to symmetry mode, the marks are mirrored on the other side of the ship.

I also plan out where the major ventral feature will be. I’m planning on installing additional lift thrusters in this area, along with the smaller landing gear. I’m going to install the tallest landing gear I have available near the nose.

Once the engines, generator, and fuel tanks are installed, I put in a seat so that I can easily work on the bottom of the ship.

Using the two fusion cells the Zirax kindly provided me, I lifted up the bottom half of the Sidewinder, and quickly roughed out the major ventral feature, plus the landing gear.

It occurs to me as I’m writing this, that I should’ve placed cement blocks under the landing gear, and rested the ship upon that. That way, I can work on the bottom of the ship at my leisure.

It’s at this point that I had an idea to improve the design of the front of the ship. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I decided to try it anyway. I spent the remaining ten minutes of the day trying to find the necessary transition blocks, but nothing worked the way I’d hoped. It did illustrate why sometimes EGS’s block selection system, which in many instances I find to be easier to use than SE’s, can still cause frustration: in the case, the four blocks I wanted to use were scattered over two different tabs. Had this been SE, I could’ve added them to a single build bar, and used my mouse wheel to move between them.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 7, 2020

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

Yes. It was added with the recent “Sparks of the Future” update.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 8, 2020

And now... SE², round ten!

One of the first things I did at the start of this round was check how long it would take for the Termite to charge. It turned out just shy of 15 minutes. And so, while I was waiting, I decided to apply my newfound knowledge on how to precisely apply various settings in this game, and get the solar panels working the way I wanted them to.

And they needed some work! Some where ahead, some were behind, and their rotational speeds where all over the place!

Once that was done, I decided to install some more wind turbines.

Once that was finished, I decided that it was time to return to digging. I turned off all the superfluous GPS markers, and added some new ones to guide me as I dug. I started with a perpendicular tunnel that lead directly away from the Termite's charging cradle.

As I dug, I kept an eye on the two markers I put in the hanger.

When it got closer to sunset, I decided to double check the solar panel's alignment as I waited for the Termite to unload. Everything still looked good.

Eventually, I reached a point where I felt the tunnel was long enough. It was time to dig a tunnel straight out the back of the hanger, to connect the two. One of my projects, as I waited for the Termite to unload, was to work on the hanger. I wanted to use half slabs for its floor, which naturally uses half the resources of a full block.

It took a while, but eventually the two tunnels met.

Naturally, just having the two tunnels meet wasn't enough for me. This junction is where I intended to build my proverbial workshop! It needed to be widened, thanks to the refinery, in particular, being huge. There was just enough wiggle room available that after a few loads of stone, I managed to make enough room to maneuver the Termite around the corner.

Soon enough, the sky began to lighten. I checked the Moon o'Clock, and I was quite satisfied to see that the solar panels appeared to still be in sync with the sun.

Throughout these few days, I've been debating with myself about whether or not it was a good idea to harvest the stone I've been mining out, or just let it fall by the wayside. If this game allowed me to manufacture concrete, it would be a no brainer: Concrete Rocks! But just to collect the trace amounts of iron, nickel, and silicon?

Parts for my new refinery

Parts for my new assembler

Old Refinery

Old Assembler

Total haul:
Iron: 15,350 ingots
Nickel: 3840 ingots
Silicon: 5640 wafers

Yeah... I'd say it was worth it. I'd say that roughly 80% of this base was constructed from materials collected in-situ. Oh... and the Termite didn't dip dangerously short on power this whole session. Moar Power for the win!!!

Along the way, I made other tweaks here and there. Since I was more confident about maintaining the Termite's power levels, I added a temporary storage bin at the back of the basic refinery for stone, allowing me to quickly unload the Termite. I added a second gyro to the Termite, because I was tired of how sluggish it was while turning. I "hid" most of the components I didn't care about, on both the Termite and the base, to make it easier to find the components I did care about. I did some minor repairs to the Termite, because sometimes I get a little careless in narrow spaces. And finally, I widened the entrance to the temporary workshop in my base, so I wouldn't have to do as many repairs.

Coming up next in SE²? Even more digging!

But first, coming up on EGS:SE... Restoring the nose of the Sidewinder to its former glory, fleshing out the top of the Sidewinder, and giving some TLC and QOL improvements to my main base. Not necessarily in that order.

Iron Golem · Aug 8, 2020

Is EGS calable of building capital / carriers in space? (Fleet Carriers?). Is it possible to create a land crawler planetary base like the Jawas had on Tattoine in Star Wars? (Curious to know if you could do that in SE also).

Darkfyre99 · Aug 8, 2020

Iron Golem said:
Is EGS calable of building capital / carriers in space? (Fleet Carriers?).

This is definitely possible in both games. In fact, when I leave this solar system in EGS, I'm going to have to build a capital ship to do so. And in order to conserve power, I'll probably want at least one small ship to land on planets. I understand that some of the planets (probably with the best resources) have surface gravities in excess of 5g. I'm thinking of something Anaconda-shaped.

Unfortunately, I doubt I'd be able to bring the Sidewinder with.

But that's a long way in the future of this game. I haven't even visited the nearby moon yet.

Iron Golem said:
Is it possible to create a land crawler planetary base like the Jawas had on Tattoine in Star Wars? (Curious to know if you could do that in SE also).

A wheeled base is definitely possible in Space Engineers. EGS, on the other hand, limits hover-ships to small scale blocks.

Iron Golem · Aug 9, 2020

-VR- Darkfyre99 said:
This is definitely possible in both games. In fact, when I leave this solar system in EGS, I'm going to have to build a capital ship to do so. And in order to conserve power, I'll probably want at least one small ship to land on planets. I understand that some of the planets (probably with the best resources) have surface gravities in excess of 5g. I'm thinking of something Anaconda-shaped.

Unfortunately, I doubt I'd be able to bring the Sidewinder with. But that's a long way in the future of this game. I haven't even visited the nearby moon yet.

A wheeled base is definitely possible in Space Engineers. EGS, on the other hand, limits hover-ships to small scale blocks.

A mobile land crawler, that would be insane. That you can land ships in. Then you put hundreds of thrusters on it and fly it into space! lol.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 9, 2020

One of the first things I did during round ten of EGS:SE was work on the base. In particular, this:

In the end, I spent the entire day pretty much making tweaks here and there, most of which aren't visible: installing sensors, creating logic circuits, debugging said logic circuits, and so on.

Most of the next day was spent restoring the front of the Sidewinder to the way I'd had it originally. I'd just realized that I had screwed up on that, when a certain xenophobic empire decided to ignore my little sign. So I blasted them out of the sky. I did warn them, though.

With that done, I went back, removed the offending section again. You'd think this was a Star Citizen ship, with all the refactoring I'm doing on it.

The next day, with the front finally restored to its former glory, I start the top part of the ship:

It actually went really well, working exactly how I'd envisioned it would. I was in the zone, so much so that I lost track of the time, so I kept working into the in-game night.

I was just cutting holes in the hull for the "heat vents" when I noticed it was past time to get some sleep in the game.

Next time on EGS:SE... construction of the Sidewinder continues!

But first, SE²: Even More Digging... you know what, I'm sick of digging! I still haven't found silver. I want to go scouting for silver! I'm going to build a new flying scout vehicle, and do just that. So next time on SE²: Enter the Dragonfly SRV!

Darkfyre99 · Aug 9, 2020

And now... we continue Space Engineers vs Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Sidewinder Edition.

SE²: Round Eleven - Enter the Dragonfly!

Having put up with more digging than I care to think about, I decided it was time to do a little exploring. After all, I'd need a survival kit/medical center for my main base sooner or later, and that means silver! And to find silver beyond the valley I was in, I'd need a flying scout vehicle. I could always use the Termite, of course, but that would be a huge waste of power. I needed something small and light.

I needed the Dragonfly SRV!

First thing I did was move the Termite to the hanger floor, via the tunnel. Since I was moving through it anyways, I used that opportunity to widen it a bit. Yes, I did a bit of digging before starting the Dragonfly.

Remembering the opportunities I had with the Termite, I started construction of the Dragonfly right over upper docking station. That way, as soon as I get a thruster working, I can start the Dragonfly charging right away. Forward thinking for the win!

Getting it on the charger went as smoothly as I could've hoped it would.

By the time I'd added the remaining engines, it was already charged. So I started taking it out, and then remembered I needed to give it a paint job. So I backed up a bit, and settled it back on its charger. Bored with the default texture, I decided to give one of the new ones a try.

With almost an hours worth of flight power available, and no destination in mind, I decided to let the next drop pod choose my direction for me. One dropped to the north.

At first I was flying about 20 meters over the ground, but as I got a better feel for its handling, I brought that down to less than ten. As a result, this vista surprised me when I crested the ridge I'd been flying up.

Night had already fallen by the time I found an actual resource deposit. I circled the area, but only found iron.

I continued on a generally northern route, stopping only to disassemble drop pods as I came upon them. Once I reached about 30 minutes of battery life at full speed, I started moving to the southeast. I found another deposit of iron, and one with all three of the "construction" metals nearby. Then I spotted it: Silver!

I dug up about 2k units of Silver Ore, and decided to return to base. The Dragonfly had a theoretical lifting capacity of about 20 tons, and it was already carrying nearly its own mass in salvaged parts and ore. Then it began to rain. A heavy rain, that reduced visibility. And while I was only about four kilometers away from base when the rain started, I was worried about arriving safely. I did not want to get struck by lightning in this thing, especially considering its precious payload.

That would be me, BTW.

I decided I wanted to keep my scout vehicles at my starting base. It already has two docking stations, and my main base is only half a kilometer away.

I was just settling the Dragonfly on its cradle when I heard a rumble of thunder. I walked up to the base of the ramp, just as another lighting bolt lit up the sky. Pity I wasn't fast enough with the screenshot button.

Eventually, the storm let up, and I jogged back to the hanger. Did I say jog? I meant jetpacked. This thing is stupidly powerful, but then again, so is EGS's drone.

As soon as I arrived, I docked the Termite to unload it, and returned to digging out the hillside. Between unloads, I also started working on the conveyor system and floors.

False dawn lit up the tunnel I was working on, signalling that this round of SE² was almost over. I finished the last of the tunnel boring, and went out into the light rain to greet the sun. Or at least see if the solar panels were still working.

Refreshed from my non-digging activities, I'm now ready to face the next round of SE²: Mining Simulator

But first, Sidewinder Construction continues in EGS:SE - round eleven!

Darkfyre99 · Aug 10, 2020

Up next... EGS:SE - Round 11: The Construction Continues

Last time on EGS:SE, I was starting to add some detail work to the Sidewinder hull... namely the heat vents of the ship. I decided at the time to indent that section half a block. Unfortunately, there's one part that doesn't quite blend in like the others...

As I'm debating on whether I should quit while I'm ahead or redo it, the base's alarms went off. The Zirax were attacking again!

After the attack, I decide its time to install the guns. Turrets exist for the small ships, but to my disappointment they're not retractable. I take a look at them through the cockpit canopy, and they're just barely visible.

With that, phase one: building the hull, was complete. I take a quick picture of the empty interior before heading to bed.

The next day, after ordering up sufficient maneuvering thrusters in my large assembler, and started greebling out the bottom of the ship. When that was done, I checked the assembler's output, and noticed a definite lack of thrusters in it. I soon find the problem:

I suppose I could've just gotten the iron, but the (in-game) day was getting late as it was. I figured it would be a good time to start pulling up the temporary floor.

It definitely made greebling the bottom easier, but removing the unnecessary components took forever.

Once that was done, I decided to check out the stats screen. This is when I discovered, much to my horror, that I'd miscounted while building the top of the ship. I couldn've had more headroom!

With a little bit of time left in the day, I decided to do a little painting of the greebling on the bottom.

As soon as the sun set, I turned in for the day.

The next morning, I hopped into the Micro Hauler, and headed out into the nearby Savannah. Since I would be in the neighborhood anyway, I made sure I was loaded for predatory proto-avians. Eggs, meat, and reputation with the Talon... all while securing my mining site.

Once I'd dug up the two iron deposits in the area, I returned home, thankful that I'd remembered to install extra thrusters. They made the trip quite a bit faster.

Upon arriving at the base, I unloaded the fruits of my labor.

I then went back to work on the Sidewinder. In particular, I felt the cockpit was a bit oversized. It's still too far forward, but that's because this game doesn't have 3:1 or 4:1 slope blocks. Upon reflection, adding another layer of blocks to the top is starting to sound like a good idea. I can fix the heat vents as well.

The day done, I turned in. Ready to end the round. That is, until I woke up to the base sirens going off. The Zirax were attacking! At least they waited until dawn.

I just realized I forgot to restart production on the maneuvering thrusters.

Another advantage of Space Engineers: the assemblers don't forget what parts you ordered if you run out of raw materials.

Well, at least I'll have something to do while I wait for them to spit out my order.

Next round on EGS:SE - more work on the Sidewinder.

But first: SE²: Round 12. Maybe this'll be the round where I get to stop digging! ⛏

Darkfyre99 · Aug 10, 2020

Today, on Space Engineers - Sidewinder Edition... Round 12... the light at the end of the tunnel!

It’s amazing how a little fresh air, combined with identifiable progress, can breathe new life into a repetitive task.

This round began with laying down the conveyor tubes that would connect the upper level utility charging station, with its basic workshop, to the main workshop just off the hanger. As the work continued, I started to enter the tunnel from the main hanger, rather utility one, to get a better angle to work with.

Finally, I’d gotten sufficient space dug out place the workshop conveyor junction, as well as the branch of the conveyor system that leads to the hanger. With that complete, I could (temporarily) retire the Termite. Any further digging would be by hand, since it would require finesse.

The workshop floor turned out to be one “level” (2.5 m) below the utility hanger, as well as two floors above the main hanger floor.

Of course, it turned out that I was wrong about major digging operations being complete. Turned out that I needed to scrape the walls if the workshop one more time. Which turned out to be a mistake. With a proper floor installed, maneuvering the Termite was a bit tricky. Which I found out, much to my dismay.

The ironic thing is that moments before it starting listing, I was just debating with myself about whether it would be a good idea to install a third gyro, because roll when under a full load was still a little too sluggish for my tastes. Thankfully, it was a relatively easy fix. I just needed to unload the entire thing by hand into the nearby connector, and then roll it right into connector. Afterwards, I installed that third gyro.

All this happened before the sun set. When I checked on the sun, I found out that the solar panels were slightly out of alignment. Thankfully, I wa already prepared for this situation. All I needed to do was press the giant button, and their direction of rotation would reverse. I figured a minute would suffice.

With nightfall, it was finally time to install my main workshop. I’d already had the parts for the assembler and refinery, so it was a simple matter to build the parts for the survival kit and oxygen generator.

I also roughed out the passage to the hanger.

The nice thing about using the 1/2 slabs for the floor is that there is literally a crawl space underneath. I’ll be adding conveyor sorters at a later date.

The only thing left to do, workshop wise, was to add the enhancement modules. The refinery and assembler could share a speed and efficiency module, and the refinery would still have enough for three yield modules. This would require two trips to the gold deposit.

At first, I was going to take the Termite,but after checking the time of night, I returned to base, and used my jet pack instead.

The first trip netted me enough gold for one yield module, and about 70% of the second.

When I went to get the s find, I could see it was almost dawn. Based on the panel’s position, I pressed the “reverse” button a second time.

The sun had risen by the time I got back. I reset their rotation, and despite technically being the end of the round, I wanted this finished.

I popped the gold into the refinery, and finished the construction of the remaining two yield modules. At last, I’d be able to start construction of Space Engineer’s version of the Sidewinder!

The observant will notice that the O2 generator and the survival kit swapped places. This was necessary for them to connect to the conveyor system. Upon reflection, I really should’ve just skipped straight to installing the medical bay. It requires more conveyor setup, but it needs to be done before I start harvesting tons of ice.

But next time on SE² ... Sidewinder construction finally begins!

But first, EGS:SE... Round 12. Construction continues. I’ll probably do only two days. IIRC, at their meeting st frequent, the Zirax only attack every three days. I don’t want to deal with them and the beginning/end of a round.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 11, 2020

And now, Round 12 of Empyrion Galactic Survival: Sidewinder Edition... More Refactoring!

First, I have to say that putting my base into "Sleep Mode" when my character is asleep in her bedroom has been a real boon. Not only does it save a lot of energy throughout the night, but a lot of micro-managing by me. Unlike many survival games I've played where going to bed basically moves the sun so it's morning, EGS actually speeds up time. The base still uses power, constructors do their work, crops grow, and the NPCs are still active. I saw one nighttime predatory animal start out near my bedroom window in one game, and when I woke up it was halfway across the clearing, near a rock.

First thing I did was add the missing top layer to the ship, including moving the cockpit canopy. The new canopy design is, IMO, the closest to the "real" thing yet. I also redid the completely cosmetic heating vents. This surprisingly took most of the day, thanks to how fiddly the work turned out to be. I still don't like the fact that there's no good corner transition block for right here. But given how many transition blocks there are in this game, I'm just being greedy.

The next day was spent tearing down the old top of the ship, installing the actual cockpit, installing the maneuvering thrusters, and relocating the turrets. These are the maneuvering thrusters only. The engines I want to use for the main thrusters are higher up the tech tree.

Finally having basic control of the ship, I decided to burn a little of the morning light by giving it a very brief test flight... just outside the hanger. It went well, all things considered.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the location of the turrets. They're not visible from the cockpit, for one thing, and for another they just don't look right where they are. Plus I want to make a couple other tweaks. Once that's done, it'll be time to advance the story once again. I need XP, and I need resources that aren't plentiful on this planet. This ship needs its main engines to function!!!

But first: Space Engineers: Sidewinder Edition, round thirteen... Sidewinder construction begins! Wait... round 13???

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Kyi0WNg40

Darkfyre99 · Aug 12, 2020

I swear, I meant the episode thirteen comment as a joke...

Unfortunately, my iPad, which has been skirting functional obsolescence for about a year (I can't update it due to not having enough memory to do so) decided to give up the ghost. I've been relying heavily on it to write up these summaries while I'm on break or lunch at work. With the current supply opportunities my store's been having this year, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get a new one.

Gaming time is hard enough to come by as it is, so sacrificing some of it to write these up isn't something I want to do. I am willing to sacrifice my "idle" gaming time (currently being consumed by Surviving Mars) to write these up. Just expect the rate at which I post these decrease until I can buy a new one.

That being said, on with the show!

I started out round thirteen with a bang:

What happened is that I jetpacked over to my starting base to retrieve the ice I left there. Since there was quite a bit, I decided to use the dragonfly. I go a bit careless, though, and let my speed get too high. I didn’t stop in time. I actually managed to use the more powerful lift thrusters to slow down while getting enough altitude to miss my wind farm, but I still plowed into the hillside. I took most of the damage to the landing gear, but the brief tumble also damaged my retro-thruster. Limping into the hanger for repairs was fun.

This is one of the areas that I think Space Engineers does a superior job, vs Empyrion: Galactic Survival. I can't think of a single instance where a collision actually damaged my ship in EGS. More importantly, SE also leaves a crater behind when it happens.

After that was resolved, I started working on getting the hanger floor completed. It took quite a bit of iron, but eventually it was finished. I even marked off the area where the Sidewinder was going to be built. I would've been better off working on the ceiling, though, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Since it worked so well in EGS, I started off building the Sidewinder by putting the starting landing gear on its own block.

From there, I roughed out the outline of the Sidewinder. I was going to try to count blocks, but then it occurred to me that all I need to do was have the right number of steel plates in my inventory. When I ran out, it was time to stop.

It's at this point that I decided to put in the Sidewinder's hydrogen tanks. The normal ones are rather massive, and I wanted to get it out of the way, so I could also install the maneuvering thrusters. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a screenshot of them, otherwise I could do a "what's wrong with this picture."

Instead, you get a picture I took after sunset, when I was checking the alignment of the solar panels. I need to slow them down a bit. I expected them to be too slow, not too fast, given that SE only accepts four significant digits, and I'd needed five for more accuracy.

Soon enough, I depleted what I thought was a significant supply of iron ingots. Thankfully, there's a nice surface deposit nearby.

And then an event happened which I always dread: a thunderstorm was approaching. This is another area I can appreciate how Keen implemented weather in SE, vs EGS, even if I think their actively malicious lightning is a bridge too far. The weather isn't global, so sometimes you can see it coming. Sadly, even though I could see lightning in the distance, I failed to catch it in a screen shot.

As I'm working on the Sidewinder, I hear a loud peal of thunder, followed by debris raining down around me. I immediately found work to occupy myself with underground.

BTW, see if you can identify the problem with the placement of the Sidewinder's fuel tanks and main thrusters...

Once the storm had passed, I continued welding the lower hull of the Sidewinder. It went faster than I'd expected. I guess that's one advantage of a limited palette of blocks to choose from. No spending fifteen minutes trying to find the right transition block.

You can see the unfinished forward-port maneuvering cluster to the left.

The false dawn bug announced that the night was coming to an end soon. On the right of the screen shot, under the welding torch, you can see a line of unfinished conduit leading from the fuel tank to the forward-starboard maneuvering cluster. As I'm writing this, I realized that there's no secondary attachment point to the rest of the ship on the entire length. Neither the small thrusters, nor the conveyor pipes, can attach to other blocks, except at their ends. If any one of those horizontal pipes get destroyed, the entire thing will come loose.

This is why I enjoy playing Space Engineers, even though I consider EGS the superior game overall. SE's entire ship engineering philosophy and technology is much more interesting IMO. SE has a very "near future" feel to it, while EGS feels more like space-opera overall. Both have their appeal, but there's more challenges to overcome when building a ship in SE. If only their flight model was more realistic...

I finished welding the bottom skirt of armor just before the sun rose. Thankfully, I hadn't filled in the bottom of the ship yet. I wanted to get an estimate on how much the ship'll weigh, so I can decide how many additional lifting thrusters I need to install to allow the ship to hover when in an atmosphere.

Have you identified the problem yet?

The fuel tanks and main engines are too low. I placed them in the center of vertical perimeter armor, which is fairly low on the ship. I'll need to raise the whole thing up about four blocks (two meters) for them to be properly centered at the rear of the ship.

Before finalizing their location, I'll also want to rough out the rest of back silhouette, which is something I really should've done right away...

With the last few screenshots taken, I head over to the hillside to greet the rising sun, and check on the solar panels. These things should be rotating as close to 1/120th revolutions per minute as I can set them. I have no idea why they're this far off.

Next time on SE², part two of the Sidewinder construction.

But first, on Empyrion: Galactic Survival, round thirteen... SPACE!!!

Navigare Necesse Est · Aug 13, 2020

I like base integration into rock. Mostly because it hides my non-existent design talent. I recently "finished" Surviving Mars, too. Had a year-old save lying around with ESA - story was wildfire plague. Made it to 100% terraformed and build all the "wonders".

Darkfyre99 · Aug 13, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
I like base integration into rock. Mostly because it hides my non-existent design talent.

One of the things I like about SE. Their base blocks integrate seamlessly into the surrounding terrain. I tend to waste quite a bit of time trying to lay the foundations of my bases in EGS without disturbing the terrain too much. I could, of course, use the "terrain flattening tool," but that leaves an ugly crater behind. If I'm building in a scenic area (which I tend to do), I want to preserve that scenery as much as possible.

Navigare Necesse Est said:
I recently "finished" Surviving Mars, too. Had a year-old save lying around with ESA - story was wildfire plague. Made it to 100% terraformed and build all the "wonders".

I still have two achievements to go: the vegan one and the android one. The latter will be luck and just spamming androids. The former requires overcoming the urge to start a new game once a colony becomes "self sufficient." Which is what I've been doing once I've uncovered all of a game's breakthroughs, and discover there's no androids. I figure if I'm going to be sticking with a particular game past where it's interesting, I might as well complete the android one as well.

Navigare Necesse Est · Aug 13, 2020

-VR- Darkfyre99 said:
One of the things I like about SE. Their base blocks integrate seamlessly into the surrounding terrain. I tend to waste quite a bit of time trying to lay the foundations of my bases in EGS without disturbing the terrain too much. I could, of course, use the "terrain flattening tool," but that leaves an ugly crater behind. If I'm building in a scenic area (which I tend to do), I want to preserve that scenery as much as possible.

I still have two achievements to go: the vegan one and the android one. The latter will be luck and just spamming androids. The former requires overcoming the urge to start a new game once a colony becomes "self sufficient." Which is what I've been doing once I've uncovered all of a game's breakthroughs, and discover there's no androids. I figure if I'm going to be sticking with a particular game past where it's interesting, I might as well complete the android one as well.

Surviving Mars is kinda easy. There is some consideration to be done in early game, but later it's kinda easy. They should have made more tools to shape the landscape, imo since it looks pretty enough. The disasters are mostly nuisances - apart from meteors, maybe. I'm a sucker for red planet and volumetric sandstorms under a red sky. Map gen was a letdown too when I found out it's the same couple of maps - only with jumbled ressource locations.

Terrain gen can be a big replayability factor in these games. Especially if you get to build into it. I found so marvellous natural towers in Minecraft. After all - isn't that what artists do with a rock? They look at the shape and think what could emerge from that.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 13, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Surviving Mars is kinda easy. There is some consideration to be done in early game, but later it's kinda easy. They should have made more tools to shape the landscape, imo since it looks pretty enough. The disasters are mostly nuisances - apart from meteors, maybe. I'm a sucker for red planet and volumetric sandstorms under a red sky. Map gen was a letdown too when I found out it's the same couple of maps - only with jumbled ressource locations.

Terrain gen can be a big replayability factor in these games. Especially if you get to build into it. I found so marvellous natural towers in Minecraft. After all - isn't that what artists do with a rock? They look at the shape and think what could emerge from that.

No denying that Surviving Mars is no Rimworld of Dwarf Fortress. That's why I consider it an "idle" game: something I can keep running while I'm doing something that actually requires most of my attention, but still leaves me with mostly idle hands. In my experience, all disasters except dust devils are nuisances... if you're prepared for them. Which is why the early game on the harder maps are so much fun. Limited resources means you have to make hard choices.

You're also correct about how terrain can affect replayability. Over many games, I've developed an optimal "dome support" layout that maximizes those triboelectric scrubbers later in the game. There may be limited maps, but having to adapt my colony layout to the terrain and resources still keeps the game fresh. Plus I doubt I've played a tithe of the available locations.

It also helps that I love the music of the game.

Navigare Necesse Est · Aug 13, 2020

-VR- Darkfyre99 said:
No denying that Surviving Mars is no Rimworld of Dwarf Fortress. That's why I consider it an "idle" game: something I can keep running while I'm doing something that actually requires most of my attention, but still leaves me with mostly idle hands. In my experience, all disasters except dust devils are nuisances... if you're prepared for them. Which is why the early game on the harder maps are so much fun. Limited resources means you have to make hard choices.

You're also correct about how terrain can affect replayability. Over many games, I've developed an optimal "dome support" layout that maximizes those triboelectric scrubbers later in the game. There may be limited maps, but having to adapt my colony layout to the terrain and resources still keeps the game fresh. Plus I doubt I've played a tithe of the available locations.

It also helps that I love the music of the game.

Which station? I've mixed feelings. The default is OK, but I mostly tune in to Quantum Sonics (bought complete package on sale after they released terraforming) - there are quite good tracks on that one.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 13, 2020

Navigare Necesse Est said:
Which station? I've mixed feelings. The default is OK, but I mostly tune in to Quantum Sonics (bought complete package on sale after they released terraforming) - there are quite good tracks on that one.

I like them all, although if I had to pick one, it would be Mars Vision myself. Even the commercials are fun, despite the fact that I've heard them hundreds of times. Something about the whole package just clicks with me.

Darkfyre99 · Aug 13, 2020

Good news! We got some iPads in! Current Generation was surprisingly easy to get up and running. This is a little rough, but I want to get it out right away.

And now... EGS:SE, round 13!

Compared to my last round of SE², there wasn't a lot of drama. There was a lot of screenshots taken, though. I actually pared them down quite a bit. As I've said previously, when I've got idle time in the game, that's when I remember to take screenshots. Although not nearly as egregious as SE, EGS space travel does leave me with a lot of idle hands.

First up, was moving the Sidewinder's turrets to a better looking location. I also added some detail work to that little bit of edging required by not having the right transition block.

Fix your game, Eleon!

I also added a short boarding ramp at the back. Just enough to jump onto.

After that, I hopped into the cockpit, to check turret visibility. I may play around with them more in the future.

I then moved on to expanding roof access. I got tired of sprinting from the hanger, through my workshop and garden, and then to the MicroHauler.

Turned out to be a good thing. The Zirax attacked soon afterwards. Of course, I was in the garden at the time.

It turned out to be three drones, over the water. They quickly fell to my defenses, plus I leveled up. I’ll see what I can unlock next round. Right then, I wanted to continue the quest.

I went diving into water to see if there was anything salvagable.

I got some good parts from those drones: cobalt alloys, flux coils, and power coils. I'll need both so I can build the deconstructor, or as I prefer to call it, the recycler. Once that's been built, I can start salvaging some of those large ship wrecks for the parts I need.

One of the recent updates basically reset my progress on this chapter of the main story. No great loss. At least I can still continue with it.

While there, I picked up a shiny bar of platinum. You never know when it might come in handy.

At the orbital distIllery, I made a fortuitous discovery.

On my way out, I noticed something that required a closer look. I’m 90% certain that this ship docked with the station while I was inside.

Next, I exchanged a few words, and a bribe, with the pirates who stole the “root beer” recipe.

The pirate base was near a trading post. I love Eleon’s sense of humor sometimes.

Along the way back, I passed another resource asteroid. Previously, I found silicon, magnesium, and promethium. The good news was it contained highly desirable cobalt. Bad news, it’s heavily guarded. Needless to say, I beat a hasty retreat.

Back at the refinery, I tanked my reputation with those root beer hating Zirax. They actually managed to do some damage. Thankfully, I just happened to have some carbon fiber blocks in my back pocket.

Recipe safely delivered, I was sent to Club Inferno, where dozens of sophants twitched uncontrollably thanks to the strobe lights... oh, wait... they’re dancing.

While the “root beer” is a nice bonus, this is what makes bottoming out my Zirax rep worth it.

Oxygen levels really low, I returned to base. It turned out to be just after sunrise. That made it the perfect place to end this round.

Next on EGS:SE... to the moon!

but first, on SE-Squared, the Sidewinder construction continue

EUS · Aug 13, 2020

I'm reading this, I have no idea what's going on, but your dedication to building this diary is probably as time consuming as your time in game, so kudos!