Space Engineers

[Imperial528]

So, how many of you all have heard of it, or got it?

I got it in February and I've gotten hundreds of hours of enjoyment from it so far, and there seems to be no stop.

For the uninitiated, Space Engineers is a voxel-based building game, in, well, space. Unlike similar titles such as Starmade, or the many Minecraft IN SPACE mods, and indeed unlike many voxel games, Space Engineers has an astoundingly accurate physics engine. It can't really simulate flexing or bending at the moment, and I don't know if there are any plans to add that, but the deformation and destruction modelling is fantastic.

Here's the game trailer from their website:



As of the current patch the video more or less matches gameplay, with the exception of that green smoke trail, and new features having been added and enabled since that video was made. Between this and KSP, my space-building craves are more or less satiated.

Shortly after manual mode ("survival") was released I joined up with a group-hosted server, that will eventually have a dedicated server once the developers finish the standalone server software, and tweaking the game's net code to support that. It's been a blast and it's surprising how much fun it can be to do things the hard way; when the game was still in creative mode, I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I enjoy manual/survival mode.

[Marko Dash]

been overdosing on youtube videos of it for a few weeks, so many ideas running through my head that i can't try because it runs like a slideshow on my PC.

[White Haven]

The physics code still needed tons of work the last time I tried to really break the game. Large, complex objects smashing together tended to make the engine Sad, resulting in incredibly slow frame-rates until either the collision ended (which would take forever due to the seconds-per-frame rate) or until the physics engine packed in entirely. At that point, the rendering would go smooth as glass, but only because the universe was frozen in a single moment, forever.

[Imperial528]

It needs optimization for very large objects (at the moment the engine really can't handle ships in large excess of the size of the stock ships), yes, but frankly the fact it runs as smoothly as it does as an open alpha is a very good sign in my opinion.

[Enigma]

I bought it this past Friday and love it. Yes there are issues like despite building whatever object (let's say refinery) you want and then switch to your welding torch, the image of the refinery is always in the way. Then there is the issue of NPC ships. First, they're unmanned (at least all the ones I've boarded are). Second, NPC ship weapons don't work (unless they haven't been enabled as of the current build). Third and the most annoying is that the NPC ships never stop, even when you are in control. They'll slow down to like 11m/s but you can't stop them no matter what. Sucks when you try to hijack a ship for its cargo and you can't redirect it to your station unless you plan to ram it. Sometimes it can be dangerous to slow an NPC ship. Tried it on a minelayer and ended up blowing up part of the ship as the act of slowing down (yet the ship refused to stop) caused enough force to trigger a few mines.

I'd like to see an option to just take parts off a ship and place it on another without needing to tear it down and rebuild it.

[Steel]

Apparently there are booby traps on the NPC ships; warheads stuck in front of all the engines that will be detonated if you use them.

Are you sure the ships are magically unable to slow down, or did they just not have any (functional) engines in the direction you needed to slow down? Alternatively perhaps they had inertia turned off and so the engines wouldn't try and slow you down?

[Imperial528]

Yeah, make sure the inertial dampeners are on. But before you do that, make sure you dispose of any traps. Well, if you have thruster damage disabled the traps do nothing, so it won't be a worry.

The weapons on NPC ships are functional as much as the ones players can build. However as of right now only Gatling turrets work and they only shoot at meteors or decoys, nothing else. When the weapons are fully functional, I imagine the armed NPC ships will be quite a challenge to take on.

[Steel]

When the weapons are fully functional, I imagine the armed NPC ships will be quite a challenge to take on.

I imagine that building a boarding ship that is just like a 7x7x3 cuboid of heavy armour stuck on the front of a standard fighter will be pretty hard to destroy before you get into range to jump out and board the ship unless something very clever is done to the enemy weapons.

Whatever they make the enemy ships do, they're still going to be flying a predictable straight course and you get to choose everything about the engagement, so there really isn't much hope for the defending ship until it can evade or call for help.

[Imperial528]

Once the missile turrets are functional, a rectangle of heavy armor on a small ship will last a second or three at best. If you're making a large ship, eh, depends on how many layers of armor you're willing to weld. There's also talk of guided, smart missiles that will try and hit weak areas.

[Steel]

I look forward to the inevitable layers of ECM, ECCM and CIWS that will be successively added then!

[Esquire]

As of the last patch, you can make boarding the NPC ships much more... interesting... by putting a decoy block on your ship. That'll make the gatling turrets shoot at you, although the missiles aren't functional yet.

I'm excited for this Thursday's patch - word is they'll be adding rails, and I really really want to make a blast door for my asteroid base without having to use a bunch of workarounds.

[Steel]

Rails? As in for minecarts? Why use them instead of the new tubes? How would that help with a door?

[Esquire]

Because the current physics engine doesn't handle scraping collisions well. With a collision-proof, or at least collision-resistant rail, you can make pieces of machinery move without breaking everything over time. They wouldn't be for minecarts, but for basic machine pieces.

N.B. - most of the above can be done with current blocks, but it takes a lot more time and space to set up. Rails would make everything much more straightforward, pun intended.

[Steel]

Aha. Time will tell.

[Enigma]

Apparently there are booby traps on the NPC ships; warheads stuck in front of all the engines that will be detonated if you use them.

Are you sure the ships are magically unable to slow down, or did they just not have any (functional) engines in the direction you needed to slow down? Alternatively perhaps they had inertia turned off and so the engines wouldn't try and slow you down?

They'd slow up to a point and then refuse to slow down any further even with no fuel at all.

[loomer]

Without fuel it will never stop. Inertia doesn't just disappear.

[Enigma]

Without fuel it will never stop. Inertia doesn't just disappear.

Figured that. But even with fuel it wouldn't go down past 11 m/s.

[loomer]

Do you have engines covering all directions when it won't decel?

[Lagmonster]

I loathe supporting incomplete games (Kerbal is the exception, because everyone in the universe was clearly behind it and it was going to see it finished), but this one looks promising. Does it allow you, in current state, to DO anything interactive, or is it still in a state of "build things and admire them, because there's nothing to do with them just yet".

[Steel]

I had a big ship I was building, and I couldn't afford more than 2 thrusters to begin with, so every time I wanted to go somewhere and slow down it took a minute of slowly rotating to counter all components of velocity.

I loathe supporting incomplete games (Kerbal is the exception, because everyone in the universe was clearly behind it and it was going to see it finished), but this one looks promising. Does it allow you, in current state, to DO anything interactive, or is it still in a state of "build things and admire them, because there's nothing to do with them just yet".

There is a "survival" mode of sorts, where you have to mine resources to build things. There isn't anything to do beyond mine, build machines to mine resources, build machines to process resources and construct machines/ships to mine more stuff.

I have high hopes for the finished product though. What they have is technically fantastic, and is interesting to play. There will be a good deal of usability improvements to come (although the UI isn't terrible for most things) and some sort of things to do beyond building "just because".

[Imperial528]

I loathe supporting incomplete games (Kerbal is the exception, because everyone in the universe was clearly behind it and it was going to see it finished), but this one looks promising. Does it allow you, in current state, to DO anything interactive, or is it still in a state of "build things and admire them, because there's nothing to do with them just yet".

Well, before manual mode it was pretty much crash things together and blow them up, or go sight-seeing. With manual mode any ship or project you build will essentially contribute to the next project, and so on, especially if you are playing with others. That is, if you plan your designs properly, else you just end up with a junkyard at some point.

In manual build mode you have to actually harvest resources, maintain your power supply and fuel, and build things by hand using the welder. In single player it can get dull for some, but in multiplayer there is almost always a project to work on if you are on a good server.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

So where's the to-scale Star Destroyer? Come on, people build the complete Mines of Moria in Minecraft, I wanna see results.

Challenge mode: scale Death Star

[Esquire]

I'm pretty sure somebody did/is doing a to-scale Galactica, if that helps.

[Lagmonster]

I've seen Youtube "best of" vids with full-size Enterprises, Venators, etc., as well of plenty of lower-sized models such as the republic gunship and X-wing and such. My advice is to browse the Steam Workshop or something and see what pops up.

[Enigma]

Do you have engines covering all directions when it won't decel?

yup. As I said, it would decel up to a point and then refuse to decel further.