Space Engineers Suit Oxygen Addition

[Zhil]

Sarudak, if you look at my posts, Flower's and Dave's, there's a bunch of suggestions about potential game-play ideas. I actually made a working mod once that got near a semblance of game-play, but the game was evolving too quick for me to keep up (biweekly updates, screw that).

I haven't touched the game since, but there seemed to be a small group of people immediately flocking around me, interested to try a mod like that. I've always wanted to pick it back up, maybe I will.

So yeah, anyone willing to give it a whirl, there's tons of game design ideas in these forums.

[kregoth]

I been playing a lot of this during the week, and I still really love the engineering side of things in this game, worrying about making your ship sealed and pressurized. Creating automated blast doors for breaches, setting up a conveyer systems. Started using a lot more internal blocks for added protection against breaches, had to rework a lot of my previous designs. Currently I am making a ship that utilizes gravity for getting around, basically just walk up a wall no need for stairs :P

The largest problem I have is a lack of good internet :( it's generally down 50% of the day, and half the time it's up, it's shit slow. This game would be far more enjoyable for me if I had people to play with. Though multiplayer has a lot of issues.

I think what really could help this game, would be to lock a lot of the more advanced stuff by actually having to find the blueprints to make them. Giving more incentive to explore and attempt raiding exploration sites to find the tech needed to build upgrade modules and larger blocks, like Spherical gravity generators and large reactors, conveyor sorters, even jump drives. It rather boring when you know you can build everything as long as you have the materials.

With the new scenario editor, I imagine you could have some mission pop up letting you know there some rumors of a nearby area that might have new blueprints, or some derelict ship needs repairs and are willing to trade a jump drive for it. Need more threats too, I'd love to have to worry about Solar Flares, too bad asteroid showers are what they are.

Basically the game just needs more incentive for the player to do things, rather than just build things. It's really lacking in the department of feeling like you're doing everything for a reason beyond your own desires.

[Zhil]

I been playing a lot of this during the week, and I still really love the engineering side of things in this game, worrying about making your ship sealed and pressurized. Creating automated blast doors for breaches, setting up a conveyer systems. Started using a lot more internal blocks for added protection against breaches, had to rework a lot of my previous designs.

Sounds like fun, but there is no way that you'll ever breach your hull because there's no reason for that to happen in the game. That's my main issue with the game. It's like building a castle in minecraft and then discovering all the rooms are empty, because there's no reason to put anything in them.

Currently I am making a ship that utilizes gravity for getting around, basically just walk up a wall no need for stairs :P

Yeah, those are fun. I made one of those cylinder shaped ships once, where gravity pushes you out to the inside of the cylinder. Well, octagon instead of cylinder of course, though I imagine you could create smoother ones, that aren't grid-locked, but then you probably will see random ship damage due the simulated aspect of the game.

[kregoth]

Sounds like fun, but there is no way that you'll ever breach your hull because there's no reason for that to happen in the game. That's my main issue with the game. It's like building a castle in minecraft and then discovering all the rooms are empty, because there's no reason to put anything in them.

Missions/Campaign are supposed to be coming at some point, though I doubt it will be of any significance in solving that issue. There's also some new Multiplayer code update in the works, I hope it's far better than what they have now. The game could really use a better multiplayer system.

Yeah, those are fun. I made one of those cylinder shaped ships once, where gravity pushes you out to the inside of the cylinder. Well, octagon instead of cylinder of course, though I imagine you could create smoother ones, that aren't grid-locked, but then you probably will see random ship damage due the simulated aspect of the game.

I figured out quick that the more grav gens on while moving, the worse things can get. The fields I make are tiny though usually only to fill the catwalks or hallway. Also, Sensor blocks :) They shut them off when no one is in their field. Saves a lot of power, and headaches.

Looking at the new update, looks like I can trigger blocks with the Air vents now, well looks like I can stop using the programming block mod I was using to do just that :P

[Gunnerman21]

My friend and I are building quite a big ship in survival right now (no rouge spawning ships)... its not even close to finished and it already has well over 12000 blocks. It will be a capital industrial ship kinda like the Rorqual from eve, storing and processing massive amounts of material. I just counted again and it will be about 130 blocks long by 100 wide and 40 tall. It will have at least 8 refineries for each of the 9 ores excluding ice (72 total). Right now my friend doesnt play much so its just me, ive finished the first 9 refineries and 4 assemblers for moving processing from our upgraded asteroid starter ship to the big ship. We're running desperately low on iron and my mining ship is occupied with transferring material to make the big ship build parts for itself. But the first large reactor is finished so we got that going for us which is nice, plus about 800 units of uranium ingot.

I have a feeling once the systems are done, ie thrust gyros, we'll go on a mission throughout the galaxy collecting all the iron we find to finish the hull.

Also about the new multiplayer code, I'm super pumped. My friend keeps lagging out and rubberbanding all over the place which is the main reason he doesnt play anymore.

Also, did anyone else see the news about Keen splitting off some coders to a new company they made to create a general learning AI? I guess they wanted to add one to the game, but for it to truly be a good ai, they'd have to make it from scratch, in a new company called GoodAI :P

[Zhil]

Also, did anyone else see the news about Keen splitting off some coders to a new company they made to create a general learning AI? I guess they wanted to add one to the game, but for it to truly be a good ai, they'd have to make it from scratch, in a new company called GoodAI :P

The general AI has nothing to do with games and was in fact the reason to start Keen software in the first place. As far as I can tell, the video games have always been a way to fund the AI project.

[kregoth]

One thing I really just can't understand is why the fuck can't the rotation of a block just remain the same no matter which way I am facing. One thing that would really make building easier, is if rotating a block was actually consistent. I can't imagine it being hard at all to implement it so that I can rotate left and right, up and down based on the way I am looking.

[Gunnerman21]

Welp, planets are here and a lot of changes have been made: http://forum.keenswh.com/threads/update ... s.7372785/

Personally I love the thrust and gravity changes, that specific engines can't work near gravity. Also uranium being rare on planets is interesting, seems like the only viable way to get it is on asteroids like before.

[kregoth]

I am unfortunately below the recommended specs for my video card. My geforce 560 just can't get above 15-20 frames, no matter what settings I choose. I hope this get improved, I have no means to upgrade my GPU. So sadly I just can't play when the FPS drops to the teens and below. Kinda pissed to be honest, I know I am overdue for an upgrade, but I can't play unless I turn off planets. Which at this point is pointless.

Guess I can no longer play the game :( what a waste! I'm not angry at Keen for the change, I'm just angry because I lost one of my favorite games, I hope this changes in the future. But with Keens track record, I doubt that's happening anytime soon.

But I am curious, has survival made a drastic improvement with planets now? Is it an actual enjoyable experience with some depth?

[FlowerChild]

But I am curious, has survival made a drastic improvement with planets now? Is it an actual enjoyable experience with some depth?

My rig can just barely run with planets enabled (not particularly playable), but to answer the above: no.

The starting scenarios they have in place for the initial planets release already have full bases built up, so there's really no survival involved. I basically puttered around for a few minutes, said "ooo pretty" (or whatever the equivalent of "pretty" is on minimum settings) a few times, then lost interest as there still doesn't appear to be any point to play.

I did see mention that they'll be releasing additional survival scenarios later however, and this is more just an initial test release. Keen has never been strong on gameplay though, so who knows? :)

[Calo290]

There is another starting scenario called "Star System". It starts you falling towards the surface in a lander (the planet equivalent of a respawn ship, it just can't make it out of atmosphere) with some starting supplies. That's about as close as you'll get to a legit survival start.

Edit: For those who are having stuttering problems with planets, I've found the Flora setting under world options makes a HUGE difference on performance for my PC at least.

[Gunnerman21]

I've been trying to play on the 3 planets map, it starts you in a kitted drop ship, complete with just enough energy for you to land, but also comes with enough parts for 6 solar panels. Which i guess is a bit "cheaty" but with uranium rare on planets it makes sense.

Mining in a car is hard. Never will I take space mining for granted again. I built a little car just about as big as what you would build in space as a beginning mining ship, it has pistons on the back tires to raise the back thus pushing the front mining drills into the ground. Also, making cars with 3 wheels is much better than 4, 1 of my 4 tires frequently lifts off the ground just enough to lose all traction and causes me to drift oddly. I'm not sure how keen could forget about stone, and that we'd have to mine quite a ways before getting through that stone to useful ores.

Ice. I do not like how they did ice. Apparently ice is only split into what you need, I filled a bottle of o2 and had no space for hydrogen and yet the o2 was made. The vent is also off so the H couldn't have been vented. Seriously needs to be re-thought, splitting ice into both always only when space for both is present. There's really no reason not to have a H tank with these changes, even H bottles in the ice refinery.

And another thing, top speed of 104mps sucks on planets, so I changed it to 10,000 and now I will have no trouble with conservation of energy when flying though atmosphere. Now if only a simple version of ksp aero could be implemented...

[kregoth]

But I am curious, has survival made a drastic improvement with planets now? Is it an actual enjoyable experience with some depth?

My rig can just barely run with planets enabled (not particularly playable), but to answer the above: no.

I did see mention that they'll be releasing additional survival scenarios later however, and this is more just an initial test release. Keen has never been strong on gameplay though, so who knows? :)

I watched the live stream during the release, and yeah that's what I got from first impressions. Cool to look at, but that's about it. They looked rather boring. The earth planet looked horrible from space, mostly because the size of those mountings just don't look right.

The live stream did mention that they are going to pull away from adding new content for a while, and focus on fixing up and improving existing features. Though I'm getting more and more doubtful that it could mean improved gameplay. Their a lot of features currently in the game that if fully functional would make a big difference. Sadly I have my doubts that the devs can actually make something out of what they have. Which is becoming all to normal for Early access type games.