Gaming Space Engineers (now in BETA)

[APDAF]

Why not just download more?

 

[orb]

Update 01.109

Update 01.109:

Another note: Space Engineers is again on a Free Weekend until Sunday 21:00 UTC, and -50% off until Monday 18:00 UTC.

 

[orb]

Update 01.110

Update 01.110:

 

[Xyon]

Connectable stations! Finally!

 

[Quick_Nick]

 

[RisingFury]

Weird. The game is eating up all my RAM even in scenarios without planets, made before the update. Task Manager tells me it's using less than 2GB, but about 5GB gets cached on top of that. I do hope the game becomes playable again. This is why I hate being forced to always use the current version, though I suppose I shouldn't gripe about that in an early access game.

They're really stretching out early access, aren't they?

I always thought that early access shouldn't last more than 1 year.

 

[orb]

Update 01.111

Update 01.111:

 

[orb]

Update 01.112

Update 01.112:

 

[Izack]

They're really stretching out early access, aren't they?

I always thought that early access shouldn't last more than 1 year.

Indeed. To be fair, they are adding new content, but there's no end in sight to this feature creep.

 

[Dantassii]

Looks like I'm restarting again... latest Thursday patch causes a CTD about 30 seconds after I add an armor block to my newest ship. I'll wait until after hotfix Friday comes out to see if they fix it.

Dantassii

 

[Urwumpe]

Indeed. To be fair, they are adding new content, but there's no end in sight to this feature creep.

Well, they are using the Early Access for developing their real core product, which is the RAGE engine.

 

[RisingFury]

Well, they are using the Early Access for developing their real core product, which is the RAGE engine.

I don't mind engine updates, but damn! They've gone from a space game to a game to a surface game, because others came out after them that did both.

They need to gamify the existing thing, not add features that'll take years more to develop.

 

[Urwumpe]

... because others came out after them that did both.

Not sure if that really applies. There are now other games in Early Access, that had planets before SE, but none of them has comparable performance or maturity. I would say that this had rather been community feedback than competition - when Medieval Engineers started to flesh out more of the surface based game, many alternatives had not even started. Or the update of the voxel materials, which was also already very early.

They need to gamify the existing thing, not add features that'll take years more to develop.

Space Engineers already has the much better user interface of many other games in that genre. And also much more interesting attempts at AI. It is a sandbox game after all - too much early gamification means you miss your core product. What only annoy me is, that the planets update came too soon with too poor performance. This likely really threw the early access phase back, because SE before planets and SE after planets are no longer really comparable games. I would have called it a Space Engineers 2.0.

 

[RisingFury]

There's no game in Space Engineers. The entertainment value is in building your ship and exploring, with a little bit of survival... but that's it. There's no point to it.

Minecraft gets away with it because when you build something, it's not so that it works, it's so that you can look at it. But in SE, when you build something, you want to take it for a spin and / or shoot stuff, but there's very little to do.

 

[Urwumpe]

There's no game in Space Engineers. The entertainment value is in building your ship and exploring, with a little bit of survival... but that's it. There's no point to it.

Minecraft gets away with it because when you build something, it's not so that it works, it's so that you can look at it. But in SE, when you build something, you want to take it for a spin and / or shoot stuff, but there's very little to do.

Is that really a difference to Minecraft? :rofl: If I look at the Facebook groups, which show extremely cute looking, but absolutely useless ship designs...

Next, there are already AI vehicles and hostile drones around, which makes the comparison pretty tough. Yes, it is not "do side quest xyz that looks surprisingly like side quest abc". There is also no strategic UI around, even though you can play the game as 4X with competing player factions. A lot of such stuff would already be possible by modding though.

The big question is: What do you want?

And also, how different is that to Orbiter?

 

[orb]

 

[RisingFury]

And also, how different is that to Orbiter?

Orbiter isn't selling itself as a game, SE is.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Well, until they improve performance of the engine for low end computers, I can't play. And seeing as that's apparently not on their current to-do list...

 

[Urwumpe]

Orbiter isn't selling itself as a game, SE is.

Ah, I forgot. Orbiter is not a game.

Is Lego a toy?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Ah, I forgot. Orbiter is not a game.

Is Lego a toy?

Honestly? That's a debatable point. They can be used as toys, sure... but they can be used for more than that. See the Cubestormer robots for examples of how they're being used for more serious endeavours.