Answers to your questions #1

Answers to Space Engineers related questions posted on our Facebook page and our forum.

Will there be early access to the game?

Steam Early Access date will be announced during the first week of October 2013.

How does building work?

We have two building modes: creative and manual

• Creative mode is what you can see in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75GGK5NMkMk.You have unlimited resources, adding and removing blocks is instant, you can build at large distances, you can add/remove multiple blocks by holding Ctrl key, your space suit energy doesn’t deplete and reactors have infinite fuel. Creative mode building is possible only when your world runs in creative mode (this can be switched on/off in world settings).

• Manual mode is what you have seen in the alpha video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3b9e_KWO-I.
  This is the “realistic” building mode. To build a block, you first install its frame and then finish the construction in several stages. The components required for the construction are supplied from your backpack and are installed layer by layer (like an onion). For example, to build a door you need 40x construction components (screws), 4x metal grid, 10x interior plate, 8x steel plate, 4x small tube, 2x motor, 1x display and 2x computer. Disassembling works in the opposite way; dismounted components go to your backpack. 
  
  The topmost layer is usually a steel plate – if there’s a hypothetical situation when an attacker wants to get to computers in a door module, he has to get through steel layers first and only then he can gain access to the computer layer. 
  
  The welder is the hand tool used for assembling and repairing. The grinder is used for disassembling. Damaged layers can be repaired by replacing components in those layers (e.g. if a turret is damaged and its integrity decreases to 80%, you most likely have to only replace the first few layers of steel plate).

We already implemented both modes. The creative mode is 100% functional and will be available on day one. The manual mode is 99% finished but we still haven’t tested it as much as we need to and most probably it will be disabled during the first few weeks of Early Access (otherwise people would try to use it, get into confusing situations, get upset, etc.)

  

How do you create an object?

• Press “G” key - open “Toolbar Config” screen
• Click one of the buttons: “New small ship” or “New large ship” or “New station”
• A new object will be inserted in the empty space right in front of you 
• This new object contains one armor block only
• You can start attaching additional blocks to it (cockpit, reactor, thrusters, gyro, etc.)

Features?

Prior to Early Access launch, we plan to publish a list of features, split into three categories:

• Finished features – those that can be considered final (at least during the whole alpha phase)
• Work in progress – they work well, but are not perfect yet
• Τemporary disabled – features that are work in progress but not in presentable state, have known bugs, were not tested enough or don’t have intuitive interface

We will release a walk-through video, showing the state of Space Engineers on day one of Early Access. People who are willing to purchase the game will see what they are getting.

At this moment, the core of the game lies in the creative mode building, physics simulation and destruction. These are the features that must work on day one. Everything else can wait.

Conclusion

Please keep posting questions and suggestions to our FB page at https://www.facebook.com/SpaceEngineers or our forum at http://forums.keenswh.com

We can’t reply to every comment, but I can assure you that we read all of them and they will influence how Space Engineers develops.

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Warning: Space Engineers is still in development. Everything in the game is subject to change.