Thursday, August 17, 2017

Skins, Parachutes & Player Feedback

Engineers stand ready, big update ahead! 

With today's major release we are bringing you some amazing additions to the game!

From now on, you will be able to personalize your engineer with a broad range of new items! We are introducing customizable skins for your engineer, your tools and your weapons. It’s time to show off!


On top of that, another brand-new block makes its debut in Space Engineers; the reloadable parachute block for both small and large grid!

Parachutes

To make use of them in your creations, first, just add these new blocks. Then craft some of the new components that came with them, the parachute canvas, and prime the chutes with them.

Now you can either keep control over them manually, triggering the deployment of the chute via your ships terminal interface or toolbar, or you simply use the “deployment altitude” feature for a more automated behaviour. Just remember, you do need to be in atmosphere for them to function!


A special “Thank you!” goes out to community modder “Draygo”, who has been working closely with us on this new feature for all of you to enjoy!

Maybe now, the “spontaneous disassembly” part in your landing procedure can be replaced with “opening a parachute”...

Character Customization

Once you have found some of those new customization items, they will stay linked to your game account, but you will need to get your hands on some of them first!

So how does it work?

If you play the game in survival mode, from time to time, you will pick up the signal of a nearby container on your scanners. This can happen planetside, as well as in the darkness of outer space. 

Your suit’s systems will automatically triangulate the approximate position and a marker will be added to your GPS system, to help you locate the containers and salvage their contents.


Once you have examined a container thoroughly, you can find various items for your character, your tools or weapons. As soon as you find a cosmetic item in one of these containers, they will be stored in your Steam Inventory, just as you are probably used to from other games you play on Steam. This means you can also send these to your friends and work together on collecting the various items!

To swap the items on your engineer’s suit, you need to use the Medical Room (where you previously only changed the color of your suit).

You are also able to access the new customization screen from the main menu and set the default appearance of your engineer there, before even entering a game.

Skin Sets

Many of the skins you are now able to find, will belong to a set of matching items. There’s four items for the engineer: Helmet, Gloves, Boots and Suit.

On top of this, there’s also matching variations for your engineer’s tools and weapons.

Each of these pieces can be found individually and you can combine them any way you want.

Our artists have worked hard to give you some truly amazing skins for your engineers, so keep your eyes peeled for mysterious signals!

To help you understand how rare the item is that you just found, we have categorized them into five levels:
  • Common (gray)
  • Uncommon (green)
  • Unusual (blue)
  • Rare (purple)
  • Exceptional (gold)

Many of the items are also colorable, just as you are used to from the default suit, while others come in their own, unique appearance.

It might also be easier from now on, to tell if one of our developers is visiting your game server as only authorized Keen personal will be able to wear the Keen-Pyjamas.


Probably the most notable in all of this is however, is how this connects Space Engineers to the Steam Trading System and the kind of possibilities this opens for you in the future:

So first off, you can trade these cosmetics amongst your friends and help each other complete those sets even faster. That’s the most obvious one, nothing new here, you have seen that in a hundred games by now.

You can also trade-in items from another game for a Space Engineers item, and vice versa. 
For some of you this might be something you hadn’t considered before, for others it will also already be an established practice.

But it gets really interesting if you think about the kind of community we have with Space Engineers, and all the great people amongst you, creating new content for the game every day.
By enabling the Steam Inventory in Space Engineers, we are going the first step to truly include the modding community in further shaping the game.

Modders will be able to design new items and submit them for review by the community. You, the players, will then be able to decide which you would like to see added to the game.
And because we are making use of Steam and their Inventory Service for these items, the author’s ownership is always protected. Credit where credit is due!

So how will this work for you right now?!

All current players will find one set in their inventory already: It’s the “Veteran” Suit which we’d like to give you as a present and a special “thank you” for all your support up to this point.


Moreover, all players who own the Space Engineers Deluxe Edition will also find “Golden” items in their inventory as a second complete skin set, right from the start! We've also increased the bundle discount to 15% which will apply to new buyers of the whole bundle or existing owners of the base game looking to complete the bundle. Check it out here.


For all players who are playing Space Engineers, and also own a copy of Medieval Engineers, we are also bringing you the “Medieval” Suit on top of the ones already mentioned.


So our biggest supporters will find 3 complete skin sets in their inventories right from the start!

And for those among us that still do not own a copy of the game, do so now to receive the veteran suit for free while the offer still stands.

We hope you will have as much fun hunting for and wearing the skins, as we did making them :) 

Enjoy! And have a great rest of the summer :)

Player Feedback

We encourage you to provide us your feedback about introduced changes. 

We've created a new platform for players to submit feedback to the development team. The feedback.keenswh.com page provides the possibility to let your voice be heard, or to vote for an idea that the team needs to look at and consider implementing. For more instructions, click here.


Questions?

Q: Does this mean you've fixed all the bugs and the game is finished?

A: Not just yet. We have made very good progress in the last couple of months with our ongoing performance optimizations (CPU and GPU), memory optimizations, load time reductions, multi-threaded physics and multi-player stabilization. But there is still more to come! And the next major release (we already teased it to you a little a few months back) is also nearing completion! So stay tuned for more updates!

Q: I am not interested in different skins, the default suit is enough, what’s in it for me?

A: You will also find some building components inside the containers and you’ll have the option to salvage the containers too. 

Q: Steam Inventory? So will there also be an Item Store and I can only buy some of the skins for real money?

A: No, you will be able to get all the skins eventually, just by playing the game. We are aware of the option, and if the community wants us to, we can easily enable it. But it is not planned for at this time.

Q: Are you making the game pay to win? Will I have to buy a skin at some point if I want to have all of them?

A: No we are not. The skins we are adding are cosmetic and are intended to be used for personalizing your engineer. 
We are also not selling the items, we are just making use of the Steam Inventory System for the technical implementation.
You will always be able to achieve anything there is to achieve by just playing the game.

Q: That still sounds like a money grab to me. How is it not?

A: Any money we make by player to player trading (from which we would get a small cut) would ultimately be a win-win situation as there would be more funds for future development of the game. But if you just have fun in a more optimized game, playing together with your friends, it will be reward enough.

Q: I play only creative! How will I get my hands on these items?!

A: Maybe it is time for you to try out that survival mode people have been talking about ;)

Q: Did you get an inspiration from other games / game companies to include the Steam Inventory into the game?

A: We have been thinking about the skins for quite some time already. Our main goal was to have something specific in the game that gives players an opportunity to change the appearance of their engineers and have fun collecting the items.

Making use of the Steam Inventory has several positive side effects in addition:
  • Protect ownership of items created by modders in the community
  • Cheat Protection: You can’t just activate a mod to unlock the items, that would ruin the fun for everyone else and make all the hard work we put into this pointless

Our goal is always to bring you the most enjoyable experience. With all the different play styles that exist and that make Space Engineers so unique, it is not always easy to do so for all of you and be fair about it.
The Steam Inventory Service helps us in this way. 

Of course we also looked at other games, and the ways they successfully implemented a feature like this into an already running game. 

We had a lot of fun with the design and visuals of the skins, so we hope that you’ll appreciate it. 

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


Thank you for reading!

Marek Rosa
CEO and Founder of Keen Software House
CEO, CTO of GoodAI


For more news:
Space Engineers: www.spaceengineersgame.com
Medieval Engineers: www.medievalengineers.com
General AI Challenge: www.general-ai-challenge.org
AI Roadmap Institute: www.roadmapinstitute.org
GoodAI: www.goodai.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com


Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the CEO and CTO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and the CEO and founder of Keen Software House, an independent game development studio best known for their best-seller Space Engineers (2mil+ copies sold). Both companies are based in Prague, Czech Republic. 
Marek has been interested in artificial intelligence since childhood. Marek started his career as a programmer but later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of the Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to personally fund GoodAI, his new general AI research company building human-level artificial intelligence, with $10mil. 

GoodAI started in January 2014 and has grown to an international team of 20 researchers.

81 comments:

  1. Hi, suits is a nice feature for a the game.

    Where is official KSH server ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,

      There are no official KSH servers (yet)

      But there are many companies where you can rent a dedicated server

      Marek

      Delete
    2. for some reason I cant get no more skin pieces I got 3 but after that I haven't got none. I open 125 of the thing and yet stil no skins.

      Delete
  2. Q: I play only creative! How will I get my hands on these items?!

    A: Maybe it is time for you to try out that survival mode people have been talking about ;)


    If I wanted to have shit locked behind hours of grinding I would've played CSGO you bastards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never play creative But I agree with the OP.

      Delete
    2. Hours of grinding? Not likely-
      1. Make a creative world, add cool stuff instantly (you probably already accomplished this step)
      2. From the main menu, change your world options from Creative to Survival

      If you REALLY want that stuff without troubling yourself to grind away hours, there are options for you.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Get good scrub.

      Seriously, what difference does it make?
      Get off your high horse and make something in survival.

      Delete
  3. Say, little question about the cosmetics, will they still spawn in world's made before the update and will they also spawn in modded worlds ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes and yes. At least that is what I was told. Didn't try myself yet.

      Delete
  4. Q: I play only creative! How will I get my hands on these items?!

    A: Maybe it is time for you to try out that survival mode people have been talking about ;)


    If I wanted to have shit locked behind hours of grinding I would've played CSGO you bastards.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Other developers should learn from you! :) You are always able to surprise me after each content update. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. why so Joe? Keen actually is one of those rare successes in indy world. That implies two things - they should have what to tell and definitely there should be audience of listeners.

      Delete
  6. I didn't expect that especially not in a minor update but I think both the parachute and the skins are great additions to SE :)
    The skins give the survival mode some kind of purpose something you can actually achieve by playing survival.

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    Replies
    1. Yea im sure it would be great if we could play MP for more than 10 mins without something game breaking happening....

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    2. yea but having them linked to your account will screw that up. One you have done it once, that's it, you are done. how boring. I DO NOT want it to be linked to my account. and what about something that would actually add something to the game like tool upgrades of various types? no? that to much game play for you?

      Delete
  7. So how will skins work in a survival world but with cheats enabled through the enable creative mode cheats option in alt f11? (might be a different shortcut)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,

      people can't cheat the skins. They are managed by servers.

      Marek

      Delete
    2. well i have one more question will there be options to add/make custom skins for yourself (I can already see people making there own weird and interesting skins)

      Delete
    3. Also im talking about the Space master menu wont players just be able to teleport to these containers get the stuff out and move on

      Delete
    4. Space master - yes they can teleport to them, but it won't affect the frequency of skins inside the pods

      Delete
    5. 2 more questions first question can they just copy it with ctrl C and paste it for friend?

      Second question whats this i just got this trying to join are world
      https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/328713174914433036/347797520799498247/snap_screen_20170817134255.png

      Delete
    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. They know about the onslaught of complaints about old issues... That's why they're developing their feedback system to include back-end stuff they're working on.

      Delete
  9. Multi Player broke this side, 0 servers available. :(

    ReplyDelete
  10. Why didn't you add the most important question of all: How will the new skin behavior effect my EXISTING skin mods (and also you stole the parachute from workshop - it was technically already invented :P)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Albeit you took the parachute verbatim from the mod - I would like to point out that I find the inclusion of new vanilla blocks a very good sign; Still for those of us who use mods - this update seems like it will do more harm than good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it currently is doing more im unable to even connect to my friends games without getting a {your in offline mode} while pressing f3

      Delete
    2. but he said it came from workshop!

      Delete
  12. What are the drop chances for the skins, as you don't always get one. And what are the rarity tables?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I haven't found any cosmetic items yet (I have found a ton of crates though). Are they in the game right now?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Haven't found any cosmetics (only parts and some higher tier tools). are they in the game yet.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What are the exact rates of the rarity? I can't figure out anything from 'exceptional' .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I seem to found out that a item will drop every 30 minutes

      Delete
  16. Rosa I know your approving these comments get your ass back here you have a chapter of explaining to do

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha :)

      BTW, the multi player thing should be ok now, just need to update the game on your computer

      Delete
    2. no new update here verifying game cache

      Delete
    3. yeah confirmation its still broken i cant connect to my friend it just loads me in a weird game thats just has the gps points I made once again this is the error I get while pressing F3 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/328713174914433036/347797520799498247/snap_screen_20170817134255.png

      Delete
    4. We will look into this. Please give as a sec.

      Delete
    5. good to hear this Keen software really needs beta testers surprise updates like these are just bad

      Delete
    6. George please write me on support@keenswh.com with following information:
      1. Log from your session with strange connect
      2. What is the address of server you are connecting to
      3. Are other servers causing same problem?

      Thx!

      Delete
  17. Nice update! (Not tried yet)
    But now I want to see NPCs, like mercenaries, traders, workers. I want to see procedurally generated cities, military bases, etc.. on the planets as well as on the asteroids.
    This would certainly lag on servers but I don't care since I play solo anyway. Or do it in SE2 at least, pleace :o

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bases that spawn and stay spawned in as the player travels around would be nice, and a slider for rarity would be good for lower end players and servers. That would make SE more competitive with Empyrion on the survival aspects of things.

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    2. If your talking about a slider for rarity as in the character skins thats not a good idea as these skins are worth money in the community as they use the steam market and can be sold to players for real in world money just like counter strike and team fortress

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    3. If it helps (or if it doesn't I suppose) they've stated that they're planning on unifying the Space Engineers and Medieval Engineers game engines, which would ultimately bring things in like multi-block abilities and Brutes. By that time though, there'll probably be modded campaigns etc. and much other cool stuff. But it's probably (quite) a while off...

      Delete
  18. To Marek and extremely talented staff,

    Thank you all for your dedication to the success of Space Engineers. I absolutely love the game and eagerly anticipate future enhancements/features. With that said, I can with great pride say the game has come a long way. (I know you aren't done with the game, but I am curious to know) As the game is seemingly being developed into a (my personal assessment Star Citizen hybrid or better) Was this direction always the goal of Keen Software House or has it metamorphosed as production continues to evolve and shape the game? Dont misunderstand me, I love the what I am calling "new" direction at the same token I am just curious. (IF you recall the days before the chrome textures, the game was one project) Maybe with player feedback it has evolved into something really special...

    Thanks for your time.

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  19. Is there anyway to disable these probes in survival these fuckers are so laggy and drop the simspeed since half the time they dont deploy parachute in planets and explode making holes

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    Replies
    1. please, I do like them, but the spawn rate is messing up my servers dynamics, silver is brutally rare to make power more difficult to manage as well as push more player trading, now all anyone has to do now is collect the reactors on these. Being able to set them as battery only would be very helpful.

      Delete
  20. Females in STEM fields trying to enjoy their freetime might, just might, be wondering why everyone is a bearded white male? Beards aren't very friendly for airtight seals. Among other concerns. Care to comment Marek?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Aoibhe,

      the reason why we have bearded guy in Space Engineers is this:

      - 3 years ago we started working on Medieval Engineers
      - we wanted to create a unique character and so we ended up with our medieval guy
      - then later, about 2 years ago, we were adding ability to turn off your helmet in Space Engineers
      - it was logical (and funny) to use our medieval guy

      This update video kind of documents it: https://youtu.be/pkTuvF435Jc?t=38

      Reasons that were not guiding our decisions:
      - we don't prefer males
      - we don't prefer whites
      - we don't prefer bearded dudes

      It was just our free decision - artistic license.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_license

      I hope I answered your question correctly :)

      Best,
      Marek

      Delete
  21. Can I get a definite answer on how quickly the game will accept new dropped items. I know that TF2 has a cooldown on time before you can receive a new drop. What is the cooldown time here?

    ReplyDelete
  22. what if I'm using mods in my survival game? I use modded thrusters to go get these containers and I've gotten over 30, but never recieved an item. After 30 containers I resorted to using the space master debug system to just teleport to the gps location because that was faster. I still haven't gotten a single skin this way. I've had to either buy skins or trade with my friends.

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    Replies
    1. Strongduke I use plenty of mods and ive found 5 items seems they show up every 30 minutes

      Delete
    2. I started up a new game and tried 5 of these containers so far and haven't found a single skin or cosmetic. Do you know how rare they are?

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    3. There random seems Keen have not released the chances but I have found one every 30 minutes on the dot just keep searching them also you can Tp to them using space master on survival

      Delete
    4. I've been playing SE on my World from the day the update launched, found 3 items on day 1, but nothing in the following two days. I've been dry on items since Thursday finding at least 60+ crates with 15+ hours of game time..

      Delete
  23. Good Update Marek as last majors! the game needs a little more "life and interaction" in the empty space and planets, and this begins to give first step.(I like the skins, the only thing i hope is that they do not distort the spirit of the space engineers to be totally modest in something in which some things are paid)

    On the other hand, super cool the profiler system of mods. Is that modders need. I'm a little concerned about closing the game source (I understand the reasons) and for this, i cant access to use this profiler. The source really helps me a LOT. I have made a DS system simil torch or sese for my dedicated server but all via mod, and i could understand and create many things thanks to access to the source code to see how things work. Unfortunately i am not a known modder since i almost do not mod for the community, only for my server (occupy all my free time) and i estimate that do not give in the ¨size¨ to postulate as modder that has access to svn. In my situation there must be many more. Surely they have already debated a lot, but i ask please try to find a way in which the general public may have access to the general base code and not to important things that no one should know, such as the new skins system.

    Just as there is the cargo ship prefab spawn code, it would be interesting to have an planetary NPC stations spawn generator. Makes even more sense to explore the planets, and fill to these with interaction and life. Same with npc human-oid? pirate characters, the npcs should walk around (pirates, spiders, wolves) but not directly or not EVER attack a player to see it. I know they have been working on that, i hope they can continue it to see the planets full of life (pirate bases, ships from here to there, etc.)
    I am happy to see that for some time now keen have made adjustments at the organizational level, last modification of the update system was very good. Made multithread physics,etc (as some of things that i recommend in an earlier post) I know the project is very big and it's a long way off, but they're on the right way.

    If you allow me a last suggestions, i think of all things, the next most important mayor update would be to solve the collision system. The lag produced in collisions between grids, or against voxels (there comes a time when the grid is swallowed by the planet, but this can last a few minutes where the simspeed drops horribly and grid glitch trow the planet).

    Sorry for my englsh, regards

    ReplyDelete
  24. "Cheat prevention"
    Eh. If people wanted to, it'll be an easy task to circumvent it. At least for a few servers, anyway. See: Team Fortress 2 SourceMod plugins

    ReplyDelete
  25. What does the T-14 mean? It says that underneath the mystery pods and it is counting down, what happens when it runs down? And also is there a timer on the items? How can I increase my chances to get an item? I have opened a ton of them and still only found two common items...

    ReplyDelete
  26. It seems to be the time it would take to reach it under normal means

    ReplyDelete
  27. I got three items on Thursday within 3 hours, day of update release. Since then, I have nearing 15-20 hours playtime, and 50+ crates checked, and no items since Thursday. Also Personally, I love the update, I love the skins idea, but maybe double the timing for the crates? Seems I loot the cargo container, and try to the button with no luck, get back to base just start on something and another one pops up.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Great. After Fixing Invisible tree's which should have been a hot-fix not a goddam patch. I wait patiently for an update to get a constant stream of "unknown Signal" which gives me a skin for my engineer when I spend 90% of the time in first person. Meanwhile Multiplayer is in a sad state and needs desperate attention and your " Major update " Is skins.... Really. Now i Can look good while my ship doors blow up. or when landing gears fail to lock even though they say there locked. or while i spend my time trying to pull parts out of Cryo pods when there is a large cargo sitting empty in the conveyor system but for some reason parts go into cryo pods even though it has to go through the cargo container to get to the cryo pods. Hydrogen thrusters are still intermittent and playing multiplayer survival is more about how to avoid bugs then any of the intended game play. but hey that tree is visible now and I can look good next to it with my screen full of "unknown Signal " beacons and half melted into the ground ship.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Exo,

      what problems do you experience in multi-player? We will look on it.

      Marek

      Delete
  29. Hi Marek!

    I'm wondering, will the existence of official "skins" affect mods that also alter the appearance of the Engineer? If this will be the case (as in, such mods becoming illegal), can we please have an option for a female engineer?

    ReplyDelete
  30. I bought game late in 2014 and have over 1000h but yet I didn't received Veteran set. Only Medieval and Gold one.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Hi Vojtech,

    thanks for letting me know. We will look into this and will let you know.

    Best,
    Marek

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Díky, jestli to pomůže mám tu img s infem o mém steam účtu https://photos.app.goo.gl/swu3RS45W9RuNa7f1
      Jinak výborná práce na hře.. díky :)

      Delete
    2. Děkuji, Jestli to pomůže přikládám link na screen s informacemi o mém steam účtu. https://photos.app.goo.gl/swu3RS45W9RuNa7f1 Jinak výborná práce na hře, už se těším na další den otevřených dveří abych vám mohl osobně poděkovat :)

      Delete
    3. Hello Marek, did someone looked into this? I still missing my veteran skin. I would like to have this unique skin in my collection :)

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    4. Hi Vojtech, yes we are looking into this... sorry for the delay. There have been other priorities, but we will try to sort this out ASAP.

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    5. Hi Vojtech,

      I have good news for you! We have added your veteran skin to your Steam inventory. You should be able to see it there.

      Best,
      Marek

      Delete
    6. Thank you very much Mr. Rosa. I appreciate this act.

      Delete