Space Engineers: New Planet Triton, Visual Scripting Tool Overhaul & Frostbite Pack

SUMMARY:

• New Planet: Triton
• Visual Scripting Tool update
• Frostbite Pack (Premium)
• Xbox News - release April 15
• Optimizations + Improved Controller Support for PC Version
• FAQs

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Hello, Engineers!

Here we go with the first major update of 2020, I hope you’ll enjoy it.

What will you find in this update?

Free Content

Visual Scripting Tool overhaul

This is the first overhaul of the Visual Scripting Tool since March, 2016. VST is used to create scripted scenarios like our The First Jump or Frostbite. It is provided to our players to allow them create their own campaigns, stories and more complex experience than it is possible with modding and programmable blocks.

This tool’s UI has been redone and major bugs in Visual Scripting Tool, as well as the scripting engine, have been fixed. Additionally, there have been many user-friendly and quality of life features that have been added, such as the start workspace, run scenario from the editor, and migration to WPF. Lastly, there have been stability and reliability improvements, plus a splash screen and new icons have been added.

Start workspace

To make your decision easier when starting the tool, we created dialog called Start workspace. It contains the most used ways how to create or load visual scripting project and it does all settings for you.

Usability

• Run scenario directly from VST
• Undo / Redo
• UI preventing you to create invalid script
• Strong connection type compatibility check
• Graph ported to WPF, dragging and zooming performance improvements
• Keyboard shortcuts for all nodes
• New Delay node
• Local communication with running game

• World outliner
• Relevant suggested entity names, triggers and IDs
• Right click options for nodes
• Search through all nodes and their properties
• Improved code viewer with syntax highlight and search function
• Comment node font, color and size properties

World Outliner

• Create and delete waypoints from VST
• Manage their folder structure
• Set up their visibility and freeze flag

UI changes and improvements

• New icons
• Colorized connections by type
• New splashcreen

We are very excited to see what our community does with this powerful tool!  

You can find full guide on our webpage: https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/visual-scripting-tool.html

Small Hydrogen Tank

The Hydrogen Tank was added in Update 01.105, and we’re pleased to announce that players will now be able to enjoy a small version of this block, the Small Hydrogen Tank.

Triton Planet

A handcrafted planet created for the Space Engineers community, which features a breathtaking snowy and frozen landscape, that players can explore and build across.

   

Scripted Weather Effects

We are very fortunate to have such a creative and driven modding community. We recently had the opportunity to work closely with a member of that community, the incredibly talented Jakaria. The result is Scripted Weather, which you can experience now, in the new Frostbite scenario!

Our new Frostbite mission contains the first Scripted Weather in Space Engineers!

Scripted Weather can be run from the command line. Anyone with creative rights (or Admin) can enable it.
We would love to hear your feedback on Scripted Weather!

The Frostbite Pack

Similar to our previous major releases, we decided to give you an opportunity to support the further development of Space Engineers. We have created a pack which consists of cosmetic items and the Frostbite scenario designed to enrich your game visually. None of the things in the package brings any advantage to players who purchase this DLC. The price of the Frostbite Pack is $3.99 USD, or your regional Steam equivalent, so if you wish to support us, check out the Frostbite Pack. 

The package includes the following items: 

• Frostbite Scenario
• Antenna Dish
• 6 Dead Engineer Models
• Gate
• Offset door
• Frozen Armor Skin
• 7 LCD Posters

Frostbite Scenario

You are a member of a salvage crew, which has been tasked by a mysterious client to acquire something extremely valuable (yet unknown) on Triton. Play solo or with up to four players; explore this moon’s frigid landscape and remarkable architecture, and overcome numerous engineering challenges as you uncover this world’s secrets. The scenario gives you several hours of gameplay. Please note, the Frostbite Scenario is in English only.

Dead Engineers

Antenna Dish

Gate

Frozen Armor Skin

Offset Doors

LCD Posters

All the items in the pack are cosmetic only. We’ll be more than happy if you will send us the screenshots of how you used the items from the pack in the game. We will post the most creative ones on our social media.

• Space Engineers Twitter
• Space Engineers Facebook
• Keen Software House Discord

We’d also like to thank several members of the Space Engineers community, who contributed voice-over recordings for the new Frostbite scenario:

• Naburine and DirectedEnergy of Ball&ChainGaming
• Misfit Studios (creators of Protocol 51)
• Nathan "Silverbane" Steen
• Skyler "Gorhamian" Gorham
• Jacob "wearsglasses" Ruttenberg

FAQ

Q: Why are you releasing another DLC? 

A: Releasing another DLC gives us the opportunity to explore new ideas and provide more unique content the community wants. We are very excited to present you with the new Frostbite DLC. All players will be able to interact with the blocks, but only those who own the pack will be able to build them. Additionally, all players will have access to the new planet, Triton, but only those who purchase the Frostbite Pack will be able to play the new scenario.

Q: Should we now expect that we will get a new DLC every three months? 

A: Free and paid content releases support the continued development of Space Engineers, as well as bringing new things to the game. All paid DLCs are not pay-to-win, but rather cosmetic. We think this is the right way to bring interesting content to the game and keep the game improving.

Q: Can we expect some special promotions in the future?

A: We are always looking at new ways to bring Space Engineers to a wider audience. Special promotions are good opportunities for this. We have a number of exciting promotions planned for the future, which includes both game and DLC content!

News about the Space Engineers Xbox One Version

The Xbox One version of Space Engineers will be released on April 15th. You can find more information about it in my other blog post, but you can already pre-order the game now and you will get access to the game four days prior to the official release. We are also running the public test in March, so stay tuned for more news!   

How has the Xbox version contributed to the PC version?

PC players will also benefit from the massive optimizations that our team performed on the Xbox version, especially the dedicated server users who are playing in a big world. 

All the optimizations are being released on the PC version in one of the upcoming releases.

Here are some interesting numbers I’d like to share with you.

Before optimizations - The graph shows the measurements for campaign Mission 3 - Ruined Camp, on old Xbox on original (unoptimized) code version. The green line represents the sim speed 1.0. 

After optimizations - The above graph from the same campaign on the same Xbox kit, but running on an optimized code version. The game runs more than 5 times faster than before. This was possible thanks to enormous work by our team who did an awesome job!

Merchandising

We would like to remind you that our fantastic Space Engineers merchandise is available at the Keen Software House E-shop

Our shop has many designs to choose from and it’s easy to use.

What’s next?

We plan to release the Xbox One version of the game and then continue with major updates for the PC version of Space Engineers.

If you enjoy this update, please consider writing a review.

Looking at our upcoming plans, our main focus is going to be the Xbox One version of Space Engineers.

If you want to let me know your feedback please get in touch via my personal email address marek.rosa@keenswh.com, or use our Keen Software House support site. I welcome all of the feedback we receive and we will use it to learn and provide better services to our players.

Hiring

If you’re interested in working on awesome games like Space Engineers, we’d love to hear from you!

Check out the open positions at Keen Software House here: https://www.keenswh.com/jobs.html and don’t forget to send us your English CV/resume and cover letter.

Please note: while we prefer candidates who are able to live and work in Prague, Czech Republic, we are open to working remotely with candidates who are applying for senior positions.

Thank you for reading this blog!

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
Medieval Engineers: www.MedievalEngineers.com
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com
General AI Challenge: www.General-AI-Challenge.org

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 its best-seller Space Engineers (4 million copies sold). Both companies are based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Marek has been interested in artificial intelligence since childhood. He 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.

GoodAI started in January 2014 and has over 30 research scientists, engineers, and consultants working across its Research and Applied teams.

At this time, Marek is developing Space Engineers, as well as leading daily research and development on recursive self-improvement based general AI architecture - Badger.