Friday, May 15, 2020

Space Engineers for Xbox: First Update

SUMMARY:
  • What’s new: 
    • New planets 
    • Increased player counts in multiplayer 
    • Increased PCU limits
  • What’s next:
    • Frostbite DLC for Xbox 
    • Dedicated servers 
    • Continued support


Hello, Engineers!

After the Space Engineers Xbox Release on April 15th, we have received a ton of positive feedback from you. There were also a lot of suggestions and comments, so first of all, let me thank you for that.

With today’s release, we are addressing the most pressing issues and suggestions from you. I hope you’ll enjoy all the changes we are bringing to our Space Engineers Xbox version.

What’s this release bringing you

This release includes a host of new changes and fixes:
  • Improved stability and implemented a number of critical bug fixes. Many of the listed items are community suggestions! See the Space Engineers Support website.
  • New planets: Europa, Triton, Alien, Titan & Variants of the Star System Scenario with even deadlier meteor showers!

  • Experimental Mode bringing an increase in player counts & PCU limits
    • Player counts in multiplayer: Xbox One player will now be able to play in a four person multiplayer (previously 2) and Xbox X players will be able to play in a 6 person multiplayer (previously 4) 
    • PCU limits: single player limit moved from 100k to 200k. Multiplayer is changing from 50k to 100k




  • Increased Graphical options for the Xbox One and Xbox One S: Grass, Antialiasing, Greater visibility, and improved shading.



Performance Notes

The performance depends on the complexity of your world and which type of Xbox you’re playing on. Simple worlds run smoothly on Xbox One and Xbox One S, but a more complex world with rich object interactions could present some performance issues even on the Xbox One X.

What’s next?

We plan to keep updating, developing and supporting the Xbox One version of Space Engineers, just like we have been doing for the PC version for the past 6+ years.

The next step is the Frostbite DLC which is currently being finalized for the Xbox version.

After Frostbite release we want to bring the following features to the Xbox One version of Space Engineers:

  • Dedicated servers
  • Limited scripting support


Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will I be able to play Frostbite DLC on Xbox?
We do plan to release the Frostbite DLC for Xbox in the near future. Frostbite DLC was released on PC in March 2020.

2. Why is there no scripting / mod support?
On consoles, there are strict rules regarding any code being executed on the console. For example, there is no support for JIT compilation. In other words, we can not execute any code which is not pre-compiled in the game’s binary and certified by Microsoft.
We will be looking into ways for limited scripts support in the game..

3. Will you implement Dedicated Servers, add more planet types, etc.?
Our main focus right now is to make sure the game is stable and reliable. In the long term, we will be looking into ways how to improve the game even further. It is vital for us to listen to the community and act accordingly. Please use our support site’s the Xbox section to give us feedback and vote:  https://support.keenswh.com/

4. Is there an Xbox Beta program available?
Yes, Beta is available to all owners of the game. Just head to the link below to read details on how to get onboard.
https://forums.keenswh.com/threads/xbox-community-beta.7403905/


Follow our social media to get the latest news!


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.

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.

22 comments:

  1. This is all some great info, from a script standpoint may I suggest something how Bethesda set up for their mods? The workshop already goes through mod.io, it would be nice if the system allowed downloading pre-compiled scripts to use.
    This would remove the need to have a JIT in place on the xbox.

    Granted many scripts require/allow editing to work and that wouldn't be possible but this would be a great middle ground, additionally if you could add a string[] args paramater to the normal script main function and allow for setting the args in the programmer block I think that would give a great amount of functionality and not require a JIT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the suggestions! We would very much appreciate you contributing these ideas to our support portal. Please contact us with your bugs, and feedback here: https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/xbox/

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  2. From a consumer standpoint, Space Engineers is the type of game that is very hard to commit to/enjoy without other people to collaborate and share with. This game needs dedicated server support if it wants to have a chance at long term survival on consoles. Imagine a game like Ark: Survival having released without dedicated servers... It wouldn't still have it's thriving community. I only say this because I love Space Engineers and it would be a shame to see it die on consoles in the cradle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are currently working on a server solution! We have a list of all the biggest community topics here:
      https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/xbox/topics/idea/status/3/category/all/sort/popular/page/1

      Delete
  3. Question with all the new moons you guys added is there a world that has alien planet and the moons in one world?. I know pc has it also how do i enable experimental mode on Xbox i can see it's there however I cant enable it because it's not highlighted??. And great job on the graphics update for Xbox one s i love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you would like to play a custom planet configuration you can spawn planets using admin tools.

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  4. Hello kienata i have brought the game on pc, xbox and i think u should add more extendible blocks and a buttom pannel like they have on elevators
    As well as elevator doors

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you would like to share feedback or suggestions with us, please use our support portal: https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/xbox

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello I was wondering when the frost Pack DLC releases will it come with the survival scenario I've seen it online it looks amazing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As we get closer to the release of Frostbite on Xbox we will have more to share.

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  7. Love the game, love all the suport, love the mechanics....Im just in love with Space Engineers

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  8. Question when will the alien creatures and animals come to the planets or will Xbox not have that

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  9. I'm on a normal xbox and it seems I can only host a 2 player multiplayer at the moment. Is there a fix or was that feature taken away?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you are hosting a multiplayer lobby on an Xbox One or Xbox One S then your limit is 2 player (Host + Guest). You can enable "Experimental Mode" in order to increase this limit.

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  10. I got a Xbox just to play this game. I love hosting and seeing what amazing things players build and being able to see them working together to establish some sort of a trade hub and even showing jump points to each other for safe jumps. Can't wait to host dedicated server ! Thank you !

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  11. Can you please fix the pcu limit or turn it off for Xbox. I can't make ships or nothing, I love this game. I won't like to tell my friends but this pcu limit is crazy and they won't like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While PCU limit cannot be disabled on Xbox; we have significantly extended PCU limits in "Experimental Mode". Please give it a try!

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    2. Kienata thanks but i have found a even better way thanks to the first jump campaign i have a way to get unlimited PCU of course LAG is still a problem

      Delete
  12. Will the frostbite or sparks of the future dlcs be coming to Xbox anytime soon

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  13. so pirate bases have been updated recently i do wish the old ones came back its understandable why they removed the raiding station it spawned the most deadly drone ing groups of 4 so 16 turrets so maybe add them back so if economy is on the raiding station and their drones will spawn the npc trading station will allow players safety against them so economy buffs the drones so they arn t as weak but if your in trouble npc trading stations help you i made this comment as alot of the community want these drones back it made the game more fun and risky.

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