Space Engineers: Warfare Evolution & Decorative Pack #3

  SUMMARY:

• First Iteration of our New PvP Scenario: Space Standoff
• New Blocks in the base game: Flat Atmospheric Thrusters, Short Wheel Suspensions, Round Armor Panels and more!
• Performance Improvements, Quality of Life Changes, AI & Combat Improvements (Event Controller Logic, Flee Away From Target)
• New Premium Content: Cab Cockpit, Colorable Solar Panels, LCD Panels, Inset Blocks and more!
• 10 year Anniversary of Space Engineers

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Hello, Engineers!

It's an exciting moment as we introduce you to the latest evolution in the world of Space Engineers - the Warfare Evolution update. Our first update that is released simultaneously on 3 different platforms - Steam, Xbox and now also on PlayStation!

Among the highlights of this free update is the experimental PvP Scenario: Space Standoff, setting the stage for epic confrontations that will test your strategic prowess and combat skills. But that's not all - brace for sweeping Performance, AI and Combat Improvements and Quality of Life (QOL) tweaks that will enhance your overall gameplay experience.

This new PVP scenario will not only provide a new way to experience Space Engineers, but will change and evolve over time as a permanent addition to our Keen hosted, and Community run, Dedicated servers.

 

Apart of this free update we are also unveiling the Decorative Pack #3. We're thrilled to present 60+ new decorative blocks that will empower your creativity and allow you to bring unique aesthetics to your creations.

Free Content

New PvP Scenario: Space Standoff

Your team has managed to acquire an encrypted data container that could hold the key to gaining an upper hand in this endless conflict. Unfortunately, your enemy is resourceful and has acquired the same encrypted data from an unscrupulous seller. Now, the race is on! 

Join The Red team or Blue team, prepare your defenses, and make sure your data container is well defended during decryption. Launch your assault and destroy the enemies data container before they manage to decrypt its secrets!

Choose carefully between fortifying your compound, building up a jump-capable strike force, and infiltration of the enemy base. The enemy’s data container must be destroyed!

It has always been my goal in SE to merge building & fighting, creation & destruction. The cost of building & creation, is disproportionately high when compared to destruction, which is typically easy and cheap.

Naturally, I would like to seek a balance between creation & destruction.

Two steps of my plan:

1) My first step was to create a balanced PvP scenario where both teams have the option of either offense or defense. Both teams should have the same objectives and tools, like a chess match. We cannot expect a competitor to allocate much time to building (it's too time consuming).

2) The Second step will be to enable players to spawn their blueprints into the PvP scenario. This empowers competitors to “pre-game” and offsets the cost of creation. Time invested in customization and optimization of designs can be invested outside of a PVP battle, much like it is in survival. Players can then bring these optimized designs directly to the battlefield “on demand” and without slowing play.

We are currently reviewing these concepts. Enabling players to spawn their blueprints in this or future PvP scenario would be an ideal result. We see huge potential in the ability to design and build your ships in creative mode, and at your leisure. Without the stress and time constraints of combat you can refine a design and bring it to life “trial by fire” in this evolving PvP scenario.

The battle doesn't end after a single match! Following the match's end, win or lose, you can start considering ways to improve your strategy and prepare for the next match!

This arms-race should bring you back again and again as new strategies emerge and older ones are refined. We have 7 servers running the new scenario 24/7  including 3 Steam and 4 EOS. We want to guarantee a place to do battle with a team of friends or newly met allies. While we will host our own servers, we would encourage everyone in the community to run their own modded versions of the new scenario, as well as feedback on how we can change this scenario moving forward, are most welcome!

Performance Improvements

Performance updates are always in the works and this update delivers big. We are always pushing the envelope on performance in order to deliver the best possible Space Engineers experience. In this update, you will see performance improvements of as much as 60% in large worlds! Additionally, we have seen faster grid updates and better memory usage in some critical areas.

Third Person Camera Improvement for Grids

You may notice an upgrade in camera behavior while piloting spaceships and rovers. The third person camera now follows more smoothly, making your cosmic adventures even more enjoyable.

Where previously it would quickly force you to first-person when there was some obstruction between the camera and your grid, the camera view is now allowed to dolly in much closer to your grid and will only go to first person only when there really is no room. This should greatly help you maneuver in tight spaces where it could previously be difficult to see around you!

Additionally, the camera no longer switches to see the entire connected grid when you dock with something using connectors or landing gears. The camera now remains focused on the grid that you are controlling when docking, making it easier to see what's going on inside your hangar!

AI Improvements

• Improved Event Controller Logic
• AI Defensive (Combat): Added Flee Away From Target feature
• General AI targeting behavior improvements
• Decoy behavior improved
• Check out our Grid AI Guide

Wheel Suspension Block exclusive area improvements

You can now pack blocks around the wheels more tightly - leading to compact and elegant vehicle designs! 

Assembler Categories

We've added more categories to assemblers and ordered the items in the assembler by "tier". (E.g: Pistols are at the top, the rocket launcher at the bottom.)

New categories:

• Ingots
• Equipment
• Weapons
• Ammo

QoL (Quality of Life) Improvements

• Improved Sensor detection of Voxels
• Improved Tooltips/UX on Spawn Menu
• New Content Notifications
• Improved Projectile Ricochets - Projectiles will now bounce more reliably off of shallow angles. Values for different ammos can be adjusted by modders.

Round Armor Panels

• Light Armor Panel Round - S + L grid
• Light Armor Panel Round Corner - S + L grid
• Heavy Armor Panel Round - S + L grid
• Heavy Armor Panel Round Corner - S + L grid

A set of round armor panels - in both light and heavy variants.

Short Wheel Suspensions

• Short Wheel Suspension 1x1 Right/Left - S + L grid
• Short Wheel Suspension 2x2 Right/Left - S + L grid
• Short Wheel Suspension 3x3 Right/Left - S + L grid
• Short Wheel Suspension 5x5 Right/Left - S + L grid

The suspensions you know and love, in a smaller package! These suspensions are 1 block narrower/shorter than the existing ones. So where a regular 3x3 wheel suspension is 2 blocks wide, these ones are just 1 block wide!

Flat Atmospheric Thrusters

• Flat Atmospheric Thruster - S + L grid
• Large Flat Atmospheric Thruster - S + L grid
• Flat Atmospheric Thruster D Shape - S + L grid
• Large Flat Atmospheric Thruster D Shape - S + L grid

Flat atmospheric thruster variants.

Button & Control Panel

• Control Panel Pedestal - S + L grid
• Button Panel Pedestal - S + L grid

Single button and control panel pedestals for base game.

AI Warning Signs

• Warning Sign Arrow - S + L grid
• Warning Sign Grid AI - S + L grid
• Warning Sign AI Powered - S + L grid
• Warning Sign Memetic Badger 1- S + L grid
• Warning Sign Memetic Badger 2 - S + L grid
• Warning Sign GoodAI - S + L grid

AI is here - so there has to be a set of warning signs… 

Free DLC Content Additions

Adding new wheels means updating old ones. If you have our Wasteland DLC it's about to get a free upgrade! We are adding new wheeled content to the Wasteland Pack for both existing and future owners.

Short Offroad Wheel Suspension 

(added to the Wasteland Pack)

• Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 1x1 Right/Left - S + L grid
• Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 2x2 Right/Left - S + L grid
• Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 3x3 Right/Left - S + L grid
• Offroad Short Wheel Suspension 5x5 Right/Left - S + L grid

A Wasteland offroad version of the short wheel suspension.

Decorative Pack #3

Similar to our previous major releases, we hope you will take this opportunity to support the continued development of Space Engineers. This DLC pack consists of cosmetic items that enrich your game visually. None of the features in this package provide any advantage to players who purchase this DLC. 

The price of the Decorative Pack #3 is $4.99 USD or your regional equivalent. Show your continued support for Space Engineers and check out the Decorative Pack #3.

This package includes:

Warworn Armor Skin

Make your ship into a weathered veteran - burned, bruised, but not beaten! 

Cab Cockpit - S grid

A small grid boxy cockpit - ideal for that working truck cab look.

Twin-blade Wind Turbine - L grid

Elegant twin-blade variant of wind turbines. 

Colorable Solar Panels

• Colorable Solar Panel - S + L grid
• Colorable Solar Panel Slope Left - S + L grid
• Colorable Solar Panel Slope Right - S + L grid

Solar panels with different shapes and possibility to change the color. 

Holo LCD - S + L grid

Futuristic hologram variant of LCD screen.

Inset LCD panel - S + L grid

Inset variant of LCD screen.

Sloped LCD panel - S + L grid

Sloped variant of LCD screen.

Curved LCD panel - S + L grid

Curved variant of LCD screen.

Round Beacon - S + L grid

Round variant for the Beacon block. 

Inset Couch - L grid

An inset couch for decorating interiors. Can be used as a seat.

Inset Bed - L grid

An inset bed for decorating interiors. Can preserve the players' inventory and toolbar while they're offline and keeps them alive as long as there is oxygen available in the environment.

Inset Button Panel - L grid

Inset block variant for maintaining access to your systems.

Entertainment Corner - L grid

Chill out in style and comfort - Entertainment Corner is a decorative block with many uses. 

Inset Bookshelf - L grid

Decorative block for all the space bookworms. 

Inset Aquarium - L grid

Aquarium? In space? Yes, that’s right! Just sit down and enjoy the calm view. 

Inset Kitchen - L grid

Decorative block with the kitchen theme. 

Inset Cryo Room - L grid

Flush and air tight cryo room. Sweet dreams! 

Corner Medical Room - L grid

Medical room block variant.

Half Bed, Half Bed Open - L grid

A half block sized bed - comfortable, inviting but practical.

Scaffold Set

• Scaffold Block - S + L grid
• Scaffold Block Slope - S + L grid
• Scaffold Block Corner - S + L grid
• Half Scaffold Block - S + L grid
• Walkable Scaffold Block - L grid
• Walkable Scaffold Block Corner - L grid
• Walkable Scaffold Block Corner Inv. - L grid
• Walkable Half Scaffold Block - L grid
• Scaffold Block Ladder - L grid

Scaffold Blocks can provide lightweight structural support to ships and stations.

Crates & Barrels

• Barrel - S + L grid
• Three Barrels - L grid
• Stacked Barrels - L grid
• Cargo Crate - L grid

Crates left scattered around, indicating hard working engineers have been in the area.

Explosive Barrel - S + L grid

A barrel which has been converted into an improvised explosive. Boom! 

What's Next 

Celebrating 10 years of Space Engineers!

As the 10 year anniversary of Space Engineers approaches, we want to celebrate with our community of dedicated players and fans. The anniversary event will feature special in-game content, as well as real-world celebrations and events.

Whether you’re a long-time fan of Space Engineers or a newcomer to the game, the 10 year anniversary is sure to be an exciting time for everyone involved.

YOU are invited!

• Join us in Prague: oranzerie.cz
• September 4th - 10th
• Main event Saturday the 9th
• More details: https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/space-engineers-10-years-anniversary/

Be sure to stay tuned for more information and updates as the anniversary approaches!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can we expect more mechanics and QOL changes, not just cosmetics?

A: Yes. We hear you and we have big changes, updates, and additions planned for 2024 and beyond.

Q: How do I provide feedback?

A: Please contact us with your bugs, and feedback here: https://support.keenswh.com

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 include both game and DLC content!

Hiring

If you’re interested in working on awesome games like Space Engineers or our in-house game engine VRAGE3, and love solving unique challenges, we’d love to hear from you! Check out the open positions at Keen Software House and don’t forget to send us your English CV/resume and cover letter. 

Remote collaboration is possible!

Our team is global.

Finding the best candidates to join Keen Software House means exploring every possible solution, including remote work. While we strive to provide team members with the best possible work-life balance here in Prague at our incredible Oranzerie offices, we understand that it is not always possible to transition, therefore we are very remote-friendly. Here’s a map of where our teammates live.

Follow our social media to get the latest news!

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

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
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI Game, and LLM agents that learn continually.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI game," which features LLM-driven NPCs grounded in the game world with developing personalities and long-term memory. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.

HALLM: An Agent that Observes and Acts through a Python Terminal

At GoodAI, we are deeply committed to the advancement of safe AGI. Large language models (LLMs) undoubtedly offer significant power, but on their own, they have limitations — notably, the inability to learn new skills post-deployment. It's here that our innovative approach shines. We've designed agents that not only harness the foundational capabilities of LLMs but also significantly expand upon them. Through our unique architecture and novel methods, our agents imbue LLMs with the ability for continual learning, enabling them to understand complex instructions, adapt over time, and excel at intricate reasoning and problem-solving tasks.

HALLM can reach the user to ask for more information or if it thinks that the user can help it out with something, like installing a Python package or rebooting the system. In this video above, HALLM uses the built-in function `input` to ask the user to suggest a topic for a haiku it is writing.

In this video, we show a scenario in which HALLM is presented with an unknown class object to interact with and a task to accomplish afterward. The initial query from the user is given disguised as a comment (green). After that, the LLM starts interacting with the Python terminal with that goal in "mind". In yellow, we see the lines that have been executed by HALLM in the terminal, and blue text represents the output of those instructions. The Agent quickly reacts to finding unexpected information or errors and finds its way to achieving the goal set by the user. When calling the LLM, all yellow text is tagged as "assistant" and all blue text as "user", enforcing this way the illusion that the LLM is actually interacting with a real Python terminal.

Code: GitHub (open-source)

We envisioned an agent with the prowess to execute code, interact seamlessly with various system components, and augment its abilities through existing software, other online resources, and external references.

However, the initial test stages were marked by a series of challenges stemming from inherent aspects of LLMs:

• One-shot thinking. 

• Having been trained to be helpful assistants, current LLMs always try to provide the user with an answer right away, and they often fail miserably when the answer requires elaboration or the instructions are unclear.

• Lack of initiative

• When presented with incomplete instructions or when the agent hits a dead end, LLMs are usually very reluctant to identify the missing pieces of information, ask the user for help, or investigate the issue. Instead, their preferred tool is…

• Hallucinations.

• We found that LLMs tended to come up with invented results or user responses every time they had to work with unknown information or wait for a result to be ready. This was a direct consequence of the innate longing of LLMs to generate immediate and full solutions.

We nevertheless had an idea to get around this and steer the LLM towards a more exploratory and dynamic state of mind: to make it believe that it was interacting with a Python terminal. We expected that the terminal environment would incentivize the LLM to think and act the way people usually do with terminals, and Python sounded like a good candidate for a well-represented and easy-to-work-with language.

This is how we ended up developing this prototype, which became the baseline for our agents from that moment onwards.

In the prototype, the LLM is prompted to generate Python code that looks exactly like the code that you can find in a Python terminal (in which every line starts with “>>>” or “···”). 

We then take those lines of code and execute them line-by-line in a simulated but feature-complete Python terminal. Every time the terminal responds with any kind of output (printed text, unhandled exception, syntax errors, etc.) the line-by-line execution of code is interrupted and the output is forwarded to the LLM. 

Importantly, we also discard the non-executed lines from the LLM response. This results in a conversation between the LLM and the terminal, in which the LLM generates code and the terminal runs it, and which supports a strong illusion of a line-by-line interaction from the point of view of the LLM.

Thanks to this illusion, the agent is made aware of its mistakes and incentivized to learn from them, at least as much as the LLM context can hold. Apart from this, the agent can communicate with the user to require additional information, using the built-in `input` function, and it can signal that it has achieved the goal of the task by calling done(). At this point, the control is given back to the user, whose messages will be shown as comments to the agent.

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
VRAGE Engine: www.keenswh.com/vrage/
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com

 

Personal bio:

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!

Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.

Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.

Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI Game, and LLM agents that learn continually.

GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI game," which features LLM-driven NPCs grounded in the game world with developing personalities and long-term memory. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.

Future Shock versus Effective Accelerationism

This article is a guest post I wrote for the Level magazine in May 2023.

Situated in the heart of America, the Amish community embodies a lifestyle that seems unhurried and distant from the hectic pace of modern society. While it's a common misconception that they completely reject technology and electricity, the truth is more nuanced. Yes, they do utilize electrical power for certain appliances, a common necessity in most homes, but they firmly resist connecting to the public power grid. This conscious decision symbolizes their commitment to maintain a certain distance from the non-Amish world and the cultural influences it could carry.

They aren't actively seeking out new technologies to incorporate into their lives, but rather finding ways to maintain their chosen lifestyle in the face of an ever-changing world.

Yet, in stark contrast to this unhurried pace, many people grapple with the rapid pace of change. Alvin Toffler, in his renowned work "Future Shock," describes the disorientation felt by individuals and entire societies when they experience "too much change in too short a period." This acceleration can seem overwhelming and unmanageable.

However, there's a faction that embraces societal transformation and actively seeks to fuel it. Proponents of Effective Accelerationism (e/acc) see the universe as a grand dance of thermodynamic processes, with life itself being an improvisational dancer, continually adapting and capturing more "free energy."

E/acc posits that we can't escape this dance - but we can adapt our steps. This philosophy speaks to the essence of life and evolution and provides insights into the rapid pace of societal and technological change. It reminds us that change is a constant, an inherent part of life, and that even our struggle with the pace of transformation is a part of this grand dance.

One challenge that arises from this relentless pace of progress is the hyper-competitive nature of innovation. In our current world, a groundbreaking idea can quickly become obsolete, replaced by the next big thing in days or even hours. Although it drives progress, this all-or-nothing environment can lead to a high-stress society where few would willingly choose to reside.

However, how do we adapt to an increasingly frenetic rhythm, especially when many are already struggling to keep pace with current rates of change? The e/acc answer points towards self-improvement and augmentation. This idea parallels the growing discussions around cognitive enhancements and neural prosthetics in the transhumanist circles. The human brain, a product of millions of years of evolution, may not be naturally equipped to process the exponential increase in information and the constant pace of change we currently experience. Neural enhancements and cognitive prosthetics might help us bridge this gap and keep pace with AI's progress.

In the upcoming fast-paced, hyper-competitive world, we must rethink our understanding of human rights and societal regulations. Competition drives progress, yet we must balance it with the preservation of mental well-being and security. As rapid technological advancements transform society, it's crucial to develop adaptable laws and ethical guidelines. New human rights could emerge, safeguarding individuals from excessive change while ensuring access to cognitive enhancements and AI advancements. Striking this balance between competition and enjoyment of life is a critical challenge for our future.

These thoughts often give me pause. As a techno-optimist, I embrace change. However, even I wonder if the relentless flow of AI inventions might be overwhelming without some form of augmentation. I sometimes imagine a future where I long for tranquility and stability amidst the clamor of constant progress. 

And yet, the only way we can guide superintelligent AI is if we elevate ourselves to similar heights. Rather than delaying AI development out of fear, we should focus on improving our understanding, wisdom, and capability. 

Ultimately, like a compelling plot twist, our dance with acceleration might appear surprising now, yet inevitable in hindsight. Despite the daunting pace, we continually advance toward a promising future. Our dance with progress isn't about halting acceleration but how we navigate it. In this grand dance, our willingness to participate becomes our first step toward shaping the future.