What is this
Every Thursday, I will share a dev diary about what we’ve been working on over the past few weeks. I’ll focus on the interesting challenges and solutions that I encountered. I won’t be able to cover everything, but I’ll share what caught my interest.
Why am I doing it
I want to bring our community along on this journey, and I simply love writing about things I’m passionate about! This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly. Any plans I mention aren’t set in stone and everything is subject to change. Also, if you don’t like spoilers, then don’t read this.
Space Engineers 2
While the VS2.2 update for Space Engineers 2 is being tested and prepared for the release, let me reveal a few features we finished in previous weeks.
The Art Team finalized all the ammo models needed for VS2.2’s combat introduction to the game.
And continued to tune the sandstorm visuals:
From your comments, I can tell the hype is real for our introduction of the first mechanical blocks. 😉
We will be introducing the first Mechanical Blocks to Space Engineers 2 in VS2.2 – Rotors and Pistons as a start. The main focus right now is on making pistons and rotors super stable. We are completely reworking them from the ground up along with the new VRAGE3 physics engine. We will start with very basic movement functionality and will go from there.
The Area Welding UI was fine-tuned to quickly give you all the information you need.
Showing completeness and material sum numbers:
Components Crafting:
Insufficient resources warning:
And last but not least – preview of using area welder in the Creative Mode:
And our programmers and artists managed to fix the edge cases of camera clipping in the background of all the work.
Updated Roadmap – VS2.3
The next major milestone after this update will be VS2.3 – you can expect Wheels, Hinges, Warheads, the Timer Block, Sensor Block, LCDs, Wind Turbines, the Event Controller, further combat improvements, and additional features expanding on the foundations established in our previous updates.
After that comes VS3: Water. Planetary-scale volumetric water, along with all the water gameplay systems and blocks. This update will also add a new water planet, Byblos, to the Almagest system.
Following closely will be VS4: NPCs + Cooperative Multiplayer, adding 4-player gameplay and the first iteration of interactive non-player characters. VS5: Full Multiplayer will complete the foundation for large-scale multiplayer sessions.
Two development teams are working in parallel on VS3 and VS4, so the final release order may depend on which reaches completion first. Either way, we’re pushing forward on all fronts to bring you new features and deeper gameplay as quickly as possible!
Many of the features and improvements planned for the future have been requested and shaped by the suggestions and ideas shared through our Support Portal. Your feedback is incredibly valuable, and we appreciate every suggestion you submit.
Check out our full Roadmap.
Question to you: Which VS2.2 system are you most excited to experiment with first?
Share your thoughts in the comments below – I read them all, and they’re one of my favorite parts of making our games.
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Does a bear shit in the woods?
I’m looking forward to the update, but I’d like to know more about the survival side of the game.
Right now, I would actually like to see those “survival extensions” at least clearly planned somewhere. To me, what we are getting so far feels more like another batch of fundamental engine features rather than actual survival gameplay. And that’s fine — those systems are important — but it would help a lot to know where the real survival layer fits in the bigger picture.
If the actual survival gameplay is planned for later (maybe even after VS3 or VS4), it would be great if you could tell us that. Because when an update is called VS2 “Survival Foundations” and now “Survival Extensions,” many of us expect to start seeing those mechanics appear.
At the moment, what we mostly see are engine features and very simplified placeholder survival mechanics. For example, we currently have situations where 35 kg of ore magically turns into 35 kg of steel plates inside the “starter” backpack, with no mass loss, no waste, no mass vs volume. The whole early-game progression is basically skipped, so there isn’t much to survive yet.
There are also many survival-related questions that the community keeps asking about:
Will there be proper recycling mechanics?
How will early game progression actually work?
When the full production chain?
You often ask us to share feedback on the support site — and many of us actively do that — but we still don’t really know when those core survival mechanics will start to appear.
Take this as a friendly reminder from a passionate veteran player that a good portion of the community is very interested in the survival aspect of the game and would love to know the direction.
In simple terms:
What kind of game is SE2 going to be in the end?
A deep survival sandbox like many of us hope for, or something a bit different?
Even a rough roadmap point saying “this is where survival gameplay will be addressed” would help the community a lot. Thx.
Good new. Backpack building / components / survival – they will get rebalanced in the upcoming VS2.3 major update.
thank you for addressing this. as especially the survival part and the production chain is what currently holds me back fron buying SE2 and still sticking to SE1.
thanks also to marek for answering your comment.
I’d like to ask if graphical technologies such as DLSS, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation will be added to the game.
I can’t wait for mechanical blocks, especially hinges and timers / event controllers. So hyped building custom landing legs for my ship, something that was barely possible in SE1 due to the size restrictions.
What I wonder though: Are there any plans on airtightness and mechanical blocks? It would be so cool to have a ramp door that actually seals when closed.
Mechanical blocks are an awesome differentiator for SE1, and I’m excited to see them in SE2! I know the current focus is on recreating the essential functionality of SE1’s mechanical blocks, but I’m also interested in the new innovations that could come in SE2. A “float” mode for pistons, a universal joint, and 25cm unconveyored versions of mechanical blocks are all on my wish list.
still no info about programming block, its very important part of gameplay,
when it will be in SE2?
programable blocks have been spoken about in the pass and they are trying to design them so they dont have to be banned from every server for being game breaking.
i would guess they will come after most of major systems are in place so then they can develop the API for programable blocks and Modding API instead of having todo lots of small Api updates each update as some features in the game havent got there full functionality just basic so id expect it to come after vs 5
I like what SE2 is evolving into. However, I’d also like to see native Linux support (not via DXVK), which means implementing a Vulkan based HAL. In addition to Linux users, this would provide support for macOS users through MoltenVK. Moreover, Steam Machine could be quite popular when it’s released.
I like what SE2 is evolving into. However, I’d also like to see native Linux support (not via DXVK), which means implementing a Vulkan based HAL. In addition to Linux users, this would provide support for macOS users through MoltenVK. Moreover, Steam Machine could be quite popular when it’s released.
been stated in the pass that things like diffrent Os and consoles is planned to be looked at closer to the game release out of alpha
“preview of using area welder in the Creative Mode”: Projection builing in Creative Mode? I don’t get it.
Cant wait for VS2.2! This will likely be the update after which I will move from SE1 to SE2 (mainly due to first turrets/guns and welder blocks).
What really worries me, is that aerodynamic physics on planets is still not really adressed. The aerodynamics and reentry mod is among the most downloaded mods for SE1. On the support KSH Website, by far the most requested topic is atmospheric physics! On third most requested topic is reentry and heat management. Also in the 22.01.2026 Dev Diary, like many others, the comments are full of people demanding some version of aerodynamic physics.
In my opinion this just shows that aerodynamics is probably the biggest topic thats (during early access) largely overlooked by KSH currently. A few years back, we saw a video by Jan Hloušek showing first aerodynamic tests in VRAGE3 using the Havok physics engine addition, and even that simple test looked like an awesome mechanic. For me, no aerodynamic realism absolutely breaks immersion (falling like a stone no matter the ships orientation just doesnt make sense, just like not losing horizontal speed in atmosphere due to air resistance).
I am not saying make air resistance/lift an immedeate priority, but I think at least after the addition of Water in VS3, a substantial portion of the programmers should be starting to look into this highly demanded topic. Right now this topic feels ignored, even though for me (and apparently many others) this is one of the most important features of all! I personally would prefer aerodynamics and reentry/heat systems over water, actually.
I hope you at least consider strongly upping the priority of this topic, you always seemed to listen to the community very closely.
completely second this- even basic lift and air resistance would be one of top features, ideally functional to thw point of designing functional wings and flying grids with just forward thrusters.
bonus= have plansts be differentiated not just by gravity, but by atmosphere density (ie, some planets have higher air density and flight works well though with higher air resistance, others are thin and have almost no lift/resistance
We are working on one thing at a time, so the current state is not a prediction of what we will add in the future. We simply had to pick the path that we believe provides that best set of features, and differentiation from SE1.
As far as my physics knowledge goes, aerodynamics and “hydrodynamics” (drag in water) are similar enough that they could be handled with the same mathematics. Air could be treated as “thin water”. At least as long as one does not go near the spaad of sound.
Most excited for the mechanical blocks here – I’m looking forward to making small vertical lifts, V-TOL engines, and more!
It’s great to hear that their stability has been reworked from the ground up too. I think these mechanical blocks are what really makes SE stand out from other games in its genre- so seeing a focus on perfecting their perfomance is GREAT!
Along with the SE2 lighting system, being able to fit smaller mechanical blocks within ships is really going to be a gamechanger for SE2- there is so much potential here and I for one am so inspired to create 🙂 Thank you guys!
PS: I have a background as a game/ digital artist and am working on a concept block called “Deployable Pad”
I think of it as a piston, sliding door, and a magplate all nicely tucked into a single functional 1.5m cube. It finally breaks open the door of Deployable landing gear, hidden compartments, small cargo storage, and more! As I work and polish, I’ll share in the SE2 discord!
This is all to say: you guys at KSWH have inspired me to have fun and be creative again, even if just for a passion project!
gruller65 discord- merrik of a bitch you had better give me control through rotors of thrusters and other things!
On a serious note, though you guys are kicking ass keep it up
I’m continuously impressed by everything that you guys are getting done
Thanks!
I still dont get the obsession with water, i would trade all of the water for simple aerodynamics, its a Space Engineers not Boat/Submarine Engineers
My biggest concern with mechanical blocks was that blocks would have too much friction when sliding against each other like in SE1, but seeing the preview videos it’s working flawlessly!
its lookas awesome! NO CLANG!!!!
Hello, with the release of rotors and hinges it would be timely to remind/ask for the ability to weld projected subgrids.
On SE1 this was enabled through a mod and worked very well. Will SE2 address this? It would have a great impact on the creativity of printable grids.
you completely missed last weeks blog that spoke about projectiong subgrids and welding them will be coming in an update after vs 2.2
I’m a little curious to see what the ammo box looks like when empty.
Have you ever considered about putting dust devils into the game, i just love the thought of seeing dust devils being spotted traverlling along in the deserts , I think it would had alot of personality to the deserts when they are calm weather.