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 This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly.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 1
Join us Monday, May 4th for the Space Engineers: Economy 2 Update & Pack release!
Space Engineers Economy 2 Update is bringing the biggest economy overhaul in Space Engineers history, making Trade Stations places you’ll actually want to visit. This update introduces the Services Terminal with Grid Storage, Repair, and Salvage, revamped economy systems with Economy Overview and Item Search, new contracts and contract types, animated NPCs on stations, and much more!
📅 Monday, May 4th, 5 PM UTC
🛰️ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/keencommunitynetwork
🛰️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/SpaceEngineersGame
Our amazing community creators will be releasing Space Engineers: Economy 2 Update preview videos every day as part of our upcoming update celebration. Think of it like a video advent calendar – each box reveals a new exclusive community showcase!
➡️ All Previews: https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/space-engineers-economy-2-may-4/
➡️ Youtube Preview Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1Lkz–s-OxsEw5_zTuK1oDhcw5XuaxWm
Stand by for transmission – the countdown continues!
Space Engineers 2
We added Classic Survival to Space Engineers 2 – a new scenario available directly in the world creation screen, no mod required. It’s a harsher, more grounded playstyle where getting to space feels like a real challenge rather than a quick first step.
Here’s what changes when you start a Classic Survival world (regular worlds are unaffected):
We introduced voxel-based resource yields from planetary terrain – soil yields Iron, rock yields Nickel, and sand yields Silicon. Asteroid materials are unchanged, and space gameplay remains intentionally challenging. We limited the components available for backpack building, rebalanced welder and grinder speeds (MK1 up to 1.25×, MK2 and MK3 adjusted for smoother progression), tweaked the hand drill secondary mode radius, and updated the ore yield balance – Iron slightly down, Nickel and Silicon slightly up. We also simplified basic block recipes and adjusted starter component crafting costs (steel plates, construction components, steel tubes, glass). Overall, the experience is very close to the community feedback mod version, with some minor ore balance tweaks on top.
Alongside Classic Survival, we made a couple of general improvements that apply to all modes. We added the Smelter Block to initial unlocks and integrated it into the first-time user experience, with a map marker and onboarding tooltips that now cover all production blocks rather than just the Gearforge – this should help prevent early-game softlocks. We also updated the HUD notification for ore collection so it now displays across two lines for better readability.
Thanks to everyone for the valuable feedback. It’s a pleasure to develop a game for such a passionate community!
I have to share another amazing creation – something that is already possible right now in VS 2.2!
And I have something special for you – can you guess what it is?
It is the first shot of our new Space Engineers 2 Timer Block in action!
We also have groups working for toolbar actions and control in our internal build:
Final Remote Control block. During its design, we made sure players can immediately recognize which side is forward, so there is no confusion when placing it or reading it at a glance.
And I can also give you a sneak peek at another of our Wall Insert blocks – this time featuring pipe greebling!
We are also working on bullet decals to make combat damage more visible and to give you clearer feedback about where your shots are hitting during a fight. Better hit feedback makes combat easier to read and realistic.
VS4 – NPCs Progress
Our work on NPCs for VS 4 is progressing nicely, and we already have one important piece working in the VRAGE3 Editor – behavior trees.
Here you can see the Behavior Tree in action during a patrolling behavior, shown directly in-game as a development overlay.
Our NPCs will have two visual cones defining their field of view. The first is a wider cone, where the NPC becomes alerted but does not immediately spot you. The second is narrower and more focused – once you enter it, the NPC reacts to your presence.
And here you can see a quick work-in-progress preview of the first NPC reactions to player actions – in this case, reacting to being shot. The NPC tries to move to the best available cover and stay hidden instead of standing in the open.
You can expect this kind of reaction mainly from civilian NPCs. But do not worry – we will teach them how to fight back in time 😉
Question to you: Will Economy 2 Update make you try an economy playthrough?
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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Add NPC settlements to the planets, small towns or villages consisting of at least 5–8 buildings. This will prevent the planets from feeling empty: instead of being limited to stations only, the worlds will become richer and more vibrant. Let NPC engineers gradually develop: build new facilities, expand infrastructure, and establish transportation networks- for example, using trucks or transport shuttles. This approach will make the game universe look more realistic and dynamic.
Love this idea!
Yes!! That would be sooo awesome!
That sounds fun! I love the idea of helping build settlements like that!
One small thing that instantly makes building in SE2 much better than in SE1 is the fact that those smarter blocks (timers, remote, possibly event controllers etc.) finally won’t take so much space on big ships.
Yay, devlog on my birthday 🙂
Anyways, Is there a possibility to get a combination of a hinge and a rotor in one? Would be great to make compact gimble mounts for fighters or turrets. If not vanilla, is it possible to create that with the modding tools?
Also, it would be great to have updates on modding guides, for example featuring weapon blocks or handheld weapons 🙂
happy birthday!
I got lucky that the keen newsletters always fall on my birthday! One of. the best presents
Marek, you always finish off with a question, so I wonder if I could ask some of you?
1. Who is your favourite pantomime character? Mine is BUTTONS.
2. Do you like your coat to zip up? I prefer BUTTONS.
3. What are your favourite sweets? Mine is Chocolate BUTTONS.
4. What is your favourite song? Mine is “Push the BUTTON” by Sugababes.
Apologies for the poor attempt at humour! I love the flashing/colour-changing lights! Thanks as always to you and the team for all your hard work!
The classic Survival start finally transforms SE2 in the game I wanted. Getting to space is a challenge, but you still have a reason for it as progress is tied to colonalization and contracts in space.
The angle and max. distance of the viual cones could be changing based on what the NPC does. An NPC on guard duty should be more attentive than a mechanic who is welding away at some block. Also, an acoustic cone could make sense where the NPC hears you.
TL DR; you need to find gold before you can create a block drill
I tried the new classic survival gamemode which is a big improvement over ftu. I tried to rush a small miner but I run into the issue that you need compressors for the block drill. Compressors can only be made by the Assembler. So this means that you need to find gold before you can create a block drill. Is this intentional? Because this will force me to hand drill until I find gold. I`m not yet sure how I feel about this because I didn`t play it for very long yet. But my first feeling is that this is bad. I`m not sure how hard it is to find gold yet and I`m not sure how easily you will find compressors when exploring.
Ohhhh I didn’t realize the initial NPC implementation would have behaviors like that! That’s so cool! So excited for that!!!