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 This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly.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.
➡️ 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
VS2.3
Work on wheels continues. They’re not ready for a video preview yet – but I can already show you Wheel Suspension construction and fractures.
We are also working on thruster flame and effects randomization, so every ignition not only feels unique, but truly is.
As you probably noticed, we are constantly tweaking and improving our planetary biomes. One example is the automatic addition of snow to flora in snowy biomes. It helps these environments feel more natural and more consistent, because vegetation now reflects the conditions around it instead of looking unchanged regardless of climate.
Small environmental details like this help the planets feel more believable and give each biome a stronger identity.
And our designers are already working on more planetary stations and Random Encounters. We want planets to feel more alive and give you more reasons to keep exploring, not just for resources, but for discovery itself. Expanding these locations and encounters this early in development helps make each journey less predictable and gives the world more variety.
Art Team
I have a few more “leaks” from our Art Team – a new Flight Seat and more detailed shots of both Merge Blocks.
Poplar-like Trees
Where are my tree fans? I have another treat for you!
Here you can see a first look at our new poplar-like trees. I like how these help shape the landscape in a different way than our existing vegetation – they add more vertical variety. Some of these versions include features like ivy and mushroom growth, which help make the environment feel more dense.
VS3 – Water
25cm Holes
In our previous water teasers – and even in the live build dev tools – you could see that the water was still quite sluggish and did not really want to flow through openings smaller than a 2.5 m block. That is why I am genuinely very excited to show you this: water flowing through a 25 cm hole in our internal build!
Note: Water flows nicely from the 25 cm hole in this video, but the rendered water volume is larger than 25 cm, and you can see water appearing behind the second wall. These are just work-in-progress visual imperfections, not problems with the water simulation itself. Improving water rendering is one of our next steps.
I’m really happy about this one. For me, this is a huge milestone, because it shows that the simulation is becoming much more precise and much closer to the behavior we want. Watching water finally move through an opening this small feels like one of those moments where the whole vision suddenly clicks.
It gives me a lot of confidence that we are getting closer to making water feel like a true gameplay system in Space Engineers 2, not just a visual effect.
Waterline Rendering
We started working on another important part of water that is waterline rendering.
It may sound like a small visual detail, but it matters a lot for selling the illusion of being partly above and partly below the surface – whether you are looking out from a cockpit, moving along a shoreline, or eventually piloting boats and submarines. Getting that transition to look right is a key step toward making lakes, rivers, and oceans feel believable as real spaces you can engineer in and around.
Question to you: What are you most excited to build once water arrives?
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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About that water; you could probably just leave this “leak” on the outside of the basin and simply add a particle effect of water splashing to explain it. Well yeah, water gets everywhere; what did you expect?
Yes, that’s actually what’s happening in the case of what you see in the video – there’s invisible water, flowing to that other side, but since you can’t see it, it looks wrong. We need to start rendering that below-threshold water flow as particle splashes.
I’m really happy that a control seat is being added, that’s going to open up so many new options for customizing aircraft cockpits and ship interiors. Also, please consider adding suspension wheels of different sizes. I’d really love to be able to build simple, everyday vehicles like sedans or pickups, not just bulky rovers. And when water is finally added, I’d love to build ships like the RMS Titanic and other vessels from that era.
Seconded when it comes to wheels. A 50cm wheel with a correspondingly smaller suspension would be nice. It would be the equivalent of the 1×1 small grid wheel in SE1 (but I would make it a bit narrower). Perhaps one could make a mod it by shrinking the 1 m wheel?
I’m most interested in the potential for water related contracts. like delivery contracts of X amount to space station XYZ.
Side question.
For planet side encounters. Is it going to be SE1 style one off stations?
or are their plans to try to come up with a system for “the lost colony” style villages?
it would be neat to either find villages that have NPCs from the first engineers to venture out here.
or maybe a sub-colonization contract system.
parent contract says go to GPS 123.
you find a “lost colony” and the local contracts (block or NPC) have things to do to “rebuild”. with local contract progression maybe NPCs move back. making the area feel alive.
those NPCs then add random encounters to the world space. like seeing trade ships etc. would feel rewarding to then start seeing XYZ village commerce ship, dock at a station while your are refueling.
I’m rambling, its 4am.
Just love were this game is headed and can imagine the potential for NPCs and making the universe feel alive. (though my ideas are probably too ambitious)
Wishing you and your team well and happy development!
To answer your question: offshore oil rigs. From real life examples like Deep Water Horizon or Thunder Horse PDQ to fictional ones like Mother Base from Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker/5. I’m hoping to give them actual function, like as factories and resource gatherers. Maybe we’ll be able to process water into Hydrogen, or maybe there’ll be some resource we can gather in the ocean, preferably with the ability to automate it. I already have some rigs built in SE1 for automated ice/stone mining and processing.
Really excited for the SE1 update and SE2 2.3. Thank you for continuing to post these dev diaries.
New merge blocks look good, and I like the trees as well. Good work.
I personally can’t wait to build submarines. I really hope there will be hostile NPC bases at shores, so that I can sneak to them with a submarine and annihilate them with submarine bound missiles in a stealth op like fashion.
On a different topic: Please add a scenario similar to classic survival, but with progression. It’s kind of frustrating that I either have to have the FTUI where I get everything done for me and get to space immediately or have to have a world where everything is already unlocked.
I would like a scenario where I start like in classic survival, but only with the essentials unlocked to set up a very basic base and build a atmospheric ship to reach ice and a outpost where I can accept my first planetary contract. This contract then unlocks blocks needed to build an ship to get to space. There you then have all the other contracts.
Could you do me a favor? If an element of the game is awful and completely doesn’t work, such as the current FTUE, do not ask Keen to make it optional. Ask them to get rid of it or fix it, so that the game gets better, rather than being bogged down with features no one uses while severely lacking in features that are actually pleasant to play.
I think id like to build something like a base that allows you to transition in and out of water.
I did want to ask about airlocks and pressurisation. What plans do the team have to handle this? We cant just make a base underwater without pumping the water out first. Also, we cant just add a door to transition from being in our underwater base to being underwater. how will this trabsition work?
Also… Buttons!
Well, i like what i see so far. I would like to build a submarine of course and maybe a Naval-base of some sort. Also i would like and try to build a vehicle that is capable to drive on land and sea. What i dislike a little bit is the wheel suspension! I would love to see something more reality orientated. Just a sugestion 😉
As first thing I would build a glass base in a underwater cave with a hangar, will the water come with pumps as well in case we need to add/remove it?
I am waiting for the ‘water’ update. In my 1,700 hours of playtime, I have only ever played in Creative mode, so this will be my first time starting a survival challenge.
My idea is to start on mini-islands (with sand dunes and four palm trees) with just enough resources to build a ship—it’s a shame there is no wood!—and then sail to a continental system to begin building there.
One question: Regarding the tool to export blueprints, do you plan to update its current status to better align with the current version of the game?
And one last thing: I want to enslave NPCs, please add an option for that! XD
I really want to build submarines. Or make ship vs ship battles.
It’s interesting to think how to make rooms inside, so our ship won’t sunk quickly 😀
sink*
The art is looking fantastic, as per the norm 🙂
Submarine! Physicalized water is goong to be such a game-changer for SE2 🙂
2nd thing is going to be an underwater base…can the water physics handle a ‘moon pool’, like from ‘The Abyss”…?
They also had a liquid breathing system for extreme depths, was pretty cool, might be an idea for water stuff 🙂
Lots of details this update! Good work you all!
I think I’ll try building a seaplane. Or a sea helicopter. Before airfoils are introduced (will they ever?), wings would be pointless.
Economy Update for SE 1 looks good.
About SE 2;
– I miss artificial horizon.
– 2×1 detailing blocks are needed urgently. XD
– And are you planning Linux based dedicated server setup for SE 2?
Water simulation is probably my most favorite hyper-fixation so I’m glad to see it coming together!!