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 This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly.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
Join us Monday, July 6th, for the release of the next major update for Space Engineers 2: VS2.3 Drive, Automate & Detonate!
📅 Monday, July 6, 5 PM UTC (19:00 Prague time)
🛰️ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/keencommunitynetwork
🛰️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/SpaceEngineersGame
Community Previews
Our amazing community creators are releasing preview videos every day!
We’ll be updating this post regularly so you can jump straight to the latest drops: https://2.spaceengineersgame.com/se2-vs2-3-previews/
You can also check them in our Youtube Playlist.
Stand by for transmission – the countdown continues!
Question to you: Are you ready to Drive, Automate & Detonate?
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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Will we see more flora? Mangroves? I love the work on the flora you have done so far.
Rovers allow us to experience the worlds you’ve created so brilliantly, which represent a huge leap forward compared to SE1, much more closely and directly. I’m really excited to see how that feels.
So… when are you going to turn SE2 to a real game as opposed to a tech demo? Before that happens, I really see no point in playing.
It’s been a real game, no?
The first ever release of SE2, you can consider that a tech demo to show off the new graphics and physics etc.
But since they’ve added planets and contracts, you are able to complete missions, build bases, enter planets and explore, and build machines similar to SE1.
They have NPCs with weapons on them just like SE1.
I don’t quite see why you think adding more tech makes it less of a tech demo. Contracts could count if the game was called “Space Menial Workers”. They have nothing to offer to someone who likes engineering. I can spend time putting blocks together, but that doesn’t make a game, similarly how the ability to put words together doesn’t make Notepad a game. A game requires challenges to overcome or fail.
Not gonna lie, I genuinely see the game starting to take shape as a game – and not just a tech demo. Can you clarify what you mean by “… a real game as oppposed to a tech demo”? You mentioned challenges to overcome… it is not a challenge to find resources (as of VS2.3) with the different depths? Different abundances?
Not criticising you here, just genuinely trying to understand where you are coming from. From my perspective, the game is taking shape – they can’t make the contracts more interesting until they have developed more of the core mechanics.
For example, if they were to stop working on the core mechanics and move to more focus on interesting contracts, the contracts would be limited in how interesting and challenging they could be by the lack of core mechanics. But if they develop the core mechanics further then they can make contracts more interesting. They have indicated that as they improve the core mechanics they then go back and make the contracts more interesting.
I guess my central question is what specifically do they need to do right now to make this more of a game for you? Genuinely curious, because I keep thinking SE2 is very close to being on par with SE1 in all relevant respects and then anything more is just going to be objectively better.
I’ve seen the LCD one.. I’m quite disappointed that there’s no custom picture import yet. I know I can mod in some, but I probably shouldn’t need to at this point. Hopefully that will come in a later update..
love what you have done so far, jumping in today.
when are you planning to add rhe remote controller block and are you planning to add energy shields?
i’m hoping to be able to transfer my grids perfectly from space engineers one the space engineers two in the future! I like what they did with using the large warhead in a missile. I hope they add the programmable block and that we could run space engineers, one scripts with it, because I would like to use WHAM and LAMP with it! I also hope that SE one programs work with SE two coding when that happens!
I have been a bit inactive lately, mostly because I was not so thrilled with mining dozens of mini-ore nodes. But with 2.3 I’ll definitely jump in again. Also, I want to try the wheels. It will be nitpicking and feedback time!
I’d like to see the ability to take on more than one contract, perhaps limit to a small number but one at a time seems a little limiting and very much a time sink going back and forth to the contract point… I hope this is already planned but if its not… can it be? 😀
Super stable physics engine just went open source at github.com/erincatto/box3d
Is it possible for you to test it out or se2 is to far into developement to just swap havoc?