About This Dev Diary
Every Thursday, I share some of what we’ve been working on – the challenges, solutions, and ideas that caught my attention. This is my unfiltered dev journal, so my thoughts and plans may change quickly, and nothing here is set in stone. And if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read further!
Space Engineers 1
Warfare 3 is one of the most significant combat updates we have ever made for Space Engineers.
Guided missiles and heavy torpedoes. Countermeasure flares. EMP weaponry capable of knocking entire grids offline. Jump Detection that can turn an escape into a pursuit. Warfare 3 is not just adding more firepower – it is changing how battles are fought, defended, and engineered!
All of this and more is coming in the free game update, and you can wishlist the Warfare 3 Pack on Steam right now!
Guided Missiles & Torpedoes
Guided missiles and heavy seeking torpedoes are joining the arsenal, bringing exciting new options for long-range combat. Fast moving missiles can pursue targets with precision, while larger torpedo systems sacrifice speed for raw destructive power. A variety of ammunition types, coupled with new weapon reloading mechanics, will allow you to swap tactics and munitions mid-fight.
These new weapons use predictive guidance and can be used to strike specific subsystems… but beware of enemy point-defense and countermeasure systems. Powerful as they are, guided weapons aren’t the only combat systems getting an upgrade in Warfare 3.
Countermeasure Flares
Countermeasure Flares will serve as an important strategic defense against seeking weaponry. Deploy them at the right moment to distract incoming missiles and torpedoes, disrupt their guidance, and give your ship a critical opportunity to evade an attack.
EMP Weaponry
The Factorum has a devastating new weapon at its disposal. The new Prototech Microwave Emitter can unleash a powerful burst of radiation, temporarily disabling grids within range. Catch an enemy off guard, create a critical opening in their defenses, shut down a fleeing ship moments before it can jump to safety, or expose hostile boarding crews to a deadly dose of radiation. Used at the right time, this devastating new weapon can completely change the course of an engagement.
Jump Detection
We’re adding a major new PvP system: Jump Detection. This system gives players a new way to find large or heavy ships when they perform long-distance jumps, revealing their exit destination to nearby players, and making them susceptible to interception or pursuit.
Warfare 3 Pack
Can’t wait? Wishlist the Warfare 3 Pack on Steam right now!
Space Engineers 2
Lighting Changes
We are continuing to tune the lighting in Space Engineers 2. One important change is that we can now use separate lighting settings for planetary environments and for space. This means we can push the look of planets further without changing how the game looks once you leave the atmosphere.
For planets, we are experimenting with stronger saturation and contrast to make vegetation, terrain, rocks, and distant landscape features easier to read. The goal is not to make the game artificially colorful, but to get more definition between the different parts of the environment while keeping the realistic direction we want for Space Engineers 2.
Here you can see some before and after comparisons from our current work. This is still being tuned, but I think separating planetary and space lighting gives us much better control over both environments.
Ore Visual Overhaul
We are also revisiting how ores look in the terrain. Iron, Nickel, Silicon, Cobalt, and Copper are all being refined so they are easier to recognize visually when you encounter them.
The main thing we are working on right now is their color identity. We are increasing and adjusting saturation so each ore has a more distinct appearance instead of different deposits blending together too easily. I want experienced players to eventually recognize an ore from its appearance at a glance, without having to stop and inspect every patch of terrain.
This is a relatively small visual change compared to some of the larger systems we are working on, but for me it is an important usability detail. Mining is something you will do constantly, so the materials themselves should become familiar and recognizable parts of the world.
Cobalt
Copper
Iron
Nickel
Silicon
Question to you: Which revealed Warfare 3 feature are you looking forward to the most?
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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Thanks for the changes to the ore coloration and appearance, it’s something that has been bothering me a lot in SE2.
Even though combat isn’t my favorite aspect, I’m excited for Warfare 3 because of the new blocks!”
its super cool to see all the new features, and missiles are a dream come true.
i just wish Se2 got the same treatment and that we could get some info on a future Se2 combat update or addition to the roadmap.
Other than that keep up the great work
Please, *please* make jump detection tied to a new block specific to that purpose! The idea is super cool, but I want it to be a physicalized subsystem.
I like that. Maybe use of the block makes you visible as well, so there is a risk/reward element
The SE2 changes look very good and promising, and like a great evolution on the old ore voxels.
I am less optimistic about the direction for the SE1 combat ovhaul sadly. I had high hopes of encouraging actual engineering over 1-block-solutions. Player built missiles were one of the few areas where players got to work towards solutions themselves instead of being handed a perfect one ready to go. A similar concern is what looks like the addition of more ready-made turret blocks instead of giving the Turret Controller space to shine.
We will see what the palette looks like further down the line, but I hope this is a concern you and your team are keenly aware of.
I hope that the fixed weapons will at least have greater range than their turret counterparts
On the topic of ore check out delta v rings of saturn and its mining mechanics. they’ve absolutley nailed it and turned a mundane task into a complex and interactive game
hei shipyards
it seems like you guys are pushing the direction of being able to counteract bigger weapon systems at least for space engineers one and the jump detection is a big step in the right direction
My ultimate thing that I want for the game is a radar in scanning system that’s secondarily tied to a heat system
One of my proposals got under consideration and has what I think is a really awesome version of what a radar in scanning system might look like
I think besides hostile AI radar and scanning is the next biggest thing that could change space engineers 2 to and it’s future. Position, pressure, choices. That is what makes good combat in a game pressures and choices being the biggest ones. The third thing that I would really love to see personally is not reworked armor. Allowing for stackable armor resistance per the amount of blocks in a line.
So for example, let’s say that normal heavy armor has 20% resistance to Gatling guns
If it has another small block behind it, then it goes up to 50% resistance
In the way that you guys currently use your armor model versus piercing weapons. This would effectively negate the amount of penetration that a weapon would have. And it would not be that big of a difference calculation wise.
With a proliferation of smaller ships using small blocks, this is one of those things that would go really long way to be able to balance those ships out without the creators needing to artificially use 2.5 m blocks to armor the hull
Armor should be an engineering decision
Radar and scanning stealth and how you move around the world should be an engineering decision
Not just build a bigger ship
Thank you for the continued updates. We always appreciate it.!
This is unrelated to the DLC, but Ive been waiting to bring this up :). The only time Ive ever used a plugin was for saving and loading your hotbar. It is so useful to start a new game, and just load your well curated layout. Or design a new mining ship and load your mining ahip hotbar. It is hard to try to recreate your 10 tab hotbar everytime. It would be nice to have this built into the game, and shouldn’t be too hard to implement
Any updates on the UI status for SE2?
The game is very playable, but the survival user experience is often frustrating. At a minimum, the inventory menu should match the usability we had in SE1. Right now, sorting the inventory is a mess. Renaming containers doesn’t respect hierarchy.
Ui should be resizable.
The Control Panel is a nightmare.
Every time I close and reopen it, all the dozens of sub‑categories I’ve created expand again, even if I collapsed them just seconds earlier for usability.
The sub‑category list is ordered by creation date instead of alphabetically. You can’t add an item to an existing sub‑menu; you have to delete the sub‑menu and recreate it with the new item included. Imagine doing this with around 60 thrusters, with the menu list exploding to “infinite and beyond” each time you need to add a thrusters because it was destroyed by a random encounter.
There’s also no item information for grouped items like in SE1, among other issues.
I know it’s an Alpha, and yes, it’s playable. But if you want me to test progression and sectors properly, please help me play more with less frustration. About 50% of my time is wasted on overcomplicated micromanagement instead of experimenting or building in survival mode.
Good ships and stations should be designed in survival while cool ships and stations that no one will ever build or use in survival belong in Creative mode, which exists for that reason.
While I deeply apreciate the direction of SE2 story driven with a nuance of what it was SE1 keeping Creative mode etc. I’ve seen a lot of stuff made in creative mode on Youtube but really way less stuff related on the survival experience.
I played SE1 mostly in creative mode because it was the best part of the game since survival had the same limitations year after year.
Now in SE2 I’m playing definitely only in survival since the unified grid and the graphics are amazing and entertaining. Please focus on usability instead of new content for the next updates. I can survive with a stone that looks like a stone but it’s not… way less loosing 10 minutes manging my cargo ship inventory/control panel after unloading it’s ore.
Thanks for understanding, and keep up the good work!
I love the new additions to SE1; I just hope that when the combat update for SE2 arrives, they finally add some kind of shield—especially for small grids. It should come at a real cost, like a heat system or massive power draw, and only be activatable temporarily (some sort of compromise so the *Space Engineers* combat “purists” don’t complain too much, while still allowing for variety in the shapes and functions of combat grids—right now, they’re all basically bricks). If you could freely shape them—creating sharp angles or spikes—and have them act not just as a stop for game-defined weapon projectiles but as a solid wall against other grids or terrain, you could pull off some interesting shenanigans with all kinds of builds and player-made weaponry.
I’d also like to ask something, even though I don’t really expect an answer: Was atmospheric aerodynamics ever considered for SE2? Was it scrapped, or is it still on the table? Frankly, I find it odd that nothing has been said about a feature that is just as highly requested as water—and, in my opinion, more important—since atmospheric flight, while significantly improved (mostly due to general flight improvements), still leaves a lot to be desired.
I LOVE the visual changes! Looks so, so much better with more saturation and contrast. Could even be a bit more if you ask me.
Also the new ores look magnificent! I want to have the silicon ore as a wall decoration in my base, it’s so pretty!
Any word on when we get access to more decorative blocks and maybe the awesome looking passages shown in the April 11th (2025) dev diary?
Keep up the amazing work, Keen!
Regarding Lighting Changes:
Third picture with the desert and the long tree shadows: AFTER looks much better. Shadows look more realistic and colors look more like sunset. So keep this approach, its the right way and i would say its perfectly fine.
A little off topic but still graphics: In videos i see when a ship approaches earth, the planet looks too small. I dont think you can make the planet bigger, but maybe you can play with the FOV so the planet seems bigger when seen from space, and when approaching FOV changes a little bit back to normal? Im a little drunk but i hope you understand 🙂
love the new ores on se2! EMP for se1 sounds good as well
誘導兵器システムの追加は長年待たれていましたが、グリッド兵器の地位がどのように変わるかが心配です。
I like the Ore overhaul. if you could, make ores moddable. in SE1 there is amod that added some 120 more ores to the game, many of which produced more than one output raws. i like complexity and variety 🙂
Can’t wait for lighting changes. Might seem minor, but it makes playing experience so much more exciting to be able to see the brighter terrain.
Thanks for continuing to enhance both products.
I really like finding Military Missile Frigates among the NPC spawns, and I love the faux-missile silos (made from cylinder blocks and conveyor pipe caps) inside. I’m so excited that missiles were intended down the line, and I hope these prefabricated NPC ships get upgraded with real ones!
Great work with the colonization system revamp. Finally feeling like actual colonization. Why stop there! Present needs and problems and let the engineers find mediocre/good/excellent solutions for them.
It’s probably a challenge to do it properly but you could establish a system that will evaluate organic results instead of “build X list of entities at that X location”, ranging from “what is this grid’s production/time” or “how many connected nodes does it have in the communications network” to “how many toilets/beds does this colonization building have”. And thus give the player agency over the colonization progress.
And don’t stop there either. Besides bringing the creativity of engineering in colonization, make colonization creative in the way engineering a vehicle is, and make sure a highly successful colonization rewards the main gameloop as well.