Marek’s Dev Diary: September 3, 2026

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!

Competition Results Livestream

Please join us Friday, September 4th, for the “Masters of Motion” – Mechanical Engineering Video Competition Livestream!

Celebrate the creativity of the Space Engineers 1 & 2 communities with us and watch the best mechanical engineering videos from both games!

📅 Friday, September 4th, 5 PM UTC

Livestream:
🛰️ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/keencommunitynetwork
🛰️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/SpaceEngineersGame

Space Engineers 2

We are tuning NPC behavior more and more, and I am really starting to like how the different systems work together. NPCs can now share alerts with their group – if one of them spots you or takes damage, nearby allies can be alerted even if they never saw you themselves. 

They are also learning to recognize hostile grids and fight them directly, which is important because combat in Space Engineers is rarely just character against character. Your ship, rover, or base can become part of the fight as well.

Navigation is another area we are pushing further. We are testing NPCs in increasingly complicated interiors with corridors, rooms, doors, and maze-like layouts.

We are also working on more situational behavior – NPCs can retreat depending on their health, and if the cover they are using gets destroyed, they can look for a new position instead of simply staying exposed.

For me, this is where NPC combat starts becoming interesting. It is not just about making enemies aim and shoot better, but about giving them enough awareness to react to what you build and what happens during the fight. We are also polishing combat feedback, including player damage indicators, and for those asking about immersion – enemy health bars will be optional, so you will be able to turn them off.

We are also polishing the player damage indicators. This is still work in progress, but it should already give you an idea of where we are heading and how we want combat feedback to feel. 

Cables! Yes – we will be adding cables to Space Engineers 2. You will be able to use them to decorate ships, corridors, and bases, but they are not just decorative. Cables also transfer electricity (as any other grid block), so they are functional as well.

And because this is Space Engineers 2, you can attach buttons, lights, and other parts to the cable system however you like. The 25 cm unified grid system gives you a lot of freedom here, and I think players will do some really creative things with it.

We are also adding more decorative interior parts. Here you can see examples like the Coffee Machine, Recycle Bin, Generic Lab Equipment, Laptop, and Fire Extinguisher.

These blocks should give you a better starting point for decorating the inside of your rooms and bases, so your interiors no longer feel so empty.

Also check out our spotlight of Space Engineers 2 Racing League! 

Question to you: What decorative elements are you missing in Space Engineers 2?

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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