Space Engineers

[GasBandit]

Huge bug introduced in latest patch, making characters on dedicated servers sometimes register as dying with permadeath when logging out.. losing all ownership and being removed from their faction. Many servers, including the one I would usually play on, have gone offline to wait for a fix, which probably won't be until thursday. There is much grumbling.

SO. VERY. ALPHA.

 

[AshburnerX]

Huge bug introduced in latest patch, making characters on dedicated servers sometimes register as dying with permadeath when logging out.. losing all ownership and being removed from their faction. Many servers, including the one I would usually play on, have gone offline to wait for a fix, which probably won't be until thursday. There is much grumbling.

SO. VERY. ALPHA.

I had my character stuck in one place the other day... I could interact with stuff or build stuff but couldn't move. Killing myself didn't fix it. Quitting and coming back didn't fix it. I had to literally reboot the entire machine to fix the problem. Was scared I'd lose my entire build.

So yeah... this is pretty alpha.

 

[PatrThom]

SO. VERY. ALPHA.

So yeah... this is pretty alpha.

It's almost like the thrill of an actual space program.

--Patrick

 

[AshburnerX]

It's (mostly) done!

Here she is, all closed up. But just like a real flower, if you expose her to the sun...

... it will bloom! Aside from two small generators for initially moving it into optimal sun alignment, the Purple Sunflower is completely solar. Interestingly enough, the petal doors create enough inertia that the ship flips on the retro rockets any time I open or close the doors. Charging all the batteries at once is possible, though it has to remain stationary or it'll start to overload. It has no offensive ability outside of it's defense turrets, but it's a support ship an it would have buddies flying with it for escort. Let's look at the finished forward interior.

Compliment is two refineries and two assemblers for on-site refining and repairs. Gravity generator for ease of movement. Generators are out of sight.

To Do List:
- I'm thinking of taking out the umbilical and turning it into a repair arm that can be moved with rotors and extended with a piston.
- Might add some more retro-thrusters to make slowing down easier.
- There is currently a way to hook small ship parts into large ones. I've seen it be done but couldn't get it working myself. I wonder if I could use that someway...

Next Project:
- I'm thinking of maybe a small fake asteroid that you can pop open with pistons to hide stuff inside.

 

[AshburnerX]

So I went ahead and tried the repair arm idea. I think I've devised something pretty ingenious.

Looks pretty simple: two rotors (one left/right, one up/down), a piston, and a repair arm. It's controlled via the console on the arm, with preset, labeled groups for all of the functions. Rotor limits keep it from hitting anything unless you purposefully shoot the arm into something.

Here's why it's ingenious: you don't need to load it with stuff manually. All you have to do is dock the arm in it's resting position and then you can move stuff from the main ship stores into the small storage container, which feeds through the piston into the repair tool. The connectors give you enough room that you don't need to worry about breaking anything.

It's even got enough length and clearance to work on stuff the ship can pull up along side. You could replace the repair tool with a grinder for grinding down captive small ships in privacy.

They REALLY need to get this stuff working in multi-player.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

Aussie started messing around with this game now since I told him how much you all are enjoying it. He's decided he wants to build the Bebop.

 

[GasBandit]

You know, you probably could... single player. Even put in a little swordfish in the hangar.

 

[AshburnerX]

You know, you probably could... single player. Even put in a little swordfish in the hangar.

They could probably do it two-man multiplayer too, especially if on a local network.

 

[GasBandit]

The main difficulty would come from there not really being a defined internal ship layout readily available that I can find just from a quick search. It never actually explicitly says what sections are connected to what sections, or where exactly the rotating hallway is. Also having an internally rotating part of the ship is kinda a no-go at the moment. But you don't really need it, as its purpose is simulated gravity after all, and Space Engineers has simulated gravity via generators.

 

[AshburnerX]

The main difficulty would come from there not really being a defined internal ship layout readily available that I can find just from a quick search. It never actually explicitly says what sections are connected to what sections, or where exactly the rotating hallway is. Also having an internally rotating part of the ship is kinda a no-go at the moment. But you don't really need it, as its purpose is simulated gravity after all, and Space Engineers has simulated gravity via generators.

An internally spinning interior corridor actually wouldn't be that hard to do. It would just make the entire ship MASSIVE to pull it off and the Bebop isn't really supposed to be that huge.

 

[GasBandit]

An internally spinning interior corridor actually wouldn't be that hard to do. It would just make the entire ship MASSIVE to pull it off and the Bebop isn't really supposed to be that huge.

Hard to build, no... hard to actually use/pass through is another story. And as you say, yes, it would require enlarging the entire bebop to accomodate the rotation of a non-cylindrical inner hull.

 

[GasBandit]

There are some stupid effin' idiots playing this game. Noobchatter in multiplayer is one thing, but then you get dinguses on the official SE forums in the suggestion subforum starting threads that say things like "We need female player models."

/facepalm

Quick! Identify the gender of this astronaut!

Must be male, right, cause I don't see no tits.

 

[CrimsonSoul]

There are some stupid effin' idiots playing this game. Noobchatter in multiplayer is one thing, but then you get dinguses on the official SE forums in the suggestion subforum starting threads that say things like "We need female player models."

/facepalm

Quick! Identify the gender of this astronaut!

Must be male, right, cause I don't see no tits.

Seems legit.

 

[AshburnerX]

Why don't we just tick a pink bow on the helmet? Is that enough?

Spent last night trying to stick some fighters underneath one of my solar doors, only for it to completely eat them when it closed. I may need to go even squatter than I had and just make them long and flat. The only issue is that the weight seems to be really low and the Gatling guns always send it flying.

 

[GasBandit]

The most vociferous force in favor of "female models" in the thread in question claims to be female, but I'd put a month's pay on them having a wang.

In any event, I posted in the thread that "Space suits are unisex. There's no in-game NPC dialog to offend with incorrect pronouns. This is the dumbest suggestion I've heard since that one guy asked for Fetus-throwing-howitzers in the Dawn MMO 14 years ago."

 

[drifter]

Query: could one build a functional mecha in this game?

 

[AshburnerX]

Query: could one build a functional mecha in this game?

Could you build a machine that walks? Probably. You'd need lots of rotors and probably artificial mass blocks to keep in on the ground in a gravity field. Would it be practical? HELL. NO. You'd need to manipulate each joint individually. It'd be more like playing QWOP than Gundam.

 

[drifter]

I was thinking more along the lines of the SDF-1.

 

[GasBandit]

Query: could one build a functional mecha in this game?

 

[drifter]

Mmmm. Probably won't pick it up right now, but...

 

[AshburnerX]

More modifications!

So I was able to make the fighters a bit squatter without sacrificing too much armor. I also reversed the guns on one side to keep them from listing up when they fire. So now...

... it closes up tight without eating the ships. This kind of makes me want to build a Protoss Carrier and install a few racks of these things inside... maybe on retractable racks made with pistons. We REALLY need Merge Blocks that are universal connectors.

A few things:
- Recharging batteries is SERIOUS power draw. I can't close the doors while charging the ship batteries and the fighter batteries. I messed with the gravity generator to help with this but it's still an issue.
- I get -4 full days- of power from the batteries while stationary. It's probably more like 1 while moving.
- Moving is a pain. I added more thrusters to help, but with the docked ships it's still like +1m/s from the weight. I may need to put in a gravity drive and just switch the gravity generators when I'm not moving.

 

[GasBandit]

In my experience, you need a large thruster for every 500,000 kg of mass in your large ship to accelerate at a minimally acceptable rate.

Gravity drive is tricky to add in later, because it has to be right on the axis of your center of weight.

 

[AshburnerX]

My #1 request right now is the ability to set the speed interval used in console commands. I don't want to make my repair arm whip around at 3 m/s... I want more like .75 m/s. But to do that, I have to set it for .75 on the console and then simply use reverse, which means it's always in motion unless I dock the arm.

One cool side-effect of using the connectors on the arm though: it always tries to seek perfect center on it's own because of the magnetic pull.

In my experience, you need a large thruster for every 500,000 kg of mass in your large ship to accelerate at a minimally acceptable rate.

Gravity drive is tricky to add in later, because it has to be right on the axis of your center of weight.

This wouldn't be that hard for me. The center of weight is in the hanger bay, so I'd just be putting a single block somewhere, followed by the gravity gen.

 

[GasBandit]

I started building a new frigate on my multiplayer server tonight (yeah yeah, I know, I can't stay away even though the lag is horrendous). It'll be about 1,300,000 kg, have six external turrets (3 of each kind), a forward rocket launcher and nine chin-mounted grinders. While it does have a medbay, I've decided to not put a refinery and assembler in it to save space/mass, as past ships I've built show me that leaving the ship somewhere to be a "mini-base" just gets it stolen/destroyed. This one, which I've christened the Bizarre Adventure II, will purely be for raiding. Like its namesake, it also has a double hull of heavy outer/light inner, but due to the design changes, weighs about a million kg less. As it nears completion, I'll get some pictures of it. I've managed to make the front look almost skull-shaped, with retro thrusters for burning eye sockets, the rocket launcher and cockpit glass for nose, and the grinders for the teeth.

A large reactor wouldn't fit in it, but I can get by with 6 small reactors and 4 batteries. The extra oompf from the batteries prevents overloads during heavy maneuvering.

 

[AshburnerX]

I started building a new frigate on my multiplayer server tonight (yeah yeah, I know, I can't stay away even though the lag is horrendous). It'll be about 1,300,000 kg, have six external turrets (3 of each kind), a forward rocket launcher and nine chin-mounted grinders. While it does have a medbay, I've decided to not put a refinery and assembler in it to save space/mass, as past ships I've built show me that leaving the ship somewhere to be a "mini-base" just gets it stolen/destroyed. This one, which I've christened the Bizarre Adventure II, will purely be for raiding. Like its namesake, it also has a double hull of heavy outer/light inner, but due to the design changes, weighs about a million kg less. As it nears completion, I'll get some pictures of it. I've managed to make the front look almost skull-shaped, with retro thrusters for burning eye sockets, the rocket launcher and cockpit glass for nose, and the grinders for the teeth.

A large reactor wouldn't fit in it, but I can get by with 6 small reactors and 4 batteries. The extra oompf from the batteries prevents overloads during heavy maneuvering.

So how do you do your armor? Is it just mostly hollow with a few key pylons to hold it together, or are you doing something else? I did a 4 layer design on the Purple Sunflower... it's kind of an alternating hexboard pattern of light armor and empty space, sandwiched into a solid interior wall and a solid heavy outer wall.

And yeah... unless you have people who can watch over the ship when you aren't playing or can devise a REALLY good hiding place, there is no reason to build a massive capital ship. I only built mine because it's a proof of concept.

 

[GasBandit]

So how do you do your armor? Is it just mostly hollow with a few key pylons to hold it together, or are you doing something else? I did a 4 layer design on the Purple Sunflower... it's kind of an alternating hexboard pattern of light armor and empty space, sandwiched into a solid interior wall and a solid heavy outer wall.

And yeah... unless you have people who can watch over the ship when you aren't playing or can devise a REALLY good hiding place, there is no reason to build a massive capital ship. I only built mine because it's a proof of concept.

I'm keeping it simple this time, doing the same thing I did on its predecessor - a light armor inner hull, with then a layer of heavy armor completely enveloping it. No empty space. Adding a layer of empty space would increase the size of the heavy armor shell, and thus increase the mass. This thing will be designed to get in, grind, and get out as fast as possible while still having enough firepower to kill or chase away the small fries. But it is strictly for raiding, and I don't intend to take it into battle vs another ship of the line if I can help it. We have the combat cube up and running if we want to do that. It's got a double layer of heavy armor (heavy inner, heavy outer) and 72 turrets (12 per side).

 

[GasBandit]

Here's the Bizarre Adventure II, still under construction, but the outer heavy armor is going in place so it's starting to vaguely take its final shape. Haven't finished placing the slope/corner armor or the turrets yet. You can also see Bob the Builder and an unnamed heavy fighter/grinder off to the side. I'm also thinking about trying to work in a collector with the grinders there somehow, so I won't have to stop to hack/pick up/transfer the contents of cargo bays and reactors... can just grind them down then hoover up the loot as it floats.

Our battlecube, which for obvious reasons, has been named the Rubix.

 

[Officer_Charon]

I've managed to make the front look almost skull-shaped, with retro thrusters for burning eye sockets, the rocket launcher and cockpit glass for nose, and the grinders for the teeth.

Something like this, then? *grins*

 

[GasBandit]

Something like this, then? *grins*

Hah... maybe... but to be honest the "skull face" was entirely unintentional and grew out of design. I wanted both the rocket launcher and grinders to be aligned within 1 block of my cockpit for easier aiming, and that just left the "forehead" area to place the retro thrusters. Though I have to admit, my first thought upon seeing the result was, once again...

Though it'd be more accurate if it was the front half of the Arcadia, sliced off from the rest, and the cockpit placed in the nose cavity. heh.

Really this is the smallest "large" ship I've built with combat considerations on this server (the only one smaller I think is my large version of Bob the Builder, and I think my first "battlewagon" on my old server was only 750 tons, but it only had a single layer of heavy armor). The Infernvm 1 was only a little heavier at 1700 metric tons (to this one's 1350), but it was a LOT slower and fatter to accomodate the base amenities. It represents a shift in my planning from "take and hold" to "hit and fade."

I might shift back again if design changes are made to address the multiplayer security issues regarding turrets, cockpits and merge blocks.

Incidentally, the Rubix, I think, is something like 7700 tons.

 

[GasBandit]

Also, if this were single player, I'd have put the grinder on a piston so they could extend well forward of the main hull to do grinding, but c'est la multiplayer.

 

[PatrThom]

How does the cube keep from frying the turrets during maneuvers? I thought you said a turret overlaps the 2x2 space.
Do pistons work as rams, or can they not survive the pounding (in case you wanted to use heavy armor blocks to build a sewing needle type of offense)?

--Patrick

 

[GasBandit]

How does the cube keep from frying the turrets during maneuvers? I thought you said a turret overlaps the 2x2 space.
Do pistons work as rams, or can they not survive the pounding (in case you wanted to use heavy armor blocks to build a sewing needle type of offense)?

--Patrick

You are underestimating the size of the cube. Yes, a turret takes up a 3x3x3 block space. And it is impossible to place turrets such that their spaces overlap.

So every single turret in that picture has its 3x3x3 grid of space unintersected by anything, including the thrust from the six large thrusters per side.

It took a LOT of fuckin thruster parts to make the cube, as each one takes about 12x the parts of a small thruster (but only has about 6 times the footprint). It put us into serious hurt for gold and platinum.

I do not think a piston would survive being used as a ram, though I haven't tried.

In other news, the admin of the server has taken to using grinder torpedos on people. A thruster set to low thrust override keeps it moving forward, and it just slowly grinds its way through their base. It moves slow enough for him to unload the parts by hand as it goes.

 

[GasBandit]

Thursday is patch day.

Summary
Players can download mods (custom blocks, skyboxes, custom skins) right from Steam Workshop. Mods are per-world; that means that each world can have different mods active. And that’s not all –every client automatically downloads every workshop mod used by server while connecting. As a bonus; we have also added character animations playable from toolbar, small control panel access block, gyroscope override and more catwalk blocks – enjoy!

Warning: in case you have overwritten core game files on your own in the past, please try to delete all local content + verify your game cache files https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335



New Modding Guide – http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=296249959

Features
- steam workshop mod support and integration
- automatic mod download when joining multiplayer game
- moddable thruster glow
- added new character animations playable from toolbar
- added control panel access block
- added gyro override
- added more types of catwalk blocks
- added mod debug screen (F11 in single player)

Fixes
- fixed invisible and invulnerable cargo ships
- fixed not hidden HUD tag after switching to third person
- fixed autosave on dedicated servers
- fixed player loses ownership one death,save/reload
- fixed respawn in owned medbay results in permadeath anyway
- fixed bugged ownership menu
- fixed toolbar hotkeys (missing options/too many options)
- fixed disabling "control thrusters" from one cockpit disables the thrusters completely
- fixed block not available message
- fixed rotor displacement issues
- fixed trapped in cockpit, crash on exit
- fixed cannot create "new ship/station"
- fixed error when loading a saved world
- fixed pistons with a drill attached refusing to extend after reload
- fixed turret sound playing even if turret is OFF
- fixed overflowing menu for various blocks (turrets, rotors)

Special thanks to Modders: Darth Biomech, Embershard, DeadWeight4U, EctoSage, sanchindachi666, damnatus and many others
__________________

No netcode fixes. Doh well. It is, however, funny that these guys have so effortlessly put in mod support while Minecraft STILL hasn't, despite saying they were going to do so for years.

 

[GasBandit]

So very ALPHA.

Patch today broke collectors, among other things.

Also broke decoy blocks (no longer attract any fire at all), introduced some new crashes to desktop and screwed up sound propagation.

 

[GasBandit]

Last night I also experienced some bizarre problems with the engines on my drilling ship randomly vanishing. It was very bizarre. Usually if an engine is destroyed by banging a wall or another engine's thrust, it also damages the surface to which the engine was attached.. but these just vanished (and I know they weren't in the path of any other thrusters because it worked fine 2 days ago, and they're nowhere near the edges to get banged on the walls).

SO VERY ALPHA.