Astronaut locomotion, grab and throw system
Hello Keen,
Walking in Space Engineers is one of the weakest aspects of the entire experience.
The game basically forces you to spam the jetpack 99% of the time, as the engineer is in fact unable to cross any obstacle he is facing without burning hydrogen. That is a huge problem as the goal of SE is to conceive, build and maintain complex structures, large and small, on all kind of terrains while carefully managing resources. With Space Engineers 2 on its way I hope you guys are considering a complete rework of on foot locomotion to allow features such as :
Crawling and squeezing through tight spaces. That means getting rid of the "body block" as you can easily get stuck in a corridor if the angle of the gravity is slightly off (in a large ship on planet for example)
Body block also affects the multiplayer experience, and it is infuriating being stuck against another player because the engineer oddly occupies 10 cubic meters.
The ability to jump over an obstacle without having to sprint like Usein Bolt to miserably fail and bounce against the environment without any control over your trajectory.
Higher footsteps may be a good start. I need to be able to climb on my rover without fighting with the locomotion for 10 minutes.
It goes without saying that we need fluid 3rd and 1st person animations that make the weight and speed of the engineer believable and not horrendously stiff.
Then comes the jetpack gameplay, or as I call it the "flying vertical concrete slab" experience.
The engineer should automatically adjust the position of his body to allow navigation in tight spaces, and not feel like a fly slamming its face against a closed window before it finds the exact angle to fit through the slit.
Then allow me to suggest the use of hands.
Combined with all the aforementioned improvements, the engineer should also be able to grab onto anything, at all times, and have a physical impact on the environment and vice versa.
If the object is lightweight, I can lift it, rotate it and place it on my builds.
If the object is heavy, I won't have enough force to properly move it, but IT can move ME instead using Newton's 3rd law. Just think about how actual astronauts navigate by throwing themselves around in the ISS.
That mechanic could drastically alter the immersion into the game. Too often have I been stuck 2 cm away from my ship in 0G with no other option than turning my jetpack on, once again.
Thanks for your attention.
I like this feedback
Let me start with the stuff I agree with, namely that the engineer has too much trouble fitting into narrow spaces. For that, I have suggested before to make the "body block" a bit smaller that one meter in diameter, so the engineer can easily move through a two blocks wide gap in a small grid. That should be not too difficult even in the current game. In fact, I have experimented with it and with a bit of wiggling my engineer could squeeze through. Just make that "body block" a teensy bit slimmer.
About grabbing on things, this can go too far and make the game unrealistic, making the engineering less of a challenge. Holding and scaling a smooth, vertical wall? That might be a bit much. But it would make sense to let the engineer get a hold on whatever has struts and pipes that might realistically give a hand hold. Such as an incomplete armor block that still consists of a framework only.
Also, one might improve things that are specifically designed to help with traversing things. Make them cheaper to build and more useful. In that vein, I suggest making Digi's ladder version part of the standard game. If you like playing with mods, that one is quite good.
Let me start with the stuff I agree with, namely that the engineer has too much trouble fitting into narrow spaces. For that, I have suggested before to make the "body block" a bit smaller that one meter in diameter, so the engineer can easily move through a two blocks wide gap in a small grid. That should be not too difficult even in the current game. In fact, I have experimented with it and with a bit of wiggling my engineer could squeeze through. Just make that "body block" a teensy bit slimmer.
About grabbing on things, this can go too far and make the game unrealistic, making the engineering less of a challenge. Holding and scaling a smooth, vertical wall? That might be a bit much. But it would make sense to let the engineer get a hold on whatever has struts and pipes that might realistically give a hand hold. Such as an incomplete armor block that still consists of a framework only.
Also, one might improve things that are specifically designed to help with traversing things. Make them cheaper to build and more useful. In that vein, I suggest making Digi's ladder version part of the standard game. If you like playing with mods, that one is quite good.
Replies have been locked on this page!