Add a lightning rod.

We will consider this feature. Keep voting.

Thank you for your feedback!

I am brand new to this game. I agree with a lightning rod for protection and energy. I am on the alien planet. During one thunder storm both of my wind turbines were destroyed and I was struck 3 times. Once right after I was healed. That was twice in less than a minute. I have seen something about making a decoy but can't find out how to build it. Please add lighting rods and make them available in the very beginning. Maybe a grounding rod with the survival kit and an upgrade/advanced lightning rod later for energy collection.

Conversely I'm a long term player and while the lightning was a "surprise" to be overcome, it would be nice if the part list descriptions mentioned or hinted at the aerial and decoy components to draw a strike but cause damage to said component; a more advanced lighting rod taking zero damage, naturally.

So lightning is super cool and all, but it does WAY too much damage to structures. You would think a giant metal hangar well-connected with the ground would dissipate the energy of a lightning strike no problem (like the real world!)

Keen, I propose a realistic solution consisting of the following changes to lightning:

1. Lightning does not damage large grid armor blocks.

1a. Still damages functional blocks such as refineries, hydrogen tanks, antennas, solar panels, etc. in a direct strike.

1b. Still damages any small grid blocks it strikes. (Not enough mass to dissipate the energy)

2. When lightning strikes a grid, it always creates a momentary power disruption in anything connected to that grid.

2a. Applies whether or not it damages the block it strikes. This encourages more thoughtful "realistic" base design. (Protective outer shells, faraday cages, etc)

3. Lightning preferentially strikes higher features (manmade or natural) in the surrounding area

3a. Ex: Strikes a wind turbine tower that protrudes much higher than the rest of a base, or strikes a tall mountain instead

With these three proposed changes, lighting in the game would be much more realistic and less game-breaking. If you want to give biomes a better purpose, essentially forcing players out of certain ones is not a good solution.

The changes I proposed create a fun new gameplay element rather than adding an annoying feature that most people would want to turn off.

I completely agree with Toasty, but I'd like to add some of my thoughts:

• Lightning should not charge batteries. After all, it's a static charge, while electronics usually uses alternate current and in fact is impeded by static.
• I agree that lightning strike should overload the grid, disabling it and requiring player to manually switch it off and back on (by pressing Y). That'll make lightning a nuissance to the player, but not a critical one.
• Lightning should not outright destroy blocks. If it's possible, I'd say it rather should damage block down to certain %, rendering blocks inoperable and making player repair them. Yes, you're gonna have you precious fighter all on fire and disabled, but not completely destroyed.
• Addition to above: active blocks have more lightning priority. That is, lightning will prefer next non-damaged block to the damaged one.
  
• It does same with armor blocks and large/small grids alike.
• Instead of lightning targeting players all the time, it should target closest block of closest grid/player. Thus it'll only target players if they're closest entity to strike.
• Lightning don't have to always strike vertically down. They can slant to the sides to a certain degree or even jump in the sky between clouds.
  
• Lightning rods are a must. My suggestion: lightning rod is large grid only block which suffers no damage from lightning and has topmost priority to be struck. Power surge may or may not still apply.
  

I hope this will applies PC too because I'm PC player

logic of faraday would be welcome. nuf said i think?

Personally I think that whilst the addition of weather has added a nice bit of variety... lightning is a mechanic that either needs removing, reworking or... as this suggestion puts forward... to allow for some form of mitigation.

As a game mechanic, it sucks.

My experience of lightning so far has been "splat... dead!" and "F**k. Which part of my base is broken now?".

Even more so, if the lightning damage hits parts of the base that are out of visible sight during the storm.

If I could maybe die once and then do something about it... it would still suck, but at least I could feel I have some sort of player agency. It's too disruptive and too impactful.

Personally, I would think that a lightning rod would (hopefully) make lightning pointless. So maybe it would be better to remove it completely.

To compare it to another genre... If I get one-shotted with a headshot in a First Person Shooter - I at least can do something about it in the future. I can alter my movements. I can head-shot someone else myself. But mainly, I can respect the player skill involved. Whereas lightning in Space Engineers is more akin to an anvil randomly falling out of the sky with a 100% fatality rate, it's just plain NOT fun. It's random and unavoidable. Certain zones/biomes may be more prone than others, but if I randomly spawn as a newbie in one of those areas... random ruins my day again.

Remove it... or allow the player to mitigate it.

Moving my comment to a different thread.

Hi guys,

you can use Decoy block, it attracts Lighting!

Have fun!

The decoy blocks have to be broken because i had a ring of them around my base and lightning never struck them ONCE.. either fix the decoy block or please add a functional lightning rod! Tired of my grids being destroyed at random with nothing i can do about it. Also noticed lighting striking grids that are fully underground, which makes literally no sense

Decoys do not work. Add a lightning rod.

Kind of odd because the ones I've built work just fine....