A GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS PROPOSAL: Sectors, Regions, Points of Interest, and Progression Material-Based Pr

--clean pdf provided----TLDR--

Space Engineers 2 should use sectors, regions, resource distribution, environmental hazards, faction territory, AI encounters, and rare technology to give players meaningful reasons to explore the world.

Resources being divided between Verdure, Kemik, their planets, and their asteroid rings encourages players to move beyond a single base. Traveling for materials naturally creates interaction with waystations, trade, factions, player-built infrastructure, AI encounters, and points of interest.

Different regions should also have their own risks, benefits, and attributes. Some areas could have increased meteor activity, radiation, scanning modifiers, hostile faction control, or interference that affects systems such as reactors and jump drives. Rare resources for an advanced buildable block set could be placed within these dangerous regions, creating a stronger connection between exploration, preparation, combat, and technological progression.

The purpose of these systems is not to restrict player freedom. It is to provide a gentle push that gives players reasons to build different ships for different jobs, travel to different locations, and make meaningful decisions about what they are doing, where they are going, and how they intend to operate.

Good sandbox games maintain player autonomy while still providing goals and driving forces.

Choices, choices, choices.

A GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS PROPOSALSectors, Regions, Points of Interest, and ProgressionMaterial-Based ProgressionIn Space Engineers 2, progression is restricted in several ways. First, access to certain materials is tied to unlocking or traveling to different sectors and regions as part of the Colonization system.

Large concentrations of resources can also be found within the asteroid belts surrounding Verdure and Kemik. Each planet and asteroid belt has a different material distribution, with some resources available in one location but unavailable in another.

VerdureAvailable materials:

• Ice
• Iron
• Cobalt
• Copper
• Nickel
• Silicon
• Gold
• Lead
• Magnesium

Gold, lead, and magnesium are rarer on Verdure and are generally found deeper underground.

Unavailable materials:

• Platinum
• Silver
• Titanium
• Uranium
• Chromium

Viridian HaloThe Viridian Halo is the asteroid belt surrounding Verdure.

Available materials:

• Ice
• Iron
• Cobalt
• Copper
• Nickel
• Silicon
• Gold
• Lead
• Magnesium

Unavailable materials:

• Platinum
• Silver
• Titanium
• Uranium
• Chromium

KemikAvailable materials:

• Ice
• Iron
• Cobalt
• Copper
• Nickel
• Silicon
• Gold
• Lead
• Magnesium
• Platinum
• Silver
• Titanium
• Uranium
• Chromium

Unlike Verdure, Kemik contains every currently available ore type, although those materials may be divided between different biomes and underground layers.

Cryon RingThe Cryon Ring is the asteroid belt surrounding Kemik.

Available materials:

• Ice
• Iron
• Cobalt
• Copper
• Nickel
• Silicon
• Gold
• Lead
• Platinum
• Silver
• Titanium
• Uranium
• Chromium

Unavailable material:

• Magnesium

The reason dividing resources in this way matters is that it funnels players into exploring the wider world and moving beyond a single area.

For example, if my base is located within Verdure’s ring but requires materials only available around Kemik, I need to travel there, mine those resources, and transport them back. This movement encourages players to interact with waystations, the economy, other players, and factions that have built infrastructure along the route. It also creates opportunities for AI encounters, faction bases, and other points of interest throughout the journey.

Driving Players into Specific SpacesWhen discussing player spaces, it is important to consider what drives players into those areas. Moving away from having asteroids scattered everywhere and instead concentrating them within planetary rings is a good start, especially when combined with larger resource deposits on planets.

This inherently accomplishes several things. Most importantly, it brings players together and creates opportunities for points of interest and faction-controlled regions within specific sectors.

Different sections within a sector could also provide interesting gameplay opportunities. For example, the opposite side of the planetary ring from Valation Station could be controlled by pirates while also being the only section of the ring where gold is abundant.

This would give players a reason to enter the area while also creating a need for security, escorts, and armed mining operations.

Players may even come across an active colonial mining operation that simply exists as part of the living world Keen wants to create.

Regional Attributes, Dangers, and Trade-OffsExpanding on what is currently in the game, and building on my earlier combat proposals, regions and sectors should have distinct attributes, dangers, bonuses, and trade-offs associated with entering them.

Verdure should feel like a dangerous frontier. Players should constantly be making meaningful decisions about what they are doing, why they are doing it, where they are going, and how they plan to operate there.

There should be interesting player spaces to interact with and meaningful reasons to explore them.

Environmental Attributes and DangersIn my earlier combat proposal, I described a scanning system in which asteroid belts, gas clouds, points of interest, planets, individual asteroids, and other defined regions have attributes that affect the detectability of player grids.

Expanding on this system, regions could also contain environmental dangers such as increased meteor strikes, high radiation, or conditions that prevent certain types of blocks from functioning properly.

For example, some regions could interfere with reactors or jump drives. These restrictions would require players to consider how they power their ships, how they enter and leave a region, and whether their designs are properly prepared for the conditions they will encounter.

Environmental conditions should provide both disadvantages and potential benefits, giving players meaningful trade-offs when deciding where and how to operate.

AI, Factions, and Territorial ActivitySeparate from environmental dangers, regions could also be defined by pirate activity, faction encounters, and territorial control.

With the implementation of AI on the horizon, hostile territories could become more active. Drones could search for players entering hostile faction territory, making different sections of a sector feel controlled, dangerous, and mechanically distinct.

Faction-controlled areas could contain mining operations, patrols, stations, and points of interest that exist as part of the wider living world. These areas could be friendly, neutral, or hostile depending on the faction controlling them and the player’s relationship with that faction.

This would allow AI and faction activity to create danger independently of environmental conditions. A region might be physically safe but heavily defended, while another could be environmentally dangerous without being controlled by a hostile faction.

Exploration and Technological ProgressionAnother proposal I made was to introduce an additional layer of technology similar to the Prototech blocks found through Factorum encounters, but as a fully buildable block set locked behind extremely rare resources.

The resources required for this technology could be restricted to specific regions. These areas could be protected by environmental dangers, guarded by AI factions, or potentially controlled by players on multiplayer servers in the future.

This would connect exploration, regional danger, faction activity, and technological progression. Players would need to decide whether the potential reward is worth the preparation and risk required to enter these regions.

Engineering in My Space GameThe reason to add these systems is to give players reasons to do things, rather than simply doing them because they can.

Good sandbox games provide players with goals, pressures, and driving forces while still maintaining player autonomy and meaningful decision making. Keen appears to be aiming for a gentle push rather than a rigid progression path (not looking at the colonisation system), and expanding the scope of that approach would be a strong move.

This is why these systems are important. They give players reasons to build different types of ships in different ways, depending on what they want to accomplish and where they intend to operate.

Choices, choices, choices.

ConclusionKeen is already moving in the right direction. However, the rest of the player base needs to move with them.

This proposal is directed both toward Keen which, based on how they are building the world, I assume has already considered many of these ideas and toward the players who do not want Space Engineers 2 to be different from the original game.

The discussion surrounding Space Engineers 2 needs to move beyond, “Put it in a mod; Keen does not need to do that,” and instead ask:

Well, fuck what can’t they do?

That is a question I hope remains unanswered for a long, long time.