Feedback after 12 Hours of Gameplay

Credit to all the work that’s gone into this latest update. The game looks absolutely beautiful, and so far I’m enjoying it very much!

I have about ten years and 4k hours invested into SE1 – I’m not new to the party. So for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts on SE2 thus far.

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Some of the new systems I love. Like the new projection system for blueprinted grids even in survival, ore filters for Ore detectors, swappable power modules for batteries, the new contract system, and much much more. I just want to say up front that the pluses far outweigh the minuses, but there are a few minuses:

At the moment, the game is kind of… easy. I know it’s early days, and I know it’s built expressly to help new players get into the game, and I’m behind all that, but for veteran players, it’s a little too easy. Even today, with all my hours in SE1 and starting out on a brand new save, I probably would have died by now, or come close to dying, due to one mishap or another(!). The fact that in SE2 I haven’t even come close to a mishap isn’t necessarily a good thing.

A few hard knocks make a better engineer!

For new players, the gameplay is perfect right now, especially with this new-fangled backpack building mechanic that seems to be dividing the player base. Personally, I’m not a fan. It feels like ‘easy-mode.’ It’s training wheels for those new players – and again, that’s a good thing, but for us older players, we don't want or need training wheels.

Backpack mining seems too far-fetched when it can forge precision-engineered components from just a chunk of raw ore. Only heavy-duty equipment should be able to do that. I say bring back Stone and Ingots.

A compromise I could live with (if backpack building stays in):

When you mine stone (and only stone) your backpack refines it on the fly, then spits out a handful of ingots. Iron, Nickel, Silicon. With those Ingots, your backpack can then print a selection of basic components, making it, in effect, a small mobile Survival Kit. That system I could get on board with. Right now, it’s just too easy because it cuts too many corners, and it doesn’t feel realistic at all.

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More..

• SE1 Block variety. I don't like having to weld together two half-block shapes (at double the PCU) to create a full block shape, because that full-block shape doesn't exist in SE2, but does in SE1. I was expecting SE2's Armour block shapes to be the same line-up as SE1, which many of us have been building with for years, and I'm disappointed it isn't so.

• Dampeners are bedevilled and simply weird. If you first disable all down-thrusters, then push off the ground (e.g. by using the front of your ship as leverage), it's possible to float straight up into space just with no up-thrust firing at all, just the passive effect of dampeners. This shouldn't be possible!

• The constant thump of mag-boots gets a little old after a while. The volume of the impact could do with toning down. Also, occasionally, weird phantom noises…like random bangs and thuds when moving around, especially on terrain and in caves. Sometimes it felt like there was someone - or something! - lurking in the dark and following me. We could definitely use a new setting to control 'Engineer Sounds', where volume for movement *and* tools, which are also quite loud, could be lowered to more comfortable levels.

• 'Inventory Full' lady needs a pep-talk. She sounds depressed/bored/annoyed, or a combination of all three. I've reached the point where I want to mute her.

• Auto-lock when hovering near a connector is also a great new feature, although a little clunky - often the camera glitches out in wild and wacky ways.

• Contracts need Faction Reputation. Maybe this will be added in the future. Right now, repairing bases for a contract is too easy when you can simply grind down a base's existing infrastructure for the parts you need. Destroying one part of the base to repair another part kind of makes a mockery of the contract. Reputation penalties need to be imposed!

• I hate the current stack-splitting system. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve accidentally right-clicked on a full stack in my inventory and dropped the whole lot on the ground! My most wanted feature for SE2 is KEYBINDINGS that I can customise to my heart’s content – in other words, to make it as close to SE1 as possible (including ‘I’ to open Inventory by God).

• I don't think using ions on jetpacks is a good idea. Unlike SE1, I've not yet encountered any challenge to managing jetpack usage and fuel. A steady coast through atmosphere – at least – should consume some hydrogen, or the system becomes overpowered imo. Even my ship seems to have a limitless supply of hydrogen. I’ve flown all over for three nights running with a very meagre supply of ice in my O2/H2 Generator. I haven’t had to replenish it once.

A bug already reported elsewhere:

• The audio for Hydrogen Thruster flames persists when they’re not firing. Even when landed at a base or connected to a connector, they still roar away in the background.
• Speaking of thruster flames, a VFX issue: sometimes the flame just disappears even when your ship is fully thrusting.

• Sometimes, the yellow borders of inventory ports, and even doors, light up when I point my hand-drill at it.

• I regularly encountered difficulty welding blocks when approaching them from a certain angle. The welder keeps losing its grip, sporadically welding then quitting. Welding head-on, perpendicular to a flat face, seems to work best, but this is quite a different mechanic to SE1, and not a favourable one if I’m honest.

• I‘ve had issues grinding blocks too. Once, when grinding blocks at an Unknown Signal floating in space, the blocks kept jumping away from me. The slightest knock sent them spinning into the void, forcing me to chase them down - often fruitlessly. It is difficult, if not impossible, to grind a moving block in zero-G.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.