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I propose adding fauna: from silent wastelands to a living cosmic world

Zivals shared this feedback ago

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Imagine a long rover trek across Martian hills or Earth-like plains. Your destination is a distant outpost, the journey is long. Right now, this trip is a sequence of landscapes, beautiful yet silent. Now, add one simple but brilliant dimension -life.

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Not hostile monsters, but life itself. The very thing that fills any real world with subtle movement and sound. Imagine a flock of unseen birds bursting from behind nearby cliffs, their wings beating against the pink-tinged sky, startled by the rumble of your wheels. You slow down and spot a herd of massive, serene creatures -like cosmic bison - moving slowly across the horizon in a valley. They graze on strange local grass and occasionally call to each other with low, guttural sounds. And all around you, if you just kill the engine, you're enveloped by the world's symphony: the chirping of invisible insects in the scrub, the whistle of wind through canyons, the distant murmur of a waterfall.

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This is what can turn a routine drive into a miniature adventure. This is what creates not a set piece, but a world. These moments aren't just "content." They are atmosphere. They are the story the player tells themselves. "I saw this planet living." This sense of presence, immersion, and wonder cannot be overstated.

Sound here is not just background. It's a crucial tool for immersion. The localized call of a bird from the direction of a lake creates space. A rustle in the grass behind you makes you turn around. The silence, broken only by the wind and your own footsteps, contrasted with the hum of a working base, speaks volumes. This is the magic that happens when a game stops being just an engineer simulator and becomes an explorer simulator, a discoverer of a living, albeit digital, cosmos.

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Adding such unobtrusive, peaceful, and diverse fauna, paired with a detailed soundscape, isn't a question of gameplay mechanics. It's a question of the game's soul. It's what makes you want to return to the world again and again, not just to build, but simply to be in it, to observe and feel its breath. And in this lies a tremendous potential for Space Engineers 2 to be remembered not only as a technical marvel but as an incredibly atmospheric, living world.

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I would absolutely love to see planets in the game feel truly alive. Imagine driving a rover from one base to another and witnessing not just a static landscape, but a dynamic ecosystem: for example, watching a flock of birds take off from a lake's surface, or spotting a herd of wild animals grazing in the distant meadows, cautiously watching your approach.

These details are not just "cosmetic." They create an incredible sense of immersion — the feeling that you're not just on a sterile resource map, but in a real, breathing world. It adds that "wow" factor, creates memorable moments, and gives the game much more depth. I truly hope the team considers adding such diverse, non-aggressive fauna in future updates!

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Replies (2)

Zivals ●

I’m suggesting this because the planets in the first part of Space Engineers are currently completely lifeless. Even those that are supposed to support life show no signs of it — and this significantly reduces the game’s appeal. It would be amazing to see more life and detail added to them!

Yes, the second part has great graphics — it’s truly enjoyable to watch sunsets and fly through the clouds. But what’s the point of all that beauty if there’s no life on the planets?

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Semtex ●

Look at it from another perspective—space engineers are the first line of space exploration. They come to lifeless worlds to breathe life into them and prepare them for humanity.

And look at it realistically: Earth has existed for some 4.5 billion years, life on Earth has existed for at least 3.5 billion years... But only the last half billion years you donot need a microscope to observe it...

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Semtex ●

The situation is even worse and more frightening...

Alien living worlds will most likely be incompatible with life on Earth. And if we want to colonize an alien living planet, space engineers will have to destroy alien life... Thoroughly and completely destroy it.

Space engineers are literally angels of death for alien living worlds...

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Zivals ●

You’re absolutely right - in reality, the emergence of life requires an extremely rare combination of circumstances, which may never occur. However, let’s focus on the striking resemblance between the planets in the game and Earth. Indeed, both in the first and second parts, these planets look nearly identical to our home world, and the developers explicitly hint that they are Earth’s doubles.

The presence of key elements on planet Verdure strongly suggests the potential for life. We observe:

liquid water (to be introduced in upcoming updates);
vegetation resembling trees;
shrubs and other forms of terrestrial flora;
familiar landscape features.

This design choice goes beyond mere aesthetics. It creates meaningful gameplay opportunities and opens up vast potential for narrative development, exploration, and even player‑driven scientific inquiry.

Of course, in reality, the origin of life demands a complex interplay of numerous factors - atmospheric composition, stellar radiation levels, geological activity, and more. Yet the game deliberately simplifies such scientific intricacies. (For instance, it even disregards thrust distribution - a vehicle’s engine can be placed anywhere to lift it off the ground, rather than being precisely centered to prevent tipping.) This simplification serves to make the storytelling more engaging and the gameplay more enjoyable.

Here’s the key takeaway: given all these Earth‑like features, the idea of life existing on Verdure isn’t just plausible - it feels virtually inevitable. The game’s visual and environmental design naturally leads us to imagine thriving ecosystems. The abundance of water, recognizable plants, and Earth‑like terrain instinctively prompt players to conclude: if a world looks habitable, it must support life. This intuitive inference isn’t forced upon us - it emerges organically from what we see on screen. In essence, the game’s very aesthetics make the presence of life seem like the only logical conclusion.

The presence of key elements on planet Verdure strongly suggests the potential for life. We observe:

liquid water (to be introduced in upcoming updates);
vegetation resembling trees;
shrubs and other forms of terrestrial flora;
familiar landscape features.

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Semtex ●

Life apparently arises relatively easily if conditions are at least somewhat suitable; basically, all that is needed is sufficient liquid water on the surface of a planet. Liquid water takes care of the other conditions...

Life is probably found almost everywhere in the universe, and the universe cannot easily destroy life if once it has been born. Some scientists claim that life on Earth has been destroyed six times. And seven times it has been born...

If there is one thing that is really difficult for life, it is overcoming the phase "slime and mucus"... On our Earth, it took three billion years... more than two-thirds of the planet's existence.

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Semtex ●

It's not a bad idea...

But the "living world" should correspond to the planet - how old it is, how far it is from its star, what kind of star it is...

And Earth animals and plants can only exist on terraformed planets. But on terraformed planets, there is no work left for space engineers; there live only "normal people."

The realization of this idea would therefore require the creation of an “extraterrestrial” form of fauna and flora.

And I am very afraid that it would end up like in the game “No Man's Sky,” where extraterrestrial organisms are rather ridiculous, awkward, and clumsy (the translator chooses very mild expressions)..

So I think most worlds will be most similar to the third image - just without birds.

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Zivals ●

I’m confident in the developers - I believe they won’t go overboard and will create a well‑balanced fauna that will delight players. The animals will feel natural in their environments, enhancing the world without overloading it with excessive detail or placing creatures inappropriately in certain locations. I truly hope this will be the case.

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