Feedback on Space Engineers 2 progression and gameplay depth

Rabiator ●

By and large I agree, but maybe with different priorities (you have not ranked yours) and different ways of going about them.

For me things should start with number 3, environmental depth in terms of more comprehensive physics. Such as aerodynamics and wind effects, the latter relying on aerodynamics being implemented. Once we get water, aerodynamics/hydrodynamics/buoyancy become necessary anyway, otherwise ships flying through water at 300 m/s will completely break immersion. Swiping some concepts from "From The Depths", another building/sim game, might be a good idea here. They have a simplified but IMHO adequate for a game approach to drag. Flora and fauna would be welcome too, but I don't consider them as urgent.

Tiered systems often come with various versions of the same item, where the better version will simply be stronger but require more/more advanced resources to build. Which is not entirely wrong, but I think there should be more variety in how the tiers are distinct from each other. For example, a fusion reactor could be an upgrade from the uranium powered reactor. But not in terms of power density. Instead, it could draw deuterium fuel from ice, using a H2/O2 generator to extract H2. That would making logistics easier as there is lots of ice in the universe.

Personally I hope for a "realistic mode" that would make most game mechanics more in line with real life physics. I doubt we can fully talk Keen out of the arcade-y approach, but maybe we can convince them into making some things optional.

This said, I think it is pretty impressive how far the game has come in a year.

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bnainz ●

Pulled from a Steam post on this stuff:

"Different Exploration 'Paths' will be gated along different benchmarks as you progress, seems like Keen is designing things to move according to a basis of resource scarcity(and contracts). Below is a couple of the different gates that emerge from the player during exploration, and how they might logically flow which define the different stages of gameplay, I think. (A gate is a barrier, or technological lock that prevents you from accessing higher tiers of blocks or upgrades or biomes or sectors, untill you have advanced far enough to beat the test/challenge/barrier it introduced)

So, starting out, from First Principles, your progression is tied to resources, blocks, and how you use them for transportation:

1. Suit - suit has different thruster types(water, air, hydrogen, ion) and has a built-in Survival Kit. They showed off water thrusters, so it seems a real thing. Maybe suit has an RTG(radioisotope thermal-electric generator) to make a trickle charge? And starting food(?) Kelp krisps work anywhere. So, maybe a terrestrial start has air suit thrusters, space has ion, non atmo has hydrogen, and ocean worlds have water thrusters? Then...

2. Rover (or, the initial transportation)- and with resource scarcity being a thing, different biomes will probably have standard initial transportation builds types. Terrestrial probably will have a ground rover/electric flyer, space will need ion/hydrogen shuttles, non-atmo world some sort of a rover/flyer as well, and ocean worlds with boats/subs. Once new resources are accessed and the infrastructure built up and access to new blocks are available (i.e. hydrogen thrusters), then the move to off-world....

3. Spaceships - asteroids, space highways(lanes of transportation for your logistics and bases), and then eventually travel the other sectors or planets. Now you can work towards getting access to the locations of the rarest and the hardest to reach resources/locations to make...

4. Advanced Builds - jump-drives, suits or grids with extreme resistance to pressure, heat, radiation (and bullets). End game stuff, logistics development and protection, faction development, security system-wide, or whatever. Then...

5. Other Solar Systems? Can modders create other solar systems? Will Keen add a 'Stargate' type technology block unlock to tie in the rest of the Algamest system? Or travel to other entire new solar systems, as well? Would work pretty good as an end goal for the initial game, in that it lays the groundwork for future development for Keen and other modders."

So, these are a couple of the gates players will progress along.

Addendum -

"...Logically if the Survival Kit is incorporated into your suit...then you don't -need- a 'rover' on spawn. They could do a 'suit-only' start as the defacto start, with different suit configs depending on different biomes...and Hydrogen suit thrusters would have(?) to be the default start. But, analogous to the different default ship engine types, the other 'theusters' types could/would be adapted to suits, and as air/ion/water(?) engines require no fuel, but only power, but with less overall thrust power available and limited to environment suitability, the same relationship can apply to suit thrusters. If power is generated, it would make sense. Or change the power draw...to recharge from your suit's survival kit? That is why I think they have to include a trickle charge, to enable these things."