Hello, Engineers!
The Weekly Release is here! Today’s update adds more decorative blocks to help you shape your builds and prepare for future survival gameplay.
We’re introducing the Bed block – decorative for now, but it will become functional in Vertical Slice 2. Alongside it, we’re expanding your armor palette with two new shapes: Armor Half Corner and Armor Half Tall Slope Inverted, perfect for refining details and adding more subtle geometry to your designs.
As always, all blocks are available now!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
This week's work was mainly about survival gameplay - discussion with the designers and playtesting what already works.
[h3]Resource Gathering[/h3]
Drilling and Ore Detection - The basics work! Now we need to polish it: better animations, particle effects, and voxel deformation (how terrain changes when you drill).
[h3]Building and Repairing[/h3]
Projection Building - This is different from SE1. You place blocks as semi-transparent holograms first - just projections without physics that you can walk through. Then you weld them block by block to make them real.
Why we went this direction: You see what you're building before spending resources, you can place entire Workshop blueprints as projections, and we can bring creative mode features like undo/redo into survival - since you're just manipulating projections, not actual blocks!
Build Planner Queue - Every projection you place gets added to a build queue. This queue can be sent to production blocks to craft the components you need. It's all connected!
Repair HUD - A new concept we're working on. The game compares your current grid against the original blueprint (or a saved snapshot), shows missing blocks as projections, and displays them on your HUD (similar to GPS markers). Should make repairs much more intuitive.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Testing the Loop[/h3]
I've been playtesting this myself. Placed cockpit projections around me - some on ground, some in air (supporting truss blocks are added to keep the block while welding it). Then I mined iron and silicon and welded them using backpack building. Very satisfying to see your build take shape!
Note: Backpack building (direct crafting) is only for early game basic blocks. Later stages require manufactured components and/or block wrappers (which I may talk about next time).
That's it for this week!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
🛠️ Feedback & Support -
https://support.keenswh.com/🗺️ Roadmap:
https://2.spaceengineersgame.com/roadmap-2/#current🛰️ Discord:
https://discord.gg/keenswh📫 Newsletter:
https://www.keenswh.com/newsletter➡️ Connect and find us on your platform of choice:
https://www.keenswh.com/connect/
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1133870/announcements/detail/651444063625545214
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1133870/announcements/detail/651444063625545231
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1133870/announcements/detail/512957645996427006
