Updated Transmissions: Improved Ship Auto-Navigation (v01.085)

Another Thursday rolls around, and that means another update from the good people over at Keen Software House. Although most players on the game's subreddit had their fingers crossed that today would be the day that we were given planets to play around with, instead it was more of an improvement on a previous update.

Two weeks ago (in the 01.083 update), we were given the ability to remotely send our ships to various GPS coordinates we had set up, working something like autopilot. Most players were intrigued by this notion, but many of them had additions or tweaks they wish would be added at a future point. They wanted further levels of control, such as setting a maximum speed when traveling, or switching inertial dampeners off to allow for energy-saving coasting between points. Today, we were given just that.

Each GPS waypoint on the list can now be given up to nine actions to be performed. Also included was a precision autopilot mode, which makes a ship do its best to stop directly on a waypoint. Ships can now be directed between points in different directions as well. All of that sounds a bit confusing when explained separately, so I'll cut to the quick - this means that ships can be directed to remotely fly to a an outpost, land and take off again. This allows for things such as automated cargo systems.

Say you're off at some asteroid, far away from your home base. You've been mining for an hour or two, and the cargo hold of your storage vessel is full. You'd rather not spend the time to fly it all the way back and drop off its goods - maybe you have a second storage ship ready and waiting for more ore. With this new update you can send the first one back on its own, have it attach to your base via connectors to offload its cargo, and come back all while you're still digging away.

And, as always, this update also involves a number of bugfixes and small community contributions. A full list of the changes made by this update, including an embedded video explanation, are available at the Keen Software House forums here. In addition, this time the developers added a few examples of the new improved autopilot navigation systems on the Steam Workshop in both small ship and large ship flavors.

Welcome to Enduring the Void!

Whether you're entirely new to the game or simply looking for another venue of related entertainment, you've come to the right place. This blog will include a number of screenshots and pages dedicated entirely to several aspects of the game Space Engineers.

So, what exactly is Space Engineers? Developed by Keen Software House, Space Engineers is a voxel-based sandbox game set amongst asteroid fields in space. Since its initial release on Steam in late October of 2013, the game has seen many exciting updates, ranging from the addition of multiplayer to in-game programming, and nearly infinite, procedurally generated game worlds. Players can collect resources in a number of different ways while trying to deal with energy and oxygen management in survival mode, or avoid the hazards altogether and build their own space ships or stations in creative mode. The game features an extensive destruction engine, allowing for every part of a construct to be deformed by impacts and damage, all in a near-future setting with realistic physics like mass, inertia and velocity.

After extensively playing games such as Minecraft, Terraria and Starbound, gameplay footage of Space Engineers was more than a little intriguing. It wasn't until the developers had included a "survival mode" to the game that I finally decided to purchase it for myself. Within my first few hours of play, I was hooked; Space Engineers is now my most played game on Steam by more than a hundred hours. I quickly wanted to add to the community in some form; thinking back to a blog I had made to follow along as I played Minecraft, I felt that doing something of the same for Space Engineers was a good fit.

So again, welcome to Enduring the Void! I hope you enjoy your visit and make sure to check back for future updates.

What You'll Find Here

• The Exploration Continues: The meat and potatoes of the blog, so to speak. These are the pages that will continue to chronicle my progress through my single player game world. I'll try to take interesting screenshots of my travels, and do my best to post at something of a regular interval. If I ever feel that I haven't made much of an impact in any given day, I'll effort to post something of the following few categories.
• Updated Transmissions:  So far, nearly without fail, the developers of Space Engineers update the game every Thursday. These pages will do what they can to explain what the additions and changes are, and their possible impact on future gameplay.
• Fringe Science: This series will talk about different concepts and ideas that may or may not have occurred to most readers. Anything you've considered and wondered about the logistics of it, or whether or not it could actually work, can be found here.
• The Shipyard: A series of posts detailing some of the design choices I've made for my own ships and those I've found while exploring my little corner of space. Eventually I'll start dipping into the Steam Workshop to highlight some of the more interesting or unique ship designs to be found.
• Fellow Engineers:  The community for Space Engineers is vast and growing by the day. Sometimes another player stands out above the rest for his contributions. Last, but certainly not least, this series hopes to introduce you to some of your fellow engineers by offering a glimpse of what they've given of their time, imagination and ingenuity. You'll also find applicable links to their YouTube channels or websites.