What's the best way to start playing?

[Jothki]

I've gone through all of the tutorials, poked around in both space and a planet, built a little bit, and messed around with survival for a tiny bit. I'm pretty sure that I sort of know how to do most of the stuff in the game, and for the rest I've found the wiki.

The problem is that I now have all these possibilities sitting in front of me, and I have no idea what to do with them. What's the best way to start seriously poking around in the game? Would I be better off on a planet or in space? How much of a difference does an Easy Start map make? Is Survival worth doing as a newcomer? Should I stick to singleplayer for now, or try multiplayer? If I do go multiplayer, what sort of server should I be looking for?

I'm sure I'll eventually settle into something, but for now I'm still kind of stumped on what direction to take.

[2000]

Originally posted by Jothki:

The problem is that I now have all these possibilities sitting in front of me, and I have no idea what to do with them.

Well, that's up to you. Bust your own move.
Just make sure that Auto-Save is turned off.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step - Lao Tzu

[ItchyDani3l]

I'm a new player too, and this is what I've gathered so far:

1. Best start is "Asteroids" map for survival games, or any asteroid-based map for Creative. I used Lone survivor.
2. Turn off meteors.
3. Turn off autosave (it saves over your own slots)
4. Do not start with multiplayer
5. Do whatever you want at your own pace. I started with a station.

[ByTheNumbers]

Originally posted by Jothki:

The problem is that I now have all these possibilities sitting in front of me, and I have no idea what to do with them. What's the best way to start seriously poking around in the game?

If you want to learn the ropes, you might want to pick some of the "easy" starts. They give you a head start, such as giving you ships that fill various roles right off the bat. I would also suggest watching some Youtubers and see how they progress from the start onward. Starting off survival with just your basic tools and some basic ship is going to be slow going if you're not sure what you're doing.

Would I be better off on a planet or in space? How much of a difference does an Easy Start map make? Is Survival worth doing as a newcomer? Should I stick to singleplayer for now, or try multiplayer? If I do go multiplayer, what sort of server should I be looking for?

Can't really tell you about multiplayer, other than the fact that playing cooperatively will let you take part in much larger projects due to more manpower, essentially. I would say survival is worth doing as a newcomer. That's how I started off as. It can be more interesting to start off with barely any resources, working your way up to putting forth an industrial powerhouse. As for planets vs space, I'd say you have variety to work with. Planets have certain things to consider vs space such as solving the problem of getting into space if you start on a planet.

It's one big sandbox, so it's pretty much up to how you want to go about having fun.

[Jothki]

Originally posted by ItchyDani3l:

I'm a new player too, and this is what I've gathered so far:

1. Best start is "Asteroids" map for survival games, or any asteroid-based map for Creative. I used Lone survivor.
2. Turn off meteors.
3. Turn off autosave (it saves over your own slots)
4. Do not start with multiplayer
5. Do whatever you want at your own pace. I started with a station.

I'll give Asteroids survival a try then, thanks!

edit: Also, what settings can I safely toggle on? My system is only a few months old, so I don't expect it to choke on much. I assume I can probably handle airtightness, but what else?

Are there any particularly critical mods, or is vanilla perfectly fine?

[Trelkovat]

mm well at the end it all depends on the kind of experience that you are looking for in space engineers but .. yea i would suggest starting a survival single player match in easy start (1 or 2), lone survivor, crashed red ship or asteroids with enviroment hostility in normal (meteoroids), drones, cargo ships and random encounters enabled ... turn cyber hounds on only if your your mental endurence is strong enough to keep your game immersion while watching Laika passing by inside her spacecraft or while traveling astronomical distances and then landing in your own backyard :P.

[ItchyDani3l]

1. Vanilla is perfectly fine. Later you will want some mods.
2. As far as settings, Meteors really should be disabled. They can become a huge problem. Airtightness is fine for almost every one. Although you aren't on planets, you should disable cyberhounds if you want to build anything significant on a planet.
3. "Easy" or "Quick" start games are VERY confusing for new players, especially on planets. Those maps are intended for veteran players who want a new world that already has resources for them to use to construct something cool or get into combat quick.

Quick cool thing I'd like to mention:
Even though you start on asteroid maps, you can SPAWN planets for yourself later on :)
That way you can keep your base/ships but can still experience the planets at your own pace.

Also, since you are doing survival, apparently everyone really recommends finding a source of uranium very quickly. Fly to different asteroids and look around with your drill out until you find some, then mark it on the GPS tab of your K-menu.

[Mightylink]

Best way I've found to start in this game is to use the respawn ship 1 and instead of landing on the planet point up as soon as you spawn and go into space, then stop at your first asteroid and set up camp there, much easier then trying to build on planets right now as its too messy and buggy.