So, the stuff we saw in the Yogscast commercial...

[Ninethousand]

...is not actually in the game?

Are there seriously no missions or enemies?
This game looked pretty awesome, but if there are no actual enemies attacking you,
isn't this just boring?

I can't believe the devs actually refuse to add enemies to this otherwise completely uninterresting game, aka, there is nothing to discover, a tiny universe, no planets, just asteroids, and the stuff YOU make out of it...

This seems to be a giant preperation for a fight that never comes.
You can build what you want, but there will never be anything that... i don't know... you suddenly have to do / suddenly threatens you / etc...
When i build something designed for fighting, i would kinda like to... you know.. fight with it?
Almost bought this "non singleplayer" / "you have to play with trolls because every second person thinks he is a troll these days" game, and i am glad i googled for things like "space engineers rant" for over an hour, to figure out how limited and empty this game is (planned to stay forever).

And for the people that say "this is supposed to be played in multiplayer"...
Not a single game ever managed to have factions AND grief protections, simply because of the fact that every second kid is a troll these days. As soon as you have a small faction, you already probably have one ore more trolls / griefers in your faction. As long as PCs can't read your mind, there is NO good grief protection, unless ONLY you have ANY power over your blocks, which would "disable" factions... And combat...
Considering that there is pretty much nothing to do, i can only imagine that there will be even more bored kids that have nothing to do but troll...

Also i heavily dislike the "private server way", things work.
When the servers are not owned by the developers, that usually ends up in "pay to win" and "playing favorites". If you start on any server, and run into the guy(s) that own the server, and they need something to destroy, you most likely WILL be their victim. And should you manage to defeat them, they would probably just ban you for griefing and roll back the server.

So in short... The singleplayer is boring, almost dead, and the multiplayer can just be horrible with "nowerdays communities" / "how server payment is handled in 99% of the cases, aka pay to win" (based on the minecraft servers, which work pertty much exactly the same way)

Make some real servers, i am even willing to pay monthly for it. Just make sure there are professional mods and tools for them available. I bet there are thousands of players who would join a "VAC" (like?) protected server, with mature moderation (guaranteed).

For the singleplayer, just do it like spore. Players can submit and rate ships, and the good ones, randomly spawn in the game and attack you. There is NOTHING hard to code for that (read somewhere that the devs said that the ai could be compicated).
1.) Spawn random premade ship
2.) Turn towards player
3.) Thrusters to 100%
As we saw in the yogscast commercial, weapons work automatically, even when there are no "enemy ships" in the game. So WHY not just spawn them? I wrote enough code to know that it's probably the work of an hour, to make a script that randomly spawns things and makes them go towards a player... It's just so far beyond me that the devs (from what i "heard") don't want to add something like that... Would add SO much depth to the game, and like i said... probably programmed in an hour, if it just spawns a few premade ships. Ofc with a bit more work, you could add tons of features to that, like the spore customiation, or "hostile sectors" that you can warp to, and kill some premade moonbase or something, or even have whole fleets, reacting to your ships worth, etc, attacking...

There are so many awesome things, that this game is SO CLOSE to... and apparently the devs decide to go down the boring "nah, just play it on tiny servers, owned by little kids, and do nothing but wreck each other's stuff" path...

[Tripping Pug]

The current 'enemies' are cargo ships. They only fly in one direction, and have no real crew, but they'll certainly give you a run for your money with thier turrets if you go after them if you don't know what you're doing. There are also metiors for environmental hazards. Real AI will be added in another update with programable blocks that a player can write code for.

There are no missions as the devs want us to make our own fun (think Minecraft, only in space and on lots of performance inhancing drugs).

I realy can't say much about the servers. The public ones typicaly suck. It's realy only worth playing the game with freinds because of this.

The theme of the game is 'build awesome stuff in space', though, not 'shoot all the baddies with laser guns', so don't expect any sort of complex stock AI until near Beta.

TL;DR: If you don't like building awesome stuff for hours on end, this isn't the game for you. But check back later; it's updated weekly.

[Ninethousand]

Hmm... transports already sound better then "no enemies".

I don't care about crew. The devs don't have to overcomplicate it.
How about some... A.I. alien race that only consists of Ships and Stations?
Those are pretty common and usually pretty awesome, in those... "star franchises"... quoting comic book guy.

I always loved the Replicators from Star Gate and the Trade Federation / Droids in Star Wars, who would be good candidates for "sending you unmanned ships".

No wonder the devs said somewhere that the A.I. could be very complicated...
The devs have to think a bit simpler. Don't try making an A.I. that builds things like players do.
Again, comparing this to minecraft... Bot's that build good things, are near impossible!
But the premade structures that all the mod makers made on the other hand, are "easy" to make, and really awesome. If you don't want it to always be the same, this... "spore" system, can be used ANYWHERE. Let people submit everything that can be created, and let other players vote for / against it. Ships, Fleets, Sattelites, Transports, Stations... Whatever it is, it should be easy for the "system" to tell how "hard" an enemy is, depending on how much weapons are in the setup.

I bet, when players are able to share their creations on this level... a simple... up and download/vote database... this game would be a giant success.
Looking at creations on screenshots is just not the same as experiencing them.
I would love to shoot other's stuff by myself, without ruining their day.

This database would not even have to be live... just auto updated every once in a while.
If live or not. A "spore like content sharing system for enemies and pre built stuff" would boost this game to a whole new level. The level i imagined when i saw the commercial. The level i am waiting for since X Online was announced...

Thinking about it... If the devs don't plan to make their own giant servers... Give us the ability to warp to other servers. Hosts could enable "incoming ships" on thier servers, maybe black/whitelisted with or without warning message. And then you can have friends / enemies visit you, but only when you are online... Maybe you can even have multiple universes. Just like maps in minecraft. One for your singleplayer... One protected for friends... One dangerous one that's open for enemy players...

1.) Sharing content ingame and having enemies based on other ppl's designs.
2.) Being able to visit other ppl's servers and universes according to their setting.
That combination would be so awesomely close to being a mmo... :P
For that i would pay more then for silly old WoW...

(For the "This is an engineering game" argument... Again going for minecraft here. Minecraft is a game about mining and crafting, but how successful would it be, if that was ALL you do? Just craft weapons and machines... don't use them... NO! Using the stuff you made is the best part!)

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Uh....just as successful as Minecraft....because that's ALL you do in Minecraft.

The game that seem to think is Minecraft does not exist. The game you are thinking of is the community modded version of Minecraft, which is NOT the core game.

Nothing you do in Core Minecraft means anything. Nothing you make, nothing you do, even in survival mode it is NOTHING but a creative sandbox.

It's what the community makes of it that gives it purpose. And Space Engineers will be no different. You'll have mods that add small planetoids, or ai, or aliens, or shields, or more combat variety and system. And you'll have people making Scenerios with both the core and modded game to fill a wide variety of goals and purposes.

The fact of the matter is, the devs do not, and should not, touch any of that. Make sure the modding api is up to the task, and continue to ensure that our tool-box of components allows for nigh unlimited creativity within their scope for the game, and the community will make hundreds of new "games" out of that framework.

[Ninethousand]

Originally posted by kaiyl_kariashi:

Uh....just as successful as Minecraft....because that's ALL you do in Minecraft.

The game that seem to think is Minecraft does not exist. The game you are thinking of is the community modded version of Minecraft, which is NOT the core game.

Nothing you do in Core Minecraft means anything. Nothing you make, nothing you do, even in survival mode it is NOTHING but a creative sandbox.

It's what the community makes of it that gives it purpose. And Space Engineers will be no different. You'll have mods that add small planetoids, or ai, or aliens, or shields, or more combat variety and system. And you'll have people making Scenerios with both the core and modded game to fill a wide variety of goals and purposes.

The fact of the matter is, the devs do not, and should not, touch any of that. Make sure the modding api is up to the task, and continue to ensure that our tool-box of components allows for nigh unlimited creativity within their scope for the game, and the community will make hundreds of new "games" out of that framework.

Ofc there are enemies in normal minecraft...

Hoping that the community does all the work, is the worst thing they could do.
Starbound is a great example of a community that does nothing, and is now falling appart, because the base game is just... completely empty and boring. And the devs don't do anything about that...
Really hope this game doesn't die like that.

[Solaris]

This game isn't just about "building awesome stuff in space" otherwise the devs would have never added weapons and environmental hazards! They put weapons in the game to defend from something! I know that "something" is NOT flying asteroids. If that was the case they wouldn't of added small ship weapons. When the game reaches beta an all the bugfixing and optimization start, then we should see some type of hostile A.I. added and maybe even some non-hostile A.I. like trade ships that you can trade things with. This game needs A.I. to make it more immersive and fun to play. heck you can only put the A.I. in single player and i would be happy. cause in multiplayer i hqave a specific REASON to build my station and ships, to defend against other players. But because of the current state of multiplayer i no longer play it until it gets a little bit more optimized. So now i am stuck playing single player with no reason to build anything. I could really just mine a whole bunch of uranium and refien it and fly around bumping in to stuff because there is nothing to do EVEN with the environmental hazards on. I say A.I. needs to be revisited and they need to have a general plan for it. It doesnt need to be implemented right now but later when the game is more stable. c;

[Bobblehead O Doom]

Ok, then don't buy it. Not sure what the long rant is for unless you are just trying to troll. Why does everyone who looks at the game and decides they don't like it feel the need to come to the forums and tell everyone about it. You clearly weren't asking for advice and you can't review something you haven't played so this whole rant is meaningless. Do you visit every single game you don't intend to buy and tell the forum about it?

[Solaris]

Originally posted by Bobblehead:

Ok, then don't buy it. Not sure what the long rant is for unless you are just trying to troll. Why does everyone who looks at the game and decides they don't like it feel the need to come to the forums and tell everyone about it. You clearly weren't asking for advice and you can't review something you haven't played so this whole rant is meaningless. Do you visit every single game you don't intend to buy and tell the forum about it?

I agree, if you haven't played don't complain. You may have googled reviews on this game, which i have to say, is still in Alpha. THE GAME ISN'T EVEN FINISHED YET. They are going to add things that we asked for and even surprise us with cooler things. You do not know how the game is going to be this time next year.

[MrBloodworth]

Originally posted by Ninethousand:

Hmm... transports already sound better then "no enemies".

Post big giant rant with out knowing all the features of a game. Is corrected. Still Rants.

I Guess Rants are the new way to ask questions?

[Yingir]

I dont think you understand it. The purpose of there being weapons in game is so people are not stuck making civilian ships, thus making the game boring. The weapons allow you to make fighter ships and bombers etc.
There is no ai because they are not working on them atm or are in the process of doing so. The Yogscast do not have to show the game as it is, thus they made a great series so far with them adding "enemies" as they did so in Minecraft. There is nothing wrong with this as it creates an entertaining series for viewers to watch.
Just so you all know this game is in a great place, updates every thursday since it was released in alpha and currently it is one of the few alphas that are actually making a game that is finished/working.

[Rhea]

In some ways I agree with you, pvp in this game wouldn't ever likely work, and most people will eventually get tired of designing ships that don't serve a purpose. Some of us are trying to encourage meaningful design and purpose in survival. In the sense of overcoming the trials one would face in space. Though I suspect food/water will be done via mods. I would be inclined to say so will any enemy force you would face. But it has been said that currently the devs wish to focus on the engineer and the things you can build rather than other elements such as environmental concerns and such. So if its something you might be interested in feel free to offer constructive ideas and keep an eye on the forums. It does indeed have potential, and only time will tell how it will end up.

[Gimli]

Im sure they will change their mind on enemies in the future. This is still alpha for crying out loud!

[Rhea]

As far as the anti rant, think of this from a customer service point of view. The worst thing a company can face is customers or potential customers that don't use there service and say nothing about it. Its bad in a way that if there was a valid problem they could have possible done something about it.
And this rant does have a rather large valid point, whether the devs decide its worth there time to correct or accept the loss of sales, I'm certain they would rather hear about why someone won't purchase there product.
People ussually don't invest time to rant about a product that they have no interest in purchasing, and there is a large market out there that doesn't want to buy a game where you build things and can't use them for anything.
At the very least he was being constructive about it, he listed his grievences and then offered a few ways in which he thought could fix them. Rather than giving a short -this game sucks- post and leaving without any reason at all.

[Ninethousand]

Originally posted by MrBloodworth:

Originally posted by Ninethousand:

Hmm... transports already sound better then "no enemies".

Post big giant rant with out knowing all the features of a game. Is corrected. Still Rants.

I Guess Rants are the new way to ask questions?

Developers give out wrong information. Fanboy fanboys.
I guess sticking to your game, no matter what the facts are, is the new way of justifying your purchases.
The DEVS said that there are no enemies, and that they are not even working on A.I., not me.
Everyone seems to know that on this forum, i don't even have to quote something.

Originally posted by SuperNova:

Im sure they will change their mind on enemies in the future. This is still alpha for crying out loud!

Sadly, "changing their mind" is nothing i have ever seen in early access.
That's why i hope that the devs here are a bit smarter then the devs of those... early access fails...

Originally posted by Bobblehead:

Ok, then don't buy it. Not sure what the long rant is for unless you are just trying to troll. Why does everyone who looks at the game and decides they don't like it feel the need to come to the forums and tell everyone about it. You clearly weren't asking for advice and you can't review something you haven't played so this whole rant is meaningless. Do you visit every single game you don't intend to buy and tell the forum about it?

Do you visit every thread that nobody asked your opinion about and spam empty comments like this?
Please try a bit harder. I come from a forum that has trolls as mods :P

Originally posted by uXcCommander Fordo:

This game isn't just about "building awesome stuff in space" otherwise the devs would have never added weapons and environmental hazards! They put weapons in the game to defend from something! I know that "something" is NOT flying asteroids. If that was the case they wouldn't of added small ship weapons. When the game reaches beta an all the bugfixing and optimization start, then we should see some type of hostile A.I. added and maybe even some non-hostile A.I. like trade ships that you can trade things with. This game needs A.I. to make it more immersive and fun to play. heck you can only put the A.I. in single player and i would be happy. cause in multiplayer i hqave a specific REASON to build my station and ships, to defend against other players. But because of the current state of multiplayer i no longer play it until it gets a little bit more optimized. So now i am stuck playing single player with no reason to build anything. I could really just mine a whole bunch of uranium and refien it and fly around bumping in to stuff because there is nothing to do EVEN with the environmental hazards on. I say A.I. needs to be revisited and they need to have a general plan for it. It doesnt need to be implemented right now but later when the game is more stable. c;

Yea but... then why is there this... "the dev's dont want enemies" quotes and... lines... all over the forum?
It seems to be common fact that there never will be any enemies... :/
REALLY hope that they change their mind and make the game good...

[Rhea]

There likely won't be. But there is hope for a more indepth survival mode. And really I suspect the mods will bring a broad diversity of enemies.

[Bobblehead O Doom]

Lol you mean try harder like write a long rant about a game I havent played nor plan on buying? I really could care less what other forums you frequent or what type of people hang out there.