Any tips or Must-have mods?

[Zapp Brannigan]

Haven't played since 2017 but looking to get back in.

[carl.wear]

Hud Compass.
Build vision 3.0
Build Info
Cargo container with full level bars

The above are useful.

Then if you want wrecks and buildings s[awning around the world there is the Modular Encounters Systems and the MES mods that go with it but maybe look at these after you have been playing for a bit and want more random encounters. like the Abandoned settlements mod that works with the MES mod and also MES wreckage and MES wreckage and ruins mod.

Also there are lots of tips video's on youtube. Just search for space engineers tips

Also Splitsie has a good YT channel and heaps of vids that teach how to do things. ( He also goes under the name Zebra Monkey Productions.)

[Zapp Brannigan]

Thank you for the information.

[ShadedMJ]

Uhm.... 2017? Seven years ago 2017?
I'm not sure "tips" are going to be adequate. It may be an entirely different game to you.

Skins and Unknown Signals on August 2017
Multiplayer update July 2018
Airtightness October 2018
Leaving early access February 2019 (Ladders, Basic assembler, wind turbine, survival kit, progression)
Build Planner June 2019
Economy August 2019
That's just a casual look at the major updates prior to 2020

[Wygos]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan:

Haven't played since 2017 but looking to get back in.

They have finally fixed dust cause by driving wheels. Bug that used to plague game forever. Used to be cotton fluffs now its actual dust. Its entirely different game now......because of dust..... yep. new game.

Other than that they added few nice blocks and thats it. Game is still exactly the same. Still no reentry or aerodynamics or orbits or bots or even purpose. Still a box of legos in empty space but with few more nice blocks.... if you willing to pay for them in form of DLC that is.

oh they calling SE now 1.0. same bugs since day 1 remain but its 1.0

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, you may like this one I use for Automatic Factory with Printer to build AI Drone :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3357914491
Perfect to build our best Blueprints in survival and no need to build a Printer, just the automatic Factory will help a lot :

Mod = Projections To Assembler
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1289485324

EDIT

My Fav Mods :

1 - x20 Boosted Arc Reactor [DX-11 Ready]

2 - Eezo Gyro LG and SM Ships. OR -> 1000% Gyroscopes

3 - Warp_Drive_V3.1(Dx11)

4 - Color Replacer Blocks - V2

5 - Projections To Assembler

[Zapp Brannigan]

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll give them a try.

[Kanmarifer]

colorful icons

[Pembroke]

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Uhm.... 2017? Seven years ago 2017?

Don't say things like that... Every time someone says "20 years ago", my first thought is "oh, in the 1980s", and then I think "no, wait...", and then I just feel old and depressed. So, "2017? Oh, right, a couple years ago..."

As for an actual answer: If you haven't played since 2017 then you are in for a treat. There's now cool exploration content. Planetary encounters. Space encounters. Late-game bigger encounters. Start a game and go for it.

Try vanilla first before adding mods, to see how it now works.

Survival differences you should be aware of:
- Your landing pod is now a small grid craft and only has the basics
- There's a Survival Kit in your pod. It functions both as your spawn point and a limited refinery.
- "Limited" means it will process only stone. It turns them into iron, nickel, and silicon.
--> You need to build up

[glabifrons]

Colorful icons is a far more helpful mod than it sounds. Your inventory instantly goes from having to read everything to simply glancing through it.

Build Info is incredibly valuable to let you see attachment points, air-tightness sides of blocks, mass, integrity, thrust, power, gobs and gobs of information about every block.

Leak Finder (by the same person as Build Vision) is fantastic for finding air leaks.

There are various mods to extend the range of your ore detector, but it's just as easy to edit the files.
Under your Steam installation directory, the file is:
SpaceEngineers/Content/Data/CubeBlocks/CubeBlocks_Tools.sbc
The string to look for is "MaximumRange". The "150" value is the large-grid version, and the "50" value is the small grid. I typically triple those. Some people take it further, but keep in mind that it's a spherical range, so increases in range do not have a linear impact on CPU load.

As has been said, the game has changed dramatically since you've played, so there's actually a lot to learn (ignore those who say nothing has changed).

You might even want to play for a bit without certain mods so you know what parts are stock and what are provided by mods and have the ability to adapt accordingly. The build planner features are utterly fantastic for just one example. You may have played with a mod that does almost the same thing (the one that inspired it). I would not use that mod as it's unclear what conflicts it might cause. I like the idea of Build Vision (and think I'm even subscribed to it), but have never actually used it as I like to play close to how the game is intended. Build Info is like having the entire game wiki's info on blocks open every time you grab a block (or even look at one with your welder in hand), so it's not a control thing (like Build Vision), more of an information thing.

Another one I'll mention that I've mixed feelings about: Binoculars
I love them and think they should be in the base game, but they're overpowered in that they zoom dramatically further than the turrets and cameras built into the game can. IMO, they not only shouldn't zoom further than those blocks, they should zoom about 50%-70% of what those are capable of, but that's just me.

EDIT: Pembroke beat me to some of what I said... had to help the wife with groceries in the middle of writing my post.

[aether.tech]

These are a few of my favorite mods:
(DX11) Hatch (which is great for small ships.)

Accelerometer (its just a nice little thing to have.)

Small Ship Decorative Blocks Mod Pack (because bigger isn't always better)

Small Ship Mega Mod Pack (same reason as above)

Ladder (climbable + use tools/weapons/interactibles on it!) (best ladder mod, has retractable and static options. Bar none THE best.)

Armor Replacer (turns heavy into light, or light into heavy without having to actually replace blocks, absolutely a must have.)

midspace admin helper (does some things, the best of which is scaleup and scaledown for
small grids and large grids respectively. I just use it on all my builds and get a free large or small grid version of what I just made to make something else out of it. BUT also possibly no longer works? I haven't tried it recently.)

[pyr0kid]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=857053359&searchtext=build+and+repair

makes it infinitely nicer to build small ships when you dont need racoon hands to do the insides