Is Space Engineers Worth Playing as a Single-Player Game?

[(OKU) Paradox]

I used to, "play," SE, in that I used to experiment with basic building and exploring Workshop creations and marvelling at what could be done with the game. But then, I realized how little there was at the time to do with anything I built and lost interest. Minimal combat, few interesting things to discover, no real NPCs to interact with or trading, or warring to do. The loop went, "build; admire; wonder what this cool thing could do in another game; log off."

Now that it's been years and the game's been updated so many times, and a sequel is on the way for that matter, does Space Engineers 1 (feels crazy calling it that) have anything to do outside of just building for building's sake? Empyrion Galactic Survival has a lot to do and explore and still has a lot of building options so I'm wondering if that's the better game, if not the better sandbox.

[DegenerApe]

I revisited when the contact update dropped, after 1+ year of not playing.

The factorum encounters become repetitive really fast and the prototech isn't that interesting in my opinion (just buffed normal blocks).

What was interesting to try out was the automation update stuff. The event controllers are a really nice addition to the game. I had more frustration than fun trying to automate some drones but making self-guided missiles is pretty easy to do with the new blocks.

Overall there is more to the game but I ended up with the same feeling of having no goal whatsoever quickly after getting prototech stuff, but the little revisit was entertaining.

Edit: Just wanna add that I am a huge fan of sandbox games and I can spend 100s of hours creating stuff that are purposeless. The thing is, in my opinion, SE is a janky sandbox.. ScrapMechanic, Trailmakers, MainAssembly, Plasma are all sandbox games that offer a much better creative freedom platform. The only thing SE has as pros over these other sandbox games is the space theme and the multiplayer servers. That's my opinion.

[Adept]

i always play singleplayer

[CrimsonKNight_05]

Single Player, YES...

90% of my 3,200hr+ are single player... and it was full of freedom of building...

I could say with great confidence, that the only thing that could CAGE your creativity, is your own perception of the game...

[Shurenai]

I would personally say there's "two" kinds of people (More of a spectrum really, but... For the sake of brevity, I'll keep to two.)
There is
1: The player who, When put into a free form environment able to do anything, Like a sandbox- A literal IRL sandbox, With some toys and tools to play with, Can have hours and hours of endless fun inventing things to do and ways to play around and goof off, and objectives to achieve and sand castles to build....
And
2: The player who, when put into a free form environment able to do anything, like a sandbox- Again, a literal IRL sandbox, with toys n tools to play with... Spends an hour mucking around in the sand and then stops, stares at what he's done, and wonders... "What's the point?", and leaves the sandbox.

To shorten it further, There are players who can self-motivate, create their own goals, create their own objectives, and try things just for the sake of trying things.. And there are players who NEED the game to do those things FOR them or they can't have fun; Who cannot simply enjoy playing in the sanbox for the sake of playing in the sandbox, and effectively require an 'adult' to tell them what to do so they can have fun.


And, OP, It frankly sounds like you're more towards #2 than #1. And I don't mean that in a belittling or insulting way. You seem to be the kind of player, based on your thread here and your phrasing, that needs someone to tell you what to do- You need a guiding hand in your experience, Or you feel lost, You feel "What's the point?"

To that end, Empyrion may very well be a better fit for you, because as I understand it, it is less of a pure sandbox, and more of a guided experience.

And just to be clear, I am using Sandbox in it's most literal meaning as a genre- As in my example above, a box where you are given a space, some toys and tools to play with, and then left on your own to do whatever it is you want. There's no quests, no guidance, no end game, there is no story, there is not much 'progression', etc.

In comparison to that meaning, Empyrion is 'Less' of a sandbox than Space Engineers, Because in Empyrion there are goals, there is a path forward, there are quests, there is a story, there is an end game.

While in Space Engineers there's pretty much just a free form sandbox. There are missions you can do to accrue credits for the trader system, but they do not 'lead' anywhere, There is a 'progression' system that can be finished in about 5 minutes depending on the exact circumstances of where you land and what happens to spawn around you, and how you handle those spawns. There isn't so much a path forward as there are some materials that may not be readily available depending on your start location (For example if you begin on the Earth Like planet, uranium and platinum being in space complicates some things you may want to do)... There is no story beyond "you arrived here, good luck".

Space Engineers is a nearly pure sandbox. You're given tools and toys and told "go have fun". Empyrion, you're given tools and toys and told "Go build a sand castle, Make a moat around it, Wouldn't you like to have a city for the castle to rein over? Oh what about a quarry where the city sources the stone for their buildings? etc etc".


Mind, I haven't Personally played Empyrion, so I may be a little off in my understanding of the game. But I've played Space Engineers a fair amount.

SE DOES have more to do than it used to, But, Those things are, imo at least, very base sandboxy things. The factorum for example is an external threat you're Meant to fight, the trader bases are external existences you are Meant to trade with, but... Beyond simply being there for you to choose to engage with and make up your own fun, Neither thing Mandates that you go engage with them, Or how you engage with them, Or When you should engage with them.


Edit: TL;DR: A player who can self-motivate and make up their own fun could spend 10,000 hours in Space Engineers(Or in any nearly pure sandbox game) and still have more to do. A player who lacks that skill set or is fundamentally incapable of it and requires an outside hand to guide them would spend 10 hours in such sandbox games and quit because "there's no point." You, OP, Seem to be the latter category- Or at least closer to it than the former.

For players like me, and Crimson Knight... Yes, The game is 100% worth playing singleplayer. We could get endless entertainment out of it. For you, OP... It doesnt quite seem your cup of tea.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Based on your post, I would recommend that you wait for Space Engineers 2 to be completed and give that a try as it will have a 'story' or 'campaign' mode that, based on what's been said about it, will be more like Empyrion than Space Engineers 1 is.
Right now, SE2 is in early access alpha and isn't quite up to par with SE1 at this point in terms of actual game-play, but that will change over time.
I'm one of these people that Shurenai mentioned, I'm a #1 type player.
Drop me in SE1 almost anywhere and I can make a go of it without being directed in any way. I like building for the sake of building and often use creative mode to 'prototype' stuff that I may eventually use in survival mode.
I don't build specifically for approval from others, though I have shared a few of my creations on the workshop.
I don't build for looks either. I build for utility, for a specific use, 90% of the time.
This, of course, means that my builds aren't always as 'pretty' as some similar builds are on the workshop, but they are built for survival and work as they are designed to.
I have quite the collection of blueprints of stuff that I have made. They run the gamut from starter bases to space stations and just about everything in between.
Space Engineers is a game that allows my imagination to run wild, and that's what I absolutely love about it. No competition, no pressure, I just do what I want, when I want and how I want. It's about as close to true freedom as you can get.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

Originally posted by (OKU) Paradox:

I used to, "play," SE, in that I used to experiment with basic building and exploring Workshop creations and marvelling at what could be done with the game. But then, I realized how little there was at the time to do

Play it as an actual engineering game and you'll see. Figure out how to use the tools you start with to do what you need. Don't do creative mode, don't use workshop builds, don't use cheat sheets, Learn how to work with the tools and devices on offer, get creative with *them*, likewise with gravity and weather and terrain, without pushing any make-it-easy-for-me buttons.

Star System, Survival, full-realistic rates and capacities, Earthlike drop pod at first so the challenge is just the engineering part. Anything that looks tedious or broken or impossible is a solvable engineering challenge. No matter how daunting it looks at first, have faith.

Drop pod tumbles? There's an engineering fix for that, if you get in that What Would A Space Engineer Do? mindset.

Can't find ore deposits? Seems like mining stone for ages is your best option? There's an engineering fix for that, if you get in that What Would A Space Engineer Do? mindset.

Can't connect your small-grid buggy to your large-grid base? [refrain] Cargo transport is slow? [refrain] Can't scale production? [refrain] Can't automate your subgridded blueprints? [refrain].

That is the singleplayer Space Engineers game I love. Your ennui is what happens if you bypass all the engineering and turn it into Space Legos when you (like me) don't much like no-constraints fantasy builders.

When you get to the point of building a dreadnought with escape pods and mining scouts and a tender on *those* settings, you won't be saying there's nothing to do in this game.

[glabifrons]

Originally posted by (OKU) Paradox:

I used to, "play," SE...

Without knowing what version you last played, it's difficult to explain what's been added to the game.
There's tons to do in the game and there are lots of ways to play it. All my play so far has been solo.

[Survival Ready]

Right now, after the Contact update, such claims seem untrue to me. In order to complete the game against Prototech, I needed +150 hours, which included survival, exploration, construction, battles with NPCs, etc. Of my +11k hours of play, I spent at least +7k in a single-player game in survival mode using various mods and scripts. All my work in the workshop, with a few exceptions, is based on survival practice. Therefore, I would not claim that SE1 is a construction sandbox.

[DegenerApe]

Originally posted by Survival Ready:

Right now, after the Contact update, such claims seem untrue to me. In order to complete the game against Prototech, I needed +150 hours, which included survival, exploration, construction, battles with NPCs, etc. Of my +11k hours of play, I spent at least +7k in a single-player game in survival mode using various mods and scripts. All my work in the workshop, with a few exceptions, is based on survival practice. Therefore, I would not claim that SE1 is a construction sandbox.

You are the first person I ever encountered claiming that SE isn't a sandbox.
The game being a sandbox is the most used argument that people make to excuse the lack of a fully fledged survival experience.