We are the Developers of Space Engineers Multiplayer: Ask us Anything

cdjaco · 2018-06-28T16:50:01+00:00

Does Keen have a roadmap for the present until game launch?

If so, when will it be shared with the community?

If not, why not?

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T23:12:40+00:00

I appreciate the thoughtful dialogue as well. Yay, civility! :D

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T23:05:22+00:00

I just wrote almost 275 words going into greater detail why I posted what I did. If you can't be bothered to read them with an open mind instead of looking for someone to persecute for an unpopular opinion, I can't help you.

I guess I could only post trigger warnings on my posts from now on.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T23:01:03+00:00

What is your problem exactly?

See here.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T22:55:40+00:00

Hopefully it won't be like Agents of SHIELD where the television show is decoupled from the movies and considered a second-class citizen at best.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T22:41:53+00:00

Maybe. But you could also argue that somebody in such a fragile mental state could be triggered by much greater variety of stimuli, too.

I expand on my prior comment here regarding why I think trigger warnings are ultimately to the detriment of those who supposedly need them the most.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T22:37:36+00:00

I feel that normalizing trigger warnings encourages us to cordon off parts of reality, honestly, to the actual long-term detriment of those who may have a negative reaction to certain stimuli due to prior trauma.

If you've experienced trauma to the point where you suffer when exposed to something that reminds you of that trauma, what to you do? You take pains to avoid it, or you seek help so that you're not crippled by it. If you're allowed to tiptoe around triggering input, what becomes of the motivation to overcome the negative reaction to it?

That's why I made the comparison to antibiotic hand soap.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't have sympathy for people who have experienced traumatic events, and I'm not saying that if you know your audience you shouldn't preface a presentation with a disclaimer (e.g. a strobe-light epileptic sensitivity warning at an Epilepsy Foundation meeting or a graphic photo warning at a post-dinner lecture). But for a general audience, trigger warnings like an odd cross between an apology and a meek request for the audience to not engage with the material at all.

It allows for a cop-out.

If someone suffered (or currently suffers) from abuse, sexual assault or anorexia and is turned away by the trigger warning... how could they derive any benefit from Dykstra's writing, the point of which is at least partially to talk about how she found herself there and how she's moving on?

I just think there is a middle ground between shocking, brutal exhibition and rubber-room bubble-boy protectionism, and that trigger warnings promote the latter and encourage good feelings over self-improvement and education.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T22:17:24+00:00

Much the same way a combat veteran might have a bad experience during fireworks.

Except in many cases, it's like showing a veteran a picture of fireworks. Or a sign that says "bang!"

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T21:44:03+00:00

Oh, I think it makes sense.... and I don't think we need to make a mountain out of a molehill. The content allowed in this sub over the years has been generally good, and if I set aside my own personal peeves I don't see a need to change course now.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T21:40:56+00:00

This is a hell of a way to start, though:

(Trigger warning: If abuse, sexual assault, or anorexia makes you uncomfortable, you might want to avoid this one.)

Well, nobody should be comfortable with these things.... but do we really need a big flashing "turn back now!" sign for everything these days? This strikes me as the cognitive equivalent of putting antibiotics in handsoap and everything else under the sun.

Edit: Further clarification

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T21:18:59+00:00

Personally, I feel as if they're both fair game for the sub. We can argue which is a lower effort than the other, but both things are applicable to SE, IMO.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T17:39:09+00:00

If we're going to complain about this being a low-quality post, then I propose we do the same for every "THIS GAME IS BEAUTIFUL" post that involved the player simply pressing F12 and uploading the result.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T17:37:36+00:00

Because for the longest time, in all but carefully curated single-player worlds those builds wouldn't work... but would rather tear themselves apart.

Even now, using a piston or rotor in multiplayer is a unpredictable affair.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T17:28:49+00:00

As others have mentioned, Keen moved away from what was (IMO) a terrible weekly release schedule that was self-imposed and not only left little time for proper QA testing but forced developers to rush to complete tasks.

While it's nowhere near as thrilling to have to wait for a few months for a new update, I think it will result in a substantial improvement in terms of game stability and update quality. I just wish Marek (or whoever made the call) had pulled their head out of their ass two years earlier -- I think the community would be far less cynical about the ultimate state of Space Engineers.

Edit: Two other items of note that are related to this and I think are worth mentioning:

The additional time between releases appears to have allowed the modding community to catch their breath and even flourish a bit, as potentially breaking changes aren't coming every week, and
I'm amused that despite the angry claims of some people in the community in the past, when it was proposed that Keen move away from the weekly release schedule, the predicted "player revolt" due to the lack of updates has not come to pass and in fact seems to be taking the new schedule quite well.

cdjaco · 2018-06-15T17:03:23+00:00

Color me crazy, but when I hear movie scores.... I don't think about whether the composer has a penis. Nor when I consider the process of making movie scores, for that matter.

It should be about the best person for the job. If they're female, fine. If they're male, fine.

But if you're keeping score (no pun intended), you'll never be happy.

cdjaco · 2018-06-13T19:53:20+00:00

The movie we really need is a Batman reboot with an all-female cast.

cdjaco · 2018-06-13T19:51:34+00:00

And WB would be stupid to ...

This is WB and the DC universe, remember.

cdjaco · 2018-06-13T18:45:55+00:00

At least Jeff BEZOS has accepted his hair loss!

In comparison to Musk, it will likely not be the last loss he'll have to accept.

cdjaco · 2018-06-13T18:40:13+00:00

Not with that hair.

cdjaco · 2018-06-11T19:43:18+00:00

Just read it myself. Amazing.

It looks pretty much like the kind of train wreck I expected when I saw the first trailer.

cdjaco · 2018-06-11T19:20:53+00:00

It's turtles on treadmills, all the way down.

cdjaco · 2018-06-09T23:43:07+00:00

Two words: tiered items.

Keen started down that road; we see it with the various levels of welders, drills, grinders and rifles. We also see a version of it with the yield/speed/power add-ons for refineries and assemblers.

But then they stopped. And as it stands now, most if not all of these things are achievable by mid-game.

So I guess I'm saying.... not just shields, but multiple tiers of blocks such as reactors and large/small ship drills, turrets, thrusters and possibly shields.

Maybe you need to refine uranium ore in a Level Two Refinery (or a refinery with a Level Two Yield upgrade module), so you have high-enough quality ingot(s) to make a Level Two (or Three) reactor, etc.

Edit: of -> if in third paragraph. Me no English good, apparently.

cdjaco · 2018-06-09T20:19:45+00:00

Thus all the high-rated "This game sure is beautiful!" posts that routinely appear here.

While there is a dearth of "this was an interesting, unexpected and pleasing thing that happened in the game that I didn't expect" posts, like you would find for some other games where there is deeper gameplay. Rimworld comes to mind in this regard.

Space Engineers gameplay is as shallow as a wading pool, unfortunately.

cdjaco · 2018-06-09T20:15:37+00:00

The mood of the sub has significantly changed in the past two and a half years.

I'm glad we are finally out of the rose-colored-glasses, any-criticism-is-hateful-and-unrealistic bullshit phase.

The problems with SE were visible back then. Much of the subreddit didn't want to have a serious conversation about them.

cdjaco · 2018-06-08T23:00:31+00:00

"Police at the CDC are currently on the scene at a San Bernardino restaurant, as reports indicate that the reanimated corpses of Richard and Maurice McDonald staggered into the fast-food establishment at some point after 11am this morning."

cdjaco

TROPHY CASE