Space Engineers

What if I told you, you can do Minecraft in space? You'd probably tell me there's already a mod for that but that's not what I'm talking about. 

I'm talking about Space Engineers, a sandbox space engineering/construction game. Using blocks to build, but with a smoother and more "realistic" graphic than Minecraft. As an example, everything isn't blocks! Not that I'm complaining about everything being blocks but that is beside the point. What is the point is that in SE you can build ships and stuff with clean diagonal edges, which I think is awesome. Being in space really makes it go that step further in inspiration for me as a sci-fi enthusiast. This game is in alpha stage and is available on Steam, which is nice. Finished features include (among others) building in creative mode, scenarios, large and small ships to build, pilot and crash, world management, gravity, magnetic landing gears, weapons and possibility to do some modding on world files, shaders, 3D models and textures. 

From some let's plays I've seen, you can make really awesome stuff. A great example of this is a W40K build of a Battlefleet Gothic Space Marine-style battleship with a landing bay complete with a Thunderhawk (now that was a mouthful). I've also seen a build of the Slave I, pretty nice!

The makers of the game wanted to make something that felt realistic and used equally realistic technology, although they did have to loosen a bit on the realistic part to make the game more playable, i.e. artificial gravity among other things. But this also means that when you build a ship you have to think about how it will move in space. To have enough energy and thrusters in the right place. But space is space and that makes it awesome.

This is a game that I really want to get my hands on and I think that it has real potential to be a great success. Even though there are still no sound effects, crafting or multiplayer it does have favourable winds in its sails. I think that when multiplayer and crafting features becomes implemented, this game will become a standard title when it comes to space based sandbox building.

Hipp Hipp!

LINKS!

Space Engineers: http://www.spaceengineersgame.com/

W40K Build by freshandjuicy: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=195432929

The Humble Bundle

What's more awesome than Humble Bundle? Well, maybe a comfirmed release date for Half-Life 3, but humble Bundle is still pretty awesome. I'm going to try to keep a tab on current offerings in the bundle and weekly sale so that you guys knows what's available!

Humble Bundle

So, what's in the bundle right now? In the Humble Bundle it's a jackpot for the Android user. The standard package gives you:

1. Little inferno - Stack and burn your stuff in the fireplace. Screaming marshmallows, blowfish and brünnhilde from Wagners Valkyria. Combine the burning and unlock more stuff to burn. Made by Tomorrow Corporation, the game has a true Tim Burton feeling and by the looks of the trailer it has a nice dark humour to it as well.





2. Gemini Rue - This dystopian sci-fi adventure game made by Wadjet Eye Games tickles my fancies. The graphics remind me of the Trilby game series but with an updated touch. The trailer is compelling and the story sound thrilling. Honestly, I think I should get this one.





3. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! ...for the Awesome - Ever wanted to try base jumping from the top of a building and circle around it and dodging obstacles all while aiming for waypoints to collect points? Well, it's your lucky day! This game from Dejobaan Games will let you do just that! It's also made to be played with the Oculus Rift! WHOA DUDE!





4. Jack Lumber - From Owlchemy Labs (whom also had a finger in making #3) brings you a manlier and beardier sort of fruit ninja game. Take the role of Jack Lumber with his "magical" axe and go chop chop on that wood. Why? BECAUSE MANLY! THAT'S WHY!



Now of course there is more goodies for those who pay over the current average amount. This time they add Solar 2, Bad Hotel, The Bard's Tale, Hero Academy and Anomaly 2. If you want to check these out you should visit the Humble Bundle site: https://www.humblebundle.com/

RimWorld - A "How to get going" tutorial.

So now you've gone and gotten your hands on RimWorld and can’t wait to get going. Good! But then you start it up and… now what? Well my friend, no worries. This gentleman is here to help you get a good going. Here I give you a short “Beginners Tutorial for RimWorld” by The Leauge of Nerdish Gentlemen [LNG].

I recommend starting with the Chill Callie Classic AI storyteller but, you know, whatever rocks your boat.

Example of a character setup

Anyway, let’s take a look at your three survivors. As these will be your main characters, their skills will have to be balanced to every aspect of the game (so far). The nobles won’t do manual labour but are often great in social, melee and shooting. Oafs don’t do intellectual but are great workhorses. What you want to have is characters that cover all fields. My personal line-up usually has at least one with higher skill for defence. The noble and the commissar are good for this position. The plus with these are that they also are good for social tasks as long as they aren’t vat grown soldiers. Talking about social, this skill is good for taking care of prisoners (warden) and trading via the comm device. Moving on with cover fields, you’ll want someone to be able to do research. You don’t necessarily need a scientist but it will make research go much faster since they have a higher starting skill. But anyone capable of intellectual work will do in my opinion since there isn’t a lot of research to do in this version. The skills mining, construction, repair, growing and hauling will be done by anyone as long as they aren’t incapable, so it’s as with the research, you don’t necessarily need a miner but higher skill makes faster work. Also, when a character does any kind of work it will train the skill involved. So with time you will get high skills any of your characters as long as they can do the work. That brings up another thing to make sure that you check in this phase, the background of the character. Hover over with your mouse to see which stats are affected by them and check what the character might be incapable of doing, such as the vat grown soldier is incapable of social and the noble is incapable of manual tasks.

You'd think a G.E.C.K would give a bit more...

 When you’re done picking characters the game the real fun begins. You start with your three colonisers landing beside a stockpile area, a dumping area and loose material (food and metal). There is also a small piece of rock close by with edges that has a yellowish pattern on it. This indicates that you can mine metal from it. But ignore that one for the time being. Instead you select the materials by clicking on them and then either press “F” of click on the button with the hand that comes up in the info field. Your people will (hopefully) go collect them directly. This will boost your initial supplies.

Red markers show steam geysers

Now you should look at the lay of the land. Use WASD or the arrow keys to move around and look for places where there is metal to mine, green areas and steam geysers. 

There are two geysers on each map (at least from what I’ve seen) and on these you can put the geothermal generator, which generates constant energy in contrast to the solar panels.

All-in-one room. Cosy, right?

After looking around the map, find a fitting place to place your home. First, put down one or two solar panels (unless you have a geyser close by), then make one or two batteries. Put walls around the batteries and connect the new building with the solar panels with a power conduit. You find these things in the architect menu (easy access by right clicking). Take a moment to familiarise yourself with it, then find the nutrient paste dispenser and put it down somewhere. It requires power so it’s best to have it connected with the batteries. You might have notices that walls have power conduits in it and that makes it easier to place things that need power. Make sure to have the dispenser under a roof as well (which you get from having walls form a room). The reason you want to have batteries and dispensers under roof is that they don’t like the rain very much. Don’t believe me? OK, try it out and see for yourself. But when you feel like continuing building the foundation for your colony, make room for beds. Your people start with sleeping spots beside the stockpile. As you will come to learn, your people have their thoughts about their situation and sleeping outside isn’t their favourite thing. They prefer a bed and their own room, which gives you an idea about how to form your buildings. But for easy starts, make a big room where you put three beds. This can be the same room/house where the dispenser and batteries are. Only make sure that whenever you build with walls, make sure that colonisers can reach the wall and repair it if needed. If a wall goes without repairing it might end up blowing and draining all stored energy in the batteries.

Can't a man have a biscuit? Google it!

When you have beds and roof, it’s time to get at garden started. This is why you need green areas. Place two growing areas at a good spot and your people will fix the garden. You need to do this soon after start or you will face starvation before you know it.

Right, good work! You now have the freedom to explore and expand as you wish. Until that time that pesky raiders decide to crash your party. Security is a tricky thing in RimWorld. You have access to auto turrets from the start. Problem is that you need to place a couple of them and place them smart. They shoot a burst of three shots but can be upgraded via research to four shoot bursts. They aren’t too accurate and they can’t withstand too much of a beating before blowing up. They also require a good amount of power (350W). But with a bit of tactical thinking you can learn what works best for your defence. The good Gentleman Niccro shared his tactic of making a choking point, leading raiders into a killing ground. Myself, I place sandbags so that my people have cover when standing their ground. But remember that attackers also look for cover when they come for you.  So you need to experiment with what works best for you. A final point on defending, you can put colonisers in "Draft mode" (quick key "R"), this let's you command them by telling them where to go and who to attack.

Tips -

#1: At the point where your characters land on the planet, there lies a pistol. Select the one who is the designated defender and have her equip it by right clicking on the pistol and select "equip".

 #2: If you are in dire need of food, under the "orders" menu you can select "Harvest" and then drag it across bushes and agave plants. If these are fully grown, you will get food from them. 

#3: Four walls will automatically get a roof. Don't cover solar panels!

#4: Don't forget doors!

So, now you have the first steps towards survival in RimWorld. I wish you good luck and many hours of good fun.

Rimworld

When I first saw Rimworld I knew I had to try it. As far as space colony simulators go, this is the first one I’ve been in contact with that lets you be in direct contact with the people of the colony. You are thrown right into action as three survivors from a ship carrying people in cryostasis drops down in escape pods onto the world below. Your mission is to secure the survival of these three by telling them where to build walls, fields and power generators. Keeping resources in stock and loyalty up is a heavy task in itself but when raiders start raining down and psychotic squirrels (no joke) runs rampant, security becomes an issue. Auto-turrets, sandbags and armed colonisers are your only line of defence. You don’t have any weapons on your colonisers at start but you can get them from killed or disabled raiders or buy them from passing traders via the comm device.

Example of a base.

But before you start the game, you select the difficulty of the storytelling AI as it’s called. Then you get to look at and modify the people whom are going to fall down on the world below. There are different classes, skills and backgrounds that are randomly selected along with a rage of traits. Each class have different pros and cons such as the miner being good mining and gathering resources but maybe lacking in social skill that the noble and con artist have. You soon realise that a well rounded set of skills are good to have. Another thing to think about is how willing a person is to get her hands dirty. A noble character will not do any labouring duty but make up with it by being with high skill in social, research, doctoring or maybe combat (all depending on the randomly generated points). But after getting the desired characters and naming them the dire task of survival begins. Depending on the difficulty you choose for the AI you will either have a calm start or outright hell. With luck and perseverance you will make it.

And since it’s still in pre-alpha there are a lot of features that still aren’t implemented but given what is available I think this game will be great. The graphic is really basic. There is no music but good enough sound effects. With coming updates the graphics and artwork will be upgraded, according to the maker. But I personally don’t mind it as it currently is, on the contrary I get a good feeling from it as it reminds me of the great indie games of the early part of the 2k:s.

It’s totally worth a try and something to look forward to in the future as it develops.

Links: http://rimworldgame.com/