Hello, Engineers!
It’s time for another exciting update for Space Engineers. The most obvious change is the fact that with this release we are bringing both free and premium content to the game. This gives you the opportunity to enjoy new things, but also the chance to support the further development of Space Engineers, if you are willing to do so.
All players will get new functional cockpit LCDs with customizable screens, replay tool, which can be used for setting up various animated scenes, brand new random Encounters, Steam trading cards, badges and backgrounds, and all bug fixes, optimizations, and smaller improvements for free.
Players who already own the Deluxe Edition will also get three new music tracks based on the music from our trailers.
For players who wish to support further development of Space Engineers, we have created a bulk of Decorative Blocks, which you can use for various decorations on your spaceships, vehicles and space stations. The price is $3.99 USD, or your regional Steam equivalent. You can purchase the Decorative Pack here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049790/
If you decide not to purchase the Decorative Pack, but you want to play with friends or other players who did buy the Decorative Pack, you will still be able to join a multiplayer game or server with them and enjoy the game. In this case, you will be able to view these new blocks, but you won’t be able to build or interact with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CH7bojdooo
Marek's blog post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2019/04/space-engineers-customizable-lcd.html
Full list of features and improvements: https://forum.keenswh.com/threads/7402960
FAQ
Q: Are all future updates going to be paid?
A: Actually, even this update isn’t paid. The major part of this update (LCD screens, Replay Tool, new music tracks, smaller improvements) is free for everyone. Only the smaller and not mandatory part is paid - Decorative Pack.
Q: Aren’t you going to split the community - people who don’t own the Decorative Pack won’t be able to play with people who own it?
A: The way we designed this is that even people who don’t purchase the Decorative Pack can play on servers with people who own the Decorative Pack. Players who don’t own the Decorative Pack won’t be able to build with these new blocks, nor interact with them, but they will be able to view them in-game.
Q: Where is all this money going?
A: To support future development of Space Engineers and other leading-edge projects we plan to work on at Keen Software House. Players kept asking us for something they could buy to support the development of Space Engineers, and the Decorative Pack is a great option for them.
Q: When did you start working on Decorative Pack?
A: Right after Space Engineers left early access and all hot issues were resolved. Most of the work was done by the Art team, the rest of the developers is working on other long-term updates.
Q: Why haven’t you increased the price of Space Engineers and include the Decorative Pack in it, or why it’s not part of the Deluxe Edition?
A: We want more people to play Space Engineers, which means we must lower the barrier of entry. When the Space Engineers community grows, everyone benefits from this - more content on Workshop, more mods, more new ideas, more people to play with. This means that all non-mandatory features should be optional, so only those who really want them can pay for them. That’s why we decreased the price of Space Engineers, and made the Decorative Pack an optional purchase.
Q: We asked you for volumetric water, compound blocks, new goals, more optimizations, etc, and instead you are giving us a toilet block?
A: Hehe, if you put it this way, it sounds kind of funny. :) But the reality is that decorative blocks are low-hanging fruit, not a bottleneck towards those other mentioned future features. Additionally, the decorative pack can bring added profit and make the mentioned things happen.