History VideoGame / SpaceEngineers

Originally debuting via Platform/{{Steam}}'s Early Access program in October 2013, ''[[http://store.steampowered.com/app/244850/ Space Engineers]]'' saw a full release in February 2019, and a [[https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/space-engineers/9nlv3x229lg1?activetab=pivot:overviewtab port]] for the UsefulNotes/XboxOne in April 2020.

* TelescopingRobot: Concealing weapons underneath ship armor is possible with a bit of creativity. However, the ship actually needs the internal space to fit the weapons as well the mechanisms to deploy them. It's also liable to end in disaster if the pistons or rotors jam, which can cause [[HoistByHisOwnPetard rockets to misfire straight into the delicate internals of the ships]]. The trailer for the UsefulNotes/XboxOne port has a space station with turrets that rise out from shielded ports.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: To [[WreakingHavok show off the destruction mechanics]], nearly every gameplay trailer [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this by showing at least one big ship ramming into another (usually the hefty ''Red 1'' crashing through ''Blue 2'''s thin "neck"). [[UnexpectedlyRealisticOutcome In practice]], a ramming attempt tends to leave both ships equally mangled unless some extra-thick armor is installed at the ramming point.

* [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale Sci-Fi Writers Have...]]
** SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance: Planets are extremely close to each other compared to real life; the Earth-like world and its moon are only a few thousand kilometers apart, whereas the real Moon is a hundred times more distant. Planets are [[BabyPlanet far smaller than they should be]], though the excessively curved horizon is only noticeable from a high vantage point. Courtesy of the ArbitraryWeaponRange of both rendering and ship weapons, the absolute maximum engagement range against ships with conventional weapons is under 3 kilometers, which the USS Texas battleship could triple in 1892. Physicalized weapons (i.e. Railguns, torpedos) have a much longer range, but their accuracy is garbage against moving targets thanks to [[PainfullySlowProjectile their top speed of 104m/s]]
** SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfVelocity: By default, ships have a top speed of 104 m/s, roughly equal to the top speed of an older supercar. A space shuttle orbits at 7800 m/s. The agonizingly slow speed limit makes the Jump Drive an absolute necessity for interplanetary travel. It's possible to increase the speed limit, but it has dire effects on collision detection and rotors/pistons; a ship traveling at 400+ m/s will simply phase through ships and asteroids until the game realizes its location [[TeleFrag with unfortunate results]].

Originally debuting via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}'s Early Access program in October 2013, ''[[http://store.steampowered.com/app/244850/ Space Engineers]]'' saw a full release in February 2019, and a [[https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/space-engineers/9nlv3x229lg1?activetab=pivot:overviewtab port]] for the UsefulNotes/XboxOne in April 2020.

* SentryGun: Available in multiple flavors for either grid size: [[BFG Artillery Turret]], [[MoreDakka Assault Cannon Turret]], [[GatlingGood Gatling Turret]], Missile Turret, and a compact-but-low-powered Interior Turret. They can be individually programmed by their owner to fire upon meteors, missiles, derelict junk and other players.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Rockets and bullets will cut off after a certain distance.

** SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance: Planets are extremely close to each other compared to real life; the Earth-like world and its moon are only a few thousand kilometers apart, whereas the real Moon is a hundred times more distant. Planets are [[BabyPlanet far smaller than they should be]], though the excessively curved horizon is only noticeable from a high vantage point. Courtesy of the ArbitraryMaximumRange of both rendering and ship weapons, the absolute maximum engagement range against ships with conventional weapons is under 3 kilometers, which the USS Texas battleship could triple in 1892. Physicalized weapons (i.e. Railguns, torpedos) have a much longer range, but their accuracy is garbage against moving targets thanks to [[PainfullySlowProjectile their top speed of 104m/s]]

-->-- '''Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}, [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2077]]'''

* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: ''Many'' of the ships available on the Steam Workshop are replicas of famous sci-fi ships, including the ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect Normandy SR-2]]'', ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlue Mother of Invention]]'', ''[[{{Series/Firefly}} Serenity]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]''.

* MagneticWeapons: The ''Warfare 2'' update adds railguns for small and large grids. They're huge cannons (the large grid variant being [[{{BFG the biggest ship weapon in the vanilla game]]) that fire powerful, [[ArmorPiercingAttack armour-penetrating]] projectiles with impressive energy streams, but require a lengthy period of recharging between shots and lack the SplashDamage of explosive weapons.

** The Ship vent systems won't function unless they detect an air-tight seal to avoid uselessly venting your oxygen, so depressurization happens very quickly until doesn't attempt re-pressurization until the seal is restored.

* ArtEvolution: Originally, ship components adhered to a quasi-EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture aesthetic, with smooth plates, rounded edges and the default color being very pale grey. Update 01.165 instead made everything closer to a StandardHumanSpaceship in appearance, though still retaining the soft default colors.

* TheAllegedCar:
** The Rescue Ship that players can respawn with is heavily dented, not even fully built and slow as molasses. However, it does have a very [[BoringButPractical space-efficient design and carries everything the player needs]]. Cars with wheels have a tendency to violently lose their wheels when doing sweet jumps or even just turning if the wheel arches are too small.
** All those beautifully constructed titans in the workshop might not be the most functional. The well designed ones tend not to look as pretty, and you'd prefer them to play with in Survival. But in Creative, you can mess with all the really cool ones, and if they break horribly you can easily paste them back in for tweaking.

** The example SpaceFighter present in the Easy Start maps, being one of the first ships designed for the game, has numerous idiosyncrasies even after several updates -- In particular, the purposeless ejector blocks on the flanks were originally intended to [[SpentShellsShower jettison an unused shell debris item generated by the gatling guns]].

* ArtificialStupidity: Turrets will gleefully attempt to fire at enemy contacts regardless of what is in the way. They ''do'' stop firing when their target gets part of the ship the turret is mounted on, but they have no consideration for anything attached to the ship via pistons or rotors, which are technically speaking separate entities. Large Ship rovers on worlds inhabited by saberoids are especially prone to turrets blowing off their own wheels in an attempt to kill the giant spiders.

* AttackDrone: Drone ships can be created through the application of a remote control block and an antenna array, allowing you to command the ship via your suit's broadcast system or another friendly antenna nearby. A Camera is also recommended, so you can fly the drone in first-person.

* {{BFG}}: Rocket Launchers can be mounted on Large Ships, and they're the biggest conventional weapons in the game.
* BigBulkyBomb: Full-size [[SpaceMines Warheads]] are the same scale as other Large Ship pieces. Naturally, they produce the biggest and most destructive explosion in the game.

* BoobyTrap: Warheads are designed with this in mind - Players can arm them to explode after a set timer, wire them to Sensors to explode upon being tripped, or simply leave them as free-floating SpaceMines that explode upon hard collision.

** Ships designed for function over fashion tend to be ''very'' simple - in the most extreme cases, the hull can be little more than a skeletal frame holding the necessary pieces together.
** The Rescue Ship. Players are given one when they start a game on the 'Asteroids' map-type, when they join a new multiplayer server, or if they die without having a Medical Room to respawn at. It's not much to look at, but it's decked out with everything a player needs - a Medical Room, Refinery and Assembler are all onboard and ready to use, and keeping it running is a simple matter of finding a uranium deposit somewhere, or a large enough quantity of silicon to build enough solar panels and oxygen farms.

** On the subject of improvised weapons, the Kinetic Torpedo: essentially a rod of blocks mounted on a 3x3 or 5x5 cross as its own entity, to launch one simply accelerates their ship, slams the brakes and releases it as a quick, easy way to do some damage. Need more power? Mount a warhead on it for extra boom. Need even more power? Use a combination of gravity generators and artificial mass blocks to build all-but-undodgable gravity-drive torpedoes.

* BottomlessMagazines: Weapons fire continuously, and when a given magazine/ammunition container runs dry the weapon just switches to the next available one without needing a physical reload.

* CombiningMecha: Merge Blocks can be used to connect two or more ships; the ships can form a larger "super ship" or make a booster for one of the ships. Be careful on the arrangement of components or the ships and/or stations become semi-permanently merged, forcing you to deconstruct or destroy components to detach them from each other.
* ConstructionIsAwesome: The prime selling point of ''Space Engineers'' is the ability to design your own spaceships and space stations from scratch, [[WreakingHavok and then destroy them with detailed damage physics]]. In Survival mode, blocks aren't instantly placed: You spawn a simple skeleton-frame, and then use a welding tool to add on its component parts and gradually piece it together. Even the simplest ship designs take some time to build.

* CoolStarship: A given ship could be bristling with sentry turrets and solar panels, equipped with a teleportation drive or an internal manufacturing system, capable of limited transformation with moving components, or armed with a hangar bay for carrying smaller ships inside itself. It could be a StarshipLuxurious in scale, or merely a personal yacht or compact SpaceFighter. It could be practical gunmetal grey, or any combination of garish colors your heart desires. The only true limit to construction is the PCU cost of the blocks involved, which can be set to hundreds-of-thousands in worldgen.
** With the DLC packs, you can use multiple alternative textures while painting the hull and install cosmetic props throughout the interior, allowing for an even more intricate appearance.
* CriticalEncumbranceFailure: Subverted. Reaching the maximum volume of your inventory doesn't stop you from moving or slow you down while on foot, but it does make you ''heavier'', which means you'll need more thrust to move around and stay airborne. Ships carrying heavy loads in cargo containers can also have their center-of-mass destabilized, depending where the container is, which can be troublesome during atmospheric trips.
* CrosshairAware: Turrets show a square reticule over whatever they're firing at. Player-operated weapons on ships employ laser sights for aiming, which are visible to other players as small red dots.

* EnormousEngine:
** A Large-scale hydrogen thruster is pretty hefty compared to other thruster types, especially when directly connected to one or more of the 3x3x3 hydrogen tanks required to fuel it.
** The [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=294555339&searchtext= Titan Engine mod]]. Standing at twenty blocks long and five blocks wide and tall, it easily dwarfs players and most structures, [[WeaponizedExhaust and the exhaust flame is substantial enough to obliterate Small Ships almost instantly]].

* ExplosionsInSpace: We've got missiles and mines as weapons, while Hydrogen Tanks, Batteries and Large Reactors will explode when destroyed. Subverted with everything else, as hull blocks gradually shatter and deform instead, while other ship systems simply suffer a CriticalExistenceFailure.
* TheFaceless: The player-character engineers have opaque black visors that completely hide their faces. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because [[TruthInTelevision real-life astronauts]] use black tinted visors to prevent their faces from being burned by unfiltered sunlight.
** Subverted by the Oxygen update, which gave players the ability to retract their visors with the push of a button. Without his helmet, the player-character engineer [[GenerationXerox strongly resembles]] the one from ''Medieval Engineers''.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** Gravity Generators stand out as being very out-of-place in the otherwise MundaneDogmatic game. They are present primarily for ease-of-navigation in ships without having the clumsiness of flying in tight spaces.
** The [[SpaceIsNoisy Sound Block]]. Nothing says 'realistic' like rigging up an exterior speaker system to blast the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' theme as you fly through the vacuum of space. Later, audible sounds outside of pressured environments were made optional, but are active by default.
** The Jump Drive is an outright teleportation device, standing in ''very'' stark contrast to the relatively grounded tech found everywhere else. In this case it's another [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]], as the maximum speed of any object without mods is little over a hundred meters per-second; without the Jump Drive, long-distance travel could take hours of uninterrupted flight, which already carries the risk of accidentally crashing into objects like asteroids if you aren't paying attention.
* GatlingGood: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Gatling Gun]] on [[SpaceFighter Small Ships]], and the [[SentryGun Gatling Turret]]. Their high rate of fire and fast projectiles make them perfect for fending off meteorites and shooting down Small Ships, but low damage makes them largely ineffective against structures and heavy armor. Gatling guns are especially cost-effective against atmospheric flying craft, due to heavy armor impeding their ability to stay airborne.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Gravity cannons. Essentially a coilgun using gravity generators as the magnet stages. Since gravity fields can be shaped, you can build this into anything without screwing up the other gravity fields. The only problem is the game's maximum speed on anything is 111.5 m/s or 145.5 m/s for gravity acceleration (Subject to change). But even a small projectile using artificial mass can do some serious damage. The thing is, prior to the activation of the official in game weapons, such as the Gatling Gun and Rocket Launcher or the turrets, these were the first sort of damaging weapons, short of ramming, that players devised, firing rocks with devastating effect. They still can tear through over 20 layers of heavy armor or can be used to launch torpedoes.
** To get a sense of how much energy is in a single, small artificial mass being launched at maximum speed: its energy is about 22 times more than that of a [=120mm=] depleted uranium tank round. It can easily over-penetrate a layer of a large block of heavy armor, which is 2.5m thick.

* LaserSight: Present on spaceship weapons to help you aim, because - depending on where you install them - the projectiles won't necessarily line up with your crosshair. The laser sights are not visible along their lengths, [[CrosshairAware but all players can see the small neon-red dots that show where the weapon is aiming]].

* MobileFactory: Any Large Ship equipped with Refineries and Assemblers. Bonus points if the ship is equipped with welders and hologram projectors, so it can actively build new structures using the materials it creates.

* OldSchoolDogfight: [[SpaceFighter Small Ships]] generally fight like this. While they can mount weak turrets, their most effective weapons are [[FixedForwardFacingWeapon single-facing]], and they can otherwise move fast enough to evade attacks.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: Until the weapons were implemented, the only real way to damage other spaceships was to ram into them at top speed. [[UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay Of course, this generally leaves both ships equally mangled unless some serious hull-reinforcement is installed at the ramming point]]. To [[WreakingHavok show off the destruction mechanics]], nearly every gameplay trailer [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this by showing at least one big ship ramming into another.

** Due to how the in-game physics works, placing an artificial gravity generator and artificial mass in a particular part of a ship causes the ship to accelerate in that direction.
* RecoilBoost: Small Ship Gatling guns and the handheld assault rifle will the send the user flying backwards with sustained fire. For some reason, though, Rocket Launchers don't do the same.

* SalvagePirates:
** Scuttling abandoned or ruined structures is a good way to get ready-made crafting materials; though some players, armed with weapons, are perfectly happy to gun down fellow engineers before proceeding to loot their ships.
** Invoked with the Cargo Ships -- Unmanned ships of varying sizes spawned randomly that are laden with components and materials, which currently only exist for players to hijack and loot; provided they can circumvent the BoobyTrap and armaments most of them have.

* SentryGun: Available in three flavors: [[GatlingGood Gatling]] and [[StuffBlowingUp Missile]] Turrets to protect the exterior hull, and a much smaller Interior Turret designed to fit inside buildings. They can be individually programmed by their owner to fire upon meteors, missiles, derelict junk and other players.
* SerialEscalation: Originally, the game world was just a small cluster of three/seven/sixteen asteroids with nothing around them; then came the procedurally-generated worlds that were filled with unlimited asteroids; and now there is a map featuring three planets and their moons, which are larger than anything seen before, making even the proudest player-built ship look like a speck in comparison.
* SeriesMascot: Aside from the generic player-character astronaut, the developer-built Large Ships ''Red 1'' and ''Blue 2'' are featured in almost every major trailer and official gameplay video. The unnamed Blue Fighter is also prominent.

* SnipingTheCockpit: Destroying the cockpit is the easiest way to disable fighter craft, though it's more difficult on large ships due to them often being buried deep in armor. With third-person view (or plenty of camera blocks), they don't even need windows to see.
* SolarSail: The Solar Panel is commonly used to invoke this, though on their own they provide no thrust. Since it generates a decent level of energy (while facing the sun, obviously), it's somewhat common to find Small Ships and some lightweight Large Ships using masses of solar panels to power their engines while conserving valuable uranium and hydrogen.
* SpaceFighter: The Small Ship block class is designed for this.

* SpaceMarine: An assault rifle is among the hand-tools available to players, so man-to-man firefights are possible.
* SpaceMines: Warheads can be used for this purpose, since they explode from any hard contact or weapon/thruster damage upon being armed.

* StickyShoes: The boots of your spacesuit are magnetic, in a manner similar to the Landing Gear block, allowing you to walk and even run on any constructed surface and transition between angles when your jetpack is turned off. However, due to the magnet being by necessity relatively weak, any gravity field will overpower the boots' magnetism.
* StuffBlowingUp: Missile launchers are the most predominant, available in two sizes and types. Small Ships get regular one-missile-at-a-time launchers that you need to manually load and re-loadable rocket launchers that uses the conveyor system; Large Ships get a hefty missile pod capable of [[MacrossMissileMassacre firing full-auto]]. Also, SpaceMines.
* TankGoodness: Tanks are a popular creation subject on the Workshop; either on wheels, improvised treads, or - for the adventurous - [[HoverTank thruster/gravity propulsion systems]].

* TelescopingRobot: Concealing weapons underneath ship armor is very popular. On the other hand, the ship actually needs the internal space to fit the weapons and the mechanism to deploy them. It's also liable to end in disaster if the pistons or rotors jam, which can cause [[HoistByHisOwnPetard rockets to misfire straight into the delicate internals of the ships]]. The trailer for the UsefulNotes/XboxOne port has a space station with turrets that rise out from hidden ports.

* ThisIsADrill: Available as a hand-tool for players and as a system for Small and Large Ships. [[CallARabbitASmeerp Though the hand-drill, despite being referred to as such, is clearly a jackhammer]].

* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: Very possible, given the players involved, and some of the ships available on the Steam Workshop are replicas of famous sci-fi ships, including the ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect Normandy SR-2]]'', ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlue Mother of Invention]]'', ''[[{{Series/Firefly}} Serenity]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]''

* UsedFuture: The spirit of the trope can be invoked through the right use of colors and superficial hull damage, but the ''Style Pack'' DLC adds an alternate hull texture overgrown with green moss, useful for adding that "reclaimed by the elements" appearance to a terrestrial structure or ruined ship.

** The [[GameMod Steam-Workshop-modded]] [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=294555339&searchtext= Titan Engine]] block is perhaps the most triumphant example. Its exhaust path at full power is ''over forty block-lengths long'', and strong enough to obliterate most Small Ships instantly.

* WhatAPieceOfJunk: The Rescue Ship starts in inexplicably poor condition - the exterior hull is always heavily dented, and several blocks are incomplete. However, as listed above in BoringButPractical, the Rescue Ship is a surprisingly useful vessel.
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: The release of [[BabyPlanet Planets]] was long awaited, due to the game-changing effects of natural gravity and the sheer distances involved in travel, both on the planet and between them. One of the first things many people did when the update was released was to simply look over the planet from orbit, or head for a mountaintop and take in the surrounding landscape.
* ZipMode: Jump Drives. Provided that you've saved a set of co-ordinates at the desired location, you can use a Jump Drive (or several, depending on distance) to teleport there, saving you potentially hours of travel time.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Zig-zagged. Word of God states that the developers want the game to be as realistic as possible, so 'soft' technology like DeflectorShields and [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] are unlikely to make an appearance[[note]](though there is a wide variety of sophisticated [[GameMod mods]] to that effect)[[/note]]. However, [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality we still get traditional]] ArtificialGravity generators, and SoundInSpace (while optional) is present by default.

** To get a sense of how much energy is in a single, small artificial mass being launched at maximum speed: its energy is about 22 times more than than of a [=120mm=] depleted uranium tank round. It can easily over-penetrate a layer of a large block of heavy armor, which is 2.5m thick.

** To get a sense of how much energy is in a single, small artificial mass being launched at maximum speed: it's 15,200 times more energetic than a .50 BMG round, which is considered to be one of the most powerful man-fired rounds. It can also easily over-penetrate a layer of heavy armor (which is about 2.5 meters thick), although the projectiles tend to be destroyed on impact.

* BadassBeard: Underneath the helmet, the player character has a scruffy black beard similar to the male playermodel from ''Medieval Engineers''.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: Until the weapons were implemented, the only real way to damage other spaceships was to ram into them at top speed. [[RealityEnsues Of course, this generally leaves both ships equally mangled unless some serious hull-reinforcement is installed at the ramming point]]. To [[WreakingHavok show off the destruction mechanics]], nearly every gameplay trailer [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this by showing at least one big ship ramming into another.

* RealityEnsues: Plenty of it (see RammingAlwaysWorks above) but the first example many first-time Survival players find is that mining an asteroid is a very fiddly job when you have to chase those resource nuggets through the gravity-less void on a regular basis. A gravity generator makes things a lot easier.

* StandardHumanSpaceship: All armor blocks are made up of riveted steel plates fitted together, which are by default colored a plain gunmetal gray, and generally have hard edges. The dev-built ships largely avert part of this though, as they are often painted in bright primary colors for easy visual identification.

* TrickedOutShoes: The boots of your spacesuit are magnetic, in a manner similar to the Landing Gear block, allowing you to walk and even run on any constructed surface and transition between angles when your jetpack is turned off. However, due to the magnet being by necessity relatively weak, any gravity field will overpower the boots' magnetism.

** As of the 1.0 release, with ladders added back to the game, the Passage block has its original use restored. Ladders aren't necessarily limited to being built inside Passage blocks, but they do have a niche when engineers want to build narrow pressurized human-traversal passages that don't have a lot of armor blocks surrounding them.