Starmade = Space Engineers + Minecraft + Huge Galaxies (and it's FREE!)

[SmugFrog]

I'm a sucker for space based creative building games, and I really think Minecraft has kicked off a new genre.

Skip to the 2 minute mark of the video if you want to get right to the action.


I had been holding off on Space Engineers because aside from the asteroid fields, there's really no exploring or planets. This game changes that.

You can download it from their website: http://star-made.org/ or there's a version on Steam called Starmade Demo (it's the full game, but it's called a "demo" because it's in Alpha).

This is how Early Access games should be; free to play and try while they're in Alpha. This game is quite impressive, it's like a late beta. I've spoke with a few people that tried it over the last couple of years and they're impressed with how amazing the game is now.

If you're interested in joining up with me, I'm playing on the ElwynEternity server. Send me a message and let me know. I go by SmugFrog in game.

Seriously, it's FREE. Check it out. Maybe we can get an Escapist faction going?

 

[Platypus540]

I had been holding off on Space Engineers because aside from the asteroid fields, there's really no exploring or planets. This game changes that.

The Space Engineers devs have announced that they're adding explorable and (eventually) terraformable planets in the relatively near future, adapted from the terrain code used in Medieval Engineers.

As far as this game, the aesthetic strikes me as sort of 'low budget', especially compared to Space Engineers (and the construction seems more limited, you can do crazy stuff in SE), but the FTL and explorable galaxy does look really cool, so maybe I'll check it out when I have time.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Certainly a very impressive trailer and feature list for such a small team.
But this is a giant case of "stretched too thin", I did play this game a while back and checked videos now on what has changed... and the main problem persist, which is that every part of the game is super clunky and difficult to use.

I hope that is something they have in mind to hammer out very soon, because not very many people will play a game this odd in all it's aspects.

 

[SmugFrog]

The Space Engineers devs have announced that they're adding explorable and (eventually) terraformable planets in the relatively near future... As far as this game, the aesthetic strikes me as sort of 'low budget'

Now THAT would make me seriously consider Space Engineers. I agree that based on the trailer it seems kind of cheesy and initially like a Minecraft knock-off with the block system. I've spoke with a few people that play both (Starmade in its current state, not the older one), and prefer Starmade for whatever reasons. Something I always like about a game like this is having a variety of blocks (or textures) at my disposal so that not everything is the same color. Space Engineers definitely has it beat on physics and collisions, with some of the videos I've seen of ships ripping each other apart. Starmade just feels like it has more to offer with its massive galaxies, exploration, mining, fighting, factions, etc.

But this is a giant case of "stretched too thin", I did play this game a while back and checked videos now on what has changed... and the main problem persist, which is that every part of the game is super clunky and difficult to use.

It does feel like a high learning curve. I'm not sure what the "clunky" part of it was, and I've only been playing for about 2 weeks so I didn't see the previous versions. It does demand a lot of RAM (Java 64 bit recommended) to prevent crashes and have a further draw distance.

Whatever your opinion, I think we can all agree that this is how an early access game needs to happen if they really want to attract people; release the alpha version for free so people can see it to decide if they want to buy it.

 

[seris]

I have played this game a bit in the past, its pretty fun but I don't recommend buying it unless you have a great PC. It lags when there are lots of ships on the screen