Hello, Engineers!

This week’s release brings fresh style to your builds with a brand-new decorative block and some visual upgrades to existing ones!

A decorative Locker block is now available, offering a realistic touch for interior spaces with storage areas. It’s ideal for hinting at high-value gear inside!
The Hydrogen Thruster has received a visual upgrade, with improved flame particle effects that bring more intensity and motion to your ships.
Additionally, the Shower block got a polish! It now looks smoother and fits seamlessly into your creations.

As always, all blocks and improvements are available now!

This week we spent time discussing what combat should look and feel like in Space Engineers 2. Nothing is final yet. We're exploring ideas, identifying the pain points from SE1, and trying to define what kind of combat experience we actually want to build.

We started by outlining a few core principles that we think should guide combat design in SE2:

• Longer, more tactical engagements: Fights should take time - measured in minutes, not seconds. We want to avoid sudden one-shot kills and give players time to react.

• Preparation should matter: Players who scout, build defenses, or prepare ambushes should be able to generate unfair local advantages.

• Rock-Paper-Scissors balance: No single weapon or strategy should dominate. A system where different combat types counter each other could make battles more dynamic.

• Player feedback and clarity: You should know when you’ve hit something, what damage you’re doing, and what’s happening around you - without guesswork.

• Support both attack and defense playstyles: Offensive and defensive roles should both be viable, with tools and mechanics that support each side.

With those principles in mind, we discussed possible features and mechanics that could support this kind of gameplay.

In SE1, a single cockpit hit could end the fight instantly. We’re thinking about ways to prevent this - possibly through shields or other durability layers that give players more time to react. The idea isn’t to make combat slower for the sake of it, but to make it more interesting and fair.

We explored a triangle-based balance model:

• Aimed/manual weapons beat automated turrets

• Automated turrets beat rockets/missiles

• Rockets/missiles beat aimed weapons

This would encourage diverse ship builds and make strategic choices more meaningful, especially in PvP.

We’d like players to have ways to detect enemies - not just through visual spotting but via tools like scanners or sensors. This also opens up infiltration gameplay, where a player could sneak into an enemy base or ship and gain an advantage. But for that to work, defenders need countermeasures - like surveillance systems, detection blocks, or hacking protection.

We’re also toying with the idea of hacking encounters as a mini-game or high-stakes mechanic during infiltration.

Safe zones came up a lot. We’re considering making them:

• Limited in size and availability

• Costly to maintain over time

• Slow to set up

The idea is to preserve tension and avoid scenarios where players are untouchable. One suggestion was to have safe zone chips decay over time, even when stored, to prevent stockpiling. There could also be progression systems that allow players to expand their safe zones later in the game.

Another angle we’re still thinking about: how important should character combat be compared to grid combat? Should it play more like a shooter, or more like an engineering-driven encounter? Some ideas we’re toying with:

• Characters boarding grids and taking them over

• Combat-focused suit upgrades

• Dedicated tools for sabotage or infiltration

There’s also potential to make enemy characters more visible or tagged on your HUD if they’re hostile - not allied - making encounters easier to track and respond to.

As always, these are early design discussions. Some of these systems may evolve, combine, or be cut entirely. But this is the direction we’re thinking about as we continue shaping SE2 into the game we’ve always wanted to play.

Let us know what you think combat in SE2 should feel like!

Please join us for Space Engineers 2 Developer Livestream!

• 🚀 Friday, July 11th, 5 PM UTC

• 🛰️ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/keencommunitynetwork

• 🛰️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceEngineers

Image Credits: Generations by Bash

🛠️ Feedback & Support - https://support.keenswh.com/
🗺️ Roadmap: https://2.spaceengineersgame.com/roadmap-2/#current
🛰️ Discord: https://discord.gg/keenswh
📫 Newsletter: https://www.keenswh.com/newsletter
➡️ Connect and find us on your platform of choice: https://www.keenswh.com/connect/


https://steamcommunity.com/games/1133870/announcements/detail/512962085601152445https://steamcommunity.com/games/1133870/announcements/detail/822583385779083263https://steamcommunity.com/games/1133870/announcements/detail/512962085601150070

To celebrate our 25th anniversay, during Slitherine Next we have announced a new update, releasing today. On top of several fixes and balances, this new update features a new brand unit: the Deffkilla Wartrike. In order to be usable in your armies, players must own the Ork Faction DLC.

During the event, we talked about the origin of the game, its history and also the next steps. In case you missed the event, you can rewatch it here:

As per usual, please let us know what you think of the list of changes. Your feedback is essential to keep improving the game.

Changes since 1.5.275

• Added new unit for the Ork Faction, the Deffkilla Wartrike

  • This is a HQ unit for the Orks. It requires the Ork Faction DLC to be usable in your armies.

• Added new Imperial City map biome for Crusade and Planetary Supremacy

• Added 5 new T’au themed buildings to the Map Editor for players to use in their custom maps and campaigns

• Rebalanced Enemy Army Sizes for all battles

• Added Uncommon and Legendary Level Up Upgrades

• Enemy Boss HP reduced to +100% from +200%

• Added a selection of Boss Army upgrades

  • These will buff all of the other units in a Boss’ army

• Updated Ork “Speedy Boyz” army

• Tweaks for some Crusade level ups.

Fixes for:

• Moved objective spires in Crusade mode “Siege” games to be closer to the player spawn

• Initial T’au army was larger than the initial battle size allowed

• Some Flamer units could cause an occasional game hang on level up

• Units would face the wrong way when activating capture points in Crusade

Fixes for:

• Mission 4 side objective does not count turns correctly after Save&load

• When Leona dies first time in mission 10 then the objective marker disappears and makes mission incompletable

Fixes for:

• Visual fx of some Adepta Sororitas abilities, which played too quickly if gameplay time speed up was being used

• Tweaked main menu button background to aid readability

• Some tech trees were placed too far to the right on the screen, obscuring the token cost icons

• Mines no longer count as units towards location capture (like in Conqueror game mode)

• AI controlled Canoness and Sister Superior will now actually use their swords

• Clarified the description for abilities that trigger a modified charge (like Devastating Charge) and require at least 1 movement point to be used

• Issue where starting Armoured Sentinel in Crusade had Plasma Cannon, not Flamer

• Some rocks in the Defence of Eonis map were badly placed and did not match the tilemap

关卡掉落：关卡掉落赛季天机玉和轮回天机玉的残片。

说书人·照影：使用【问心玉符】从侠客身上提取轮回/赛季天机玉。

图鉴解锁：收集并升级轮回天机玉，作为长期养成系统的一部分。

[/h3]

推演：激活未鉴定的赛季天机玉，获得随机词缀效果!

改命：定向洗炼已有的词缀，提供三种改法精雕细琢!

爻变：重置赛季玉随机模块的阈值，助你获得更高的属性数值!

[/h3]

• Updated Eric’s hitbox
  
• Improved 1-6, 1-7, 1-8, 1-9, 1-10, 1-A, 1-B, and 1-C
  
• Heat Breakers now add a small amount of Judgement on clear, depending on how much Heat you earned
  
• Added Heat Breakers to the Jury, Grim, Tevunah, Ayin, the Ancient of Days, and Adam Kadmon
  
• Ayin has been made much harder
  
• Added a new enemy to 1-A and 1-C
  
• Title skybox now changes depending on what level you last played
  
• Added music title display to the Title and Interludes

In today's update, I'll quickly overview some unlockable cards from the bounty bosses, what Maman Brigitte's difficulty entails and, lastly, a little information about upcoming updates.

So I've talked about this one for a while, but I wanted to add some unlockable cards to Final Notice - currently not all the ones I wanted to add are in, but all the bosses, except Maman Brigitte, the one in this update, have unlockable "Boss Cards" - which you can tell the difference between because they are A) in more than just "green" colour-wise and B) trimmed with a fancy sort-of-dull-and-grungy gold border.

Ideally I'll be keeping these cards pretty much a secret - so I won't spoil any effects or names, but I will show you the set of them here. They're all pretty damn strong cards so I'd recommend going to the bounty mode to beat the bosses!

If you've ALREADY beaten the bosses, you only need to open the deckbuilder to receive the new cards.

Maman Brigitte is the first boss rated at 5/5 for difficulty - she's unforgiving, very, very fond of filling your hand with garbage and very, very fond of making your cards basically unplayable due to mortis costs.

She's far easier to beat with the boss cards from her voodoo kin, so I'd recommend tackling them first. She has no special effects other than being immune to stuns, however, so if you manage to crack open some way to OTK her or, even better, completely ignore her even IF she gets a turn, do show it off! I'd love to nerf see it!

I won't rattle on about this much, plans change all the time after all, but you can expect the following key updates in the future:

V0.4.5 - Lots, lots more unlockable cards. You'll start earning cards left and right when you begin, but gradually they'll become neat little "oh, nice!" moments you get from completing hidden challenges. I'd appreciate some feedback if you, the players, would prefer these challenges to remain hidden or not. Personally, I prefer it, but if the majority wants a challenge list, I can do that too. Y'know where to find me best! @friend1252.

V0.5.0 - (Ideally) the roguelike mode! This will be in beta, and will likely only contain one run, but this should hopefully be the start of one of the last bit of "planned" content for the game, where you fight sequential bosses of increasing difficulty with a small starter deck, then add passive effects and new cards after each fight. Think Hearthstone's Adventures like Rastakhan's Rumble, but ideally with a lot more jank. (For better or for worse!)

That's all I've got for you today, hello to all the new people that've recently picked the game up or check the updates section and, as always-

Till next time!

✅ Changed the collision of the big tree in the forest town so you can go between the right column and the tree
✅ Fixed a spot in the forest where you could get stuck when jumping on the water (next to the fisherwoman)
✅ When on the elevator, inside the training temple. you now don't listen to the doors opening and closing
✅ Changed the collision shape of an object used in the bear cave and the factory so it's the same as the other similar objects.
✅ There was a collision missing between the electric boss and the last room of the temple.
✅ Adjustments to the electric boss.

Today we’re sharing a new fix and revealing more upcoming features for the Junkyard!

• We’ve rewritten how game saving works. The game should no longer freeze during autosaves! If you previously turned off autosave in the settings, feel free to turn it back on - the game should now run smoothly even when saving automatically.

---

In Tuesday’s devlog, we summarized the current features of the Junkyard and teased what you’ll soon be able to sell there. Today, we’re ready to reveal another upcoming feature:

🚗 New Feature: Buy Damaged Cars

The Junkyard owner will start offering broken and stripped vehicles for sale. New listings will appear daily, giving you fresh opportunities to find bargain deals. Buy, repair, and sell for profit!

🔍 Heads up! These cars might be in terrible condition. Use the scanner to understand exactly what you’re buying - and whether the price truly reflects the vehicle’s value. These are supposed to be good deals, after all!



🧰 Also as mentioned on Tuesday - you’ll now be able to sell stripped cars at the Junkyard without losing reputation. Just drive the car into the shed. The value will show on the display above the entrance - if the price is good, pull the lever outside and the car is sold!



💬 Let us know what you think on Steam and Discord!



You can also share your ideas and feedback in this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2404880/discussions/0/604157805816993720/



🛒 P.S. Today marks the end of the Steam Summer Sale, but our friends at DRAGO decided to extend the discount! Be sure to add the RV Camp DLC to your wishlist and grab Gas Station Simulator while the extended promo lasts!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149620/Gas_Station_Simulator/

We are moving the release date of Total War: WARHAMMER III - Tides of Torment to later this year.

👉 Read the full Release Update here 👈

— The Total War Team

Hey, privateers!

This time I’m approaching development more structured and less chaotic. This whole month was dedicated to the “peaceful” side of the game — quests and dialogues.

🗺️ “Quest Sandbox”
I’m inspired by the spirit of freedom in Fallout 1 and 2. I’m building the system so you can do anything you want: commit genocide, star in porn, sleep with a queen, or sell your friend into slavery — all in one day if you wish.

I’m experimenting at the crossroads of old-school and modern quest systems. I call it a “quest sandbox”. There won’t be a single linear plot with a final branching choice like “bad, neutral, or good ending” — instead, you’ll have tons of quests, factions, and dynamic storylines. Your entire path will shape your own ending. The world won’t revolve around the hero — it’ll react to your actions as it sees fit. For example, mouth off to the pirate leader? If you don’t have a strong fleet behind you — you’ll be tossed out into space without a second thought.

You choose who to become: a tyrant conquering every faction in the sector; a family man who abandons it all to live on a remote station far from any wars; or the captain of a “generation ship” drifting off in search of a better life. Do what your head or heart tells you — but be ready for the consequences.

🔭 What’s next?
Next, I’ll be working on open space combat. This part will take time — so many systems have to interact to make it feel alive and thrilling. But you’ll get a lot more “watchable” content — stay tuned!

Thanks for following the project and sharing your thoughts. Your comments keep me going.

See you in open space,
Glue_BQ

Hello Detectives,

With the help of some friends we are bringing the duck to the physical world.

Yep, that’s correct - science said it couldn’t be done but we have created genuine duck detective merch:

Socks, a T-shirt, Acrylic Standees, Pin and Stickers!

A set of 3 exclusive duck detective sock designs, which can be found here: https://thesockdesigner.com/products/the-duck-detective-socks

A super rad, Secret Salami T-Shirt designed the amazing team at the Yetee

Need a cute decoration for your room? The Yetee have designed both Eugene and Freddy acrylic standees.

And finally, we are very excited to be able to share the original Duck Detective Pin and stickers!

These can all be found here: https://theyetee.com/collections/duck-detective

It’s a lot of fun for us to make this possible, so it would mean the world if you support us by grabbing some merch and hopefully we can continue to do cool projects like this!

Major thanks to the Yetee and the Sock Designer for helping bring these awesome creations to life.

Have a ducktastic rest of the week!

Happy Broccoli Team