Nobody ever said computers are infallible. But which would you rather have over your head in a storm: A house, or a human? The house is not worthless just because it was built by the human. It could fall on you, but all things considered, it's the better choice. I drive a Tesla and we're getting our self-driving update in a month or two, and good riddance to having to do it myself.
I must thank all those that seem to want Empyrion to incorporate more of SE into the game. Because of them, I actually tried SE for the first time. The game looks like it has so much more going for it than Empyrion, but I have to say this: If Empyrion ever incorporates those elements of SE that people seem to want, then I will not play either game. Unfortunately, I played SE just a bit too long to get a refund. As I said, SE shows some promise of being a superior game. There are two elements of Empyrion that if they were in SE, then I would switch in a heart beat. Ironically, one of the two elements that give Empyrion its advantage is an element that so many players seem to want to be done away with since supposedly it is only a placeholder anyways. It was interesting to play a game without that feature and realize that my self prediction that I would not enjoy playing such a game was not simply conjecture. The lack of it was frustrating. I was partly wrong though, I think I might have been okay without the feature if not for the second element of SE that made the lack of such a feature just painful.
@Dandere A Tesla is not self driven (with the update), just have drive aid. You are supposed to drive as usual. The "AI" is far from ready to handle all situations. Just check several accidents happened because peoples sleep or watch movies, in the wrong belief the car have a proper autopilot.
I actually honestly got bored of SE pretty quickly. The building system is certainly superior, but that's the only real advantage. There is not actually a game to play there. Yes there's scenarios, and they are adding some survival elementse but since there is no real AI, I wouldn't really consider that anything special or interesting. If you have an issue with anything in Empyrion, you can most likely turn it off. However, you can't turn AI on in SE. So for me, Empyrion wins right now. They have great AI, tons of stuff to do and explore, a budding storyline, factions, and the building system is getting better and better every update. What's not to like?
Unsolved fundamental issues with the logistics system, unfortunately: no concurrent container access, no connections to terrain-placeable devices and containers, and the toolbar is actual inventory rather than links. Granted, fixing these issues will require considerable coding effort, but the logistics system will remain clunky and awkward until they're dealt with. If it were me, those issues would have been tackled before going to exp . . . .
Are we to presume that the current iteration of this system is the final version? Of course not. It is a step in the direction that they are planning to go. Of course things will improve and change over time. Should they have perfected AI and missions before they introduced them? Of course not. Same goes here. There is some getting used to, but I don't outright dislike anything that has been introduced lately. It's all going in the right direction, and I look forward to seeing where it goes in the future.
Yeah, I think Empyrion is mostly going in the right direction. Sort of slowly, but still the right direction. I do think the logistics is still sort of clunky, and I wish the volume/mass had been implemented in a way that did not invalidate so many blueprints. But the game still has fun to it, and they're adding more things that make it fun. The word "fun" is key here. The problem with SE, for me, is that it is just more of a simulator than a game. The building system is actually better than Empyrion. But it feels like there's no point to building anything, there's no real challenges you're solving. The exploration/survival element is weak. Some people like simulators. I do too - at first, but I always seem to get bored of them quickly. Like Cities Skylines. When I first played it, I thought it was amazing, I loved it. But, I think I had moved onto something else after 2-3 weeks, due to a lack of something to do. You do everything once, and then what? It is just like watching an ant farm. I just get bored of pure simulators, every time. And honestly, SE is even more boring than that, for me, since there's no real AI or goal at all. Empyrion just has more going on. It doesn't have much of a story either, but there are enough challenges in the game where you can actually get killed or get your stuff blown up, that it feels like there's just more of a point to it all. And I have to point out, SE left Early Access now, so it is considered "basically done", whereas Empyrion is still having major stuff added to it. I don't see how SE ever catches up with Empyrion, in terms of gameplay. If you're satisfied with just building stuff and looking at it, maybe. But that's not really enough challenge for me to stay interested.
SE is heavily dependent of modders, since it is more of a game engine. Sadly there are still issues, that probably will not be patched or improved. Hopefully the devs have learned enough so they can create a new game with "better" workings, that are a functioning game and not a "sim" that sort of works.
Chiming in again with my 2 cents. I honestly don't understand, why people fail to turn on or spot the enemy AI in SE. For instance, if you turn on wolves and spiders in the game settings, you'll be periodically harassed by local wildlife, which can also kill you if you don't defend yourself quickly enough. As for space, if you enable random encounters in the game settings, you'll find random enemy ships spawning in the vicinity and flying by your location. If you attack an enemy vessel and leave it's antenna intact for too long, it will call in reinforcements in the form of the battleship Argentavis, which then attacks you with deadly drones until either you or it are destroyed. There's also enemy space stations dotted randomly in space, which are similar to enemy ships but stationary. The only difference between EGS and SE in this regard is that SE has less enemy variation - becouse combat isn't the games' main focus - and that the enemy spaceships don't outright attack you; if you engage them however, they will fight back. Here's what the developers say, specifically Keen's CEO Marek Rosa: I guess we'll see how much they'll stay true to their word in the future.
I'll say that since I made this thread, my opinion has basically reversed. I am quite bored with SE. Yes there is wildlife, but in my experience with it, it is horrifically broken and ends up just being a somewhat amusing distraction. I do recall there being decent AI in the form of ships you can fight, which is good, but it is still lacking. There is certainly no fps aspects yet, and I've not seen any really impressive puzzle like POIs likr Empyrion has. Overall, I do think that Empyrion had the leg up right now, in terms of keeping my interest, just because of how well developed the first person enemies are, the trading, and the storylines they've started creating. If SE gets there eventually, I'll go back and check it out, but right now Empyrion is just way more interesting to me.
Honestly, I usually start most games with default settings, no mods, under the assumption that "this is the way the game is meant to be played". There's likely settings or mods I missed. The stuff about AI ship battles, I was not aware it was there. But SE didn't pull me in, in the same way Empyrion did. So I haven't followed it closely. I played Empyrion first (well, actually Conan Exiles, then Empyrion). When I got bored of Alpha 7 I spent time with SE. Then Alpha 8 came out and I ditched SE. I got interested in SE again recently but the Alpha 9.x releases have distracted me. It is good to hear that they are planning to develop expansions, I did not see that discussion, and will keep tabs on it in the future. I am sure I'll play SE again someday.
I think time has revealed that Space Engineers is just a sandbox that is still broken in many ways but now charges for b...sh.t DLC. I booted SE up for the first time in ages, motivated by a desire to build a cool ship with pistons and moving parts. Within two hours I was frustrated by the whole pointlessness of the game and it merely made me want to play more Empyrion.
I guess my opinion varies widely over time. I appreciate both games for what they are, but both fall short for me overall. SE is definitely more oriented towards building, and the actual gameplay, while it does exist in the form of scenarios and multiplayer, is less developed than Empyrion. Still, the building system is substantial, and that alone is enough to keep you occupied if you can get into it. On the other hand, while empyrion does have a good deal of gameplay with the NPC factions and missions, its building system leaves quite a bit to be desired, and is clunky and glitchy, making building annoying and frustrating. However, I did start playing No Man's Sky recently, and as glitchy as that game can be, I feel like it blows empyrion away from a PVE perspective. So I have a hard time enjoying empyrion after playing NMS, given the vivid diversity that that game offers. Granted, the building system is not as good, but I feel like if you're going to go into a voxel building system, you should go all in, like SE, or just don't bother. Overall, I think that both of these games will fall short of their original vision, and new games will come in to fill the void. I'll try to appreciate them for what they are and, for empyrion at least, hope that future updates will flesh the games out a bit more and maybe fix some of the existing issues, but I will mostly be looking forward to other new games such as Dual Universe, Starbase, and others to fulfill the vision that either of these games promised.
