Space Engineers Tutorial: Enemy Ships on Planets (tips, testing and tutorials for survival)

This video is all about getting more from the survival experience in Space Engineers.
If you are like me and feel that the sabiroids, wolves and meteors don't really add much to the experience; would like to have something to fight against that isn't your best friend and don't want to get down and dirty with scripting or modding then this is one of the easiest ways to add a bit of extra fun to your survival worlds.
We take a look at how to add bases to your survival world that can spawn atmospheric capable small ships that will come an attack you, both using the pre-made drone bases and a short guide on how you can create your own.
Part of creating your own drone base is naming the antenna. While you can create your own through mods, if you'd rather just use the existing ones all of the names and some basic information can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Data\PirateAntennas.sbc (you'll be best off opening this in something like notepad++ for ease of reading)
Or just have a look at this shortened list: (antenna name in quotes)
For planets with atmosphere in ascending difficulty:
"MiningOperationSite"
"RemoteDroneAssembly"
"Headquarters"
For moons:
"MoonMiningOperationSite"
For Space:
"NO TRESPASSERS"
"TARGET LOCATED"
"Hostiles detected - Requesting Backup"
"EMERGENCY - REQUESTING ASSISTANCE"
"BEWARE OF TRESPASSING"
"Raid in Progress"
"Heavy Drone Manufacturing Started"
I hope this was useful for you. If you've got any of your own PvE mods that you love please let me know in the comments as I'd really like to get my hands on some more!
As always, don't forget to enjoy this awesome (if at times buggy) game!
For those of you kind enough to want to support me in making more videos: / splitsie
Discord: / discord
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Steam Community: steamcommunity....
Facebook: / zebramonkeyproductions
Twitter: / splitsie
Reddit: / zebramonkeys
www.spaceengine...
Space Engineers is used pursuant to the terms laid out in their video policy, found at www.keenswh.com...
Music and Sound Effects by:
Space Engineers

[@jonasuj]

I bought Space Engineers yesterday, built a ship, went looking for enemies and crashed it into an asteroid. Then I went looking for tutorials on KZbin and this playlist popped up. I watch it all and was thinking "This guy must have at least 100 000 subscribers because the quality of these videos is amazing". I was really surprised when I saw you "only" had 900 because you certainly deserve more :D

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Jonas! That's some pretty big praise :)

[@mr.unitato7955]

Jonas UJ 8k now :P

[@Moorgoth67]

18k now ;p

[@dELTA13579111315]

21K and still deserving way more

[@hobgoblinuk5100]

29k now. 2 weeks after he was at 21k.......... That's some rapid growth. Well deserved too. That 100k is coming :D

[@woahzone8884]

Hello from 2021 your content is still helping new engineers !! 8 to be exact 😂

[@datastorm75]

Pity we have to go through such efforts just to have an interesting and challenging experience. Game should really have come with a system for this when they launched survival mode. Feels like Keen Software is sort of lost and doesn't know what to do.

[@Splitsie]

Thankfully we have the modding community, they're starting to add some really cool stuff lately. Meridius IX might have even made these efforts unnecessary with his latest mod that adds bases to the world procedurally!

[@CMDROldDuck]

What's the state of this now?

[@DoesNotGiveAF]

@@CMDROldDuck pretty good, there are some great mods for enemy ships, drones, bases etc. Vanilla is still unfortunately unchanged..

[@stevebloxham3832]

@@Splitsie What is the name of this mod? I looked on the steam workshop but couldn't find anything that sounded right. A friend and I have a survival game that it might be interesting to add enemies to, and it would be great if there was an easier way than in this video (not to take anything away from the clever way you have done it!) BTW - thanks for all these helpful videos, I think I would have thrown space engineers away in frustration without you, and instead it is proving to be great fun!

[@Splitsie]

It's the Modular Encounters Spawner, I've got a video on how it works and what you'll need with it but it's my preferred way of adding NPC content as it's flexible and you can add/remove it as you like :)

[@robertanderson6929]

Be very careful about switching from Survival to Creative and back. That warning at 12:50 about inventory is correct. In Creative mode blocks have infinite inventory. So a powered refinery could grab all the ore from your cargo boxes or a reactor could grab all your refined uranium when you switch to Creative. When you switch back to Survival any materials in excess of your survival inventory capacity is removed from the game. Best to power off your ships and bases before doing this to prevent losing hard earned resources.

[@Splitsie]

That is a very good point, I'll have to make sure I highlight that at some point in the future. It's not nice to find out that a bunch of your ore has gone missing because the refinery tried to stuff itself too full :(

[@robertanderson6929]

You're welcome. Keep up the videos. I've been recommending your tutorials to new players on Steam and new players have been giving them high marks.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Robert! It's nice to hear that they're helping people get into Space Engineers :)

[@IAmOnlyJess]

Keep the Space Engineers content coming please! Love the tutorials. Any chance of a group survival? Great stuff - keep it up!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Jess :) I'm going to start a solo survival soon - with a few twists and still a focus on being a bit of a tutorial, once I'm happy with the world setup I'll be sharing it on the workshop for everyone who wants to have a crack at it alongside me

[@eltopo4982]

Thx man, this was my third try to really get into SE, your vids finally got me over the steep learning curve, now I'm having a blast. And now I need some AI in my survival savegame :)

[@Splitsie]

Ah nice, I'm glad I was able to help you get into it :) Have a look on the workshop for Meridius IX's mods as well as they can add some fun stuff to the planets in a procedural manner, though they can have a pretty hefty performance hit at times

[@eltopo4982]

Ha, goin into the workshop opened pandoras box! Now I'm plastering my mobile nanite factories platform with all kinds of mmasters lcds, messing abouts with TIM till my head hurts and cluttering space with stations and ships loaded with scripts :D Meridius stuff looks awesome too, going to use his pve stuff when I'm goin down to the planet again. Slowly making my way thru more of ur vids, glad there r quite a few and they keep comin.

[@Noruzenchi86]

This is great, I didn't even realize the game just looked for an antenna's name. I thought it was based on a programming block.

[@Splitsie]

I thought the same until I started looking into it for this video - I knew they used the antenna when they first introduced it but I thought they'd scrapped that, apparently not :P

[@mrfeicco]

I love this tutorial and your videos in general, they have definitely helped me tons in getting more out of this game! Especially since I picked up on sale I've already put in almost 200 hours and still learning tons! Thanks so much for this I hope to use this to give me and my friends a little more of a challenge!

[@Splitsie]

Thank you so much! Add more antennas to each base with the correct spawn name and you can make a few pirates spawn at once to make it even more difficult :)

[@traywor]

Add a bases a "little" more easily... Other way: Go and weld up their bases. Make sure that you weld up the energy systems at the end, to prevent spawning anoying ships arround you trying to kill you. Then head to the control menu and select all components and transfer to "Space Pirates", ready is the base for takeoff.

[@Splitsie]

The easiest way these days (these mods weren't released when I made this video) is to use any and all of Lucas/Meridius IXs mods, I'm hoping to do a remake of this video pointing out which ones I like when I get back from my trip at the start of November :)

[@traywor]

I think you should add these mods to your playlist "almost vanilla".

[@IanGem1121]

Excellent video as usual. Thank you for uploading this. I was playing the Easy Start Earth and ran out of ammo trying to defend my base from the drones so I'm going to creative mode to change the broadcast range of the mining station.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Ian :) Let me know how it works out, I'm really keen to find out if that works for a pre-existing base

[@macgabhann1108]

I had that same problem and they also destroyed all my vehicles as well, before I said screw it and deleted the save. then started a new crashed red ship scenario instead.

[@IanGem1121]

Hi Splitsie, I got it working. Thanks for the advice! 1. Change to creative mode. Reset ownership 2. Change owner of the antenna to "me" and change the range to 4km 3. Change owner again, to pirate faction 4. For each grid on my base (base and small grids), open the control panel and change ownership to me. I had to do step 4 as I discovered that the turrets will fire on my small ships unless ownership is changed. Now I can hunt for resources in peace, and I farm the drones to get some platinum and uranium. Run within 4km of the drone spawner, then run back to the base to watch the drone getting blasted out of the sky. This way I get to farm some platinum, some uranium, and a lot of metals and components.

[@Splitsie]

Nice work :) Much more fun when you get some degree of choice over when to engage them

[@michealnelsonauthor]

Dude, it’s future sci-fi. There’s Gotta be some actual alien creatures, no? What an open door for modders to Run thru!!

[@Nautsyn]

Your videos are clean and useful. Thanks!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks! I'm glad they've helped :)

[@jamesmclemore9123]

It would be cool if they had randomly generated animals like in No Man's Sky.

[@npbwolf]

this is what im looking for

[@Splitsie]

Make sure you have a look at some of Meridius IXs mods as well they add a lot to the PvE experience :)

[@josephbes3567]

youre a legend thank you

[@gmlviper]

Very informative! Subscribed! Keep the info coming ;)

[@Splitsie]

Thanks! There's plenty more where this came from :)

[@mistrofire6420]

your series helped me loads keep going! ill be ready in no time!

[@Splitsie]

Awesome! I'm very pleased I've been able to help :)

[@GamerPro-oe6ns]

Thank you soo much I just saw this and I have been playing this game for 2 years and I never new how to do this so now I can do sw battles 😂👍👍👍

[@totalal4601]

Big fan of your tutorials! And other SE videos. Just subscribed to your world file too!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much, hope you enjoy it :)

[@Peoples_Republic_of_Cotati]

I think the Wolves should have been velociraptors. The goody-drop things could also be source of easy hostiles. p.s. alien planet should have Alien Slime growth as an enemy...and flamethrowers.

[@Splitsie]

Alien slime would have been great given the alien planet's surface :)

[@michealnelsonauthor]

An opportunity for Plasma weapons, too. In my sci-fi I “science” them as short range “flame throwers,” perfect for repelling boarders in space ships, as the plasma disperses upon contact with anything. If that’s an enemy skin, gg. If it’s the hull or piping of your ship, no damage… Would be great Vs the slimers you describe. 😂

[@Inertia2012]

Would love to see a survival combat guide against pirates 👌

[@Splitsie]

I've toyed with that idea in the past but always stopped before making one because there's not all that much NPC content in SE so I wouldn't want to take away the fun of working out your own attack strategies

[@Inertia2012]

@@Splitsie well I've had a few goes at combat and something I realised very quick is that light armor is a bad idea 😅. I enjoy the depth of your tutorials and there's a sufficient lack of good tip videos on building combat ships and dealing with enemies (imo).

[@killman369547]

Quite late but if you press ALT + F10 you'll find an option called "Keep original ownership on paste". Select that and you won't need to manually change the ownership of the blueprint you want to paste.

[@exposenetworklimited4497]

Ty for this

[@arandomturtlewithinterneta4877]

I just wanted to say that I love your videos and that I hope you get to 150K soon👏👏👏

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@Soulkeeper-tv8re]

Ive learned alot for ur channel can u do something with pistons and motors? Also is there way have easy planet start up with hole heap of pirate bases scattered around ?? Kinda like the idea survival start up but choose location carefully with hole heap of bases around

[@macgabhann1108]

when he was getting ready to do the drop test video and mentioned that there might be explosions I thought he was planing on doing pistons since they have a habit of doing just that. and pistons and rotors would be a very helpful video.

[@Splitsie]

You could definitely create a start scenario with some bases scattered around. There are a couple of caveats to that though. The first is that you'll have to place all of the bases yourself and the second is that the more bases you place the more your performance will suffer, this is particularly true once you start attacking the bases as you will get a lot more physics objects once parts of the base fall to the ground. I'm in the process of setting up a survival start like this for a more in depth play through, once I'm happy with it I'll post it on the workshop for others to have a go at as well, it'll probably be a couple of weeks before it's ready. I'm going to take a look at rotors and pistons but they need to get back to some level of stability before I can reasonably give that a go, starting a tutorial with "the first thing you need to do is turn block damage off" doesn't really sit well with me :P

[@yaboifab2]

Splitsie can you upload the Pirate-Bases?

[@NirateGoel]

Can't you just delete the easy start base? And work with that?

[@Splitsie]

Absolutely, that might even be quicker, but I like to have a bit more control over where the enemy bases are - I also often play on planets from the workshop so you can use this method to get bases on those too :)

[@magnagazoo4863]

Updating this with what you have learned in the meantime as a startup howto video would be wonderful.... please...

[@dELTA13579111315]

Wait a minute, does the game load that fast for other people or was that video editing trickery I couldn't see? The game literally takes me 10 full minutes to load a save, I've timed it many times. I'm thinking my computer is more garbage than I already knew it was

[@Splitsie]

It's a little bit of editing and also that SE is on an NVMe SSD for me which means my load times are rarely over 1 minute. I tend to try to edit my videos as tightly as I can. You've also reminded me that when I get back from my holiday I need to make a new version of this video since Lucas/Meridius IX has released a whole new spawner and there are a lot more PvE options out there since I made this :)

[@dELTA13579111315]

@@Splitsie can't wait to see it :D

[@magnagazoo4863]

The Lucas/Meridius spawner replacement is on my list of things to test out also. Right behind my Mega Mobile Base project and rotor gun turrets. :) @@Splitsie

[@michealnelsonauthor]

Disc Cleanup is my daily chore. Remove all the cache, cookies, and temp files on the drive & dump the recycle bin. Made a huge difference on other games. Made a big diff on this one too.

[@DieRejctor]

ok thats something I didn't know, I thought those outposts were generated no matter what world you create :D, thanks.

[@Splitsie]

You're welcome, though there may soon be a mod that can generate them for you - Meridius IX the same person who made the atmospheric cargo ships mod is working on it and has made some good progress :)

[@Sdurby79]

Hi keep up the great content I noticed that this video was made 3 years ago I’m not sure if you know the answer but can you do the pirate spawns in the Xbox One version

[@mouthforwar17]

Splitsie, there's a small Space Pirate base about 20km from my base. However, there is some sort of bubble shield around it. What is that and is it hard to destroy?

[@Splitsie]

It's impossible to destroy, that'll be one of the bases from the economy update, it's something that'll give you missions and buy and sell things from you

[@mouthforwar17]

@@Splitsie I'm assuming that update hasn't come to Xbox One yet, right?

[@Splitsie]

I honestly don't know if that content is part of the xbox version at the moment, I think it could be but haven't looked

[@madcatmdm2624]

Thank you for the videos.

[@Splitsie]

You're welcome :)

[@macgabhann1108]

the last update fixed wolves they now only attack the player and not eat the bases, also even though there are still some running randomly straight across the world they are getting better at targeting the player and if provided a ramp will use it now to get access to the player, yet they will not climb the ramp to the re spawn lander or target a player on the re spawn lander just on any non temporary grid. i have not tested the sabiroids yet but there supposed to have the same functionality.

[@Splitsie]

I like that they've changed the behaviour of wolves so they don't eat your base any more. Sadly the result of this is that wolves are only really going to be a problem at the very start of any playthrough as after that you'll be in a vehicle. So pretty much wolves are there to kill people who are just starting out in the game... that seems flawed from a game play perspective :P The sabiroids didn't destroy the forklift I was car surfing on at the end of the video so I guess they are the same :) I thought it was good that the sabiroids could damage blocks, but they needed to have a method of protecting a base that didn't involve lifting it on stilts. If you could have some sort of field projected that repelled them that would be interesting, particularly if it was expensive to run so it might actually give you some balancing to work out.

[@macgabhann1108]

yea i must have suggested to them that they make wolves not eat bases a dozen times, but I agree with that behavior they are only a problem for starting out , I actually did not mind the sabiroids eating stuff as if you start on earth by the time you get to the alien planet you have a means of defending everything but yet they needed something better like some sort of force field that requires a ton of energy.

[@Splitsie]

Maybe your persistence paid off eventually :) And I completely agree with you about how prepared you are by the time you get to the alien planet - I always hoped for some giant superbug like in starship troopers and hunting it down in my mining tunnels, but I think I knew that wouldn't ever really happen despite how much fun it might be

[@michealnelsonauthor]

@@Splitsie sounds like a Mod opportunity…

[@macgabhann1108]

interesting i did not know that about the antennas good info to have. also did not know that the atmo drones had some platinum on them, gives me an idea though, thats going to take a lot of ion thrusters though, hmm well better get busy then lol also if you disassemble the basic tools and the 2 oxy bottles that come with the respawn lander you can make all tier 3 tools before even exiting the lander for the first time.

[@Splitsie]

Before I started working on this video I didn't know that was how the antenna worked either, I've got some plans for it now though ;) When I last played through some survival and shot down a bunch of them, I'd get 2 platinum ingots from some of the less damaged ones. It took me a while to build any reasonable number of thruster components - a long while... Nice to know about the lander with the tier 3 tools, I might have to look at pointing that out if I re-do the starter tutorial :)

[@Splitsie]

That sounds like a very big challenge, make sure you place a GPS marker for where the planets are otherwise you may not be able to find them from each other, at least I know I wouldn't :P If performance is still an issue for you turning off meteor storms from the beginning might help a little, having fewer updates to the voxels of the planets makes them perform slightly better.

[@macgabhann1108]

that map comes pre made from the workshop called "Realistic Mars" with no asteroids and no moons and a gps marker in the center of both earth and mars it also comes with a large ship that i deleted as i want to build my own and ive got everything turned off, so no meteors, wolves , cargo ships random encounters, nothing just me the 2 planets and my engineering skills though I will probably turn something on at some point , and ive got a few other challenges in mind to add to that.

[@Splitsie]

Oh cool, I didn't realise you'd gotten it from the workshop - thought you were going to set it up yourself :P I'm sure you'll think of something to make it even more difficult ;)

[@macgabhann1108]

i was thinking of maybe doing a scenario where i dont have ion thrusters so had to use hydrogen and since there is not platinum in that world save anyway other then if i added meteors and drones since that save has no moons so the challenge would be making sure i had enough fuel especially since there no asteroids theres no way to collect fuel on the way there. I was also thinking of doing something where the first ship to get to earth orbit would be remote controlled with all other cargo delivery ships after that being automated to build a space station in orbit around the earth planet before working on building the actual ship thats going to be making the Mars trip attached to the space station that way all resources have to get ferried up to the location first.then once the trip to mars gets started have the ship deploy satellites along the way, thats going to be one heck of a challenge and is going to take a very long time to do, so we will see what happens lol and i may end up recording some of it. depends on how my frame rate looks its been over a month since i did any videos due to to many interruptions and frame rate issues. cant wait to get a desktop.

[@JakeBrasch0820]

Your videos r really awesome, I like to learn from them. And just a quick question, What is the robot voice in your game? is there any mod for it?

[@Splitsie]

I don't recall ever using any voice mods, so I suspect the HUD notification sounds back then might have sounded different as Keen did an audio overhaul between when this was recorded and now :)

[@bmohr9826]

There should be random raid events like valheim. It would give weapons an actual use

[@seanmcdonald5859]

The corruption mod keeps you on your toes. Mods are the way to go.

[@Splitsie]

It's a very cool mod, when I made this video meridius ix hadn't even released his first npc mod. Thankfully he's come to the rescue and helped make se a sandbox and a change :)

[@gyppaat]

I know its an old video Splitsie, to make the drones spawn in do you have to enable drones in the advanced settings of the world? Keep up the good videos I like your survival, I'd love to start a survival with you. It would be fun from the UK :D. Great work!!!!

[@Splitsie]

Yep, that needs to be enabled for any of the npc ships to spawn in :)

[@megapro125]

There's a usefull mod I think it's called player commands that let's you switch between creative/survival without reloading the game. just write /creative on or /creative off to change it. It can also change most of the other world settings you would need to reload for otherwise.

[@Splitsie]

Midspace's admin helper commands is probably the one you're thinking of :) It's certainly very useful - I use it a lot, but like all mods can be broken by updates so I try to limit the use of mods when creating guides so that the techniques hopefully won't get broken very soon :P

[@michaelhayes2336]

Alt F10, cycle objects, transfer to and your done without ever really leaving your locker room if you really wanted to.

[@clarity-argent2913]

As someone who is new to this game and love building games, there not being any real challenge definitely turns allot of people off, i have about 70 hours into the game, and im still learning obviously, but having litterly zero challenge is meh, i dont plan on dropping the game, but ive heard rumors of an overhual of the game, idk how accurate thoes rumors are, but if they are true, the need to add in some form of vanilla enemie npcs, like an alien race that once you travel to the alien planet, they would start to periodically attack you, possiblely some super duper alien tech that you can only get from scrapping their ships and stuff

[@gr4wen]

Hello splitsie I have tried this and it worked just fine at the start but then it just stopped working, i have placed new bases butt still nothing do you have any ideas? I even placed completley new blueprints And still nothing, im on xbox s/x love your vids 🤘🤘😎😎

[@hogfry]

Some good Mods for 2019 viewers. Modular encounter spawner. Corruption Reavers (this one can be VERY hard core in space starts use it if you like punishment) Air traffic EEM enhanced exploration mod Surface Occupation Reddit custom encounters I also recommend the NPC Programming Extender.

[@Splitsie]

Agreed, though I tend not to use some of the reddit encounters as they are a very rich and easy way to get resources :P

[@vojtechsejkora1554]

Is there a way how to change that drones? It is a little wierd when I play without urannium at planet and then I can grap quite a lot from that drones. So I found some definition in that folder I found antena and spawn group witch it produce. Then I found it in SpawnGroups.sbc file and read and find Fleeting_Rival_mk.1.sbc (it is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Data\Prefabs) and maybe I can figure out how to change it to what i want (I want to make them with large bateries fully charged so when you destoy it it does not give you bunch of uran). But it also change that craft for every game. So if you also want to do it, maybe make backup before (and also this give a little hind how to make own spawners with own craft). And I hope that this quide steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562520692 will help me with that editation :-).

[@presidentraiden9203]

Why can't I enable wolves or spiders on xbox? Speaking of spiders, I can't seem to spawn an alien planet or find one. Any help please?

[@Splitsie]

I don't think Keen included them on the xbox version, the alien planet is there though, it may not be visible from the earthlike planet but you should be able to see if from the orbit of Mars in the Solar System start :)

[@Silath01]

Do you think you could do an updated one for this that includes the console version?

[@Splitsie]

In theory most of this should be included in the console version as this is all vanilla stuff from long ago, though I don't recall specifically looking for the spiders and wolves when I tested out the xbox version when it first came out

[@stanpollard]

Shared on fb.great video splitsie

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Stan, you're a legend :)

[@LordD0g]

Without controlling them

[@foodomanthemagnificent2650]

The auto base placement thing is something that I wish was automated in the game already. :(

[@Splitsie]

Meridiux IX is working on a mod to do just that, it looks pretty promising especially as he has already managed to get cargo ships to work in atmosphere. Here's a link to his reddit post: www.reddit.com/r/spaceengineers/comments/6w37ad/making_some_progress_on_planetary_stations/ I'm itching with excitement for when he manages to release it!

[@gyromane2505]

This is gonna be legandary on xbox singleplayer.

[@RetroPlus]

0:09 Who gave those wolves climbing gear?

[@Splitsie]

A radioactive spider?

[@PrinceMeat]

Can you do an updated version please? It’s never worked for me and I’ve tried like 10 times

[@Splitsie]

It still works exactly as I did it here, none of the systems involved have changed (though I have learned some new ways of making it work more easily). Do you have drones enabled in your save?

[@jeremiahl3529]

My favorite way is to add pve is to just have to game destroy my stuff for no reason when it bugs out. Then I rage quit for a few days. Can you do a video on Multiplayer server optimizations? And how to keep the simulation from running at .3 or .2.

[@Splitsie]

It's sad that clang still rears its ugly head, I get around the rage-quit these days by just loading from a backup so at most I lose 5 minutes of play. Not ideal but it's better than it used to be. I don't have enough experience with multiplayer server optimisations but I could certainly take a look at what you can do to improve performance in any savegame and all of those things would apply to multiplayer as well :)

[@snakenation2699]

Would I be able to do this on xbox

[@hardsoule642]

kind of a noob ? but will this work with any of the other custom games like star system for example

[@Splitsie]

You can use this technique to bring bases into any save game, but you might also want to take a look at the Modular Encounters Spawner and one of the pack of bases for it, I'm hoping to get a how to get started with it tutorial done in the next week or two as well since it's a much nicer way of doing this that only came out a few months after I originally made this video :)

[@shootbat]

so, if i rename/remove the antenna will i be able to use the outpost as a home base

[@Splitsie]

That would be one step that's needed - at least to stop any drone spawns. But to actually use most of the blocks on the base you'll need to grind them down to their hacking level then re-weld them so you take ownership of them and can then control them :)

[@LordD0g]

Automatically

[@Caine33]

You could remotely change the base ownership using the antenna remote terminal no?

[@Splitsie]

I think you can, I'm not sure why I wasn't doing it that way :P

[@sadiehuff1739]

So I added the AI bases but the drones that are spawned just float in place they don't move/chase me.

[@Splitsie]

I have the same issue if I load up what used to be the 'easy start' scenarios, if I can work out a fix I'll post something about it :)

[@Splitsie]

Ah, so the easy fix is to enable scripts in your save - the drones use a script that's running on their programmable block in order to function. So you need to have them enabled which they aren't by default :)

[@benjaminblackwell222]

Agh found some one with my profile pic, it's like running in to a teacher in summer

[@Splitsie]

Like twins... Where did the picture come from?

[@Splitsie]

Where'd you get yours from?

[@benjaminblackwell222]

Searched dragon wall paper

[@MrHazardousMC]

my besty uses that one. weird to see it elsewhere.

[@sterrre1]

Just started playing this game 6 years into the future. Does this still work for xbox, can I create pirate bases for my yellow brick to fight?

[@Splitsie]

Yep, these functions still work and I'm pretty sure the antenna name spawning works on all versions :)

[@Drakefance5]

Well when it comes to space PvE, i always turn on the Exploration Enhancement Mod [EEM] as it adds about 7-8 diffierent factions and uses 200+ ship templates made from the community, you can either go around exploring wrecks, trading with stations, fighting pirates/space police/ space military, etc. The only real issue i have with the mod is whenever SE spawns in a new ship off in the distance it will do its small freeze up that occurs when pasting blueprints. I dont believe the mod adds anything to the surface of planets, but i could be wrong

[@Splitsie]

It does seem like a pretty fun mod. Similar mods in the past had an issue where a lot of the additional ships were incredibly easy to capture which took much of the fun out of it. Is that an issue you've seen so far?

[@Drakefance5]

Splitsie i mean you can try to take over civilian/pirate ships but as soon as they start taking damage they will send out a distress beacon to all police and military ships in the area, personally im more of a mining/exploring type of player, so i dont try hunting down and capturing ships but i'd imagine it would be realtively hard to fight multiple police and military ships at once...

[@Splitsie]

I also fall into the mining/exploration type but every now and then I like to have a little test of my ships by fighting my way through something with a little bit of a challenge. It sounds like this might be just what I'm looking for to add some good PvE to space :)

[@LordD0g]

Can you make it so you can have your own drones that Attack other players

[@Splitsie]

No, the behaviors that allow npc drones to do that are locked to npc only factions

[@LordD0g]

Ok thanks

[@marshalleastin1753]

So I tried this and it works I have a question though. Will the bases run out of power after a while or do the pirate bases run on infinite power?

[@Splitsie]

Their solar panels will keep them going for a long while, but they do eventually run out of power from the reactors, takes quite a few in game hours to get there though :)

[@marshalleastin1753]

@@Splitsie thanks for getting back to me so fast! I think I will modify then with wind turbines so they last even longer

[@Splitsie]

That would definitely work :)

[@joshuapierce5988]

your telling me this whole time I could be made my own antenna that made me drones to assault enemy bases

[@Splitsie]

Nope, the antenna only works for NPC factions that have no players in them

[@joshuapierce5988]

@@Splitsie ah for minute there i got excited oh well thank you for answering my question

[@jamessabins887]

I think they need more pirate bases

[@Splitsie]

You could actually design some of your own as well, just rename the antenna correctly and it will spawn enemies. But I do agree, any additional PvE content would be very much welcome :)

[@syd4952]

How does the ai follow the player? scripts or is there a way i can do it with my own friendly drones?

[@Splitsie]

They use a function only available to NPCs that are part of an NPC only faction, since the ability to locate a player in the game world would be very easily exploited in multiplayer

[@syd4952]

@@Splitsie is there any way to make large ships follow another in a fleet with the ai?

[@mintytoner]

What skybox is at 0:50

[@julianruiz1248]

Can u make the base make drones for your faction?

[@Splitsie]

As blenderfreaky said, it is a special function that is only given to hostile AI factions. To make drones yourself you have to do it the old fashioned way - build them by hand or make a ship printer :(

[@Pen_Slinger]

This only works on PC?

[@phillipnunya6793]

Could you do an update video for the release update and it's "major overhaul of survival"? I and many others still underwhelmed by the PvE.

[@Splitsie]

Something like this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXurq4iVhrJ6aqs which I did on the NPC content during the second public test? :)

[@phillipnunya6793]

@@Splitsie Yeeeessss.... I forgot I watched that... Welp, that solves that. It's unfortunate that you still have to out of your way to have fun. They should really have made drones that come to you. I can still hope, but I think it's unlikely now that the game is "finished".

[@Splitsie]

It's one of the things mentioned by Marek as an area to be worked on post release, plus there are some very good mods now (Corruption as an example) which can give the player a real run for their money :)

[@phillipnunya6793]

@@Splitsie That's mostly true in space, but planets are still pretty sparse with mods I've tried. I hope they fix the issue, but I don't have high hopes they will do it properly at this point.

[@sandramarkus1054]

Do you want OK? We will do it anything else OK?

[@superleetmegapunx]

Does this still work now that the game is out?

[@Splitsie]

Yep, but to have the drones function you'll need to enable both drones and in-game scripts as they'll be off by default in your savegame :) There are also some very good mods for PvE content now, a good place to start (for a real challenge) are Lucas/Meridius IX's mods such as the modular encounters spawner

[@superleetmegapunx]

@@Splitsie I'll definitely give it a go. Also, thanks for the quick reply.

[@JunwooHan]

how to escape from wolves? they always break my station... i always fix

[@Splitsie]

My preferred method of escape is going into the menu and turning the rotten things off, sadly that means I'm not the best at giving guidance on how to deal with them. My most recent video was on a drone that seems like it would be reasonably effective against them. If you try it out you'll have to give me feedback on if it actually worked as I hope :)

[@stanpollard]

There is only 3 drone spawners. I uploaded to my steam splitsie. You can grab them if you whant.just change the attena to pirate .what happens if you change it to the great teranchala

[@Splitsie]

Give it a try and let us know - I think it would be similar to the space pirates but there's just one way to find out :)

[@XD_Duckkyyy]

Does this work on console ????

[@mrodriguezalas]

Will this work on a dedicated server?

[@Splitsie]

I can't see any reason why it wouldn't. Saying that I haven't tested it, but from my understanding the method used should work regardless of the game's setup.

[@mrodriguezalas]

Splitsie Great! I'll try it out! Thank you.

[@ev4_gaming]

First comment!

[@Splitsie]

First thanks! :)

[@SSODP]

Yyyyy... If it's single player... why not just use 'space master', it's quicker... simply open menu 'enable creative tools' and paste em around...

[@Splitsie]

Either way would work once you have the blueprints. I also figured this would be a reasonable way to introduce people to using some of the spectator tools and creative mode which I hadn't covered in any of these tutorials yet. After all the placement of the bases was only a small part of setting things up. To me the more interesting part was working out the antenna side of things - I hadn't looked into that before I decided to make this video

[@SSODP]

You could always add on end of the tutorial...when You have those blueprints, You can always enable spectator, if it isn't 'on' already, and use "space master tools" ;) *Also You could provide em, with a workshop link for example ;)

[@Splitsie]

Good point, I probably should have done that... oops! :)

[@SSODP]

You can always 'correct' it ;)

[@stanpollard]

I wonder if there is a boss base in space

[@Splitsie]

From what I've seen the space stuff is a bit nastier than the atmospheric so.... maybe?

[@Mystickrage]

i have better mods that generate all kinds of different things on its own i was playing last night on mars with friends and we had 2 carriers 9.8 k away in high atmosphere a ore mining platform a territorial defense base 6k away on the ground a lookout one 4k and a hq 8 k

[@Splitsie]

I'm assuming most of those mods you're talking about are the ones made by Meridius IX (planetary installations etc). Those were all released after I made this video, and his work is absolutely amazing I wish it were vanilla :)

[@superjaywolf7031]

Say so my self you can just get a mod that dose that

[@Splitsie]

Meridius IX released his mod a couple of weeks after this video - I was just too quick with bringing it out :P

[@superjaywolf7031]

Bad luck

[@superjaywolf7031]

Splitsie you are the only KZbinr that answers my question that makes you a good KZbinr

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, I try to respond to as many comments as I can :)

[@kons37flyingreaperoldchann21]

Wait enabeling wolves can spawn rwak wolves u thought it was an enemy clan

[@metalfusion1319]

onion

[@Splitsie]

Shallot

[@metalfusion1319]

Splitsie vege table

[@Redrum-707]

so much wasted potential on this game. spawning a death star and letting it crash into a planet with kinetic destruction mod is fun though.

[@manuelsalinas612]

Second comment

[@Splitsie]

Second thanks!

[@ipeeouttamybutt]

ARE THEY MODS?! I can't find any info on if the spiders and stuff are mods or not

[@ectro7585]

They ar not a mods

[@fazzo]

Maybe have alook at this colleciton: steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=888460730

[@Splitsie]

I'm a huge fan of meridius ix and his mods - funnily, he started releasing them about a week after I did this video :P He recently helped me with a tutorial on how to add your own cargo ships to the game as well :)

[@phlynightly1545]

Is there any way of chainging the drone to a user build ship?

[@Splitsie]

Yes, though it's not particularly straightforward and a bit too involved for me to describe in a comment. If you're looking to add more NPC content these days I would go straight for Lucas/Meridius IX's mods, using the Modular Encounters Spawner you can then add a bunch of different content packs (including one that I made) which will add planetary bases, planetary cargo ships, difficult space and moon encounters and more :)

[@phlynightly1545]

Splitsie Can you put a link to the mod?

[@phlynightly1545]

Splitsie Can you put a link to the mod?

[@lDocteurLulu]

What made me stop the game is the sensation of being alone. Wolves are useless. I wanted vanilla planet enemy bases and ship and rovers. Thanks to the mods it added it

[@Splitsie]

Yup, Lucas and his mods have really made SE into something extra special when it comes to NPCs and as jTurp and the AiEnabled mod keeps getting better I think there are going to be some amazing things on the horizon :)

[@lDocteurLulu]

@@Splitsie yeah bright future is coming

[@sandramarkus1054]

@@SplitsieZxc OK yeah yeah dumb man. Yeah I Donald. Yeah, I know.

[@TD2007]

Very useful tutorial. Thanks

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Olatide :) Getting the background footage for this one was a bit of fun - it took a surprisingly long time to get the base hit with cataclysmic meteor storms

[@exposenetworklimited4497]

Ty man you saved me!!! I have played space engineers for about 4 months but I’m still learning. I play on series x with a keyboard. Ppl say controller is better but imo that’s false

[@Splitsie]

I 100% agree, for space engineers having the keyboard and mouse is a lifesaver for the menus

[@ianhogben3472]

looking in the discription some of the names have spaces are they suppose to be there

[@OGZelgadisGraywords]

I keep seeing the same regions on the earth planets, are they all the same? no differences in shape or geography? i thought it is randomly generated. Also , why aren't those pirate bases spawned already into survival mode? i was hoping on finding them while playing.

[@Splitsie]

The planets are completely fixed as far as I'm aware, there's no variation as it's all based on a predetermined height map. I think there might be a little bit of variety in the placement of which ores are where, but even that seems fairly fixed. The pirate bases on planets can only be spawned procedurally if you use a mod, the vanilla game doesn't have that (it's not in the survival update that's due to come out soon either). The mod to allow that behaviour came out a little after I made this video, have a look for Modular Encounters Spawner which is a framework that can work with installations mods like one I made called Assertive Installations (there are several others worth looking at too) :)

[@Queue3612]

you dont need crative just alt f10 then tick creative mode tools

[@Splitsie]

Very true, I unfortunately forgot about that at the time :P