The BIGGEST feature NOBODY uses - Space Engineers

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There's one MASSIVE feature in Space Engineers that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE uses! What is it? Why does no one use it? And how can it be improved to make more people use it? Find out by watching the video!
0:00 Video Starts
0:05 Biggest Feature
0:36 Economy
1:00 How Economy Works
1:54 Contracts (Quests)
4:01 Stores
4:48 Why does nobody use it?
6:13 The true reason
7:34 Economy only?
7:56 Summary
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Space Engineers is a voxel-based sandbox game set in space and on planets, developed and published by Czech independent developer Keen Software House. In 2013, the initial developmental release of the game joined the Steam early access program. During the following years of active development, Space Engineers sold over one million units. In total as of 2019 the game has sold over 3.5 million copies In May 2015, for approximately a year and a half, the game's source code was officially available and maintained by KSH to assist the modding community. On December 15, 2016, the game entered Beta and was later officially released on February 28, 2019.
The game is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets. Players build space ships, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and uses, pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive.
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Title: The BIGGEST feature NOBODY uses - Space Engineers
My Last Video: Can you BREAK the speed limit WITHOUT MODS!? - Space Engineers
#SpaceEngineers #Warfare #Update

[@Zer0sLegion]

Have you ever used this feature? Let me know your experience with it!

[@aha7858]

I use it all the time especially the search in space

[@kkonnix2777]

when i am bored i used it, is pretty fun

[@I_just_I_is_the_best]

I have never foud a trade station personally

[@Quasikiller]

I always try to set up shop near a trading station, i rather enjoy the locate quests

[@marcus757fugaming7]

Always use it

[@Kampftroll]

You can also buy datapads from stations, the stations refresh every in-game day and sometimes they have datapads with locations of other stations

[@Zer0sLegion]

That's cool!

[@LordDrackonel]

@@Zer0sLegion with all due respect, you sometimes seem to be very newbie to SE Zero, I mean it is true most players dont use this feature, but there were tons of videos about it when it came out, I'd be happy to show you how underrated this feature is, but sadly I currently only play on xbox...

[@Zer0sLegion]

@@LordDrackonel With all due respect, just because you know about it, doesn't mean everyone does. The poll don't lie, most people don't use the feature. I knew the trade stations were in the game but I'd never been to one as they're so rare. I wouldn't have even though to look into the economy mechanics if i wasn't making a video on how progression in SE needs an overhaul.

[@LordDrackonel]

@@Zer0sLegion but to be fair, most people know, just because they dont use it doesn't mean they dont know about it, or at least know an overview of how it works. I only used the term newbie cause that's something I would expect from someone that havent been around, at least to watch all the videos that were released around the update, it was BIG, you said it yourself. The main reason a lot of people dont use it is because the contracts are repetitive, and even tho they were designed to be improved by modders, they never really were, because the meta of the game went around the encounters mods and weapon core. But there were many servers working with economy years around after the release, and many servers still use it, but players still dont go around it. PD: although I said modders didnt pay much attention to it, I want to point out there are really cool mods that work with economy, such as mobile merchants, plant and cook, food essentials and many mods that add community ships to the stores... it's a very well know mechanic, the poll doesn't lie, but that's the amount of your audience that doesn't use it, not the entire of the community that know about it. And if I meant anything about showing you how underrated it is, it was truly so a content creator like you help spreading the message... mostly since now I'm an xbox player, I would like for the modding community to work more around unscripted mods.

[@stitchieRAWR]

@@LordDrackonel I mean... I've been around in SE since 2015 and this is the first I've heard of any of this... Just because in your experience a lot of people that know about it, there are many that didn't know about it

[@pwalker1360]

I actually built my base right next to one of these stations, used pistons and connectors to connect up my massive industrial output right into this station for quick easy money making.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Sounds pretty cool!

[@CyberKeith]

One issue with being too close to stations is that ores don't spawn next to them. You have to go about 5km away to get ores.

[@iplaygames8090]

@@CyberKeith the pipeline must grow

[@KeithOlson]

@@CyberKeith ...but that isn't an issue with the ResourceNodes + Pipelines mods.

[@CyberKeith]

@@KeithOlson Thanks. I'll have to check out those mods.

[@AngryDuck79]

I am astounded that the economy is so unpopular. It's fundamental to how I play the game. 5:05 Its easy to find the stations. The drop pod will have a datepad with a GPS to the closest station on spawn, and stations sell datapads (for like 9 creds per, or something super cheap like that) that will have GPSs for other stations they're friendly or allied with.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Yeap, mentioned that in the video.

[@kaiikiller4777]

Essentially it's an unfinished feature.

[@tyguy5712]

I find it amusing to play those mods that add more encounters and then pausing them all off and see how many I can kill and scrap

[@krirub8166]

@@kaiikiller4777 Yeah space engineers tends to have unfinished features... the game itself is unfinished, it's as if it were still in pre alpha, there's no pve no pvp, planets are pointless, exploration is pointless.

[@stratometal]

@@krirub8166 Its an engineering game, or at least it was conceived as one. It was all about building your own thing and then crashing it and watch the entire thing deform. Deformation is no longer in the game though.

[@jzukenchekumashevich6590]

The economy system is quite underwhelming for a reason - it is easier and cheaper to mine all resources you need than to trade them. Now what they should do to make it viable is rework the balance of the economy system, in a way that you could profit from trading and that it can become the same endgame as building a huge mining rig. They should balance it to be more like in Elite: Dangerous or in Space Rangers, where trading and contracts are a viable way of making money and buying ships.

[@FMHikari]

It's cheaper, yes, but more time consuming. Why go out and mine Uranium and Platinum when i can buy those from the land-based mining company station? They buy ores for a good price, specially Nickel.

[@tackytrooper]

Personally I would like a way to easily make custom blueprints purchasable.

[@Ming1975]

Yes, Elite & Space Ranger have equipment maintenance so all the hording spam builders will suffer!!! I would love that than the current baby step easy survival that thinks making you grind more is a difficulty.

[@sentane8031]

what about being able to buy unique ship components from the stations, these being attached to preexisting ships which you can break down to get the cool new uncraftable component

[@ericclark9770]

To be fair, the Economy System isn't just about trading materials/items/contracts - it's also a way to build reputation with the various AI factions. Better reputation offers better prices on items as well as better payouts for contracts.

[@yusriyahbagheri8843]

More people would use it if you could save a ship design at a station and buy it back (price depending on components + a fee). It would make multiplayer combat a bit more forgiving to newbies in servers and incentivize large factions to pool together money for insurance on large vessels. Put a cool down that's longer dependent on block size and make it expensive enough you can't spam them out and it would take pretty well.

[@halfcirclehranch6877]

One thing kinda nice about the economy bases: If they sell data pads, they come loaded with the location of another either same faction or allied economy base. Sometimes you get something close, maybe even on the same planet. Sometimes, you get a remote outpost 28,000 km out in space But the data pads are cheap, and it is a good way to build up a list of economy stations.

[@CyberKeith]

Stations have energy kits and med kits that aren't really available in other places. Useful tools if you are hydro-manning in your suit. I like to use those early game before I have a ship to get Platinum and Uranium from asteroids. AndrewmanGaming is currently in episode 12 of an economy only SE playthrough on KZbin.

[@spiritof7624]

yep they can be a source of uranium before you leave the planet

[@MyDude199]

Im really surprised you never used this, as soon as I saw the stations I went there and started doing quests.. Also when you start the game, you will always get a cord to the nearest station in your drop pod you start in on survival.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Yeah, I mentioned that in the video but it always seems to be like 40km away lol

[@MyDude199]

@@Zer0sLegion Yeah I replied before I saw that part of the video, but yeah I actaully like the space stations but yeah I do agree that unless you spawned on a moon you would not find them on planets, they are just very very rare.

[@Plat__]

@@Zer0sLegion what when I played with my friend we got one like 7km away we used it to get miners for us it was an essential part of the gams

[@potatoisland7214]

In the official keen servers, the economy is actually quite useful, with ships being sold and you *have* to use the economy to get zone chips, for the safe zone. The contracts also give you something to do in the game.

[@jathalan]

Things you missed: cola, coffee, power kits and med kits are like zone chips and plushies: NPC station exclusive. Ever lost a grid and you can't find where it's drifting? Create a search contract. What I would love to see is the ability for a player or player faction to create a bounty. That would rock

[@thedarkdragon89]

I've gotten power kits and med kits off random pod drops, also a fair bit of money too. I don't think I've ever gotten soda or coffee out of them though.

[@Zer0sLegion]

I was gonna say, i'm pretty sure you can get them from drop pods.

[@stratometal]

Oh what I would do without zone chips in my main base... Also the med kits and power kits are golden!

[@Stoney3K]

And maybe AI factions acting on the contracts as well, so you can compete with NPCs or try to deliberately thwart NPC missions.

[@joshmercer5143]

Almost no one knows that you can use the search contract that way

[@BestHakase]

I arrived at the starting trading station on my mobile digging rig, crafted a few batches of resources that station asked me for, and bought myself a Cursor. I liked this little red ship.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Is it any good, I haven't had the chance to buy any ships yet?

[@BestHakase]

@@Zer0sLegion it has some problems, but nothing critical, if you not going to fight.

[@reduku]

suit upgrades would be a nice addition to make the economy worth interacting with

[@Dragonheng]

2 weeks ago I started using the Ecomendy system. The first thing I noticed next to the hard-to-find station is that when you try to trade you usually need a small spaceship with a medium or large cargo container to move forward effectively. In addition, a basic refinery and the associated production plant are recommended. And to get ahead faster, a mining ship or even a miner with a cargo container. Which means that you can actually do everything yourself again and don't even want to trade. Thus, the potential of the system is already gone through the problematic entry.

[@tengri5752]

I think every pvp player use it a least for chipzones , it's the only way to prevent raid off . Contracts blocs are also used to create new contract on your ship , accept it and you'll get a moving GPS point like respawn-pod. Can be also used as tracker inside enemy grid (don't forget to hide it on terminal) .

[@Gorwyn]

Mate, I never even thought about the moving GPS point. I knew about searching for your own grid, but hadn't thought about the other potential. Thanks!

[@tengri5752]

@@Gorwyn Sometimes you can destroy one enemy ship, but it can be better to just set a contract bloc inside , make a contract, accept it , hide in terminal , and wait for the player return to his base with the ship . Like that you can know where people are really living hehe This game is a large inspiration source and i think we don't expect everything we can do with ;)

[@Gorwyn]

Absolutely. Usually if I find a ship kicking about, I sneak a small grid tracker on board so I can make search contracts to find it later. This new idea presents so many options now..

[@tengri5752]

@@Gorwyn let an "abandoned" ship with tracker is very funny too , people love to pirate mining ships .

[@typhonplume9374]

The datapad they sometimes sell is basically a advertisement telling someone where another station is, complete with GPS cords.

[@dionnikolic3473]

My friends and I found out about the economy by accident. We were playing on Triton and my friend was exploring for ores when he stumbled upon one of these stations. He was telling us that we could do quests to get space credits and buy tools/components and none of us believed him until he took us there. It made getting platinum much less annoying for us since we were pretty early into our game

[@desertphunk386]

I just joined a server based on pertam. It's new and not flushed out yet but it's a scavenger type of play style. Refineries and assemblers don't work. When you spawn you get a data pad with the station and a gps location of a nearby abandoned settlement that usually has an old rover and you scrap the rest of the place for your building materials. Progression is reworked a bit. Grinding things down unlocks a smaller catagory of BPs. Settlements spawn based on distance traveled in one direction and the tier of settlement changes based on the amount of blocks/grids you own. After a couple days I just started getting settlements with low defenses where I found a functional h2 tank that was 80% full. Instead of grinding it down I detached it and stuck it on my rover to transport it home. Did the same with a large grid battery since power cells are hard to come by. I think the goal is to get off pertam and they want to make it so that your refineries and assemblers work when you do. But now I like the idea of getting some old rust bucket off pertam and buying a fancy ship from the moon station.

[@Gottaculat]

Bro... Buy datapads at trade stations. They usually sell like 15 at a time. Buy them all. They will reveal GPS locations of their friendly stations. Not all factions are friends with each other. Check the factions tab to see who they are friends with. Visiting other stations and buying their datapads will also reveal even more stations. Some are waaaaaaay out in deep space. Another hint to find other stations: do a hauling contract. Hauling contracts always start at one station, then end at another. Hauling contracts under 6,000 Km will usually bring you to stations on or orbiting planets and moons. Hauling contracts greater than 8,000 Km will pretty much always take you to a deep space space station. Heck, a super fun and challenging way to play the game is salvage/buying only. In other words, NO ASSEMBLERS! It's crazy immersive, and due to how difficult it can be to acquire ammo by only salvaging or buying, it offers a crazy challenge, and requires some creative solutions to disabling enemy ships. I recommend starting with a start that gives you a base and ship right away, like the Pertam Orbiter start.

[@CheckpointK]

In my survival world I used the station you start with coordinates for to buy a bunch of uranium before I was capable of mining any. I was able to use that to run my ship for days of gameplay where I would otherwise have needed to spend ton of time gathering ice for hydrogen engines.

[@SelbetG]

If you go to the faction tab, each trading faction you have discovered will have a brief description about what they sell. Some sell ships (such as the one in the video) but others can sell other things like ore or components

[@SewSumi]

If you end up with a dead ship, and you can't spawn there it's always good to have a few million to be able to get back to your stuff, without risking being doublecrossed by someone giving you a lift.

[@LethalOwl]

I've actually used this feature a whole lot. I engage with the trade stations regularly to get some easy materials from time to time, or to just buy ships I cba to make myself. Edit; I've never had issues finding the trade stations either, their antenna range is kinda insane. Also yeah, there's always 1 you get access to right off the bat via datapad. Edit2; I think maybe adding something inbetween "I use it all the time" and "once or twice" would've given you better results on the poll. I'm fairly confident it isn't as unknown as the poll implied.

[@hobgoblinuk5100]

I use it sometimes. I said once or twice in your survey as that was the closest answer. The economy is pretty cool. I often play around with mods and self imposed rules and trade stations can help. Especially useful on space starts but can also give you start a boost on any planet. Still of limited use on a regular start unless you spawn close to one.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Yeah, trade station that was on the datapad I spawned with was 40km away from me 💀

[@lucascronin9320]

I am very surprised no one uses these stations! I always work towards making a ship doing these contracts. It is mainly late game activity especially with a small server. Plus, keep in mind if you do business with one faction a faction with similar resources will lower there reputation with you. So you need to choose wisely with who you trade with.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Yeah, I kinda did the poll to make sure it wasn't just me who didn't know about it lol

[@zantanzuken]

this is actually what i do when i start a new game of space engineers, generate a world, start on a planet, make a simple buggy and drive around til i find a station, then build a small base next to it and buy/sell things til i have enough to buy a ship... then outfit it as i go, etc etc.

[@SugarfreeSux]

I always use these stations, it's basically my first goal in a new game. When you open the seat in your droppod and look at the gps data it contains, it gives you a trade station from the beginning, not always easy to reach but it's basically the first thing you can get, next to a pistol, when starting a new game

[@Zankaroo]

From all of the people I play with and talk to in the Xebon community, we all use it pretty much every time. What the station buys/sells is based on the corporation that owned the station. A corp that sells ships will buy more materials, a corp that refines will buy ores and sell ingots. All stations can sell zone chips and things like cola. Its just random on whats in the given list which does update on a built in timer, same with contracts. You will almost always spawn within 10km of a station which is the station on the data pad in your pod seat. Data pads can also be bought from stations with the GPS of other stations. As you said moons are great for finding stations and normally it is easy to find 2 in orbit and 2 on the ground. Doing hauling contracts will give you a parcel that is always put in your personal inventory and an orange GPS labeled "Deliver Here" or something like that, which is always another station. BUT, those missions are in general not really worth the money as they normally are wanting you to jump 25,000km-30,000km, so a dedicated ship is needed and even with some modded jump drives you still need multiple jumps. If you really want to work the ECON system search contracts are east starter contracts but can be so god damn annoying to find sometimes even with a flying vehicle. Acquisition is the king of the contracts once you have some free resources. Me and my friend that I normally group up with start off not taking acquisition contracts below 100,000 SC then that quickly ramps up to nothing below 1mil SC. One trick we use is to build a small platform or ship and either pu tit just outside the shield if you want a station platform or you can nessel a ship with a spawn point next to the NPC station. Then death teleport to the different stations you know of to check for contracts and the store if you are looking for chips. Speaking of Zone Chips are what most players use the ECON system for. Its way to easy to get money from the contracts and buy Zone Chips to fuel a safe zone around your base. Tada! You know have an impenetrable shield and you can turn off damage inside so people in your group that suck at landing can come in at full speed and not give a shit. Also handy for players far away from server dealing with lag when trying to land. When you add in mods like the Build and Repair, and various NPCs you can get them to just stare at you through the shield while you grind them down from safety. Cheese? Yes. But it works, lol. On the current server me and my friend are on we have a large combat salvager/freighter that's job is literally to neutralizer a threat, eat it, then sell its parts. And we are thinking about going pirate now because of how many modded NPC stations are around use that keep spawning and they are from before the ECON update so there old econ system doesn't work with KEEN's.

[@JeffreyBlakeney]

I've been using the economy features since it was first added into the game. It isn't central to my playing but it is helpful and gives more things to do. I believe on multiplayer servers you can set up your own store block and put excess items up for sale. Other players can then buy them from your store block. It is possible to do an economy only play through but it can be extremely slow to get going unless you have a speed mod to allow you to fly faster. There are no ore deposits within about a 5 km radius of stations. AndrewManGaming here on KZbin has such a series going where he set some rules for doing it

[@ralphsexton8531]

I use this quite a lot. As someone mentioned, you can buy datapads at a trade station that give other trade station locations. Also, you mentioned that the NPC ships could maybe go to a station. Well... They do. At least, the orbital stations. If you sit at one for a while, you will see business shipments, mining shipments, and military ships close with the station, slow down while passing through the safe zone, and then resuming their course. Maybe not every ship does, but if you sit there for a while, they pass through. So others are probably set on courses through other station safe zones.

[@Zer0sLegion]

They despawn after a certain distance, they're not persistent

[@ralphsexton8531]

@@Zer0sLegion Darn. I hadn't had a chance to follow one to see if it led me anywhere before it "jumped out," (never mind that they have no jump drive - still the best explanation). I have been preparing to record a couple videos myself soon, and my prep for this narrative play through prevented me checking myself.

[@MrQuantumInc]

Other comments mention this, but it is important to note. You can buy a multiple datapads from a station and each one will hate the coordinates of a random Trade station. There a button to take the coordinates printed on the datapad and make a new GPS marker. Also the market and contracts refresh regularly, so if you leave and come back there will be some changes. Though certain stations have patterns in what they sell.

[@kirti3839]

i think when they add NPCs to the game they will also add a lot more variety in missions. both combat and delivery. Also it would feel much more lived in if there were actually people walking around the trading stations.

[@Zer0sLegion]

I expect so.

[@TarsonTalon]

I've used the economy system, but I don't feel like it's currently anything to write home about. The problem is, to really get use of it, you need to have a jump-capable ship, but if you have a jump-capable ship, then technically you've already beat the game.

[@lightneko]

Wow I'm surprised people didn't know about this... you can also sell stuff on multi-player servers. Also safe zone chips are the exclusive item, they are amazing on PVP servers

[@TheInvertedCow]

Because I am a wrenched builder I always go for the premade ships in the economy. I used it when it came out because of the challenges of the missions. Right now on my current game I am working my way to a station, (i crashed in the mountains and the rover I have built is having a hard time getting to the first station). Quests are always valued in ;difficulty. a low payout escort means you may fight a few drones, where a higher payout one will have more enemies. The find quests are the easiest way to make credits and are always best to grab once you have a smell ship. Some servers have resources set to nil and are economy, or salvage only. I was surprised by your results that more people do not know about it, But SE always was a building game first and the economy update came in so late in the game development that it must have been ignored.

[@wastingwhistler4880]

Mostly newb here: I'm actually planning on abusing the hell out of the economy system as soon as I build some decent transportation.

[@billwilliamson1506]

Rapid ship repair would be nice. You pay a premium for a short repair and rearm of your ship as opposed to welding up every block yourself

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

I actually do use it. I usually do one mission to have some bank of credits and sometimes when I am building something and I find out that I ran out of a resource to make something I need, rather than flying there with my mining ship, mine for 10 minutes, then fly back and process the ore. I just hop into my speeder and buy that thing which takes much less time. I always build my bases where it is pretty, not where it is convenient and I play with Scarce resources mod so using economy makes a lot of sense for me. I think scarce resources should be part of the game (maybe a toggle in advanced settings of the world that is toggled on by default) and not just a mod.

[@manoflego123]

As a solo offline player, the contracts add a level of structure to the game that perfectly balances out the hours of open ended construction and exploration. Just this week I finally tried out a hauling mission as I had finally committed to a save file long enough to build 6 jump drives and enough reactors to recharge them. Also, easiest way to get upgraded tools early without finding precious metals.

[@dabombinablemi6188]

I've been finding the stations brilliant for refuelling my hydrogen ships. I go in, sell some materials and can fill a ships tanks up with far less effort and time. If you end up with enough locations and the stations are stocking hydrogen, you can actually make a hydrogen only ship with usable jump drives. Only just found out that it was possible from another youtuber's videos in the last couple of weeks. Turns out that all this time I only needed to select the tanks as the inventory.

[@user-uy8ss3hg6g]

As you said, the main problem is that you need to travel great distances to find thouse, much greater than to find moust ores. However, if you instal (for example) industrial overhaul mod with its additional ores and changed generation patterns (so the veins are large but only single type ore, also relatively scattered one from another) you end up in situation where you technologies are limited and some elements are scarce. So it becomes viable to mine, process and sell what you can, to buy something that you need.

[@user-uy8ss3hg6g]

Imo, with changed ore generation and some tech diversity many things in SE start to give much more sense. Your energy generation is bound to biome specifics (geothermal is easier to do in mountains, hydrogen near lakes, solar in plains). Your vechicle designs also becoming more adapted to avilable resources. Your exports/imports and global goals. It kinda creates your "faction identity" and forces you to play smart and adapt to be effective.

[@pickcomb332]

You can also use hauling contracts to send your ship to new stations. Delivering a contract to a new station tells you where to put a new gps point for a station is. The reason some hauling contracts are more expensive is the distance/difficulty of landing reaching the station like at.

[@joshuadempsey3449]

On server NA2 there is a new player station built by a faction for those new to the server and game to get a leg up. Helps with the progression aspect on survival by giving them access to fully upgraded refineries and assemblers. It is also about twenty or thirty km from npc stations for trading. One important thing to note is that gaining reputation with some npc factions can cause you to go “hostile” with others. The NPC factions show who they are friendly with via the factions tab.

[@simulacra7885]

I will buy an abundance of prefab throwaway ships or even some of the bigger ships like the B60 hauler because they are good enough, quick, modifiable, and you can just give one to a friend if you don’t feel like building them a ship and they need a ship for something

[@fanthonyfictions]

Objection, Plushies come in those random drop pods everyone ignores.

[@WarThe3rd]

An economy only game is kind kind of playable (I've done several). Basically, you need to way to collect resources to sell for starting out like mining or pirating. The other way to do it is to give yourself a mission ready ship, which I've found kinda defeats the purpose unless you restrict yourself to something super basic.

[@novantha1]

The economy features definitely have their place. One useful use of them in the early game is to get a hold of thruster components / platinum (you can buy a ship and grind it down for those parts in a pinch, too) if you're having trouble finding a platinum deposit. They're also a renewable source of resources (!) which doesn't matter that much in this game, but it *is* handy that you can "convert" raw stone into a variety of materials by trading at stations in a pinch if you need to make some fast modifications to a ship or something.

[@nightraven836]

the biggest problem is the economy really sucks for most players, and it's only existence is as something we might be forced to use to get components as a "balance" measure on some servers, not to mention the massive spread between stations, and the lackluster stock of ships, making trade rather unexciting... not to mention players being unable to drive the economy because the game itself forces players to sell and buy around pre-determined price ranges.

[@Gottaculat]

People ask me why I need 30 jump drives in my ship. The answer is because I'm a jump addict, and my ship can do >22,000 Km jumps. Yeah, I can do many of the hauling contracts in ONE jump, and the longer ones just take 2 jumps. I can jump from Pertam to Alien, and back to Pertam in ... get this... ... 20-25 seconds. And I still have enough jump capacity to jump to Earth or Mars. When doing shorter jumps, I don't even have to wait for my jump drives to recharge. I can lose people so fast. Do a 100 Km jump in one direction, a 1,000 Km jump in another direction, and then a 5,000 Km jump in yet another, all within 30 seconds, making pursuing my ship damn near impossible. Also means when I'm ready to log out, I just jump 20,000 Km into deep space, park inside an asteroid, and shut off my coms to go dark. Can't get locked on to by any ships that stumble on by. No need for shields. All this was because of the economy update, which made me build a series of jump ships specifically to do those hauling missions. Been a jump addict ever since. Even with over 1M Kg of cargo, I can still jump over 16,000 Km in a single jump. This is the way.

[@trivalentclan-mizar9591]

I have use the economy system a lot, both in single player and on multiplayer servers. The new Star Trek Continuum server uses a customized economy system to enable new players to get uranium and other things that are not available nearby as the server is designed for exploration so limited asteroids, with uranium and platinum only on a couple far away planets.

[@WerrinLotsuvhats]

The funny thing is Economy is on by default when creating a new world, but they are so far between that unless you do a LOT of exploring or use the data pad, the chances of actually seeing a station is very slim

[@gamer234e]

I once went to a trading station and saw a contract that gives 20 million space credits for 15 reactor comp. It was the easiest 20 million space credits i've ever made

[@archaeologistify]

Also you can get tens of millions per acquisition quest if you get lucky getting grav, med, plat or other expensive components

[@Comicsluvr]

With very little effort, Keen could add more to this. Like the datapad you start with, they could sprinkle information around and maybe offer more rewards. Like, you do a Search quest or retrieve something they lost and you get the location of a mineral deposit. This might be really helpful for players looking for that ONE resource that they can't seem to find any of.

[@blakecaune6061]

It would be neat if there were npc ships that occasionally fly by, and occasionally a fight might break out between them. It would be neat to watch two ships attack a small, defenseless one, and once the victim ship falls, hopping in a vehicle to go scrap parts from it. It would make the game feel more dynamic, and would be an actual reason to use weapons on ships.

[@_zealos_8213]

I was kinda confused on how it worked when i first found it in the crafting menu, and tried building one on my own base and saw that nothing came up. I get now that you go to stations to pick up contracts and sell, and you build it on your own station to create contracts (not sure) and buy. Neat!

[@tohpingtiang4878]

If you want to open a store. You have to fill the vending machine with stuff. Cyanide made a giant potrait of himself and power the safe zone to forever.

[@thedestroyer5234]

fun fact, on my main survival i have (sadly with mods cause i apparently don't know how to play vanilla kekw) i got 180m coins from *just* 1 contract, an acquisition of some reactor components (18), and it was about 23k km away (spoiler yes it was a long trip)

[@alexanderweekly1976]

Fun fact, you get the coords to a trade station in your drop pod seat alongside your gun and ammunition, at least on earth you do. I have always used this feature, it's so integral to singleplayer play, or even co-op play. Me and my friends wouldn't be able to stay interested in the game at all if it weren't for econmoy.

[@alexanderweekly1976]

Oops, well that's what I get for commenting mid-video.

[@cynthiablackthorn]

The only time I use the ATM is to turn physical space credits I get from signals into non physical ones when I’m playing on a server that is using economics, safer since no one can touch our cash that way

[@tonycable4560]

Yes, I have used this. If you start without a ship or without any kind of survival kit, this is the best way to get a start. Possibly the only way to get started until you can build a Survival Kit.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Considering you can't craft without a survival kit, I would say it's very improtant!

[@dalrethliant8822]

If you have economy enabled, your starter pod will have a data chip in the control seat, alt-f10 will also help you find a nearby station. The moons of the star system map also has stations in close proximity of each other. The furthest station I found from the Earth like planet is 43k kilometers.

[@joesomebody3365]

I remember frequently searching for NPC stations but never finding them, I had no idea they were orbiting the moon. Thanks for making this video, I'll have to check this out.

[@waschbaers_werkstatt]

You can play, without mining ore, i tried it. Its difficult, but managable. You get some resources from unknown signals or being a pirate. Or simply: buy ore from the station, produce parts and sell it or fullfill quests to the same station, you gain surplus ;)

[@slab-dd6vj]

I do use this feature from time to time. To find more stations, you can buy datapads at those stations and they have other trading stations, but they can be quite far. So when I want to find more, I buy all the datapad at the station and check them sometime there is one or 2 near

[@Zer0sLegion]

That's fine but out of the 4 stations I found none of them had data pads lol

[@ferryczk8332]

In vanilla game I don't use the economic system, however, with Industrial overhaul mod the trade stations gave you acces to resources that you wouldn't be able to get for a long time. Also, if you play on Agaris you will have more trade stations on the planet and they are easy to find thanks to the roads that leads to them.

[@boiledtoast6031]

I think it would be nice if you could add your own blueprints to the shops and just pay the station to build it for you, with the more complex ships obviously costing a considerable amount of money.

[@styleisaweapon]

This could address more than several problems at once. It makes credits valuable/useful outside of roleplay as the starter. It is an alternative to a ship printer suitable for both the solo player and clans. It affords a solo and role players to go without a larger grid "base" that is really only there to help make ships. The limitations of projectors are circumvented as well because your blueprint can be spawned into the world instead of projected and welded. The service can be offered only at particularly large npc stations or maybe only a single npc faction offers it for some flavor.

[@FUT-Franklin]

I've always used the economy features since getting the game back on February, I tend to think those who play on PvP servers like myself rely on the economy massively to sustain our safe zones. *Tip:* do the acquisition contracts to save you the pain of doing hauling contracts in a expensive jump ship that will only be used for hauling contracts

[@wedg3]

What I would really like is the ability to buy ship blueprints through the economy. The community blueprints from the workshop I've subbed to being purchasable/traded for would be fun for the saves I have played that were more focused on progression/harder survival.

[@ghjuyt101]

The reason why is because it is always easier to build your own ship than it is to go through the economy. There is a youtuber who did an economy only playthrough and the second he allowed rescorce production (self made/imposed rules) he was able to buy a ship within 1 episode (there were 9-10 before). Added on to the difficulty of actually affording anything rather than mining it is the fact that the ships are not purpouse built. The easiest fix is bringing the time invested between the mining and economy systems MUCH closer, untill then there is little to no reason to use it other than the zone chips (plushies for asthetics).

[@trc8197]

Once the update came out for xbox I delved deep into it, turned the sandbox building crafting game it already was into a exploring and mission game added onto it all. I went into a different game mode of just using basically economy mechanics to get my stuff and ships. To a point. Starting out with simple beginnings as a solo start up company focused on mining. Unsurprisingly raw resources turned out to be valuable assets for many so my company went into weapon and defense research and development to maintain control of plots theyd paid for already and to safely transport and refine. Hauling needs alot of cargo space, and fast acceleration and brakes. You're right about it being basically end game content if you'd like more stuff to do. Acquisition is the best money maker. Gravity components and rare ores usually make great profit. Best yet they're not timed. Every other contract is timed or triggered, I think. Search sounds easy, and sometimes it is, but for me, majority of the time it was down right not rewarding for the time spent. Better to get an easy and cheap Acquisition contract and mine or make extra for yourself. Protection contracts... those are usually the most fun due to the action involved, but also for me the most preparation needed. They are and can be very serious tests of your skill and ship's agility, firepower, and armor. Put on relative dampeners to your client and I usually did a torsion circle around the client to reduce the relative difficulty. Never tried simply locking onto the client and shielding him or wrapping him in armor and turrets walls. All this was tested offline. Edit ps: data pads are cheap af. I usually buy the full stack of data pads of first station that'll sell them. I originally thought they were notes for multi-player. These datapads give GPS coordinates to other stations. Very good for getting that one pesky shop that sells uranium ingots.

[@mythicalbeast1202]

An economy-only series would certainly be interesting

[@wellthen.......9384]

I use this to get rich every server I join because each station has asteroids nearby that sometimes turn out to be a good load

[@thesteadingoffranya4423]

I use this as part of my regular game play you can turn off the unknown signals and just rely on the stations but if i do that then i start fresh until i get a station closer than 30 klicks that is from a mining faction as they will almost always have ores for sell and sometimes you can get uranium and platinum in bulk. They are definitely geared toward mid to late game but some like the miners can be very helpful from the start.

[@Luke-ow9ku]

Best paying missions I've seen are acquisitions for magnesium powder and gravity components. Those can get you over 20 million credits. also selling refined ores at the stores can get you millions.

[@tassiedevil3]

Also a tip, if you want to know what each trade station sells, check. The faction menu tells you what each of them sell.

[@flamestrider605]

I completely brute forced a 21000 km hauling contract before I had a ship. I just grabbed like 4 o2/ Hydrogen bottles and some power kits, grabbed a speed mod and walked away, checking in every now and then to power kit. It was worth it.

[@intergalacticGM]

I'm using it and it helps a lot because the "nearby" station have platinum, I did a few acquisition contracts and got enough for some 64 platinum ingots, my small grid hauling ship is now space capable without the need of hydrogen. Anyhow if I remeber correctly, not every trade station sells platinum or uranium, which would make them much more attractive. What I'd improve would also be the hauling contracts, make a few to transport from one station to another on the same planet would make me want to do them more often and earlier.

[@ceilyurie856]

I literally don't build a station without including store blocks and atms...I just figure a station should have trade facilities. Even a military one or shipyard needs basic trading capabilities. And you can LITERALLY SET UP YOUR OWN TRADE REQUESTS.

[@tommelom10]

the items available at the stations depend on the type of faction that controls them. for example a faction called "Space Miners" will have mostly ores and drills while "Intergalactic builders" will have ships and welders for sale. bonus info: if you do trading and contracts for a faction you will improve standing with that faction and its allies. and worsen standing with their enemies.(usually all factions who are not allies) you can see who is allied to who in the Factions tab

[@mkohlhorst]

Delivery missions are a great way to find other stations. As the mission is literally take blank to blank. Also you can buy data pads that have station locations coords on them from stations.

[@Inarslegend]

Just add a shipyard where you can with help of credits almost instantly build the ship from your blueprint and resources. It ll give us a choice will you build your ship by yourself or just buy it ready to go.

[@KptKosmit91]

I do interact with trade stations, because one of my mods adds some hard to get items, and one of the ways to get these items is to buy them at the trade stations. Gives the stations more use Also, sometimes you can get better tools early, i found that useful as well.

[@gelobledo]

first thing I do everytime I start new is figure out where the nearest station is. they are a easy way to get uranium to power your reactors you just got to do some missions. when you spawn you always have data pad you just copy the nav data. then you can buy data pads that give you nav points to others. and trade missions will take you to others

[@Allegheny500]

Several mods make use of this feature, the daily needs mod for example allows you to buy food and seed packets in the vending machines.

[@EssentialLiberty]

Luca pointed out that scrapping your ship for space credits will give you a leg up on server wipes. You keep your progression and SC

[@Gottaculat]

Just wait until you get the platinum ingot acquisition quests. Most I ever made off one of those was over 18,000,000 SC. Pt ingot quests often yield over 10,000,000 SC. Uranium ingot ones also pay well, but because I'm a smuggler/jumper, uranium is far too valuable to sell, as jump drives are uranium hogs. Magnesium powder quests pay well, too, but are often super small quantities. Still, will net you a few million SC. Most I've ever had in my bank at one time was about 900,000,000 SC, but then we had a server wipe. I was aiming for 1 billion SC.

[@J37T3R]

I've been saying this since the Economy update first dropped, but Keen missed a major opportunity but not adding any of the new ships from that update to the random spawn list. So much new stuff made but practically unused.

[@Zer0sLegion]

I'm sure when GridAI gets added, they'll make improvements to this

[@J37T3R]

@@Zer0sLegion I really want that to be the case, but given how Keen seems to forget about older content I'm not optimistic. My prediction is they'll leave the economy ships and their availability as-is and when GridAI gets added it'll be exclusively used with new ships, none of which will get back-intigrated.

[@Zer0sLegion]

They added the new weapons to the previous AI ships, I'm sure they do the same with GridAI

[@Seldion]

I used the economy all the time, so not to buy ships but occasionally to get the elite equipment and to sell common resources for more rarer resources that I need because I play with a mod that makes it where planets only have the basic resources and you have to go to space in order to get them more rare resources

[@horseface31]

I play almost exclusively alone and i love the economy system. I do usually spawn a station in when i start a new world, but then swap to survival.

[@thornblackwell5749]

I've used it ever since it was added to the game, but it really needs to be expanded. The problem is it cannot be modded, and you can't easily move the stations, which are not supposed to be moved. As for other things in the game that most people don't use, the tool that a few people have used to make detailed movies like you see in the background while you are in the main menu. Also the camera pathing feature to add cut scenes to your playthrough. there are so many things they don't describe how to use, they just add them and leave it to you to figure them out. I bet you could create a multi-mission storyline complete with cut-scenes, but they haven't really given us much info to make it happen.

[@Haladmer]

I use the economy fairly regularly, and often point out that it's a great way for players who want to start with a bit more challenge than normal, to actually be able to start with almost nothing and actually survive without needing to build a scenario or a starter ship/base. Doing the search missions is a quick way to earn enough credits/faction to buy starter (or even intermediate) ships with maybe 1 to 2 hours of effort. Trading components will net better returns if you're finding you have a lot of raw resources to process, but trade missions can pay out a LOT of credits if you have a ship able to get to you to the destination. If you want to do an economy only style, try using the Aww Scrap mod (no components returned when grinding, just component scrap) so you'll only get a portion of the materials back as scrap, and only a portion of the resource back from the scrap lol That combined with the advanced welding mod (allows you to disconnect blocks from the grid using a grinder, and reattach them using a "weld pad") gives the game a very different feel for SE :D

[@Zer0sLegion]

Using Aww Scrap is a pretty good idea, i'll give that a go

[@Haladmer]

@@Zer0sLegion Yeah, it's been added to my "every game will probably use this" mod list Coupled with the advanced welding mod, it really pushes you to detach and reattach equipment instead of just "melting it" for parts to reassemble if you're going for a "no mining" playthrough! Good luck!

[@lionmuller2680]

I knew this exists and I flew to a station once, cause I had a gps location of it somehow. But as you mentioned there is not much incentive to use this system. At least it felt like that to me, cause I already had an established base and a ship. So the only real benefit would have been to get rare ores.

[@oofm4n281]

Economy is pretty useful for emergency scenarios. If you're in a pickle and lose your survival kit, the economy stations can be useful.

[@chJohnJobs]

I use this feature a lot actually. Especially since the Missions give me something else to do, And then i usually build a cool base when the idea hits

[@blitheshoe230]

Every single one of my playthroughs revolve around the economy systems

[@MrGrownman455]

Oh yea that's been in the game but Space Engineer isn't like a Star Citzien type of game. It doesn't depend on a economy or any specfic game mechanic . The economy is just there if you and some friends want to use it. That's what I love about Keen's view of SE, they gave you the tools to play their game the way you want to.

[@Zer0sLegion]

Yeah, it's a lot of fun!

[@markmccorkle25]

I play the economy all the time -- particularly since the "tech" components in our upgrade mode are also exclusive to shops and random finds.

[@ronh8126]

I wish you could automate the selling of Ores, Ingots or Components. We can get the drones to the station but have to be there to sell the items. Kind of defeats the purpose.

[@panemcircensesque]

6:10 I think it would go a long way for immersion to include NPC text messages when in radar range, wouldn't be too costly in terms of dev I think, and would be a great addition. I always felt like this game lacks lore and overall doesn't talk to players enough (aside from goodbot which is really basic controls stuff). Maybe receiving a distress call with an actual message (that you could read from your HUD or even retrieve and display on a LCD panel with a script) would incentivize players to investigate planet surfaces and whatnot