Thanks, they are the result of many years of experimentation. I'm quite happy with them. Many of my better builds are on the Steam workshop. If you have access to that you can dissect them and maybe get ideas for your own.
You will get there also. For me trying to build a large grid ship with welders built into the build with projector setup right when taking damage trigger welders on to get repaired fast .
My obscure tip to add is that while "Door" and "Offset Door" can pass air through them, no oxygen seems to actually be stored in their block space. This means that while an airlock made from two back-to-back sliding doors will vent out two blocks' worth of oxygen into space every time you go through it, the same kind of airlock but made instead with offset doors (or normal doors if you don't have Frostbite) will keep all of the air inside (when operated correctly). This can be kind of useful if you don't like "Keen airlocks" but still don't feel like building a fully proper airlock, and hate venting oxygen into space. Great video btw, thanks for the tips!
i experimented with them a little since the contact update. turns out when the inner door is open, it fills the door block and when you close it, it turns back to 0 oxygen but that air is gone, not brought back to the tanks, just gone. so that's a bit of waste right there
@@lucasgrd4258 I tried that too 6 months ago, but I found that when I put the air vent into depressurize, the same amount of air got sucked back in, as if the volume of the door's air space was 0 anyway
@@LeeSpork after closing the door ? That’s interesting… However i often find myself in situations where my o2 tanks are filled up by the generators so i can’t depressurize. I don’t have the space on my ships to put a side conveyor system with a sorter to toggle on or off the o2 generation
Small personal hack: If you're using a docking camera on a small grid ship connecting to a large grid, when you build the large grid connector orient it in a way that the little side lights will be in line with where your camera will be on the small grid ship. Those side lights make great aiming references. For example at 14:47, I would rotate that large grid connector by 90 degrees so that one of those side lights is on top, and now the camera will be staring directly at it. It will also help with seeing the connection status.
My tip is use ai modul. Very very annoying to me when i need to docking. ( specially when the docking place is moving. Like a mother ship or etc.) I just use ai modul instead my docking skill. Or another tipp i using docking arms in my base. when my ship in position ( AI) docking arms get my ship. And a piston connecting to my ship. Ai thing a little effort. But longer campaign is usefull.
That airlock concept is legit awesome. Just having a single piece of curved glass looks weird and feels cheaty, but incorporating it into a real airlock is a cool way to prevent wasting air.
Yeah, using them in airlocks and hallways where you don't notice them is my preferred method. On servers where I'm scraping for PCU (or trying to reduce lag) I'll use them more liberally.
Important note, the target lock detector applies to friendly target locks aswell, and some people will target lock friendlies to check grid name, distance, relative and approach velocity, etc, with the targeting info, so if you are using the third upgrade, make sure it wont do anything you wouldnt want to happen in the event of friendly lock, or just make sure they know not to lock on you lol
I didn't know about the range difference between the antenna and decoys for lightning strikes. I'm never counting on an antenna for lightning defense again. I knew about curved block airlocks before, but I really liked seeing how you implemented them in your ship. You have airtight integrity between sections of your ship, like watertight integrity on IRL naval vessels.
Yeah, decoys are the way to go. Sectioning up your interior also allow the airtightness calculations to be easier (making it bug out less often). It can be necessary for very large or complex spaces.
Btw. With the last update, lightning became optional. So if u dont want to deal with it anymore, without the use of Mods (or if u cant...), u can now just switch lightning damage off in Vanilla.
A small tweak on the automatic closing doors, set an event controller to check if any door has been opened, then start the timer block with ~5s delay, doors only shut after you open them
I like that idea. Need to make sure the time is set properly for each build though. Often I'm walking specific routes through multiple doors. I don't want the second or third door I open to always close on me because the first door triggered the close function.
@@ShiftyshadowTV like shifty said, you could seperate out the doors. but it wouldnt be as tedious as you might first think! you likely only need two "groups" for the doors to prevent this. imagine the doors as existing in a long hallway, with the doors painted in a "striped" pattern, one black, one red, etc. the black is in one group, red in the other. that way when youre walking through, the door you are walking towards is never in the same group as the door you just opened, preventing timer overlap. obviously not every ship is a long hallway, but all you have to do is ensure there is never a door sharing a group with a nearby and adjacent door.
@@ShiftyshadowTVif the event controller “starts” the timer. The second or third doors will “start” the full time. You shouldn’t run into that ever, as soon as you open the one in front of you, you have the timers amount of time. A bigger risk would be trusting them to prevent venting then running through your ship fast enough to open the whole thing. Or if you are being chased.
I knew most of them but did not know about the seat having a target lock detection. An addition to the door closing repeater that can be done: if you never want to have the door closing in your face but don't want to wait 20 seconds, you can add an event controller that detects the opening of all the doors and then it starts the timer to close all the doors, you can set it up to 3-5 seconds instead of 20 seconds. My favourite thing to do on any ship I pilot: is to make a group of all the breaking thrusters and have them turn on/off on the first control bar (I always set it up at position 9). That way you can save a lot of energy\fuel by just gliding, and the nose is always pointing in the direction you are going: which is better than turning off the dampeners in 0 gravity
I've well over 1k hours in the game and you just explained something I ran into only a couple days ago! I was positioning a blueprint and it vanished. I thought I took too long to position it, but every time I reloaded the blueprint it would instantly vanish. I thought the block was bugged so I ground it down and replaced it, making sure I checked the box in time so I wouldn't run into (what I thought was) a bug again. I had *no* idea it was the *alignment* that was making it go away! (I always thought it was timer based) Thank you! Also, I've seen demonstrations of the curved block airlock before, but they were usually quite awkward looking. You did a nice job incorporating them into your design. I may just start using them now. 😀👍
Yeah, it can be frustrating if you forget to check the save blueprint box. The curved blocks can definitely look nice, there are a lot of options though so it's good to putz around and see which ones you like.
A nice quality of life upgrade I've done for a few years now on my smaller ships is a 1-button startup/shutdown... well, really 2, as it's 2 timer blocks. Shutdown is pressed after I dock with a connector. It shuts off all the gyros, antennas/beacons, thrusters, lights, etc., and sets batteries to recharge, and O2/H2 tanks set to stockpile. Startup is the same thing in reverse, switching everything on, then unlocking the connector. With the Automaton update, I was able to make it even more seamless by setting up event controllers. Now, when I dock with a connector, shutdown sequence occurs. I still prefer a manual startup, which ensures everything is running before disconnecting the connector. It makes life much nicer aboard my ship, and doing quick outings.
Addendum for tip #6 Remote controls have an option to assign a camera. When set your view will go to the camera automatically when the remote is selected.
Pipe in welders to critical components to go along with the weld projector. That way all your critical stuff can get a quick repair with a click of a button. If you set them up so multile systems are in range of the welder, they all get a repair... 4 large hydrogen thrusters with a single welder in the case of my carrier.
20:52 I wish Keen would add an option to have controls and camera orientation linked to the direction of the cockpit, so no matter what, left is left, right is right, down is down, and up is up. Would be a great QOL feature and shouldn’t be too hard to do
1-9 are all great tips, which I use all the time as well. #10 is an exploit, as that isn't the intended behavior of those blocks, but I can see in the case you suggested (you have friends that don't wait for your airlocks and constantly vent everything) it is a reasonable solution that doesn't break immersion too badly. Nice work!
Yeah, I usually keep #10 hidden. I don't like breaking immersion, but sometimes I want to save PCU or make things foolproof. I've actually put in bug reports for the windows (and panels), but it seems they're working as intended. :/ At this point I'm embracing it.
@@andrewhoughton8606 In the most recent update they added a handful of blocks that also act as Keen Airlocks (more panels that act the same as the windows). I haven't seen anything indicating that it's going to change.
Nice, I figured a lot of these are common knowledge and I've talked bout most of them in other videos already, but I wanted to share them all in one place. Hopefully people can learn at least one thing from it. :D
Just a small note about the auto close door timers, the sliding door can pinch and kill your engineer. I use timers on all my internal doors since they're all regular or offset and those will just push you out of the way but the sliding doors will go for the kill so i use those almost exclusively for exterior airlocks and won't add them to the timer.
For the decoys, yes the lighting will hit the decoy as you have stated but it also has an AOE for damage. Now this AOE can be negated by placing the decoy on a sub grid. The reason is that indirect damage does not travel through sub grids.
What I use instead of just a timer for my doors is an event controller along with a timer block. Any time a door on my base is opened the event controller starts the timer block of 5 seconds to close all doors on the base/ship. The reason I don't use the timer block by itself is because there are annoying times when you go to open the door just as the timer block activates to close the doors on you.
Very useful upgrades. I've been playing for years and never thought of some of using cameras & remote controls for backing out of mined tunnels... or the passive air locks. Will be using these in future builds, thanks :) Subscribed.
Man, the 'airlock cheat' blew my mind... The amount of times I have vented the ship because I was too fast/careless is staggering. I will use that trick on my next build. Massive thanks! Also - 'reverse camera+controller' - so easy but I have never though about it. I had reverse cameras and used them but it's sometimes tricky. I wish keen has introduced the direction option to the movement AI and recorders. Making autodocking for the grids that need to reverse to the connector sucks.
Yeah, it's nice not having to worry about venting your air. I've only used the new AI for autodocking a few times, it does seem like a pain. Only worth it to me if I'm fully automating something (that I'll use a lot).
I just realized that with the new action relay blocks, you can now control the automatic respawn bypass better. You could set up several action relays that turn on/off survival kits and have each one on a different frequency. RP could turn this into a teleporter that kills your previous body and reconstructs you at the new location.
These are some awesome ideas! I just started getting into SE about a week ago, so I'm still learning so much about the game. For the door closing one, I made a slight modification: I set the timer block for 2sec and close all doors, no repeat. Then, I used a control block to start the timer whenever a door is opened. Works really nice!
Adding the event controller is a good idea. I've played for a long time and ECs are relatively new, so I often overlook them (especially when I've been using another method for almost a decade). It's always nice seeing better methods, new players, and fresh innovation in the comments.
Great vid Shifty! I don't use the Keen airlocks; always thought they were a bit cheaty, but I quite like your take on them. Especially the one combined with stairs. Very cool! Keen airlocks are in fact so sneaky, I'll have to check my HQ if I haven't accidentally placed random airlocks around the place. lol I use a lot of ECs. I build small grid servers on Hinges with those conveyor access doors. They're stuffed with TBs, ECs, PBs,... Every Door has a dedicated EC. This way I can create airlocks easily. If a certain door is opened, then specific doors close. Endless possibilities. Edit: Also, I find it quite annoying walking peacefully through pressurized areas with my helmet open and suddenly suffocating because I'm in the space of an airtight block. On my main Exploration ship I control it from an Industrial Cockpit, which sits inside a Round Window bubble. Which again is encased in other window blocks which presents the cockpit from the outside. (Cockpit in a cockpit in a cockpit if you like). I can walk around the industrial Cockpit freely but must close my helmet first... meh!
I usually use the Keen airlocks in places where you won't notice them. They do break immersion for me. I need to experiment more with Event Controllers. I'm sure they have tons of uses I have yet to discover. As long as the main parts of my rooms are airtight I can overlook small spots where it's broken. I try to avoid it, but it's not always worth sorting out for me.
So for #8 (the door closing repeater), I actually do it slightly differently. I have an event controller that checks for if any door is open that I want to auto close. When it detects any open, it starts a 5 second timer, which then closes the door. If all doors successfully close, then all is set, but if a door fails to close, it repeats the 5 second timer again.
I remember building a light and fast scouting Vehicle about a year ago with a friend. It kinda got out of hand leading to it having a Hyperdrive a dropdown Armory below the Cockpit and full Survivable Capability (it started out fairly vanilla and ended up with probably around 90% Modded Blocks). Reaching Top Speeds of 600 m/s almost instantly with insane maneuvrability and using stragetically placed Shields (I think they were from the Azimuth Pack?) as Landing Gears i somehow made it impervious to crashing aswell. I remember it being the first time i really experimented with just how much i can push it and apart from it being so quick to accelerate you can dodge bullets and having the Cockpit hidden in the Core of the Ship with the only way of seeing where youre going being a set of cameras all with double backups, watching this video made me realize just how much i can improve it. I wonder if i still have the blueprint lying around somewhere, i would love to add some of the features you've shown to it.
#3 Is cool, effectively having an RWR is pretty neat. I'm still in the phase of building javelins rather than ships, because it seems the best way for me to down an enemy vessel is with a ramming prow and a very large hydrogen thruster on the back.
I don't know if it was mentioned yet but putting an air vent pointed to the exterior and set to depressurize will collect oxygen. Of course you can use it for larger grids but it's also useful for cockpits since they require an oxygen supply even in atmosphere
No-one has mentioned it, but yes that's a good idea. I do that for most of my builds (anything that flies in atmosphere). If I make another of these upgrade videos that might make it in.
Most of these, I’ve encountered over my years of playing SE, but there’s still stuff to learn here! The turret range increase via defense block is handy for static grids. I used something similar to the periscope in one of my last builds, just sans piston for space constraints. And probably the most useful is the way you use keen airlocks; I’d heard of them before, but always thought they were necessarily ugly and not viable for aesthetic builds. That’s one I’m glad to be proven wrong on.
Yup, the AI range increase is most useful for bases (static grids). I felt the same way for a long time about the airlocks, but a year ago I started trying to work them into my builds and have found many ways to sneak them in.
The 'Foolproof Airlock' shook me! I wasted so much time with figuring out airlock concepts and never even thought to check the airtightness of gaping blocks like that...
There are even more blocks after this Monday's update! One of the blocks from the DLC helm/bridge set makes a really nice looking airlock, and is completely open to walk through.
I must say, I'm mostly critic, and while those ideas are fairly known for long time players, you explained it absolutely well and added some bonuses. I wasn't fully aware of the air tight blocks, which can save you 125 pcu instead of a door. Superb. As a mini cherry on top, you might have could said for your periscopes, they can't be projected (from their main grid), as they are a subgrid. Veterans know this ofc, but I saw a few new comers in the comments. Splendid work overall.
and yeah, if guys want to use fancier stuff, like said periscopes or extra remote controls, etc and are limited by pcu (like on the servers often times), one has to outweigh the cost/usefullness depending on ones situation and desire.
For the parachute one, i actually use two event controllers and a logic gate script to basically figure out altitude and speed, and if both meet the criteria (aka youre plummetting at fast speeds) the emergency systems kick in to save you. Just so i can fly or drive in low altitudes without auto systems freaking out
I could have used this yesterday. A friend and I were playing, and he hosts the server. We’d picked up a lot of gold ore. I had built a freighter drone that was basically 3 large grid containers with a bunch of batteries and thrusters that we attach our miners to for long distance mining, and I fly it remotely from my miner. I got that in the air, miners and gold in all, and as soon as I got up to speed, I got booted from the server, sending us into the ground at 100m/sec. Your system may have saved that expedition.
airlock tip is instantly reverting my 2 door boring manual airlock to a single, auto opening door with a built in airlock, just gotta finally learn how to auto open doors
Regarding the doors one: You can prevent the doors from shutting in your face completely by having an event controller check if the group of doors is open, and if it is, start a timer block with a 5-10 second delay that closes that group. That way, if any door is open in that group, the timer block will close them after 5-10 seconds of them opening. I checked this, it should work.
I recently remembered about space engineers and now I have my own computer so once I have enough money for more RAM and to actually buy the game again I'm going to start building again. I'm definitely going to use these tips in my future builds.
For your welder wall, instead of the button: 1) a sensor with its detection volume slightly larger than the area of effect of the welders 2) set the sensor to "detect small grid ships" 3) turn off "detect players", "detect neutral" and "detect hostile 4) first action slot: welders on 5) second action slot: welders off now all you have to do is fly up to the welder wall. no fiddling with buttons, and the wall shuts itself off automatically as soon as you move away.
Wow i missed the air lock with walkthrough blocks. I heard of it but haven't seen it till now but i can now save ship interior space with this thank you for the video
@@ShiftyshadowTV I am very much thank you. I am a little frustrated though. I watched the only two video tutorials I could find on making missiles and when I detach them from my little scout craft, they just fall to the ground and blowup. I have gone over the videos step-by-step and built and configured as they did it. Still no joy. I cannot figure it out. I watched Major Jon’s and Beeblebum’s videos. I just don’t understand what’s wrong. I am utilizing some of the “10 upgrades” from your video now and will be implementing more as needed! I will be checking out more of your videos! Thanks again. Oh, and I would welcome any advice or thoughts on the missile thing. Be safe! 😇🫡🫡🫡🫡
wow. So decoys act as lighting rods too? THAT is nice to know. Your method for door closing is interesting; I enjoy my automatic doors made with sensors and timers because I never have to open OR close them, but that does require a setup for each door. Yours is likely less performance intensive when scaled up to larger grids. Can't believe they STILL haven't fixed the airtight windows bug though.
Yeah, the airtightness oddity is here to stay probably. I do like using sensors on some of my doors, I'm often too lazy to set them all up though (hence the single timer).
Interesting, seems like a lot of extra weight, and that it would slow the aiming. Weight isn't a problem on stations, but there you could share inertial tensor to stabilize. Could also just reduce the turret turning speed. On ships adding weight to subgrids tends to making moving chaotic, but if your ship is significant heavier than the subgrid you're probably ok. Might give it a shot.
I recommend using an event controller to start your time block to turn your survival kit back on, so you don't get the situation where you turn it off and it comes back on 3 seconds later. It'll always be exactly 90 seconds then.
I don't know if the event controller is newer than this video, but they're great for doors too, you can set your timer to 1 second and have the EC trigger the timer if any door opens. No more doors shutting in your face because if timer coincidences.
so much has changed since I last played, I think last time I was heavy into playing was back in like 2020 if not further back. Makes me want to play again. I guess I need to brush up before SE2 releases. edit** i looked it up and I bought it Sep 25, 2015. 90% of my play time was in the first couple years so a lot has really changed.
A lot of great stuff has been added since then. Tons of automation improvements, end game blocks, new encounters, etc. SE2 will be interesting, but it won't be complete upon release. They're planning to continue SE development at least until SE2 has all its major components. If history tells us anything about that it'll take a couple years.
bout the doors thing, might aswell place a sensor above it (or below it) thatll open the door for you as soon as you step into the detection field. and ofc closes the door behind you. its able to be set up pretty tight aswell sooo yeah, automatic doors
I set up sensors for airlocks (you can see them working in the video), but I'm usually too lazy to set up sensors for all my doors. There are also times I don't want the doors to open when I'm close to them, such as in the cramped small grid interiors I tend to make.
These are all tips that are very useful if you happen to need them, but most of them i never really needed them (fortunately) and the ones i did need i made them up myself, the periscope being my favourite, inspired in MBT's commander sights, specially the ones that extend like a stick on top of the turret. Also, the ones for building and repairing with a grid i never used them since i haven't advanced that far into the game just yet, so yeah (I got ~380 hours in Space Engineers but it's almost all of it in building tanks in creative, so not much experience with ships and good looking design, my experience and knowledge is mostly if not purely in ground vehicles and machines and that sort of stuff) Still, pretty neat tips those you complied right there! 😁👍 (Edit:) Also, by the way, i got so many functions set for the main Pilot in my builds that i got almost all 10 slots on all 10 hotbars used up for something, each turret or mechanical arm SECTION having an entire hotbar set up for each little movement. Soon gonna be needing custom hotbar counts up to 20 if not even 30 or 40 (Or playing with friends in multi-crew vehicles but i am too lonely to afford that, so i'll just make up for it with my German overengineering skills)
I never knew about #10, it's fabulous, but I'm also thinking back to all of the times I've had weird air flow issues in my builds and wondering if i had any such blocks causing the issue. I've much to think about now.
I used to do the same. Still do for certain doors, but this works well enough for most. I'm too lazy to set up sensors for every door, especially on anything with a lot of them.
I think we have new blocks that would extend the target lock warning to do a chat function. So you could configure it to say something in local or faction chat if you become locked.
The 1st one is a great idea however I would making sure I have a control seat, cockpit, helm or what ever that can "control" said grid, and take a seat in it and just use the hotbar numbers to control how to line it up and after you're done, remove said hotbars, you'll need 2 free hotbars for max control one for rotations and another for shifting/sliding!
The 6th one great idea however in case of me needing a abandon my ship and ease of escaping, I put my drills on the back of my ship and use that method to flip the controls to the correct direction for mining however for normal flying my cockpit is facing the reverse of those drills for if I need out, I'm not stuck in my drills or have to squeeze between my ship to go back though the hole I made!
I can line up a grid with the sliders faster than I can set up a hotbar for it (usually takes me 5-10 seconds). So if I'm only ever lining up a projector once I don't bother. Its a good idea of you find using the hotbar easier though.
Hmm, interesting miner setup, I make welder and grinder ships that way sometimes, mostly due to piping decisions. Do you often find yourself needing to get out of your drill ship while drilling?
I'm waiting for the day airtightness gets connected between the block faces... But as is, it's already expensive enough so I doubt they will ever introduce directionality to it. I build an airtight docking tunnel with that trick, basically a tube you can stick between ships without venting athmo. The key is to have a "separator" in the middle and two airtight compartments on either side so they get passively supplied from both ships.
Neat idea, I haven't tried anything like a tunnel. Mostly I use the oddly airtight blocks to secretly break up the interior of my ships, or fool-proof airlocks.
I agree with everything except the doors shutting on a timer. You'll get killed by the doors eventually. Instead, have you considered using a sensor that shuts the door when a player is no longer within 2-5 meters? Don't set it to open the door: that could vent your air at a bad time.
There's a better way to automatically close doors. Use an Event Controller that monitors all of your doors. When one is open, it triggers a Timer Block to START, running for a few seconds, then applying the CLOSED action to all doors. Only the opened doors will then close. In this way, you'll never get caught in a closing door unless you hesitate longer than the timer.
bro' you've gained a subscriber in me, as obviously you are very skilled in SE and we can all learn from you... the tutorials are quite good, and so far I'm learning a lot... if I may, I'd suggest: - please keep it under 10 minutes per video, and eventually split it in bits, like part #1 and #2 and so on, - and please go slower while showing and demonstrating where to click and what to click... you might be very used to the UI and all since you're advanced, but for us dumb nubies like myself, it's confusing on where to go and what to click... not to mention, some (like myself) are slower than others in catching up and keeping up with your presentation... that being said, your tutorials are great, keep up the good work
18:39 timer blocks are a nice quick way to auto close your doors but if you have the room sensors work better because you can go completely hands free with doors opening and closing for you and you don't have doors closing in your face because you opened a door 2 sec before the timer activated.
Hey sir, a suggestion if I may. I am watching Small Grid episode 5 and noticed that you seem to randomly put you actions randomly in the hot bar of your ships. I am two months old in SE, so I hope this may be useful to you and or others. I am ex-Army and disabled veteran (suffered a TBI overseas). In my MOS and many others, especially the Airforce, we used checklists. I have severe memory issues and such, so this is where my suggestion comes in handy for me especially. When I fly my little POS (learning how to build ships), I make groups for actions as most people do. What I do is place my icons on the hot bar in order from left to right in sequence for take off. #1 Power, #2 Lights, #3 Engines, #4 Docking Conn, #5 and #6 are docking cameras, #7 Gyro lock. So hitting them in order 1,2,3,4 allows me to fly without accidentally hitting the undock while the batteries are still set to recharge and falling to the ground like you did in episode 5 😱😂😅🤣. Then when I come to dock and am at the connector, I hit them in reverse, 4,3,2,1. That way I connect first, safely turn off the nines, then lights and set the batteries to recharge. I see that you have not posted in six months, so hopefully you are still playing and see this. When I saw your little scout ship fall to the ground, I thought you might like a helpful tip. Anyway, I hope that whatever is currently occupying your time is going well. I hope to see more new videos sometime. I will be hopping in and out of your Discord from time to time, maybe I’ll catch ya sometime and we can talk. Anyway, take care, be safe and may God Bless! 😇🫡🫡🫡🫡
I usually set up my hot bar with the most used groups in the easiest to reach places (1-4). After that a lot of my grids are the same. I could set up one of the secondary hotbars with launch and dock sequences though. It's not a bad idea. Could also use an event controller to do it all for me now too. :D Thanks! I've been learning how to make SE mods and making a few of my own. I'm always around on the Discord.
Dang, that's a good idea. There are so many great uses for the event controller, but I never think of them because I'm so used to doing things without it.
New(ish) player here. Been playing about 20 days, and you have NO idea how jealous I am of your builds. They are literal works of art.
Thanks, they are the result of many years of experimentation. I'm quite happy with them. Many of my better builds are on the Steam workshop. If you have access to that you can dissect them and maybe get ideas for your own.
You will get there also. For me trying to build a large grid ship with welders built into the build with projector setup right when taking damage trigger welders on to get repaired fast .
No I'm in the same boat. Just trying to make something that goes to the moon 😅
1600 hours logged in the game in and I think the same...
I think that 10000 hours to be an expert thing might apply here XD
there's nothing wrong with a functional brick
My obscure tip to add is that while "Door" and "Offset Door" can pass air through them, no oxygen seems to actually be stored in their block space. This means that while an airlock made from two back-to-back sliding doors will vent out two blocks' worth of oxygen into space every time you go through it, the same kind of airlock but made instead with offset doors (or normal doors if you don't have Frostbite) will keep all of the air inside (when operated correctly). This can be kind of useful if you don't like "Keen airlocks" but still don't feel like building a fully proper airlock, and hate venting oxygen into space.
Great video btw, thanks for the tips!
I noticed that, but never though to use them for a lossless airlock. Good idea.
i experimented with them a little since the contact update. turns out when the inner door is open, it fills the door block and when you close it, it turns back to 0 oxygen but that air is gone, not brought back to the tanks, just gone. so that's a bit of waste right there
@@lucasgrd4258 I tried that too 6 months ago, but I found that when I put the air vent into depressurize, the same amount of air got sucked back in, as if the volume of the door's air space was 0 anyway
Opening and closing the door also didn't result in the air pressure % (reported by the air vent) going down
@@LeeSpork after closing the door ? That’s interesting…
However i often find myself in situations where my o2 tanks are filled up by the generators so i can’t depressurize.
I don’t have the space on my ships to put a side conveyor system with a sorter to toggle on or off the o2 generation
Small personal hack: If you're using a docking camera on a small grid ship connecting to a large grid, when you build the large grid connector orient it in a way that the little side lights will be in line with where your camera will be on the small grid ship. Those side lights make great aiming references.
For example at 14:47, I would rotate that large grid connector by 90 degrees so that one of those side lights is on top, and now the camera will be staring directly at it. It will also help with seeing the connection status.
Good idea, I never noticed that. For some reason I tend to place my large grid connectors with the lights on the side.
Yes! I do this too. If you place the camera right on the small grid, you basically just fly straight at the center of the light.
My tip is use ai modul. Very very annoying to me when i need to docking. ( specially when the docking place is moving. Like a mother ship or etc.) I just use ai modul instead my docking skill.
Or another tipp i using docking arms in my base. when my ship in position ( AI) docking arms get my ship. And a piston connecting to my ship. Ai thing a little effort. But longer campaign is usefull.
Hmm, sounds like a good playground for Clang. :D I would never use subgrid to hold my ship or connect it to another grid.@@simatufordu9204
That airlock concept is legit awesome. Just having a single piece of curved glass looks weird and feels cheaty, but incorporating it into a real airlock is a cool way to prevent wasting air.
Yeah, using them in airlocks and hallways where you don't notice them is my preferred method. On servers where I'm scraping for PCU (or trying to reduce lag) I'll use them more liberally.
I love using the defensive block to increase the turret automatic target tracking range. That's an awesome trick! Definatly adding that to my guide.
I am glad he put it in. I came across it by accident while testing missiles in creative
Important note, the target lock detector applies to friendly target locks aswell, and some people will target lock friendlies to check grid name, distance, relative and approach velocity, etc, with the targeting info, so if you are using the third upgrade, make sure it wont do anything you wouldnt want to happen in the event of friendly lock, or just make sure they know not to lock on you lol
Yeah, that's a good point. I though of that when setting up my timer blocks, but didn't think to mention it in the video.
My worry is that I would be moving around my ship and get bifurcated by the doors suddenly from the lockdown alert. I have that kind of luck.
I didn't know about the range difference between the antenna and decoys for lightning strikes. I'm never counting on an antenna for lightning defense again. I knew about curved block airlocks before, but I really liked seeing how you implemented them in your ship. You have airtight integrity between sections of your ship, like watertight integrity on IRL naval vessels.
Yeah, decoys are the way to go. Sectioning up your interior also allow the airtightness calculations to be easier (making it bug out less often). It can be necessary for very large or complex spaces.
Btw. With the last update, lightning became optional. So if u dont want to deal with it anymore, without the use of Mods (or if u cant...), u can now just switch lightning damage off in Vanilla.
A small tweak on the automatic closing doors, set an event controller to check if any door has been opened, then start the timer block with ~5s delay, doors only shut after you open them
I like that idea. Need to make sure the time is set properly for each build though. Often I'm walking specific routes through multiple doors. I don't want the second or third door I open to always close on me because the first door triggered the close function.
@@ShiftyshadowTV could always seperate out the doors, but that would be tedious at best
@@ShiftyshadowTV like shifty said, you could seperate out the doors. but it wouldnt be as tedious as you might first think!
you likely only need two "groups" for the doors to prevent this. imagine the doors as existing in a long hallway, with the doors painted in a "striped" pattern, one black, one red, etc.
the black is in one group, red in the other. that way when youre walking through, the door you are walking towards is never in the same group as the door you just opened, preventing timer overlap. obviously not every ship is a long hallway, but all you have to do is ensure there is never a door sharing a group with a nearby and adjacent door.
@@ShiftyshadowTVif the event controller “starts” the timer. The second or third doors will “start” the full time. You shouldn’t run into that ever, as soon as you open the one in front of you, you have the timers amount of time.
A bigger risk would be trusting them to prevent venting then running through your ship fast enough to open the whole thing.
Or if you are being chased.
I knew most of them but did not know about the seat having a target lock detection.
An addition to the door closing repeater that can be done: if you never want to have the door closing in your face but don't want to wait 20 seconds, you can add an event controller that detects the opening of all the doors and then it starts the timer to close all the doors, you can set it up to 3-5 seconds instead of 20 seconds.
My favourite thing to do on any ship I pilot: is to make a group of all the breaking thrusters and have them turn on/off on the first control bar (I always set it up at position 9). That way you can save a lot of energy\fuel by just gliding, and the nose is always pointing in the direction you are going: which is better than turning off the dampeners in 0 gravity
I've well over 1k hours in the game and you just explained something I ran into only a couple days ago! I was positioning a blueprint and it vanished. I thought I took too long to position it, but every time I reloaded the blueprint it would instantly vanish. I thought the block was bugged so I ground it down and replaced it, making sure I checked the box in time so I wouldn't run into (what I thought was) a bug again. I had *no* idea it was the *alignment* that was making it go away! (I always thought it was timer based) Thank you!
Also, I've seen demonstrations of the curved block airlock before, but they were usually quite awkward looking. You did a nice job incorporating them into your design. I may just start using them now. 😀👍
Yeah, it can be frustrating if you forget to check the save blueprint box. The curved blocks can definitely look nice, there are a lot of options though so it's good to putz around and see which ones you like.
The airlock & periscope, I really like!
A nice quality of life upgrade I've done for a few years now on my smaller ships is a 1-button startup/shutdown... well, really 2, as it's 2 timer blocks. Shutdown is pressed after I dock with a connector. It shuts off all the gyros, antennas/beacons, thrusters, lights, etc., and sets batteries to recharge, and O2/H2 tanks set to stockpile. Startup is the same thing in reverse, switching everything on, then unlocking the connector.
With the Automaton update, I was able to make it even more seamless by setting up event controllers. Now, when I dock with a connector, shutdown sequence occurs. I still prefer a manual startup, which ensures everything is running before disconnecting the connector. It makes life much nicer aboard my ship, and doing quick outings.
I recommend adding a radio to your base or ship. It takes 10 timers (for 5 songs) and it makes the game feel more alive
Cool idea.
Addendum for tip #6
Remote controls have an option to assign a camera. When set your view will go to the camera automatically when the remote is selected.
Pipe in welders to critical components to go along with the weld projector. That way all your critical stuff can get a quick repair with a click of a button. If you set them up so multile systems are in range of the welder, they all get a repair... 4 large hydrogen thrusters with a single welder in the case of my carrier.
20:52 I wish Keen would add an option to have controls and camera orientation linked to the direction of the cockpit, so no matter what, left is left, right is right, down is down, and up is up. Would be a great QOL feature and shouldn’t be too hard to do
That would be nice.
1-9 are all great tips, which I use all the time as well. #10 is an exploit, as that isn't the intended behavior of those blocks, but I can see in the case you suggested (you have friends that don't wait for your airlocks and constantly vent everything) it is a reasonable solution that doesn't break immersion too badly. Nice work!
Yeah, I usually keep #10 hidden. I don't like breaking immersion, but sometimes I want to save PCU or make things foolproof.
I've actually put in bug reports for the windows (and panels), but it seems they're working as intended. :/ At this point I'm embracing it.
Hasn't keen been starting to fix this one
@@andrewhoughton8606 In the most recent update they added a handful of blocks that also act as Keen Airlocks (more panels that act the same as the windows). I haven't seen anything indicating that it's going to change.
the airlock stuff was insane simply amazing... did not realize i could get all the turrets to fire at that range simultaneously very nice!
I knew some of these, but today I learned about the AI target locking and turrets! Great vid!
Nice, I figured a lot of these are common knowledge and I've talked bout most of them in other videos already, but I wanted to share them all in one place. Hopefully people can learn at least one thing from it. :D
The curved blocks are nice. Easy to hide. Thanks for the vid!
Yup, you can use the panel blocks with the same shape too, if you don't want a window.
Just a small note about the auto close door timers, the sliding door can pinch and kill your engineer. I use timers on all my internal doors since they're all regular or offset and those will just push you out of the way but the sliding doors will go for the kill so i use those almost exclusively for exterior airlocks and won't add them to the timer.
don't forget that the searchlight can be used as a camera too. in fact you can control the flight of the grid while using that block too.
Yup, that makes it pretty useful.
For the decoys, yes the lighting will hit the decoy as you have stated but it also has an AOE for damage. Now this AOE can be negated by placing the decoy on a sub grid. The reason is that indirect damage does not travel through sub grids.
Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that you should place them a few blocks from anything important.
You're gonna have a field day with the signal update!😂
Can't wait till I have time to do a deep dive on it.
@@ShiftyshadowTV
6 months now, how's it going?
What I use instead of just a timer for my doors is an event controller along with a timer block. Any time a door on my base is opened the event controller starts the timer block of 5 seconds to close all doors on the base/ship. The reason I don't use the timer block by itself is because there are annoying times when you go to open the door just as the timer block activates to close the doors on you.
This video is so helpful, I’ve been playing for many years and have forgotten how the projector functions, thank you so much!
Glad it helped, projectors are useful in many ways, but this one is my favorite.
Knew most of these but the airlocks stuff was new! Thanks for the video :)
Glad you found something new! Keep up the great channel.
Very useful upgrades.
I've been playing for years and never thought of some of using cameras & remote controls for backing out of mined tunnels... or the passive air locks.
Will be using these in future builds, thanks :) Subscribed.
Man, the 'airlock cheat' blew my mind... The amount of times I have vented the ship because I was too fast/careless is staggering. I will use that trick on my next build. Massive thanks!
Also - 'reverse camera+controller' - so easy but I have never though about it. I had reverse cameras and used them but it's sometimes tricky. I wish keen has introduced the direction option to the movement AI and recorders. Making autodocking for the grids that need to reverse to the connector sucks.
Yeah, it's nice not having to worry about venting your air. I've only used the new AI for autodocking a few times, it does seem like a pain. Only worth it to me if I'm fully automating something (that I'll use a lot).
I just realized that with the new action relay blocks, you can now control the automatic respawn bypass better. You could set up several action relays that turn on/off survival kits and have each one on a different frequency. RP could turn this into a teleporter that kills your previous body and reconstructs you at the new location.
That would be a good way to do it.
These are some awesome ideas! I just started getting into SE about a week ago, so I'm still learning so much about the game.
For the door closing one, I made a slight modification: I set the timer block for 2sec and close all doors, no repeat. Then, I used a control block to start the timer whenever a door is opened. Works really nice!
Adding the event controller is a good idea. I've played for a long time and ECs are relatively new, so I often overlook them (especially when I've been using another method for almost a decade).
It's always nice seeing better methods, new players, and fresh innovation in the comments.
Great vid Shifty!
I don't use the Keen airlocks; always thought they were a bit cheaty, but I quite like your take on them. Especially the one combined with stairs. Very cool! Keen airlocks are in fact so sneaky, I'll have to check my HQ if I haven't accidentally placed random airlocks around the place. lol
I use a lot of ECs. I build small grid servers on Hinges with those conveyor access doors. They're stuffed with TBs, ECs, PBs,... Every Door has a dedicated EC. This way I can create airlocks easily. If a certain door is opened, then specific doors close. Endless possibilities.
Edit: Also, I find it quite annoying walking peacefully through pressurized areas with my helmet open and suddenly suffocating because I'm in the space of an airtight block.
On my main Exploration ship I control it from an Industrial Cockpit, which sits inside a Round Window bubble. Which again is encased in other window blocks which presents the cockpit from the outside. (Cockpit in a cockpit in a cockpit if you like). I can walk around the industrial Cockpit freely but must close my helmet first... meh!
I usually use the Keen airlocks in places where you won't notice them. They do break immersion for me.
I need to experiment more with Event Controllers. I'm sure they have tons of uses I have yet to discover.
As long as the main parts of my rooms are airtight I can overlook small spots where it's broken. I try to avoid it, but it's not always worth sorting out for me.
So for #8 (the door closing repeater), I actually do it slightly differently. I have an event controller that checks for if any door is open that I want to auto close. When it detects any open, it starts a 5 second timer, which then closes the door. If all doors successfully close, then all is set, but if a door fails to close, it repeats the 5 second timer again.
That's a good way to do it.
The airlock tip is brilliant. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
I remember building a light and fast scouting Vehicle about a year ago with a friend. It kinda got out of hand leading to it having a Hyperdrive a dropdown Armory below the Cockpit and full Survivable Capability (it started out fairly vanilla and ended up with probably around 90% Modded Blocks). Reaching Top Speeds of 600 m/s almost instantly with insane maneuvrability and using stragetically placed Shields (I think they were from the Azimuth Pack?) as Landing Gears i somehow made it impervious to crashing aswell. I remember it being the first time i really experimented with just how much i can push it and apart from it being so quick to accelerate you can dodge bullets and having the Cockpit hidden in the Core of the Ship with the only way of seeing where youre going being a set of cameras all with double backups, watching this video made me realize just how much i can improve it. I wonder if i still have the blueprint lying around somewhere, i would love to add some of the features you've shown to it.
that air lock trick is game changing for me thankyou
I have to say, some of these are pretty amazing for ideas! I know I had a ship that I ended up dropping on a planet and couldn't slow it down at all.
#3 Is cool, effectively having an RWR is pretty neat. I'm still in the phase of building javelins rather than ships, because it seems the best way for me to down an enemy vessel is with a ramming prow and a very large hydrogen thruster on the back.
I don't know if it was mentioned yet but putting an air vent pointed to the exterior and set to depressurize will collect oxygen. Of course you can use it for larger grids but it's also useful for cockpits since they require an oxygen supply even in atmosphere
No-one has mentioned it, but yes that's a good idea. I do that for most of my builds (anything that flies in atmosphere). If I make another of these upgrade videos that might make it in.
Exactly the information I was looking for in the past couple of days! Thank you greatly!
Thanks for watching, hope it helps!
Most of these, I’ve encountered over my years of playing SE, but there’s still stuff to learn here! The turret range increase via defense block is handy for static grids. I used something similar to the periscope in one of my last builds, just sans piston for space constraints. And probably the most useful is the way you use keen airlocks; I’d heard of them before, but always thought they were necessarily ugly and not viable for aesthetic builds. That’s one I’m glad to be proven wrong on.
Yup, the AI range increase is most useful for bases (static grids). I felt the same way for a long time about the airlocks, but a year ago I started trying to work them into my builds and have found many ways to sneak them in.
The 'Foolproof Airlock' shook me! I wasted so much time with figuring out airlock concepts and never even thought to check the airtightness of gaping blocks like that...
There are even more blocks after this Monday's update! One of the blocks from the DLC helm/bridge set makes a really nice looking airlock, and is completely open to walk through.
I must say, I'm mostly critic, and while those ideas are fairly known for long time players, you explained it absolutely well and added some bonuses. I wasn't fully aware of the air tight blocks, which can save you 125 pcu instead of a door. Superb.
As a mini cherry on top, you might have could said for your periscopes, they can't be projected (from their main grid), as they are a subgrid. Veterans know this ofc, but I saw a few new comers in the comments. Splendid work overall.
and yeah, if guys want to use fancier stuff, like said periscopes or extra remote controls, etc and are limited by pcu (like on the servers often times), one has to outweigh the cost/usefullness depending on ones situation and desire.
Saved the best for last- that airlock trick is game changing for ship design.
Really nice video! I Have Space Engineers for a really long time now, but still learned something new!! Keep it going!
Subscibed!
Thanks, glad there was something new for you! :)
These tips are great. I would never think of it like that (I'm new to Space Engineers). Thank you!
For the parachute one, i actually use two event controllers and a logic gate script to basically figure out altitude and speed, and if both meet the criteria (aka youre plummetting at fast speeds) the emergency systems kick in to save you.
Just so i can fly or drive in low altitudes without auto systems freaking out
I could have used this yesterday. A friend and I were playing, and he hosts the server. We’d picked up a lot of gold ore. I had built a freighter drone that was basically 3 large grid containers with a bunch of batteries and thrusters that we attach our miners to for long distance mining, and I fly it remotely from my miner. I got that in the air, miners and gold in all, and as soon as I got up to speed, I got booted from the server, sending us into the ground at 100m/sec. Your system may have saved that expedition.
I have almost 2000hrs of playtime, but I had no idea control seats could detect when a ship is target locked. thats very cool!
Always something new to learn. :)
airlock tip is instantly reverting my 2 door boring manual airlock to a single, auto opening door with a built in airlock, just gotta finally learn how to auto open doors
Single sensor ought to do the trick.
Regarding the doors one:
You can prevent the doors from shutting in your face completely by having an event controller check if the group of doors is open, and if it is, start a timer block with a 5-10 second delay that closes that group.
That way, if any door is open in that group, the timer block will close them after 5-10 seconds of them opening.
I checked this, it should work.
That's a good idea.
I recently remembered about space engineers and now I have my own computer so once I have enough money for more RAM and to actually buy the game again I'm going to start building again. I'm definitely going to use these tips in my future builds.
Good luck with your future playthroughs! There have been some cool updates recently, and another is coming this month.
@@ShiftyshadowTV I hope the next update is good!
@@scoopyrnoopers Same.
Awesome man! even some tips I didn't know as an experienced player!
Thanks, glad you found something new.
The Last- one door airlocks - was something new for me :)
Very nice compilation of useful and easy to apply tricks. Well thought well explained, I enjoyed this video a lot. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it, hope you get some good use out of them.
For your welder wall, instead of the button:
1) a sensor with its detection volume slightly larger than the area of effect of the welders
2) set the sensor to "detect small grid ships"
3) turn off "detect players", "detect neutral" and "detect hostile
4) first action slot: welders on
5) second action slot: welders off
now all you have to do is fly up to the welder wall. no fiddling with buttons, and the wall shuts itself off automatically as soon as you move away.
Back up cameras FTW
Cool tips
love the last one
Wow i missed the air lock with walkthrough blocks. I heard of it but haven't seen it till now but i can now save ship interior space with this thank you for the video
Bro u saved my SE expérience, Thank you, i'll look forward for more tips like this (mb engl)
Isn't that that OASIS song? You're my welder wahahaaaaallllllll!
XD A true SE classic.
I learned very much and I subbed a little while ago. I am two months old in SE. thanks for sharing and I look forward to more videos!
Always nice to see new players. Hope you enjoy the space Legos!
@@ShiftyshadowTV I am very much thank you. I am a little frustrated though. I watched the only two video tutorials I could find on making missiles and when I detach them from my little scout craft, they just fall to the ground and blowup. I have gone over the videos step-by-step and built and configured as they did it. Still no joy. I cannot figure it out. I watched Major Jon’s and Beeblebum’s videos. I just don’t understand what’s wrong. I am utilizing some of the “10 upgrades” from your video now and will be implementing more as needed! I will be checking out more of your videos! Thanks again. Oh, and I would welcome any advice or thoughts on the missile thing. Be safe! 😇🫡🫡🫡🫡
Thankfully, Keen listened and tip 7 is no longer necessary unless you like playing with the lightning damage on.
I use to have a practical use for it. Made a lot of modular freighters that had a VERY good reception on the server i played
What a helpful video, thank you very much!
wow. So decoys act as lighting rods too? THAT is nice to know. Your method for door closing is interesting; I enjoy my automatic doors made with sensors and timers because I never have to open OR close them, but that does require a setup for each door. Yours is likely less performance intensive when scaled up to larger grids.
Can't believe they STILL haven't fixed the airtight windows bug though.
Yeah, the airtightness oddity is here to stay probably. I do like using sensors on some of my doors, I'm often too lazy to set them all up though (hence the single timer).
That airlock tip earned the like
Overridden gyroscopes on custom turret blocks will help stabilize the turret instead of swinging around unexpectedly.
Interesting, seems like a lot of extra weight, and that it would slow the aiming. Weight isn't a problem on stations, but there you could share inertial tensor to stabilize. Could also just reduce the turret turning speed. On ships adding weight to subgrids tends to making moving chaotic, but if your ship is significant heavier than the subgrid you're probably ok. Might give it a shot.
I recommend using an event controller to start your time block to turn your survival kit back on, so you don't get the situation where you turn it off and it comes back on 3 seconds later. It'll always be exactly 90 seconds then.
I don't know if the event controller is newer than this video, but they're great for doors too, you can set your timer to 1 second and have the EC trigger the timer if any door opens. No more doors shutting in your face because if timer coincidences.
I've been using the Event Controller for both of the functions you mention since this video. A lot of people recommended it, and I agree, it's great.
tip 8 should use an event controller reacting to door epened trggering a timer block on 1.5s to close all door. That's what I do ^^.
That's a good idea! I might make it 2-3 seconds for my slowness though. :)
so much has changed since I last played, I think last time I was heavy into playing was back in like 2020 if not further back. Makes me want to play again. I guess I need to brush up before SE2 releases.
edit** i looked it up and I bought it Sep 25, 2015. 90% of my play time was in the first couple years so a lot has really changed.
A lot of great stuff has been added since then. Tons of automation improvements, end game blocks, new encounters, etc.
SE2 will be interesting, but it won't be complete upon release. They're planning to continue SE development at least until SE2 has all its major components. If history tells us anything about that it'll take a couple years.
bout the doors thing, might aswell place a sensor above it (or below it) thatll open the door for you as soon as you step into the detection field. and ofc closes the door behind you. its able to be set up pretty tight aswell sooo yeah, automatic doors
I set up sensors for airlocks (you can see them working in the video), but I'm usually too lazy to set up sensors for all my doors. There are also times I don't want the doors to open when I'm close to them, such as in the cramped small grid interiors I tend to make.
All excellent tips with super-easy application. 👍
Thanks, I hope they get some good use!
I use sensors to open and close doors, its a little harder to set up but it makes moving around super convenient
I personally like to put a sensor on my ships to start my auto door closing timers so I never have to press a button or go into the control menu.
Once you start the auto door closing with a timer it repeats itself with no input. So you only have to go in once (which is the same for a sensor).
These are all tips that are very useful if you happen to need them, but most of them i never really needed them (fortunately) and the ones i did need i made them up myself, the periscope being my favourite, inspired in MBT's commander sights, specially the ones that extend like a stick on top of the turret.
Also, the ones for building and repairing with a grid i never used them since i haven't advanced that far into the game just yet, so yeah (I got ~380 hours in Space Engineers but it's almost all of it in building tanks in creative, so not much experience with ships and good looking design, my experience and knowledge is mostly if not purely in ground vehicles and machines and that sort of stuff)
Still, pretty neat tips those you complied right there! 😁👍
(Edit:)
Also, by the way, i got so many functions set for the main Pilot in my builds that i got almost all 10 slots on all 10 hotbars used up for something, each turret or mechanical arm SECTION having an entire hotbar set up for each little movement.
Soon gonna be needing custom hotbar counts up to 20 if not even 30 or 40 (Or playing with friends in multi-crew vehicles but i am too lonely to afford that, so i'll just make up for it with my German overengineering skills)
I never knew about #10, it's fabulous, but I'm also thinking back to all of the times I've had weird air flow issues in my builds and wondering if i had any such blocks causing the issue. I've much to think about now.
It's definitely possible. Airtightness has always been a little strange.
Thank you, i didn't know most of these. I've been using sensors for my doors but that's so much easier!
I used to do the same. Still do for certain doors, but this works well enough for most. I'm too lazy to set up sensors for every door, especially on anything with a lot of them.
This video is ridiculously helpful! Thank you
Thanks, hope you get some good use out of the tips!
I think we have new blocks that would extend the target lock warning to do a chat function. So you could configure it to say something in local or faction chat if you become locked.
Yeah, the Broadcast Controller can do that.
The 1st one is a great idea however I would making sure I have a control seat, cockpit, helm or what ever that can "control" said grid, and take a seat in it and just use the hotbar numbers to control how to line it up and after you're done, remove said hotbars, you'll need 2 free hotbars for max control one for rotations and another for shifting/sliding!
The 6th one great idea however in case of me needing a abandon my ship and ease of escaping, I put my drills on the back of my ship and use that method to flip the controls to the correct direction for mining however for normal flying my cockpit is facing the reverse of those drills for if I need out, I'm not stuck in my drills or have to squeeze between my ship to go back though the hole I made!
The rest are nice to know, hope they don't patch that last one! Lol
I can line up a grid with the sliders faster than I can set up a hotbar for it (usually takes me 5-10 seconds). So if I'm only ever lining up a projector once I don't bother. Its a good idea of you find using the hotbar easier though.
Hmm, interesting miner setup, I make welder and grinder ships that way sometimes, mostly due to piping decisions. Do you often find yourself needing to get out of your drill ship while drilling?
Such a clean design
Wow I had no idea about the windows for airlocks. I will adopt.
Yeah, a lot of the angled and curved windows work. Also, all of the panels of the same shapes.
Combine the Repair Projector with the nanite build/repair mod, and your ship can self-repair through battle if it has enough spare components on it.
Projector plus build and repair mod is amazing
I'm waiting for the day airtightness gets connected between the block faces...
But as is, it's already expensive enough so I doubt they will ever introduce directionality to it.
I build an airtight docking tunnel with that trick, basically a tube you can stick between ships without venting athmo.
The key is to have a "separator" in the middle and two airtight compartments on either side so they get passively supplied from both ships.
Neat idea, I haven't tried anything like a tunnel. Mostly I use the oddly airtight blocks to secretly break up the interior of my ships, or fool-proof airlocks.
Great Video thanks for the help!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. :)
Very nice video, thanks for the tips!
Hope they help, good luck with your builds!
good work, the better microphone is a game changer ^^
Thanks! Yeah, it makes my life easier. I think I could work on the settings a little more and it would be even better.
I honestly thought the old mic was a audio filter so it sounded like a helmet mic. It fit the aesthetic too well xD
Haha, it really did, but no, it was just low quality.
I agree with everything except the doors shutting on a timer. You'll get killed by the doors eventually. Instead, have you considered using a sensor that shuts the door when a player is no longer within 2-5 meters? Don't set it to open the door: that could vent your air at a bad time.
Great video. Well done.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. :)
good stuff. all new to me. please post more upgrades.
As soon as I have another good list, I'll do so. Glad you enjoyed.
There's a better way to automatically close doors. Use an Event Controller that monitors all of your doors. When one is open, it triggers a Timer Block to START, running for a few seconds, then applying the CLOSED action to all doors. Only the opened doors will then close. In this way, you'll never get caught in a closing door unless you hesitate longer than the timer.
This was really interesting, ty
Glad you enjoyed it, I'm hoping to have more tips coming out soon!
there is some awesome ideas there great job thank you
Glad you enjoyed it, hope you get some good use out of them. :)
These are very handy tips!
They're things I wish I'd know as a new player, hopefully they can help others as well.
bro' you've gained a subscriber in me, as obviously you are very skilled in SE and we can all learn from you...
the tutorials are quite good, and so far I'm learning a lot...
if I may, I'd suggest:
- please keep it under 10 minutes per video, and eventually split it in bits, like part #1 and #2 and so on,
- and please go slower while showing and demonstrating where to click and what to click...
you might be very used to the UI and all since you're advanced, but for us dumb nubies like myself, it's confusing on where to go and what to click...
not to mention, some (like myself) are slower than others in catching up and keeping up with your presentation...
that being said, your tutorials are great, keep up the good work
Glad you're enjoying them, and thanks for the feedback!
18:39 timer blocks are a nice quick way to auto close your doors but if you have the room sensors work better because you can go completely hands free with doors opening and closing for you and you don't have doors closing in your face because you opened a door 2 sec before the timer activated.
Yeah, sensors are nice. I use them in airlocks, but I'm too lazy to set them up for every door.
As a new player, I am amazed by all of that.
Any chance you have more updated survival gameplays showcasing some of these?
Wow cool; great video.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. :)
Hey sir, a suggestion if I may. I am watching Small Grid episode 5 and noticed that you seem to randomly put you actions randomly in the hot bar of your ships. I am two months old in SE, so I hope this may be useful to you and or others. I am ex-Army and disabled veteran (suffered a TBI overseas). In my MOS and many others, especially the Airforce, we used checklists. I have severe memory issues and such, so this is where my suggestion comes in handy for me especially.
When I fly my little POS (learning how to build ships), I make groups for actions as most people do. What I do is place my icons on the hot bar in order from left to right in sequence for take off. #1 Power, #2 Lights, #3 Engines, #4 Docking Conn, #5 and #6 are docking cameras, #7 Gyro lock. So hitting them in order 1,2,3,4 allows me to fly without accidentally hitting the undock while the batteries are still set to recharge and falling to the ground like you did in episode 5 😱😂😅🤣. Then when I come to dock and am at the connector, I hit them in reverse, 4,3,2,1. That way I connect first, safely turn off the nines, then lights and set the batteries to recharge.
I see that you have not posted in six months, so hopefully you are still playing and see this. When I saw your little scout ship fall to the ground, I thought you might like a helpful tip. Anyway, I hope that whatever is currently occupying your time is going well. I hope to see more new videos sometime. I will be hopping in and out of your Discord from time to time, maybe I’ll catch ya sometime and we can talk. Anyway, take care, be safe and may God Bless! 😇🫡🫡🫡🫡
I usually set up my hot bar with the most used groups in the easiest to reach places (1-4). After that a lot of my grids are the same. I could set up one of the secondary hotbars with launch and dock sequences though. It's not a bad idea. Could also use an event controller to do it all for me now too. :D
Thanks! I've been learning how to make SE mods and making a few of my own. I'm always around on the Discord.
I like to start my door close timer using an event controller, rather than having it repeat. Never shuts in my face.
Dang, that's a good idea. There are so many great uses for the event controller, but I never think of them because I'm so used to doing things without it.
This is what I do. Also means you can't really lose O2 in an airlock situation.