For years I didn't really play this game much. Occasionally I'd log in and think about how cool it could be if there was more content. What content there was in game was well done, but really it was an assembly line simulator. At first.

Then three months or so I loaded it again. I thought, "What if I paid attention to the mod community for this game like I do for about every other game I play?"

I was not disappointed. This game has come alive for me, and I'm going to share the mods I use to make that happen.

Better Stone
Space Just Got Real
Perpetually Perturbed Pirates
Undead NPC Pack
Surface Occupation
Colorful Icons
HUD Colors
Air Traffic
More NPC Encounters
Power Lines

With those mods in place the most recent Space Engineers goes from a really cool production simulation to a living (or undead) world. Let me tell you about an encounter I had in my offline game.

An IMDC Frigate noticed a Space Pirate Outpost on the ground nearby. 3.4km away from my base. The frigate attacked the outpost. The outpost was obliterated, but not before destroying enough of the frigate's engines that it fell to the ground.

I set to salvaging the outpost, leaving the frigate alone. Helpfully it shot any nearby zombies, keeping me safer since IMDC and I are neutrals. I looted a ridiculous amount of stuff, including some uranium. Always useful. I thought this was over.

But no. A MILT Armed Transport carrying a cargo of gold flew over and the frigate noticed it. I didn't know frigates launched drones, but they do. It sent a drone up after the transport. The drone was obliterated, which was expected, but the transport lost just enough lift that it started settling toward the ground. At an angled descent, straight toward my base, which I didn't know at the time.

I race home with my last bit of loot, then start working on my base. Which is underground, thank goodness. The transport gets close enough, detects my base despite me not having a beacon, and starts unloading. It literally settles on the hillside over my base about 200m away. It obliterates my windmills, starts destroying my front porch, then when that's all done (which I'm watching smugly knowing I have a reactor that is kicking in to take over for power) the transport starts working on the stone over my base. Which it is successfully eroding away. Now I get alarmed. I have quite a few hours in this base, which is in a near perfect location.

So I grab an elite rifle from storage, head out to see if I can disarm this frigate so I can salvage it at my leisure. On my 4th clone it's finally disarmed, and I've learned to be very careful about peeking from behind rocks to shoot. The transport's engines flare dramatically as it tries to retreat, but instead it only succeeds in causing itself to roll down the hill.

I start cutting the ship up. I start with thirds, and this ship is HUGE. Four large cargo holds (I think, maybe five) and they only held a few hundreds pieces of gold ore. Disappointing. But then I see the series of large reactors. Cha-ching! I hack the controls, open them up, and I net over 4K uranium from the ship. I will never need windmills again.

I dismantle the ship and now have literally tens of thousands of components in my storage. 400K liters worth of volume. I will probably dismantle them at some point.

I sold several hundred of the uranium to acquisition contracts I found at the friendly trade stations I've found, and am now a mega-milliionaire in regard to space credits. Anyone know the exchange rate for dollars? LOL.

I kept expecting the MILT gun outpost 9km away to relay a call for help to further MILT attackers, but it hasn't happened. I still don't have a beacon, and I think my obscurity is once more complete. I rebuilt the front of my base and now have enough gun emplacements installed that I no longer worry too much about attackers, And now they kill the close meteors as well. I'm playing on Armageddon, btw, and wow, they mean it. I am bombarded with rocks, but underground I couldn't care less. They're just a source of platinum and uranium if I were to need it in the future.

So yes, with these mods, this game is beyond amazing. I highly recommend it. I have all the DLC because I like shiny things.

To share how much I do love this game for certain, I created a server with Host Havoc for my old gaming group. With all of these mods. We are now building our first base, but since the disasters are on normal setting instead of Armageddon, we are building above ground at first. But there are still a lot of meteors. With sweet metal in them.

Get you some of this. Just make sure you have the computer to run it.

I have several stories just like the one above. This wasn't a one time knockoff. Seriously. Get you some of this.

For years I didn't really play this game much. Occasionally I'd log in and think about how cool it could be if there was more content. What content there was in game was well done, but really it was an assembly line simulator. At first. Then three months or so I loaded it again. I thought, "What if I paid attention to the mod community for this game like I do for about every other game I play?" I was not disappointed. This game has come alive for me, and I'm going to share the mods I use to make that happen. Better Stone Space Just Got Real Perpetually Perturbed Pirates Undead NPC Pack Surface Occupation Colorful Icons HUD Colors Air Traffic More NPC Encounters Power Lines With those mods in place the most recent Space Engineers goes from a really cool production simulation to a living (or undead) world. Let me tell you about an encounter I had in my offline game. An IMDC Frigate noticed a Space Pirate Outpost on the ground nearby. 3.4km away from my base. The frigate attacked the outpost. The outpost was obliterated, but not before destroying enough of the frigate's engines that it fell to the ground. I set to salvaging the outpost, leaving the frigate alone. Helpfully it shot any nearby zombies, keeping me safer since IMDC and I are neutrals. I looted a ridiculous amount of stuff, including some uranium. Always useful. I thought this was over. But no. A MILT Armed Transport carrying a cargo of gold flew over and the frigate noticed it. I didn't know frigates launched drones, but they do. It sent a drone up after the transport. The drone was obliterated, which was expected, but the transport lost just enough lift that it started settling toward the ground. At an angled descent, straight toward my base, which I didn't know at the time. I race home with my last bit of loot, then start working on my base. Which is underground, thank goodness. The transport gets close enough, detects my base despite me not having a beacon, and starts unloading. It literally settles on the hillside over my base about 200m away. It obliterates my windmills, starts destroying my front porch, then when that's all done (which I'm watching smugly knowing I have a reactor that is kicking in to take over for power) the transport starts working on the stone over my base. Which it is successfully eroding away. Now I get alarmed. I have quite a few hours in this base, which is in a near perfect location. So I grab an elite rifle from storage, head out to see if I can disarm this frigate so I can salvage it at my leisure. On my 4th clone it's finally disarmed, and I've learned to be very careful about peeking from behind rocks to shoot. The transport's engines flare dramatically as it tries to retreat, but instead it only succeeds in causing itself to roll down the hill. I start cutting the ship up. I start with thirds, and this ship is HUGE. Four large cargo holds (I think, maybe five) and they only held a few hundreds pieces of gold ore. Disappointing. But then I see the series of large reactors. Cha-ching! I hack the controls, open them up, and I net over 4K uranium from the ship. I will never need windmills again. I dismantle the ship and now have literally tens of thousands of components in my storage. 400K liters worth of volume. I will probably dismantle them at some point. I sold several hundred of the uranium to acquisition contracts I found at the friendly trade stations I've found, and am now a mega-milliionaire in regard to space credits. Anyone know the exchange rate for dollars? LOL. I kept expecting the MILT gun outpost 9km away to relay a call for help to further MILT attackers, but it hasn't happened. I still don't have a beacon, and I think my obscurity is once more complete. I rebuilt the front of my base and now have enough gun emplacements installed that I no longer worry too much about attackers, And now they kill the close meteors as well. I'm playing on Armageddon, btw, and wow, they mean it. I am bombarded with rocks, but underground I couldn't care less. They're just a source of platinum and uranium if I were to need it in the future. So yes, with these mods, this game is beyond amazing. I highly recommend it. I have all the DLC because I like shiny things. To share how much I do love this game for certain, I created a server with Host Havoc for my old gaming group. With all of these mods. We are now building our first base, but since the disasters are on normal setting instead of Armageddon, we are building above ground at first. But there are still a lot of meteors. With sweet metal in them. Get you some of this. Just make sure you have the computer to run it. I have several stories just like the one above. This wasn't a one time knockoff. Seriously. Get you some of this.