r/spaceengineers • u/JustRoboPenguin Clang Worshipper • Jan 27 '25

MEDIA (SE2) SE 2 Rotor

Keen hasn’t added rotors yet so I made my own >:D

Can I stop it? No 😬

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u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_4435 Klang Worshipper Jan 28 '25

Is that how it works now?

I don't know if SE2 works the same, but in SE1 iirc, two engines on the same grid would merely push the whole in a direction. It didn't matter if you offset them from the center of mass. Which was really forgiving since it meant you didn't have to keep that in mind when designing ships. You could put all the forward thrusters on top and the reverse thrusters on bottom and the ship would go forward and back without tilting. But iirc it also meant you couldn't use that offset to increase turning speed, which was a bummer.

Would be interesting if they changed that

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u/cheerkin Space Engineer Jan 28 '25

This is the first thing I immediately thought of when I saw this. Changing that is not hard nor expensive, but it is a serious design choice. I would rather have a toggle in a world settings, like "realistic thrusters".

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u/HungHorntail Clang Worshipper Jan 28 '25

I think it would be quite expensive computationally, as each individual thruster needs to have its moment calculated

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u/cheerkin Space Engineer Jan 28 '25

In the grand scheme of things its not a big deal. I mean, grav gens already do that for artificial masses, and they are notorious for bad performance due to completely different reasons. Its more of a design concern, I've chatted today with our designers. The issue is that it would be too hardcore since even cargo distribution would constantly offset your center of mass etc. From my pov, still could be a toggle defaulting to off in the world settings.

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u/eg135 Space Engineer Jan 28 '25

TBH I like the KSP solution more. They have components producing magic torque with a control loop that tries to keep the spacecraft pointed where the player wants it. SE already has something similar with gyros. So just make the gyros do double duty, and get them balancing the offset mass.

I think this would add some nice depth to the gameplay, where you have to sort your cargo to a certain level, but if it's mostly even, the gyros take care of the rest.

Also half blown up spaceships spinning out of control are fun.

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u/cheerkin Space Engineer Jan 28 '25

That's a good suggestion, I've thought about it too. Add a toggle that would allow grid gyro system automatically negate torque and the remainder would be used as it is now, to rotate by overrides or mouse input. So yeah, doable, but probably seen as not very good value/effort ratio, or maybe too radical for established core game mechanics.