Making a Mining Ship - Space Engineers Tutorial

[@jonnoble5624]

Who here has played plenty of Space Engineers and still watches all of Splitsie's tutorials? This wasn't the first SE content I ever subscribed to but it's always been the best.

[@charlieodom9107]

I have almost 3800 hours in SE, and I'm still enjoying these tutorial episodes!

[@BewareTheEngineer]

Watched his original series when I was first learning and now watching the updated new tutorials after having almost 1000 hours and still enjoying/learning from them!

[@Darkclaw00]

Splitsie gave me the knowhow to really enjoy SE and it is now one of my favourite Games. I definetly see Splitsie as a Mentor and he even gave me the permision to mod his Butterball miner and even looked it over.

[@SinnerD2010]

just shy of 2k hours... Always down for a Splitsie tutorial 😁

[@yautjagames6988]

2k hrs and i dont think theres a splits vid i havent seen def one of the best 😊

[@echomande4395]

Splitsie's Space Engineers tutorials. The standard against which other Space Engineers tutorials should be judged.

[@Splitsie]

Lol thanks 🙂

[@DasAnthra]

He has a Point i learnd a Lot from them oh Lord the solar turning Script was a Game changer in my early game

[@Sanguinus85]

Me too. I was unsure what to do at the start, but found Splitsie tutorials for game start and, frankly, had it run in the background and following every step 😁 Now I am passing this knowledge to friends, who don't speak English.

[@VoidCrafterYT]

Honestly, Splitsie makes better tutorials then keen.

[@ptdafool3372]

Another fantastic tutorial series. This is definitely for players of any skill level. Whether you have 10 mins or 10000 hours in SE. These have tips for everyone. I love the way you explain things. Solid reasoning and a bit of humour along the way.
Good on you mate, keep it up. Your series are brilliant, mate.

[@davidwarburton-burley9967]

My biggest tip to newbies is to remember that braking distance increases considerably when youve got a full load. Ive crashed quite a few times because I was going too fast 🙂

[@themoss7115]

Let's be real, you will always be loosing ships to dumb things like that. I have over 2000 hours in game and I am still loosing ships to "unlock while recharging" 😀

[@davidwarburton-burley9967]

@themoss7115 Ha yeah the other day I couldn't understand why my hydrogen ship kept on crashing on undock then I realised I had the tank on fill 🙂

[@armastat]

I feel ya, been there done that ... repeatedly. I have gotten into the habit of creating status indicators. You can use logic blocks (timers, scripts, programmable blocks, etc) to remind u of whats going on , in this case I add exterior light that can be blinking yellow when batteries are on recharge and are off when not. Or more likely i would have the use the light (and others) as navigation lights. I used to fly planes so I enjoy adding colored navigation lights to my vehicles.

[@AnonNopleb]

My first major accident was drilling straight down with an atmo miner. It started to pitch a bit too far and was like a turtle on its shell inside the mining hole

[@davidwarburton-burley9967]

@@AnonNopleb I put two large thrusters facing forward now 🙂

[@VoidCrafterYT]

Honestly, Keen should hire Splitsie to make all their future tutorials. Always nice to watch these tutorials even though I'm an old player.
Edit: Honestly, I've suffered under auto-rotate for so long. I literally forgot it was a thing and it was so annoying until I realized it existed again. Glad to see this tutorial warns new players (and old players that forgot it was a thing) about the suppressor that is auto-rotate.

[@Splitsie]

I'm glad I was reminded to put the detail about auto-rotate in. I've had it off for so long I forget that it's there (until I fat finger it and accidentally turn it on) :D

[@marcusdirk]

"Space Engineers is going to try and predict the orientation of the block", but it's not very good at it.
"Prediction is difficult, especially of the future." - Niels Bohr

[@SteffDev]

I'd love to see Keen hire Splitsie for their new game they are working on, that would be awesome!

[@TheMarneh]

Even as a somewhat experienced player, I really like to watch well structured tutorials like this because you can ALWAYS learn something you didn't know before

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@jsamue12]

knew about the landing gear trick, but never know you could drop a connector down as your first block and have it work

[@frodrickfronkensteen9241]

Seconded.

[@renn_frenn]

Not knowing how to use the build planner was causing me so much wasted engineering time. This is a tutorial on top of a tutorial. Gorgeous gorgeous man

[@Splitsie]

You're welcome, there's more than I put in here that's included in the standalone tutorial for it, but my goal is to slowly add the pieces in the subsequent videos in this series :)

[@dan271291]

110%. I spent hours reading ingredients and manually making components... when Shift+MMB could have got the same task done in minutes.

[@RvKsword]

ive been playing for bout 2 years but still like watching tutorials to see building techniques and i often learn new tricks. for example I HAD NO IDEA YOU COULD DOUBLE CLICK TO LEAVE HAND TOOLS ON DO YOU KNOW HOW USEFUL THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN TO KNOW AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[@greyic]

"It's not save-scumming in Space Engineers. It's just having a better day." Amen

[@MacEat]

Fur real lol i had my first capitol ship crash yesterday and just immediately closed app

[@UndisputedNoobs]

As a guide creator for new players myself it’s always nice to stumble across great people like yourself.
No waffle, nice pace for noobs to learn without constantly rewinding. Efficient and clear covering everything needed from a new players perspective. That takes not only skill but a great awareness of others and puts you in the top 10% of creators on RUclips IMO
Not sure why I never played this before but just got it today. Wanted to say thanks for the effort on the videos, appreciate the content as much as the delivery.
No need to reply, just letting you know that you are appreciated and worth the sub.

[@bobmay1515]

For docking and undocking, I like to use an Event Controller and two Timer blocks. Name one timer block "Undock" and one timer block "Dock". Set the event controller to monitor your connector, and on connect, trigger the "Dock" timer block, and on disconnect trigger the "Undock" timer block. Then on the timer blocks, set batteries to recharge/auto, turn thrusters on/off, turn ore detectors on/off, antennas, beacons, set H2 tanks to stockpile or auto, etc. On small grid, this takes up only 4 blocks, and means that I can free up my hotbar so that I really only need my connector and maybe my lights. And when docked, my small grid ship consumes a minimum of power from the parent grid. The Event Controller is definitely the best block added to SE in recent years.

[@Splitsie]

I prefer to do things this way too, I'll definitely be covering it in a future tutorial on the more advanced stuff 🙂

[@fcytv]

That's one nice looking starter miner!
As for things you probably should mention in this one:
1. Point to the fact that spotlights work just as suit flashlight and can be controlled by pressing "L" when you're in the cockpit.
2. Starting small grid builds became easier than ever when they added a "add small head" button to rotors. It's way easier to do and way less chance to do it wrong since the rotor and the rotor head will be locked in place... well you'll have to explain how to lock the rotor too but still worth mentioning this method too along with connectors.

[@Splitsie]

Good point about L, it's one of those things I use but seem to forget to mention :P
As to rotors/hinges, I don't think they're a good option when just starting out. Things like the thrusters going nuts while attached to a sub grid adds some extra complexity that I think are best avoided, even if it's the technique I always use myself :)

[@phoenixfire596]

@@Splitsie I know what you mean. These days I always use a projector off of a LG-SG locked rotor for building my SG ships. Design in creative, then project for easy building. I also save all my blueprints with the batteries on recharge and the thrusters off, to start charging as soon as the battery is welded as well as completely avoid that problem with thrusters on subgrids.

[@eddieruhier319]

As always, concise, well-planned, and well-illustrated. I've got 3,500 hours in SE and I still love watching your tutorials - and I'm still learning from them. Thank you :-) - Eddie (leatherboyUK).

[@Splitsie]

Charli says hi (or it was a sleep yip, who knows) 😂

[@jimgibson6142]

Been playing the game for years. Splitsie is still the best resource for learning and watching his videos I always learn something. So many "I didn't know that!" moments! Also, his presentation style is just awesome!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much :)

[@choobakasmooth9465]

I just started playing this on xbox gamepad yesterday, didnt actually think I'd find an active information outlet as I thought the game was old but your channel is a goldmine for me right now 😂😂

[@Splitsie]

Glad you're finding it helpful - SE is old, but still actively developed with a pretty active and great community :)

[@frankenberry9670]

@@SplitsieI prefer the term "highly experienced" ;-).

[@user-ou9qd9no5n]

@@Splitsie How to search ores in ne updates?

[@stormcrown9384]

Honestly same, I tried to do this with a downward facing connection.... it broke everything

[@phoenixfire596]

One thing that I've taken to building while in space, and in the process of building a jump capable ship, is what I call a jump sled. Take a jump drive, add two connectors to it, surround it with solar panels and add two batteries. The thing will passively charge up jumps and hold 3 of them at a time, and you can use it to jump a small grid ship anywhere you want, while being dirt cheap compared to a true jump capable ship. You can also run conveyors around the drive to connect the two connectors, so inventory can run through it. Such a simple build, but tremendously useful, I find.

[@MykolaSkotynyanskyy]

Great tutorial! Just few tips to improve quality of life:
* Backward facing remote controller + camera on top of connector simplifies docking and flying out from tight mines
* Event controller on "Connector Connected" + 2 timer blocks for dock on/dock off sequences (recharge batteries, turn off/on thrusters/gyros/antenna/ore detector/ejector sorters/stockpile/lights etc.)
* Event controller + Holo LCD for cargo filling control - just turn on/off lcd with preconfigured text (checked AND gate, use level 90%-95% for small miner to avoid flashing when ejcectors pull out stone and drills push new stone)
* Event controller + Holo LCD for drill filling - turn on/off lcd with text (unchecked AND gate, use level 95% - it is hard to fill drill to 100%)
* Hide tanks, ejectors and sorters from inventory screen

[@Splitsie]

Agreed, all great tips. I'll likely be including a lot of them when I get around to demonstrating the more complex stuff like Event Controllers :)

[@charlieodom9107]

You only need a TB with an EC if you have more than 9 groups of blocks you need to toggle.
I use an EC for docking with no TB on nearly all my ships.

[@xxbongobazookaxx7170]

Never thought about putting the RC on backwards, seems useful, all the rest are great tips for anyone who doesn't like or cant use scripts as should be expected of new player tutorials

[@AnonNopleb]

One of my fav uses of the event controller is to set it up so it automatically switches all drills off. This only works if you mine by setting your drill group to "on", though.

[@phoenixfire596]

I've never needed RC or EC before, maybe I'll experiment with them on my heavy miner. Sounds useful.

[@slab-dd6vj]

Nice to see updated tutorials from the master itself. 2 tips that you might add for a flying miner:
1: Breaking thrusters on/off on the hotbar. this is a good habit to have for saving power when you are flying more than 300m.
A more advanced tip:
2: When right-clicking or left-clicking mining for long periods, you can go into your inventory or the control panel while holding the mouse buttons and releasing the button while in the panels then exiting the panels. This will keep the tools working even if you are not holding the buttons anymore. To stop them you can press the buttons again (or get out of the cockpit)

[@Splitsie]

I toyed with whether to explain the use of braking thrusters on/off as it's definitely a useful thing to have. I ended up not adding it because it was already 45 minutes long but will definitely fit it in for one of the future videos :)
Same with the workaround for no grid based double click - so handy to be able to use when clearing large spaces

[@charlieodom9107]

I agree with both the suggestions, and feel they should be added in a later episode, going more in depth with certain control quirks once a player has progressed more.

[@xxbongobazookaxx7170]

1 is a bad tip for new players imo as it increases the chance that they'll forget something and explode because of it. As a new player it's less likely that they'd be able to diagnose and fix even such a simple issue before crashing, better safe than sorry for a very first build imo.

[@BoroMonokli]

Braking thrusters were part of the last mining ship tutorial four years ago.

[@skipper2285]

Completely satisfies KISS for beginners. Well done!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@johnrtrucker]

The auto rotate... hundreds of hours in game and I just learned that... 😂 apparently I still have so much to learn! Lol thanks again splitsie 😊

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome 🙂

[@aracron]

I always use one of your other techniques where I build a large grid rotor and give it a small rotor head. Then I build the ship off of that, and it is connected to base power while I do so. But that is definitely more resource intensive early on.
I love these tutorial videos! I hope you keep them going.

[@Splitsie]

Yup, I do the same. But I also know that when the thrusters start going nuts on that rotor I just need to turn them off until later. I decided not to go into that side of things in order to keep the other more useful info more clear - even though I really wanted to :D

[@guywiththepixelatedface1260]

Just started 2 weeks ago, with a group of family and friends. Thanks so much for this!
Anyone reading this, build this first before you start printing ships. It teaches you additional stuff you'll need. And definitely watch the video to the end, so you can understand sorters and get the stone dump going just right.
Next for us will be Rovers, and then inter planetary, and then we'll set up a base in space!

[@davidalexander4076]

If you ever find yourself lacking in cobalt, you can substitute the small cargo container on your base with a welder, which can not only help you build refineries and assemblers on your early game build, but also holds the same amount as a small cargo container, without the need of grids!

[@davidalexander4076]

Additionally, when building your first large grid ship -
If you use the aforementioned method of building the ship off of a connector, you can build welders on said ship to pull directly from your base's inventories to help save on trips, time, as well as fuel on assembling the larger components. Sometimes it's worth building additional conveyers to extend a welder to certain parts, such as an unwelded jump drive or even additional smelters. Don't just limit yourself to your handy dandy hand welder!

[@Splitsie]

I'm certainly guilty of overusing the hand miner but will be trying to work in the use of a grid welder for building the refinery when I cover that 🙂

[@phoenixfire596]

I actually recently built a welding arm in my Never Surrender I'm playing with my dad. The thing works really well for building a very large ship off of a projector. Certainly saves on trips, what with the thing being plated in heavy armor!

[@sgt_retiredcharlie4102]

I didn't know this. Thanks for the tip. I'm glad I read a lot of the comments. I've already learned 3 or 4 new things (but I'm still new to the game (at 53 years old)! LOL

[@davidalexander4076]

Thats what the E-4 mafias for old sarge ;)

[@Ms_Succubus]

There are two things I can recommend new players to mess around with.
One being: If you ever struggle to find Cobalt Ore but really need more cargo capacity on your base, you can use small grid Large Cargo Containers and lock them to your base as Splitsie showed at the end of the video with Connectors to build off of. Small grid Cargo Containers don't require any Cobalt to be built and a large one has the same cargo capacity as a large grid Small Cargo Container.
Another option to attach them to your base is to build an Advanced Rotor that is attached to your conveyor system.
1. You weld the Advanced Rotor up to be functional.
2. You grind off the Rotor Head.
3. You access your bases control menu and set the Advanced Rotor to "Locked". It's a tick box that shows up once you selected the block in the control menu. That prevents it from spinning around uncontrollably.
4. You press the "Add Small Head"-button in the same menu. This will add a small grid Advanced Rotor Head to your rotor. Which allows you to transfer all items between your base and whatever type of cargo you put on the small head side.
5. Place a small grid Large Cargo Container on the rotor head. Make sure the large port of the container connects to the large port on the rotor head.
Number two being (slightly more advanced):
Should you have troubles finding ore spots near you, or have found one that is quite far away, you might want to build a vehicle with wheels. Think of it as a large-ish truck with a few cargo containers and a connector for your miner to connect to. For traversing longer distances you can save a lot of powerr, since wheels use substantially less power than thruster. And you can use it to carry more goodies with you if you add cargo containers to it. Be warned though: Wheeled vehicles sometimes have a very weird way of interacting with ... well everything in this game.
But if you decide to do it:
Make sure you have more than 4 wheels, especially if you want to add additional cargo capacity.
Add more batteries than needed, so you can, if you really need to use them to charge your miner.
DEFINITELY add a Gyroscope. Yes, it is wheeled vehicle, but you'll catch air more often than you'd like to. And it makes getting out of weird ditches you might find yourself in much easier.
Beforer you put your miner on it, give it a test drive, see how it feels, and what wheel settings work for you. Then add your miner on it's back and try again, but more carefully, you don't want to destroy both vehicles at the same time.
This might be something interesting to touch on in this series as well. Like your Goose (I think it was), from Survival maybe. Or just wheeled vehicles in general. Although flying machines tend to be much easier to use and utilize in this game than wheeled ones.
As a side note: I love how you got Capac to help you in your tutorials, besides just causing chaos :D

[@Splitsie]

Oh, don't worry. I love wheeled vehicles way too much to not cover them in a future video 😂

[@Toughbeard]

Thank you Splitsie for the update :) When I first started SE I watched the old ones which were pretty new then. I am so glad to see the new ones.
TIP: For double click action on your drills to work you mouse click and hold the action you want, left or right click, then you hit K to open K menu, then close menu with ESC. your drills will continue to run... To stop just click mouse button again... Enjoy less strain on your hand...

[@memeberfunk2731]

Im loving this cant wait for more.
One suggestion / request,
Can you complie a list of all the building plans used?
This will make the process easier and faster instead of going back to watch the same spot over again multiple times.

[@TheFedebarx]

Lear how to have fun with space engineers years ago with Splitzie's tutorial! After 1000 hours of play time still learn something new!❤

[@14Blackspirit]

I just wanted to say thanks for this tutorial series. I bought Space engineer when it came out and got overwhelmed and quit on the spot. This series after all this years brought me back and I love this game. Your tutorials are amazing and teaches me some fundamentals to improve on. It is so much fun how my ships change with every build.

[@stockcar92a]

A good middle ground for drills is to place a conveyor on the front port of the cockpit and a drill on each side of the conveyor for two drills total. This is my usual 'starter' miner design and gathers nearly as much ore as the three drill setup.

[@unclegreybeard3969]

That's also what I wanted to say, it is more efficient drilling than 1 drill but without the risk of overloading to the point that you are too heavy to fly.

[@Splitsie]

With this design the 2 drills would still have been able to get a bit too heavy to lift if filled, but that's a good option for a tidy design that's a bit more capable than a single drill :)

[@phoenixfire596]

@@unclegreybeard3969 That's why my heavy miner has a truly excessive amount of lifting thrust. 8 large atmo and 3 large H2, carrying 9 drills and 3 large cargos. I can't overload it, no matter how hard I try. Blown up so many ships designing the beast though.

[@sgt_retiredcharlie4102]

@@phoenixfire596 Do you have that Beast on the Workshop? I'd love to take it for a ride!

[@phoenixfire596]

@@sgt_retiredcharlie4102 I'll upload it tonight when I get home from work. Check the workshop in about 5h and it should be there

[@vfrc152]

Absolutely phenomenal video. Explained a ton of concepts that were completely lost on me. Thank you for this guide.

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome :)

[@Ty-bz7zx]

I always hated when tutorials or teachers / instructors tell you exactly what to do... correctly .. but not WHY or any practical application of said information or technique. =))
No worries here... You explain what to do, why to do it that way, what happens if you don't, and most importantly the key presses and shortcuts to do it all. Impressive tutorials without useless "attempted" comedy or video clips, silly voices, or gimmicks. Well done as always! Earned a sub here. Tyvm for the effort.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, I similarly find such things quite annoying - if there's comedy in these it normally happens by accident :P

[@BoroMonokli]

There is plenty of comedy in your other videos. Right Crashpac?

[@chaosknight626]

Fun little trick: When using the Block Tool option for the drill, you CAN force it into a constant on state like double clicking hand tools. Just hold down left or right click, open the K Menu (Other menus more than likely work), then hit the button again to close the menu

[@Splitsie]

That is indeed super handy, I use it all the time when drilling out large caverns :)

[@NTC_Transport]

I'm glad to see the updated tutorials. I had no idea we had the flat fans.

[@Eisen_Jaeger]

Tutorial Capac seems a lot more savvy than the regular one :P

[@Splitsie]

Still gets blown up though 😂

[@Baito009]

It took me a good number of weeks when I first started playing to figure out the ships drills could do the mass clear without collection mode. Absolute game changer

[@BillysFingers]

New player here at 20 hours. This video is fantastic, if not a little daunting when you're first starting out, but if you persist and follow every step, you end up with an awesome mining ship!
A couple of issues i experienced that might help other newbies, the first was control. I found the ship very difficult to control until i had done all the thruster upgrades mentioned later in the video. Then the ship becomes much more stable. The other issue i had was that the ore located in the drill was moving down to the cockpit storage but not going past into the medium storage crate. This i discovered was due to me having the storage crate orientated wrongly. I had it with the small three squares facing towards the cockpit, but it actually needed to be facing outwards so the big yellow square meshed with the same square on the conveyor converter. This was the only part of the video that confused me. But the solution is to get them to match, then your ore will travel right through to your base's storage.
The last tip i can give is that as soon as you install the batteries, you have about 30 minutes before they run out and your ship falls and damages its thrusters, so get it attached to your base as a priority the with it charging and stable you can continue with the building etc.
So glad i found this video, Splitsie you are a genius! :)

[@rocketloncherboy]

normally i hate tutorials but man you landed all of the incredibly proper points explain excellently.
Thank you so much for your time taken for this process.

[@KoraynosTR]

Such a good tutorial for beginners! I would also add an antenna on the ship if say i were to leave it somewhere

[@Splitsie]

Ah, good point. I do that so rarely in my own games but it seems like it would be a good habit to have 🙂

[@zythaar8317]

Or at least a beacon :)

[@charlieodom9107]

Beacons use far less power, and should be used unless you need to access the grid remotely.

[@phoenixfire596]

I have an antenna on all of my ships, for just that reason. Never lose a ship again because you had to abandon it!

[@mandyspence1599]

Nice and easy to follow, and pleasant as well, your chuckles really brightened the mood. However, and this is my only criticism, I personally thought there were a few jarringly sudden cuts early on in the vod. Other than that, awesome!

[@Splitsie]

It's tricky with tutorials to avoid some of those cuts (especially with clouds moving in the background). I record myself saying things multiple times to get them right, or in many cases actually went back and re-did segments by rebuilding what I had at the time in order to demonstrate it in another way so couldn't quite get them as smooth as I might have liked given unlimited time :/

[@mandyspence1599]

@@Splitsie I enjoyed it and found it helpful, looking forwards to the next one. Release them in your own time though, Splitsie, you have a lot on your plate, dont burn yourself out. As for new players, your old stuff is still good, better than good, so they wont be left floundering.

[@igorbrown3756]

​@@mandyspence1599 ive been watching all of his tutorials on repeat for a couple days now. It definitely takes a bit to wrap your head around this game

[@NotTheBomb]

Shane that this is the last episode of the tutorial. I was enjoying it, and watching it to help me get a grasp of the game, as I am looking to buy it. I figured watching beginner guides would be a great way to ground myself, as I would not be building freighters any time soon lol

[@marksadler4457]

So loving going back through a tutorial with you - I started playing SE after watching one of your videos years ago (I now have over 8300 hours in SE). Also, another advantage (since a recent update) to building off a conveyor piped connector is you can access inventory though your ship's cargo (if a large port) which is very convenient.

[@Splitsie]

Absolutely, love having those little side ports on the small grid one for grabbing stuff :)

[@Cr4sHOv3rRiD3]

Regarding sorters between 28:20 and 32:20, If you allow I can add some tips for sorters and ejectors:
- the best ratio of 'things' ejected thru 'ejectors' is to slap 1 sorter per 1 ejector (in some cases I put 2 sorters to pull on one ejector but it clogs ejector after some time so I call it like 1 vs 1).
- if happens sometimes that you need the stone for some reason (let's say you don't have gravel in your base and you need it), it is good to group ejectors in a group and put them in hot bar for On/Off (you can add sorters as well but there's no reason unless you want to save power while offline etc).
- you can also set sorters to always pull resources, that way you will always have full sorter inventory for an ejector to pull from (if you have 2 ejectors and 1 sorter, ejectors will throw 2 chunks but it will have the same amount as 1 sorter and practically you will waste one ejector, that's one more reason for slapping 1 sorter and 1 ejector only).
- sorters and ejectors are working on ticks, it means that everything going thru them it will be calculated in a single tick , that means on each tick sorter inventory will be full and it will be empty instantly by ejector, on the next tick it will pull the next inventory, that is another reason to use only 1 sorter for 1 ejector as well. :D
For offloading the ore to the base 33:12 to 34:50 , you can build an dedicated miner docking spot, it is same as one you have build one on a side of an survival kit, just build on another spot (free conveyor spot) an sorter on a base (arrows toward the base) and set the sorter to white list the ore and pull all (you can also set Ice in a whitelist), then slap an large connector and basically, when you dock a miner it will pull every ore and ice from the mining ship to the base cargo, just open the inventory and check when it's empty, close it and you can fly for another round. Later on you can see how much time you have to be connected until empty and without opening the inventory just fly for another mining trip ^^
Few tips for building conveyors. If you can try to fill all the slots of an conveyor ports specially when building large ships and when playing multiplayer game (game have an tick system I've mention above and it will check everything that have conveyor port, unless you put some functional blocks to cap an conveyor. It is not much affecting game render speed in single player but it affects a lot on multiplayer server or as well in single player game where you have lot's of grids which have lots of open ports on conveyors and not connected to something. Example: Conveyor block have 6 sides and sometime you slap like few in a row to connect something and it leaves like 4 on each open while only 2 are connected, imagine a big ships filled with that kind of build and have probably thousands of them opened and not connected and game have to check every tick all of the ports. My advice when building conveyor system on a grid is to build the conveying system as much closed as possible, without opened ports not connected, just try to keep the ports connected or use proper conveyor blocks such as pipe, curve, T piece etc...
I know this is not like something for maybe new people but it is helpful for even some experienced player, I have noticed that many of multiplayer games have player which doesn't know those stuff or maybe they just not interested in to remember them :D
Anyway, keep up great content and channel Splitsie, even with my 6K hrs of SE I still watch your tutorials and I like them every time as well as recommend them to anyone interested in SE

[@Splitsie]

You can have an almost unlimited number of 'ejectors' per sorter as they can all independently pull material and the sorter's own pull becomes irrelevant at scale 🙂
There's a through put limit for conveyors but in practice you're unlikely to reach it in survival play.
The conveyor thing was fixed a couple of patches ago, the performance issues are now almost non existent 🙂

[@Cr4sHOv3rRiD3]

@@SplitsieDidn't know they've fix the conveyor thing lol, thx for the update though. I really have to read the logs in detail in the future I guess :D
They have probably fix the ejectors thing with that conveyor updates since they can all pull from one sorter. I have to test it one day just to make sure. I will also check the code to see what's going on in deep. Thx for the update again.
Those tests I was made for sorters are like 1 year plus old, maybe more can't remember, but anyway it doesn't matter to much as you say :D
Keep up great content and channel. Also, tutorials are awsome

[@Stomperdon]

Very long time player and I still watched the entire video. I just really enjoyed the way you deliver the information.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much :)

[@Tantalus7Aura]

I bought this game back then it still was in early access.
Each year I support the developers by buying the dlc and start to play again and of course forget completely how to play.
Thank God there are You Tubers like Splitsie who still make new tutorials to help me get back on track.😁

[@Chaister_T._Janai]

Very thorough tutorial while still keeping it easy to digest.
Learned some neat things as well as review on the basics.
Wonderful video Splitsie!

[@BobTheTrollKing]

Little bit of a tip for newer folks that I just learned. If you have a "Tool ship" whether it be grinders, welders or drills, you can get the tools to stay on without holding LMB. If you turn the tools on by left or right clicking, and then open your inventory while it's held, they stay on. Great for mining and welding.

[@goomba313]

very helpful, simple but covers all the bases; watched it on 1.5x speed no problem! AWESOME CONTENT, GREAT JOB!

[@alantrowbridge7472]

😮After watching more than a dozen videos this is the only one that makes sense is step by step and actually works. I don't always like and subscribe but I'm going to get on this guy's Channel cuz he knows what he's doing for sure. Thank you I have been trying for 2 weeks to get a ship in the air

[@Splitsie]

Glad I could help get you started :)

[@TafT]

The only adjustments I made to this excellent starter miner are; naming the blocks & groups for the ship type, creating and thursters group that I set as toggle on/off in slot 7, then the same with lights. When I take off I cycle thought 6 lights on, 7 thrusters on, 8 battery off recharge then 9 for undock. Docking is the reverse sequence. Leaves the least risk lights on/off closest to the normal controls I typically have on 12345.
As a few others have said I do like a docking camera if possible. I also quite like slight tinting my side light as aft, starboard and then a beacon as the signal light on top. Often an amber light to the rear too. Adds a little more variety and the slightly green or red to the sides helps me orientate.
Last time I'd say is come up with a naming system for your blocks and groups then do it as you build. Even as a starter it helps. Spot Light Left, Spot Light Right, etc. You can even rename your grids to christen specific copies of your ships.

[@octavius32a64]

I did not know about the auto alignment on blocks, so much frustration could have been avoided :)

[@Splitsie]

Glad to help, hopefully it'll avoid some frustration for others too :)

[@JRJ-]

im like 5 hours into the game and thank god for these videos. eagerly awaiting part 3!!

[@BariiAlyn]

I learnt how to play from your original tutorials and know everything you've covered so far and this video still kept me from bed. Good stuff.

[@chrisburrows9758]

Connectors found, and thank you for posting this (didn't know about the options with the mining drill) and will be adding the lights and getting rid of the stone.
Wanted to add that I love this mining ship as its is really great mining since it doesn't fall forward like other ships.

[@naturalselection28]

I always use advanced rotor for the build platform. You get the benefit of power to your ship and the flexibility to start however you like with armor blocks.

[@Splitsie]

I seem to default to hinges these days (for no particular reason) but chose to avoid hinges/rotors for new players due to the other complexities of the blocks and the fact that the thrusters go bananas when part of a sub grid, meaning you often need to turn them off while under construction :)

[@charlieodom9107]

I agree with both statements. Maybe the rotor/hinge method can be included in a later video, with more advanced controls, like the K-Menu trick to keep the ship tools activated, and reverse thruster disable to allow coasting.

[@SavageMonkeyJizz]

Biggest tip to new players is watch splitsie. Seriously, watch his let's plays they're funny, enjoyable and informative. I learned to play thanks to watching Splitsie and Capac on the survival series (all of them) and downloaded the survival impossible scenario. Brutal and beautiful

[@sgt_retiredcharlie4102]

Splitsie! I only just got into this game about a month ago (at 53 years old) and your tutorials have really been the one thing that have taught me the most!
I'm surprised you didn't mirror the Ore Detector with an Antenna on the other side, just so you can still see the ores if you ever need to get out of the ship.

[@Splitsie]

An antenna there would have been a good idea, I'm so terrible at remembering to put antennae or beacons on my ships - something I should probably work on :P

[@ConMan1504]

This tutorial series stopped me from quitting this amazing game out of frustration, thanks man

[@arthurleao5296]

I learned so much with this video, thanks a lot for putting your time to make it. Your attention to saying out loud the keys you were pressing really helped me out figuring a bunch of stuff up. Thank you so much and keep up the good work!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, glad it was able to help you get started :)

[@Davidson0617]

Please continue this updated series of new player guides. It just dropped on gamepass, translating the keys to controller is a bit of a hurdle, but your previous guide and this one were perfect for getting me introduced to the different systems, and started. Thank you.

[@Splitsie]

Don't you worry, I will be. They won't have any specific release timing as I'd prefer to make them good than make them fast, especially since the older guides are still accurate, I just think I can improve upon them with what I've learnt since then :)

[@Davidson0617]

@@Splitsie thank you 🙂 that sounds great. It introduced each system very well, including the tech progression unlocks, so that there were no hangups. The learning curve is definitely steep if this is someone's 1st game like this.

[@Siinwu]

18:15 usually i reduce the magnetic power to 1/3 (on both), remove the 1 and replace it with 0. ive not once seen a dmg connector in 6 years doing this. :)
adv tips:
event controller is excellent to setup tanks to refill fuel on ship using the connecter connected option and you can also string on turning thrusters, lights, gyro and ore det. off/on with it.
if u have designated cargo container for ore, make a loop with a sorter on it to auto pull ore when the ship is docked (connected) and have a event controler do the job.
i love making industrial ships, mining transport building :)

[@Kevin_Kyle]

This series gives you a great start.....hoping you can continue it a little further. Good stuff. This may be my go to start vid from here on out.

[@corpnut2906]

just got into SE from your video series of just a suit and a buddy who has played for years. I am glad I took your tip on saving before undocking I forgot to add fwd thrusters on and KABOOM... reloaded and fixed it. thanks for the tutorials

[@andrewnelson8044]

Honestly you are one of the best guides I've seen. Started playing this game recently and this video explains everything. It's thorough and informative while not being too complicated. You explain things slowly and make them make sense. Well done

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much, glad it's been helpful :)

[@bronney]

See, should I honestly make yet another tutorial while my lessons from 15 years ago work just as nice? YES, because I still watched it lol. I dunno mane, your SE vids are just good. Thanks for the years of lessons dude.

[@jonw7214]

I've always been a fan of pointing the drills straight down, always seems easier for me to not smack into a wall.

[@oWAR1OCKo]

@Splitsie, ty for making these guides man, Im a solo players, and somewhat new, and I used to follow your older guides and Im at the point where Im essentially all set up on my earth like home planet and getting ready to go into space for the first time. These guides, although they do have alot of info that I already know at this point, are really invaluable to players like me I feel who dont have others to play with in game.

[@DarylBanttari]

I have thousands of hours in SE and learned a couple of things. Not a wasted minute in this tutorial, fantastic

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@scruffygaming627]

Awesome vid, you covered every main aspect of early ship building. I liked that you added in the question of vertical drills, and why you prefer horizontal. I actually prefer vertical drills, simply because they are far more stable if you keep the ship always in the same vertical orientation. Keeping the same vertical orientation also means you do not need (many) upward thrusters, and far fewer horizontal thrusters as the ship will never need horizontal to keep the mass airborn. So you you can eliminate a lot of weight from excess horizontal thrusters, and add more downward thrusters and carry more mass. And if playing with remote control options (or programmable block), its much easier to automate a downward drill ship in atmosphere. All the reasons why I tend to go for mostly vertical drills. :)
Yes, you end up mining a bunch of material you may not want, but if you mine an icelake, you can turn that ice into hydrogen for hydrogen thruster ships, and also stock up for the eventual hydrogen powered space ship. So mining all that extra ice down to the ore isn't wasted. With a Programmable Block, there's workshop mod programs to automate mining simply too.

[@bobabv]

Thanks for your tutorials. I gave up the first time I played this game but now you taught me how to start.
Please, make a video about building a spaceship

[@dirkbroderick9604]

Amazing Video like always. Have learned a lot by watching your channel. When building any vehicle I tend to use a piston & advanced rotar which you can then lift and drop your ship to get into all the nooks and make sure you get everything built. Connecting the piston to a conveyor system will allow you to grab components from the assembly and avoid having to run up and down, also makes it easy to extend your build lower if you forgot something that needs to be placed lower down. this works great for adding tires as well.

[@paps7121]

I made it and love it. Well balanced and easy to handle. 1 step bigger would be nice for next ship.

[@Nymrod78]

Hi Splitsie!! It is always a pleasure to see your videos. Lost track of since when i follow you, at least sice Survival Maybe. I have a TIP if you dont know about it yet: it is a little but usefull bug, there is a way to use the ship drill on auto (like doble click on hand drill) and work on both modes, mine and tunneling. Must use the "Ship Tool" in the Action Group. Mouse click to start working (the mode you want to use), then, while pressing the mouse button,press "I"(i) to open inventory, then release the mouse key and press "I" againt to close the inventory. The drill will continue working like in auto mode, to stop it just do a simple click on a mouse key.
Keep it up with the good work!!

[@Minimeister317]

As someone who just purchased the game a few days ago, this video was just what I needed. Thank you so much, Splitsie!

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome, hope you're having fun with it :)

[@Xalarh]

For optimal spread of the small grid drills, they mine a 5x5 block area centered on the drill head. Since the drill takes up a 3x3 block area, it means you can have 1 blocks of space on each side of the drill. You can space them with two blocks between. Just be sure to connect them up. It can be real handy when your ship is a little wider than the drills can manage if they're all bunched together.

[@my_own_minion]

I can remember watching your other tutorial series when i first started playing SE. I hope this one helps the new players as much as your first helped me! ❤🧡 Cheers and keep it coming!

[@my_own_minion]

Also, I want Capac for a mouse cursor; I think that would be very amusing 😆

[@Splitsie]

lol I haven't seen any mouse cursor mods before, I wonder how hard that might be...

[@melexkrieger7254]

Thank you for the ending message, i felt the frustrations these days. I built several rovers just to roam and after roaming, it will stumble like a turtle getting stuck facing the skies while struggling to get up.

[@phoenixfire596]

I can't drive in SE. I always end up flipping, or getting too much air and crashing, or otherwise destroying my rovers. I always fly these days because of it.

[@wolfen210959]

I can absolutely guarantee that if i was to buy and play Space Engineers, I would be replicating every step of this tutorial, that ship looks amazing, as well as being functional. :)

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@greyic]

Don't know if two separate comments on the same video is bad form, but I built one of these in my game shortly after watching the video and, man...this little guy rocks!
A note, disable your headlights when you aren't spelunking to save some power in transit.

[@Splitsie]

Glad you've liked it - I tried to put a lot more time into balancing this design around function than I normally would so I hoped it would pay off :D

[@diazinth]

Great stuff as always!
A little clarification I guess: The "ejectors" try to collect and throw out everything, but the sorters only allows stone to get to them.
This means that if you by mistake conveyor your cargo around the sorter to the "ejectors", they will start throwing out everything else as well, your ores included.

[@Splitsie]

Yup, I probably didn't state that as clearly as I could have :)

[@swiftbow2110]

Nice, I learned something new after 3k hours playing this game with the connector build options at the end (always just used landing gear). Thanks.

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome - glad it ended up useful, I still get taught new stuff in the comments all the time even after 5750 hours :D

[@SilviusGaming]

Alright, so I love learning about the ejectors. During your explanation my ship was docked; after which my ejectors proceeded to throw out the 20+ k Stone stored at my base. That turned out to be quite the work cleaning up.

[@Splitsie]

lol That is indeed an issue with having ejectors on, I probably should have included a little bit about how to turn them off - I'll make sure to cover that in another video to hopefully prevent too many more messes :D

[@Comicsluvr]

I have 4 thousand hours of SE. I've played it since the map was bounded at 50k on a side. And I STILL learn from Splitsie's tutorials!

[@C-Squad3]

Love it! Keep it up. I followed a ton of your videos within the last year or so and have made some cool things recently. This is great to repost more recent things due to some of the new updates we have seen.

[@TenebrousFilms]

As someone who hasn't played SE for quite some time, the converter block is a pleasant surprise. As for the 'magnet' in the connectors, I drop it from 0.0150 to 0.0015, makes it nice and gentle... just make sure you do that with *both* connectors.

[@Splitsie]

I too like the gentle magnet, just figured I could demonstrate turning it off more quickly and with fewer caveats 😂

[@mementomori5580]

I have over 443 hours of Space Engineers clocked on Steam, but... 34:32 , I did not know about that. Glad to have learned something new once again from your great tutorials :)

[@Splitsie]

It's a super useful way to empty whole ships without needing a script. I knew of it ages ago and then never used it, recently I was reminded of it and have now been using it everywhere :D

[@franciscoleite353]

I'm starting now with the game and not only these new tutorials, but the old ones are being so helpfull, the only thing that bothers me is the lack of objetive while playing the game, I'm not really sure what exactly can I do in this game, I have played Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and No Man's Sky and I could do a lot like, bounty hunting, mining, trading routes to make money to buy more stuff, but with Space Engineers, I'm not really sure where I should be goin or what should I be persuing. Anyway, love the way you explain stuff, is so easy to understand! Thanks for the videos, keep it up!

[@Splitsie]

Space Engineers is a real sandbox, no goals besides those you create for yourself. It's one of its best and simultaneously most challenging features. Having such a clean slate to start from gives so much more potential but it takes a lot more work on the part of the player to see that. With the help of some of the NPC mods a little more structure can be added though and Keen have talked about potentially having more NPC content coming this year but I'll not count those chickens until the eggs are properly hatched :P

[@Firstpeek]

Can't wait for the next Tutorial. Deff appreciate the way you do these tutorials. I'm learning a lot !

[@Splitsie]

It's a little delayed as I've mostly lost my voice this week so haven't been able to record much. In the mean time, the older series that I made is still correct for the core of the game, it's just that I thought I could teach some of it better so am remaking them, so they'll be able to get you up and running while waiting to see what I do with the newer blocks in the next videos :)
ruclips.net/p/PLfMGCUepUcNzLePdu3dZfMTLfWq1bclUK

[@Falney]

It is really really easy to end up the wrong way up while mining. I am a massive fan of putting downward thrust even at the extra cost.

[@DC2022]

One soft spot with magnet force is having the one on the base/main ship set to 0.005 and disabled on your current ship. This way, there is a bit of magnetic force, but never enough to crash and/or being stuck to the connector.
Thanks for those very well detailed and easy to grasp tutorials!

[@Splitsie]

If you disable it on either connector there's no force at all, you need to make sure it's a tiny force on both to get that gentle (but sometimes helpful) little bit of attraction :)

[@fjnerksthetird5472]

Hey Splitsie ;)
For ships and rovers with rear connectors, a good trick is to create a sub-group of thrusters/wheels for reverse parking, so that you don't crush the connectors.

[@pieterduplessis6632]

Thanks for this series mate, helped me get a hang of the game.

[@m1leswilliams]

I had no idea that pulling the materials out to complete a build also cleared the build planner of the item... feel so dumb. Love these tutorials.

[@Splitsie]

Glad I could help, I've got a full video on the build planner that covers a bunch of the other oddities about the system too, as it's got more than a few quirks :P

[@sorayaprotera]

this is a fantastic tutorial, and I'm hoping to see more in this series!

[@darkehartplays]

I always push people to have a beacon on their ships. The respawn pod comes with a traveling GPS, and the beacon is as close to that as we can get. You can use a sensor to turn it off and on again automatically when you're in it/when you've left the area if you want to.

[@Splitsie]

That's quite fair, I have a terrible habit for not doing that and it's perhaps something I should work on :)

[@kiwi7556]

Have more forward thrust than back thrust.
1) You can potentially go vertical and dig straight down with full load since you have enough propulsion in the front
2) Breaking is faster -> smaller chance of crashing.

[@melissad52077]

Thank you!! I love my ship. Wouldn’t have been able to do this without your tutorial ❤

[@user-hz6jq7sr9d]

I'm having trouble Setting up the small conveyors, they won't spit out any of the Stone.

[@EngineeringVignettes]

This is a good tutorial, learned a few things even with 800+ hours in the game.
Miners in space, on moons and ice moons will need different thruster tech to work but the basics are in this video. (eg. weird situations where an ice moon has atmosphere)
Maybe adding a trigger to switch batteries on a disconnect could help some forgetful people :)
A key thing to remember is to watch the ship weight and know when is enough, in mining.
More complicated ships can do with writing up a checklist as well, for docking and undocking procedures.
Cheers,

[@Splitsie]

Agreed, I plan to cover automated docking procedures with event controllers once I get around to showing what they can do :)

[@popanda3652]

landing gear is awsome. i put that on every flying ship. putting a small cargo container somewhere with emergency supplies is awsome. maybe a h2 o2 bottle, the stuff to build a connector and windmill base for emergency power. personally where i made my base the nearest nickel ive found is 30 km away. thats a long way to travel with a simple mining ship. and its surounded by mountains so my self recharging semi truck i built to haul the miner cant make the trip. i now have a recharge station half way to the nickel whose sole purpose is for recharging the miner when its full of ore. im in the process of making a mobile base rn but it needs alot of nickel before it can fly. just thought id throw that idea out there. also even if your ship isnt designed to fly upside down, id recommend adding a thruster or 2 and just leaving them turned off. then if something silly happens you have access to them.

[@haphazodus]

I have had 4 goes at learning Space Engineers and get overwhelmed with the learning curve. I think I might have attempt number 5.

[@Splitsie]

Best of luck, hope it makes sense this time around :)

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

Very good follow-on episode to the re-vamped SE tute series, Splitsie! 🍻 Again, the inclusion of QoL tips as such matters arise is really good. This instalment of the new series is a significant upgrade on the original (which adapts the survival pod?): With a purpose-built atmo miner from the get-go, I think you help players set up for a more successful result - with both mining, as well as design fundamentals for SE flying craft.
One small item of critique: The first ~30% sounds as if the audio track was edited like so much of the content we get from our friends on the other side of the Pacific, where pauses between sentences are all but gone. One gets out of breath just listening to that sort of content! The audio settles back to your normal "cadence" after that and TBH, the commentary / instruction is _far_ more impactful at your normal speech cadence. Along with the high quality examples and explanation, I believe that your natural, unhurried delivery is also a key ingredient of the success of your tute videos. :)
Also, for giggles:
~43:10 - "... and there we have it!" -> Splitsie doing his darnedest to blow up another connector and possibly another mining ship! 😂

[@Splitsie]

The first part may have ended up feeling that way, not because I edited out the pauses specifically, but because I went back and recorded much of it again, even if just the audio so fitting it together may have neglected any pauses. I'll keep an eye on that in the next ones :)

[@JustToBeHere]

First of all great tutorial... Again... :)
Some suggestions / tips for beginners :
- setup event controller for batteries to change recharge state when you connect and disconnect for 2 reasons . (1) you will not have problems if you forgot to change the recharge state when you disconnect and (2) in case the base consume more energy that it have , will not use the energy from the miner
- you can setup an antenna to see ores location when you are outside the miner
- consider to add a beacon when you play on servers
- also if you have problems and damage a lot the back connector use a connector under the grid , I saw that this trick help a lot of my beginner friends
- keep in mind that a small grid drill cargo capacity is same as a small grid medium cargo
Personally I think to better improve the design remove 1 thruster from left and right and use them for uplift - ( Usually for miners i use same number for thrusters for forward, left and right thrust and 50% more for back-thrust) .
Full disclosure I start to play SE after a I saw Splitsie on beginning of "Survival maybe" 6 years ago and I learn a lot from him

[@czbuchi86]

i dont think any of those should be teached to absolute begginers - so maybe @splitsie could make 'advanced' tutorials after he is done with those basic ones...

[@JustToBeHere]

@@czbuchi86 I understand your point but as you can see they are "suggestions / tips" , not some things they are omitted in tutorial

[@czbuchi86]

@@JustToBeHere yea .. my exuse is that english is not my first language :)

[@DC2022]

- For beginners, event controllers are a bit to crunchy. But yeah, on further tutorial I'm pretty sure Splitsie will talk about them because they can be really, really handy.
- Yup, good point even if that's not necessary, this can be handy to have.
- If you don't have an antenna, a beacon is a must have even in single player to get back to your ship when wandering around. I spent too much hours searching my ship because I forgot to place a beacon to forget them now 😅
- for connector I use to set the main base/ship connector mag force to 0.005 (just replace the 1 on the default force by a 0) and disable it on the small one. This way I still have a bit of mag force, but it not only will be unable to turn my little ship into a battering ram and this will also prevent the sticky connector issue.
- Yup, drills are also good to store the ore so it can be useful to add those extra drills soon.
- Yeah, I would set to 4 thrusters for every direction except front where I would stick to 6 and would improve the sustentation one upgraded with the extra power. And would add two small batteries just for sake of security. They cost nothing, are small and have a really nice density.
I would have loved to have tutorials like that when I started but even after thousands hours playing Splitsie nonetheless manages to teach me stuff. He produces the most complete and easy to grasp tutos on SE.

[@Splitsie]

Agreed that all those things are useful, beacons/antennas are something I really need to work on making a routine addition to my ship :)