Space engineers Canteen. Happy hour every hour!

Overheal

They did and the workshop really took off. Programmable blocks let you run c# scripts on your 'grids (ie. ships and stations), and there are tons of (working and broken) scripts available on the workshop that are super-easy to insert into your game on the fly with the shift+tab overlay.

After some digging, I found a stable and working solar alignment script. Seems the devs have been restructuring all the c# classes and stuff prior to full launch so its made most of them a little borked. Anywho this one very robustly adjust for the size of your solar array, assumes theyre all in the same plane, and controls their position with a gyroscope based on their power output. And, unlike 90% of these types of script, doesn't require a bunch of special setup or unique naming of components. Works really well. Couple this with Meteor showers - meteors are always expelled from the direction of the sun, so having your solar array tracking the sun makes it very easy to position your gatling turrets to defend your grid from them. And I've had some doozies (that I quickly loaded a backup save over, because f* that) like a meteor landing a direct hit on my ship's refinery, blew the thing in half and destroyed ungodly amounts of ore. Seriously heightens your survival rate to have semi-smart self-aligning defenses.

Next for me this weekend will probably be constructing a much more personalized frigate, maybe even capital ship, but with my build focused around much more intelligent refining and inventory management, the refinery on the base ship is stupid and keeps itself full with crap ores when I need more of this or that - things like platinum for instance basically require a dedicated refinery to keep up with demand. Already have the ship configured to eject stone, gravel, and iron ore.

Most other things on the workshop are blueprints that you can load in with a projector to build from (look up 3D Printing in space engineers!) and people's scenarios/worlds, and a lot more things like mods for Stargates and stuff. Some stuff replaces too much of the base game for my liking and feels almost like cheating? stuff like being able to shove large-ship blocks onto small-ship grids and vice versa, idk if thats supposed to be a real limitation in the game or not, but Im trying to learn off the base game the most with a few mods for added flavor, things like better LCD screens and stuff, but not like game-breaking special solar panels and ****.

Overheal

If programming blocks scare you, or, the script breaks etc. this design does it the robust and low tech way:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=295979984

4 different side panels each control a thruster designed to automatically thrust when it gets power. Since these are attached to the structure by landing gear they only get power from their panel. So when the sun moves off in a given direction, a side panel becomes energized and activates the corresponding thruster which rotates the platform toward the sun again. The only thing not to like about the design is it's relatively complex and requires 4-way symmetry so your alignment thrusters act on the center of moment for the station. But it's a great example of people figuring out different ways to accomplish goals in the game.

I'm not sure which is more energy efficient, to be honest: the program and gyro, or solar-triggered thrusters.

Before my big ship I need a welder drone. Inventory space on your suit is severely limited so you spend a ton of time ferrying parts around. A welder can carry a ton more parts though.

Mr. Tezza

I got space engineers recently through a steam sale, are there any groups or multiplayer servers, I would love to give it a go!

Moon54

There's a good few servers in the "Join Game" section in the menu but it can be confusing with some requiring mods and different server settings on each.
You can set your "single-player" game to "Friends" and have Steam friends join you by inviting them to your game (if they have the game,of course).
Probably more fun playing vanilla in a small group starting out, rather than in those larger PVE/PVP servers.

Moon54

Having great fun with the "Escape from Mars" scenario;
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873858780

It's a hardcore survival experience that's ideal for single-player or co-op playing.
Duckroll, the creator, did a great job & KeenSH should hire him

Maximus Alexander

I've had this on Steam for ages and tried it a couple of times but couldn't get into it. I fired it up last week though and it suddenly clicked with me; I can't get enough. So much so that I rented a dedicated server (surprisingly cheap!) and am playing it regularly with a couple of friends. It's great crack.

We started off in the Solar System scenario scavenging from asteroids and capturing a couple of pirate ships which we re-purposed or scrapped. We ended up with two big ships docked together which we flew into orbit of the moon. Then I built a surface lander with all the basics (med bay, refinery, assembler, oxygen) and now we're gradually building an ever more sprawling empire on the lunar surface. It's like ultimate Lego and bags of fun. Might post a few picks of our lunar base later.

The one thing I'd change about it is it would be nice if the universe was just a little bit more alive. If there were more NPC encounters and a bit of variety on that front, for example.