Clang

"Clang" is the last sound an engineer hears right before meeting their lord and destructor. In extension, it has become the name given by the SE community to an invisible higher power in game.

Definition?

Clang or Klang is basically a euphemism for cattywampus game physics bugs causing destructive phantom forces. It is the same in-joke as blaming "the Kraken" in Kerbal Space Program.

There is no official definition of Klang or Clang, so this article contains a selection of community quotes to describe the concept.

"Klang is the One and Only, ruling all of Space Engineers worlds, the entity that benevolently allows us to live and create until we anger him, that's when he/she/it presents us with a great opportunity to make funny videos :) if you look away from the worship though, it's just SE physics engine being what it is and Klang/Clang is problems with that said engine, most often, but not limited to, caused by interactions of pistons, rotors and hinges with other grids. the name is taken from how collisions sounded when the game came out, if I remember correctly..."

Video clip of clang sounds and effects

Spelling Controversy

A survey asking community members how they spell Clang/Klang (2023)

Some players spell this higher power Klang with a K as in Kraken or Keen Software House, which caused a tongue-in-cheek "religious" schism.

A proposed compromise is that Clang refers to the sound or event, and Klang to the personification. To fuel the controversy, many other spelling variants have been suggested, such as Qlang, CKLangq, K͡L̛͝A̛N҉̀͟G҉͠!͏͘, or |<lang.

"I believe in Clang the father, Klang the son, and Qlang the holy ghost."

"Clang/Klang cares not how He is addressed. He takes no actions against malaprops. His only concern is the integrity of your grids—may your grids remain stable and your rovers upright."

"Don't you guys know the difference? Klang is merciless but brutal, while Clang is brutal but merciless!"

Example Usages

The following example usages have been picked at random from Reddit and Discord forums.

Used as a warning to fellow players who experiment with Mechanical Blocks:

"I love this but I fear for Clang’s retribution."

"May Klang have mercy"

"Hello. Do you have a moment to talk about our lord n savior clang?"

"As amazing as this is, I do hope have done the proper rituals and anointments of holy scriptures to the mighty Klang. otherwise Klang's wrath will be Quick and Spectacular."

"Klang usually comes for a feast if you use sub grids on a ship/station connected with hinges/rotors/pistons."

Used as a compliment to fellow players for succeeding in using Mechanical Blocks:

"Klang smiles upon you this day!"

"Klang is merciful"

"Klang has truely blessed you brother"

"Besides being massive klangbait that's slick as hell"

"Klang is one of the space engineers' gods. Splitsie is another"

Rare original footage of an event of the clangy kind!

Self deprecating use when admitting a construction mistake:

"It appears that Clang has blessed me with a large hole in exchange for a rib of my shipyard"

"Lord klang forgive me for what I am about to do"

"All hail Clang!"

"I have angered Klang"

Pseudo-religious roleplaying:

"when the lord is angry he destroys, when he is pleased he allows our creations to work"

"I have played space engineers for a long time and never met klang. I only ever met miscalculated physics that needed correcting . You can say I’m an atheist . "

"on pertam buddy yelled "F*** you clang" and nothing happened to him. for the next 3 minutes i was struck by lighting 6 times while he on the other hand suffered no consequences"

"Spending a dozen IRL play hours building something grand, just for a glitchy merge block alignment to throw it all into the ground in ruin... Wasting all of that effort... The only consolation is to make up a cult, shake our heads and proclaim, as is proper in such a disaster; "all hail Clang". And game on. Otherwise we would have lost our shit years ago"

"You know the feeling you get when you're standing on a ladder in the rain wearing flip flops while using a nail gun tapped to a broomstick trying to fix a leak in the dark and hoping everything is going to be ok? That feeling is clang. And no. Everything is not going to be ok. But most likely you're doing something you ought not be, and are about to be punished for it. Painfully. To me, that's clang :)"

"TORQUE FOR THE TORQUE GOD"

The Heart of Clang

There is a rare bug on atmospheric planets where small bushes --usually anchored to the ground and gently waving in the breeze-- are anchored within themselves near ground level, and they appear as a spherical pulsating immaterial blob that cannot be removed. The indestructable pulsating nature has given this bug the nickname Heart of Clang.

• Return to The Heart of Klang (Reddit clip)
• Found the Heart of Klang within the rocks (Reddit clip)

Clang Sparks

The game's Damage Mechanics are often accompanied by scaled-up visual effects, one of them is Clang Sparks.

When you first saw Clang, were you blinded by its majesty?

Clang Drive

A clang drive is an esoteric kind of spaceship propulsion. It's a reproducible exploit using the unintended side-effects of game physics to accellerate and steer the spaceship, instead of using thrusters. E.g. you mash a piston into another block and it moves the ship for free.

• The INFINITE POWER of the Merge Drive - Breaking Space Engineers by Zer0's Legion (YouTube)
• The UNLIMITED POWER of the CLANG DRIVE - Breaking Space Engineers by Zer0's Legion (YouTube)
• Rotor-Door Clang Drive (for ships) by green bean (Steam workshop)
• Clang Cruiser (for characters) by green bean (Steam workshop)

Official Mentions by Keen in Game

• The key labels on the Helm keyboard spell out Clang.
• Clang Cola
• One of the Warning Signs says "0 days since the last Clang accident."

Cause and Explanation

Clanging has been greatly reduced after update 1.196 which fixed oversized hitboxes and gracefully granted the current generation of engineers (slightly) more adventurous mechanical builds.

Clanging is caused by the collision boxes of a subgrid intersecting the collision boxes of another grid. In a more realistic setting, that would cause the grids to be damaged. But by default, subgrid damage is switched off, so a subgrid can't be damaged by its parent grid, so instead it starts shaking to avoid taking up the same space.

In general, you want to enable "Share Inertial Tensor" on the hinges/pistons/rotors that are not directly attached to the main grid. So, in the case of a crane arm/drill arm that has a rotor, hinge, and then pistons, with the rotor attached to the ship, you'd turn Share Inertial Tensor on for the hinge and pistons, but not the rotor. If you turned it on for the rotor as well, then every time you tried to move the crane arm, you'd be trying to move the mass of the entire ship. And in space, that causes the ship itself to move erratically.