Lost Colony Scenario
The Lost Colony scenario is one of the default scenarios in Space Engineers, created by community member Smokki (Mikko Saarijärvi) for Keen. It features a non-linear narrative that the player(s) can follow to discover the secrets of the world.
Up to four people can play this exploration scenario cooperatively online. The total playtime (including exploring, gathering, mining, refining, assembling, and welding) is around 12-16 hours solo.
This scenario is only available for PC.
Should I play it?
There is no handholding for beginners, but the mission steps and objective locations are clearly marked. It could be played in a group of up to four with mixed experience levels.
This exploration-focused scenario expects cooperative players to be able to drive rovers, orientate themselves, avoid defensive systems, manage an inventory, and repair (weld) grids. Own creative building is allowed but not needed nor required.
Premise
Contact has been lost with a remote colony and its your job to find out what happened. With up to four players, embark on an exciting journey through a settlement, caves and bunkers. Explore the valley and its history by reading the 96 data pads left behind by the colonists. Data pads and useful items can be found in the lockers and containers all around the map.
Tips (minor spoilers)
After arriving at the first location marked on your first datapad (the old prospector camp) you are free to explore at your own pace. If you feel lost, head for the large Sunset Valley safezone, as the numerous datapads found there will get you oriented and help you locate ores, materials, buildings, and caves.
It is useful to grind down every container after you loot it in order to know which one you have already searched. Gather and use the salvaged components for the main objective.
Also, leave every door open after you search a room, to know where you've been already, or else you will loose track of places really fast. Especially inside safe zones, you cannot leave any other marker (apart from GPS which will clutter your screen).
Your ammunition is limited. It is your only way of disabling the automatic defences guarding certain areas.
Plot: Warning! Spoilers Ahead!
The player arrives on the planet after a distress call by an Argonaut Industries (AGI) liaison Hiroko Zhang was received from the Sunset Valley colony, housing 60 colonists. After finding the prospector camp empty and no sign of Zhang, the player starts exploring the nearby town, finding numerous sections on emergency lockdown and the nuclear reactor and communications tower sabotaged.
Using the equipment found at the surrounding locations and mines, the player repairs the reactor, while slowly discovering the city-wide corruption and the fate of every colonist from data pad entries along the way. Apparently every citizen slowly started to experience memory loss and eventally lost their sense of preforming basic routines such as eating.
After the players repair the reactor, the lockdown is lifted, finally granting the players access to the Zhang residence and the morgue. A data pad reveals the location of a hidden R.O.S. comm bunker and eventually two other R.O.S. facilities.
It is revealed that decades before the start of the story, Sunset Valley was inhabited by the Results Oriented Sciences (R.O.S.) faction who built numerous bunkers and research facilites in the valley. They discovered a cavern containing an unknown fungus that eventually broke free, resulting in a complete lockdown of the research facility. At the same time, the R.O.S. fleet was defeated by an unknown opposing faction (possibly AGI?) and due to the surface bombardment, most facilities became buried under rubble and were forgotten, with the final survivors succumbing to the fungus in the buried research facility.
Years later, AGI built a colony in the valley, using an old bunker as the sewer system for their main settlement. However, the Zhangs were secretly tasked with locating the old R.O.S. facilities to track down a "biological agent", eventually repeating history. The fungus started spreading in the colony again, at first leading to people disappearing and dying by themselves. When panic erupted, the colonists destroyed all radio equipment and sabotaged the reactor in an attempt to contain the fungus in the valley and use the reactors radiation to destroy it. Sadly, everyone got infected and eventually died. One distress call however made it through, prompting the player to discover the truth about the colony's fate.
The final datapad that can be found contains the last words of R.O.S. Scientist Dr Saarijarvi:
"If anyone finds this, I hope the journey was worth it. But I must ask you: Whoever you are, were you even ordered to go as far as to opening this place? Or did you forget your orders along the way?
If so, I'm sorry to tell you that this is the end for you, as it was for me. Maybe you will go on a bit longer and try to find something more to do, but eventually you will find a nice cozy place to take a break and become one with the valley.
Dr Saarijarvi signing off."
Finding this message means you have solved the mystery.
Locations, loot, and vehicles (Spoilers)
Locations
Sunset Valley: the central location of the scenario, a town consisting of multiple buildings, surrounded by a safe zone. The facilities found within:
- The Powerplant: Sabotaged by the colonists, one of the player's objective is to repair the reactor core.
- To restore the core: The player needs to repair the pump system (O2/H2 generator) and supply it with Ice (around 3,000) to gain access to the reactor core room. Thereafter the reactor itself has to be repaired.
- Instructions on how to start up the core can be found in the lockers at the reactor control room.
- Around 60 reactor components and a few superconductors can be found in the powerplant facility.
- Freddie's Nightclub:
- One of the entrances to the town sewers can be found in there.
- After fixing the broken storage door in the basement, you can find 1 superconductor, 4 reactor components, 2 Platinum ingots, 200 gold ore and a rapid fire rifle.
- Apartments: Apartment "C", C - locker 3, 1 Zone Chip!
- Saref's Fine Dining
- Zhang residence
- Argonaut Industries Services
- Contract Office: The player can take up 3 contracts, for finding 6 medical components, 5 zone chips, and finishing building the Kozlow's Hydrogen facility.
- Archie's Pawn Shop: 120 magnesium powder, 205 iron ingots,
- Water treatment and sewers:
- Entrance to the bunker system below Sunshine Valley.
- 3 datapads, 70 gold ore, 2 uranium ore, 10 reactor components, 120 iron ingots.
Outside Town:
- Old Prospector Camp: The first location to explore after starting the scenario. Location: X: -32781.78, Y: 35313.03, Z: 38829.25
- Troll Base: The cave entrance is under the small bridge (get it, trolls live under bridges, hahaha....) with one interior turret guarding the entrance of the bunker. 1 Precise rifle with 3 mags, 200 Iron ore, 80 Silver ore, 20 cobalt ore and 8 reactor components.
- AGI Silver Reserve: You can find the datapad containing the location of this site in one of the appartment lockers in Sunset Valley. You will need this silver reserve to build reactor components to restart the reactor. There are two interior turrets guarding the mine.
- Weaver Family Barn: 500 gravel, 1 rifle ammo, 1 datapad, 3 explosives, 500 space credits
- Billy's Smelter: 147 Iron ingots, 1 medkit, 1 datapad, 1 rifle and 2 magazines, 5 metal grids. In the cave there is an interior turret guarding 165 Silver Ore and 50 Silver Ingots.
- Vasquez Silicon Mining LTD: 400 gravel, 610 Silicon ore,
- Vaughn Brothers (Fe, Ni, Co): There is a turret guarding the outside of the facility. The ATV-8A-SV2 can be found in the upper tunnels. 20 gold ore, 30 silver ingots, 2500 space credits, 12 reactor components, 2 datapads.
- Vaughn Brothers house: 1 turret, 4 reactor, elite rifle
Bridges:
- Large Bridge
- Small Bridge: the troll base can be found under it
Caves:
- Buried Bunker: found at the bottom level of the Vasquez Brothers (Fe, Ni, Co) mine. 2 Turrets are guarding the loot inside. 2 missiles, 200 Fe ore, 100 magnesium ore, 2 superconductors, 80 platinum ore, 2 Uranium ore, 30 Gold ore, 20 silver ingot, 2 kg uranium, 10 gold ingots.
- Archie's Loot Cave: 206 Silver ore, 80 Gold ore, level 2 grinder, 4 Gold Ingots, 6 Silver ingots
- Burried Crate Cave: 4 reactor components, 2 explosives, 1 ammo container and 2 missiles
- Burried Med Supply Cave: 6 Medical components
- Freddie's Treasure Cave: 2 interior turrets are guarding the entrance of the bunker. 1 datapad, 4500 credits, 2 superconductors, 8 reactor components, a Lv 3 Drill, 20 Silver ingots, 35 Gold ingots, 2 missiles, 1 zone chip
- Gerado Acosta Cave
- Vasquez Stuff Cave: 4 kg Uranium ingots, 12 explosives and 30 reactor components
- Vaughn Brothers Vault Cave: hidden ladder, 2 turrets, 5kg uranium ingot, 30 reactor comp, 2 superconductors, 1 zone chip, 2 pt ingots, 40 silver and 20 gold ingots, elite rifle, 5000 space credits
- Deep Cave: 1 explosives, 210 Si ore, 25 Cobalt ore, 120 Nickel Ore, 2 missiles, 50 Gold ore, 2 Pt ingots, 1 datapad, level 2 Drill, 40 Cobalt ingots. There are 2 interior turrets in the cave, one on the ceiling of the last loot room and one in the middle cave.
- Mg Cave
- Ice Cave: space credits, 1,000 Ice, klang cola
Outdoors:
- Communication Tower: (turret) 1 superconductor, 2 datapads, 1 elite welder, 6 radio comm equipment
- Construction Site A1: located at Kozlow's hydrogen, you can accept a contract to finish building this facility at the contractor office in Sunset Valley town.
Farms:
- Cobb Family Farm: 1 datapad, 1 canvas, 3 power cells. 1 skeleton can be found near the silo.
- Hahn Family Farm: 1 Datapad, PV-4-2 vehicle, 2 motors
- Holloway Farm
- Weaver Family Farm: 1 datapad, 2 gold ingots
- Freddie's Mansion: (interior turret guarding the gold colored, custom PV-4 vehicle in the garage) Precise rifle and 2 mags, 670 space credits, 2 Silver ingots, 8 Gold ingots
- Kaufmann Medicals
- Klang Cola Company
- Kozlow's Hydrogen: 140 ice, 120 space credits, 20 cobalt ingots, 1 datapad.
Bunkers:
- R.O.S. Command Bunker
- R.O.S Containment Facility: There is a turret guarding the entrance and 3 other turrets in the facility. 200 Ice, 16 platinum ingots, 1 zone chip, 2 superconductors, 4 reactor components, 85 uranium ore, 100 Platinum ore and 30 uranium ingots.
- Sinkhole Bunker
- Possible Bunker
- Leroy’s Small Bunker
- ROS Research Facility
ROS Research Facility:
The final location to be found. The biggest hidden location in the game with the best loot found.
- There are over 10 interior turrets guarding the corridors, making it a real challenge to explore alone.
- 5 datapads, 562 uranium ore, 535 platinum ore, 1 Zone Chip, 1 elite welder, 2 elite drills, 10 uranium ingots, 40 gold ingots, 10 thruster components, 7 superconductors, 20 gold ore.
Vehicles
- AGI Rescue Rover (ATV-8X-1): an 8 wheel vehicle with 2 additional seats. If playing solo, it’s recommended choosing this vehicle out of the two spawn vehicles. Goes around 20m/s and is hard to flip. Contains a survival kit.
- AGI Support Rover (ATV-4X-1): a 4 wheel vehicle, one of the two spawn vehicles.
- ATV-4-SV1
- ATV-4-SV2
- ATV-8A-SV1
- ATV-8A-SV2: can be found at Vasquez Brothers (Fe, Ni, Co). Equipped with two drills and cargo containers.
- ATV-8B-SV1
- ATV-8B-SV2: located at the Vasquez Silicon Mining LTD, Equipped with two drills and cargo containers.
- ATV-8C-SV1: An eight wheel vehicle with a gatling turret. Can be found in the AIS garage.
- ATV-8D-SV1: an eight wheel vehicle identical to the AGI Rescue Rover.
- Freddie's Custom PV-4: a nimble PV-4 with gold plated parts, found in Freddie's Mansion garage.
- Police-PV-4 1: located at the communications tower
- Police-PV-4 2: located at the Hahn family farm.
- PV-4-SV1
- PV-4-SV2
- PV-4-SV3
- PV-4-SV4
- PV-4-SV5
- PV-6-SV1: found at the Weaver Family Farm.
- PV-6-SV2
- Vaughn's Custom PV-4: a nimble PV-4 with kevlar plated parts, found at the Vaughn Brothers house.
Workshop Downloads
The Lost Colony Scenario is based on Smokki's Carcosa Valley Colony scenario. The colony's vehicles can be found in Smokki's workshop as well.