Sparks of the Future Scenario
The Sparks of the Future scenario was released to showcase the Sparks of the Future Update and DLC. The scenario has no enemies to fight nor a written story nor goal. It's a relaxing exploration map for space engineers who deserve a luxurious vacation.
Content
One or more people explore a high-tech asteroid base together, travel between asteroids in automated shuttles and trams, enjoy the entertainment (shops, music clubs, shooting range, restaurants, shrine, etc.), and snoop around backstage... Come on, what's the worst that could happen, the space police's gonna arrest you!? ;-)
The scenario is neon sci-fi themed and contains blocks from the paid Sparks of the Future DLC -- such as sci-fi button panels, Neon Tubes, neon and sci-fi Armor Skins, large LCD posters, and sci-fi thrusters -- but owning the DLC is not required to play the scenario.
Sparks of the Future - update trailer (video)
Should I play it?
This showcase scenario is suitable for everyone, even complete beginners. There are no objectives, just exploration.
Included vehicles
The scenario features an automated overhead monorail and shuttle that are good examples of how to build zero-g rails and how to program shuttles/trams using Remote Control waypoints and Timer blocks.
- SOTF Tram A (red)
- SOTF Tram B (blue)
- SOTF Shuttle
You can also find several utility vehicles that are purpose-built for use on asteroid stations with artificial gravity.
The shooting range with its moving targets is another example of Timer block automation that you can learn from.
Download the Extended Scenario
The extended edition of the scenario is available for free from the Steam workshop. The full version of Sparks of the Future station additionally includes:
- The luxurious Hotel Argon,
- the famous Space Engineers Museum, and
- the state-of-art Engineering Sector with three more utility vehicles.
This larger version of the scenario is performance heavy and may not run optimally on low-end to mid-range systems. After you subcribe to the workshop item, select this world on the "Scenarios" tab of the "New Game" screen.
The Mars based scenes that can be seen in the beginning of the update trailer contain some grids that are not included in the SOTF scenario. These builds can be found in Xocliw's Steam Workshop:
Trivia
The aquarium and the pool are a clever trick that uses a Safe Zone force field as water effect. The fish are on a projector on a rotor.
Sections of the asteroid station are painted in red, blue, and yellow, and it does not belong to solely one faction. This can be interpreted as it being a neutral place of cooperation that is open to everybody.