Play Voidspace
Posted: Feb 24, 2022

Getting started playing Voidspace

It is imperative for a new player to go through the tutorial at the beginning of the game in order to get used to the controls and get their first exposure to the the game's features. But at this point we have progressed the game far enough that the beginning tutorial may not be enough. This blog article is meant to bridge the gap until we have time to create a longer tutorial and possibly even branching quest lines that are meant to further expose the player to Voidspace's features.

We also have a discord channel with many active players available to answer any questions that new players might have. Both the developers and the community are often readily available here. It is also a place for players to find like-minded individuals who want to join or start a group. Click here to join the discord server!

What you should do after finishing the beginner tutorials in Voidspace

The new player tutorials expose you to moving around, transporting large objects in and out of your ship, the invention and crafting system, creating your first ship and refueling it, asteroid mining, and a number of other important tasks for survival in the game. After that however, the player is left to their own devices.

Create your first ship from scratch

It might seem like an unnecessary task after completing the tutorial because the tutorial gives you your first ship with a weapon already. However, there are some drawbacks to the initial ship you are given. First of all, it is not easily reproducible as it required an escape pod from the old world in order to make. This means that unless you can find another escape pod, you won't be able to reproduce this ship again. It's better to start creating your ships from scratch. Ships that you create from scratch also have other benefits that the upgraded escape pod doesn't have. For one thing it has equipment slots that will allow you to install power generators and batteries. There are some downsides to the new ships that you will create though. Since you're creating a ship from scratch and not using old world parts, your first ships are most likely going to be fairly slow and cumbersome. But at least you'll be able to craft as many as you have materials and time for.

Furthermore, distributed ships allow you to reorganize the ship internals to your liking. You can create fuel tankers, or passenger ferries, or cargo ships, or weapon platforms, or anything that you need. Although distributed ship options are not available at the very beginning, it will quickly become unlocked as you start crafting ships.

Class 1 crafted ship
Class 1 crafted ship

How to create your first ship in Voidspace

First you have to get an idea for creating the ship from scratch. This is done by experimenting/studying things like your welder, iron objects (including iron ore, iron coil... etc), and wires. This will get you started with an idea for your first ship if you get at least 30 or so experience points in each of these categories. To be more specific, it means studying each of these items 30 times. Each time you study an item through the invention system, you gain an experience point in that items "class". These experience points are then used directly to determine which ideas your can discover get for crafting.

Keep in mind that you will need to create a hydrolox rocket engine, and an RCS engine for your ship separately. You may also want to create a steam generator to be installed in the equipment grid slots on your new ship. Finally, you'll probably want to create a battery so that the steam generator has somewhere to store its excess energy. If you don't have a battery on the ship then every time you go back into the ship to recharge, you have to wait for the generator to charge you back up slowly. However if you have a battery installed, when you go into your ship after an excursion, your suits batteries will recharge immediately, drawing power from the battery on your ship.

The items you'll want to study for the rocket engines include wires and fluid tanks. You should have both of these items still available from the tutorial. Your first rocket engine is going to be quite simple, and slow, but it'll do for now.

How to create defenses for your base

So far it seems that players tend to be quite peaceful and have a tendency to work together. However it certainly happens that bases can be rated by other players who are in need of something. And on rare occasions some players may even go out of their way to destroy all your stuff. For this reason it is important to think about setting up defenses for your base.

create defensive turrets

At the moment turrets are probably one of the most potent defensive structures you can build. They can be quite sturdy and you can build a single or double barreled variant. The experience requirements for getting the idea for building a turret are very minimal and really only require some very modest levels structural engineering, and welding XP. Of course you also need to build some weapons to install in it, and keep it stocked with ammunition and fuel. They will also need RCS engines so that they can rotate. Luckily the tutorial at the beginning of the game showed you how to create at least the most basic weapon.

 Double barreled turret
Double barreled turret

Turrets cannot operate automatically without a character piloting it. They are meant to be driven by a character at all times. This means that you need to start spawning new characters in your base and use them to man the turrets. This is possibly counterintuitive for some people because the game looks like one that is meant to played by a single character. The game plays like a first person game with a single character but in fact you are meant to play with multiple characters at the same time, switching between each character as you work on them a little bit at a time. At the moment there is no limit to the number of characters you can spawn so feel free to go nuts and have as many fully functioning "autonomous" turrets as you need.

Use multiple characters to accelerate your technological progress

Since the game is meant to be played with multiple characters at the same time, you are welcome to use them. This means assigning some of your characters to be mining, while others are working on inventions and crafting, or taking up defensive posts. Normally you might have one character devoted to exploration that functions like your main character while other characters are back at home working on inventions. It's important to know though that not all long running operations will continue while you are not logged in in the area. Inventions will continue, however mining will not. If you are not actively looking at the character, or not on a character that is near a mining character, then the mining character will not continue mining until you come back. This will probably be addressed at some point in a future update.

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