Space Engineers Tutorial: Building Your First Base (Part 6 of a survival tutorial series)

This Space Engineers tutorial covers the basics of building your first base on a planet. This base design is focused on the necessary industrial functions for survival, with a little bit of design flair thrown in.

I hope you find this one useful, I've got a few more base building topics that will need to be covered in the future including lighting and an automated sorting setup.

This following bit is an intro that I ended cutting out of the video but may be useful as it highlights a number of the things that are useful to think about when starting your base:

The biggest challenge in building a base is that it's strapped down, you can't move it. Once you've started building and you don't like where you are, the only option is a painful one - start all over again somewhere else. So, before you start your build it can be useful to think through some of the roles the base will play so your design can be all you hope it can be.

The industrial aesthetic of Space Engineers has always encouraged me to think in terms of form following function. I set out in my head the various functions I want in my base, then try to fit the form to that in some sort of interesting way. The different functions you might have in mind for your base are almost endless. Still, you may want to consider these functions for all of your bases and if you exclude one, know why you're doing that.

1. Power, whether this is with reactors, solar panels, batteries or a combination, having some idea from the start will help

2. Storage, depending on the size of the base this could be anything from a 100m long room full of large cargo containers to a couple of small ones strung together

3. Assemblers, If you're building a base then I'm going to assume you'll want to be able to build or repair things there, well we need components so we need one or more assemblers

4. Refineries, these are big and heavy, so why bother shipping them around, just bring the ore back home and process it there. A few of these with some arc furnaces if you like variety and your base will be singing with activity

5. Hangar or landing pad, you'll almost always have at least one vehicle capable of flight so it needs somewhere to park and if it collects or uses resources then you should really have somewhere to store it

6. Garage, I like rovers, even when they're broken and cause you endless hassles, I like driving around so whenever I build a base that could be entered by vehicles trapped on the surface I want somewhere to store them too

7. Medbay, as soft and squishy creatures we need somewhere to go when everything goes wrong, this could also be where you put your oxygen and hydrogen supplies

8. Living areas, We're people so we like having somewhere to sleep, relax and entertain ourselves. Sadly the vanilla game doesn't have much in the way of props for this but there are many great modders out there who have so this is where I'd dive into the mods if you like a little bit of interior design

9. Defence, think about what enemies you're likely to face and take a stab at what you might think will be an effective way to defend but don't be afraid to make your defence slightly less effective if it looks a whole lot cooler.

There are more, but those 9 should be enough to get you thinking and designing something that will work and if need be you can rebuild sections later if that will make them look or function better.

As always, don't forget to enjoy this awesome (if at times buggy) game!

Music and Sound Effects by:
Space Engineers

[Splitsie]

I could have gone on for days and days about topics related to base building, hopefully what I left in is enough to get you started on building your own awesome designs.

[davidcherry]

you can put upgrade modules on all four long sides of the assembler, even the bit that looks like a regular conveyer port. it has the smaller upgrade port box in it as well if you take a look

[StoutCrusher]

If you re-look at the Assembler, there is a smaller square inside the big squares, you can connect the same number (and completely cover) the Assembler. Access can be gained on the other end. Looks good though, love your videos, very helpful.

[surraldsign]

"two things the base is currently missing... energy and some buttons"

*base has a total of 0 walls*

[peanut]

I just got space engineers on xbox and I had no idea what I was doing, but thankfully I found your channel.

[arianboy]

it was a shock for me to see you have only about 600 subs, these are quality video's i must say. keep it up!

[revenevan]

Omg that base looks spectacular, I love the architectural style/design of it! Takes advantage of the blocky medium of space engineers lol. The only problem is I'd love to see a bit of a guide on how you go about *that* since the rest is stuff I already know at this point! Still an excellent tutorial and even just looking has given me some new ideas!

[mikkelborg]

I must say, off all the tutorials in SE, you make some of the very best! Very well produced and explained, superb

[BassBiest]

The quality of this Tutorial is astonishing. Not only do you give me the information I wanted, you actually made this enjoyable to watch with soft music going to background every time you speak and getting back to dominant when there is nothing to say. I could watch this for days. You deserve more views!

[mapworm]

I just started playing Space Engineers couple days ago, and your videos showing how to build stuff by blocks has been a very helpful feature, and you got some solid tips that eased the learning curve quite a bit. Looking forward to your next vid in the series!

[krn]

Thanks a ton for these tutorials. Without them I would've totally wasted my $20!

[Idolismo]

I love these. I haven't played in a long while and there are barely any decent updated tutorials out there. Thank you!

[IanGem]

I'm getting hooked to this game.

As usual, top notch narration and video. The music is very nice.

Thank you for creating and uploading this, hope to see more in the future.

[Genjokoan]

Shiny! I just got the game. I have learned more from your videos in a day than it would have taken me weeks to figure out. Thanks.

[hexracon]

yes finally thx for uploading the tutorial again the last ones really helped a lot hope you make great content again now

[nanookdan]

Great videos! I'm just back from a year-long SE break and am incredibly pleased with the improvements. Your videos make getting re-acquainted with the game a breeze.

[Comicsluvr]

One of the things that I love about your Tutorials is that you use Vanilla resources without relying on a pile of mods that may break and render the video obsolete. This video was good 2 years ago and is still relevant today.

[VCCharlieSoLO]

these videos have change my space engineer life . thank you

[solemnpatriot]

Hey man, im new to your channel and I love your vids, the way you make these tutorials are very simple and also helped me in my survival world. Not to mention you do these tutorials in survival. I wish you luck not only for your channel but for your future life. Keep up thr great work!

[pupsratte]

I really appreciate these tutorials, very nicely done!

I just started with Space Engineers and they are a great help to figure out what to do and how to do it!