Update 0.5.1 – Now With Shovels

Hello, Engineers! Here it is at long last! The next major update for Medieval Engineers! In this update we are focusing on making the game more enjoyable to play.
We have created new animations for picking things up and placing ropes. Picking up items is also accompanied by a small particle effect. We rewrote how every tool works, making it a more consistent experience, and providing more immediate feedback to the player.
By improving the font, the menus become more readable and we improved the flow on most of the GUI making it a lot easier to work with. All of the key bindings have been redesigned and you are now able to configure the game in any way you want! All of this is made easier by contextual hints and action icons that make playing more intuitive than ever.

Finally, we are introducing the new shovel tool, providing a fun and easy way to modify voxels in exciting ways! The shovel tools allow engineers to dig up dirt and then put it back down anywhere they want. Using landscaping stakes, engineers can rope off an area of ground and use the shovel to level the ground in that area.

We continue to smash through barriers to modding by allowing modders to create their own entity components. This means that modders will be able to program behaviors for anything in the world in exactly the same way we do. Not only does this make total conversion mods possible but it means the sky is the limit for creating new content, new behaviors, and completely new features!
Finally, lots of small optimizations to help improve the performance of the game!

As always; we leave the last version of 0.4, 0.4.20, as a historical branch, forever available as a separate branch. This will be your fail-safe way to update your older saves for the newer version of the game.

Tools
– Added the Shovel so you can now dig , add , and flatten dirt. There are even landscaping stakes to help you co-ordinate your efforts with your friends!
– Reworked the tool system to be more consistent. All of the tools and weapons now have distinct functionality. No longer will you accidentally end up digging the soil while cutting a tree, or breaking your castle trying to build it!
– Added dynamic crosshair icons to inform you what the left and right mouse buttons do, as well as your use key action!

GUI
– Added a new font! We no longer use the Miner Wars font, we have a font of our own.
– We reworked many GUI’s to be easier to use, like the crafting screen and the inventory management. Now you have a short crafting queue, inventory management keys, and much more useful tooltips for items in the game.
– We have created a new server browser that is a lot more responsive and a lot easier to use. Plus, it now tells you what mods the server is using!

Character
– Added several new animations and effects to the character. Picking up items now plays a short animation, as does connecting ropes.
– Fixed lots of little things with animations.

Keybindings
– Added the ability to rebind almost every interaction in the game.
– Added a new keybindings screen.

Miscellaneous
– Removed all implementation of the old flat worlds. We will no longer support these worlds. To continue playing on the old legacy maps, you can switch to the 0.4 branch.
– Removed MyMedievalDoor and similar, old implementations of blocks. These have been replaced by other, superior components introduced in 0.4, so please use these in the future.

Mods
– Added mod version support, mods can now map to the game versions.
– Vastly increased modding support with entity components, object builders, multiplayer integration, etc.
– Added support to create moddable input bindings.
– Created many new modding guides.

ModAPI
– Overhauled inventory code. Inventory items are now objects inheriting from MyInventoryItem. A whole new API was added to complement this feature.
– Introduced multiplayer synchronization API which is equivalent to the native API used in engine.
– Improved MyDefinitionManager interface.
– Added indexing support for user types. Any indexed engine type (definitions, components, entities) can now be declared on a mod and will function.
– Subpart, Entity, and Subpart Animation interfaces moved to VRage.ModAPI.Components.Entity namespace.
– Legacy definition manager renamed to MyDefinitionManagerSandbox

Removed from ModAPI
– Majority of Space Engineers Object Builders, Definitions and Classes
– Majority Definitions/Object Builders and Classes related to Legacy World (flatland).
– Old Crafting Component (Base, Basic, Block, interactive)
– Access to lights (superseded by effects component).
– Space Mod/Ingame APIs
– Gps System

Added to ModAPI
– Added access to Sandbox.Game.Replication namespace.
– Added access to VRage.Network namespace.
– Added access to VRage.Components.
– Added access to new definition manager (VRage.Game.MyDefinitionManager) with much improved API and simplified usage.

Marek’s Blog post: Medieval Engineers – Major Update 0.5 – Intuitivity
http://blog.marekrosa.org/2017/05/medieval-engineers-major-update-05.html