How to Change the World Settings on Your Space Engineers Server

Many settings of your world are not available as a field in the dashboard — for example the inventory size, the speed of assemblers and refineries, meteors, NPC ships or the sync distance. You change these settings directly in your world's Sandbox_config.sbc file.

Note

Only the file /config/Saves/World/Sandbox_config.sbc applies to your world. When loading, the server uses it to replace the settings from Sandbox.sbc — so you do not need to change that file as well.

Do not edit the <SessionSettings> block in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg. The server only uses this block when it creates a new world. That does not happen on your server, because it always loads the existing world World. For the same reason, you do not need to delete a LastSession.sbl file either.

Change these values in the dashboard

Warning

Some values are also stored in Sandbox_config.sbc, but the dashboard overwrites them on every start with the values from the Settings. Therefore, only change them there:

Key in the file	Dashboard field	Guide
GameMode	Game Mode	Change Game Mode
MaxPlayers	Max Players	Change Maximum Players
EnableSaving, AutoSaveInMinutes	Automatic Backup, Automatic Backup Interval	Set Up Automatic Backups
ExperimentalMode	Experimental Mode	Enable Experimental Mode
EnableIngameScripts	In-Game Scripts	Allow In-Game Scripts

Change the world settings

Warning

Stop your server before editing the file. The server completely rewrites Sandbox_config.sbc every time it saves and overwrites any changes you made while it was running.

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

2. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP, or use the file browser in the dashboard.

3. Save a copy of the file
   Download a copy of the Sandbox_config.sbc file from your world folder /config/Saves/World/. This copy lets you restore the previous state if something goes wrong while editing. You can also create a backup of the entire world.

4. Open the file
   In your world folder /config/Saves/World/ open the file Sandbox_config.sbc.

5. Change the value
   All world settings are in the <Settings xsi:type="MyObjectBuilder_SessionSettings"> block. Look for the setting you want from the tables below and only change the value between the tags. For example, to increase the players' inventory size from 3 to 10, change this line:

   <InventorySizeMultiplier>10</InventorySizeMultiplier>

   • Switches only accept true (on) and false (off) — always in lowercase.
   • Write decimal numbers with a dot, for example 0.5.
   • Write option values such as NORMAL exactly as shown in the table, in capital letters.

6. Start the server
   Save the file and start your server.

7. Check the change
   While the world loads, this line must appear in the server console:

   Sandbox world configuration file found, overriding checkpoint settings.

   It shows that the server has applied your Sandbox_config.sbc. A little later, the line Experimental mode reason: shows whether one of your settings forces experimental mode — if it shows 0, none does. Learn more under Forced experimental mode.

Important

If Sandbox_config.sbc contains an error — for example a missing opening or closing tag, True instead of true, a comma instead of a dot or Normal instead of NORMAL — the server ignores the entire file. The console does not show an error message for this, only the line Sandbox world configuration file found… is missing. The server then loads the settings and mods from Sandbox.sbc and overwrites Sandbox_config.sbc the next time it saves. Your changes — including newly added mods — are lost.

If the line is missing after the start, stop the server, restore your copy of the file and change the values again.

Multipliers

The Default column shows the value of the preinstalled world, the Selectable in game column the values the game itself offers in its world settings. A dash means the setting is not available there.

Key	Meaning	Default	Selectable in game
InventorySizeMultiplier	Inventory size of the players	3	1, 3, 5, 10
BlocksInventorySizeMultiplier	Inventory size of blocks such as cargo containers	1	1, 3, 5, 10
AssemblerSpeedMultiplier	Speed of the assemblers	3	–
AssemblerEfficiencyMultiplier	Efficiency of the assemblers — the higher, the fewer ingots a component needs	3	1, 3, 10
RefinerySpeedMultiplier	Speed of the refineries	3	1, 3, 10
WelderSpeedMultiplier	Welding speed	2	0.5, 1, 2, 5
GrinderSpeedMultiplier	Grinding speed	2	0.5, 1, 2, 5
HackSpeedMultiplier	Grinding speed of the hand grinder on blocks of enemy or neutral players (hacking)	0.33	–
HarvestRatioMultiplier	Ore yield when drilling	1	–

If you set the multipliers for player inventory, assembler, refinery, welding, grinding or hacking to 0 or less, the server resets them to the default value when loading.

Warning

According to Keen Software House, values beyond the selection in the game are not tested and officially unsupported ("Values out of the range allowed by the game user interface are not tested and officially unsupported", source). They can seriously affect the game experience and the performance of your server.

Players and gameplay

Key	Meaning	Default
Enable3rdPersonView	Third-person view	true
EnableJetpack	Jetpack	true
SpawnWithTools	Players spawn with tools in their inventory	true
AutoHealing	Automatic healing — only in oxygen environments and while the player is not taking damage	true
EnableRespawnShips	Respawn ships as a spawn point	true
EnableAutorespawn	Automatic respawn at the nearest available respawn point	true
EnableCopyPaste	Copying and pasting ships and stations	false
WeaponsEnabled	Weapons	true
ThrusterDamage	Damage from thrusters	true
EnableOxygen	Oxygen	true
EnableOxygenPressurization	Airtightness of rooms	true
EnableContainerDrops	Drop containers (unknown signals)	true
FamilySharing	Joining with accounts from Steam Family Sharing — with false, the server rejects such accounts	true
EnableSunRotation	Sun rotation (day and night)	true
SunRotationIntervalMinutes	Duration of one sun rotation in minutes	approx. 120 (in the file 119.999992)

Meteors and NPCs

Key	Meaning	Default
EnvironmentHostility	Frequency and intensity of meteor showers: SAFE (none), NORMAL, CATACLYSM or CATACLYSM_UNREAL — increasing in this order	SAFE
CargoShipsEnabled	NPC cargo ships	true
EnableEncounters	Random encounters in space	true
EnableDrones	NPC drones	true
MaxDrones	Maximum number of drones at the same time	5
EnableWolfs	Wolves	false
EnableSpiders	Spiders	false

Wolves and spiders do not force experimental mode.

View and sync distance

Key	Meaning	Default	Range
ViewDistance	View distance in meters	15000	1000–50000
SyncDistance	Distance in meters up to which the server synchronizes ships, stations and objects around a player	3000	1000–20000

The server sets values outside these ranges to the nearest limit when loading.

Warning

According to Keen, a high SyncDistance can slow down the server drastically. Values above 3000 also force experimental mode.

Note

If crossplay is enabled on your server, the server limits SyncDistance to at most 2000 and MaxFloatingObjects to at most 50 when loading, among other things. It also turns EnableContainerDrops off.

Forced experimental mode

Warning

Some settings turn experimental mode on when loading — even if it is set to false in the dashboard. The server console shows which setting is responsible, for example:

Experimental mode reason: ExperimentalMode, SyncDistance

ExperimentalMode is included in the line because the server has turned experimental mode on. What matters are the other names, in the example SyncDistance. If your server should run without experimental mode, change these settings so that none of the conditions from the table below applies anymore.

Setting	Forces experimental mode at
SyncDistance	more than 3000
SunRotationIntervalMinutes	29 or less
MaxFloatingObjects	more than 100
TotalBotLimit	more than 32
ProceduralDensity	more than 0.35
PhysicsIterations	any value other than 8
TotalPCU	more than 600000
BlockLimitsEnabled	NONE
AdaptiveSimulationQuality	false
EnableSpectator, PermanentDeath, ResetOwnership, EnableSubgridDamage, StationVoxelSupport, EnableSupergridding	true
Max Players (dashboard)	more than 16
In-Game Scripts (dashboard)	true

In the console, the settings appear under their name from the file. Exceptions: EnableSupergridding is shown as SupergriddingEnabled, Max Players as MaxPlayers and In-Game Scripts as EnableIngameScripts. For more on TotalPCU and BlockLimitsEnabled, see Change the block and PCU limits.