Space Engineers Config Editor: a tour of every tab

The Config Editor is where you change the settings of your Space Engineers server. It has up to three tabs: Passwords, Server settings and World settings of the world that loads. You save with Save. Server settings and the password apply at the next start. World settings can only be saved with the server stopped.

The three tabs

1234

1. Passwords (1). One field: Join password (SERVER_PASSWORD). Players need it to join, and an empty one means none. Use letters, digits, dash and underscore, 1 to 64 characters. A new server has none. See the server password guide.
2. Server settings (2). The server’s own settings, kept in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg: Description (ServerDescription), Message of the day (MessageOfTheDay), Steam group only (GroupID), Pause when nobody is on (PauseGameWhenEmpty), Restart after a crash (AutoRestartEnabled), the chat protection rows and the timed restart rows. The tab prints each row’s key beside its label.
3. World settings (3). The settings of the world that loads, named after the world, kept in the world’s Sandbox_config.sbc file in its Settings section. They sit in groups such as World, Players, Survival, Economy, Speeds, and Saving and clean-up.

A new server shows only Passwords and Server settings until it has started twice: the first start makes the world, the next start names it as the world that loads. Start it again (or restart it), then stop it to change world settings. The same happens after Make it at the next start on the World page. Use this world shows the tab at once.

When a change applies

• World settings: stop the server first (4). The game writes the world’s file itself when it stops, over anything changed while it runs. The note says “Stop the server to change these settings.” With the server running Save stays disabled. Stop the server, save, then start it.
• Server settings can be saved while the server runs. The game reads them at the next start. After you save, the page says “Saved. Restart the server to apply the changes.” with a Restart now button.
• Passwords apply at the next start too.

A new world made on the World page takes the settings of the world that ran last, so change them here after.

Rows the panel sets

Some rows are shown but cannot be edited, because the panel sets them at every start. On Server settings they sit in a group called Set by Loafhosts. Most have a link to the page that owns them:

1

• Server name: set on Startup, with the Open Startup link.
• World that loads, New world’s name and New world made from: chosen on the World page, with the Open World link.
• The plugins row follows the Panel tools switch on Startup. A plugin is an add-on the server loads.

The join password is on Passwords and not on Startup. The admin, ban and reserved slot lists are on Players.

Timed restarts

Warning before a stop (minutes) (ManualActionDelay) and Stop warning (ManualActionChatMessage) are Server settings rows. The game has its own Restart every (minutes) row too (AutoRestatTimeInMin, spelled that way in the game’s file). Not checked on a Loafhosts server: whether it works under the panel, what Crashes then shows, and whether players see the warning. A restart on the Schedules page does not warn players. See auto restart and the watchdog.

Advanced

Settings that the editor has no name for sit in a group called Advanced. Choose Show them to open it; most servers never change them. Their names are made from the file’s key, such as “Global encounter PCU” in the picture below, and they have no help line. Change one only when you know what it does.

Search

Type in Search at the top right. Each tab then shows how many rows match (7 on the world’s tab in the picture), and the page shows only those rows.

1

Save and Discard

Changed rows are tagged Changed, and the bar at the bottom shows Unsaved changes with a count. Choose Save to write them, or Discard to drop them. A row the file lacks shows Game default.

If it does not work

• There is no World settings tab. On a new server, start it again, then stop it, as above. - Save is greyed out. On World settings, stop the server. On any tab, your role may not allow changes: the page says “You can see these settings but not change them.”
• My change did not take effect. Restart the server. Check the row is not one the panel sets.
• A setting is not in the list. Look under Advanced, or use Search.

More about the game: Space Engineers servers on Loafhosts.

Space Engineers serversAll Space Engineers guides