Space Engineers server setup: the first hour

A new Space Engineers server is ready to play after its first start. Optionally set a join password first, press Start, wait until the Console shows Game ready, then give players the address from the Players page. The first start is slower than later ones, so do not stop it early.

Loafhosts runs Space Engineers (the game on Steam, app 244850). It does not run Space Engineers 2, which has no dedicated server yet. This guide is current for game version 1.210.014 as of 15 November 2026. The server is described on the Space Engineers page.

What a new server starts with

When your order finishes, the server already has these settings:

• The size you chose. Small has 2 cores, 6 GB of memory, 30 GB of disk and up to 8 players. Standard has 4 cores, 8 GB, 40 GB and 16 players. Large has 4 cores, 12 GB, 50 GB and 32 players. A bigger plan has more memory. The Players value on Startup takes your size’s number. Keen Software House, the game’s makers, name 3 logical cores as the hardware minimum, and Small has 2. Not checked whether that counts against the minimum as of 15 November 2026.
• The name Hosted By Loafhosts.com. A store order does not set the name, so players see this one in the game’s server list until you change Server name on Startup.
• No join password. Anyone who finds the server can join.
• The panel tools off. These are the panel’s own plugin, an add-on the server loads. They are optional. See below.
• A world called Star System, made at the first start. It is one of the 17 game worlds the World page offers. You can pick another before the first start.
• Standby on. The server stops by itself after nobody has played for 10 days. The world is saved, and nothing is deleted.

Before the first start: name, password and world

These are optional. Each one applies at the next start, so doing them now saves a restart.

1. Name. Open Startup, change Server name (up to 64 characters), and choose Save. The Rename Server card on Settings changes only the name the panel shows you, not the name in the game.
2. Join password. Open the Config Editor and choose Passwords (1). Type a Join password (2) (its key is SERVER_PASSWORD) and choose Save. It may use letters, digits, dashes and underscores, 1 to 64 characters, with no spaces. Leave it empty to keep the server open. It never appears on Startup.
3. World. Open the World page. The New world card has a Start from list of the game’s own worlds, for example Earth Planet or Empty World. Choose one, type a Name, and choose Make it at the next start. If you do nothing, the first start makes Star System.

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The first start

The install (about 5 minutes) runs when the server is made, or when you press Reinstall Server, before any start. Press Start at the top of the page. The first start makes the world. Players can join once the Console shows Game ready.

For about 11 minutes after the first start, the server builds .NET files in the background (.NET is the software the game’s server runs on). During this time it works harder and may run slower. A later start of a small world took about half a minute on a Loafhosts server (measured: 31 seconds, Star System with three mods).

If Game ready does not appear for a long time, open Crashes. Each start is listed there with what happened, and a start that never got ready is marked Failed to start.

How players join

Open the Players page. The Join box shows the server’s address and port. Choose Copy (1) to copy it. Players need the game, not a separate server file.

In the game, a player chooses Join Game. They can find the server by its name on the Servers tab, or press Direct Connect and paste the address. The guide How players join a Space Engineers server goes through it, and through why a server may not show in the list.

Not checked with a player on 1.210 as of 15 November 2026: how Direct Connect takes the port.

There is one UDP port (the kind of connection the game uses). It carries play and the Steam server list. You never open or forward a port.

Xbox and PlayStation players cannot join. The server uses Steam networking with console play off, so only PC players on Steam can join.

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Experimental mode and the panel tools

Experimental mode is a game setting for features the game treats as unstable. A world that uses any of them is marked experimental, and players must turn it on in their game (Options, Game) to join.

A new server is already experimental, with the panel tools off. The world it makes has Programmable block scripts on and Block limits on None, and the game counts both as reasons. The real start log of such a server reads Experimental mode reason: BlockLimitsEnabled, EnableIngameScripts, Plugins, and the panel tools are the last of those. So your players need Experimental mode on from the start, and turning the tools on adds nothing they must change.

To check your own server, open the Console and find the line Experimental mode: after Loading session, with the reason line under it. The Experimental mode guide explains each reason.

The panel tools show who is on with their health and suit, move ships on the map, and let you kick, ban, rank, give items and press Save now (2). Turning them on asks you first, and they load at the next start. Without them, Players still lists names from the Steam player query (the list of players the game reports to Steam), and the map and inventories show the world as of its last save.

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Read What the panel tools are before you choose.

Mods

Open Mods. The list belongs to the world that loads, and each world keeps its own list. Add a Steam Workshop mod by its link or ID on the Workshop tab, then choose Apply and restart (or Apply when the server is stopped). Apply stops the server, writes the world’s list, and starts it again if it was running. The game then downloads the mods, and the mods they need, as it starts. Players’ games download them when they join.

A mod that its maker removes can stop a world from loading. Take a backup before you remove or change mods.

Backups

There are two kinds, and they are not the same.

• The game’s own backups are whole copies of one world, made as the game saves. They are on the World page under Backups. Their count is Backups kept in the Config Editor. Put back copies one into a new world.
• Panel backups are on Settings, then Backups. Press Create, then Create Backup. They copy the server’s files as they are. Take one with the server stopped, or after Save now, which needs the panel tools. Wait a few seconds after Save now: it asks the game to save and does not wait. The files are then not copied while the game is saving.

A normal stop saves in 3 to 9 seconds.

Where each page is

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• Console: the game’s own lines.
• Config Editor: Passwords, Server settings and World settings. World settings can be saved only while the server is stopped. 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.
• Startup: Update on start, Server name, Players and Panel tools.
• Players, Map, Inventories: who is on, the world as a map, and what ships (grids, a grid being a ship or a station) and people hold.
• Mods and World: the mod list and the worlds.
• Crashes: each start, read for what happened.
• Settings: Standby, Auto-Kill, backups, schedules and access.

If it does not work

• The server is not in the list. It may still be starting. Wait for Game ready. Also check the player’s filters in the game (see the join guide). Players find it by Server name, which is Hosted By Loafhosts.com until you change it.
• A player cannot join. They need Experimental mode on. See Experimental mode.
• The first start seems slow. The .NET build takes about 11 minutes and slows the server. Check Crashes before you do anything else.

Sources: spaceengineers.wiki.gg: Multiplayer, spaceengineers.wiki.gg: Experimental mode, spaceengineers.wiki.gg: Mods

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