How to Configure Your Space Engineers Server

Space Engineers gives you a huge amount of control over your world, from the name of your server to how fast assemblers work and how much each player is allowed to build. This guide explains where each kind of setting lives and how to change it.

Where Your Settings Live

Your Space Engineers server keeps its settings in three places:

• The Startup tab: the basics, like your server name, description, game mode and auto-save interval.
• Sandbox_config.sbc: your world's gameplay settings, like inventory size, production speeds, monsters and PCU limits.
• SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg: server-level settings, like your admin list. See How to Become Admin on Your Space Engineers Server for that one.

Step 1: Basic Settings On The Startup Tab

1. Log into your MintServers panel and click the Stop button.
2. Click the Startup tab in the left-hand sidebar.
3. Change any of the settings you want, such as Server Name, Server Description, Game Mode (Survival or Creative), Max Players and Auto Save Interval (in minutes).
4. Navigate back to the Console tab and click Start.

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Step 2: Gameplay Settings In Sandbox_config.sbc

Almost every gameplay rule lives in your world's Sandbox_config.sbc file. This file takes priority over the same settings in Sandbox.sbc, so it is the one to edit.

1. Click the Stop button on your MintServers panel.
2. Navigate to the Files tab in the left-hand sidebar.
3. Open the config folder, then Saves, then World:
   📁 Server Root (the main view of the Files tab)

   📁 config

   📄 SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg (server-level settings, like your admin list)

   📁 Saves

   📁 World (the world your server loads)

   📄 Sandbox_config.sbc (click to edit: your gameplay settings)

   📄 Sandbox.sbc (world data, no need to edit)
4. Click on the Sandbox_config.sbc file to open the text editor.
5. Find the setting you want to change and edit the value between its tags. For example, to make character inventories bigger, change the number in . It should look like this:

  5
  3
  3
  false
  

6. Click the Save Content button at the top right of the file editor.
7. Navigate back to the Console tab and click Start.

Here are some of the most popular settings you can change:

• InventorySizeMultiplier: how big a player's character inventory is.
• BlocksInventorySizeMultiplier: how much cargo blocks can hold.
• AssemblerSpeedMultiplier: how fast assemblers craft items.
• AssemblerEfficiencyMultiplier: higher values mean blueprints need fewer materials.
• RefinerySpeedMultiplier: how fast refineries process ore.
• WelderSpeedMultiplier and GrinderSpeedMultiplier: how fast welding and grinding are.
• EnableSpiders and EnableWolfs: whether these animals spawn on planets.
• CargoShipsEnabled: whether NPC cargo ships spawn.
• EnvironmentHostility: meteor intensity. Options are SAFE, NORMAL, CATACLYSM and CATACLYSM_UNREAL.
• EnableOxygen: turns the oxygen features on or off.
• EnableCopyPaste: whether players can copy and paste ships.

PCU And Block Limits

PCU (Performance Cost Unit) is how Space Engineers measures how demanding each block is for the server. Limiting PCU and block counts is one of the most effective ways to keep your server running smoothly when players build very large ships and bases. These settings go in the same Sandbox_config.sbc file:

• BlockLimitsEnabled: turns the limits on and decides who they apply to. Options are NONE (limits off), GLOBALLY (everyone shares the limits), PER_FACTION and PER_PLAYER.
• TotalPCU: the total PCU pool. With PER_PLAYER, this number is divided by your player limit, so 200000 PCU with 10 players gives each player 20000 PCU.
• MaxBlocksPerPlayer: the most blocks one player can have built at the same time.
• MaxGridSize: the most blocks a single ship or station can have.

PER_PLAYER
200000
100000
50000

If BlockLimitsEnabled is set to NONE, all of the limits above are ignored.

Troubleshooting

• My changes are not applying: Make sure the server was completely stopped before you edited, that you edited Sandbox_config.sbc (not Sandbox.sbc), and that the setting is not one of the basic settings on the Startup tab.
• Server will not start after editing: This is usually a small typo. Every opening tag needs a matching closing tag, like 200000. Check the lines you changed, or restore your backup.
• A setting is missing from my file: Not every setting is listed in the file. If it is missing, the game uses its default value. You can add it on its own line inside the block using the same format as the others.
• Do not change ProceduralSeed or VoxelGeneratorVersion: These control how your world's terrain is generated. Changing them in an existing world can break it.
• Server is lagging: Set PCU and block limits as shown above and remove heavy mods to find the cause. Lowering SyncDistance can also reduce load, since a large sync distance can slow the server down considerably.

Now your server is set up exactly how you want it! If you are still having trouble, no worries! Just open a support ticket and our team will gladly jump in and help you get sorted out.