Mods (2024)

Space Engineers allows players to add or modify the game content, such customizations are called Mods. Mods are unofficial and free, and are different from official paid DLC. Mods add monolithic functionality and are easier to install and keep up-to-date, in contrast to the more powerful Plugins or Scripts.

It is recommended for new players to learn the base game (so called “vanilla”) first, and only if you need to fix a “quality of life” issue or want to achieve something new, then start looking into mods.

Typically you download community mods from a public Workshop, but you can also learn to write your own mods.

You enable mods for each saved world from its World Settings screen. This means that you choose which mods are active in each game save. The fact that mods are loaded into individual saves and not into the whole game gives us players much more control, especially when resolving mod conflicts.

How to Install Mods[]

Since you install mods into each world instance individually, you can have several combinations of mods downloaded and play each modded world without having to quit and restart the whole game like many other games require.

Community Mods are hosted on mod.io, or on the Steam workshop, or stored in local folders:

1. First go to one of the workshops and search for interesting mods.
   Tip: When searching the Steam Workshop, use the “type:mod” filter!
2. Log on and subscribe to the mods of your choice.
   Subscribing will download them into your local mods directory.
3. Open Space Engineers and click Load Game.
4. Select a game save and click Edit.
5. On the World Settings screen, clickMods and enable or disable individual subscribed Mods.

How to Update Mods[]

When loaded from a Steam Workshop subscription, enabled mods will auto-update when you re-open a modded world.

In Steam, mods that belong together can be grouped in a Steam Collection for easier installation. Similarly, when joining a Multiplayer server that uses mods, all required mods are automatically identified and downloaded to your instance.

See also Troubleshooting below.

Examples of mods available to install in Space Engineers[]

• Darth Biomech's Mods - open-sourced to learn from!
  • Milky Way Skybox
• Meridius_IX/Lucas' Workshop
  • Easy Block Renamer
  • Easy Control Button Access
  • MES Modular Encounters System
• Digi's Workshop
  • Digi's BuildInfo
• MES Wreckage (by TheFinalEvent97)
• Build Vision 3.0 by Dark Helmet
• SEModder4
  • Rendering Improved
• Klime's Workshop
  • Binoculars
  • Undo
  • No HUD Tooltips
  • Armor Replacer
  • InFlightButtons
• DraygoKorvan's workshop
  • Radio Spectrometry
  • Seismic Surveying
  • Video player
• enenra's Workshop
  • AQD - Quality of Life series
  • Pipelines (with Klime)
• Jakaria's Workshop
  • Water Mod
  • Nebula Mod
  • No Lightning damage
• Chipstix213's Workshop
  • AI Enabled
  • Many Character mods such as female variety, male variety, Plushy, no suits, animals, aliens, ...
• Adriano's Workshop
  • Button Pad - Touch App
• Patrick's Workshop
  • Crew Enabled
  • Star System Generator
• Splitsie's Workshop
  • Assertive Combat Systems
  • Sneaky Sounds - quieter tools
  • Long range spotlight
• Dummy08's Workshop
  • Nanobot Build and Repair systems
• Ryukki's Workshop
  • NPCs and bots, e.g. Populated Worlds Ai Enabled NPCs
  • Medieval Engineers Planet
  • Colorful Rendering
• Bačiulis' Workshop
  • Rust Mechanics
• Skalabjoern's Workshop
  • Daily Needs
• cKerensky’s workshop
  • PVP Dynamic Tracking Beacon, Thermal Signatures
  • passive thermal signature without beacons for PvP
• jTurp's Workshop
  • Mini Map (Radar)
• Thraxus' Workshop
  • AwwScrap
  • Hostile Takeover
• Whiplash141's Workshop
  • Weapon Core
  • Screen Gunk be gone
• Spacebar's Workshop
  • Modular thrusters
  • Industrial Engineers
• Sektan's Workshop
• mz' Workshop
  • Grabby Hands - Grid Pickup/Holding/Manipulation
• AutoMcDonough's Workshop
  • MADAR (third-person view radar)

Mod Troubleshooting[]

If mods that are trying to modify the same SBC file are loaded in a suboptimal order, the game will not load and you’ll see error messages in the log file. Identify mods with potentially overlapping effects and re-order them in the Mods list under World Settings>Mods before loading the world again. Sometimes it’s possible to find a load order that is compatible, but not always. Also, read the notes by the mod creator who may be recommending load orders that are known to work.

If it says you cannot join a server because of a "version conflict", either your game or the mods are outdated. If mods do not auto update, try unsubscribing and resubscribing to the mod or mod collection in the workshop.

To find the path were you mods are stored by Steam, see Modding.

Differences Between Mods on PC and Console[]

Xbox and Playstation players can only install certain mods from mod.io: They are restricted to "SBC mods" that do not rely on scripts to run on the console itself. This limitation exists because Microsoft and Sony do not allow executing custom scripts on their consoles. Example: Reddit Custom Encounters - MES mod by Meridius_IX/Lucas

While SBC mods can be installed on xbox and playstation, script mods cannot. If however the script mod and its script are installed on a dedicated server (PC) and fully run there, console users can join the hosted game and use the script mods there.

Some bugs only occur on one platform and some only on the other. If you upload to both mod.io and Steam, it’s best to also test (or have a friend test) whether your mod actually works on both platforms.

Notes and References[]

• A bug was introduced in the 1.040 update that prevented mods from properly loading and was fixed by the 1.042 update, following the Steam Workshop integration.
• Mods, much like other non-core files, are written in an human-readable XML format customised by Keen.