Multiplayer Screen
The Multiplayer screen lists information about players that are online in your game. The host can perform multiplayer related actions here, and as a player, you can see who else is here and initiate player trading.
To open the Multiplayer screen, press F3 key.
Where am I?
On top, the screen will show you:
- server name
If you've joined a public server, remember the name so you can find it again. - number of players online/max
How many slots are occupied of the maximum number of possible players. For example, if it indicates “4/4”, then the server is full.
How to choose who can join
The hosts decide who can join their games. As the host, use the Lobby Type menu to select one of the following options:
- Private - Only people whom you invite can join.
- Friends - People on your friends list can join.
- Public - Anybody can join.
How to adjust the number of allowed players
The host can use the Max Players slider to allow more or fewer players to join. You can set it to a value between 1 and 16, by default. The actual maximum value is platform dependent and could be higher or lower on PC or console.
How to invite players
When using Steam, the host can click Invite to get a list of online players and invite them. Then click Return to Game.
Note that Steam also lists online friends that don't have Space Engineers installed and who cannot actually join.
Who is here with me
On the multiplayer screen, anyone who is logged-on can see the following information about other logged-on players.
- Player name - the Steam name of the player
- Faction - The player's faction name and tag. The tag will be prefixed on their ships' names.
- Rank - The player's faction rank on this server.
- Ping - How fast in milliseconds the player's connection reacts. Smaller numbers (10-60ms) means very fast connection (probably local or on the same continent), anything from 60-100 ms is playable, but higher values will mean this player is impeded by lag.
- Muted - A speaker symbol indicating whether this player has voice chat enabled or not.
Click Profile to see your own Steam gamer profile.
How to allocate rank permissions
To change a player's rank inside the faction, the host can select a player name and then click Demote (give fewer permissions) or Promote (give more permissions).
How to trade
To trade with other players in game, your avatar needs to stand next to another engineer’s avatar. Then press F3 key and click Trade to open the Player Trading window.
How to uninvite players
To uninvite a player, an admin can select a player name and then:
- Click Kick to force them to log out now, but they can come back.
- Click Ban to force them to log out and not let them log back on.
How to enable online mode
If you are in a singleplayer game and press F3 key, you will get the message "You are in offline mode and multiplayer is disabled. You have to change the settings from the main menu."
If you want to host your game to be online and findable in the Join list:
- Go to the main screen and click Load Game.
- Select the game save.
- Click Edit Settings.
- Under Online Mode, switch from Offline to either Private, Friends, or Public to enable multiplayer for this game.