Space Engineer
| Space Engineer (Player) | |
|---|---|
| |
Vital statistics
| |
| Position | Engineer[citation needed] |
| Age | about 35-40[citation needed] |
| Status | creative |
Physical attributes
| |
| Height | 1.85m |
| Weight | 100kg[citation needed] + Mass of inventory |
The Space Engineer is the representation or avatar of you, the player, and the player's way of interacting with the game environment.
If you want to roleplay with a background story, you may be interested in the Engineer's Lore - or just make up your own!
Character Properties
You use Keyboard and Mouse, or Xbox Controls/PlayStation Controls to walk, pilot ships, and interact.
Space Engineers can:
- equip tools to create or break blocks or to mine ores, or wield Character Weapons to fight.
- place blocks and build spaceships, stations, or vehicles.
- carry items in their backpack and trade.
- drive rovers and pilot ships.
Additionally, engineers can express themselves in multiplayer through emotes and chat.
Space Suit Properties
The engineers suit is equipped with:
- Antenna
- Life Support (power, oxygen)
- Magnetic Boots
- Jetpack (hydrogen)
The suit antenna has a range of only 200 metres:
- The engineer can remotely access shared grids that are within a 200m radius.
- The engineer can passively see other antennas that have a stronger broadcast radius, but cannot actively connect to them.
If you e.g. want to Remote Control a drone, do it seated and use a base or ship antenna, don't rely on your suit antenna for more than short range.
Appearance
The Engineer will start in a spacesuit with a random color. Standard starting colors are Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, White, and Black.
You can change your suit appearance by opening the Character Screen or in-game at a Medical Room.
Player Vitality
Vitality is determined by three Life Support factors: Health, Suit Energy, and Oxygen.
You recharge these three properties by interacting with a powered and conveyored Medical Room or Survival Kit.
- Suit energy can also be regenerated by sitting in a Cockpit or Passenger Seat or Control Seat in a powered grid, but this will not regenerate health.
- A Cryo Chamber restores oxygen and hydrogen if it is conveyored to respective tanks or generators, but does not restore health, either.
Health can be negatively impacted by discharges from weapons such as handguns, rifles, automatic turrets, and rocket launchers. Tools like the Welder and Grinder, if used on other players, double as melee weapons or traps. High speed collisions with the ground, asteroids, other players, and grids are another source of often lethal damage.
The player can survive without a helmet in a warm and oxygenated environment, such as a pressurized room or the Earthlike planet. Outside an atmosphere, players slowly suffocate if they run out of oxygen or open their helmets. In space, on moons, and on extreme planets, suit energy is continuously consumed to maintain a suitable environment for the engineer.
Using tools such as the hand drill, welder, and grinder, increases power consumption, causing the suit to run out of energy at an increased rate. The HUD warns you in red text once the suit reaches critical levels of 20% or less, providing the player with time to find a Cockpit or Medical Room to recharge Life Support. If the suit power reaches 0%, the player's handheld tools and life support will no longer function!
Once health reaches 0%, players are considered dead; they drop their backpack and are prompted to respawn. You can force your character to respawn without inventory by pressing BACKSPACE key.
You respawn at the closest faction-owned (or your own, if factionless) Survival Kit or Medical Room. Depending on the auto-respawn World Settings, you may instead be allowed to pick a respawn point from a list.
Player Inventory
While not seated in a cockpit or seat, the player can access their personal inventory by pressing I key. With "Realistic" settings, players can hold a total volume of 400L of items in their backpack.
In multiplayer, engineers can trade items with nearby engineers from their inventories using F3 key.
Even though you stay the same player on each server, your personal inventories are separate and are not transferable between save games.
Player Controls
- There are more commands, for a complete list, see Key Bindings
The standard WASD keys are used for walking forward/backward, strafing right/left, while the arrow keys and mouse are used for turning.
The following special commands are available for the player character while not seated in a cockpit or similar:
- Press G key to configure your Tool Bar.
- Press I key to access the player Inventory.
- Press V key to toggle between first and third person view.
- Press X key to toggle between Jetpack and Magnetic Boots.
- Press Q key or E key to roll the engineer's jetpack while flying, and SPACEBAR key and C key to fly up and down.
- Press O key to toggle the suit antenna.
Trivia
Upon creating a new game, your Space Engineer always spawns on the dayside of the planet (if applicable).