Custom respawn ships on dedicated servers.

1. How do you disable the original respawn ships.
2. How do you get new ones.
3. How do you chose where they spawn (X,Y,Z).

thanks in advanced

https://steamcommunity.com/app/244850/discussions/0/364041776194064657/

 

The first link of the list is a good tutorial.

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=space+engineers+change+respawn+ship

To Point 3. I dont know the answer. Sry

 

1. Done this.
2. Done this.
3. Done this.

1. You disable the respawn ships by creating a mod.

There are two important places:
C:\Users\(your user name)\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\Mods

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Data

If you've installed Steam and Space Engineers in their default directories this is where the files will live.

First we want to create a new mod. You do this by creating a new fold in the Mods directory. Name this folder anything that you like.

Okay. Now we have to tell SE what files we will be modding. So you have to recreate the .sbc files that are in the Data directory and sub-directories that we will be changing. You only have to copy the files that you will be altering. Nothing else.

The first file we're interested in is the RespawnShips.sbc. An .sbc file is just a text file that contains all of the XML code that sets up the game. You can use Notepad or download Notepad++. I recommend the later. It's free.

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Copy the RespawnShips.sbc file from Data to your new mod folder. NEVER alter the original files in Data. Just copy them.

We have to go in and turn-off all of the respawn ships that we do not want. Open up RespawnShips.sbc in Notepad++

You will see a bunch of definitions. Each one is for each Spawn ship. Each definition is held between the text "<Ship>" and "</Ship>"

In order to turn off/disable a respawn ship, change "<Ship>" to "<Ship Enabled="false">" . Don't touch the text "</Ship>"

Do this for every spawn ship you want to disable.

Once you're done, save the file.


Your mod now exists as a "Local Mod" If you edit the settings for a single player game or start a new world, go into MODS and look at the list. Instead of the Steam Icon you will see a folder with the name of your mod on it. Select that one and move it over. Now you can load the game with that mod enabled. Please note that Local Mods only work for you and in single player games. In order to get it to work in a multiplayer game/server, you have to publish it. It's pretty easy to do. Just follow the instructions.

I'll answer two and three in separate posts tomorrow or Saturday. Just hit "like" on my post if you're able to get it to work. If not, I'll figure out the problem and edit the tutorial.

 

So i have to download a respawn ship mod, Then unpack it, edit the settings, then re upload it to workshop to get it to work on a dedicated server?

 

That may or may not work. There's no reason to download someone else's mod, hack it, and put it back on the workshop. Just create your own. I listed the steps.

In order to create your OWN respawn ship, the easiest way is to create a new, empty world in creative, then paste in the ship you want via blueprint.

Be sure the ship is everything a player will need to get started on your server. Load the ship with enough components as well.

Exit the ship then save the world.

Open up a copy of SEToolbox. Midspace has done a great job with this utility. Load your world into SEToolbox. The only thing in it should be your future respawn ship.

Select the ship and then click the export as prefab tab.

You will now have to select a directory to place the prefab into to.

Let's go back to my first example where you've disabled respawn ships.

Select that local mod again. Select the "Data" folder. Now create a folder in the "Data" folder called "Prefabs" and save the ship in there. Pay attention to what you name it, we'll need to refer to it later.

Open up the "Respawn.sbc" file that you worked on to remove respawn ships. We're now going to ADD a ship. Copy and paste one of the working <Ship> definitions and add it to the list. It doesn't matter where in the list as long as it's between <RespawnShips> and </RespawnShips>

Your code should look something like this.

Code:

<Ship>
      <Id>
        <TypeId>RespawnShipDefinition</TypeId>
        <SubtypeId>RPI HoneyBadger001</SubtypeId>
      </Id>
      <DisplayName>Drop001</DisplayName>
      <Icon>Textures\GUI\Icons\Fake.dds</Icon>
      <CooldownSeconds>600</CooldownSeconds>
      <Prefab>RPI HoneyBadger001</Prefab>
    </Ship>

Your <TypeId> is what type of ship this is. It's a respawn ship... self-explanatory.
Your <SubtypeID> is a way of identifying the vehicle for advanced purposes (like randomly spawning cargo). We won't be getting into that. It's best to just use the vehicle name.
<DisplayName> Is what the player will see the ship as when selecting a respawn vehicle. Keep this short and sweet.
<Icon> I'm not sure how this works or if it's still relevant but you just need to copy this verbatum. More on this in a bit.
<CooldownSeconds> How many seconds before a player can respawn in this vehicle. People will farm the respawn ship if it's too short.
<Prefab> This is the name of the SBC file you just saved in the Prefabs folder.


About <Icon> I'm not sure if it's still needed, but this refers to a fake Texture file that ships are supposed to refer to if they don't have one... or something of this nature. I'm not sure if you need one in your mod folder, but most people put one in just in case.
In your mod folder create a new folder called "Textures" It should be at the same level as "Data". In that place "GUI" folder. In that place "Icons" folder.
Copy "Fake.dds" from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Textures and place it in the Icons folder. Save (of course).

And you're done. If it all works, your new respawn ship should be there when you load your local mod. Just publish your local mod, write down the mod number, and you can immediately add it to your server.

There are more advanced things you can do to the respawn ship if you want to tweak the prefab definition (the SBC file you created). If you want to spawn the respawn ship 20km away from a specific point in free space OR in the atmosphere of a planet, you'll need to do some tweaking.

But that's for another day. The information is out there. I'm just applying what I know and have learned to this thread.