- This article is about the block named "Cockpit". For other cockpit blocks, see Cockpit (disambiguation).
| Cockpit | |
|---|---|
| |
| Category: | Functional Block |
| Status: | Functional |
| Function: | |
| Allows the player to pilot a ship, recharge suit power, and access ship systems. | |
| Fits small ship | |
| Mass: | 627 kg |
| Fits large ship and station | |
| Mass: | 508 kg |
| Data Controls: | [edit] [purge] (?) |
A Cockpit for large ships.
A Cockpit for small ships.
The 
Cockpit is a functional block in Space Engineers. It can be installed on large- or small-grid ships, as well as stations. It has access points at the front of its canopy as well as a door at the back of the block. Due to the large amount of 
Bulletproof Glass in its recipe, the small ship version actually has greater mass than the large ship version of this cockpit.
Recipe[]
To craft a Cockpit in Survival:
| Cockpit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Component | Large Ship/Station Required | Large Ship/Station Optional | Small Ship Required | Small Ship Optional |
| Bulletproof Glass | — | 10 | — | 30 |
 Computer | 100 | — | 15 | — |
 Display | 8 | — | 5 | — |
 Motor | 1 | — | 1 | — |
 Construction Comp. | 20 | — | 10 | — |
 Interior Plate | 20 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
Construction[]
A Cockpit take up a 1x1x1 block space on large ships and a 3x3x3 block space on small ships. It attaches to other blocks only on its bottom and back faces. Additionally, the small version will connect on the bottom edges of its front and side faces.
Usage[]
The cockpit is essential to steer spaceships or rovers, and can secondarily also be important as control seat for a stationary base. Its third function is providing Life Support for the player.
Press (F key) while facing the cockpit to enter.
- Once inside, your suit power and oxygen will attempt to recharge from the ship's sources; an unpowered cockpit will not recharge the suit--but it will maintain the suit indefinitely at the same power level.
- Pressing (K key) when seated will open the Control Panel, allowing access to the controls for functional blocks in the ship. Assign important control panel actions to your Tool Bar!
- Toggle Landing Gear, Connectors, Reactors, and Spotlights using the "P", "Y", and "L" keys.
- You can set one cockpit as the main cockpit of a grid. When a second player enter the cockpit of a ship yours is docked to, a message "a connected ship has taken control"[1] will appear.
Press 'F' again to exit the cockpit.
Steering[]
When you place the cockpit on a mobile grid, it defines the forward direction. Piloting ships and rovers uses the same controls as the engineer when walking:
- the WASD keys for horizontal movement
- the Spacebar and C key for vertical movement
- the mouse for gyroscopic yaw and pitch turning
- the Q and E keys for rolling
Make sure you read up what Gyroscopes and Inertial Dampers are and how to use them for steering.
| Yaw | Pitch | Roll |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Tip: A different point of view helps when parking or connecting to a landing pad. To toggle between first and third person, press (V key). Hold (ALT key) and move the mouse to change the viewing angle in third person!
Controls[]
You can allow or disallow yourself to use certain cockpit functions. For example, the pilot of a straight-boring drill rig should not have to worry about drift caused by accidentally touching the mouse, so in this case, you'd switch off gyro control. Or if the wheels of a monorail tram are controlled by a timer block, you can switch off wheel control.
- Control Thrusters -- (For vehicles/ships with thrusters only) Whether the pilot's inputs can steer thrusters.
- Control Wheels -- (For wheeled vehicles only) Whether the pilot's inputs can steer wheels.
- Control Gyros -- (Only if there are gyroscopes) Whether the pilot can use mouse control for turning and tilting.
- Handbrake -- (For wheeled vehicles only) Add this action to a Toolbar slot to be able to come to a quick stop.
- Park -- Whether the parking Cockpit Controls by pressing (P key) are available
- Inertia Dampeners -- (For vehicles/ships with thrusters only) Whether assistive Inertial Dampers by pressing (Z key) are available.
- Show Horizon and Altitude -- See details about "Altimeter and Attitude Indicator" below.
- Main Cockpit -- Whether this is the main cockpit and other cockpits on the same grid cannot steer the ship.
- Enable target locking -- See Target Locking to learn how to make turrets lock on to targets.
- Set Up Action -- See details how to configure "Cockpit Alarms and Countermeasures" below.
- LCD Panel -- See LCD Surface Options for how to run scripts or display text/images on the built-in LCD panels of the cockpit.
Using Ship Tools[]
On ships with equipped Block Weapons, or with block tools such as Grinders, Welders, or Drills, the pilot should set up their controls before leaving the dry dock.
- Sit down in the cockpit.
- Press (G key) to open the cockpit’s Tool Bar config.
- Drag the icons for each type of block weapon or block tool to the hotbar for quick access.
This assigns a toolbar slot to select the tool that should become active when you RMB-click and LMB-click.
Additionally assign other block actions to other toolbar slots, such as AI turret range increase/decrease or parachute opening.
Quick Weapon Switching[]
MMB-click to switch between sets of equipped weapons. A single MMB-click will cycle between single-gun and all-gun modes within the same type (all Rocket Launchers, for example).
Double-MMB-clicking switches to the next weapon of the same type that has ammo loaded.
Altimeter and Attitude Indicator[]
While seated in the cockpit of a mobile grid in natural gravity, a cockpit displays planetary flight information on your HUD, an altitude and attitude indicator. If it doesn't, enable the Show Horizon and Altitude toggle in the cockpit's Control Panel.
- Note the artificial horizon near your crosshairs. This indicator is an important representation of your pitch and roll which otherwise is difficult to tell without a reference point.
- Your altitude in metres above ground is displayed in the middle of the HUD, as a number below the crosshairs. Knowing your height above the terrain is relevant when landing and flying to avoid collisions.
Note that the Cockpit does not display your height above non-terrain structures (such as stations or landing pads), nor your height above sea level (which would be useful while approaching/leaving a planet to know how deep into the atmosphere you are and how effective your Atmospheric Thrusters will be).
Tip: You can also display artificial horizon, altitude, attitude, and angular momentum, on any of the built-in LCDs in your cockpit.
Cockpit Alarms and Countermeasures[]
You can trigger an automatic reaction when your cockpit detects a hostile target lock on you.
For example, you can configure it to switch on defensive AI turrets, or play an audible alarm, or change to red lights, or release a merge block that drops decoys. Similarly, you will want to switch off your custom “Red Alert” as soon as you break out of target lock.
This is how:
Click Set up Actions to select from the available actions:
- The action in the first slot triggers when you are targeted.
- The action in the second slot triggers when you have broken out of target lock.
If you want to trigger more than one action per slot, build and select a Timer Block as action, and set up the actual actions inside the Timer block.
Other Cockpit Variants[]
- Main article: Category:Cockpits
Did you know? There are multiple variants of cockpits. They function identically, but differ in proportions, visibility, materials needed for construction, where the ports are located, and which ship-sizes they can be built on.
