Ownership is a feature introduced in Update 01.037 which determines who has access to functional blocks in Survival Mode. Any block which includes Computers as components will have an ownership value assigned to it.
Ownership is relevant when building together in multiplayer, to identify enemy grids, to prevent turret AI from destroying captured wrecks, and when respawning at faction owned survival kits. An important related concept is hacking.
Who owns this station or ship?[]
How do I find out who is the owner of a block? Equip a Welder and simply point at the block, the tooltip in the top right contains an Owner line.
For grids (ships, stations, rovers) ownership is determined by who owns the majority of blocks. You can check details on the grid’s Info Screen.
What decides block ownership?[]
A block's owner is assigned when the Computer components that were added to the construction stockpile are welded and their stage of construction is completed.
- If this is done with a handheld Welder, the player constructing the block becomes the owner.
- If this is done with a Welder block, however, the owner of the welder block becomes the owner of the new block. This distinction becomes relevant if your faction shares a 3D Printer, the owner of the 3D printer has to assign ownership of the printed ships as well.
Blocks can belong to nobody, which means that everyone is treated as the owner, and anyone can transfer these blocks’ ownership to themselves.
Blocks can also belong to NPCs (non-player characters and their factions), which will equally deny access to non-ally players until hacked.
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The block's owner can change ownership or its sharing settings by accessing the ship's control panel (press (K key)). If the block belongs to nobody, then anyone can change these settings.
The owner can share access to a block in several ways:
- deny usage to all other players
- share usage with everyone
- share usage with members of the owner's faction
The owner can transfer block ownership as follows:
- give ownership to another player who is online
- assign ownership to nobody.
Anyone who gains shared access can use the block normally, but cannot change ownership or sharing settings—only the owner can.
Tip: To quickly change the ownership of all your blocks in the Control Panel Screen, click one and press (CTRL+A key) to select all blocks; then use the ownership menu on the right side like normal.
After you give ownership to another player, you cannot control that grid nor change its ownership anymore.
When taking over an enemy or neutral ship for your faction, first transfer ownership to yourself, and then share it with the faction.
How do I take ownership? (Hacking)[]
Taking block ownership from another player or NPC faction “illegally” is called Hacking.
When taking over or salvaging a grid owned by an enemy faction (players or NPCs), remember to hack all its blocks. Otherwise, your AI turrets will attack the captured enemy ship and also you will be unable to open doors and cargo containers, nor use the cockpit to change thruster or gyro settings, etc.
Video[]
Space Engineers Patch 1.037 - Block Ownership & Factions
Block ownership (From 0:00 Until 7:40)