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How to Change Gravity on a Space Engineers Server

A practical guide to changing natural planetary gravity through the world save and adding local artificial gravity with in-game generators.
Length10 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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There are two different ways to change gravity in Space Engineers. To alter a planet’s natural gravity, stop the server, back up the world, edit that world’s SurfaceGravity value, replace the save, and restart. To create a local field around a ship or station, build a Gravity Generator or Spherical Gravity Generator and configure it from the block’s Control Panel. A server panel or the in-game Admin Screen does not automatically change a planet’s saved gravity value.

First decide which gravity you want

“Change gravity” can mean a permanent change to a planet’s natural field or a temporary, buildable field created by a grid. These systems are independent, use different controls, and have different failure modes.

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Gravity type What it changes Where you change it What it affects
Planetary (natural) The gravity field defined for a planet in the world save The active world’s save file, while the server is stopped Players and objects operating in that planet’s natural field
Artificial, rectangular A local directional field produced by a placed block Gravity Generator Control Panel Entities inside the configured field
Artificial, spherical A local radial field that pulls toward the generator Spherical Gravity Generator Control Panel Entities inside the spherical field

If your objective is to make launch from a planet harder or easier everywhere, use the planetary procedure. If you need gravity inside a ship, base, hangar, or test area without changing the planet, use a generator.

Changing a planet’s natural gravity in the world save

The reliable method is a stopped-server save edit. The exact folders differ between hosts, but the sequence is the same: stop, back up, identify the active world, edit the correct planet’s value, upload the replacement, and restart.

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Before you edit anything

  • Confirm that you have administrator or file-manager access to the dedicated server and permission to replace its world files.
  • Ask players to disconnect and stop the server cleanly. Do not edit a save while the game process is writing to it.
  • Download a complete local copy of the active world. Keep the untouched backup outside the server’s save directory so an automated restart cannot overwrite it.
  • Record the current world name and, if your host exposes multiple saves, the exact save selected in the server startup configuration.

A dedicated server lets players connect to a third-party host instead of using a player-hosted peer-to-peer session. That means the world file belongs to the server installation, not to an individual player’s local game folder.

Find the active world directory

Use the host’s file manager, SFTP, or equivalent storage browser. One documented hosted workflow places the world at /home/container/config/Saves/World. Your host may use a different root, a different world-folder name, or a generated identifier, so verify that the directory contains the save currently selected by the server.

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Inside the world directory, the procedure identifies a file named SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbs. Download that file rather than editing a similarly named save from an old world or backup slot. If the host provides a “download world” action, use it only after confirming which world is active.

Locate the correct planet and its SurfaceGravity entry

  1. Open the downloaded SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbs in a text editor that does not add rich-text formatting. Make sure the editor preserves plain text and the file’s existing encoding.
  2. Search for surfacegravity. Depending on capitalization and formatting, the same setting may appear as <SurfaceGravity>.
  3. Do not edit the first match automatically. Read the nearby entries and identify the planet name associated with the value. A world can contain more than one planet or planetary object.
  4. Change only the numeric value belonging to the intended planet. Leave the surrounding XML structure, tags, punctuation, and unrelated entities untouched.
  5. Save the file under the same filename, then reopen it or use the editor’s validation view to confirm that the tag is still present and the number is where you expect it.

The nearby name is your safeguard against changing the wrong body. Searching and replacing every occurrence of SurfaceGravity can alter multiple planets and create a result you did not intend.

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Replace the save and restart

  1. Keep the server stopped while you upload the edited file.
  2. In the active world directory, retain the original file as a separate backup or download it again before replacing it.
  3. Upload the edited SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbs and allow the file transfer to finish completely before starting the server.
  4. Start the server and wait for the world to finish loading. Do not join while the host is still restoring or converting the save.
  5. Enter the affected planet with a test character, confirm that the new natural field behaves as expected, and watch the server console for load errors.

If the server refuses to load, stop it again and restore the untouched backup. A malformed tag, partial upload, wrong save folder, or edit to an inactive world is more likely than a game rule preventing the change.

How sandbox settings files relate to the planet edit

Official documentation describes world settings in files such as sandbox_config.sbc and sandbox.sbc. For manual edits, sandbox_config.sbc takes priority. These files are useful for settings exposed by the world configuration system, but they do not eliminate the need to edit the planet object’s saved SurfaceGravity entry when that value is not offered in the interface.

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Before changing either settings file, identify which file your host and game version actually load. Editing a lower-priority copy can appear successful in the editor while producing no change in-game. Preserve the original file and make one controlled change at a time so you can tell which setting produced the result.

Can you change planetary gravity from the server panel or Admin Screen?

Use the dedicated-server application and world-settings interface for options it explicitly exposes. The official documentation warns that numerical values outside the normal interface range are unsupported and can affect gameplay or performance. A panel may therefore reject a value, clamp it to an allowed range, or save a setting that is unrelated to the planet’s object data.

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The in-game Admin Screen is an administrator tool for server and world management. It is not a substitute for editing a planet’s stored SurfaceGravity value. If the setting is absent from your panel, the stopped-server save procedure is the applicable route.

Panel labels and folder layouts vary by host. When a panel offers a world download or configuration editor, use it to verify the active world, then follow the host’s documented replacement process rather than assuming that a generic path applies.

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Adding artificial gravity to a ship or station

Artificial gravity is created in-game with a Gravity Generator, a large-grid block. It does not rewrite a planet’s natural field and will not make gravity stronger across the entire world.

Build and power the generator

  1. In a large-grid structure, place a Gravity Generator with enough clearance for its field and access to its terminal.
  2. Finish construction and provide the electrical power required by the block. A generator that is incomplete, disabled, or unpowered cannot produce its configured field.
  3. Open the block’s Control Panel. If the block is on a shared or remote grid, ensure your character has ownership or the access rights needed to change its settings.

Set the field and acceleration

The Gravity Generator’s controls let you set the field’s direction, width, height, and depth, then choose acceleration. The documented acceleration range is -1 g to 1 g. A positive value pulls entities in the configured direction; a negative value reverses that direction. The exact result depends on the field dimensions, orientation, overlap with other fields, and whether an entity is inside the active volume.

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  • Direction: Align it with the deck, corridor, or working surface you want to treat as “down.”
  • Width, height, and depth: Size the rectangular volume to cover the usable interior instead of wasting power on empty space.
  • Acceleration: Start with a conservative value, test movement, and adjust in small steps. The setting is not a planet editor; it applies only to the generator’s area.

Artificial gravity affects players when their jetpacks are off, dropped items, and mobile grids that contain Artificial Mass. A character flying with a jetpack enabled may not respond as a walking player would, so test both movement modes when designing a room or ship.

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Using a Spherical Gravity Generator

Choose a Spherical Gravity Generator when you want a radial field rather than a rectangular directional volume. Its field pulls affected objects toward the generator, making it suitable for a central hub, orbital laboratory, or other design where “down” should point inward from every direction.

Place and power the block, open its Control Panel, and adjust the available field and acceleration controls. Keep moving grids, loose cargo, and player-access routes in mind: a radial field can pull an object toward the center from an unexpected approach angle. If you need a conventional floor-and-ceiling orientation, a standard Gravity Generator is easier to predict.

Planetary and artificial gravity compared

Decision point Planetary gravity Gravity Generator Spherical Gravity Generator
Scope Planetary field saved in the world Local rectangular area Local radial area
Change location World-save file Block Control Panel Block Control Panel
Requires a build No Yes, large-grid block Yes, generator block
Direction model Natural planetary field Configured direction Toward the generator
Documented acceleration range Not stated in the cited procedure -1 g to 1 g Use the controls exposed by the block
Best use Changing the environment of an entire planet Floors, corridors, hangars, and ship interiors Radial rooms and inward-pulling test areas
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Gameplay consequences of changing planetary gravity

Increasing a planet’s natural gravity raises the force that players and vehicles must overcome. Launches become harder, and leaving the atmosphere consumes more of a craft’s available thrust and maneuvering margin. A change that seems modest while standing on the ground can become decisive during ascent, landing, or emergency flight.

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Plan tests around the activities your server actually supports: walking and jumping, atmospheric takeoff, cargo transport, drilling, and rescue operations. Check both a lightly loaded craft and a fully loaded one; the same gravity change can be manageable for an empty vehicle and operationally impossible for a heavy hauler.

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Artificial fields offer a narrower intervention. They can make a ship interior usable without altering atmospheric flight outside, but they require power, construction space, and deliberate field boundaries.

Troubleshooting common failures

The planet’s gravity did not change

  • Confirm that the edited world is the one selected by the server at startup.
  • Check that the replacement file is in the active save directory, not a similarly named backup.
  • Search again for SurfaceGravity and verify that you changed the entry next to the intended planet name.
  • Make sure the server was stopped before upload and fully restarted afterward. A running process can keep the old value in memory or overwrite your edit on shutdown.
  • Check the server log for a failed upload, parsing error, or world-load warning.

The server will not load the world

Stop the process and restore the untouched save. If the backup loads, compare the edited file character by character with the original around the SurfaceGravity tag. Reapply only the numeric change, preserving the original tags and formatting. If restoring the backup does not help, you may have replaced the wrong file or changed another world setting during the same maintenance window.

The generator appears to do nothing

  • Verify that construction is complete and the block is receiving power.
  • Check that the character or object is inside the configured width, height, and depth.
  • Confirm the player’s jetpack is off when testing walking gravity.
  • Inspect the field direction and acceleration for a zero, reversed, or unexpectedly narrow setting.
  • For a mobile grid, confirm that it contains Artificial Mass when testing how the field moves the grid.

Objects move in an unexpected direction

Rectangular fields follow the generator’s configured direction, which may not match the ship’s visual “floor” after a rotation or merge. Spherical fields pull toward their center, so an object can accelerate sideways or upward relative to a nearby deck. Reorient the block, resize the field, or use a standard generator when the design needs a single stable down direction.

Different players report different results

Compare their location relative to the field boundary, jetpack state, and whether they are standing on a grid or moving through open space. Overlapping generators can also produce a combined experience that changes across rooms. Test from marked positions and temporarily disable neighboring fields to isolate the active block.

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A safe maintenance checklist

  1. Define the target: an entire planet, a rectangular ship area, or a radial room.
  2. Announce maintenance and stop the dedicated server before touching world files.
  3. Download and label a complete backup of the active save.
  4. For planetary gravity, locate the active SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbs, find the intended planet’s SurfaceGravity, and change only that number.
  5. For artificial gravity, build the appropriate generator, power it, and configure its field from the Control Panel.
  6. Replace the planetary save while the server remains stopped, then restart once.
  7. Test with a controlled character and vehicle scenario before reopening the server to everyone.
  8. Keep the previous save and write down the final value so a later rollback does not depend on memory.

This approach separates permanent world changes from local engineering solutions, limits the risk of corrupting a live save, and gives you a clear rollback path when a value, file, or field boundary is wrong.

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