SBC modding is where you use SE sbc files to make some basic mods and changes with out the need to learn any complicated programing language. So basicly there just text files that you can change to make new features like blocks or just edit what there to change certain settings to the your worlds for example ship max speed or skybox.

For the purpose of this tutorial I be showing you how to firstly edit a Thruster and then how to make a new Thruster.

The only software you would require is a text editor a popular choice is is Notepad++
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Firstly you want to go to "%AppData%\SpaceEngineers\Mods" here is where you put your mods and SE will see them. Next you want to go and create a new folder and name this whatever you want the name of the mod to be for this example mod im going to call it "Ship Speed Mod"


The next go into that folder and create a new folder and call it "Data" here is where you will store you .SBC files.

Note: You can aslo create any other folders in the data folder and it does not matter what you call it and store the files in there I do this some times if i am making a big mod and want to keep stuff organised a bit more.

In this part I will show you where to find the .sbc files and give you a basic run down of what some of them are.

To get there we First want to go to the Space engineers main game directory the best way todo this is on steam right click the game and then go Manage and then click Browse local files.


This will take you to your game directory and from here you want to goto "Content\Data" and here is where all the main game .sbc files are stored.

So here a basic rundown of some the sbc files that i think are the most used:

• ClubeBlocks Folder
  This is were the .sbc files for the different blocks in the game are kept so if your locking to make changes to thrusters you could go into that folder and get the CubeBlocks_Thrusters.sbc.
  
• Environment Folder
  In here is where the .sbc for threes, bushes and voxel maps are stored.
  
• Game Folder
  In this folder there is the .sbc files for changing stuff like currency so the name of the currency and how much each player starts with as well as other game mechanics that you can mess around with.
  
• PlanetDatafile Folder
  This is where planet maps are stored like hightmaps for planets but the planet settings are not stored here.
  
• Prefabs Folder
  Here is where ship prefabs are kept so these are the ships used for the drones, respawn ships and any other grid the game spawns in.
  
• PlanetGeneratorDefinitions.sbc
  This is where you change the planet settings from.
  
• RespawnShips.sbc
  This is what you need to change the respawn ships.
  
• WeatherEffects.sbc
  This is the one to change or add weather too the game.
  
• Ammos.sbc
  This is for gun ammo and you can change the ammo damage and other propeties
  
• Characters.sbc
  This is where you can change the character properties
  
• Environment.sbc
  This is where you change settings like ship speed, skybox and certain environmental looks of the game like lighting.

So once you find the sbc file you want you can just copy it and then paste it in your mod data folder that you made and then edit it.

For this tutorial your going to want to goto the cubeblocks folder and then copying the CubeBlocks_Thrusters.sbc into your own mod data folder. So you sould end up with somthink like this


Note: You can also rename the sbc file to what ever you want i does not need to be the same as what keen has it and it will not have an impact on the mod it self all it will do is make it easier for you to organise what each sbc is.

Warning do not just edit the files in your main director this can cause issues like the game crashing.

So now that we got the sbc file that we want your going to want to open it with a software like notepad++. If your using notepad++ and do alt+3 it will collapse the file down so you will only have this


Then we going to edit a hydrogen thruster and how much thrusting power it has but first i am going to give a run down on what the basic settings are so firstly open the first hydrogen thruster definition by hitting the plus symbol next to it

Firstly under the <Id>
• <TypeId>
  This is probaly the most important in every sbc file since this is what tells the game what sorta of thing this is so in this cause it says Thrust so that tells SE that this is a thruster and you never want to change this TypeId it must always stay as what you want the item is so if it a Component then the TypeId will be Component
  
• <SubtypeId>
  You can change this one when you want to make a new item so let say I want to make a new thruster i would change the SubtypeId to something unique but if i want it to only edit a certain block then i will make sure it has the same SubtypeId as that block.

Now those two settings are what you will get in every SBC file since they tell SE what the item is and if it a new item or one that already exists the rest the settings in the sbc will be unique for that specific item and it would take too long to go through all of them but most are self explained and can be easily learnt through testing.

So for this part of the tutorial we are wanting to just edit this specific hydrogen thruster so we dont need to change the typeid or subtypeid so if he scroll down a bit and find the <ForceMagnitude> this is what will allow us to change the amount of thrust this thruster makes so if we wanted it to make no thrust at all we can just set it too 0 and then all you have todo is save and then done you changed a thruster setting.


Note: Every definition has to have a opening <example> and a closing </example> if you dont have a closing then the mod will get errors when loading it in game.

So now if we wanted to take this thruster but we want to keep the default thrusters as normal but make a new thruster with this change all we have to do is go up to the top of the thruster section and then in <Id> change the <SubtypeId> to something unique and you also want to change the display name so you can search for it easier and lastly since it a block I would scroll down till you find <BlockPairName> which is the name you will see in game and give that a unique name as well since that for connecting a block small grid and large grid versions together .

So you either just changed a few settings or you made a whole new thing and you want to make sure the sbc working basicly when you load up SE goto new game/ Custom game/ mods and there your mod should be on the top of the list and it should have a folder icon next to it instead of the workshop logo this means it a local file so now you just load it onto the world and hope there no errors.



If there are errors your best bet to read the log files or go to the keen discord for help since I dont think I could list all the things you could do wrong here.

You can find the log files in %appdata&/SpaceEngineers

Now to publish the mod you want to to go to new game/ custom world/ mods and then select your mod and in the bottum right it will say publish click that and it will publish the mod.


Now if you want a tumbnail with it you put the thumbnail image in your mod folder right next to the data folder and make sure it called Thumb.

Here some basic rules to keep in mind when modding in SE.

• Dont copy anyone else mods with out there permission
  
• If you use a dlc model make sure you lock it beind the DLC tags

If you ever need help for example you get an error and cant work out the problem or you want to learn how to make somethink that you cant figure out the best place I can suggest is the Keen discord and the modding-art-sbc channel since there plenty of people there who know how to make mods and are happy to help.

https://discord.gg/aJkA2ZP9tv