I searched for a while but cannot find an existing mod changing the component order. On further investigation, the component order should not matter, so I don't think there was ever a mod for this.

Just for reference : For the large grid battery, you'd have to grind the Steel Plates, Construction Components, Computer, and at least 1 Power Cell to get past the hack line. I think you'd still hack it if you could stop _exactly_ between the Computer and Power Cell but that is very difficult.

What I'd do is edit CubeBlocks_Energy.sbc and every line that says "<CriticalComponent SubType="PowerCell" Index="0" />" to be "<CriticalComponent SubType="Computer" Index="0" />".
Now its hacked when you get into the computer components instead of power cells.

Changing the component order won't help because the hack line is defined as the Power Cell.

Of course, back up your files before trying this, and it will be reverted when verifying game files or when a new version of Space Engineers is released.

Maybe this? (Haven't tested it.)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1765628225

@Spaceman Spiff : OP second paragraph states not looking for that....

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

... I think you'd still hack it if you could stop _exactly_ between the Computer and Power Cell but that is very difficult.

If the grind speed multiplier of the world/save is 1x it's not that difficult, but that setting makes most things uncomfortably slow... I usually manage to lose at most a couple of power cells on stock (Keen server) 2x multiplier :)

I did experiment with an edit to make it how the OP is looking for, but it exhausted my patience before I figured the precise details needed.

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

@Spaceman Spiff : OP second paragraph states not looking for that....

I misread the request. Sorry.

Thank you all for your replys. Just for clarification. I like the fact that you can't grind down batteries to get back power cells. In a normal game they are cheap to make and this is not a huge problem.
But I'm currently playing the scrapyard "scenario" from the workshop, where you can't build most of the important blocks, but you have to find them on rusty old wrecks, remove them from the grid and hack them to change ownership. That's fine for every block, but batteries. Because you get components only by grinding down said grids, you obviously don't get any power cells.
But apart from this scenario, you can hack every block in the game to change ownership and you should be able to hack batteries too. I think this is just an oversight from the devs and i even found a thread about that on keens support portal.[support.keenswh.com]


Ok, im willing to do this myself but i will definitely need any help i can get. I hope i can count you in on that? ;)

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Just for reference : For the large grid battery, you'd have to grind the Steel Plates, Construction Components, Computer, and at least 1 Power Cell to get past the hack line. I think you'd still hack it if you could stop _exactly_ between the Computer and Power Cell but that is very difficult.

Thats why I'd like to have some buffer between computer parts and power cells, since you normally have to grind down all computer parts in order to hack a block and can't stop right after a certain component.

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

What I'd do is edit CubeBlocks_Energy.sbc and every line that says "<CriticalComponent SubType="PowerCell" Index="0" />" to be "<CriticalComponent SubType="Computer" Index="0" />".
Now its hacked when you get into the computer components instead of power cells.

I would rather do it the same way it works for the other blocks, where you have to grind all computer parts in order to hack a block.

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Changing the component order won't help because the hack line is defined as the Power Cell.

As i said, changing the order would be to have the buffer between computer parts and power cells, so you don't have to grind into power cells.

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Of course, back up your files before trying this, and it will be reverted when verifying game files or when a new version of Space Engineers is released.

I would make a mod out of this to avoid messing with original files. And i guess that there would even be a hand full of people who would be interested in this mod too.

Now i only have to learn how to make a mod, thats overwrites vanilla blocks and don't cause any problems....

I make scripts mostly. I could probably make a mod but haven't tried yet.

I put this here as advice to a mod maker and so others can tell me how wrong I am about the design.

The large-grid battery has this in CubeBlocks.sbc:
and changing it to :

This would probably work. Player grinds the 60 steel plates, 25 computers, and then hack/rebuild when the construction components start being welded. Powercells would be the first things welded in and the last ground out. The component counts match the original except I merged both construction componont groups into one with the same amount.

Yes... i did it... thank you very much for your help...
Once you know how to do it, its actually one of the simplest things you can do.
I was looking for a guide on how to make a mod and so i managed to do exactly what i wanted... The only thing i still don't know is how to include the warfare batteries.

I will upload the mod and copy the link in here for anyone who might be interested.

EDIT: I just found out how to include the warfare batteries, and it works for them too now.
But upon research i found out that when uploading the mod that inludes dlc content, i should mark the mod as dlc dependend.

Should i do these changes in one Mod or upload two mods separately, one with and one without dlc dependencies?

EDIT2: Ok, i figured out it would be better to upload them separately after i read the rules about uploading dlc content.
here is the link to the mod. I am not skilled enough to come up with a nice icon, so i leave it like that for the time beeing.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2968094117