Apart from Sabiroids (SPID faction) and Cyberhounds, Space Engineers does not have any Non-Player Characters (NPCs) other than computer-controlled defense drones and encounters. NPC ships are members of factions and can be friendly, neutral, or hostile to the player.
R.O.S. battleship
SPRT faction pirate drone
To learn how to make hostile pirates spawn on any map, see Trigger Pirate Encounters. For harder enemies, install a mod from Modular Encounter Systems.
NPC Factions in Scenarios[]
The implicit lore in scenarios mentions several NPC factions:
- Space Pirates (SPRT) (sometimes misread as SPAT) -- default antagonist
- Results Oriented Sciences (R.O.S.) -- red fleet
- Sol Cooperative -- blue fleet
- Independent Terran Workers (ITW) -- yellow fleet
- Argonaut Industries (AGI) -- green fleet
Economy: Trader NPC Factions[]
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A randomly generated Planetary NPC Trading Outpost
A randomly generated NPC Trading Station in Space
When a world with Economy enabled is generated, a dozen random NPC factions are also generated. These factions own the Trading Outposts that the player comes across. There are even certain sections of the NPC Trading Outposts that are ostensibly only accessible for faction members.
After an NPC ship or Trading Outpost appears on your radar (HUD) in Survival Mode, you have "discovered" this faction and their name is revealed in the list in the Factions tab in your Terminal. In Creative Mode, all names are visible from the start.
By their names, you can distinguish three types of NPCs:
- Miners specialise in selling and buying ores,
- Traders specialise in selling and buying components,
- Builders sell rovers and ships and buying components.
The goods type is relevant if you want to trade specific items, so you can head for the outpost most likely to deal in that area of business.
The names and colours of these trader factions are randomly generated, drawn from a list of terms that are stitched together to create unique phrases and four-letter faction tags. Examples of such random names are “Supreme Shipbuilding (SMSB)” or “Interstellar Technologies (ISTC)”, and so on.
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Troubleshooting: How do I find NPC ships and enemy bases on my map?[]
Make sure your HUD is switched on (cycle with (TAB key)) and your ability to have Signals displayed on your HUD is enabled (cycle with (H key). If you then are on a map that has pirate bases or Encounters, travel around a bit, and you should see their signals highlighted in red.
In singleplayer, and if you are Admin in multiplayer, you can use the Admin Screen to see a list of all active grids, including the ones from Economy and Encounters.
If you are using some Encounters mod, there may be other conditions and chat commands to see the mod status, read the workshop thoroughly.
Data Format[]
How to edit NPC factions in the <MyObjectBuilder_Faction> section of the Sandbox.sbc file.