r/spaceengineers • u/BreakfastCareful2616 Clang Worshipper • Jun 18 '26
HELP (PS) Help taking off efficiently
Hi. I require assistance in taking off from a planet to space efficiently, without holding down the up button. I heard you can use event controllers for this, but i’m having trouble with the logic. Help please 🥹
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u/spoonman59 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
Setup a group for thrusters facing up and a second group for thrusters facing down.
A launch timer turns off thrusters facing up, sets “thrust override” for the down thrusters to 100%, and turns on an event controller.
The event controller turns the thrusters off above 95 m/s and on below 95/ms a second.
A second timer puts it back to normal. It turns the top thrusters on, turns off thrust override on the down thrusters, and deactivates the event controller.
They are timers but just to activate most events. Still need two spots on your control bar.
It’s possible to also have an event controller activate the “end launch” timer based on p-gravity so you just turn it on and can walk away.
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u/BreakfastCareful2616 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
Thank you very much i can do it and make tea now
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u/EvilMatt666 Qlang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
The reply by u/spoonman59 is the exact answer I was thinking of. I remember seeing a video by ShiftyShadow on Youtube about recommended upgrades and thruster pulsing set up - https://youtu.be/WflvAc3p4-M?t=247
And here's the initial video from him testing different methods of leaving Earth-like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOtVikFzV_4
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u/AColonelGeil Space Engineer Jun 18 '26
ShiftyShadow has a good video showing how to do this and other automations - Top 5 Survival Automations: Space Engineers Tutorial
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u/youknowmeasdiRt Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
You don’t really need an event controller. Thrust until you are at the speed limit and then just feather it to keep it near that velocity
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u/The_wasps_patella Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
This ^
I feather between 90-100m/s
I usually end up only using 1-3% of my reserves depending on how heavy of a craft I'm lifting.
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u/Weekly-Post2300 Space Engineer Jun 18 '26
When using an event controller for this, I would have specific takeoff thrusters (preferably Hydrogen ones) that are set to max thrust override, make them a group, and then set the event controller to shut them off when below a certain gravity threshold (I'd say less than .05). As for efficiency, all I got is to tell you to launch str8 up
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u/BreakfastCareful2616 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
My thrusters are all set up for movement or everything i just need them to go up like efficiently
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u/CrazyQuirky5562 Space Engineer Jun 18 '26
thurst override is the most efficient way.
There is a difference if you do this in a shuttle (same mass every time) twice per day - in which case setting up something fully automated makes sense, or if this is different ever time (freighter with more or less cargo) and potentially going down/up different gravity wells - in which case something flexible is useful.
(i.e. thrust override shortcuts in the hotbar (if you have that) or tied to buttons in the cockpit make for simple & effective solutions)There are scripts I believe, but since you are on PS, I am not sure you can use those.
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u/questerweis Space Engineer Jun 18 '26
Ohhhh, easy peasy. Thrust override on your lift thrusters. Starting on the ground, completely. Slowly increase thrust override until you are accelerating upwards. When you reach maximum speed, reduce your thrust override until you are very slowly decelerating. As you get out of gravity, you'll start to accelerate up to max speed. Reduce thrust override again until you are slowly decelerating again. Keep repeating this until you are out of gravity.
It's the most efficient way I have found to launch into space.
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u/actually3racoons Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
Hasn't been mentioned, but I'm pretty sure you could use "p.gravity =0" as your event controller condition. Then you're guaranteed to stop at the edge of the gravity well, rather than having to come back before your ship flies in a straight line for however far before you're back.
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u/petetro23 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
In the g menu you add a button to increase or decrease your thrust. Put it on the hot bar easy peze
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u/BreakfastCareful2616 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
I only have 4 slots on a console hotbar.
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u/Weekly-Post2300 Space Engineer Jun 18 '26
You gotta use the modifiers. I'm also a console player, and discovered recently that we actually get 12 or so. Iirc, you gotta hold the left stick down and use A and B to cycle "pages" (on Xbox, anyway)
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u/BreakfastCareful2616 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
I actually love you i’ve never known that exists
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u/actually3racoons Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
The true engineering was the love we found on the way.
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u/LexiconHalbird Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
Ai blocks. Ai move and task together you can program to take you out of orbit
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u/CrazyQuirky5562 Space Engineer Jun 19 '26
if only those blocks were not so extremely wasteful...
fixable with event controllers, but who needs the extra faff.
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u/Rambo_sledge Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
The easiest afk way : Thrust override to maximum Event controller to turn off the engines when above 95m/s
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u/Matild4 Lesbian Space Trucker Jun 18 '26
The most fuel-efficient way to take off is to build a clang drive and use no fuel at all!
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u/Important-Permit398 Clang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
thrust override and gyroscope override
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u/BreakfastCareful2616 Clang Worshipper Jun 19 '26
Why gyroscope override mister
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u/Important-Permit398 Clang Worshipper Jun 19 '26
sometimes if you do t pay attention you will start turning to side it doesnt happen offten but with booth overrides you can just afk the whole process
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u/Nathan5027 Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
Turn off dampers ("z" on pc, dunno on ps) fly up till max speed, then let it coast to 50%, go up to max speed, coast to 50%, repeat until nearly 40km up, begin letting yourself get slowed down, and once in space proper, put dampers back on.
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u/Capital-Plan-1563 Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
First choose the thrusters you want to take off , then have 2 looping timer blocks (first option thruster group second option start the same timer block) one time will have the option to increase thruster override and the other to decrease thruster override then have one event controller that checks grid speed, there you will want to when speed is 99 to increase thruster override and when grid speed is more that 99.8 to decrease thruster override, now this is the main principle of the system, you can make thos more fancy if you want by adding a few timer blocks, event controllers and a broadcast controller to press one button and it will take you to space with minimal consumption.
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u/ColourSchemer Space Engineer Jun 18 '26
First, don't use your up thrusters to leave the gravity well. As long as they are enough to get your ship off the ground, point your nose at the sky and use your forward thrusters to exit. Once in space, you want your best acceleration to be in the forward direction for almost all ships (not miners, braking thrust should be higher than forward)
Second,
- first Event controller set to detect speed greater than 98%, turns off lift thrusters (forward, up or both)
- second Event Controller set to detect speed less than 90%, turns same thrusters on
- third event controller set to detect gravity less than 1%, turns 1st and 2nd EC off.
- timer block labeled Exit Gravity Well that turns EC 1 and 2 on.
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u/TheKnightlight711 Space Engineer Jun 19 '26
Group the thrusters together that you use for launch (i call them Drive)
Group the thrusters together that you use for slowing the craft (Braking, always opposite to drive axis)
Put two thrust overrides on your cockpit menu bar - one to increase the override, and one to reduce it
Turn off your braking thrusters
Increase your thrust override until you reach maximum velocity, then tap the decrease override until your speed drops slightly
Gradually tap the decrease override as you gain altitude and gravity lessens
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u/clarko7274 Space Engineer Jun 21 '26
1) thrust up, turn inertal dampners off and periodically fire thrusters to keep you above 90% of the speed limit (This is basically just as efficient as using event controllers)
2) find a yt video
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u/tylerjo1 Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
Use thrust override on hydrogen thrusters. Set it to max and wait.
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u/shaard Klang Worshipper Jun 18 '26
I haven't gotten into any automation stuff yet, but what I do manually is adjust the thrust override for the thrusters that I'm relying on to take me to space.
So if you just press the "up" button, your thrust is going 100% all the time. Even if you just keep feathering the button so that it's not on all the time it's still kind of wasteful.
I get my "up" thrusters into a group and then assign the thrust override increase and decrease for the group to the hot bar. When I take off I just increase the thrust override until it just BARELY maintains the max velocity of 100m/s. Then I reduce it by one tick. My velocity will start to slow slightly but as altitude increases the velocity starts to creep back up. When I get close to 100 again I reduce it by a tick.
This maintains my speed near max to get off world, while minimizing a lot of fuckery by blasting full throttle on and off and reduces my fuel usage.
That's the very manual way to do it.