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Can change the ownership of neutral / enemy blocks in survival

gerd67 shared this bug ago

Reported

In Survival, you can change the ownership of neutral or enemy faction blocks to you when you have access the control pannel.

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Blue Escanor

[1.206.032 b0] BUG - Transfer ownership of block

As of 06/06/2025, on 1.206.032 b0 (latest release on Steam)

TLDR: In Survival, accessing an enemy grid from any unowned/captured block allows you to transfer ownership of enemy blocks to yourself, or any allied faction, as if the block(s) were unowned.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start a new Empty World start, Survival mode

2. enable creative tools via Spacemaster (optional, makes it easier)

3. find NPC grids

5. disable creative tools

4. find a bed, couch... or hack a block

6. access grid controls via said block, select block owned by NPC, and attempt to change onwership

7. you will see that ownership can be re-assigned to self or any allied faction

Expected behaviour: should not be able to re-assign enemy blocks without first hacking them.

as far as i know it's exactly the same as this :

https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/pc/topic/able-to-claim-ownership-of-all-blocks-in-an-enemy-grid-through-a-single-hacked-or-unowned-block

Sensational Being

An Old Terminal Access Bug Has Returned

I'm aware that there was a previous bug where someone could use a neutral block to convert ownership of all blocks. And I know it was fixed. I have the same problem again in the latest version of the game.

At first I thought it was just an update to the PVE to allow easier grid takeovers provided there were no controlling blocks. This made sense while I was manipulating space wrecks. But I was able to do this kind of thing too easily with Factorum spawns and realized there was a problem.

By the time you resolve this bug I hope that you will bear in mind I don't like needing to grind every single block to be able to transfer control of blocks in the terminal. And because of this bug I can't really test how your intended PVE changes are working. I would certainly rather that I'm only required to capture a majority of control chairs and the AI blocks that are running the warships.

Hopefully you can find the exploit I'm describing and restore proper balance to the game.

I have the same bug

Replies (3)

Space Engineers Support ●

Hello, Engineer!

We're sorry to hear you're experiencing issues. Could you please let us know a little bit more about the issue? Ideally, provide a screenshot or a video of the issue. Are you playing in Single Player or Multiplayer? Do you have any Admit Tools enabled, such as "Can use all Terminals"? Do you see "access denied" for the enemy blocks in the Terminal?

Kind Regards

Keen Software House

QA Department

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gerd67 ●

Hello !

The bug occurs in Single Player; I don't know about Multiplayer.

Here is some footage of the bug:

Test 1: Taking ownership by accessing the control panel through a hacked block on an enemy grid

Test 2: Taking ownership by accessing the control panel built on an enemy grid

Test 3: Taking ownership by accessing the control panel built on a neutral grid

As you can see in the videos, you get the 'Access Denied' message, but you can still use the ownership menu.

Edit: After testing, it doesn't work in Multiplayer

Files:

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Space Engineers Support ●

Hello, Engineer!

Thank you for the comprehensive overview of the issue.

We've added your report it to our internal system.

We will update this thread when we have more information.

Kind Regards

Keen Software House

URL

Eric Hoffman ●

There was a similar issue that was fixed 6 years ago.

Very easy to reproduce, in survival.

- Start survival game.

- Get some materials to build a control panel.

- Enable admin tools (temporarily, just to demonstrate the potential of this issue), and teleport yourself to a Factorum base (or any enemy base), anywhere where you have access to the grid, protected from any turrets.

- Disable admin tools. You are now in enemy base, fully survival.

- Place down a control panel on any block of the enemy grid.

- Accessing the panel you just placed, (in control panel tab), select all the blocks of the grid (including all the 'access denied' blocks).

- Change the ownership, Transfer to "Me". You get confirmation message box, click Yes.

- The whole Factorum base (or enemy grid) is now transferred to you. If you close and re-open the access panel, you will now see all the grid blocks in white.

- Move freely in the base, without fear of being shot by that grid. As another proof, all the spawned support drones still in the vicinity start shooting the base. Of course, this is an extreme case, as normally one would do this after taking care of the drones, as a final step once he reach the base. So, no hacking required, easily take over the entire grid (including the most valuable items, like Prototech stuff).

This was probably broken recently, like in 1.206.

I was surprised to see that issue, as I found out while looking at some Youtube video. I thought the guy was using a mod, but no... I can confirm that this issue exists in 100% vanilla game, no mod, in 1.206 The ownership transfer in survival will let you select 'Nobody' or 'Me' for any grid, irrespective of the current owner.

Note: This is in singleplayer game.

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Space Ork ●

Dear Keen,

in your utmost wisdom so you can make enticing trailers faster, the host of the game was always in permanent partial admin mode. It used to be only on Factions tab where you could change settings of NPC factions and thus unintentionally break NPC relations to you and thus whole scenarios and in control panel where you would be able to add NPC entities to assign ownership to. But in your unending striving for excellence you have expanded this wonderful feature in last update in control panel as described in this so called bug. Let me express my gratitude for any and all your decisions and dispel any notions of any wrongdoing on your part but should you decide for another glorious change to the game mechanics, you might just as well do it on Factions tab too and not keep us undone in a part.

Glory to Keen and shame to C-players!

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Space Ork ●

So you have partially fixed it in 207.020. Admins can no longer take over blocks by mistake but they still have access to transferring own blocks to Nobody, which is also admin action not allowed to non-admins (you have made it that way in previous update). Because it creates neutral vehicles in which you can hide as a hostile and be ignored by turrets in default settings.

Problem on Factions tab as described above has fully remained.

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