Space Engineers 2: VS2.3 Brings Wheels & Automation!
Posted by Dals | 7 July 2026
Space Engineers has always been a game that appeals to the technical side of players, allowing for huge custom space ships, maintenance, and journeying across planets to be able to develop more advanced technology.
The Space Engineers VS2.3 update brings this to the next level by massively expanding automation tools, introducing all-new modes of travel, expanding weather systems, and SO many more massive changes!
Quick Notes:
A quick breakdown of the changes this patch and what's covered on this page includes:
Wheels: Add wheels to bases, build custom vehicles, and explore planets from land.
Automation: Lots of new variables and tools to use when automating your creations.
Hinges: Create entirely new types of builds and devices with hinges such as doors, ramps, and landing legs.
Explosions: Hazardous and sensitive materials can now explode if not handled with care.
Weather: Certain types of weather, like wind and sandstorms, can now blow around flying ships, ground vehicles, and other objects.
Survival Mode: A new mode built for traditional survival game players, rebalanced around the experience of reaching space, rather than jumping straight into it.
Colonization: A new colonization system has been introduced for sectors, rewarding continued work and participation in sectors in return for permanent upgrades, levels, and benefits.
Many more changes were made in the update, with most covered in more detail throughout this breakdown of the patch notes!
Vehicles
To say that this update adds more Space Engineers vehicles would be a huge understatement! Instead, it's more accurate to say that WHEELS have been introduced to the game.
The key difference? You can attach wheels to just about anything you want!
You build your own custom rovers or regular ground vehicles if you want to keep things traditional. Or, attach a set of wheels to a base and create a mobile ground base for you to use.
In a typical Space Engineers fashion, the wheel system has also been fleshed out to include systems like suspension, propulsion, varying sizes, and other elements that impact your steering and braking controls.
This is especially useful in combination with new weather changes that are being introduced to the game in this same update. More on those will be shared later on this page.
Automation
One of the most exciting parts of the VS2.3 update for many is the ability to automate their creations, vehicles, and production!
Automatic weapon systems will now be able to react based on what their target is or how much ammo they have, vehicles will be able to automatically react to terrain and speed, and more!
Some of the new automation parameters that can be used in your creations include:
Block Parameters | Grid Parameters |
|---|---|
Last Value | Blocks Added |
Functional/Not Functional (Boolean) | Blocks Removed |
Integrity | Atmosphere Percentage |
Enabled? | Linear Speed |
Supplied? | Angular Speed |
% Inventory Filled | Mass |
% Resource Filled (for tanks/batteries) | Gravity |
Opened? (for doors) | Dampener Status |
Occupied? (if a character is in a cockpit) | |
Rotor Angle | |
Piston Extension Distance | |
"Ready to Align?" + "Ready to Connect?" (for connectors) | |
Producing? (for production blocks) | |
Ores Detected (how many ore nodes were detected) | |
Weapon Ammo (for block-based weapons) | |
Weapon Shot (triggered when a weapon is fired) | |
Weapon Target Acquired (triggered when a turret locks onto a target) | |
Various analog movement/float actions for moving, looking around, an velocity | |
Crafting Blocks? (if a recipe in an automatic queue can't be crafted) |
Since there are a lot of new parameters that have been added, the developers have also shared a video showcasing some of those automation tools in-action as well!
Hinges
Technical checks aren't the only form of automation that the update has to offer, though!
This update also introduces new Mechanical Blocks. The addition and expansion of hinges in Space Engineers 2 allows for anyone to create moving parts far more easily.
You can use these to build legs that fold out when you're about to land your ship, a massive door from a carrier ship you can open to load/unload vehicles from, and completely custom machines.
Hinges even work together with pistons, wheels, rotors, and other tech, and are a massive new introduction to the toolkit in Space Engineers 2 that add nearly limitless options for custom creations.
Wind & Weather
Weather has been a part of Space Engineers for a while, but has never been as impactful as it is now in version VS2.3!
Sandstorms, rather than just cosmetic dust and sand on your screen, will now affect players, vehicles, and machines in the world.
Heavy winds can push around flying ships, push floating objects or debris, ground vehicles, and even objects like crates. Of course, your static build placements like your base and its foundations are safe and won't be in any danger.
Weather will also be affected by terrain, as well. Large structures or mountains and valleys around the map can help break the force of the wind and weather, adding another layer to consider when creating your base on a planet!
New Classic Survival Mode
Space Engineers 2 has always revolved around one key theme above all else: space.
As of this latest update, though, you can now also choose the Classic Survival mode when starting up a playthrough! For anyone that enjoys a more traditional survival game experience, this mode is catered to help ease you into the game and offer that classic gameplay loop.
In the Space Engineers Classic Survival mode, gameplay will start off more grounded. Reaching space will take work, and is more of a challenge rather than being the entire purpose.
The mode also includes a lot of functionality adjustments to help ensure the core survival experience feels more rewarding, including changes to:
Resource yields from terrain
Ore balance
Backpack building tools
Equipment including welders, grinders, and hand drills
Simplifying recipes for more basic blocks
Crafting costs for starter items and components
Our game panel also makes it as easy as a few clicks to swap your gamemode!
Overhauled Sectors & Colonization
Completing contracts, colonizing sectors, and interacting with the Almagest System around you now has a lot more impact!
Completing quests, making discoveries, new encounters, and general activity within sectors of the system now all contribute to the colonization progress of a sector. This comes alongside new progression levels for colonization:
Unexplored: A sector that has yet to become available or is still locked.
Explored: A newly unlocked sector, allowing for trading, exchange, and simple contracts.
Settled: Safe zones become available! You may start to see NPC ships, new stations, new contract types, and random events like colonist convoys.
Developed: More activity can be seen throughout the sector all-around. More contracts, encounters, trades, and discoveries become available over time.
Colonized: The sector has been 100% colonized! Endless contracts and encounters begin to appear, and keep the sector active even after all of your previous main progression is complete. This makes sure your colonized sectors constantly feel alive, and give reason to come back and return!
Elevating your colonization level also features new cutscenes and showcases your progress/impact that you've had on a sector over time.
In addition, new planetary stations have been added which will become discoverable as you complete contracts and colonize sectors. The newly added stations as of VS2.3 are:
Vallis Reach (Verdure Planetary Station)
Dustspire Junction (Kemik Planetary Station)
Palatine Station (Palatine Orbit)
Caligo Station (Caligo Orbit)
Explosions
Be careful as you work on your automations in the new update and experiment with all of the new tools, though, as some of your resources may now explode!
If managing things like gas tanks, ammo, reactors, and bombs, sudden force or changes could cause the surrounding area to go up in flames.
This danger can always be configured using our Kinetic Hosting game panel, though, to easily adjust the risk however you'd like! Key options include the ability to change explosion range, force, and damage.
Many more changes…
The new update for Space Engineers 2 is massive, and there are many other changes made that can't fit into larger categories. It's hard to cover all of those adjustments here, but some extra spotlights include:
A much cleaner/clearer HUD while flying or piloting a ship (which can be toggled on and off!)
A new 'decal' system that impacts the world around you when you shoot terrain, drive over it, cause an explosion, and more.
A large sweep through voxel and planet performance for the game, aiming to make performance a lot more consistent!
GPU and graphics processing performance has also seen a pass, helping to really narrow down any lag in Space Engineers 2 that players have been facing in recent updates.
Ore distribution has also been overhauled, adding a more deliberate system for ores, influenced mostly by depth. The deeper you go underground, the rarer the ores!
Lots of new blocks have been added including new passage-way blocks, stairs, interior wall designs, screens/LCD panels, and more!
Enhanced combat controls for character weapons (including a new system to aim down sights!) and turrets, allowing you to take over turrets and fire them manually instead of relying and automatic targeting.
You can now group together actions and blocks that need to work together, making managing them less tedious.
It would be hard to pick a better time to jump into Space Engineers 2 than right now following this MASSIVE update. The addition of the new classic survival mode helps sure the game is easy to get into for fans of more traditional survival games, or others that just want that classic experience.
As always, Kinetic Hosting is happy to host the latest version of the game and make it easier than ever to try out Space Engineers 2 by keeping our premium server hosting affordable. Existing server owners can split some extra resources over to give the game a shot, or anyone interested in starting up a new server can try us out risk-free thanks to our 7-day money-back guarantee if you end up changing your mind.
Need help getting started or have any other questions? Our human support team is always here to help, without ever needing to deal with any AI chatbots.
Automate Everything in the Universe
Ready to try out the new Space Engineers 2 update? Kinetic Hosting has you covered with affordable, premium server hosting to keep things lag-free even as you traverse worlds with your friends!