Infestations are meant to provide a fun action / horror / survival movie experience to Space Engineers by adding small space spiders to randomly selected NPC grids in the game. Roll a little Alien horror into your NPC encounters and change it up a bit.


When an infestation spawns an a ship, that ship is pretty much a write-off. Infestations are fairly destructive, and tend to cause ships to crash. Even the process of clearing them out generally results in extensive ship damage.

The presence of an infestation can often make the capture of a grid somewhat easier due to the damage the spiders cause. At the same time, due to that damage (and the damage incurred clearing the infestation), players should expect less salvage from the grid.

• Can infest any large grid ship, vehicle, or station owned by an NPC-only faction (Safe Zones should keep them out)
  
• Uses AI Enabled to provide pathing and behaviors for NPCs on ships.
  
• Supports single player, multiplayer, and local hosted multiplayer games.

If you have any problems with the mod, or you have suggestions for new commands or behaviors, or if you want help using the mod, please join the discord.

Discord[discord.gg]

If you would like to provide support for the continued development of this mod, please feel free to use Patreon[www.patreon.com].

I'm also happy with word-of-mouth advertising, so if you like it, get your friends to use it. :)

• Add the mod to your game.
  
• The next time you load your game, a small percentage of all existing and newly spawned NPC grids will be infested with spiders.
  
• Have fun bug hunting!

There are no known issues with Dedicated Servers and this mod.

Use the following commands in game chat *. The prefix is /ie. All commands are case-insensitive.

• Version
  Display the installed version.

* This only works in SP and hosted MP. DS may be able to use it, if there is a CLI, although I've not tested it myself.

The configuration file can be used to adjust your experience with this mod to suit your preferred play style. The file is located in different locations, depending on how your game was created.

• Do not change the configuration file while the game is using it. Your changes will be lost.
  
• A default configuration with two types of infestations (small and large) is generated you first run a game with the mod.
  
• If you ever need the config reset, just delete the file and a new one will be created the next time you play.

File location (Dedicated Server)

File location (Single Player, Hosted Multiplayer)

The configuration file contains the following sections.

Version
Holds the current mod version.

Logging
This controls whether logging data is written to the game log file.

InfestExistingGrids
This controls whether grids that already exist in the game (as opposed to grids spawned as NPCs) have a chance to be infested when the game starts.

DamageInteriorTurrets
This controls whether interior turrets in airtight spaces are damaged when the infestation hits.

InfestationFrequency
Indicates the percentage of spawned grids (and pre-existing grids) that will be infested.

MaxLiveBugsPerGrid
This controls the maximum number of spawned bugs that can exist on a grid at the same time.

MinimumGridSize
The is the minimum number of blocks an NPC grid must contain in order to be eligible for infestation.

SupportedCharacters
This shows all the available spider characters the mod can use.

InfestationDefinitions
This section allows you to create different types of infestations.

BlacklistFactions
This section allows you to specify factions that will never have their grids populated.

BlacklistGrids
This section allows you to specify grids that will never be populated.

This element is just for information. Changing the contents has no effect on the game; it's just an easy way for you to find what version you are running, should you have problems.

This should always be false, unless you are working with the mod author. Setting this to true will flood your logs and severely impact your game's performance.

This indicates if the mod will attempt to populate grids that already exist in the game. The chance of populating a grid is the InfestationFrequency (see below).

This controls whether interior turrets in airtight spaces are damaged to non-functionality. This only occurs when a grid is infested. It does not effect grids otherwise. Default to true

Indicates the percentage of spawned NPC grids (and pre-existing NPC grids) that will be infested. Range 0-1. Default is 0.2 (20%).

This controls the maximum number of spawned bugs* that can exist on a grid at the same time. This can be used if you find you have performance issues. I have played with values as high as 100, but for a multiplayer server, you may want something lower. The default is 12.


* Generally. There are sometimes exceptions and this value can be exceeded slightly.

The is the minimum number of blocks an NPC grid must contain in order to be eligible for infestation. Infestation size scales with grid size (although not linearly).

This section has no functional purpose. It is provided as a convenience to the admin or player for configuring this mod. This shows all the available spider characters the mod can use.

NOTE
Although the mod can use the normal size spiders, it is recommended you only use the small spiders, as they are more capable of moving around inside grids.

This section contains one or more InfestationDefinition elements. There is no limit to the number of entries that can be defined here.

This field contains the following sections (additional tags).

Description
A plain text name or label for the infestation. This serves no game purpose, but can help with organization and design of different infestations.

Frequency
The relative frequency of this infestation occurring. Formula is {frequency} / {total of all frequencies}.

Activation
The probability of spawning spiders in response to an "agitation" event.

TotalMin, TotalMax
The min and max size of the infestation.

Spiders, Queens
The character definitions for the spiders to use for regular spiders and queen spiders.

A plain text name or label for the infestation. This serves no game purpose, but can help with organization and design of different infestations.

The relative frequency of this infestation occurring. Formula is {frequency} / {total of all frequencies}.

The probability of spawning spiders in response to an "agitation" event.

TotalMin, TotalMax
The min and max size of the entire infestation. Most of the infestation will be hiding inside the ships cargo and conveyor system, and only appear in response to agitation events. When an infestation is created, the total number of spiders is randomized between these two numbers*.


* This is not the number of spiders that will be created at once.

The character definitions for the spiders to use for regular spiders and queen spiders. You can directly copy and paste the items from the SupportedCharacters section.

Most of the time, players will encounter Spiders. These should always be the "small" version of the characters.

The queens are the normal sized spiders and are encountered very rarely. This section can be left empty. When empty, the infestation will not have any queens.

NOTE
Although the mod can use the normal size spiders, it is recommended you only use the small spiders, as they are more capable of moving around inside grids.

Some planets are overrun with aggressive spiders that will actively try to infest grids. Each entry in this list defines a planet with these sorts of spiders. By default, the Alien planet is defined to illustrate how the configuration works. Any number of planets can be included here.

This field contains the following sections (additional tags). Large grid vehicles that have landed on this planet (or large grid structures that are built on the planet), have a change to become infested. This check occurs at periodic intervals and is influenced by various factors.

PlanetSubtypeId
A the subtypeId for the planet. This is specified in the planet's XML definition, just like most things in the game.

InfestationProbability
When the mod determines there is a chance of a grid becoming infested, this is the probability of the infestation occurring. Value is 0 to 1.0

InfestationPeriod
This is the time frame (in minutes) that eligible grids are checked to become infested. The period varies slightly from this value, but this is the base rate.

This section allows you to block entire NPC factions from spawning with infestations on them. Enter each faction's tag separately. This is only necessary for NPC factions. Grids in player factions will never receive spontaneous infestations.

This does not stop infestations from spreading to the grid through a connector or other means.

This section allows you to block specific grids from having infestations spawned on them. Enter each grid's name separately. This is only necessary for grids in NPC factions. Grids owned by players or in player factions will never spontaneously receive infestations.

This does not stop infestations from spreading to the grid through a connector or other means.

• Death FX - Sabiroids
  
• AI Enabled
  
• Modular Encounter Systems

• Crew Enabled
  
• Damaged Spawnships
  
• Star System Generator
  
• Non-combat Jetpacks
  
• Cargo Scanner
  
• Weapon Scanner
  
• Material Scanner
  
• Scientific Machines and Environment TSS
  
• Air Traffic Jargon Generator TSS
  
• Techno Jargon TSS
  
• Death Counter TSS
  
• Crushing Death by Gravity
  
• Days Without Incident
  
• Battery Charge Adjuster (Admin tool)