Is it possible to connect two ships?

[Loquacious Lasagna]

Exactly as I said in the title. I am (was) building my first very large ship, planning to build the interior of each floor, then connect them all together and finish by giving the ship a shell, only to discover that I cannot connect the different floors. I assume this is because the game figures each floor is a seperate ship. (I built it by using the "new ship" button to build one floor, then building a tower off that floor and deleting it to suspend a block for the next floor to be build on, and so forth). So, my question is: Is it currently possible to connect two seperate "ship" entites, and if it is not, does anyone know when/if it will be possible?

[DocTanner]

It is not currently possible to permenantly connect two different ships. They are stored in the save files as separate entities. You CAN reconnect station parts, but only when it is one station that was later broken in two.

However, there may be a way for you to recover the work you've already done. Because each floor actually originates from the floor below it - instead of being an entirely new ship -, their cube grids should all be relative to the same initial point.

If you haven't moved any piece, at all, it might be possible to reconnect all the floors by converting them all into station blocks and reconnecting them. It's complicated, but try this:

• Download Notepad++, if you don't already have it. (Google will help you find it.)
  
• Open up "Run", either with Windows+R on your keyboard, or by clicking it in your start menu.
  
• Type "%appdata%\SpaceEngineers\Saves" and click ok.
  
• Open up the only folder there. It'll be a big long number. (Your steamid, actually)
  
• Find the folder containing the save and open it.
  
• Make a backup of all the files in here, somewhere safe. Do NOT leave the backup copies in this folder! The entire contents of the folder are erased on save.
  
• Right click the file "SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbs" and click "Edit with Notepad++".
  
• Press CTRL+H to bring up the find/replace window.
  
• Enter "<IsStatic>false" in the find field, and "<IsStatic>true" in the replace field.
  
• Click "Replace All"
  
• Save the file.
  
• Open up the save game in SE.
  
• If successful, you should be able to place blocks connecting each floor and reconnect them.
  
• If not, you may need to restore the backup copies you made earlier. There might be another way, but that way is even more complicated, so I won't get into it unless you need me to.

If you run into any problems, or have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on Steam chat.

[Stonefish]

Just use docking clamps.
I take no responsibility if your ship flies apart :)

[DocTanner]

Originally posted by LLJKStonefish:

Just use docking clamps.
I take no responsibility if your ship flies apart :)

Note: this will cause significant maneuverability and structural integrity problems. :-p

[Loquacious Lasagna]

DocTanner, it worked perfectly. Thank you.

[DocTanner]

You are very welcome. :D

[SEModder4]

So when I change the things in the file that you mentioned above DocTanner I can actually link two seperate ships to one by changing the station entry in the file from static=false to static=true?
Just making sure I read it correctly.

[DocTanner]

Yes and no. Yes, in that the IsStatic tag is what makes an entity a large ship or a station.

However, you can only reconnect things if they were originally the same entity. This is because the position of blocks in the cube grid are relative to the starting block. Even if you remove the original block or cut a ship in half, the block positions stay relative to the same coordinate.

So it worked for JGAm3r because he broke pieces off the original ship, rather than creating new ones.

Also, once you move a piece, it gets very difficult to reconnect it to the original. So, basically, you can only connect two seperate ships if they started as the same ship and haven't moved. It *may* be possible to do it in other cases, but this would require significantly more effort and is not something I have personally attempted.