Hello
I’ve been on holiday for a week and come back and logged on for the first time in about 8 days only to find my main base is gone, along with virtually all my equipment, stores and crafting stations. My Thralls are all still there floating on the walls that no longer exist.
Is this really how this game works that if you don’t log on for a week all the items and work you’ve spent hours on simply disappear?
I checked the ‘event log’ and it says they have decayed? How can they decay so quickly or is this a bug?
Yes. It’s crazy how undocumented this is compared to how much of an impact it has, especially as it’s not exactly a logical or common feature, but yes it is how the game works.
I wish it were a bug, but it isn’t. Many players (me included) have tried many times to get more time added, and (even more crucially IMO) something done that explains this weird mechanic in no uncertain terms, in-game. Not everyone comes to the forums! But to no avail. There was also a poll some time back that showed overwhelming support for extending the time to at least two weeks, but instead it got bumped from six days to the current seven (better than nothing I suppose).
That is so disappointing to hear. So basically you cannot go on holiday with this game, it’s almost as though they want you so addicted to it you have to be constantly logging on so nothing disappears.
It’s a pity as my friends and I were really enjoying this game but to see all that hard work disappear…well it’s time to look for another game I feel.
I agree that’s a problem. If you have friends you can trust, they can help you refresh the timer while you’re gone - but it is indeed rather ridiculous having to set up such things for a game just to go away for a bit.
Sad to see you go, but I can’t say I blame you. If I ever lose my base to decay, I’m probably gone too.
If you play single-player or on a private server you can of course disable the decay system, but that comes with a set of problems (and costs) all its own, so it’s IMO not a real solution.
On official servers there is a maximum decay time set … in general this is a maximum of 7 days (168 hours) and then items go into a 24 hour decayed/abandoned state. (Edit: PS4 official servers temporarily have a 14 day/ 336 hour timer due to excess numbers from the PSN free month.) To get max decay the building needs to be complex or large enough.
During the decayed/abandoned timer any player can demolish the items. I think but am not sure if the owner returns during that time if they can reclaim the abandoned items by standing close to them.
Many private servers play with decay turned off or extended. They often have rules about the number of locations at which you can build and perhaps name plates on property to indicate ownership. And probably the Admin staff for the server will periodically clear the map if players are not active or do not give notice of absence.
Clans are a way that you can play and still be able to go away if not everyone in the clan goes away together and you can rely on your clan-mates to refresh the timers on seperate bases.
If you just want to play your group vs the environment and don’t care about having other players around (which is completely fine!), then running a small server just for you might actually be viable.
If you’d rather play in a world filled with other people (that’d be my preference) then finding or running a private server with decay off or extended could work, but I don’t have much (positive) experience with that, so I’ll let someone else speak about that.