Change for ticking items

[tiny]

recently, i was told by some private server admins that the server load is impacted by ‘ticking’ objects. objects that produce something on a timer (ie: fish traps, mines, etc) regardless whether or not anyone is actually online.

this is a problem. (if i’m incorrect on this, please disregard the following)

for ticking items (tickers), if no players are within 1 or 2 grid squares of it… there is no need for it to tick. instead, just increase the time between ticks. if a player does enter the region, quickly trigger an event and have all tickers update their contents since their last ‘tick’, setting the tick rate back to real-time.

we see something like this for the npcs when you come into an area that’s been abandoned for a bit. the npcs ‘come to life’ and start moving (tho the reactivate radius should be a bit larger so the player doesn’t see this)

if implemented properly, a server with no players logged in should see very little load

thoughts?

[CodeMage]

@tiny

for ticking items (tickers), if no players are within 1 or 2 grid squares of it… there is no need for it to tick. instead, just increase the time between ticks. if a player does enter the region, quickly trigger an event and have all tickers update their contents since their last ‘tick’, setting the tick rate back to real-time.

That’s basically how it works already. If there are no players in the area, it’s not simulated. When a player enters the area, the simulation is reactivated and executes a “catch-up logic”. For crafting stations, that means that they will update their state according to the time elapsed since the time they stopped being simulated.

[CodeMage]

True. That’s why:

1. Thralls are also not simulated unless there’s a player in range.
2. They introduced a follower cap, although they haven’t activated it yet on official servers.