I will give you the down and dirty version but I’m sure others will be able to explain better. There are 2 types of lag, server and client (well, 3 if you include latency). Servers are affected by everything built on the server, if there is any player within range of a building, placeable or AI (like NPCs), then the server has to contend with that and often we experience lag because the server is struggling. Client lag, on the other hand, is typically caused when your hardware is trying to render stuff on screen. Both types can feel similar but are caused by totally different things. If you are playing single player, then your client is acting as both client and server. Hope that helps.

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