I have a private server and I have the following questions:
Question 1: My server is configured to have no decay for structures. Is there a way for me (as admin) to know how long a random player’s construction has been abandoned?
Question 2: If I enable decay for structures, will bases start with full decay timer (as if they were recently updated), or will the accumulated time without updating the construction be counted? Can I reset the decay timer for all bases on the server?
Question 3: If I enable the “NoOwnership” option, no construction or item will have an owner, correct? But are the original owners retained, and if the option is disabled, each clan becomes the owner of their own constructions and items again? I know it’s a silly question because it could cause chaos on a server… but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Not without mods to my knowlegde. If you have the pippi mod installed you can check how long it has been since a player logged in last.
You can see and edit (mostly) a persons character name, steam id, stats and knowledge points, the perks he has choosen, everything he claimed on the map. You can delete a character and/or his buildings (you do not have to do it by hand). You can give your players ranks, create alternative teleportation options for them. Pippi is the one tool I always recommend to server owners.
To my knowledge yes, if you enable decay bases will start with full decay timer and the timer will be reset if you change settings back and forth.
Although I would not recommend to do that if you do not want to lose ownership over your buildings since decay timer can bug out.
Constructions will still have an owner. The NoOwnership option doesn´t count for buildings.
That would be amazing, exactly what I need. However, I’m trying to avoid using any mods on the server.
This argument alone is enough for me to not even consider using this feature then.
Just to confirm if I understood correctly. The only difference between NoOwnership and ContainersIgnoreOwnership is:
NoOwnership: players can access other players’ chests and workbenches, remove and add items, and they can also use the workbenches for crafting.
ContainersIgnoreOwnership: players can access other players’ chests and workbenches, remove and add items, but they cannot use the workbenches for crafting.
Pippi is a great admin mod, which is definitely worth having.
I use it to manage/clean up the server of old properties (no decay on my servers). Also use it to make merchants for the servers and other features (warps, messages, rules, quests, special commands, etc.)
As others said, use Pippi to see when a player has last login. I typically use their webhook function to discord to monitor when people login and logoff. Gives a timestamp of each. This is useful because you can see general activity. Because with decay on, you will see people login, but then they will immediately log off. That’s still abandoned in my eyes. Serial refreshing isn’t something most private servers acknowledge. Usually within a 1-2 week period if an individual or clan hasn’t logged a certain number of hours, they’ll get hit for inactivity. The limit isn’t exactly public knowledge but is in the realm of whatever the owner has in mind as being ‘active’.
Should. Though I have seen a bug happen where the decay started on server launch and applied it all at once. Causing a literally wave from east to west (for some reason), or west to east, don’t remember which, of decay from one end to the other. Literally it looked like an invisible wave knocking down every building at once. Had to load up a previous backup for that one.
Mind you said bug happened in 2018 and I haven’t seen it since. So its probably been fixed by now. I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone else. And to be perfectly honest I can’t even say for sure it wasn’t because of a mis input from the server owner. So its likely safe. Just always back up your database before making changes like that.
And people already answered the third question fully, so what they said there. Don’t have anything to add there.