Seems pet/thralls decay and die even if base decay is off

I think that it is a bug … because they stated their private server has decay turned off … so their buildings never decay. But it looks like the thrall/pets were killed by the system as the player did not log in for 14 days … so the game killed all the thralls/pets after this time.
So actually NOT linked to the building decay system settings …but looks like seperate code that needs to have an on/off setting AND time slider in the server/single player/co-op options.

Note: the thrall/pet death after no logins is NOT LINKED to refreshing their decay by proximity … it’s related to the log in even if not close … as far as I understand it… I will start testing this from next week …i’m going to strand something I don’t care about very faraway from me where I don’t visit and return after 15 days …

If someone has found the setting to turn off the thrall/pet kill due to no login… please post. If not Funcom needs to implement it asap or properly link thrall/pet deaths to decay on/off setting.

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I would certainly agree with this, paragraph one !

I sit corrected about the distance thing, thanks, but waiting 15 days, well, refer back to paragraph one; get it up on the Trello board for attention. At least review the code quickly then get the proper tools for server management concerning pets.

I have not experienced this since I don’t play the official servers, and solo requires me to be logged in 24/7X2. Not feasible unless I buy another game for a second computer.

I suppose it would help if there are any more examples out there; please post if you lost a pet to hunger/neglect.

If decay is turned off, thralls and pets should not decay.

In single/co-op game, this is different bit, because when you’re not loged-in, game, and so the worlds isn’t running. But privat servers, like all servers should go with the decay-system like i understand that.

So must be indeed a bug, if player OP stated didn’t log-in at all, and was the only member of his clan. If there are other members, of course they will count as log-in, and so have to go near the pets, thralls to reset the decay-timer if this is set, ever if only set to low. Again, if turned off, this shouldn’t change anything, and they shouldn’t decay.

Hey there,

Since this happened in a private server, are there any mods installed?

Yes there are mods but they don’t have anything to do with decay.

It was a solo player no clan.

If there are mods, hard to tell. Ever if they seems not touch decay-system.
May be a bug, but can be mod related to.

Believe me, i love mods, and use them with pleasure and often, but i know that i can never be sure it’s not a mod without lot test in vanilla with the same results.
One of the reason, i try still run a “nilla” game beside, as test. I know not the thing each want do, just to say. Can be.

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Same happened to me, private server, no mods, decay switched off, away for 2 weeks came back and every pet and thrall is dead.
If decay is off I expected the pets to stay alive as per the new system.

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Further to this, fresh server wipe, built new reinforced animal pen, captured a boar and a croc and took them out this morning.
Server has decay switched on now at 30 days.
Crafted a feed bin, placed the boar in range of the feed bin he took out some mushrooms and ate the first one, his timer says 7 days. Feed bin says it is serving the Boar.
Placed the Croc out of range of the feed bin, he therefore has no food in slots, his timer is now going down and is at 6 days 23h.
Someone please explain the new feeding system to me, I thought it had been turned off and our pets and thralls would no longer die/require feeding unless I went over the 30 day decay timer?
@Ignasi

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To alter the decay settings for pets and thralls, you should edit these two lines:

ThrallDecayTime

DisableThrallDecay

If they’re not present in your ini files you should add them manually until we include those settings in the GUI in a future patch.

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Thank you for the Information I had not realised I jumped the gun, I thought the new system was already in place.

The thralls still have a setting for decay i think that is different from the building decay toggle. check to make sure it is off as well.

Yes, please, or simply a reliable link to all these mysterious lines.
I don’t care have to edit my ini as long i know what to write in it, and what is working. Sure having a appropriate slider in the GUI would be handy, but still i can do it trough ini.

@Ignasi These settings ( ThrallDecayTime and DisableThrallDecay) were not made clear in the patch notes at any stage …

All the PC (2.3.19) and PS4 (18.3.19) said relating to thrall & pet decay was:
“Thralls no longer use the hunger system to keep them alive. Instead, their life is terminated once a member of the clan to which they belong to has not logged into the game for two weeks (official servers). This is tied to the server setting for maximum decay time. Thralls still do gain buffs from eating food”

(to me, reading this - I interpret it as the thrall/pet decay is DIRECTLY linked to building decay settings …so if building decay is off then thralls/pets won’t decay and there would be NOTHING else I would have to change in the server settings to keep them alive.)

And later it there was a line in the 5.3.19 PC patch notes saying:

“The Thrall decay system now has separate server settings than the building decay system”

A single line that does not help private server owners to know what to change…and in the PC hotfix notes only…

Better communication of WHAT they have to look for in the server settings to ensure that their players thralls and pets do not die off en-masse if they have decay extended or disabled would have been better …and not buried. It’s not even IN the PS4 notes and I can not find the Xbox notes for the Unnamed city/Yeti release it jumps from 18.2.19 Performance Improvements to 28.3.19 UI bugs and XP fixes.

Also this specific information is still buried from plain sight of the private server owners … as in … it’s a reply in a bug post several weeks later AFTER a private server owner is reporting their player thralls & pets dying off when decay is OFF. (and it’s not the first report I’ve read querying the issue) [edit: see my post two replies down 12 hours after I wrote this - I missed a bug report that queried the thrall decay settings where Ignasis did supply the settings to be changed]

IT should be an announcement on it’s own as it was NOT made clear in the patch notes. This is a very important piece of information for all the private server owners…

and if I’m interpretting this correctly:

Then THESE INCREDIBLY important settings might not even be IN the list of settings that can be changed … HOW can people people change them if they aren’t even there for them to see … this is a WTF moment for me … terrible implementation of important aspect of ALL our game play … UNTESTED code dropped on to the live game … I have looked through the test live patch notes from 21.12.19 to 1.3 and do NOT see it [thrall decay] mentioned in them … NOT properly and fully implemented … badly communicated …
a) 2.3.19 when it was dropped on PC … the HUNGER still killed thralls … had to be hot fixed in on 4.3
b) it had to be hotfixed in on 5.3.19 that thrall/pet decay was SEPERATE to building decay … BUT not made clear WHAT settings had be changed to ensure no deaths
c) The two settings MIGHT not be in the GUI … how can anyone find them if they ARE NOT there to find. and NO WHERE until NOW has it been stated WHAT they are … (Edit: this last phrase is not fair as 12hrs after this sentence was typed I did a search and found one old bug report where the settings were stated, see below post. But I won’t edit it out as others have had time to read this section of the forums.)

Poor job Funcom …

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So the Devs basically nerfed the thrall/pet feeding system to basically just be a buff instead of promoting activity? Did the Devs state the reason they changed this back to the setting that allows bases to not actually have to maintain their standing army of thralls/pets, I didn’t think it was all that hard to keep the thralls/pets fed, and If you didn’t want to use the hunger system on private servers you could just turn it off like decay.

@Kwalya This is a real eye opener, thank you for taking the time to let us know all this.

My faith in Funcom has just taken a real hit, @Ignasi I trusted the info you typed and passed it onto our server admin in good faith.
At the very least I would like to see a comprehensive, correct and factual statement on this matter in reply to the above by @Kwalya that will enable us all to make a decision on Pet/Thrall decay and how to handle it.

Ok I need to add an edit to my above response … there was a bug report previously about a month ago where Ignasis states the settings that had to be changed:

But still … private server owners would have to know to look for a bug report asking where the thrall decay settings are before they’d find out about them and that they might not be in their ini file … so still very poor implementation of the change. Not in the patch notes on all three platforms in PLAIN text what they are… and not even IN the ini files that server owners see … so 26 days after acknowledging the GUI might not have those settings … seems Funcom still hasn’t fixed it …
(When Funcom implemented the feeding system the patch notes clearly listed the settings that server owners or single/co-op players would need to change with relation to it.)

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Hey @Kwalya
That is rather unfair, as that comment was just to ensure this line is present in a settings file of a server that could be affected by a myriad of circumstances outside of our control the same way we try to ensure some basic steps in other issues as general assistance. We also stated a few times in the past that we’re working on implementing these settings into the GUI, as well as removing remnants of the hunger system still present in the game.
The fact that it wasn’t clearly stated in the patch notes clearly is on us, and no matter how massive the patch notes can be sometimes (which in this case they were pretty massive) we have to make sure every change is covered and properly explained, especially in cases like this one which is pretty important. We’re human, and sometimes we make mistakes.

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What would be really nice is to have a full documentation of all the settings, and what impact the values have. Unfortunately there is none available that is remotely up-to-date or accurate. Even the tooltips for the options in-game are incorrect or unclear at best.

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In the meantime, this sounds like a good project for an experienced server admin, writing a guide.

Regards from an inexperienced server admin.

jim

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