Villages, traveling and decay

[MagicManICT]

The decay system looks at the amount of time passed since last map load and processes accordingly? (I'm speculating here)

[Granger]

Sorry, i thought about them being on claim. So you didn't miss anything.

I already complained about that (viewtopic.php?p=547860#p547860):
The server should apply the decay hits the map should have taken over time when the map loads.
Else structures will not decay in unvisited wilderness (and bushes not repopulate with berries), which is bad mechanic.

[jorb]

The server should apply the decay hits the map should have taken over time when the map loads.

Loftar insists that this is not feasible.

[Granger]

The server should apply the decay hits the map should have taken over time when the map loads.

Loftar insists that this is not feasible.

It completely breaks immersion that one can plant a little base in the wilderness and in case no one came by have it completely intact several months later, instead of finding some ruins. Also it fucks over casuals since bushes won't work for them.

This should be doable. Either he saves the map tiles as dedicated files, then the filesystem knows the save date.
Or he can setup a small DB with maparea-id =>unload_timestamp and query that on map tile load.

So i call bullshit on 'not feasible' (at least according to the translations LEO offers me), again.
Please try a bigger whip.

[Sevenless]

Is it potentially feasible to have a secondary system in place if the map has not been loaded in X days? As in, if a map isn't loaded for 30 days, all structures automatically take a decay hit? It's much more feasible than doing 20 bajillion RNG hits on the area that would have accumulated in that time.

One that note: Decay hits for berry bushes is a really painful system right now. It's so rare you can't make a feasible orchard that will ever regenerate berries. You're basically stuck harvesting what grows when you plant fresh ones.

Unless planted bushes don't use the same system for that.

[Granger]

Is it potentially feasible to have a secondary system in place if the map has not been loaded in X days? As in, if a map isn't loaded for 30 days, all structures automatically take a decay hit? It's much more feasible than doing 20 bajillion RNG hits on the area that would have accumulated in that time.

Why a secondary system in case the original works nicely?
I actually like the decay system, it adds some randomness into a deterministic world.

One that note: Decay hits for berry bushes is a really painful system right now. It's so rare you can't make a feasible orchard that will ever regenerate berries.

So you're not logged in long enough to keep the area active...

Unless planted bushes don't use the same system for that.

That would be an option, then decay will most likely only work on unclaimed stuff in loaded areas. If that is so then it could be abolished completely since it has no real use anymore.

[Sevenless]

Why a secondary system in case the original works nicely

Because it's completely impossible to use the decay system retroactively on unloaded areas like you want it to be? Decay hits being random is the problem. Because you need to apply thousands and thousands of decay hits to a region when it's first loading, anyone entering areas that hadn't been loaded in a while would cause massive server load.

So if we can't do that system, and we want something that still decays un-used areas, we need to come up with a new way to do it that isn't server killing.

So you're not logged in long enough to keep the area active...

I play 8-10 hours a day, if that's not active enough I'm not going to be the only person having trouble with this system. I also have 2 moderately active people playing with me which log in 2-4 hours a day each.

Berry bushes are really too slow in the current system.

[Granger]

Because it's completely impossible to use the decay system retroactively on unloaded areas like you want it to be? Decay hits being random is the problem. Because you need to apply thousands and thousands of decay hits to a region when it's first loading, anyone entering areas that hadn't been loaded in a while would cause massive server load.

Only at first glance, or when looked at it from a non-programmer perspective.

Possible solution: Run a background task that iterates with low priority through all areas
- (maybe) If never visited by hearthling before: ignore
- If inactive: load and apply accumulated decay, then unload
- Maybe while at it render a new map tile

With this you would not accumulate thousands and thousands of decay hits on an area, but only a low number of ingame days worth (my estimate) so on-demand load when you enter the area shouldn't have that much of a penalty. Would also lead to items dispersed by destroyed containers to vanish correctly, instead of all being on the ground when you enter the area after (example) some months.

So no, not completely impossible. IMHO.

[Apillion]

Would this not make for longer map loading when entering a area that was not visited in a long time?

[Granger]

Would this not make for longer map loading when entering a area that was not visited in a long time?

With this you would not accumulate thousands and thousands of decay hits on an area, but only a low number of ingame days worth (my estimate) so on-demand load when you enter the area shouldn't have that much of a penalty.