Server without people

[VanDerGroot]

When a server has no people online, does it continue to simulate anything?

[SINKDOLPHIN]

not really no

[Liralen]

In my experience playing on unofficial, dedicated servers, nothing happens if no one is near a base.

However, if someone approaches it (or you log in on one), the base is removed from stasis. The dedicated server only then calculates the food consumption that would have been eaten and the spoilage that would have occurred, and alters those things accordingly.

However, the server does not give the corresponding health benefit that would have occurred. That's not a problem for adult dinos, who were probably at max health to begin with, but it is a problem for immature dinos.

Because the server also calculates what their maturity gain should have been. The food that they should have eaten is removed, but they don't gain the health benefits, and so they have to eat more to compensate.

That might not be exactly what happens, it's just the best I've been able to figure out so far. Whatever the reason is exactly, I've found that once I have a Tek bed, in which my character cannot die from starvation and thirst, so I can go afk for days on end, thereby keeping the server functioning accurately within my character's range (whatever that is), all is well.

If I log out, and the server continues to run, when I log back in, the babies will require twice as much food to be able to achieve the same health benefit as if I never logged out because I was in a Tek bed.

Of course, if I shut the server down when I log out, nothing happens. That's only possible if no one else is playing or have the ability to restart the server themselves or request it and have a reasonable expectation that it would soon be restarted.

[VanDerGroot]

Originally posted by Liralen:

In my experience playing on unofficial, dedicated servers, nothing happens if no one is near a base.

However, if someone approaches it (or you log in on one), the base is removed from stasis. The dedicated server only then calculates the food consumption that would have been eaten and the spoilage that would have occurred, and alters those things accordingly.

However, the server does not give the corresponding health benefit that would have occurred. That's not a problem for adult dinos, who were probably at max health to begin with, but it is a problem for immature dinos.

Because the server also calculates what their maturity gain should have been. The food that they should have eaten is removed, but they don't gain the health benefits, and so they have to eat more to compensate.

That might not be exactly what happens, it's just the best I've been able to figure out so far. Whatever the reason is exactly, I've found that once I have a Tek bed, in which my character cannot die from starvation and thirst, so I can go afk for days on end, thereby keeping the server functioning accurately within my character's range (whatever that is), all is well.

If I log out, and the server continues to run, when I log back in, the babies will require twice as much food to be able to achieve the same health benefit as if I never logged out because I was in a Tek bed.

Of course, if I shut the server down when I log out, nothing happens. That's only possible if no one else is playing or have the ability to restart the server themselves or request it and have a reasonable expectation that it would soon be restarted.

What I'm trying to figure out is if my base will be attacked by dinos if nobody is online.

[Liralen]

That, I don't know. My bases are always so well-defended against wild dinos (basically, just ancient castle design - a keep in the center, with outer walls), I wouldn't notice if they did.

[🦊 Hermit]

No, bases won't get attacked by dinos. As Lira said the game calculates spoilage times and food usage, and subtracts that from creatures when they are loaded in again. But wild dino movements are paused when nobody is close to them, so they will not take any action.

The only possible exception to this (barring mods) is if the server is using the PreventHibernation command...that config is mainly used for single player, but it might have an effect on servers too, I don't know. But I have never heard of a server using that in all my years of playing, so it's very unlikely.

[Who Dat]

Originally posted by VanDerGroot:

When a server has no people online, does it continue to simulate anything?

Some of these people don't entirely know or are just assuming so let me tell you whats going on.

If you are playing on an official server, hosted by wildcard, the games developers, then yes, your base will be attacked by dinos even if there are zero players online, your gasoline will deplete, element too, and your base and dinosaurs will decay (dino hidden decay timer of 8 days)

if you are playing singleplayer or a non dedicated server where someone needs to be in the game to invite friends then everything will become static when you log off.

if you have a dedicated server with your friends, meaning no one needs to be online for the game to run, it will run like an offical server when everyone is offline and dinos will still be able to destroy things.

if you are worried about your base being destroyed just build away from the mountains and build out of stone, only giga can eat stone and they are in mountains, youll be fine from dino attacks.

[🦊 Hermit]

Originally posted by Who Dat:

If you are playing on an official server, hosted by wildcard, the games developers, then yes, your base will be attacked by dinos even if there are zero players online
<Snip>
if you have a dedicated server with your friends, meaning no one needs to be online for the game to run, it will run like an offical server when everyone is offline and dinos will still be able to destroy things.

I'm sorry, but this is inaccurate. Stasis does exist on dedicated servers, and even official ones.

On most servers you can even see evidence of it yourself as you walk around - Find a couple of creatures fighting, such as a rex and bronto, or raptors and stegos. Have them right on the very limit of your view range, then as the predator gets knocked back by the herbivore's attack, step backwards so they de-render. Then go elsewhere on the map and do something else for a while.

Return to the spot you left, and approach from the same direction. You will see the same creatures render in as you get close. They did not continue to fight and kill each other while you were away, they did not walk away, they are still right there in the area. And in fact, for a brief moment they will not even be agroed on each other or fighting each other any more...they will be walking around normally, but then the predator will agro and attack the herbivore once again.

Map simulation continues only if it has been enabled in the game's config settings, either through the StasisKeepControllers config, or the startup command PreventHibernation.

StasisKeepControllers keeps the AI of creatures in memory, so they will not lose agro when you walk away from them as I mentioned above, but it will not prevent creatures from freezing and going into stasis while nobody is close by...it only affects their movement and behaviour on reloading the area. And this is disabled by default and has to be activated by server admins. I'm not sure whether this one is active on official servers or not.

And PreventHibernation as far as I'm aware only works on single player, but it might have an effect on servers too. Yet again, this is disabled by default and has to be actively turned on, and I'm certain this is not used on officials.

[william_es]

Nothing happens unless there's a player nearby to cause things to render. Outside of render range, the entire server is frozen in time.

[VanDerGroot]

Originally posted by Who Dat:

if you are worried about your base being destroyed just build away from the mountains and build out of stone, only giga can eat stone and they are in mountains, youll be fine from dino attacks.

I'm not worried really. I just want to know how things work so I can adapt accordingly.

[Who Dat]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

Originally posted by Who Dat:

If you are playing on an official server, hosted by wildcard, the games developers, then yes, your base will be attacked by dinos even if there are zero players online
<Snip>
if you have a dedicated server with your friends, meaning no one needs to be online for the game to run, it will run like an offical server when everyone is offline and dinos will still be able to destroy things.

I'm sorry, but this is inaccurate. Stasis does exist on dedicated servers, and even official ones.

On most servers you can even see evidence of it yourself as you walk around - Find a couple of creatures fighting, such as a rex and bronto, or raptors and stegos. Have them right on the very limit of your view range, then as the predator gets knocked back by the herbivore's attack, step backwards so they de-render. Then go elsewhere on the map and do something else for a while.

Return to the spot you left, and approach from the same direction. You will see the same creatures render in as you get close. They did not continue to fight and kill each other while you were away, they did not walk away, they are still right there in the area. And in fact, for a brief moment they will not even be agroed on each other or fighting each other any more...they will be walking around normally, but then the predator will agro and attack the herbivore once again.

Map simulation continues only if it has been enabled in the game's config settings, either through the StasisKeepControllers config, or the startup command PreventHibernation.

StasisKeepControllers keeps the AI of creatures in memory, so they will not lose agro when you walk away from them as I mentioned above, but it will not prevent creatures from freezing and going into stasis while nobody is close by...it only affects their movement and behaviour on reloading the area. And this is disabled by default and has to be activated by server admins. I'm not sure whether this one is active on official servers or not.

And PreventHibernation as far as I'm aware only works on single player, but it might have an effect on servers too. Yet again, this is disabled by default and has to be actively turned on, and I'm certain this is not used on officials.

dont wanna be this guy because clearly your very pasionate about this writing what seems like an essay, but ive got 6000 hours and can tell you point blank that your wrong.

ive left my enclosure with rexs out of render to tame a 150 come back and its gone because it got killed.

if stasis truly existed like you claim my gasoline wont go down, and my structures shouldnt decay, but they do, and the game doesnt calculate spoilage when you load, it calaculates it in real time hence why the server saves every 15 minutes, it saves all player inventories and calculates all fridge inventories and deals with spoilage in real time there is no stasis.

[Who Dat]

also unsubbing from this because i can tell its going to be a massive waste of my time.

Good luck OP, and if i were you, id sooner listen to the guy who has literally 240 days of playtime compared to these randoms.

[🦊 Hermit]

Not that playtime means anything, but I do feel the need to point out that you have 5944 hours in Ark, I have 6478...

However the fuel usage, decay and spoilage has already been explained. As to the rex, there are a number of other explanations more in keeping with game mechanics, such as creatures despawning if they go too far from the area they first appear in, or creatures reloading from stasis before buildings do, allowing creatures to glitch through said buildings if they are in the right position.

Whatever the case, I wish you well, thank you for the discussion.

EDIT: Let's allow the game's officially supported wiki to settle this matter once and for all -

https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Stasis

I think we can consider the matter closed.

[VanDerGroot]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

EDIT: Let's allow the game's officially supported wiki to settle this matter once and for all -

https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Stasis

Wow, I had no idea stasis was something built into unreal engine. That ♥♥♥♥ should be left to the developers, not the engine. :/

[The man, the myth, the leg]

Originally posted by VanDerGroot:

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

EDIT: Let's allow the game's officially supported wiki to settle this matter once and for all -

https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Stasis

Wow, I had no idea stasis was something built into unreal engine. That ♥♥♥♥ should be left to the developers, not the engine. :/

its probably something they can configure and even disable to for their game
its just something that is VERY useful for open world games and therefore a nice to have thing to have already set up and ready to use
having it already setup also makes it less likely that the devs could screw it up

[VanDerGroot]

Originally posted by The man, the myth, the leg:

Originally posted by VanDerGroot:

Wow, I had no idea stasis was something built into unreal engine. That ♥♥♥♥ should be left to the developers, not the engine. :/

its probably something they can configure and even disable to for their game
its just something that is VERY useful for open world games and therefore a nice to have thing to have already set up and ready to use
having it already setup also makes it less likely that the devs could screw it up

An engine should not cater to bad developers. Bad developers will always find something to screw up.

A stasis function can be made in a gazillion different ways, and one that just stops stuff happening to something outside a certain range is the most basic version possible, and quite crude.

Anyway, this is besides the point. I just tested this, and came to the conclusion that things do not happen to your dinos while you are not close by. I tamed a couple of dinos, and left them in an area. Came back much later, and just as I did they got attacked and killed by a rex. No way in hell they survived for all those hours in hostile territory without being in stasis.

Now, that said, there might still be special rules regarding stasis in/around bases that I haven't checked out.