Cut Questable POIs to 50% of all POIs

[zztong]

In short:

In short, the AI, being given a limited description, and without any access to design documents, source code, or access to TFP's developers, is speaking in generalities that are likely true, but also unlikely to represent the complete picture. For instance, it likely has no idea what other features of the game use that chunk code and for what. It won't have any access to any profiling information. It can't evaluate your systems ability to cache that I/O. It doesn't know the hit rate on that cache.

The only folks who can truly evaluate the suggestion is TFP.

 

[theFlu]

I can't possibly do more than guess.

Yeh, but it all sounds reasonable to me

Maybe you could have POIs reset in partial steps and players have to wait 5 seconds to start their quest

Maybe, but it'd likely just introduce new issues.. "step N not registered", "player stuck in wall as the bored player was messing about during regen" etc...

 

[Grandpa Minion]

The only folks who can truly evaluate the suggestion is TFP.

evaluate this.. our server been on for just over two hours and because of all the quest chunk resets being done (138 gb ram usage)
i see this everyday so i can evaluate performance issues from quest very easily.

 

[zztong]

evaluate this.. our server been on for just over two hours and because of all the quest chunk resets being done (138 gb ram usage)
i see this everyday so i can evaluate performance issues from quest very easily.

No one debates there isn't a hit from starting a quest. They're debating if offering fewer POIs with quests will help.

Evaluate this... I've told you how to get what you want in terms of offering fewer POIs with quests. You're in complete control over your server. Make the changes and tell us how it turned out.

This endless debate is accomplishing nothing. Just do it.

 

[zztong]

Yeh, but it all sounds reasonable to me

If all of the quests on a server are 2km away, I'll bet few players bother to do quests, also improving his stats.

Maybe, but it'd likely just introduce new issues.. "step N not registered", "player stuck in wall as the bored player was messing about during regen" etc...

I agree. We already see crazy things like when I parked the party's 4x4 in a spot where a reset POI then placed a vehicle. Wild times. We mere mortals (and our AI pets) can't predict the resulting complexities... again why I said leave the suggestion to TFP to evaluate.

 

[engineer]

This has been a fun read, especially all the technical AI-driven nonsense when discussion went to "performance", which obviously was never the primary reason this suggestion came to be. Limiting questable POIs will not bring any performance benefits. Chunk resets are the problem, not the amount of questable POIs, there is nothing to discuss here. Reducing load means reducing chunk resets, which means reducing quests, not questable POIs.

Limiting questable POIs bring one benefit - it allows better PVP play because currently all tier 1+ POIs cannot be taken over without LCB (using LCBs in PVP servers will give away your location) as those POIs might get reset by the quest. It's a fair suggestion, IMO, though PVP play is a very low priority for TFP.

 

[Grandpa Minion]

Chunk resets are the problem, not the amount of questable POIs,

everytime you do a quest you reset the chunk from the questable prefab
its the questable prefab that is initiating the chunk reset at the prefab location

anyone with common sense logic would understand if you reduce the amount of questable prefabs than naturally the amount of chunks getting resets is automatic.
(2-1=1) thats a 50% reduction of chunks getting reset

 

[beerfly]

Ok, look, you are good at math, obviously.

Lets do this, divide 22 by 7, give us the result and The Pimps will give what you want.

Deal ?

 

[theFlu]

anyone with common sense logic would understand if you reduce the amount of questable prefabs

Let's put this into pvp terms:
You have a group of 3 leet pro snipers, spawncamping nabs.
They each have 50 suitable sniper weapons to use for the kills, and infinite ammo for the job.

There's a group of 5 nabs spawning once per minute. Every time they spawn, they all get killed instantly, 5 nabs per minute.

If you now reduce the amount of weapons the campers have to 25 each, how many nabs die every minute?

 

[Vaeliorin]

Ok, look, you are good at math, obviously.

Lets do this, divide 22 by 7, give us the result and The Pimps will give what you want.

Deal ?

 

[Treb]

I have absolutely provided an answer. You're ignoring it. I don't know why...

You levy credentialism and popularity against knowledge and intelligence. Saying my badge is evidence that I don't know something? Is this Reddit? Do we judge people's knowledge of how IT works based on how many times you've commented and been a member of a group? Because that's called an echo chamber, and we all know how those go down.

So, I'll start over. This is about getting the game running properly without server crashes, and as far as technology and troubleshooting goes, the primary culprit is network congestion.

I haven't ignored anything. You haven't answered how having less questable POIs would improve performance.

Once again, start by talking about the thread subject if you actually want to have a discussion. "Getting the game running properly without server crashes" is not the subject, the subject is cutting the number of questable POIs by 50% and the effects Grandpa is trying to say it would have despite being debunked several times already.

everytime you do a quest you reset the chunk from the questable prefab
its the questable prefab that is initiating the chunk reset at the prefab location

anyone with common sense logic would understand if you reduce the amount of questable prefabs than naturally the amount of chunks getting resets is automatic.
(2-1=1) thats a 50% reduction of chunks getting reset

There are more questable POIs than players even if you reduce them by 90%, so the number of active quest (and thus chunk reset) doesn't change by using your solution.

Having more possible chunks to reset and actually resetting those chunks are extremely different. I would be very surprised if the former had much impact on performance.

 

[Roland]

The plan is unequivocally to add even more questable POIs in future updates. There is no plan to reduce the number of questable POIs to 50%.

My suggestion is to limit the number of quests that can be done per day to a lower number than default. That would cut the amount of chunk resets happening. Alternatively you could reduce the number of players on the server as that would also reduce the network congestion and the number of quest resets.

Finally, even though you have been ignoring zztong completely, you could edit the xml files for POIs to remove their questable tag and see if your suggestion even works.

But at the end of the day, we all know what is REALLY going on. You want the questables removed so that people can build hidden bases beneath a wider variety of POIs without needing to use a LCB and give away the position. That is really the beginning and end of your entire suggestion. So, honestly, just do what zztong said and it'll work for that.

 

[Roland]

everytime you do a quest you reset the chunk from the questable prefab
its the questable prefab that is initiating the chunk reset at the prefab location

anyone with common sense logic would understand if you reduce the amount of questable prefabs than naturally the amount of chunks getting resets is automatic.
(2-1=1) thats a 50% reduction of chunks getting reset

World has 30 players and 100 questable POIs
30 players are enabling 30 quests every 15-30 minutes = network congestion

World has 30 players and 50 questable POIs
30 players are enabling 30 quests every 15-30 minutes = just as much network congestion

World has 10 players and 100 questable POIs
10 players are enabling 10 quests every 15-30 minutes = less network congestion

World has 30 players and 100 questable POIs limited to 1 quest per day
30 players enable 30 quests and then nothing until the next day starts. = less network congestion

 

[Riamus]

once again your not understanding, no one has recommended removing prefabs from the map, if anything im 100% for adding more prefabs to the map.
The recommendation is to reduce the amount of prefabs that are on the map from being questable (as it is now 90%+ of all prefabs on map are questable)

And you can do that by removing questable POI. Of course, as has been pointed out, that won't do anything more than reduce variety. It will not reduce questing or any quest related data.

 

[theFlu]

My suggestion is to limit the number of quests that can be done per day to a lower number than default.

I doubt that will be too effective either; unless I'm mistaken, it's not a quest limit you're thinking of, but a progress limit, right?
We're talking about highly populated servers, if you don't grab a quest, you won't be raiding things at all. Some may change their plans, but I don't see it happening that much.

 

[Riamus]

in case some of you are still a little confused
this is what happens when any player resets any prefab because of a quest
now keep in mind also when a prefab resets from a quest the whole chunk gets reset from bedrock to sky

Immediate Performance Effects​

CPU Spikes: When chunks reset, the server has to regenerate all the terrain, structures, blocks and entity data for those chunks. This creates temporary CPU spikes as the world generation algorithms run, which can cause brief lag or stuttering for players.

Memory Usage: Freshly reset chunks need to be loaded into RAM again. If many chunks reset simultaneously, this can cause memory usage spikes, especially on servers with limited RAM.

Disk I/O: The server needs to write new chunk data to storage and potentially delete old chunk files, creating increased disk activity that can slow down other operations.

That has nothing to do with having fewer POI that can be quested. As has been pointed out repeatedly - I swear you don't even read before posting - people who want to quest will do so, regardless of the number of questable POI. If they are resetting a POI, the result is the same if you have 100 questable POI or 1000 questable POI. They are only resetting one POI. Others will reset other POI when they start a quest, but again, this doesn't change based on the number of questable POI. All that changes is variety. The same number of quests will be done and so the same number of resets will occur. How is that so difficult to understand?

Post automatically merged: Aug 25, 2025

suggest on this...

When a chunk gets reset the server has to do some heavy lifting, and that can affect performance in a few ways:

What Happens Internally​

1. Unload Old Data
   • The server clears all block/entity data for that chunk from memory.
   • Any player-built blocks, loot containers, or entities in that chunk are deleted.
2. Rebuild from Prefab/World Gen
   • The chunk is regenerated using its original prefab or random-gen template.
   • The server runs world-gen code to re-populate terrain, POIs, loot containers, and decorations.
3. Save to Disk
   • The new chunk state is written back into the save files.
   • This means extra I/O load, especially on HDDs vs SSDs.

Performance Impact​

• CPU Spikes: The reset involves recalculating terrain and regenerating structures, which can briefly spike CPU usage.
• Disk I/O: Writing/rewriting chunk data can cause latency, particularly on slower drives.
• Network Sync: If players are nearby, the server must re-send the updated chunk data to them, adding extra network load.
• Temporary Lag: Nearby players might see a stutter, hitch, or rubberband as the server finalizes the reset and pushes the new chunk.

Factors That Affect Severity​

• How many chunks reset at once: mass resets (e.g., automated cleanup scripts) can cause major lag.

In short: Resetting a quest prefab chunk causes temporary CPU + disk I/O spike, and if players are in the area, it can result in lag or rubberbanding. On good hardware mass quest resets can hammer server performance.

As above, reducing the number of questable POI does not in any way reduce the number of quests people take or the number of times different POI are reset to do quests. It has zero, yes ZERO, impact. If you want to reduce questing, then reduce the number of quests per day that give credit. That can reduce questing for those who don't want to quest if it doesn't give credit, though many will still quest. But it's at least something you can do that can reduce the number of resets. Your suggestion does nothing for that.

 

[Grandpa Minion]

(2-1=1)

 

[theFlu]

(2-1=1)

100% wrong, the price of fish in China is mostly related to the success of the Chinese fishing fleet.

 

[zztong]

(2-1=1)

  <property name="QuestTags" value="" />
  <property name="DifficultyTier" value="0" />

 

[Grandpa Minion]

  <property name="QuestTags" value="" />
  <property name="DifficultyTier" value="0" />

putting a bandaid on this issue doesn't solve the issue for the game
The over whelming questable prefab issues is something tfp need to address direct
btw if you ever expect bandits to get put in maybe you should focus on better ideas for them to increase performance