Well, hunger and thirst don't apply when offline regardless if time is passing. But the horde night thing is an interesting question. It shouldn't be possible to have spawns if no one is in any chunks. But then you have to wonder where any benefit comes from for time passing without anyone online. What changes besides the day? The only actual benefit I could see is that you always know when horde night will happen because it's always X hours real time between horde nights. But other than that, I'm not sure any benefit. And I'm not really sure that's all that big of a deal either.I don't understand the reasoning for wanting time to continue with no one on. Wouldn't the players die of thirst or starvation if that happens?
Is it possible that the base could be destroyed if 1 or more horde nights happen when no one is there to defend the base?
Well, hunger and thirst don't apply when offline regardless if time is passing. But the horde night thing is an interesting question. It shouldn't be possible to have spawns if no one is in any chunks. But then you have to wonder where any benefit comes from for time passing without anyone online. What changes besides the day? The only actual benefit I could see is that you always know when horde night will happen because it's always X hours real time between horde nights. But other than that, I'm not sure any benefit. And I'm not really sure that's all that big of a deal either.
Okay, so I guess another "benefit" is that you could stock up your forges and campfires and whatnot and they'll finish everything even when no one is online. But that's more of a cheat/cheese than a benefit imo.