PC Thoughts On Server Hosting

M

MapleBacnPancake

Refugee
Something I would love to see if the ability to entirely halt the day progression on server hosting. example, a way to turn off the day counter all together, as someone who's hosted this game multiple times, a issue i've noticed is new players don't join after X amount of days are progressed because by default the hordes and zombies get harder, i understand we can adjust that server side, but if we had a way to just set base a difficulty, and turn off the day counter entirely i think would add longevity to servers and allow it to become more of a survival open world multiplayer experience for longer periods,

 
I think that's what happens when one person hosts a solo game right? The game does not progress unless the host is online. You could use TS, Vent or Discord to coordinate your game time.

 
Not quite sure I entirely follow it.

Is the issue that (new) people SEE a daycounter ?

Or is the issue that erm, time moves forward?

Starting new on day 1 vs day 1000 has no difficulty change, as gamestage is calculated based on the player level AND daysalive. So being alive day 1 --> 3 is same as 1001 to 1003 ...

However I do agree that people have a view sometime/often that "Oh this server is on day 1253, so I won't bother joining.

Maybe we need to shift to calendar (January 1 2000), so we can still keep track of days passing without having a strict daycount. We need some way, otherwise we'd have less awareness of when the blood moon comes :)

 
Not quite sure I entirely follow it.
Is the issue that (new) people SEE a daycounter ?

Or is the issue that erm, time moves forward?

Starting new on day 1 vs day 1000 has no difficulty change, as gamestage is calculated based on the player level AND daysalive. So being alive day 1 --> 3 is same as 1001 to 1003 ...

However I do agree that people have a view sometime/often that "Oh this server is on day 1253, so I won't bother joining.

Maybe we need to shift to calendar (January 1 2000), so we can still keep track of days passing without having a strict daycount. We need some way, otherwise we'd have less awareness of when the blood moon comes :)
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Have to agree with this.

Since Gamestages were introduced in a16, what day the server on doesn't matter at all unless it's horde night. Loads of servers are stuck at 20:00 on the 7th day because people are afraid of the horde.

 
Not quite sure I entirely follow it.
Is the issue that (new) people SEE a daycounter ?

Or is the issue that erm, time moves forward?

Starting new on day 1 vs day 1000 has no difficulty change, as gamestage is calculated based on the player level AND daysalive. So being alive day 1 --> 3 is same as 1001 to 1003 ...

However I do agree that people have a view sometime/often that "Oh this server is on day 1253, so I won't bother joining.

Maybe we need to shift to calendar (January 1 2000), so we can still keep track of days passing without having a strict daycount. We need some way, otherwise we'd have less awareness of when the blood moon comes :)
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You are correct. I think the OP has that wide spread false belief that the server day counts. Not sure who or when exactly this rumor got started but it seems to be spreading more and more since A18 dropped.

 
It hasn't been spreading since A18 dropped. It has never gone away since gamestages was first introduced. For years, the day did matter and now that it does not it is hard to crack that fixed belief.

Heck, it took years for people to stop believing that light level affected zombie spawns thanks to Minecraft. I can't tell you how many threads I answered that began with, "WTF, I've filled the area with torches and zombies are STILL spawning!!!1!!111" And many of them refused to believe me citing experiences when they were safe for weeks once they put down a ton of torches....lol.

 
Heck, it took years for people to stop believing that light level affected zombie spawns thanks to Minecraft. I can't tell you how many threads I answered that began with, "WTF, I've filled the area with torches and zombies are STILL spawning!!!1!!111" And many of them refused to believe me citing experiences when they were safe for weeks once they put down a ton of torches....lol.
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I still see these now and then ... and my recommendation is to ensure there are at least 200 torches around the base, to keep the player extra safe. Oh, and go have a civil talk to the lady with the black hair as she shows up to ask for some help...

 
However I do agree that people have a view sometime/often that "Oh this server is on day 1253, so I won't bother joining.
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Actually there are good reasons why you should avoid servers that have been running for a long time. You can assume that on such servers all cities have already been striped clean and all POIs have already been looted.

 
Pardon my ignoramusness, but doesn't "the day doesn't matter" only apply if you aren't near any other players? If I just joined and it's my Day 1, but I go exploring around near Day 200 people, aren't the local zombies going to respond to their GS? If they spawn a sleeper which, let's say, barges outside the POI where I am still just looting garbage piles, isn't that sleeper going to be a GS 200+ zombie, not a GS 1 zombie?

Not even talking about partying up with higher-level characters, or joining in some communal horde-night defense - just being around the veterans would be extra dangerous wouldn't it? So you're on a multiplayer server where you probably can never catch the gamestage of the others on the server (they having a 200-day jump on you) and you have to avoid them because their wandering hordes are all cops and irradiateds. Seems that would be a deterrent.

 
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Actually there are good reasons why you should avoid servers that have been running for a long time. You can assume that on such servers all cities have already been striped clean and all POIs have already been looted.
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Most larger servers with long day counts actually reset cities and POI's regularly to keep this from happening. We also use mods that respawn cars.

 
If it is your server you can use the server terminal to set the time. Nothing stops you from setting time to day 1 4:00 once or twice a week.

However if its a public server it will 🤬🤬🤬🤬 off some people. Especially if they are joining thinking its a fresh one and then run into a player driving around in 4x4 and shooting sniper rifle as Day 1 the first normal assumption is that people in this server are not playing fair if they have that kind of gear on Day 1, even if the server is several months up already.

Be aware that doing this in essence means that you are playing with no blood moon.

 
I think that's what happens when one person hosts a solo game right? The game does not progress unless the host is online. You could use TS, Vent or Discord to coordinate your game time.
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It's the "same" with a dedicated server. If NOBODY is logged in time stops. If anybody is logged in, time goes forward no matter how many people or who is logged in.

In 7d2d it would make no sense to keep time running (in comparison to other games like e.g. ARK). There is no food spoilage, you don't ned to feed any pets, you don't need to water a garden in time.... and finally people would logout on ingame sunday 21:55, wait 20 realtime minutes and log back in at ingame time 04:05.... voila, bloodmoon exploited.

So on private servers with friends just coordinate your playtime if you don't want time to move forward. If you usually play with 4 players and only on has time to play, he could play but that will make time move forward without the other 3 players participating.

As others already explained, the day doesn't matter to the difficulty, but if you are moving towards a bloodmoon and need to prepare 4 players of course can do more in the same time then just one player.

For public server you can assume that time runs fast, because most time there will be some people playing and thus keep the time running.

New players no willing to join long running servers is also natural, even it does not affect game difficulty. POIs will already be looted/destroyed, ressources will widely be already mined, best base spots will already be occupied.... in PVP other players already have much better gear and skills. And if there is nothing in the server description you usually don't know if the do some poi resets, car respawns, etc.

 
If it is your server you can use the server terminal to set the time. Nothing stops you from setting time to day 1 4:00 once or twice a week.
However if its a public server it will 🤬🤬🤬🤬 off some people. Especially if they are joining thinking its a fresh one and then run into a player driving around in 4x4 and shooting sniper rifle as Day 1 the first normal assumption is that people in this server are not playing fair if they have that kind of gear on Day 1, even if the server is several months up already.

Be aware that doing this in essence means that you are playing with no blood moon.
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You also run a very high risk of breaking every timer-related activity on the server, and completely ruining the save.

Short list of things that would be negatively affected by using the settime command.

  • Bloodmoon hordes
  • Trader restocks
  • Plant growth
  • Sleeper/biome spawns
  • Loot spawns

 
Most larger servers with long day counts actually reset cities and POI's regularly to keep this from happening. We also use mods that respawn cars.
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What I wish there was, is a server setting that would "regenerate" entire regions if not visited (and with no bedroll/landclaim) for a certain period, with option to override bedroll/landclaims.

Then you could simply tell players that certain regions (ie, north/south/east/west) beyond a certain point was a no-safe area for building, and the game would periodically just refresh them without anything else needed.

Though I suspect there're some mods/server managers that maybe do this anyhow :)

 
What I wish there was, is a server setting that would "regenerate" entire regions if not visited (and with no bedroll/landclaim) for a certain period, with option to override bedroll/landclaims.
Then you could simply tell players that certain regions (ie, north/south/east/west) beyond a certain point was a no-safe area for building, and the game would periodically just refresh them without anything else needed.

Though I suspect there're some mods/server managers that maybe do this anyhow :)
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Yes, this is entirely possible.

Each weekend bright and early Sa🤬🤬🤬🤬ay morning we wipe all the regions that contain cities.

Each weekend bright and early Sunday morning we wipe all the regions that have no LCB's or bedrolls.

Every two weeks we run a reset that will restore all of the POI's regardless of location. (They are set to you cannot place a bedroll or LCB in them.It gets returned to your inventory, and you are given a message that they cannot be placed in the POI.)

The City regions marked for resets will announce when you enter them that this is a reset area, and you cannot build here.

This is available through the use of Allocs, and CPM API mods, and we use CSMM to manage the server.

You can also do this with Allcos, and BCM API mods, and using Botman to manage the server. (I do not know if Botman/BCM has the POI or empty region reset capability though.)

IMHO, if you aren't running these types of API tools and server managers to maintain and manage your server, you're doing it wrong. They are a minimum requirement for public hosting.

 
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