Causes of Performance Issues
We try to focus on sim speed on this server. Without it, the game isn’t worth playing. These are some of the causes and what we do to combat this.
- Clustering.
When a faction has many large grids closer than 20K to the others in the faction, the server will be forced to handle all of the grids even if just one player in the faction is online. Every grid, no matter how big or small has physics calculations occurring every tick. It is very important that grids not being used are moved away of placed in your hangar. If admin spot issues, we may hangar your grids for you.
The Solution.
Players should use their hangar (see “!hangarhelp in game) to store their grids and remove them from the server while not in use.
Every hour the server will give a 10 minute warning. At the end of that warning, any grid/s or grid clusters over 50K PCU will be broadcast to the server. - Effigies of Klang.
Pistons and Rotors in the wrong configuration can cause many issues on the server. When sim speed starts to spike and go wild it’s possible that one player has something build that is flipping out. Some bad examples are;
-Pistons stacked on top of one or more additional piston/s,
-Pistons and rotors connected for rotating and pushing drill heads,
-Rotors connected to other rotors for things like solar tracking,
-Pistons with connectors locked onto another ship.
The Solution.
This one is simple. Don’t build them. If the server is having issues, ask yourself if you have anything like this. If you see it, remove it! Even if it’s not yours! Or report it to an admin. If you had one of these vanish, then somebody removed it. To be clear, we don’t mind if you build something like this for a VERY short term use. Usually only a few minutes or so. You MUST remove them before you log off or risk that it will be removed by admin. If you’re actively using a piston/drill setup and you’re asked to remove it or stop, you’re expected to do so or we’ll remove it for you. If the server population is low you may attached UP to TWO pistons to drills for temporary use. This must be removed before you log off. - Conveyor Junctions
Many engineers get in the habit of using a lot of them, or even using them exclusively. Due to the way connections between blocks check every possible path with every tick, they can be much harder on the server than straight or 90 degree conveyors.
The Solution
It is important to minimize the use of Junctions, using them only when absolutely necessary in your designs. Try to move away from junction spam. If you plan to use Workshop builds, you may need to update their conveyor system. Lastly, you may notice that on our server, conveyor junctions use considerable higher PCU than other conveyor blocks. If you would like to avoid having your grid broadcast, or your grid suddenly has been broadcast, this simple block update could save your tail.
