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View Full Version : Item Despawn: Time and Time Again, Needless Loss



_DragonTamer
15th August 2017, 10:49
In addition to the rules change I proposed to animals, I want to propose that, if possible, the time it takes for dropped items to despawn to 7 or 8 minutes. With the understanding that it would cause extra server strain, it seems unreasonable to me that if you die with good stuff, rush back to where you died, and get there withing a few minutes, all your stuff is gone. I get it doesn't really go with the whole tfc = hardcore survival thing, but it's really frustrating to lose stuff time and time again, and if we are going to try for realism, the metal tool heads dropped by a dying person and their other items would stand the test of time. For example I died from an accidental fall one time, at a mine a 2 or three minute run from a teleport point. Having rushed back i jumped into my pool of items only to have them despawn immediately as I got there. The only items I picked up from my near-full inventory were a few pieces of thatch and a level or so of xp.

Here are the pros and cons as I see them, feel free to add or argue with them:
Pros:
Less frustration
Less wasted material

Cons:
Could lead to undue sloppyness with beams or jumps etc...
increased server lag
detracts from the hardcore survival theme

_DT


PS, I hope that my other thread and that of Lemon's have not been forgotten. (if this post script is in violation of rules #13 or #21 plz let me know, I wasnt sure)

Elbe97
15th August 2017, 17:18
AFAIK, extending time a dropped item lasts is not changeable in server configs, a plugin might be possible way to achieve that. However, there are close to no plugins that offer such possibility. So far, I have only found DropTime plugin but it seems to only shorten the time dropped items remain. Maybe somebody else will come with something useful.
https://dev.bukkit.org/projects/droptime
(https://dev.bukkit.org/projects/droptime)

_DragonTamer
16th August 2017, 01:21
I don't speak code, and I have no idea if this would work or not, or if the admins can even get themselves command blocks, but I just found a couple q/a pages on this with answers that MAY prove fruitful.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/244284/can-item-despawn-rate-be-changed-in-minecraft

https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/4a7awh/is_there_a_setting_or_mod_to_make_item_despawn/



I also found some information on the wiki that could be useful, at the bottom of the page it mentions "Age: The number of ticks the item has been "untouched". After 6000 ticks (5 minutes) the item is destroyed. If set to -32768, the Age will not increase, thus the item will not automatically despawn."

https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Item_(entity)

InsaneJ
16th August 2017, 08:43
Items on the ground need to despawn. If you let items lay on the ground indefinitely a server will come to a grinding halt eventually, especially with TFC which already has a ton of entities.

The server uses the vanilla time for item despawn which is 5 minutes. I'm not going to change this. It's part of the game. In my opinion having too many safety nets does not make the game more fun. It takes away the challenge and makes the game bland. That feeling you have when you loose your stuff: anger, regret, remorse, fear, etc. That's a good thing. It means you're invested in the game. If you didn't have those feelings, the game would be way less fun I guarantee it.

Players already have town teleports, homes and outposts. If you're worried about dying and losing your stuff, here's a few recommendations:

Don't carry stuff you don't need for a trip.
Don't wander out too far.
Don't play carelessly.
Pay attention to what you're doing.


Most player deaths could have easily been prevented. Falling from cliffs, bear attacks, cave ins, drowning. You can chalk all those up to players not playing smart, players not paying attention or just being reckless. It's fine if players want to adopt the YOLO lifestyle. They'll just have to face the consequence that TFC gear is expensive to make :)