COGG BBS

Yet another reminder that these updates are almost upon us. We've had another crash related at least partially to amount of items, so I'll be hitting parts of this today, and the rest very soon. Please read the first post on this thread!

Another suggestion for item bundles: Rimeveil, threshed rimeveil, and winnowed rimeveil should all probably bundle up.

Edit: A sudden idea dawned on me, a couple, infact.

1: I noticed lag often occurs when it ticks over and animals on a farm eat food, and usually its lots of animals at once.

Would a random variation or staggering of when animals eat lower load a little? (but always eat if very hungry, etc)

2: Would making it so that instead of building multiple of the same structure on a farm, you instead build an 'extention' to that structure. IE you want more squirrels, and have a hutch, so you build a hutch -extension-.

I think that might make it easier on building up filth as an algorithm, as instead its effecting only one structure instead of multiple. Just a thought.

Regarding item counts, I'd also like to suggest that blank papers get bundled together if they don't already. i.e. Notes, sheets, pages, scrolls, letters, and labels. Maybe phrase it as a "pile" or "stack" of notes etc.

First: Yet another reminder that these changes will be happening soon(tm). See the original post for details if you don't know them already.

Second: In anticipation of this happening soon(tm), I have chilled out the janitor a bit. Items should hang out for a shortish minimum of time after a PC leaves the room before the janitor starts considering the items on the ground. So, there should be less worry about walking away for literally 5 seconds and the janitor happening to trigger during those 5 seconds and snagging items that were left forgotten on the ground by accident. (Right?)

HOWEVER!

This does not mean people shouldn't be as careful as they were expected to be before when it comes to leaving items on the ground! There is absolutely zero guarantee that items left on the ground will be safe, whether that's from the janitor or from other characters walking by and picking them up, or thieves sneakily taking them, NPCs snagging them, et cetera et cetera. Please please please do not interpret this update as an indication that people are now safe to leave items on the ground and walk away "just for a second." That is still not safe! It's just far less likely for it to be the janitor's fault this way, though there may be weird cases where the janitor still wants to grab them.

Conclusion: It's still very much not safe to leave items on the ground and walk away, even for just a moment. I considered not posting about this update at all, but I figured doing so would be an opportunity to bump this thread as well as remind people that it is indeed not safe to leave items on the ground and walk away, even for just a moment.

P.S. It is not safe to leave items on the ground and walk away, even for just a moment.

Could fibers and cordage be bundled? Also the original products (thornleaf stalks, cedar bark strips, sinews?)
Unsure if this has already been suggested, but perhaps pine cones, as well.

Per the changelog:

- New farms will no longer be janitor-proof. Existing farms will allow 10 visits from the owner before they lose their janitor-proof status, allowing for owners to get their items sorted out and giving a warning about this upon each visit. (Constructed furniture items are safe from the janitor when on farms, but this may change if item bloat issues continue.)

- Leaving a farm with janitor-susceptible items on the ground will now trigger a warning to the character who is about about to leave, and will require a confirmation to leave with janitor-susceptible items still on the ground.

Farms have long been the biggest source of item bloat issues, so while this unfortunate necessity is going to be hard for some to accept, it should really go a long way toward resolving the situation and associated issues like lag and game crashes like we had last night.

For what it's worth, I think this is absolutely a good thing, even though I guess I'm in the "hard-for-this-to-accept" camp, if only insofar as I'll have to try to tamp down my hoarding instincts, which are strong.

I was getting sick and tired of my farm looking like a junkyard, anyway, and if it makes the game run better, I can't imagine anyone will object to it!

Not sure if it's intended or not, but it looks like the janitoring can still be bypassed by hiding objects on the farm. Is there a cap on the number of items that can be hidden at a given time? Was thinking that might be a good compromise between not allowing the mechanic at all and avoiding its use as an exploit.

All that said, a little extra management for server stability is always a good thing! Good stuff.

As you have often said, it's unlikely people are trying to cause issues re: item counts and database bloat. I think players are just unaware of their impact. Could/have you consider something like the following to make it somewhat self-managing?

1. Track how much bloat each player is responsible for. Ideally with a break down between what is in their Inn Room, what is on their Farm, what is in their Vault, and what is on their person.
2. Display this information in a player-useful way in either their score or a new 'footprint'-type command. That is, instead of saying 'you are taking up 0.5% of the database' you say 'Your contribution to the database bloat is Moderately Excessive. Of this, your Vault is Moderate, your Inn Room is Excessive' etc etc etc
3. Display this bloat command on login so players are kept up-to-day on their contribution.
4. For excessively high bloat contributions, consider a penalty to encourage bringing it down. Maybe a penalty to XP gain or slower bucket drain scaled with the severity.

I think if players were aware of their impact and what is contributing to it, it might be at least somewhat self-solving.

Can sinew become a bundleable item? I don't want my slowly growing pile of sinew (which I crated in the commons) for bowstring crafting to become an issue for item bloat. Thanks!