Automatization outside loading distance.

[Reiko24]

With how the game is going, we are getting some automatization that we can do in our bases.

 

My problem with its current state is that things like WOBOT or Friendly Fruit Fly DO NOT work when player is not nearby, rendering WOBOT less useful and Friendly Fruit Fly entirely useless, since if the player is nearby they can just play the one man band for 1 second and leave if they are nurturing crops.

 

If optimization of the game is stopping Klei from making WOBOT and Friendly Fruit Fly work outside of loading distance, why not load just 3 tiles of distance from them? Every time the fruit fly moves, it will load more plants that can be taken care of.

Don't Starve Together is not a very PC-intensive demanding game, I think it wouldn't cause a problem.

[Gi-Go]

I'd love for them to have a simple unloaded mode. Like how bee boxes just produce 1 honey per day and how bird traps just roll a dice to instantly catch a bird. 

If fly is nearby - plans could just tend to themselves, and if wobot is nearby - items could just instantly teleport into chests. 

[Frosty_Mentos]

I think why that happens is due to the world only acting when the player is there to be around just to reduce server's stress from what I remember from DVG media's video. It would be neat for these things to work off screen but might need some work to be but into making it work.

[cybers2001]

5 hours ago, Frosty_Mentos said:

I think why that happens is due to the world only acting when the player is there to be around just to reduce server's stress from what I remember from DVG media's video. It would be neat for these things to work off screen but might need some work to be but into making it work.

No reason not to have a less performant state for unloaded entities. Beeboxes could still produce honey even if unloaded, for example. Similarly, crops could just slowly gain interaction buffs within radius of the fruit fly while unloaded. Considering crops still grow while off-screen, I wouldn't think that's too much extra performance to add.

Edited March 11 by cybers2001

[Mike23Ua]

This is a double edged sword if ever I saw one. If your base protection & automation structures worked while off-loaded, then shouldn’t also world hazards?

You can’t have all convenience without some side effect.

[goblinball]

4 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

This is a double edged sword if ever I saw one. If your base protection & automation structures worked while off-loaded, then shouldn’t also world hazards?

No, simple as that.

[hoxi]

Without looking into it too much, it's very much possible to make entities work when asleep (unloaded) in a more simple mode and using some intervals, there's a bunch of them that already do this. Force-loading things is not the answer though, it's better to have good alternate sleep modes instead.

The friendly fruit fly could check for plants near the position of the fruit item (since it will usually stay within a certain distance of it, to make this method consistent) every 3-5 seconds or so, and automatically tend to them if they need it, one at a time or so.

W.O.B.O.T. could simply do what Gi-Go said, and teleport items into chests without moving, based on the position that it sets after being dropped (defined as spawn point).

 

And I know people mention bee boxes, but those could use some love, their sleep work mode is pretty buggy at the moment.