Possible Solution to Skyblock Mob Problem

[Tacosbefriends]

On SkyBlock I've pretty much zeroed the spawn level for both friendly and non friendly mobs, due to the absolutely huge amount of mobs in the world that there is already.

As an example, when I clear all mobs, I get a print out of how many there are in the world, the result is a steady 4 to 6 thousand mobs always on it. Now, even if every single player on the server had 20+ mobs, that still wouldn't add up, so theres definitely an abuse in how many mobs players buy and put on their islands, therefore I have almost cut to zero the amount of mobs that naturally occur.

WARNING: Wall of Text and Technical Jargon Ahead

As we all know, mobs and entities in general make a ton of lag for large servers. Due to Skyblock's spreading players out by island, Skyblock is an INCREDIBLY resource-hungry kind of server. Not only do players have to provide themselves with all their own mobs and animals, but Skyblock maps are generally very large, meaning a lot of chunks are loaded at the same time. Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done about chunks causing lag. However, there are several things that can be done to alleviate entity-related lag.

Clearlag: This is a sort of plugin that deletes entities like paintings, item frames, exp orbs, and dropped items on a timely basis. This is a common way to deal with lag; it is also a terrible way. Not only does this make item frames and paintings impossible to enjoy, but it also results in players losing valuable items with a poorly timed drop. I do not recommend this in any way.

Reduce Mob Spawn Rate: This has already been implemented. To an extent, this is a fairly effective way of dealing with mob lag. However, players do eventually get their desired animals and breed them to ridiculous lengths, resulting in what we originally set out to eliminate. This naturally fails, so the only effects this method has is to increase the rarity and difficulty level of receiving monster and passive mob drops.

Periodic /stoplag Command: This is already performed every now and again, much to the dismay of the playerbase. This results in the deletion of all mobs, seemingly except for dogs and cats. Hours of hard work are lost, players become upset or enraged, and there is general disapproval of this method. Although seemingly necessary, this method is not the best solution.

I've come up with 2 ideas; one is simple and one is completely insane:

Idea #1: Would it be possible to set a limit of how many entities exist on a player's island? Let's say hypothetically that we can code this and that we set everyone's island at a 100 entity maximum. A player's island might look something like this:

20 cows
20 pigs
20 chickens
2 item frames
2 paintings
14 villagers
2 wolves

This would leave 20 entity slots for a mob grinder, which is realistically more than one should need for a decent mob grinder. It also allows for a decently sized farm for every player while limiting the number of mobs dramatically. You could also make islands with more than 1 person allow more mobs, encouraging players to use the same chunks and not expand the map by making their own islands.

Idea #2: Make a custom villager at spawn that will trade monster and passive mob loot for things you can grow like wheat, saplings, and watermelon. This would eliminate the need for every mob, but it would also severely limit the potential of many players. (It's easier to breed a bunch of cows for leather than to grow wheat to trade.) Idea #1 would reduce but not eliminate entity-related lag and also indirectly reduce the number of loaded chunks.

For those of you who actually read this whole post, let me know what you think.

 

[NanoNet]

WARNING: Wall of Text and Technical Jargon Ahead

As we all know, mobs and entities in general make a ton of lag for large servers. Due to Skyblock's spreading players out by island, Skyblock is an INCREDIBLY resource-hungry kind of server. Not only do players have to provide themselves with all their own mobs and animals, but Skyblock maps are generally very large, meaning a lot of chunks are loaded at the same time. Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done about chunks causing lag. However, there are several things that can be done to alleviate entity-related lag.

Clearlag: This is a sort of plugin that deletes entities like paintings, item frames, exp orbs, and dropped items on a timely basis. This is a common way to deal with lag; it is also a terrible way. Not only does this make item frames and paintings impossible to enjoy, but it also results in players losing valuable items with a poorly timed drop. I do not recommend this in any way.

Reduce Mob Spawn Rate: This has already been implemented. To an extent, this is a fairly effective way of dealing with mob lag. However, players do eventually get their desired animals and breed them to ridiculous lengths, resulting in what we originally set out to eliminate. This naturally fails, so the only effects this method has is to increase the rarity and difficulty level of receiving monster and passive mob drops.

Periodic /stoplag Command: This is already performed every now and again, much to the dismay of the playerbase. This results in the deletion of all mobs, seemingly except for dogs and cats. Hours of hard work are lost, players become upset or enraged, and there is general disapproval of this method. Although seemingly necessary, this method is not the best solution.

I've come up with 2 ideas; one is simple and one is completely insane:

Idea #1: Would it be possible to set a limit of how many entities exist on a player's island? Let's say hypothetically that we can code this and that we set everyone's island at a 100 entity maximum. A player's island might look something like this:

20 cows
20 pigs
20 chickens
2 item frames
2 paintings
14 villagers
2 wolves

This would leave 20 entity slots for a mob grinder, which is realistically more than one should need for a decent mob grinder. It also allows for a decently sized farm for every player while limiting the number of mobs dramatically. You could also make islands with more than 1 person allow more mobs, encouraging players to use the same chunks and not expand the map by making their own islands.

Idea #2: Make a custom villager at spawn that will trade monster and passive mob loot for things you can grow like wheat, saplings, and watermelon. This would eliminate the need for every mob, but it would also severely limit the potential of many players. (It's easier to breed a bunch of cows for leather than to grow wheat to trade.) Idea #1 would reduce but not eliminate entity-related lag and also indirectly reduce the number of loaded chunks.

For those of you who actually read this whole post, let me know what you think.

I'm sure with a bit of tweaking, one of those last two idea are a really possible option.

 

[Sophie]

I like the first idea, but i have a lot of sheep, possibly more than 100. In total we have 258 entities on our world. I have since then slaughtered most sheep and we have no pig or chicken farms, but we are trying to get villagers now, and those villagers are reproducing like crazy.

I think the stoplag mechanic from factions is a very valid alternative. It just clears mobs and items every few minutes, with a warning that this will happen 10 seconds before it actually happens. This seems the most valid solution, but you are also forgetting that there are a lot of islands such as chuusei's island that likely have redstone contraptions working everytime someone near his island loads the chunks. Islands should be removed regularly, maybe once they haven't been walked on in the past say 3 months.

 

[Tacosbefriends]

Islands should be removed regularly, maybe once they haven't been walked on in the past say 3 months.

The only problem I see with this is the lack of automation; it would probably result in a ton of work for the staff or owners.

I like the first idea, but i have a lot of sheep, possibly more than 100.

I took that into consideration, hence the "more players get more mobs" addendum.

 

[Sophie]

*~~~Grand solution!!~~~*
less players allowed on at once. that is all

 

[Marta]

WARNING: Wall of Text and Technical Jargon Ahead

As we all know, mobs and entities in general make a ton of lag for large servers. Due to Skyblock's spreading players out by island, Skyblock is an INCREDIBLY resource-hungry kind of server. Not only do players have to provide themselves with all their own mobs and animals, but Skyblock maps are generally very large, meaning a lot of chunks are loaded at the same time. Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done about chunks causing lag. However, there are several things that can be done to alleviate entity-related lag.

Clearlag: This is a sort of plugin that deletes entities like paintings, item frames, exp orbs, and dropped items on a timely basis. This is a common way to deal with lag; it is also a terrible way. Not only does this make item frames and paintings impossible to enjoy, but it also results in players losing valuable items with a poorly timed drop. I do not recommend this in any way.

Reduce Mob Spawn Rate: This has already been implemented. To an extent, this is a fairly effective way of dealing with mob lag. However, players do eventually get their desired animals and breed them to ridiculous lengths, resulting in what we originally set out to eliminate. This naturally fails, so the only effects this method has is to increase the rarity and difficulty level of receiving monster and passive mob drops.

Periodic /stoplag Command: This is already performed every now and again, much to the dismay of the playerbase. This results in the deletion of all mobs, seemingly except for dogs and cats. Hours of hard work are lost, players become upset or enraged, and there is general disapproval of this method. Although seemingly necessary, this method is not the best solution.

I've come up with 2 ideas; one is simple and one is completely insane:

Idea #1: Would it be possible to set a limit of how many entities exist on a player's island? Let's say hypothetically that we can code this and that we set everyone's island at a 100 entity maximum. A player's island might look something like this:

20 cows
20 pigs
20 chickens
2 item frames
2 paintings
14 villagers
2 wolves

This would leave 20 entity slots for a mob grinder, which is realistically more than one should need for a decent mob grinder. It also allows for a decently sized farm for every player while limiting the number of mobs dramatically. You could also make islands with more than 1 person allow more mobs, encouraging players to use the same chunks and not expand the map by making their own islands.

Idea #2: Make a custom villager at spawn that will trade monster and passive mob loot for things you can grow like wheat, saplings, and watermelon. This would eliminate the need for every mob, but it would also severely limit the potential of many players. (It's easier to breed a bunch of cows for leather than to grow wheat to trade.) Idea #1 would reduce but not eliminate entity-related lag and also indirectly reduce the number of loaded chunks.

For those of you who actually read this whole post, let me know what you think.

I'll keep this in my list.

*~~~Grand solution!!~~~*
less players allowed on at once. that is all

Literally will not change anything. Mob ticks still happen anywhere in the world regardless of how many players are there. When the chunk isn't loaded, then its not loading mobs, but otherwise a single player can trigger most of the islands around him to be loaded, so less players is unlikely to make a massive difference when we are trying to deal with mob-created lag.

 

[Sophie]

I'll keep this in my list.



Literally will not change anything. Mob ticks still happen anywhere in the world regardless of how many players are there. When the chunk isn't loaded, then its not loading mobs, but otherwise a single player can trigger most of the islands around him to be loaded, so less players is unlikely to make a massive difference when we are trying to deal with mob-created lag.

Ah :/ well if there are less islands loaded, there are less animals and mob farms loaded, right? Surely that will have some impact..

 

[tiger101tiger]

I like the idea of a mob limit, although it would be hard to make. i do not like the idea of a villager at spawn, because Im not a fan of villagers, and also it could could create a lot of lag if multiple people are using it at 1nce, and how will I get mushroom stew EXTREEMLY easy without mooshrooms?

 

[Tacosbefriends]

I like the idea of a mob limit, although it would be hard to make. i do not like the idea of a villager at spawn, because Im not a fan of villagers, and also it could could create a lot of lag if multiple people are using it at 1nce, and how will I get mushroom stew EXTREEMLY easy without mooshrooms?

All the stuff you said about villagers is fairly legitimate. The villager idea was pretty much just to illustrate the point that there's no reasonable way to completely eliminate entity-related lag. As for the mushrooms, well... just grow 'em. Mushrooms spread naturally on their own and you can also use bonemeal to grow giant ones. A more reasonable complaint is the lack of milk from cows.