Setting: keep server running with zero players active

[Tybs]

Greetings all,

In another topic earlier today (https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =5&t=16772), I explained the issue (for me) with my server that it pauses whenever there are no players active. To my understanding, there currently is no option to change the behavior of the server on this aspect.

It makes sense for the server to pause without players, since no one can respond to enemy attacks. However, in the games I play with my friends, we would like to have the challenge of keeping our defenses in order, so that they can survive while we're sleeping or at work. If our base is destroyed when we get back, we would have to start over, with improved defense setups: it would really increase the challenge. If it isn't too much work, then some option or parameter setting in the headless server to enable this would be appreciated

Thanks in advance!

Greetings,
Tybs

[Kayser]

+1

I totally back this. Sounds easy to implement and awsome as a play mode, even for single player. Real factory workers have to sleep, too; right? If you're defences are not in total order you pay the real price.

[Peter34]

There should be options for server speed for when no players are connected:

100% speed: 60 ticks per second.
1/10 speed: 6 ticks per second.
1/120 speed: 1 tick per 2 minutes
Stopped: no tics per decade.

As soon as one player connects, and actually enters into the game world, server speed should automatically go back to normal.

[Tybs]

There should be options for server speed for when no players are connected:

100% speed: 60 ticks per second.
1/10 speed: 6 ticks per second.
1/120 speed: 1 tick per 2 minutes
Stopped: no tics per decade.

As soon as one player connects, and actually enters into the game world, server speed should automatically go back to normal.

That's one option I didn't think of: this would be really nice, since that would help a lot in maintaining the difficulty to a reasonable level per game. Since we're thinking about this, having another option to set the evolution factor during this period could increase the possibilities too. Speed could then be set to normal if the host wants to (so the amount of attacks would not change), but the evolution would not grow out of its bounds (when people can't login for a few days, for example). Combining these options could give really interesting features.

However, if this all would get too heavy for development, I'd already settle for just having the continuous game option

[TuckJohn]

There should be options for server speed for when no players are connected:

100% speed: 60 ticks per second.
1/10 speed: 6 ticks per second.
1/120 speed: 1 tick per 2 minutes
Stopped: no tics per decade.

As soon as one player connects, and actually enters into the game world, server speed should automatically go back to normal.

That's one option I didn't think of: this would be really nice, since that would help a lot in maintaining the difficulty to a reasonable level per game. Since we're thinking about this, having another option to set the evolution factor during this period could increase the possibilities too. Speed could then be set to normal if the host wants to (so the amount of attacks would not change), but the evolution would not grow out of its bounds (when people can't login for a few days, for example). Combining these options could give really interesting features.

However, if this all would get too heavy for development, I'd already settle for just having the continuous game option

Agreed with everything here. As for the continuous game option, you can "fake" it by having your server connect to itself in a graphical/normal game running behind it, with a very low resolution (cpu saving) and low graphics(RAM saving)

[ratchetfreak]

There should be options for server speed for when no players are connected:

100% speed: 60 ticks per second.
1/10 speed: 6 ticks per second.
1/120 speed: 1 tick per 2 minutes
Stopped: no tics per decade.

As soon as one player connects, and actually enters into the game world, server speed should automatically go back to normal.

That's one option I didn't think of: this would be really nice, since that would help a lot in maintaining the difficulty to a reasonable level per game. Since we're thinking about this, having another option to set the evolution factor during this period could increase the possibilities too. Speed could then be set to normal if the host wants to (so the amount of attacks would not change), but the evolution would not grow out of its bounds (when people can't login for a few days, for example). Combining these options could give really interesting features.

However, if this all would get too heavy for development, I'd already settle for just having the continuous game option

Agreed with everything here. As for the continuous game option, you can "fake" it by having your server connect to itself in a graphical/normal game running behind it, with a very low resolution (cpu saving) and low graphics(RAM saving)

And put game_speed to 0.1 and pausing regularly to slow down even more if needed

[Tybs]

And one patch later the disable-pause option has been implemented... you guys are awesome, thanks a lot!

[daniel34]

And one patch later the disable-pause option has been implemented... you guys are awesome, thanks a lot!

I agree, you guys are amazing.
Moved to Implemented Suggestions

When the server option first came out I thought it was working that way, so that I could check back regularly on the server and it contines to run without me, but it worked differently.
Maybe for a public dedicated server pausing is the better option, but I'll play a map with this option for sure.