Docking Array Lag

[MacThule]

Has anyone else had problems while working on large docking arrays (i.e. more than 20-30 docking modules and more than a few thousand enhancer blocks)? My performance starts choking up and sometimes multiplayer servers spit me out while I'm expanding them (like repeatedly) even though they are a tiny fraction the mass of the stations I've built. Is there an understanding of whether this is caused by the docks themselves, or the number of linked enhancer blocks?

Because I repeatedly get issues building big faction docks in multi-player, and am starting to think that the effect of the enhancers should be increased so that every medium and large sized docking slot doesn't require hundreds and thousands of enhancer modules. Even doubling the effect of enhancer blocks (and appropriately increasing their production cost) might seriously trim up the performance of large shipyards and docking arrays while still retaining a system that rewards builders for research, practice and planning when building docks. Personally I think that multiplying the enhancer effect by 3 or 5 even wouldn't be too much - ships are big, and a faction with 5-6 active members quickly collects many of them. A station of a million blocks doesn't cause anywhere near the performance issues caused by a docking array 1/100th that size.

 

[Galladinator]

I don't really know why there are still enhancers.

I just use the option to make all docking areas infinite, it makes it a lot easier and stops my ships having a big line of docking modules 100s of blocks wide.

 

[Monchoman45]

I don't really know why there are still enhancers.

Making all docking areas infinite lets you dock 100k mass turrets to a core (which is why you don't usually see it in multiplayer). Enhancers require you to have some dimension in order to dock big stuff.

My performance starts choking up and sometimes multiplayer servers spit me out while I'm expanding them (like repeatedly) even though they are a tiny fraction the mass of the stations I've built.

You aren't allowed to put blocks in docking areas, and the only way to enforce that is to check every possible block location to see if there's a block there. That's an expensive operation for big docking areas; it's easy to cache, but if you add one enhancer 30 times, the game will check 30 times; if you instead added 30 enhancers once, you should see less lag.

There are tons of possible optimizations (like skipping empty chunks), but you should consider them relatively arbitrary, since they depend on internal data structures that you'd have a hard time controlling.

I'm still of the opinion that you should be allowed to put blocks in docking areas, but that the ship should have to actually fit without colliding with anything. Hopefully that's what they do when we get the docking update.

 

[MacThule]

You aren't allowed to put blocks in docking areas, and the only way to enforce that is to check every possible block location to see if there's a block there. That's an expensive operation for big docking areas; it's easy to cache, but if you add one enhancer 30 times, the game will check 30 times; if you instead added 30 enhancers once, you should see less lag.

There are tons of possible optimizations (like skipping empty chunks), but you should consider them relatively arbitrary, since they depend on internal data structures that you'd have a hard time controlling.

I'm still of the opinion that you should be allowed to put blocks in docking areas, but that the ship should have to actually fit without colliding with anything. Hopefully that's what they do when we get the docking update.

Blocks in docking areas? I don't understand, are you telling me about not blocking the docking area? Because I've built two stations each with 30-50 functioning docking slots on them and both with around 20 ships currently docked on them... some of them 400 & 500 meters in various directions (and if you think I built those block by single block, you crazy. What I'm wondering is whether the game is choking because of building around 50 docks (regardless of size) near each other or because of the total number of linked enhancer blocks in the area.

Because if it's the latter, I'm wondering if it can be fixed by making each enhancer expand the module's docking capacity by like 5 meters instead of 1 meter. So you would reduce the number of linked blocks the game had to deal with by 80% for large docking arrays at busy faction bases.

This may not be an issue for everyone, but it will be an issue for anyone in a faction with more than 5-6 ACTIVE members - each building and buying ships for various jobs and testing and so one. 10-20 little 100x100x100 docks don't put a dent in what an active faction needs. So improving the function of docking enhancers now may nip further server load problems in the bud.
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I don't really know why there are still enhancers.

I just use the option to make all docking areas infinite, it makes it a lot easier and stops my ships having a big line of docking modules 100s of blocks wide.

I don't think this is a solution. Not only does the enhancer system prevent abuses as mentioned by Monchoman45, but it rewards study, practice, and planning in the game. So players who learn the system and are smart about planning can have bigger fleets and better bases. This is better, IMO, than games with standard levelling systems where players who just spend the most time grinding (regardless of how stupidly) are rewarded with the best powers.

As far as turret exploits, improving the function of enhancers might open the door for this, but there are other ways exploits can be prevented than requiring players to pile on thousands of laggy linked blocks to everything in order to dock ships and turrets.

 

[Monchoman45]

What I'm wondering is whether the game is choking because of building around 50 docks (regardless of size) near each other or because of the total number of linked enhancer blocks in the area.

You can cram hundreds of thousands of linked anythings in one area without crashing anything. Enhancers aren't any different.

What I mean is that if you place a block inside the docking area, you aren't allowed to dock a ship there. The entire docking area, no matter how large, must be empty. So if you have a 500x500x500 docking area, the game has to ask "are there any blocks in this area?" which involves checking 125,000,000 blocks.

You also have to account for all the lag caused by the docked ships themselves.

 

[MacThule]

You can cram hundreds of thousands of linked anythings in one area without crashing anything. Enhancers aren't any different.

What I mean is that if you place a block inside the docking area, you aren't allowed to dock a ship there. The entire docking area, no matter how large, must be empty. So if you have a 500x500x500 docking area, the game has to ask "are there any blocks in this area?" which involves checking 125,000,000 blocks.

You also have to account for all the lag caused by the docked ships themselves.

That's what I was worried about - that the docking space itself might be the problem. Because that seems a harder issue to fix.