Make sure in the launcher you have increased the default RAM allocation. (The little cog beside the launch button.)
If you're building large ships try increasing the sector size in server.cfg. The default sector is small enough that if you're building large ships you may be crossing sector boundaries which will likely cause problems. (Sector size minimum is 300, so if you want a 10km sector make your sector 9700)
Use the command /force_save before saving a BP and before exiting your map.
Verify BP's have saved properly by spawning them after you've saved.
The game takes time to process large block placements. If you do place large numbers of blocks at a time then wait a while before continuing. This is especially applicable to system blocks such as reactor or stabilizer blocks. It has to make a lot of calculations, you can watch the ships stats with some systems to see when it finishes. It may be visually finished on screen but still calculating things in the background. If you continue to have missing block issues then reduce the number of blocks you place/click and increase the time you wait before continuing.
Thanks for sharing this... If it prevents chunks vanishing, it fixes a literal game-breaking bug.
I was wondering why there is an option to turn this off / why it's turned off by default? What's the con besides the pro of reliably saving stuff?
Also, just to make sure others reading this will easily find this setting: I found it in the "server.cfg" file - run a search with the "FORCE_DISK_WRITE_COMPLETION" line, it won't find it without the underscores.
And I'm guessing it has to be the server.cfg file right in the StarMade install folder, not the "data/config" directory, because there are only backup default config files for server, settings and keyboard there, which the game doesn't read, right?
EDIT: Is the server.cfg only for single-player manipulation? No help for those who loose chunks in MP, no?
https://starmadepedia.net/wiki/Server.cfg
FORCE_DISK_WRITE_COMPLETION = false //forces writing operations of raw data to disk directly after operation. For some OS this prevents raw data corruption
It means it's writing to disk all the time which slows things down significantly and in most cases is unnecessary.
All files in data/config are defaults and should not be edited. Any settings files in the SM root directory are merged over the settings in data/config and take precedence. Don't touch data/config unless you know better. Any changes to settings should be made in the root directory or the custom* directories also in the root directory.
Yes the server.cfg in your local folder will not be applicable to any servers you join. It only applies to your local servers.
This game is very ambitious in it's scope and 'going large' and pushing it towards its limits will make things wobble and/or break. Any player can quite easily break things if they're not careful or aware of what they're doing or the demands they're placing on the code and their computers. That's the nature of it, learn where the limits are and work within them.