Lag Rules

What is lag?

Have you ever noticed mobs moving very slowly or items stuttering in a water stream? If you have, you have experienced server lag. While we have an incredible dedicated server with a plethora of server optimizations, from time to time players build things that the server can't handle.

The key to understanding lag is game ticks. Every second, Minecraft has 20 "ticks" which progresses the game forwards - it spawns mobs, grows crops, moves items, and performs every function in the game. In an ideal world, the server has 20 ticks per second (TPS) and it takes less than or equal to 50 millseconds per tick (MSPT). When the TPS drops below 20 and the MSPT goes above 50, the server is now lagging. If you'd like to see a good estimation of the server's TPS at any given time, you can install MiniHud and turn on infoServerTPS (NB: MiniHud's MSPT reading isn't as accurate as its TPS).

It is important to note that low FPS and high ping are indication of poor client connection, not server lag. If you notice the game stuttering, check your ping first; don't immediately assume the server is lagging.

What causes lag?

Some of the main sources of lag to watch out for are:

• Entities; i.e., mobs, items, minecarts, etc. Anything that has a hitbox (press f3+b to see hitboxes) is an entity.

• Villagers; in moderate to large numbers, their AI can affect server performance.

• Hoppers; these check the block above them every game tick. Read below for ways to limit hopper lag.

• Pistons; in massive quantities they can cause lag when all firing at once.

Villager Lobotomies

As mentioned, villagers are a very significant source of lag - their AI is very intensive on the server. For villagers that live in a trading hall, this involves many unnecessary calculations.

For this reason, we require that you disable the AI of trading villagers - this can be done by renaming your villagers to Dunce. This will not consume your name tag. Lobotomised villagers will still refresh their trades and level up normally, they just won't have the same level of AI such as pathfinding.

This should only be done for villagers used for trading/inside trading halls. Villagers in farms such as iron farms or breeding farms should not be lobotomised.

How can I reduce lag?

Luckily, there are a number of things that you can do to prevent server lag and create a fun playing environment for everyone. It's mandatory you follow these where possible to avoid your structures being removed.

1. Build sources of lag out of simulation distance from each other. Spreading out your contraptions will reduce collateral lag from having multiple farms loaded at the same time. Additionally, you can build them at build limit, which removes mob spawns, thereby reducing entities. "Industrial Districts" are forbidden from being built - multiple intensive redstone machines should not be built within a single players simulation range.

1. Run complex redstone contraptions, villager trading halls, or anything that can cause lag at quieter times. If you've built something huge (quarry, high-speed tree farm, etc.), run it when there aren't many people on. If you like to build these, turn on infoServerTPS in MiniHud and see if the TPS changes when you turn the farm on.

2. Chunk Loaders must no longer be used as substitute for a real player. they must only be used when there is a risk₃ of redstone₂ breaking from chunk unload₁ - E.G., they must not be used on an iron farm, honey farm, or villager crop farms.

   ₁ meaning they must only be used alongside having a player there that could disconnect ₂ damage must be substantial. a 1 minute fix to a moss farm is not substantial, however an entire JMIS is. ₃ there is no risk of an inactive build breaking. E.G. they must not be used on an inactive JMIS, etc. when this redstone is no longer at risk of breaking from chunk unload, it is your responsibility to also disable the chunk loaders. _{Exception: WorldEaters must not be chunk loaded - perimeters are very large in size and loading this region adds to the lag created from already exceptionally laggy machines, alongside unnecessarily loading the nether side.}

3. Limit the number of villagers you have. We recommend against villager crop farms - a simple micro crop farm has far better rates with almost no idle lag. Villager trading halls and large iron farms should be out of simulation distance of other builds.

4. Lock hoppers by powering them with redstone. This is best for things you're planning to build in an area you're frequently in, such as a large smelter in a base. Taking the extra time to work out how tohopper lock a machine when idle is worth the effort.

1. Cover hoppers with composters where possible. This greatly reduces their lag and you should get in the habit of always doing this. Also, replace long lines of horizontal hoppers with water streams.

1. Replace hoppers with droppers or decorated pots where possible. For example, if you have a 3 hoppers pointing downward, replace the middle one with a dropper or decorated pot.

1. Avoid building a large main storage system using basic SS3 filters (also known as Impulse filters). These systems are terrible for yourself and for the server. Go to the Storage Tech discord server to learn more about efficient storage.

1. Put fires or lava at the end of water streams for farm storage. Don't let items pile up, and never loop items in a water stream until they despawn. If the items don't get picked up the first time, you either need to accept some loss from your farm or design a better storage system for it.

1. Kill mobs from farms quickly. Don't let them pile up before killing them. Use the f3 screen to see how many entities there are. If you can think of a way to kill them faster, implement it.

2. Large collections of animals are forbidden - this applies strictly to food farms like cow pits/chicken farms or large animal pens where the animals aren't serving any real purpose - when not in use, remove them! _{There are plenty of exceptions to this, E.G. sheep pens/auto wool farms, etc - these serve a real purpose with no/few acceptable alternatives. Whereas, animal food farms like the aforementioned have plenty of better optimised alternatives.}

If we see you building something that may lag the server, we will ask you to remove or modify it. Considerable farms such as large worldeaters, villager farms, etc - you should consult with staff for guidance on these within a ticket. Warnings will be issued in instances of ignoring these rules - this can lead to removal of the farms!