Optimization

Two modules. optimization gives the server fewer entities to tick: items and mobs stack into one entity, spawners stack into one block, and each chunk has limits. item-updater replaces outdated items in players' inventories with a fixed version.

Optimization

The module is optimization in config.yml. Its settings are in modules/optimization/config.yml, and it has no commands.

The file's header points at Paper's own settings first: merge-radius and entity-activation-range in spigot.yml, and the despawn and per-chunk save limits in paper-world-defaults.yml.

The amount a stack stands for is saved on the entity or the block itself, so stacks survive a restart. A mob or item another plugin has stored data on is never stacked, because that plugin is treating it as its own.

Items on the ground

Dropped items of the same kind join into one entity that can hold more than a full stack. When a new item drops, it looks for a matching stack within items.radius blocks. If adding it would not pass items.max-amount, the new item joins that stack instead of spawning. Items are matched on everything: type, name, lore, enchantments and data.

The entity carries up to one full stack of the item, and its name shows the real amount from two items upwards:

items:
  name: "{highlight}%amount%x {letters}%item%"

Picking a stack up takes as much as the inventory has room for, and the rest stays on the ground with a smaller amount. Hoppers pick stacks up the same way. Items that roll into each other after landing are merged by the plugin, not by the server, so the amount in the name stays correct.

Only ordinary items stack. These never do: an item nobody can pick up, one that never despawns, one with a custom name, one another plugin has marked, and anything that does not stack in an inventory, such as tools or armour.

items.lifetime-seconds shortens how long a dropped item lasts, up to 300 seconds. The server removes an item once it is five minutes old, so the plugin makes a new item that much older when it spawns. 0 keeps the server's own despawn time. This applies to every ordinary item, even when items.enabled is off.

Mobs

Mobs of a listed type stack into one entity that stands for all of them. There are two ways mobs join a stack:

• On spawn. A new mob joins a matching stack within mobs.radius blocks, as long as the total stays within mobs.max-amount.
• Every five seconds. Mobs within 32 blocks of each player are checked, and those standing within mobs.radius of each other are merged. Mobs that walk together end up stacked too.

The name shows the amount:

mobs:
  name: "{highlight}%amount%x {letters}%type%"

Killing a stack kills one mob. The death drops one mob's loot and counts as one kill. A new stack one smaller spawns in its place, so a farm pays what it always did from far fewer entities. The same happens however the stack dies: lava, the void or /kill also take only one. The mob that replaces the stack is a fresh one. Only its age, a slime's size and a sheep's colour and shearing are copied.

Mobs only stack with mobs that look alike. A baby never joins adults, a small slime never joins a big one, and sheep must share colour and shearing.

A mob stacks only if it spawned for one of the listed mobs.reasons. The defaults include SPAWNER_EGG and BREEDING, so mobs from spawn eggs and bred mobs stack as well as natural and spawner ones. A mob that is already a stack keeps stacking, whatever brought it back.

These mobs never stack: named mobs, tamed mobs, leashed mobs, mobs with a rider or riding something, and mobs another plugin keeps data on.

With mobs.disable-ai on, a stack stands still and does not attack. A mob that is back down to one gets its AI back.

Type and reason names are not case-sensitive.

Spawners

Using a spawner item on a placed spawner of the same mob adds it to that block instead of placing it. This needs exyliasurvivalcore.optimization.spawners. Outside creative, one spawner is taken from the hand. A block holds up to spawners.max-amount spawners.

A stacked spawner spawns its whole stack. Each time it spawns a mob:

• If mob stacking is on and the type is listed, it spawns one mob standing for as many mobs as the block holds spawners.
• Otherwise, it spawns that many separate mobs.

Sneaking and right-clicking a spawner with an empty hand shows how many spawners it holds.

Breaking a stacked spawner takes one spawner off it and leaves the block. With spawners.silk-touch-returns on and a Silk Touch tool, that spawner is given to the player. Otherwise it is lost. The last spawner breaks the way the server breaks any spawner.

Limits per chunk

limits:
  entities-per-chunk:
    CHICKEN: 50
    COW: 50
    PIG: 50
    SHEEP: 50
    ZOMBIE: 40
    SKELETON: 40
  blocks-per-chunk:
    HOPPER: 64

entities-per-chunk, by entity type. A spawn that would pass the limit is refused. Spawns made by plugins or commands are not limited. Mobs from spawn eggs, breeding and spawners are. A stacked mob counts once, so a chunk can hold the limit times mobs.max-amount mobs. Limits are checked before mob stacking, so in a chunk that is at its limit, a spawn that would have joined a stack is refused as well. No permission bypasses this limit.

blocks-per-chunk, by material. Placing a block past the limit is cancelled with optimization.block-limit. Only blocks with a block entity are counted, such as hoppers, chests, furnaces and spawners. A material without one, such as stone, is never counted, so its limit never applies. Players with exyliasurvivalcore.optimization.bypass are not limited.

Names are not case-sensitive. An empty map turns that limit off. Neither limit has an on/off switch of its own: they run whenever the module is on.

Permissions

Item updater

When an item has to change — a reworked custom sword, a crate key with a new lore — the item updater replaces every copy of the old item with the new one as players come across it. The module is item-updater in config.yml. It has no configuration file.

An update is a pair: the outdated item and the fixed item. Every stack that matches the outdated item exactly becomes the fixed item and keeps its amount. The match covers the whole item: type, name, lore, enchantments, durability and every data component. An item that differs in any of those is left alone.

Items are checked at these moments:

Nothing runs on a timer. A player is told with item-updater.updated how many items changed. Items inside chests, vaults or on the ground are not touched until they reach the player's inventory. The ender chest is only checked on join and by /itemupdater run.

Updates are stored in the database, so every server of a network sharing it applies the same updates. An update saved on one server reaches the others without a restart. An item that one server's version cannot read waits for a server that can.

Commands

Both need exyliasurvivalcore.itemupdater.admin, and so does every button on the two screens.

The screens

item_update_list lists every update with its outdated and fixed item. Update now does what /itemupdater run does. New update asks for a name (at most 64 characters), then for the outdated item, then for the fixed one. Nothing is saved until both items are in, so an abandoned creation leaves nothing behind.

item_update_edit shows one update:

An update is refused when both items are the same, or when another update already replaces that outdated item.

Permissions