Structures Decay PVE

[KA19]

Playing single-player, "Disable Structures Decay PVE" setting was unchecked by default, tooltip says that by default everything "decays" in 7 days.

I checked it, to be safe, but nowhere found exact mechanics of how it works: does it mean that people who forgot to uncheck it rebuild all their stuff every 7 days?

Does that mean that on official servers everyone have to repair each and every building section to prevent it fall apart? That would be tedious to say the least. Or they don't have to because raiders destroy it faster and all structures are considered super-temporary anyway ?

The worse for dino decay. They untame or disappear? Rebuilding is one thing but every dino is unique its super long time to find one with good wild level/stats, not to mention breeding as I've read it takes weeks or longer on official, and than they just "decay"?

 

Super confusing setting for me as a new player. How does it exactly work?

 

p.s. googling only gave me long discussions on pillared lands and that being a problem, but not exactly any data on solution implemented, thus unknown which of wild ideas from back than is "works as it should" now.

Edited January 28 by KA19

[yarnevk]

So it gives you a choice of structure decay or not, it is your single player game do what you want.  If you think decay is tedious to repair do not do it.   Others welcome the realism of having to maintain their structures against dinos AND weather rather than just dinos, after all you already have to sharpen your iron tools and rebind your stone tools before they break at the worst time.  Others think no decay is tedious to deal with in PVP.  Unless you are dedicated server single player with the server running 24/7 you are probably not going to notice the setting since the timer only ticks when you are in the game.

The reason it exists is because on official the beach would get littered with beach bobs on a two hour tour that refunded the game yet their thatch hut would remain forever.  At launch the setting was broken and everyone was complaining that beach bobs stuff was not decaying.  On PVE you cannot even tediously go destroy them like PVP could.

The reason you see pillars is they do not decay like thatch huts do, so people use them to claim land.  Claims just mean one side of the fence says this is my land the other side says no.   So they are contentious especially since the admins are bad at enforcing pillaring rules.

dino decay is time before they become unclaimed for others to take.  Rather than being server time since built like structures it is elapsed time since last login, but that is pointless for single player since the game server is only active when you are logged in.  But the setting is there because you can start your single player to non-dedicated and let others login to your world. But even without the setting if their food drains they will die as there are only a few that feed themselves on wander., or they can aggro and stop in water and drown (or breach water and die).  So if you have tames you always need to check up on them and not leave them be.   If that is annoying then you can use the cryopod/fridge which is a later sci-fi DLC brought back to the island early - basically keeps them safe in their pokeball.

Edited January 28 by yarnevk

[KA19]

Thanks for reply!

 

13 hours ago, yarnevk said:

Rather than being server time since built like structures it is elapsed time since last login

Does that mean that for structures, on servers where it is enabled, they can disappear right in from of me?

For dinos, where it is since last login, is it login of and tribe member or exactly the player who tamed them?

 

I understand that for people who lives and developed with Ark for years it is all obvious, but for beach bobs its not:) And I too chose to leave on the beach though its a lil cold here at times, but I want to know the rules how it works, and its nowhere written to be found.

Edited January 29 by KA19

[darkradeon]

decay on server means: anyone in the tribe must re-render the structures and dinos (better: being in rendering area) within the specific decay times https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Building#Auto-decay

BTW it isn't 7-days decay anymore since literally ages (patch 180.0), not sure why single player tooltip still reports that.

decay times can be disabled for dinos and structures (different options) or altered manually with decay multiplier (affecting all types) or specific decay times and multiplier can be altered with live tuning. https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/Server_configuration

Edited January 29 by darkradeon

[KA19]

3 hours ago, darkradeon said:

anyone in the tribe must re-render the structures and dinos (better: being in rendering area) within the specific decay times

Perfect! Thats clear now, thanks

[yarnevk]

10 hours ago, KA19 said:

Thanks for reply!

 

Does that mean that for structures, on servers where it is enabled, they can disappear right in from of me?

For dinos, where it is since last login, is it login of and tribe member or exactly the player who tamed them?

 

I understand that for people who lives and developed with Ark for years it is all obvious, but for beach bobs its not:) And I too chose to leave on the beach though its a lil cold here at times, but I want to know the rules how it works, and its nowhere written to be found.

Damaged structures are clearly damaged visually and listed stats so you can see it is degrading for sufficient warning to repair it.  They do not just poof with no warning.  Same thing happens with your clothes and gear, when they are looking nasty time to repair them.  Now if you did a two hour tour then decide to come back to your thatch hut two weeks later, yes it will likely be gone.  Ark is a game about learning how it works, there are no tutorials but see the link to ARK WIKI at the top of the forum if you want to research the metagame before discovering things yourself.

IIRC the dinos are tagged with that and even the account name so you can message them if you want OK to claim that they did not mistakenly unclaim it.