I've added a couple of automated tasks to the server schedule, here's a basic list of what this means for players:
- Once per hour items on the ground (drops) will be cleared. Warnings will be given 60 and 20 seconds before this happens. Items, arrows and experience orbs will be removed, however anything dropped as a result of a player dying within the last 7 minutes will be excluded and stay where it is.
- Once per hour chunks will be unloaded if no player is nearby. This will help to keep memory use to a minimum and greatly reduce the chance of server lag. The spawn area of each world is excluded so it will still load quickly when players use the World Portals etc.
Staff will also be given access to commands that enable them to trigger these tasks early if needed as well as to detect and teleport to laggy chunks. Initially only Moderators and above will have access, but DemiMods will also get access to some of the commands once we have tested them out a bit more.
I've also enabled 'freeze when AFK' which stops players moving when they are AFK. The reason for this is that the Essentials setting to 'cancel AFK on move' that we used to use doesn't work for the current version and some players were not realising they were still set as AFK.
Enjoy!