Denied Perform a content bloat purge to assist server performance.

[Cade Valentine]

What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
This suggestion would request that NL/Content Team perform a general purge of non-core content (content deemed non-essential to the gameplay loop of the server) in different areas in order to reduce server constraints and enable the team to shift their focuses/concerns away to other areas. The content could be anything, from SWEPs, to weapons, to entities. The overall philosophy would be the more non-essential something is while being measured as creating higher server load, the more likely it should be looked at to be removed.

There are of course some things that would either be ineligible for removal or highly unlikely to be removed, such as anything that is accessible via VPoints only. I can't imagine the headache that would cause in terms of potential wasted money complaints.

Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
I checked the forums for similar suggestions and found nothing. So, not to my knowledge.

Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
Increases overall server performance, making experiences ranging from RP to Combat more fluid and enjoyable
Allows for NL/Content Team to focus on how to develop the server further going forward instead of having to deal with complaints about the issue
Lower range of content may make gameplay experience more beginner-friendly.

Possible Negatives of the suggestion:
Activities or content that some server members enjoy may end up being removed, what is necessary to some people is definitely a subjective topic
Players will have to adapt to a different gameplay cycle as some things they may use to conduct their activities on server will be gone.

Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
I will preface by saying I am aware that the UK server is pending further upgrades from its current state right now, and also address US players by saying I am aware your experience may be different, as obviously you guys will have different server architecture, but eventually the development bloat could catch up on your end as well.

My point is more to do with the fact that the server has gone in a consistently upward direction with development for a timeframe of around two years now. As more and more content is added, more hardware is required to support, but eventually there's going to be a point where there isn't much more that can be done from an upgrade side to facilitate new additions, or another unfortunate limbo like UK is facing right now occurs which locks the playerbase into the difficulty it's facing right now.

Getting on top of the problem as it is now to both buy time for a better server experience while upgrades are pending, as well as having a chance for relevant staff teams to assess what is still necessary to the server in the current setting and landscape, will allow for a clearer direction of development to be found.

Whilst it would be a definite blow to some players that content they may enjoy is removed, I think that from a staff/business POV, we are in one of the most justifiable periods for this action to be done. CN still holds a massive lead in popularity/playerbase for their version of SCP-RP as far as I am aware, so it is best to capitalise on that advantage to make changes of this nature as a form of future-proofing.

The suggestion is vague about what specifically could be targetted because as stated, I do not have a full grasp of what things on the server cause the biggest amount of server load and do not wish to make assumptions or seem like I am targetting departments. This is something that would require staff or developer insight.

I am aware of course that I do not have the full picture of what the team is doing right now to remedy these problems and it is possible that solutions are being worked on behind the scenes thus leading to the denial of the suggestion, if so that is fine. But I have not seen anything of this nature be suggested on the forums so I think it is worth a shot. I would much rather the focus be on what the server can do better than having to deal with nearly daily complaints about the server being a "slideshow".

I will also clarify that I do not think this is a bad thing to do overall if the trade-off is that server performance is markedly increased, I just think that obviously the removal of some content will be negative for some players more than it is for others. Curious what other people think about this one.

 

[Niox]

SC and ISD is content bloat fr! (/j)
+Support

 

[Broda]

I'd rather have a period of no content for a few months and just focus on optimisation. I think that would solve a lot of issues.

 

[Cade Valentine]

I'd rather have a period of no content for a few months and just focus on optimisation. I think that would solve a lot of issues.

This is an alternative that I would be okay with, if the staff team think they can get away with doing that instead of having to remove things. It's definitely a less extreme option between the two.

 

[Nate Mercer / 'Tactician']

+ Support
The CCTV system is excellently made but is just totally unnecessary and is never used. It is just more entities that have to be loaded by the server. I strongly believe that the server should have less added SCPs or systems for just better development or previously release things, such as going back to rework old SCPs.

 

[Pupper]

+ Support
The CCTV system is excellently made but is just totally unnecessary and is never used. It is just more entities that have to be loaded by the server. I strongly believe that the server should have less added SCPs or systems for just better development or previously release things, such as going back to rework old SCPs.

i see people use it all the time ngl

 

[Joris Kilotoviz/London]

+ Support
The CCTV system is excellently made but is just totally unnecessary and is never used. It is just more entities that have to be loaded by the server. I strongly believe that the server should have less added SCPs or systems for just better development or previously release things, such as going back to rework old SCPs.

SA+ uses it nearly all the time on US server for helping with active codes

 

[Skyfire1355]

+ Support
The CCTV system is excellently made but is just totally unnecessary and is never used. It is just more entities that have to be loaded by the server. I strongly believe that the server should have less added SCPs or systems for just better development or previously release things, such as going back to rework old SCPs.

I can confirm that SA+ on the US server use cameras in many active codes. Even ISD well at least A-1 occasionally use it to my observation. Not arguing for the staying or removal of cameras but just wanted to mention that they are frequented by some groups.

 

[Kira Uchiha]

+Support (times 1000 lol)

would love to just see some more optimization and better gameplay at 100+ players.

 

[Bill Nye The Guy]

+-neutral i dont think it's as easy as "let's just remove X things to make the server better!", im no coder but i would imagine 4 or 5 small things removed from the server wouldn't reduce lag by much

 

[Emilia Foddg]

-/+ Neutral
you've overlooked one major negative that would occur were this to be accepted - that is, CT and dev teams having to put the time and effort into what would effectively be a top-down, full-scale content audit and optimisation pass. now i imagine that something on a far smaller scale happens every now and then repeatedly over time, like say a dev or CT member is going through content packs or w/e and finds something and is like "...why do we have this resource? this isn't used anywhere," then they bring that up with the rest of CT, potentially also dev team & NL, who either clarify it into "oh yeah, we can remove that at some point"/"was already slated for removal" with low prio, "this is for a planned implementation further down the line" or some other thing because something something CN is a company with very funny and complex bureaucracy, etc.

and even THEN, suppose that you end up doing this huge scale content audit and optimisation pass on all the server content... and find at the end that it didn't really help - whether that being any flavour or mix of:

• not enough things to remove to justify having gone over the entirety of the server's content in this way
• the things being removed not having noticeable enough effect on perf to be worth it

as it depends on the items in question and what they were actually contributing as part of server content

so with that in mind, it ultimately falls to the determination of there potentially being enough resources as part of server content, that are not needed and actively negatively impacting server performance. i can't make an informed judgement on that, but my wager is on the people that can (CT/devs) finding that this isn't necessary and that they are already actively looking into other, more feasible ways that server performance can be improved.

 

[Glazzing]

I can confirm that SA+ on the US server use cameras in many active codes. Even ISD well at least A-1 occasionally use it to my observation. Not arguing for the staying or removal of cameras but just wanted to mention that they are frequented by some groups.

this is true like 20% of CI raids get called out by people on cams

 

[Yeke]

Hello

I apologise for the significant delay here and that is completely my fault

We monitor content as needed and remove things that are completely redundant i.e. Dradios, just unfortunatly it is harder to remove than implement, as once something takes hold, people generally latch onto it.

We are always looking to improve and optimise as you hopefully have seen in our changelogs where Ventz spent countless nights optimising as much as we could for addons causing excessive networking or generally unoptimized animations / code.

However what you suggest unfortunately is a significant job that we would not be able to facilitate and drop the workload onto 2 people, as addressing what is "core" to the gameplay loop is now blurred to the point of cries to "more content" because the original content had been assimilated and disregarded as "not enough"

At this time I cannot go ahead with this suggestion, but we are doing everything in our power that is reasonable not just for the server but for our own mental sanity as well.

Kind Regards
Yeke