Login at HomeTown

Hello all!! Today we're gonna talk about hoppers! 
Yeah that's right, those things that take a chest and iron to make, that pick things up and move things, super helpful!

Unfortunately, they're also, really laggy. For a run-down on lag and what causes server lag and why, please visit my other post over here cause, I've explained that in depth already, but it basically has to do with hoppers constantly checking for items and server getting overloaded.

So in the past- we've had a limit of 40 hoppers per chunk. This rule has gone without enforcement for a long time, due to there not really being a need to be so strict on hopper usage. However, with 1.15 being a super heavy load on servers, coupled with the increase in players, we are going to have to start enforcing a hopper limit again.


The current hopper limit is now- 400 hoppers per Loaded Area


"Well that's all fine and good but what is a loaded area?? What does that even mean????"

So, a loaded area is, well, the area the server loads around you. The area it figures out where mobs can spawn, what redstone is going off, etc. On our server, this is a 5 chunk radius with your player in the center.
What is a chunk?
Well I'm glad you asked cause I didn't spend all this time prepping this post for nothing. A chunk is 16 blocks by 16 blocks, you can see chunk borders by pressing f3 + g or if you're on a laptop it'll likely be fn + f3 + g




So that's what a chunk looks like


And this is what a loaded area looks like:



So as you can see, the server loads a pretty large area, it's calculating a lot. It may feel like a farm on the outer edges is far enough away to not matter, but the server is still running through all those calculations.

Now, lets look at what 400 hoppers looks like, cause that's a pretty abstract number



Now if you're looking at this going 'What! That's not nearly enough!!' You might need to take a look at how your redstone is being organized. Lets take a look at a few things

How about a super smelter?



This super smelter took 48 hoppers. 16 furnaces is far more than enough for pretty much anything you would need. If you were to make a smelter bigger than this, you would start to eat into your hoppers pretty quickly. So it's down to, is it worth it to me to have an extra 16 furnaces I likely won't use 90% of the time and using another 48 of my hoppers? Or do I wanna use those on another project? It's your decision.

Now, how about a small autosorter?



This sorter for mining items only took 33 hoppers, with 2 chests per item. But you see how quickly it can eat up your hopper supply



Now this has 99 hoppers - and most of these chests will be left empty for a very long time. What might be a better solution is to use the sorter and move the items elsewhere when the chests fill. The items are already sorted, so the machine has done it's purpose. Again, up to you, but this is another way you can conserve hoppers to use on other projects.

Let's look at a final example, a large farm. 



In the initial picture, you can see a hopper line is used to move and catch the items. Which is understandable, after all, that is what hoppers are for, is it not? However, not only is this laggy for the server, it costs a lot more resources, and is actually a far slower means of transport

Water moves items far faster than hoppers can, especially during peak hours. So we ask that you please use water to transport items instead of items wherever possible. If you need help knowing how to do this, check out /warp autofarmtutorial for a visual tutorial, or ask for help 


So
Takeaways from this

- We are now enforcing a 400 hopper limit per 11x11 chunk area


- You can still fit multiple farms with hopper usage in said area if you are using hoppers wisely

- It is easy to waste hoppers, and there are many more resource friendly options

Thanks for reading!

Hello people of the Hometown server,
I am announcing my return to the server starting tomorrow. Due to some unforeseen circumstances involving my old Minecraft account, I am no longer SoldierofEvil now I’m SoldierofEvil16. I look forward to playing on the first friendly server I ever played.

Server you were banned on (SMP/Discord): Hometown mc

Minecraft name: Goodgamerguy

Reason for your ban: Griefing, item theft

Who banned you: DoxNotch

Why should you be unbanned: I believe that the admin might have accidentally banned the wrong guy because my base in-game is literally thousands of blocks from any civilizations, so it isn't even possible for me to grief anybody if I wanted to. Even so, I did not grief anybody. If I can, I would like to see the evidence of griefing if possible.

Why do you want to come back: Because this is a false accusation and I was banned for no reason.

Server you were banned on:Hometownmc
Minecraft name:joshman41
Reason for your ban: I stole someones beacon

Who banned you: Illogical

Why should you be unbanned:I came across the beacon in a seemingly abandoned area. In all honesty I didn't think i would get caught for taking it and I was wrong. I am very sorry and it will never happen again. I felt bad for taking it after i took it because it felt like cheating.

Why do you want to come back: I have put in a lot of work in my town so far and do not want to lose all of my progress. My friends will also be extremely disappointed if I can't play anymore. I am extremely sorry and it wont happen again.

Server you were banned on (SMP/Discord): SMP

Minecraft name: tomasdincau

Reason for your ban: x-raying

Who banned you: Grimm_Wolfe

Why should you be unbanned:
I was having a very bad day and I just thought that I want to find some diamonds to sell and buy slot tokens, which is what I did. However, the night after I felt bad when I realized this has deeper consequences than just me getting money, since if lots of people would use X-ray hacks it would topple the whole diamond economy and change the prices drastically, inflating one of the most important resources. Also if other people would have stacked diamonds for currency-keeping since it is fairly stable, it would essentially drop the value so, that the people would lose money. I should be unbanned because I understand this now and will not attempt to use hacks again.

Why do you want to come back:
I want to come back because I have friends on the server with whom I was just starting an ebook/concrete business. I love the community and how everyone is so nice to each other and I miss it already.

I will gladly give up my gear, which I bought with the money gained from exploiting the server.
I want to get back to the server, the legitimate way this time.

Sincerely,
tomasdincau

Server you were banned on (SMP/Discord): SMP

Minecraft name: Kobemamba14

Reason for your ban: Grief

Who banned you: Illogical_song

Why should you be unbanned: I was just getting started in the server. I was being childish and saw someone beacon unclaimed so I took it so I could cheat my way to a little bit of a headscarf on the server. This was a clear mistake and I regret doing it completely.

Why do you want to come back: I started building a town on the server with my friends. Now that I am banned my friends no longer strive to play the game without me since I led them in building the town. I am very apologetic in my actions and would very much appreciate a second chance at playing on this server.

Trading Barrier Block for Namen's Head

Server you were banned on (SMP/Discord): smp.hometownmc.com

Minecraft name: warriorcats1010

Reason for your ban: xray

Who banned you: grimm_wolf

Why should you be unbanned: I've been playing on hometown for years now, since 2013. I quit Minecraft a while back and I decided to play again during this period of time on quarantine. Although I admit to wrongfully xraying, there are no justifications for my actions, not only did we cheat ourselves, we cheated the server as well as the server economy. I made a huge mistake that unfortunately i have to take the consequences for. While being laid off of work I decided to entertain myself back onto Minecraft with all of my friends. Since hometown was not only my favourite server, but the only server I played on, I would like to continue if I was ever given the opportunity to do so. Hometown has an incredible community that many other servers lack. For example, even being given a chance to appeal my rightfully so ban shows the care the admin and staff have for their community. I admit to wrongfully xraying after a friend of mine told what it was but given the circumstances I sincerely apologize for my cheap, dirty actions. I understand what I did was wrong and I made a huge mistake resulting in a huge loss for not only myself, but my best friend. I would love to continue to play on this server with no problems being involved. If I was ever given a second chance I would guarantee that X-raying would never be used again as I already deleted it off my computer (I can take pictures to prove it). Nonetheless, I understand what I did was wrong in so many ways, after taking this time to reflect upon my actions I cannot express the deepest amount of apologizes I have for my actions. It would be an incredible blessing if I can learn and grow from this experience and continue to  play Minecraft with my best friends while we all have the time to do so. With whatever decision that has been made, I would like to thank the community for the support they have for their players and I also respect whatever decision that is made. 
Once again, thank you for your time and opportunity. 


Kindest regards,
Warriorcats1010

Banned on SMP

DopeFreshMiner

Accompanying an X-Rayer

Grimm_Wolf

I was accompanying my friend who was showing me where items were because I have fortune and would get more items. I, myself, do not know how to xray whatsoever but realize that accompanying someone who does it is just as bad. I am bored on quarantine and have been playing hometown since my younger days and didn't take into consideration who I would affect and how it would affect them. I realize playing with my friends on quarantine and respecting other players is a lot more important than me gaining minerals in a game lol. It was immature and takes away from other players and it won't happen again. This only happened for a short period of time around 2 days, today and yesterday. All other stuff is legit. 

I would like to come back because I enjoy hometown's community and my living area with my friends. Hometown gives me a way to entertain myself while on lockdown. I realize being with my friend gives us an unfair advantage compared to other players and i would like to continue playing with my other friends and building our community we have started.

Hi, I've found the chat frequently spammed with joke auctions recently.

You maybe be saying, "/auc optout," but the problem with this is that it is only certain auctions which are problematic. I do genuinely wish to see other auctions, but the joke auctions with renamed items get annoying at some point. They take up a lot of space in chat and are brightly colored. Again, I do not want to /auc optout because it would leave me out of genuine auction notifications that I would not like to miss out on.

I am not sure of a solution to this problem as of yet, but I thought I might start a discussion on this issue.