Not logging in

[Bigbelly]

I would like to get clarification on what happens if you don't log in for a while.

It has been presented to me that if you don't log in for X period of time (24 or 48 hours or whatever) then your island is shut down or goes on pause until you return. Is this true or just a nasty rumor ?

Part of me thinks this might be true, I can see the merits of reducing server load etc from a BB point of view.
On the other hand I can visit peoples islands who have not logged on in weeks and I see their little men running around and I am able to place buffs.

What is the reality ?

I am going on vacation and I want to know if I should give a guild mate some buffs to place while I am away. ?
Is this worthwhile or would they be wasted?
If "pause mode" is enabled, what is the threshold ? 48 hours?

Thanks in advance for any information you may be able to provide.

[Kit_]

The island goes into pause mode after being logged out for 24hrs (and I had this confirmed by someone at BB). Even if you visit a friend after this period, you will still see the men running around, that is just the graphics, but any buildings will not be producing, and buffs are wasted. HOWEVER, if you get a friend to visit you everyday, within the 24hr window, you can keep an island running, upgrades will continue and buffs will work. Your friend must of course make sure to do this everyday, as missing a day will shut the island down. Visiting an island after the 24hrs will not restart the island, only the island owner logging in can do that.

[Iolanthe]

It is true that islands pause after some time, this is clear when someone comes back from holiday and leaps into Help wondering why their week long upgrades are stuck at some %.

The finer points are not so clear:

The island goes into pause mode after being logged out for 24hrs (and I had this confirmed by someone at BB). Even if you visit a friend after this period, you will still see the men running around, that is just the graphics, but any buildings will not be producing, and buffs are wasted. HOWEVER, if you get a friend to visit you everyday, within the 24hr window, you can keep an island running, upgrades will continue and buffs will work. Your friend must of course make sure to do this everyday, as missing a day will shut the island down. Visiting an island after the 24hrs will not restart the island, only the island owner logging in can do that.

If this is accurate something changed at some point. BB have been confused about the mechanic before and the "graphics" referred to shouldn't include deposits starting to deplete again nor upgrades resuming upgrading if someone visits and buffs after 24 hours have passed. Haven't looked closely in a while but as I recall both of those happen.

The "24 hours" bit is also unclear, does it mean 24 actual hours from the time one logs out or Settler's Day to Settler's Day (daily bonus time to daily bonus time)? The second could be almost 48 hours.

May be time to look closely again, it's possible BB have tweaked things so their info is correct, it's also possible they've overlooked something.


To be on the safe side if you want to avoid downtime, the 'friendly Fish Platter once a day' keeps things running smoothly. Just make sure you've enough room in storage and enough [deposit] in your deposits.

All that said, having a friend visit and buff doesn't affect Guild Quest activity status which will show "Inactive" after "48 hours" (seems likely it counts by bonuses too, miss 2 and you're Inactive in the list, but it's also not been specified,) nor the Daily Bonus which resets if you miss a day. Both of those need a proper log in to the account to carry on.

[Iolanthe]

The island goes into pause mode after being logged out for 24hrs (and I had this confirmed by someone at BB). Even if you visit a friend after this period, you will still see the men running around, that is just the graphics, but any buildings will not be producing, and buffs are wasted. HOWEVER, if you get a friend to visit you everyday, within the 24hr window, you can keep an island running, upgrades will continue and buffs will work. Your friend must of course make sure to do this everyday, as missing a day will shut the island down. Visiting an island after the 24hrs will not restart the island, only the island owner logging in can do that.

BB do appear to be confused. Regarding the bold bits - Found an "Inactive" (as shown in the Guild List) guildie, as far as I know they've not been on in a few months but since they're officially Inactive it's been at least "48 hours". Ish. Their Fishermen all had big red ! above them -> fed fish 500 fish food -> went home for a bit -> returned to find big red ! had vanished and fish food eaten. It's now showing 458 in the deposit.

So, unless the graphics are exceedingly clever, and very much mistaken which seems unlikely, a friend can still wake a sleeping island no matter how much time has passed and assuming there is still room in storage for the buffed item, not always so easy to see, buffs will not be wasted.

Just how long "24 hours" really are is still in question.

Ah, afterthought - You don't actually see the workers wandering when you visit a friend, whether the friend is active or no all you see are the building animations.

[Larili]

I was researching this on test, then the last wipe came along and I really couldn't be bothered to go back. They didn't confirm the `settler day' start time, so my timings are yet to be confirmed, but it appears that the main workings go to sleep 24 hrs after your last log out plus the remaining time of the settler day.
If the settler day was started at 01.15 and you logged out at 18.00 you island would go to sleep not at 18.00 the following day , but at 01.15 the next day. This is why there appears to be odd timings from anything between 24 and 47 hours.
However there is also the unknown of when the system logs you out rather than a manual log out by the player, for some reason I can't get it to log me out on test, yet it happens quite frequently on live. I still find it quite amusing that BB seem to be unsure about such a basic thing in their own game that they were happy for us to test for it when we posed the question.

[Iolanthe]

I was researching this on test, then the last wipe came along and I really couldn't be bothered to go back.

After several earlier attempts were interrupted I'd basically written it off too. Somehow, dragging my feet for ages paid off, that and by simply getting lucky I managed to come in on the right side of the last reset.

The "24 hours" bit is also unclear, does it mean 24 actual hours from the time one logs out or Settler's Day to Settler's Day (daily bonus time to daily bonus time)? The second could be almost 48 hours.

38 hours of no activity, logged out and no visits or friendly buffs, only 24 hours of buff used.

The Settler's Day (daily bonus and new quests) resets on the Test at the same time as it does here on .com, 03.00 BST.
Couldn't remember exactly but got lucky again and caught it in the act.

So - It is 24 real hours, possibly plus a few minutes if the timers are all accurate.

Have to say this surprised me some, it seems needlessly demanding and... hiccup-y. But since friends visiting should count to reset the 24 hour countdown it is not necessarily the "24 hours from when you log out" commonly repeated by players and BB alike. After 24 hours of total inactivity everything pauses until something 'active' happens to jostle it awake again.

BB_kaurkal on the Test server does seem to have it dead on:

The official information is:
The island stops production after 24 hours from being inactive.
Inactive means: The owner of the island didn't log in or the island didn't have any visitors.

Everything in the island stops and this includes Building upgrades, Training unites, resource production ... etc

Original

This would also explain both why sometimes upgrades can take longer than it seems they should and why sometimes the island is active for much longer than 24 hours after you've gone and causes the great "24/48/72 hours" debates across numerous servers.

If the Test can get through a few more days without a reset I'll double check all that and 'just visiting' vs the standard 'must buff a building' (or feed fish etc.) It's been said before visiting is enough to keep things going, and it's certainly looked like it was true from time to time but it is next to impossible to check properly except on a dedicated account and established beliefs are difficult to shake. So, screenshots incoming either way just to pin it down. If anyone wants to leap in ahead of me please feel free!