Keep auto paused instances paused

Every RCON command makes an auto paused Factorio server run one tick, so
subspace_storage's 1 s inventory update and 5 s ping, plus a
statistics_exporter gather on every Prometheus scrape, kept a server with
nobody online running at about 1.3 ticks per second.

The instance now records the auto_pause server setting it was started
with and exposes autoPaused, true while that setting is on and no players
are online, along with an autoPauseChanged hook. subspace_storage skips
its timers while paused and sends a ping and inventory as soon as a player
joins. statistics_exporter gathers once after the game pauses and keeps
serving those values until it resumes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

plugins/statistics_exporter/instance.ts

@@ -175,18 +175,25 @@ export async function gatherMetrics(instance: Instance, pluginName: string) {
 
 export default async function(context: InstancePluginContext) {
 	const { instance, plugin } = context;
+	// Stats of an auto paused game do not change, and gathering them runs a tick.
+	let gatheredWhilePaused = false;
 
 	instance.hooks.metrics.attach(plugin.name, async () => {
 		if (instance.status !== "running") {
 			return;
 		}
+		if (instance.autoPaused && gatheredWhilePaused) {
+			return;
+		}
 
 		// Wait configured timeout for the metrics to be collected.  It may
 		// take a long time for the command to go through if the command
 		// stream is overloaded.  Should the timeout be exceeded the
 		// previous values for the metrics will end up being sent to controller.
 		let timeoutMs = instance.config.get("statistics_exporter.command_timeout") * 1000;
+		const paused = instance.autoPaused;
 		await lib.timeout(gatherMetrics(instance, plugin.name), timeoutMs, undefined);
+		gatheredWhilePaused = paused;
 	});
 }
 

plugins/statistics_exporter/test/plugin.js

@@ -86,6 +86,19 @@ describe("statistics_exporter plugin", function() {
 					"7357", "player", "nauvis").get(),
 				2);
 			});
+			it("should gather once while auto paused", async function() {
+				mockInstance.server.rconCommands.length = 0;
+				mockInstance.autoPaused = true;
+				try {
+					await mockInstance.hooks.metrics.invoke();
+					await mockInstance.hooks.metrics.invoke();
+					assert.equal(mockInstance.server.rconCommands.length, 1);
+				} finally {
+					mockInstance.autoPaused = false;
+				}
+				await mockInstance.hooks.metrics.invoke();
+				assert.equal(mockInstance.server.rconCommands.length, 2);
+			});
 			it("should pass on JSON parse errors", async function() {
 				let string = "An error occured\n";
 				mockInstance.server.rconCommandResults.set(

plugins/subspace_storage/instance.ts

@@ -87,14 +87,38 @@ export default async function(context: InstancePluginContext) {
 		cachedInventoryItems = event.items;
 	});
 
+	function sendPing() {
+		if (!host.connected) {
+			return; // Only ping if we are actually connected to the controller.
+		}
+		instance.sendRcon(
+			"/sc __subspace_storage__ global.ticksSinceMasterPinged = 0", true, plugin.name
+		).catch(err => unexpectedError(err));
+	}
+
+	function sendInventory() {
+		if (instance.status !== "running") {
+			return;
+		}
+
+		const payloadItems = [
+			...cachedInventoryItems,
+			new Item("signal-unixtime", Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000), "normal"),
+		];
+		const payloadJson = lib.escapeString(JSON.stringify(payloadItems));
+		const task = instance.sendRcon(
+			`/sc __subspace_storage__ UpdateInvData("${payloadJson}")`, true, plugin.name
+		).catch(err => unexpectedError(err));
+		pendingTasks.add(task);
+		task.finally(() => { pendingTasks.delete(task); });
+	}
+
 	instance.hooks.start.attach(plugin.name, async () => {
+		// Each command runs a tick on an auto paused game.
 		pingId = setInterval(() => {
-			if (!host.connected) {
-				return; // Only ping if we are actually connected to the controller.
+			if (!instance.autoPaused) {
+				sendPing();
 			}
-			instance.sendRcon(
-				"/sc __subspace_storage__ global.ticksSinceMasterPinged = 0", true, plugin.name
-			).catch(err => unexpectedError(err));
 		}, 5000);
 
 		let items = await instance.sendTo("controller", new GetStorageRequest());
@@ -105,23 +129,19 @@ export default async function(context: InstancePluginContext) {
 
 		// Ensure a payload with updated time is sent every second
 		timeUpdateId = setInterval(() => {
-			if (instance.status !== "running") {
-				return;
+			if (!instance.autoPaused) {
+				sendInventory();
 			}
-
-			const payloadItems = [
-				...cachedInventoryItems,
-				new Item("signal-unixtime", Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000), "normal"),
-			];
-			const payloadJson = lib.escapeString(JSON.stringify(payloadItems));
-			const task = instance.sendRcon(
-				`/sc __subspace_storage__ UpdateInvData("${payloadJson}")`, true, plugin.name
-			).catch(err => unexpectedError(err));
-			pendingTasks.add(task);
-			task.finally(() => { pendingTasks.delete(task); });
 		}, 1000);
 	});
 
+	instance.hooks.autoPauseChanged.attach(plugin.name, async (paused: boolean) => {
+		if (!paused && instance.status === "running") {
+			sendPing();
+			sendInventory();
+		}
+	});
+
 	instance.hooks.stop.attach(plugin.name, async () => {
 		clearInterval(pingId);
 		clearInterval(timeUpdateId);

plugins/subspace_storage/test/plugin.js

@@ -129,5 +129,30 @@ describe("subspace_storage plugin", function() {
 				nodeMock.timers.reset();
 			}
 		});
+		it("should not send commands while auto paused and catch up on unpause", async function() {
+			nodeMock.timers.enable({ apis: ["setInterval", "Date"], now: 1000000 });
+			const { instance: startedInstance, host } = await mock.loadInstancePlugin(instanceEntrypoint, info);
+			host.connected = true;
+			startedInstance.sendTo = async () => [];
+			try {
+				await startedInstance.hooks.start.invoke();
+				startedInstance.server.rconCommands.length = 0;
+				startedInstance.autoPaused = true;
+				nodeMock.timers.tick(10000);
+				assert.deepEqual(startedInstance.server.rconCommands, []);
+
+				startedInstance.autoPaused = false;
+				await startedInstance.hooks.autoPauseChanged.invoke(false);
+				assert.deepEqual(startedInstance.server.rconCommands, [
+					"/sc __subspace_storage__ global.ticksSinceMasterPinged = 0",
+					`/sc __subspace_storage__ UpdateInvData("${lib.escapeString(JSON.stringify(
+						[new Item("signal-unixtime", 1010)]
+					))}")`,
+				]);
+			} finally {
+				await startedInstance.hooks.stop.invoke();
+				nodeMock.timers.reset();
+			}
+		});
 	});
 });