Haha things often become clearer after a little nap
Fairly certain this is how the code always behaves and there isn't a config item to adjust it.
I have turned if off completely before so the mud will keep running without players connected. Interesting to see what the mobs get up to and how populated the zones become.
I have a mini-dream of coding some AI behaviors so mobs have to eat/sleep/work etc. to stay alive, and see what happens when left to their own devices..
If you want to try it out just comment out the sleep code in comm.c, around line 760
Code:
/* Sleep if we don't have any connections */
if (descriptor_list == NULL) {
log("No connections. Going to sleep.");
FD_ZERO(&input_set);
FD_SET(local_mother_desc, &input_set);
if (select(local_mother_desc + 1, &input_set, (fd_set *) 0, (fd_set *) 0, NULL) < 0) {
if (errno == EINTR)
log("Waking up to process signal.");
else
perror("SYSERR: Select coma");
} else
log("New connection. Waking up.");
gettimeofday(&last_time, (struct timezone *) 0);
}