Trivial question: item_instance guid overflow, the final death of a server?

Hello everyone!

Based on wiki, mostly all tables of the char database are using a GUID INT, That, as stated here: http://www.bajb.net/2008/10/mysql-int1-or-int10/, can contain 4294967295 elements. I always asked to my self:

Is it possible for such tables having an overflow of data?

There are some discussions on several forums talking about creature guid overflow: https://www.getmangos.eu/forums/topic/1895-efficient-guid-generation/?tab=comments#comment-51131

https://www.ownedcore.com/forums/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-emulator-servers/wow-emu-questions-requests/431702-creature-guid-overflow.html

However, I’m more afraid about the item_instance table instead. Because if you think about it, a single player could potentially create hundreds of thousands of item GUIDs inside that table in a single year of activity, and I’m not talking about the items that they own, but those ones that a player loots and then sells or destroys (creating huge GUID gaps inside the table itself).

A realistic case for medium-big international servers: Suppose that you’ve 2000 players online that are farming, they are looting and destroying 5 items each minute. So in a year:

2000 (average online players) x 5 (average items destroyed per player per minute) x 525600 (minutes in a year) = it’s 5 billion ! OVERFLOW

You can play a bit with the numbers but it’s still a realistic situation, so, 4 billions are not enough and your server with 2000 players is going to die after 1-2 years? Isn’t it?

Am I missing something?

you are missing no one on real world will do that.

Just re-guid those items when you approach the limit.

I’m just asking to my self, which is the retail server approach with it. I mean, maybe 1 year is not enough, maybe also 2. But retail servers are up and running since 15 years and with 10k players per-realm it’s definetly a realistic case.
Considering that there are some private servers that are on wotlk since years with 10k players online. It’s still a realistic question IMHO :slight_smile:

jackpoz I agree with you that's actually the only one solution, I don't like it so much because normally a GUID must be UNIQUE and should never change (because of internal and external relations).