Items immediantely despawning after being killed

[bigbeno37]

Hey there!

I was playing on the server a couple of hours ago, and in this time I was trying to kill off some mobs when a Creeper just decides to kamikazee me and kill me. I returned to that exact spot to find that all of my items had just...despawned. I tried looking around, but I could not find them. I had about 5 diamonds, diamond tools, cobblestone, sandstone, wood, etc. that is of right now very, very important to me.

I don't expect or want someone just to return my items, but I would like this not to happen again, so if there is some way that this can be prevented, could you please reply to this post.

Thanks,
bigbeno37

[Xeadin]

During my time playing the server, I realize that the main issue is that players that are out where there is not much traffic are effectively playing in unoccupied chunks to other players. When you die and respawn, you leave that chunk, which dismisses any drops that may happen to have been there-- causing them to disappear.

There is no way around this or to stop this from happening, so you will have to be careful when you are out on your own.

[Kian1354]

I may be mistaken, but I believe if a creeper blows you up some of your stuff is also destroyed.

[Hasan (Tabooti)]

tnt explosions *by creepers* cactus, lava, or fire will result in your items being sent to oblivion and beyond.

[Dagony(Nima_ilz)]

Sometimes not and sometimes will despawn items by a creeper(effect due lagging)and a chunk is i think 100 by 100 block area?

[Hasan (Tabooti)]

Sometimes not and sometimes will despawn items by a creeper(effect due lagging)and a chunk is i think 100 by 100 block area?

No.
Items despawn in exactly 5minutes regardless of distance (As far as I'm informed)

Tnt will always destroy any items within the blast distance, and if any item touches cactus, lava, or fire; they will despawn as well.

[ViperZeroOne]

I've run into this several times as well.  You're going along, doing really well in a cave, and think to yourself, "Well my inventory is getting pretty full, but I can see ___ up ahead so I'll just get that and leave"...  Next thing you know... BOOM!  ...You run back to find either nothing there, or a single pile of whatever is there.  Curse all you want, it's not coming back.  So you pick up your one pile of whatever, and BOOM!!!  Oh for cryin out loud!   So you run back, and nothing is there.  Not your diamond sword, nor your diamond pick and armor, nothing...

Yup, it sucks, but we all have to put up with it.  Goes back to the old adage, "Save early, save often"...  Or I guess in Minecraft's case it would be, "Unload early, unload often".

That said, it's much better than the alternative.  A severely lagged server due to nobody picking up their drops.

[clawstrider]

During my time playing the server, I realize that the main issue is that players that are out where there is not much traffic are effectively playing in unoccupied chunks to other players. When you die and respawn, you leave that chunk, which dismisses any drops that may happen to have been there-- causing them to disappear.

There is no way around this or to stop this from happening, so you will have to be careful when you are out on your own.

I'm afraid, that as far as I know, you are wrong.
I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that item despawning works 2 ways (Not including cacti, lava etc.) There is a queue on a chunk by chunk basis for blocks dropped. If there are too many items on the ground, the oldest start to despawn. If this is not the case, it is also done by chunk activity. If a chunk has players in it, a timer starts, and when the chunk is left, it stops. When the timer reaches 0, that item despawns. That is why you can often find items you dropped days ago if it is in a far out, uninhabited area. (This was tested on a different server, it could be something else here)