Hello CrookedTube.
Is it possible that someone has destroyed the lights by shooting at them? As that would cause them to despawn. And have you checked the server RPT file to see if the despawning of the lights has been logged?
Regards,
Geez

Geez,

I play on a private server hosted on a spare PC so there's no chance someone else took them. I checked all the RPT files with search terms "light" and "construction" and didn't see any reference to them. If there is something else I can check please let me know.

CrookedTube

Thank you for the update.
We are going to test this internally. In case you will come across any additional info you can provide, please let us know under this ticket.
Regards,
Geez

Generators, construction lights and cable reels are still despawning. To be fair they are persistent in the sense that they remain after server restarts, but the lifetime set in the server files is much shorter (604800 sec, that is one week) than other base elements. Most importantly - and this is the key here - the despawn timer is not reset when the generator is switched on/off. For these items to be properly persistent switching the generator on/off should reset the despawn timer on it and any other item connected to it. Once I have placed generators and lights around my base I don't particularly enjoy having to repeat the process every other day just to be sure they won't despawn.

Please @Geez suggest to the devs that activating a generator will "tickle" the despawn timer of it and all devices connected to it? That would pretty much fix the issue.

For the time being I have changed the lifetime of these items on my server to the same as tents and base building elements, but that makes unlooted items of this type remain for a month and a half as well, which is not ideal. And I still have to go move every single item around once a month to be sure they won't despawn.

I experienced this as well. I had setup a tent and a generator next to it. Every day I interacted with the tent and generator (but only by flipping it on and off). Today the generator is gone. I too would kindly request that turning the generator on should reset the interaction timer. Thank you!

These issues STILL plague bases to this day! This happened to me 3yrs ago and it still happens today. I lost two generators in our base in the last two weeks along with the cable reels attached to them.

Please FIX ASAP! If survivors interact with generators in anyway, such as turning on/off, plugging/in-plugging in equipment, adding gas or changing the spark plug these SHOULD COUNT AS INTERACTIONS TO RESET DESPAWN TIMER! We should not have to fuck everything up by unplugging it all to pick up the fucking generator to cause it to reset.

PS Flagpoles are good in theory, but not practical because they give away hidden base locations and can’t be constructed indoors. Perhaps add an indoor flagpole option that can be built that way bases don’t scream to raiding survivors, hey our base and loot is over here! Come rob us.