Static Vs. Dynamic Zone launching
 

Is there a best practice regarding static or dynamic zones?

Anyone have an opinion on this subject?

I've always assumed static was a better approach.

Just requires a lot more memory.

Since my server is really only used by myself a few friends is there any need to static all the zones?

If it's a personal server that does not have a steady load, there is no requirement to use static zones. There was an update about half a year ago that gave you the option to save the zone state so spawns don't reset as easily when using dynamic zones. Thus, the only real advantage to using static zones for a handful of people is to keep mob spawn timers active.

I never have any issues with mob spawn timers or anything at all with using Dynamic zones. The only time I use static zones is for zones with special events/scripts in them. Static zones will save the loot tables, as well as script spawned NPCs if you need to do either of those for any particular reason. Overall, I would suggest using Dynamic zones most of the time. As long as your server isn't archaic in it's hardware statistics, dynamic zones load very quickly when needed. For older server hardware, Static is probably a good option for decreasing loading time slightly when no one is in the zone yet.