Bad server rep and Lack of communication

[=VG= Acro1]

I have noticed that people's faith in the PRCOOP server is declining due to recent errors. What feeds this tremendously is a lack of communication about these problems and the efforts that are being made to solve them.

 

Recently the PRCOOP server has been crashing more oftenly and severely than before. A short time ago the server was crashing pretty much at the 2nd map in the list. This issue has now been resolved but more and more times does the server crash and stay down for several hours until the VGeniuses can jumpstart it. This caused people to have a lesser image of our server than before.

 

Semler and the other geeks are now working on a more stable server. Nobody knows about this though, and to the general pop it just seems like the VG server is unstable, unreliable and VG isn't doing jack shit about it.

 

Could someone make a forum/blog/sticky thread somewhere on the Main Page to advertise the fact that the server is being worked on? So that people are aware that it might crash more oftenly or be on without Mumble sometimes but this is for the good of later?

 

This will create a much better image of VG and the servers. In my experience, admins right now have to answer questions of players the entire time, and not even all admins know what is going on.

 

Input and comments appreciated, as always :).

[Double_13]

I do not find that the server is crashing all to much lately. (mainly because I run the maps in certain order i found crashes less and is fun for others)

And about the wtf is going on with the server. On teamspeak the coop channel is renamed to "coop mumble down"

No matter how much you post, 99.99% of the people do not read the forums anyway ! they are just there to p;lay.

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

I usually keep things running in the background, and often do not tell people when server population is zero and a restart is needed.  Or I may cause TS3 to go down for several minutes or restart a few times in a row as was the case today:  I had no idea it would happen, I understand why it happened, and I set things up so it doesn't happen again when I go to do server maintenance.

The PR Mumble issue was not resolved in my efforts today and I will be contacting Poff and Savage to help this weekend.  The server itself is as stable as the maps that the admins run -- as I understand it, running maps not in the official rotation will cause trouble, also, certain maps cause trouble period.  I have not had any reports of the server crashing each time it gets to the second map, that is news to me.  If it is still happening, it's something we can fix -- if it was a past occurrence, it was likely resolved.

 

I just got back from a week vacation in the mountains.  The PR server was down and TCAdmin had an issue possibly causing it.  It was no minor issue, hence me being the only one able to fix it fast.  I did, things are running now (except the aforementioned Mumble, which will get fixed this weekend).

 

We are not yet working on a more stable server, and we will announce it when we do, hence the lack of reports on that.  It has not happened yet.   

The PR Server is not being worked on, or we would post in the forums.  It is experiencing the same level of crashes that PR COOP always enjoys, it itself being the unstable element -- it's a software issue, not a hardware issue.  Most of the time, we are running the BF2 PR COOP Mod at it's peak level and crashes are a result of minor issues inside the game that happen at random times, such as a bot picking up the wrong kit and BOOM... server crash.

Now, it is setup to restart itself in most cases, and in other cases, a restart through the TCAdmin panel (which many PR admins have access to) resolves it.  These cannot be avoided, it's a PR code issue.  When TCAdmin is not responsive as was the issue yesterday, of course it's going to need to be addressed first.  And of course, once it was resolved the server came back online as always.  In the end, PR is no more or less stable than most any software, and we are running it as best as it can be run - there is little we could do to fix core engine issues in PR that cause these instabilities.

Finally, I post up in the chatbox (where crash reports often appear first) once the server is restarted in these cases as a reply.  When I am visible in TS3, I am available to poke - this is the fastest way to get my attention, if I am away or AFK, I will see the poke when I return and immediately address it.

As the others are busier lately, I will be stepping up to help with the technical support around here more often, and I want people to feel free to contact me if something needs fixing.

Thanks!

[=VG= Acro1]

Ahh, then I misunderstood the work that was being done :).

 

Still it bleeds to see the server so lowly populated and people confused as to what's happening.

[=VG= BrakeGamer]

We shoud change the name or description to inform the players that Mumble is temporarly down.

[Double_13]

The silence is actually quite relaxing, nobody is crying over mumble all the time and it seems to me the teamwork is only better since people actually type things because they don't expect you to stand next to them to hear the local.

 

 

[=VG= BrakeGamer]

Well at least for me, its annoying to spam the shite out of my keyboard for every word I coud easily say over the mic, BUUUT the end-screen is quiet like a night now. Ah well, we loose and we get

 

 

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

For the record, I am working on an area of the server, not PR, still waiting for help from others to fix Mumble -- but wanted to add that as I am working with the server I see the PR service running that server using between 3% and 5% total CPU usage, and it's on it's own CPU core, player count is 28 of 40 at the time of this writing.  Hardware is more than sufficient for PR, and did not even stutter during my installation of another separate server.