Ragnarok1775 Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:05 AM Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:05 AM I think the server resets at midnight EST (GMT -5). This is a fairly populated time usually, I realize our players are from all over the world and a lot of different time zones, but I think it would be good to change the reset time to the most off-peak hour possible (I've seen the server completely empty at very early hours). It's annoying to be halfway through a great round and then suddenly the server resets, and a lot of players will just quit after that happens. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=VG= SemlerPDX Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:22 PM Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:22 PM See those low peaks I've circled? Those are the average "lowest population times" over the past 7 days on the VG PR COOP Server, and they usually correspond to between 0300-0800 GMT. See how the peak is not exactly in the same place each day, how it fluctuates between a larger period and some days is WAY higher than others? This is because even though the server empties for the most part every day, 'when' that happens is an organic factor, so it varies with the day of the week, the season of the year (re. Holidays!), or with the phases of the moon itself (believe it or not). Since I cannot automate my daily restart/map rotation swap system to know how many people are online at a given time and then decide itself that the number is as low as the population is going to get in that 24 hour period, there is no way I can force our server to recognize that the "most off-peak hour possible" has changed for that particular day by, say, 45 minutes or more. Some of my automated systems on the server are able to wait for all players to empty out of the server, but this one needs to be forced to prevent issues where no one empties out and the server runs for 48 hours without it's scheduled reset/map rotation swap. PR is a mod built on a 12 year old game engine, and even some of the most recent, modern games aren't fully capable of such 'average player count rationalization' automation. It is already set up for the average "most off-peak hour possible" for sure, averaged over about a month. I wish it were possible to float it, but at times, we have to accept that what would be ideal is not always as easy to implement as it seems in discussion, if even possible at all. But, hey... better than Mutrah City starting map every single day, and after every single server crash, right? Could be worse.... your story could read, "every night we get into a good map, late when no admins are there to change the map - then it crashes back to Mutrah and the server empties out" 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnarok1775 Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:36 PM Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:36 PM 8 minutes ago, =VG= SemlerPDX said: better than Mutrah City starting map every single day, and after every single server crash, right? Could be worse.... your story could read, "every night we get into a good map, late when no admins are there to change the map - then it crashes back to Mutrah and the server empties out" Please not Muttrah again! I think that map is burned into my eyes because it's played so much. I trust your expertise and maybe it's just that I'm always playing when there's a crowd on at the reset time. Sucks, but you've done the best you can. I appreciate the information though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=VG= m823us Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:44 PM Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 at 07:44 PM We have 3 to 4 solid adman on during this time of server reset and we account for that by setting the map to a very easy map and with the knowledge that the server is going to crash. We try to inform everyone before the round starts and one round before that that it will crash and people just come back on and play on. There is a need to have the server reset because it ensures a lot happens on the server side and that it is performing at peak for client side. Big picture, the Server is at the lowest population time durring this period. I do share your frustration and I wish there was another answer that could solve this. The only one that I could think of is having somebody do a manual restart whenever there's time but is best to have an automated system and account for it as much as possible. I've timed out map packs to correspond with this reset as much as possible and we do have the organic human element as well that can account for this and make changes on the fly if needed. Over all I do appreciate you joining our server and playing on PR. I wish you the best of luck and see you on the battlefield and enjoy your holiday! Cheers -m8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=VG= Kavelenko Posted December 29, 2017 at 12:09 PM Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 at 12:09 PM 3:30pm for me and does not bother me in the slightest. Run a poll if you wish but I don't think most players really care. The server crashes so often so there's not much difference between a crash or a reset, unless you know the time for the reset. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=VG= Blazer Posted December 29, 2017 at 12:51 PM Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 at 12:51 PM 41 minutes ago, =VG= Kavelenko said: The server crashes so often so there's not much difference between a crash or a reset... Couldn't help but chuckle at this... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double_13 Posted December 29, 2017 at 01:28 PM Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 at 01:28 PM thats why i suggested that every time when the server crashes the starting map would be changed. This prevents playing pavlosk 12 times on Monday and jabal 12 times on Wednesday and also removes the need for reboots to switch rotations. But to the main topic you cant define a perfect moment for reboot. the server software is not particularly smart that it would do a reboot after 3 am when the map ended. so you shall always have moments that the reboot is inconvenient. Just remember that it could crash at any moment for any reason so its just another scheduled crash. xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=VG= SemlerPDX Posted December 29, 2017 at 05:31 PM Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 at 05:31 PM 3 hours ago, =VG= Double_13 said: thats why i suggested that every time when the server crashes the starting map would be changed. This prevents playing pavlosk 12 times on Monday and jabal 12 times on Wednesday and also removes the need for reboots to switch rotations. It's not like this is possible, and for some reason, we're just not doing it.... There's no shortage of quality of life codings that I've created on our server, but we have to work within the realm of what is feasible (and which doesn't create a gigantic back door into our server to accomplish a task), and not what merely sounds ideal on paper. PR is an extremely old game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenalite Posted December 29, 2017 at 06:56 PM Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 at 06:56 PM A Windows Service that swaps out maplist files depending on a schedule is simple enough to do. Maplist files are not locked by the PR process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnarok1775 Posted December 29, 2017 at 07:36 PM Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 at 07:36 PM Xenalite has a great idea, but is the server even run on Windows? I'm sure Linux has some method of doing it but I'm not familiar, never used it. I think it's hard for a lot of us players to understand what can and can't be done because we can't see things from the admin perspective. So we are often here asking for the impossible and we don't even realize it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=VG= SemlerPDX Posted December 30, 2017 at 02:10 AM Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 at 02:10 AM 7 hours ago, Xenalite said: A Windows Service that swaps out maplist files depending on a schedule is simple enough to do. Maplist files are not locked by the PR process. Yea, this is pretty much what is happening already. Everyday, the server stops, performs a health check and backup of key files, swaps out the maplist file, and starts back up, all on a schedule. That's about as smart as it gets without me getting into zones that would not only require me to code additional utilities, but to add layers of security on top of it that increase the work load far into the realm of "why bother". Everything works rather well as it is, many persistent servers have a one to two hour maintenance window daily or weekly; ours is a daily maintenance window of only 2 minutes, and I don't think anyone here views that as unacceptable. If it was easy to improve on that, I would have already considered it - not to say I'm against going back to the drawing board, but the payout has to be worth the cost. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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