So finally a scorched game with veterans and a debate and old times re-visited. Then...the kick bug. We asked for a admin spokes person and so far Boy has taken the roll but it appears he is left out there on his own. So what is being done about the :30 kick bug? It is 12:30 CST and it ruined my game tonight was I winning? Couldn't tell ya was I having fun..yup. So what can we/you//I do about it? Nothing...then tell me nothing can be done about it, fix it...then tell me how or do it yourself and tell me you did. Funny how SD rq'ed tonight cuz LD and I were debating said he might go read the forums. Keep up on community chat...wow that would be different, an admin knowing what is going on. As I see it and correct me if I'm wrong the game has no one playing, an imposter under my name who is allowed to use a version of my name says something about it. Acid responds, Boy responds and makes changes, Sabi responds and protest the changes.

On my soapbox now, I realise, but holy heck batman can someone else chime in with what they are doing? Boy I salute you and your response to the call of duty. Can you try to discover what the kick bug at :30 which is 12:30 CST is all about? It would be appreciated. Other admins ummmm can you try to save this game along with Boy? Please!

I know it's just Pastor bitching again leave him alone and he will stop. As long as the servers stay empty so will all the other post and your jobs will be easy peasy lemon squeezy cuz won't be anyone on here making any post. Get mad get crazy but just get busy please. Thank you for my 15 minutes of fame.

youre barking up the wrong tree. without having root access to the computer the servers are hosted on, there is probably nothing any admin can do, even if they have the know-how.

i can make a guess that the server lag is caused by a scheduled update of some kind. if that's the case, it may be enough to set the scorched server process to a higher priority (lower nice value) or something, but it's not within the admin's scope.

maybe if we ask mr c very nicely? the 06:30 server kick is very consistent - definitely should be fixed.

The :30 kick happens at 10:30PM here, which is prime scorching time in the pacific time zone. Very frustrating. Last night was an especially interesting mix of game, players, and chat on a variety of subjects, (I'm sure well lubed with plenty of Anheuser-Bush's better products). The kick killed "the party" completely. I know for me that is one of the reasons Thrax's mod servers are so compelling at that time of evening.

Makes me wonder why Romm hasn't chimed in on this, he spends an enormous amount of time concerned about server times...

Your missing the point lappy. I'm sure you are right on what the problem is but, what I'm asking is for an admin to contact "Mr. C" to ask if it can be changed. If it can't tell us, if it can and needs to be rescheduled then we will need the admins to decide when the best time for the game. If the best time is at this time then tell us. This will save from everybody trying to contact Gavin and asking him. You see what I'm saying?

The server will up and do the mass-kicka-jiggy maybe twice or 3 times in a day from my observation. Today I noticed it happen twice, one of it being the 1430hrs bug (local time for me), so it would be 0630 GMT. Since it occurs daily without fail at the same time, then it must be something to do with Mr G's server settings, or maybe his pc is running some additional/background tasks precisely at that time everyday, which happens to have a higher priority level than the game server. Since we all know what time the server does this freeze and mass-kick, why do we get so bothered by it? Just start a game after the appropriate half hour, or start a game at least 1 hr before the time. If you so happen to start a game with less than half an hour to go, then expect to not complete the full 10 rounds. Mr G probably has set the additional tasks to run at that particular time because it suits his local time, which means, there's nothing much we can do about it. ....anyway, this is just what i feel it to be.

Its not much of an unexpected event to the regulars, but it might surprise some new players, freezing up and then getting kicked and then unable to get in the server till at least 2mins and 30 secs after the kick (more or less), so maybe a pop-up message reminding players that a server reset will happen in so and so minutes time, might help to reduce the confusion when it occurs.

The thing that bothers me is the other 1 or 2 unexpected freezes and hangups and kicks that occur almost randomly. These ones would spoil a game, because there's no way of anticipating when it will occur.

Typcially mr C has always been on the forums regularly and catches these issues faster than most admins can investigate them. Lately however, I've detected that he's not checking in as often. I'm afraid our resources are definitely limited.

As far as regular occuring server reset, no clue, I agree it should be fixed. I am easy to please though, I'm just happy I can reconnect! As far as the random hickups and kicks, that is in my opinion something most likely from player PC and connection issues.

I agree with POM. The control group is certainly capable of responding to a problem report, verifying the complaint, issueing an acknowledgment and offering possible solutions.



If these things are too difficult for the control group to perform effectively, their purpose eludes me.

The only think I think of is the database backup, during this time the database is locked (for writes) and I guess it could drop connections during this time. The database is currently locked for 39 seconds at 06:30 GMT.

I guess I could move this to 10:00 GMT if that would help.

That'll do it.
Linux file permissions causing annoyances......

Thanks for checking into it gav.

.... moderator's note: Peanuts post has been edited for illegal emoticons....

Ah yes, forgot about that rule, been and edited a more recent post already , however, I must assume you've not had the joy of Linux file permissions, else you would understand a server farm full of emotes wouldn't do justice to the headaches that ensue.

I appreciate the feed back Mr. Camp 10:00 would work great for me but I'm not sure about others in different time zones. Not sure when the server has the least amount of traffic.

If the database update can be performed most anytime ...

There should be a suitable fix for all occasions (be the traffic high or low).

During the appointed time and upon completion of any rounds being played:


At the end of round 10, the game awards the win as usual. Then the game instructs all of the players that the daily shutdown is about to occur and that the next game will begin in 3 minutes.

Then the game :
Drops all connections and locks the server.
Performs the daily update to the database.
Reopens the server while holding the start
of the first game for the full 3 minutes.

Note : The game delay is not requirred other than to afford a little
extra time for those wishing to return, to get in on the first round.

A countdown timer along with a message explaining the
delay in the start of the next game might be a nice touch.

Obviously, resetting the database condition and error checking
precautions will need to be performed but this should work well
if it could be properly implemented.

something like that could work, but it shouldnt be necessary. the internet is full of huge websites that use mysql, and they dont all lock up during backup. no need to reinvent the wheel.

ive never done it, but maybe you could set up mysql database replication and backup the slave?

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/replication.html
http://www.howtoforge.com/back_up_mysql ... erruptions

I'm not sure about the solution Laptops's Daddy has propossed, perhaps it would be more efficient.

I am sure that the method I have described will allow any and all Scorched 3D servers to do periodic shutdowns, for any reason, without disrupting a game. Disruption of a game being the worst of sins, this seemed critical.

The option being built into and released with the server code, of course.

If implemented, having adjustable server lock out and game hold times might be better than hard coding them. Perhaps someone needs to be down for an hour once a day to do business transfers and wants to give eveyone 15 minutes or so to sign up before starting the next game.

"No problem at all. All you do is ...
Set it and forget it!" - Ron Poppeil

"See you tomorrow about the same time?"
"Sure, I'll try to get here a little early and we can chat."
"Ok, sounds good. It's hard to chat much while we're playing."
"I'll try to log in as soon as the server comes back up."
"Ok, me too."
"Bye"
"Bye"