Topic: SG5 Bug reports

[Dizzy]

Thats once every 30 mins. How'd u like to have one every 15 mins... hehe. We did a server like that back on GW series. Well, we are aiming for one crash every 24 hrs... Just not there yet.

[Bonk]

All I have to say is "server crashes"
I played for just over 2 hrs and there where 4 crashes during that time. 

Why did we not see this in testing? What is different?

Time to call it I think.

[FA Frey XC]

It's an ALT - F4.

I know this is what is causing the runtime errors.

Want me to duplicate it? 

[Bonk]

Sure, that would be handy if you can confirm that is the case.

[Bonk]

It's an ALT - F4.

I know this is what is causing the runtime errors.

Want me to duplicate it? 

Lemme guess...

People are alting out everytime they don't like the AI draw in an EEK mission... and they think its acceptable?

That would explain the huge amounts of dead AI I'm finding in the db, and why it didn't happen in testing since we did not have mandatories on...

[Dizzy]

There are many reasons for AltF4. Instead of speculation, we should ask ourselves if SQL can be made to handle AltF4's.

[Bonk]

Also, why does it happen more frequently at night when the coalition is on? Are people running software firewalls or what?

[Bonk]

There are many reasons for AltF4. Instead of speculation, we should ask ourselves if SQL can be made to handle AltF4's.

The only reasons for an alt should be a bugged mission or bad lag.

We have not tested this setup on the flatfile, the same thing may happen.

Besides, the runtime error is not crashing the kit, it keeps running, something else is doing it.

[Hexx]

Do firewalls cause this to crash?
Cool (learn something new everyday)

I'm wiht Dizzy, I've alted out of never ending missions, as well as missions that count down to
zero and don't give you the option to do anything.

Should we be telling people not to alt-f4 in ANY case?
In which case we'd need to be able to tell them someway to end some
of the missions,
or
Can we get a list of 'acceptable" times to alt-f4 out of missions


Also I've noticed there are (at times) alot of Forfeits coming up on the news-
mainly from plyers I don't know (Of course I don't hang out everywhere, so there's lot that i don't know) should these forfeits being showing up for any legitimate reasons or should we be trying to
track down anyone who's name appears more than once..

[Dizzy]

We have not tested this setup on the flatfile, the same thing may happen.

Every flatfile server has tested altF4's. Happens every server. Especially on AOTK2 and it was particularly stable. So what 'setup' are u reffering to?

[Bonk]

We have not tested this setup on the flatfile, the same thing may happen.

Every flatfile server has tested altF4's. Happens every server. Especially on AOTK2 and it was particularly stable. So what 'setup' are u reffering to?

This shiplist, missions and settings.

[Hexx]

Also- if I may jump in with more idle, completely uninformed speculation..

-Could it be the way the data is saved? I know on the flatfiles the game goes back to the last turn
Last night the server crashed just as I came out of a mission & received promotion to Captain.
When it rebooted I was still a Captain, instead of having lost the last mission.

-Could it be the webyards? During test and early on in the server I'd buy a ship from the webyards
and see it in the shipyards on the server, now the shipyards on the server appear to be full, purchases still go through from the webyards, but they don't show up in the shipyards listings.IS there a maximum
number of ships the yards can have and we're screwing this up by adding additonal purchased ships from the webyards?

Of course I have no idea if any of these would be the case, just love the sound of my own voice..

[Bonk]

Do firewalls cause this to crash?
Cool (learn something new everyday)

I'm wiht Dizzy, I've alted out of never ending missions, as well as missions that count down to
zero and don't give you the option to do anything.

Should we be telling people not to alt-f4 in ANY case?
In which case we'd need to be able to tell them someway to end some
of the missions,
or
Can we get a list of 'acceptable" times to alt-f4 out of missions


Also I've noticed there are (at times) alot of Forfeits coming up on the news-
mainly from plyers I don't know (Of course I don't hang out everywhere, so there's lot that i don't know) should these forfeits being showing up for any legitimate reasons or should we be trying to
track down anyone who's name appears more than once..

Right, those are bugged missions, but that never seems to happen to me. Using a software firewall is going to cause you to have more bugged missions due to lag and lost packets.

Acceptable times to Alt:
1) mission obviously bugged (Hand of Bethke for example)
2) hideous lag
3) mission does not end
 ...thats about it.

BUT - Turn off your software firewall... in fact uninstall it (most poeple seem to be unable to fully disable them, they tend to just exit the tray app) and you'll find you experience a lot less bugged missions and less lag - guaranteed.

[Bonk]

Also- if I may jump in with more idle, completely uninformed speculation..

-Could it be the way the data is saved? I know on the flatfiles the game goes back to the last turn
Last night the server crashed just as I came out of a mission & received promotion to Captain.
When it rebooted I was still a Captain, instead of having lost the last mission.

-Could it be the webyards? During test and early on in the server I'd buy a ship from the webyards
and see it in the shipyards on the server, now the shipyards on the server appear to be full, purchases still go through from the webyards, but they don't show up in the shipyards listings.IS there a maximum
number of ships the yards can have and we're screwing this up by adding additonal purchased ships from the webyards?

Of course I have no idea if any of these would be the case, just love the sound of my own voice..

No and no.

[Hexx]

Do firewalls cause this to crash?
Cool (learn something new everyday)

I'm wiht Dizzy, I've alted out of never ending missions, as well as missions that count down to
zero and don't give you the option to do anything.

Should we be telling people not to alt-f4 in ANY case?
In which case we'd need to be able to tell them someway to end some
of the missions,
or
Can we get a list of 'acceptable" times to alt-f4 out of missions


Also I've noticed there are (at times) alot of Forfeits coming up on the news-
mainly from plyers I don't know (Of course I don't hang out everywhere, so there's lot that i don't know) should these forfeits being showing up for any legitimate reasons or should we be trying to
track down anyone who's name appears more than once..

Right, those are bugged missions, but that never seems to happen to me. Using a software firewall is going to cause you to have more bugged missions due to lag and lost packets.

Acceptable times to Alt:
1) mission obviously bugged (Hand of Bethke for example)
2) hideous lag
3) mission does not end
 ...thats about it.

BUT - Turn off your software firewall... in fact uninstall it (most poeple seem to be unable to fully disable them, they tend to just exit the tray app) and you'll find you experience a lot less bugged missions and less lag - guaranteed.

Hmm well I'll try and figure out if I actually have a firewall, most common ocurence for me though
was the fighting around.. 16/27ish. I had a couple of countdowns to zero, I think since pretty much everyone on the server is fighting as close to those hexes as they can, there are a number of missed drafts, or people mission draggin people who have already been drafted/ taken a mission in another hex.
I wasn't on alot last night, but it happened to me at least 2x and to a number of other people from the reports on TS I heard.

[FPF-DieHard]

Also, why does it happen more frequently at night when the coalition is on?

Can we really blame the Klingons?   

[CaptJosh]

I have a question. What version of DirectX is the serverkit working with? The AOTK2 server was set up to use DirectX 9. Alder versions of server kit have relied on older versions of DirectX calls, which DX9 handles, but not as well as it handles the ones it was designed to work with.

[Bonk]

This is the same build of the serverkit as AOTK2. The problem is not related to directx.

We may even see the problem persist after switching to the flatfile db. It has not been tested yet on this setup.

Dynaverse servers were far more stable before the advent of software firewalls. The directory server uses a firewall detector for a reason. It is unfortunate that it can be sidestepped. In future I'd like to see the firewall detector more sophisitcated, it should port scan, and ping the client, as well as check for error rates.

[Bonk]

Also, why does it happen more frequently at night when the coalition is on?

Can we really blame the Klingons?   

I'm thinking perhaps it is shiplist related.

[Riskyllama]

I dont know if it was because of another preexisting problem but I kept running into missions where my AI wings were actively targeting me, such as a bugged 2v2humans planet assult. I had to alt out of this and on another mission as well.