New hardware blues...

Post by **Orleron** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 4:40 am

Well, Silk has gone out to the computer show and bought all the components for the new server that all of the players and staff helped us pay for. Unfortunately, when he assembled the thing, he found that the motherboard was defective out of the box. After my bad motherboard, this makes the second bad board we have encountered this month. Very unusual, and annoying, but we hope to have the new server assembled within the next week. There will be no Avlis downtime because of this, so fear not!

Xira · Post by **Xira** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 9:43 pm

I am just curious what server build you are useing, and what type of machine/connection the 3 avlis servers are running on, and if you ever got that SQL database set up so you can up the number of scripts per server?

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 9:49 pm

What do you mean?

Xira · Post by **Xira** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:04 pm

You said you used a custom server configuration, which is why your PW dosen't show up on gamespy.

Also you said at some point that you had hit a 16 script cap, and were working on a way around that, did you ever solve that problem? I might be able to help.

What type of computer does Elysia, Mikona, and Wilderness run on? IBM PC 286 33mhz with 2 megs of ram...that sort of thing:)

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:30 pm

It's not showing up on gamespy because the router is blocking it somehow (router>Silk in combat).

I'm not sure what you mean by a 16 script cap... not a clue.

Here are the specs for the Servers:

PIII 1.2Ghz
1 GB PC133 RAM
Running Mikona

PII 333Mhz
256 MB PC100 RAM
Running Wilderness and Elysia

Chiatroll · Post by **Chiatroll** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 1:34 am

Geeze my home computer has better specs then that and I'm about to buy a new one. Less ram then the mikona one though.

Post by **Orleron** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 2:09 am

You don't need a monster to run a server. Think about it, the ONLY program running on these machines is server.exe... along with the essentials like systray, etc.

Chiatroll · Post by **Chiatroll** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 2:13 am

Hard to think about it when your knowledge on computers barely passes "oooooohh shhiiinnneeeeyyy"

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 2:43 pm

Yeah, there are no graphics, all it does is crunch numbers and vommit udp packets... nothing more.

Cookies · Post by **Cookies** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 3:31 pm

Originally posted by Chiatroll
Geeze my home computer has better specs then that and I'm about to buy a new one. Less ram then the mikona one though.

Well, just send that old badboy to Silk

Xira · Post by **Xira** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:52 pm

Actually I have noticed server lag at many points. The game seems to "lag" but nothing is actually happening in the game at that point. I.E. I will go laggy then when I go unlaggy the enemy hasen't hit me in the interm.

It could probaly be attrubited to the low speed of these processors. They latch on to some process and just do it over and over againe but can't finish it fast enough to make things seem fluid. Erm ok that was the attempt at a non geek explination.

Basicaly I have noticed some server lag, and decided it was either because of low-spec machines or some script loop. It seems to be the prior case.

What sort of RAID setup are you useing? What operateing system?

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 8:31 pm

We're not using RAID... OS is XP Pro.

When the servers start up, they are not overloading the cpus. Even after a few hours with lots of people in it, the cpus still don't overload.

storminj · Post by **storminj** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 8:38 pm

I have heard from another server that characters with large amounts of equipment can lag the server when entering and exiting.

Storm

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 9:06 pm

No worries.. I actually delete all items over 20 items when a character enters the server...

:o

storminj · Post by **storminj** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 9:11 pm

does that include bags with stacked items?

Cookies · Post by **Cookies** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 9:36 pm

there goes all my iron ingots i've been carrying around and saving up for when the new crafting is fixed ...

no biggie.

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 9:48 pm

hehe, i'm just kidding.

Xira · Post by **Xira** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 2:59 am

Then what is causeing the server lag? I guess it's a scripting error? Or mabey a problem with spawning too many pesants on one spot, similar to the problem with spawning lots of rats in teh sewers you all had?

Ashlynn · Post by **Ashlynn** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 2:21 pm

Dude, you should have seen the lag that was here a month or so ago. Mikona was almost unplayable. Hence the new severs and a lot of ass-busting on the team's part to clean up the module. They rewrote a bunch of functions and got rid of a lot of scripts that turned out to be server-hogs. It is a lot better than it was.

Course, I was the one whining about lag last night. Turns out the problem was on my end. D'oh! *kicks modem*

choraldances · Post by **choraldances** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 3:30 pm

Originally posted by Ashlynn
Dude, you should have seen the lag that was here a month or so ago. Mikona was almost unplayable. Hence the new severs and a lot of ass-busting on the team's part to clean up the module. They rewrote a bunch of functions and got rid of a lot of scripts that turned out to be server-hogs. It is a lot better than it was.

I totally agree, Mikona is A LOT better now than before, thanks for the hard work on that.

Cookies · Post by **Cookies** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 3:52 pm

Originally posted by Xira
Then what is causeing the server lag? I guess it's a scripting error? Or mabey a problem with spawning too many pesants on one spot, similar to the problem with spawning lots of rats in teh sewers you all had?

I think the 'lag' is a lot better thanks to hard work from the Avlis Team.

All that aside, those dang peasant-farmers that get killed by the bandits and undead DROP CORPSES. Why do they do that?? If they just dropped their hair and clothing I could pick that crap up and clear those drops EASY. Problem is that with a corpse drop in their loot bag, you cannot pick up 20 corpses (are you supposed to do something with them?). Doesn't look like those dissapear or anything.

I was aware that the server will get a lot of lag if drops are not cleared. It is WAY worth it to pick up that dang 'skeleton bone' or 'silk gland' or 'dire blood' and dispose of it in a trash barrel later. It clears up the lag on the server which does everyone a favor.

i try to clear any drops I come across but those corpses just kill me (no punn intended).

Starslayer_D · Post by **Starslayer_D** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 4:00 pm

Main problem with clearing those corpses is that they are really, really heavy. Pick up 5 and be reduced to a snail of doom, crawling slowly to the temple district, swatting away all oposition in the way.

Post by **Orleron** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 5:44 pm

The new people don't remember how bad the item mess was before Papillon wrote item cleanup code. It's just another one of those invisible things you don't see us doing. Back in the day the entire ground of the Road To Mikona used to be covered with bags as far as the eye can see after only 24 hours of uptime.

Nowadays items go poof if they are on the ground and no one picks them up after a while. Sure, it's not going to clean up EVERYTHING, but you won't realize the work it's doing unless we actually shut the cleanup off. Trust me. It's being cleaned.

Cookies · Post by **Cookies** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 8:42 pm

I have noticed the cleanup and am happy for it.

I guess that area in particular is tough because the poor farmers get their asses kicked on an hourly basis there. poor little guys.

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Thu Dec 19, 2002 10:40 pm

Cookies wrote:
All that aside, those dang peasant-farmers that get killed by the bandits and undead DROP CORPSES. Why do they do that?? If they just dropped their hair and clothing I could pick that crap up and clear those drops EASY. Problem is that with a corpse drop in their loot bag, you cannot pick up 20 corpses (are you supposed to do something with them?). Doesn't look like those dissapear or anything.

They are part of a quest... so is the hair for that matter, just a different quest.
-Alex