DescentBB

The following happens when servers don't have time limits of 3 hours or less set on them. Among other things:
1. Powerups stop spinning or spin too rapidly.
2. The ship stops bobbing or bobs too rapidly.
3. Player weapons stop firing or fire too rapidly.
4. Players are sometimes unable to respawn.
5. Ships take a long time to spew their powerups when they explode.

The onset of the time limit bug is gradual. Most people don't even notice it. Players have slightly different rates of fire from each other and most people just keep on playing. Sometimes it can get really really bad and nobody notices because they're playing a level such as subway dancer or earthshaker where the firing rate of their weapons isn't a big factor in getting the kill.

Some server ops seem not to care about this bug, which can be solved by a 3 hour time limit. So I'm asking you, the players, whether not having a time limit is more important than avoiding this bug.

I hate bugs

The options just suck...

How will you manage that the bug "never happens"? Will YOU get it fixed by a 1.5? I'd love to see that...

however...

You can make sure it never happens by putting a time limit on.

maybe you should have written that in your options - that it is ONLY possible by breaking the game every 2 hours to get rid of it...

One 20 second interruption every hour is better then a two day long interruption every week because you failed to put a time limit on your server, simple logic.

Must resist temptation to flame overly sensitive server ops.

Suncho wrote:5. Ships take a long time to spew their powerups when they explode.

This is the most noticeable for me. It's *really* frustrating being in a game and dying multiple times because you kill a ship, watch it explode, fly past where it was, and then it explodes on the server and does like 40 damage to you.

I don't mind a server restarting every so often -- especially if it waits until the server is empty. It's definitely worth it for not having a buggy game...

Well that can also be because of lag, Lothar.

well... I saw that a lot even before my connection went all AOL on me.

FWIW, I am switching from having 2-hour timeouts in the server configs to having D3Server3 restart idle servers every 2 hours.

I would just like to comment, that ESA is the most kickass server op in the whole community. KTHXBYE!

So that's where that "delay on spew" comes from. I was about to say that I've never experienced any problems with this, but I've had the spew bug occur frequently. As for fixing the actual bug, my knowledge of running a D3 server is slim to none, so I'm going to take my usual stance of "No comment" .

Esa, if you want to avoid the bug altogether, you'll still need a hard time limit in there because it's posssible that the server may remain active for more than 3 hours.

He could be an even more kickass serverop by running good oldschool levels.

Kata (6 player anarchy)

Apparition (8 player anarchy)

SLW (6 player anarchy)

Pyroglyphic (8 player anarchy)

=)

I'd like to show you a poll with I started on the Descentforum.DE BEFORE this one here:

http://www.descentforum.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2299

There the people decided, that the restart-time between 6 to 12 hrs is enough.

But I'd like to say that my Servers now have a auto-restart-time of 3h (only acts if server is idling) and a timelimit of 4h set (acts even if people are playing, should the restart not happen within their 3h.

Awesome Checkor. Thanks!

ThunderBunny wrote:He could be an even more kickass serverop by running good oldschool levels.

Try requesting some. Request link at top right of tracker page.

Kata (6 player anarchy)
Apparition (8 player anarchy)
SLW (6 player anarchy)
Pyroglyphic (8 player anarchy)

These are up. Email corrections to server@descent.cx

This is a much better string to address the problem Suncho.
And Krom actually hit on an idea that will satisfy both ends.
Set Hunters tool to restart the server once an hour.

This would be invisible to players in the game and lessen the likelyhood of a game going on forever and causing the bug.

The players wouldn't get a good game interupted and the server would be more likely to get restarted within a four to five hour time frame.

I'm going to set them that way and watch.

OK,
Already mentioned Krom's idea about the autorestart.
I repolled and rephrased the question about the time limits, as I thought I may have bias'd the poll the way I asked it.
I emailed the regular users and asked about half of them in a game, instead of "do you want a time limit or not." (to which they all originally said no.), I asked "Would a time limit here bother you?" Once again, they all said no
Meaning that it would not bother them. Further discussion brought about that if the game has been running for more than four hours, most humans need to take a break (if only for 20 seconds) to loosen up the hands, relieve the bladder, etc., etc.

So, in trying to accomadate all players (and you do count Suncho )
here's the simple solution.

I set the auto restart for 2 hours. This is invisible to the players in the game and will not inhibit play.

I set the time limit in the game for four hours, as per the poll of the available players.

With these two options set, the servers should not get "old" and everyone, both the "I hate time limits" group and the "I want time limits" group should have some accomidation by comprimising a bit.

The American way

Check them out, see if they are better for you.

All the bull★■◆● aside, the reason for running a server is to promote the game, keep it alive and make it a good experience for everyone, and you are in that group.

Can't please everyone, but this is a shot at it.

The worst bug is on a team server... when the server has been going for weeks,- people on the red team look blue but they can kill blue, so you see a blue with a blue flag, and reds are blue and blues are reds- anyways it gets real stupid.

you can restart a server without interupting gameplay?

Spaceboy wrote:The worst bug is on a team server... when the server has been going for weeks,- people on the red team look blue but they can kill blue, so you see a blue with a blue flag, and reds are blue and blues are reds- anyways it gets real stupid.

you can restart a server without interupting gameplay?

Yep, you just wait till nobody is playing and restart the server.

every now and then you get really busy servers that never seem to empty, or go below 6 people...
sucks for those servers then?

Spaceboy wrote:The worst bug is on a team server... when the server has been going for weeks,- people on the red team look blue but they can kill blue, so you see a blue with a blue flag, and reds are blue and blues are reds- anyways it gets real stupid.

That's a separate bug and it often happens right when people first join after you launch a fresh server.

Some people even call it the D3TL bug because at the beginning of almost every D3TL match there's one guy who appears red to everyone else but is blue on his own screen. It's easy to fix. Just have that guy switch teams and switch back again.