Distension discussion

[Peace_Maker]

Will it auto-save before going offline? I hope so.

[Stabwound]

Third post in a row? Sure.

Anyway, qan updated the bot so that Ops can change the setting that dictates how long the bot will go without receiving data before disconnecting, which means we don't have to wait for him to change it.

Thanks to this update, Distension will be running daily at 9pm EST for testing. It might be kind of clunky at first, but hopefully we can find a setting that works. I'm sorry if this time doesn't work well for you, but if you've been to the earlier sessions you know that hardly anyone shows up to them.

Anyway, see you there.

[Stabwound]

Note: this post is just for linking to for a MessageBot announcement.

We're currently testing Distension with an update made by qan, and so it is not running on any regular schedule at this point.

Which this update is meant to do is kick the bot offline if it's lagging, instead of sending all packets at once after the lag ends, which is what has been causing recycles. The amount of time the bot can lag before disconnecting is based on a config setting, and unfortunately it's quite fickle and has been kicking the bot offline quickly. It will take some trial and error before we can find exactly which setting will work best to keep the game running and also prevent recycles, which means the game will be run sporadically as currently only qan can change this setting.

Thanks for your patience. Well, most of you, anyway. :fear:

[Stabwound]

You're talking like I haven't been trying to run it. For the past few days I have been trying to run it during peak hours, and the bot continues to die moments after being loaded, and it just did it again. What the bot is supposed to do is kick itself offline after not receiving data for what I believe is currently set for 2.5 seconds (easily changeable by qan), but there is apparently too much server load during this time of the day and the bot boots itself right away, or within a few minutes at most.

I wish I had access to change this setting, because it takes all of 15 seconds to do, yet only people with twcore access can modify it. Maybe qan could make it into a bot command, which would make this a lot easier to test.

[Viruk]

Uh, running the bot for one session without a recycle doesn't mean that he fixed the recycle problem.

Good point.

But isn't testing it when it is populated the only way we can ever prove it works? Surely the more we test it after a bot death (without a recycle) the better an idea qan will have on how much to tweak it and the faster we will get a reasonably safe, stable and fun Distension with minimal disruption to the rest of the zone?

Making it so the bot suicides to prevent a server recycle seems more than just another small fix to me. I would hope that qan tweaks it cautiously and we have plenty of testing time to see whether it works.

I see no better time to test it than the normal scheduled Distension times when there are most likely to be enough players around willing to help test it. Any really critical events can then be scheduled around it just in case it does cause a recycle.

Comparing the mostly lacklustre basing in the timed pub game with even the most underwhelming recent Distension game has only strengthened my conviction that even a flawed Distension is still worth playing. It makes sense to try and make the best use of an unstable but fun bot if the server is safe.

[roxxkatt]

troll #3 has entered

[kthx]

can't believe my virus actually worked!

[Stabwound]

Uh, running the bot for one session without a recycle doesn't mean that he fixed the recycle problem. You play Distension enough to know that it doesn't recycle every single time it runs, not to mention the countless times qan has unsuccessfully tried to fix the problem with a solution that was supposed to fix it for good.

Frankly, I'm pretty annoyed by the whining and complaining about how I haven't been running the game lately. I'm sorry, but it would be irresponsible to just keep running it when it's been causing server recycles so often lately. You guys know how many times it's recycled, yet we continued to run it in hopes that it was a fluke, or that qan's small fixes would remedy it, but this was never the case. No matter what you think, the fact is that it's completely unacceptable to have a single subarena disrupt the rest of the zone.

The game is back in testing mode, which means it isn't going to be running on a schedule until it's proven that these latest fixes will stop the server from recycling. Also, the bot will probably die multiple times per session until the 'sweet spot' is found (if there even is one) and will likely not be restarted unless one of the few Distension-playing staffers is playing. On a side note, the disconnection time was so small that the bot couldn't even log in during peak hours without disconnecting until qan tweaked it yesterday (currently untested, though).

[DankNuggets]

haven't got to play this in forever, hope it gets fixed soon.

From what I can tell from posts and random ?find dbot ?find qan, he seems to be working on it.


Stabwound said in a post that it was causing recycles so it wouldn't be hosted. Viruk came on afterwards and said that it had been hosted without crashing the server, but that it was buggy and crashed several times (just dbot, not the servers). He then asked if it could be hosted more, since it the server recycle bug appeared to be fixed, even if other bugs were still present (that didn't affect people outside of the distension arena).

What's so hard to understand? In my book, that's putting 2 and 2 together.

But once again, you've contributed naught to this thread, trolling one of the players who doesn't come on this forum to troll other people, but to post suggestions. If it was just cheese, then I could understand. But Viruk actually tries to improve upon the game in most of his posts.

[Viruk]

so understanding Stabwound saying Distension won't be hosted for a good while until the problems can be resolved, is being retarded? Glad we can see eye to eye then.

Stabwound said this before qan came along and apparently fixed the server recycling problem which was tested during the earlier weekday scheduled time.

Stabwound then tried to host it for the later session and the bot appeared to die again but this time twice within seconds of him starting it up. The server did not recycle. Possibly qan tried to tweak it again in between sessions and left another bug. Or perhaps the server was laggier in the later session for some reason.

It may be safer on the server but looks as though something still needs some tweaking.

[Liquid Blue]

LB, do this



You will thank me later

shit I'll thank you now

does wonders

[roxxkatt]

and i would suggest that anyone that hasnt done this for LB should do so

[D1st0rt]

LB, do this



You will thank me later

[Liquid Blue]

so understanding Stabwound saying Distension won't be hosted for a good while until the problems can be resolved, is being retarded? Glad we can see eye to eye then.

[roxxkatt]

1+1=76

look i can be a tard and post stuff

does not compute

look i can quote stuff too