Server down?

[Maecius]

Nothing's changed server-side, but if there's 30 or 40 or 50 people on a single map then the server's probably extremely stressed by that right now.

It occasionally happens in events where the rest of the server is impacted by the huge gathering occurring at so-and-so location. Basically every single computer there is talking to the server, and the server is talking to each of them, and then relaying messages from one to the others and vice-versa. NWN2's engine's just not very good at handling those stress loads, even if our server computer is fine with it.

Unfortunately there's nothing we can do but wait for the players to break it up themselves!

In the meantime, probably not a great idea to grind or do anything that might risk you getting killed by a lag spike or a faction issue. Also probably better to play it safe than sorry with the auctioneer and persistent storage while the server is under stress.

EDIT: As an aside, if a DM's at that location, it makes matters worse. So DMs should probably clear the area of themselves unless they're absolutely needed. Basically the DM counts as being "in party" with everyone on that map, which exacerbates things.

[Steve]

Now Mystra and Shaundakul are set to Combat mode, and are "Too busy to talk to you."

[Steve]

Haha! The Server is so hosed at the moment. All mobs are just standing in place, not attacking. But the best part is the dialogue is still coming out their mouths as they remain frozen in place, facing certain death from...ME!!!



If you ever wanted to solo the White Dragon, I think NOW is your time!!

[Maecius]

Again, nothing's actually changed server-side. The server's just stressed out by having too many people on the same map for an extended period of time.

I mean, having a lot of players enjoying each other's company at a player event is a good problem to have, as far as problems go. But it's not one we can resolve. Well, not without going in and forcibly breaking up the RP anyway. (Which we don't want to do for obvious reasons!)

[Steve]

Well, now is the time then to have a talk about how stressed the Server has been in the last few days, maybe even weeks.

For the last few days, whenever I log on and there are more than 60 Players online, the Server often has 45 second transitions, general lag, and much over-running of mobs when engaging in combat. When DMs are online, it is far worse, as in 15 second delays on typing in the Chat Window, for example.

If the Server has 20 Players up until 40 Players online, it seems to run like a top.

The Server used to be able to handle 70 Players with out such laggy experience. Any hardware changes lately?

[AlwaysSummer Day]

So it's a bit like when we have 30+ people in the nexus and they begin casting spells left and right?

[Maecius]

So it's a bit like when we have 30+ people in the nexus and they begin casting spells left and right?

Basically yes.

Any hardware changes lately?

There hasn't been. Upgrading the hardware wouldn't actually benefit NWN2 any at this point of the game, either, because it's utilizing like under 5% of the "power" of our current setup most of the time as it is.

We know at least one way to make load times virtually disappear (running it across all of the PC's cores instead of just one core), but it destabilizes the server and causes frequent crashing.

We'll keep tinkering, but it's likely that there will always be issues associated with large gatherings of players. At least with this specific video game.

[Steve]

Can it function better but no crashes if you spread amongst 2 or 3 cores, not all of them?

The Server performance at 60–70 players used to better than it is now, or what it has been for the last few weeks by my reckoning.

I realize obviously the simple answer to this is when the Server is full, don't transition, don't go adventuring, and drink chamomile tea.

But dammit, sometimes I've run out of tea!!

[Lockonnow]

Tea nice crash bad

[Steve]

Tea nice crash bad

That is definitely my new mantra!

[Aspect of Sorrow]

It doesn't take any advantage of additional cores (it is not SMP enabled), the scheduler will move the process to a core less utilized by any other service when all affinities are enabled. Rasael's refactoring, some of the fixes along the way have helped toward general stability.

[Kiran]

Crash at 9:41 UK time.

[Snarfy]

The server has farted 3 times in the last hour or so, the last outage happening just now.

[DM Lobo]

//Just a quick reminder -- try not to hang in the Nexus when the Server comes back up. I have noticed its become pretty popular (I am mindly guilty of this too) to hang in the Nexus and it causes a lot of stress for the server and also adds to the loading time of other players logging in. This may also add to server lag, and increase the chances of a crash.

[Young Werther]

server was all like