Scheduling server resets

[gedweyignasia]

Currently, BGTSCC resets on a timer every 8 hours (9 hours?), with some "unplanned resets" courtesy of bugs in the engine or NWNX4 extensions. The timed resets are determined by a counter that starts when the server launches.

Scheduled resets:
We could instead set those resets to occur at regular times, so that players always know when a (planned) reset will occur. This would mean 2-3 resets at the same times every day, to within a few minutes. This might mean DMs have to delay the reset less frequently, players aren't surprised by a reset when they aren't watching the chat window, etc. It might also mean that if the server resets at an inconvenient time for you, it's always going to reset at that inconvenient time for you, however.

12-hour uptime:
Pending some testing with stability, we might also be able to increase the server reset time to 12h. If we scheduled the resets, that would mean we can reset (for instance) at 1:00 AM EST and 1:00 PM EST every day, remaining up the whole time for peak hours. This would have the benefit of fewer interruptions to DM events, RP, etc. However, the downside would be that PCs have less convenient access to the Nexus.

I wanted to lay these options out for the playerbase to discuss and give us their thoughts. Scheduled resets are certainly feasible, and we have a plan to implement them if the players want that. 12-hour uptime seems possible too, but will depend on how stable and smooth things are. We're aware that there are currently some important bugs that are resolved by server resets, and we'd want to have those patched before increasing the period between resets.

[Theodore01]

Often the server doesn't perform that responsive as it nears the 8~9 hours mark. Prolonging the uptime will only make that worse.

Most of us have limited play-time-slots.
Depending on a player's time zone and the scheduled resets, some players will then always suffer a reset during their playtime, while others can play ongoing during their playtime.


Also in regard to the opening of random shops, this is a bad idea. As some players will have zero chance (again depending on their time zones and the scheduled resets) to ever get a look at these shops right as it opens - while others will get that chance regularly.



The 9 hours reset we have currently is working fine and fair in that regard, please keep it

or even consider reducing the uptime to 7 hours and see if that improves overall performance and responsiveness.

[Steve]

I’m also of the opinion to set the Server to reset more often, like at 7 hours. I too experience regularly a more lagging, choppy Server nearing the 8 hour mark, and especially so if there has been a DM event or other DM activity.

This is not an exaggeration.

If Staff wants to do anything here, why not just try and improve/patch the bugs first, then see how things go?

[gedweyignasia]

Also in regard to the opening of random shops, this is a bad idea. As some players will have zero chance (again depending on their time zones and the scheduled resets) to ever get a look at these shops right as it opens - while others will get that chance regularly.

This is something that's being given a little discussion. There are a lot of things like this, availability of items which are stocked in limited quantities, etc. that might need to be adjusted to support these changes. We wouldn't be ignoring those aspects. Store can be reset ingame, we can have one shopkeeper go to bed when it gets dark out and a fresh one walk out with new wares, then they switch again at dawn, etc. (Just an example.)

I’m also of the opinion to set the Server to reset more often, like at 7 hours. I too experience regularly a more lagging, choppy Server nearing the 8 hour mark, and especially so if there has been a DM event or other DM activity.

This is not an exaggeration.

If Staff wants to do anything here, why not just try and improve/patch the bugs first, then see how things go?

Hearing about the performance issues is a lot more concerning. Worsening lag hasn't come up in staff discussions. We'll have to see if we can collect some performance metrics to track down what's causing it and see how much it changes over the course of a reset.

[DaloLorn]

Besides the weird persistent stall at 17:15 UTC, I haven't noticed any correspondence between server performance and uptime on our current reset cycle...

TBH, thinking about it some more, I think I'd want it to be on a 24h cycle, if anyhow possible. We could then schedule a reset in the absolute lowest-population period. (This would definitely require some mechanics to be adjusted to support a 24h reset cycle, though, as Ged and Theodore are discussing.)

[Hullack]

Confused about the random shops part. Where is that brought up?

[DaloLorn]

Confused about the random shops part. Where is that brought up?

The RIG vendors (like the Lucky Find; there's another in Blue Lantern Keep, not sure where else) repopulate once per reset, so a change to the reset cycle inevitably means either implicit or explicit changes to the way those vendors work.

Other such mechanics include limited-stock vendors (like Bloodstaunch/Icy Moss), returning to the Nexus, herb harvest caps... It's not an insurmountable obstacle, but it's something we'd have to keep in mind when adjusting the reset cycle.

[Steve]

I think we all would enjoy the Server up 24/7 except for awesome updates.

But the truth is the Server runs better the closer it is to after a Reset.

[gedweyignasia]

But the truth is the Server runs better the closer it is to after a Reset.

This certainly used to be the case, but with bugfixes and serious optimizations in recent years, it shouldn't be true anymore. We've powered through most of the broken stuff, and the server runs very smoothly in general. (Remember when DMs couldn't possess creatures in combat?)

I'm going to go through our performance metrics and see if I can figure out what's behind the decreased performance you've been experiencing approaching a reset. Hopefully we can resolve that issue so that the game is consistently smooth.

[Steve]

DMs to this day still seem to manually resetting the Server in order to get the best performance out of their Events. Maybe query then as well?!?

[DaloLorn]

DMs to this day still seem to manually resetting the Server in order to get the best performance out of their Events. Maybe query then as well?!?

The DMs have other reasons besides performance. They may also think performance is a concern (though I'm still not aware of any current issues on that front), but it's explicitly not their only reason for manually resetting.

Incidentally, one of those other reasons is making sure the server doesn't reset in the middle of an event, which wouldn't happen if the server was scheduled to only reset in its deadest hours. (Granted, we're not voting for/against a 24-hour cycle here, but still.)

[Steve]

DMs to this day still seem to manually resetting the Server in order to get the best performance out of their Events. Maybe query then as well?!?

The DMs have other reasons besides performance. They may also think performance is a concern (though I'm still not aware of any current issues on that front), but it's explicitly not their only reason for manually resetting.

Incidentally, one of those other reasons is making sure the server doesn't reset in the middle of an event, which wouldn't happen if the server was scheduled to only reset in its deadest hours. (Granted, we're not voting for/against a 24-hour cycle here, but still.)

That would be unnecessary, since DMs can manually DELAY the scheduled reset time!

[DaloLorn]

DMs to this day still seem to manually resetting the Server in order to get the best performance out of their Events. Maybe query then as well?!?

The DMs have other reasons besides performance. They may also think performance is a concern (though I'm still not aware of any current issues on that front), but it's explicitly not their only reason for manually resetting.

Incidentally, one of those other reasons is making sure the server doesn't reset in the middle of an event, which wouldn't happen if the server was scheduled to only reset in its deadest hours. (Granted, we're not voting for/against a 24-hour cycle here, but still.)

That would be unnecessary, since DMs can manually DELAY the scheduled reset time!

By an hour at a time, and the last time I tried it, the server still reset on me.

[gedweyignasia]

That would be unnecessary, since DMs can manually DELAY the scheduled reset time!

DMs can delay the reset time one hour at a time, but not if it's closer than a certain point, and if they have to reset it multiple times during an event, it's easy to miss your window at some point.

[Moonsong]

I've seen it on other servers, that they have 24 hours resets or even 12 hours. So if the staff is able to work around it, so everyone gets a chance on the random shops etc, why not. I still see an advantage in it: I can plan things around the restart and even if the reset is at in inconvenient time for me, while i want to host a payer event for example, i can still ask the DMs nicely if they could delay the restart.

That's how i would do it., just my opinion.