Discussion: crashes, transitions, resources and the like.

[Snarfy]

I'll keep this short and sweet. I'm wondering if something could, or should(?) be done in the interim until the "server-split" goes live to alleviate some issues that have, quite frankly, been dragging on a bit long.

So, back when a few areas got touched up(ie: farmlands) the caravans went goofy, and some transitions stopped working. A dungeon got added, and more transitions stopped working, including one to a very popular other dungeon(Ziggurat... and no offense to the new dungeon, but it does not see nearly as much traffic as Zigg did). Some new interiors went live, and yet more transitions, as well as some of the monster scripts in nearby areas, bugged out.

Also, during DM events lately, there has been a huge upswing in players crashing. I just experienced 3 crashes in 10 min, nearly everyone in the event I was watching got punted. A few weeks ago there was another event where the players involved, by my counting of the log-off's, must have crashed nearly 10 times.

Am I correct in assuming that this is a resource issue? Not to sound cheeky, but I'm fairly certain re-tagging transitions to work correctly is not that challenging of a fix... so, if resources are the case, would it not make sense to perhaps remove some unused areas to ease the burden? New dungeons and empty zones are probably more ideal for having for whenever we get around to the split, right?

[Snarfy]

I'm not sure if all the recent additions have caused too much of a strain without seeing the actual additions and such with my own eyes but it certainly feels similar to early last year.

If memory serves, the first issues with transitions/caravans started when farmlands and North tradeway got facelifts. As I understand it, exteriors typically use up more resources than interiors, but I admit I'm ignorant as to how these things can affect transitions. Just re-tag them and away you go, or something?

The second batch of transition issues, as well as the Ziggurat no longer being accessible, started up about the time the new dungeon in High moors north(a dungeon which I enjoy, tbh, but it sees maybe a fraction of the traffic that Ziggurat did) went in, as well as something else being added... uhh, Blackrose hall maybe? I forget. Either way, the new dungeon isn't necessarily bigger that Zigg was, and if the transition to the latter isn't working anyways, I hope the dungeon has been pulled for now.

The last issues happened when Uldoons got touched up, which fubar'd a few more transitions and the flind camp spawning-script. All of the above is what leads me to believe it's a resource thing. That being said, I'm struggling to think of any exteriors that could be nix'd(assuming that would even fix the problem). Interiors... I can only think of a few dungeons that I hardly ever see characters, if anyone, visit, including myself. Maybe some unused DM areas could go?

The crashing is... a whole new thing, as far as I can tell. I don't know what, if anything, got added recently, but something is definitely causing players in events to crash(I couldn't see if it was a spell in particular or whatnot since, well, I crashed too). The transitions are just maddening at this point, especially trying to get to reaching Woods, or north from Nashkel/Uldoons in general.

PS/btw, I'm not advocating for the removal of any new interiors that are guild related, at all. More than most, I understand the need for players of guilds to have safe spaces away from the lunacy general population.

[Young Werther]

I was crashing going into the Greypeaks on two transitions on my cleric in a party of three of us (rip buffs). Solo I haven't crashed on my cleric doing the same transitions. I haven't gone back in a party to further test.

[Planehopper]

Transitions are broken because there is, right now, a mix of pre and post split named areas on the server, and some of them reference the other version's names of areas. So yes, redoing transitions should work, though my understanding is that due to where we are right now in the split it isn't as easy as that.

So they'll be fixed with the split. Presumably.

The caravan is likely a waypoint issue. I am told a fix for that is staged as well, but there won't be an update until we split?

And as far as stability goes, I dont see what you're seeing. Events have always led to crashes, especially when DMs go crazy with spawns and/or effects, and exacerbated by large crowds doing busy things. And that's what we have here. It isn't surprising or unexpected, for me. Seems like par for the course for the types of events we are seeing right now.

I have experienced exactly zero crashes when events haven't been happening. And if it were a memory issue, historically that meant there would be crashes for no reason, often later in the "up time" cycle.

We've hit our normal resets every day that I've been on, across multiple time zones.

[TravelingVagrant]

I can substantiate a lot of crashes on my end as well, especially when leaving the Fire Giant General cave, and the Troll Claws troll cave. Past that, there is the occasional random crash that I experience, but I assume that's due to DM events and the like, and are generally par for the course.

[Snarfy]

And as far as stability goes, I dont see what you're seeing. Events have always led to crashes, especially when DMs go crazy with spawns and/or effects, and exacerbated by large crowds doing busy things. And that's what we have here. It isn't surprising or unexpected, for me. Seems like par for the course for the types of events we are seeing right now.

I have experienced exactly zero crashes when events haven't been happening. And if it were a memory issue, historically that meant there would be crashes for no reason, often later in the "up time" cycle.

We've hit our normal resets every day that I've been on, across multiple time zones.

This is true, server crashes have been rare, even during events, so you have a point there. The crashes I'm referring to have been more of the player variety. My game rarely ever crashes, so for it to shut down on me 3 times in 10 minutes is not the norm. It could very well be that someone tried to cast one of the crash-culprit spells(*cough* SoV) and that's what did it, and I just didn't notice. Although, perhaps anyone that attended this event(at Boarskyr) or the previous event(in High moors north) where multiple repeated player crashes occurred would be able to corroborate.

I'm not even sure when this new dungeon was added but assuming it's just an interior it probably takes up a fraction of the space an exterior would. Unless it's a super-massive dungeon then it probably isn't the biggest issue.

It's a two level interior of moderate size, but no larger than the Winding Waters dungeon or Ziggurat, so yeah, probably not an issue.

I think, if I remember, the worst areas for bloating were Uldoon Trail, Reaching Wood, and North Tradeway, though that isn't in any particular order, just maps I remember having to try and fix up.

Northern Tradeway was, I think, already reduced in size slightly.

I can substantiate a lot of crashes on my end as well, especially when leaving the Fire Giant General cave, and the Troll Claws troll cave.

I rarely visit these two areas, but both of those exteriors are pretty big, could there be a correlation between certain large outdoor areas and players crashing? I never have issues in Reaching or Uldoons, so that's a weird one. The night that I watched the same 10+ players event-crash nearly 10 times took place in High Moors north, which is a fairly big exterior(perhaps unnecessarily so).

[yyj]

A lot of crashes are engine related and not much can be done about them.

I have been in areas where people cast like 5 storm of vengeance and didn't crash, sometimes it just takes buffs to crash me or transitions.

I know the game has memory leaks and many devs are working to fix them (Skywing being one)

I know of a few memory leaks and bugs that make servers crash but won't be posting them here as they can be exploited, they are known issues to devs but a lot of times, their hands are simply tied.