MP: CarCrash - EA Game - CBM - (Running)

[PsiSoldier]

I think we might have ****ed up Llamaserver...

It should have hosted about 10 mins ago and it looks like its stuck. It could just be taking an extremely long time but its not looking good.

I'm kinda tempted to just vote that we take the screwed up turn with a stale for everyone and just get on with it..

[PsiSoldier]

eh... just noticed that it's not set to host until Friday????

WTF Why are we waiting for one nation that is essentially out of the game anyways. I dont think Atlantis even submitted his turn in the first place when this all started. Atlantis should be set to AI at this point and lets get on with it.

[Calahan]

@ PsiSoldier/All

Phonics/Atlantis didn't stale the original turn 84, although I confess to being surprised it's taking so long to submit an altered turn.


The hosting is set to Friday because the game automatically uses the current schedule for working out when the deadline should be during a rollback. Since we are currently on a 72 hour schedule, it correctly (from a working llamaserver PoV) set the deadline to Friday as the rollback occurred on Tuesday.

I could have entered a negative number into the postponement function to bring the hosting deadline forward. But my number one rule of admining is never ever reduce the hosting deadline for any reason what-so-ever. It only causes problems. Also, when the hosting deadline was reduced recently in the 'Forge of Godhood' game, the game decided to host straight away for some reason (the altered deadline was still several hours away at the time). Only bad things happen when deadlines are reduced, while only patience is required on the flip-side of it.


While it would be nice and convenient to just say "Sod it, we'll take the mass stale and move on", I only want to do this as a last resort. Since it could have serious ramifications for the game, and I for one have not spent 6 months and 200+ hours on this game to see it either ruined, or turned into a joke at this late stage. Since there's no telling if this error will even go away if we take the mass stale.

We have only attempted one or two minor things to achieve an error free hosting so far (re-hosting and myself submitting a blank turn), so I would like to at least try a few more things to get the turn to host properly before turning to the last resort. We are making another attempt now, and if that fails, then I will probably be contacting Pelthin/Niefelheim, to see about submitting some 'test' turns where there are no Skratti's with potentially dubious stealth/shape changing orders, to see if the error can be isolated and solved (as per my suspicions stated previously regarding the cause of the hosting error).

This error was completely out of my hands, but I guess I can apologies for it on behalf of the game/llamaserver. But I do want to try and get an error free hosting, and I would very much appreciate a little patience on behalf of the players while attempting to solve it We all want the same thing after all, which is for the game to get going again, but I'm not yet willing to possibly sacrifice the credibility of the game to do so. Especially not without trying a few reasonable steps to solve it first.

My main problem at the moment is a lack of time to devote to getting this problem solved. As RL work is going to be causing me a lot of very busy days from now until the end of the month, culminating in a four day trip. But I will try my best to find some time this evening to address this issue, and if Phonics hasn't submitted his turn by then, then I'll just force hosting and hope for the best.


But if anyone is frustrated by this error, then just think of the extra RL time it's causing as a chance to enjoy the last few days of summer (depending where you are in the world). And be thankful you are not the admin trying to solve it by messing around with the llamaserver, seeking help from those in the know, and having to send out/post messages and instructions for everyone during each rollback and error solving attempt.

Patience and understanding is the key to getting this error solved I feel

[Calahan]

Ok, still no sign of a turn from Phonics/Atlantis, so I am going to force hosting now and see what happens....

Edit1: Wow, this is taking ages to host. I don't know if that's a good sign or bad.
Edit2: Got a feeling that despite the admin log entry, the force hosting request didn't get accepted. Will have to wait now to try again, as don't want to risk force hosting again until I'm sure it didn't get accepted (as otherwise I might accidentally force host turn 85)

[Calahan]

Ok, trying again to force host........

Edit: I think we have success I didn't get any error messages from the llamaserver, the hosting appears to have taken place without a problem, and everything seems to be as ordered with regards my turn.

Can everyone please report if you have any problems at all though. Sometimes during rollbacks you can get some weird stuff happening (random commanders appearing etc). So I'd like to try and locate any problems like that now, and not have to come back to them at a future point when someone says "hey, I've just noticed a load of weird things".

But hopefully the game is now back on track. So I'd like to thank you all for you time, patience, and cooperation in getting the error resolved

[Valerius]

Thanks, Calahan. All twelve of Van's provinces appear to be in order. I was kind of hoping for a random seraph to appear, but no luck.

[Calahan]

@ All

I am going away for a few days with my work, as such I need a short delay for this game. There is little point getting a sub, as I'll only need roughly a 24 hour delay, and the game is at such a late stage as well that it would take me just as long to explain to a sub what was happening as it would to actually do my turn. Plus I wouldn't inflict a sub to such an MM intensive position as this one

But I have had to do the following.....

1. Temporarily turn quickhost off, as if it is on the current turn could host well before expected, meaning I might not be around to even notice it has hosted (so wouldn't be able to prevent the resultant stale it would cause me for turn 86).

2. Extend the current turn by 24 hours, so that the deadline for turn 86 is then set to late (llamaserver time) on Thursday 1st October. I am due back the afternoon of that day.

Hope there are no problems with the current turn while I am away. I might have access to the internet during my trip. If so I'll do my best to check in for any reports on this game (since there may still be unreported errors regarding the rollback that need resolving).

[Calahan]

Ok everyone, I got back from my works trips a few hours ago, and back in my Dominions seat as of roughly 30 minutes ago I've had to add 4 hours to the current turn though as...

A) I want to find someone to set Atlantis AI (I've had enough of Phonics's intermittent turn submissions), plus they are all but dead as far as I can tell. And...

B) I didn't have any real time while I was away to work on my turn, so have no chance of doing it in 20 minutes. But I hope to be able bash it out tonight without needing it to spill over to tomorrow.

I'll also turn quickhost back on now that I'm back.

[PsiSoldier]

Atlantis will be completely eliminated in just a few turns, but it would be nice to not have to wait on them or rather to not have to wait on the full time to expire every turn just for another stale.

Not to mention the fact that the only province Atlantis had left that had more than 2 commanders left is now under siege. And the other will be momentarily as well.

[Calahan]

Thanks for the info on Atlantis PsiSoldier. My scouts spotted the Atlantis controlled provinces rapidly disappearing, but good to know that they are basically dead, as I won't feel as bad about turning them over to the AI that way.