Map Servered.. How many until calling it a day?

[TheZag]

They have been on the forum giving updates.  It just wasnt a dedicated thread started by a team member.

 

 

On 6/20/2022 at 10:45 AM, Telephone said:

For those of you who hunger for technical details, the current belief is that the issue is rooted in what are called 'queue barriers'. The SQL queue on each shard is actually processed by many parallel threads in the dbserver; operations relating to a particular entity are usually routed to the same thread to ensure ordering, but sometimes certain operations require additional synchronization (for example, multiple entities might be involved) and barriers are used to provide this synchronization.

Edited June 22, 2022 by TheZag

[srmalloy]

20 hours ago, TrelNargil said:

And just to let you know, I upgraded my internet and PC speed, giving me higher ping and internet speeds/connectivity, so it is most assuredly NOT client side that is the issue, but server side.

If you upgraded your internet and PC speed and got higher ping, take it back and have them fix it; it's broken. A better connection will give you a lower ping. The second part is correct, though.

[Arc-Mage]

3 hours ago, Krimson said:

I'd rather they actually identify the problem, then addresses the problem, and THEN worry about explaining it. They could be busy at the moment. 

I have to disagree. An acknowledgement of the problem goes a long way. How long does it take to post something to the effect, "We are aware of the problem and are looking into it."?

A minute? If you don't you get exactly what we got, people guessing, complaining, arguing and getting upset and leaving frustrated.  

 

3 hours ago, TheZag said:

They have been on the forum giving updates.  It just wasnt a dedicated thread started by a team member.

 

 

I never would have looked under "Help and Support" to find out if anyone knew there where problems. I never said it needed to be a dedicated thread started by a team member. It would have been nice to see a GM post someplace in this thread though acknowledging they where aware of the problem, that's all I'm saying.

[TrelNargil]

15 hours ago, srmalloy said:

If you upgraded your internet and PC speed and got higher ping, take it back and have them fix it; it's broken. A better connection will give you a lower ping. The second part is correct, though.

 

   Thank you for the correction @srmalloy; yeah I have lower ping, not higher. Just my addled brain making a tech term error is all lol, so thanks again for the correction... 👍

 

12 hours ago, Krimson said:

Submit a ticket and DEMAND answers? Give those work slackers the what for, perhaps?

 

   That was not the impression on what @Arc-Mage was saying there @Krimson as "Demand" is a very extreme term here I would think. However, for the sake of those who do not know where to find such info, nor that it even exists, a "Request" is not out of the order I would think, even if it's just a link to said web page (and thank you for posting it too @Arc-Mage). Understanding & empathy, on all sides of the isle here, is and would be good here I think... as well as COFFEE at this hour of the morning <em raises cup to you all in greetings>... Cheers! 🙂 

 

Peace...

[Troo]

It does seem interesting that the Excelsior server issue is so much more prevalent.

The other servers appreciate any work being done by the HC team to ensure what happens on Excelsior stays on Excelsior.

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Troo

[Arc-Mage]

6 hours ago, TrelNargil said:

 

   Thank you for the correction @srmalloy; yeah I have lower ping, not higher. Just my addled brain making a tech term error is all lol, so thanks again for the correction... 👍

 

 

   That was not the impression on what @Arc-Mage was saying there @Krimson as "Demand" is a very extreme term here I would think. However, for the sake of those who do not know where to find such info, nor that it even exists, a "Request" is not out of the order I would think, even if it's just a link to said web page (and thank you for posting it too @Arc-Mage). Understanding & empathy, on all sides of the isle here, is and would be good here I think... as well as COFFEE at this hour of the morning <em raises cup to you all in greetings>... Cheers! 🙂 

 

Peace...

Absolutely this. I was just suggesting communication.

[Apparition]

1 hour ago, Arc-Mage said:

Absolutely this. I was just suggesting communication.

 

For better or for worse, most communication is done on the Homecoming Discord server.

[GM Kal]

On 6/22/2022 at 6:23 PM, Arc-Mage said:

I have to disagree. An acknowledgement of the problem goes a long way. How long does it take to post something to the effect, "We are aware of the problem and are looking into it."?

A minute? If you don't you get exactly what we got, people guessing, complaining, arguing and getting upset and leaving frustrated.  

 

I never would have looked under "Help and Support" to find out if anyone knew there where problems. I never said it needed to be a dedicated thread started by a team member. It would have been nice to see a GM post someplace in this thread though acknowledging they where aware of the problem, that's all I'm saying.

We are aware of the problem and looking into it!


Admin staff (the folks that run and maintain the server) have created a new type of monitoring and logging program to see exactly what is wrong with Excel, and it's been getting good data the last few days. They have several ideas of what could be wrong, but do not want to change server code till they are sure that it is in fact the problem.

I have every confidence in them, they have already solved some long standing server inefficiencies by fixing server code that have been around since live days.
The 2020 Peregrine Island crash during trick or treat was one.

 

[TrelNargil]

8 hours ago, GM Kal said:

We are aware of the problem and looking into it!


Admin staff (the folks that run and maintain the server) have created a new type of monitoring and logging program to see exactly what is wrong with Excel, and it's been getting good data the last few days. They have several ideas of what could be wrong, but do not want to change server code till they are sure that it is in fact the problem.

I have every confidence in them, they have already solved some long standing server inefficiencies by fixing server code that have been around since live days.
The 2020 Peregrine Island crash during trick or treat was one.

 

 

   Good morning, and thank you very much for posting this update @GM Kal. As a person who grew up in a home with a Dad who was a communications' officer & naval war hero during WW2 (he was very much involved in the battle of midway btw, and the development of radar too btw), he always stressed the importance of communication in everything we do (his favorite quote was, "A lack of communication can get people killed."). So any form of it about this ongoing issue would/will (especially detailed one's) go a long way in easing troubled minds so to speak, and I for one appreciate the effort; maybe have such a update once a week or so (either here or in the other post), that could potentially head off such posts as this. Just a suggestion... 😄 In either case, thanks again for the reply @GM Kal; you all rock, so keep up the great work! 👍

 

Peace (and coffee... Hmmmmm... yum...)...

[GM Kal]

Not a problem, but as Apparition said, most timely and smaller updates and news are on discord.

 

We really didn't have clear news to share on the forum yet.

 

 

Edit:

Per Telephone on the discord just now:

 

Excelsior is now available for play.

 

Today we optimized a temporary table used by the shard to store effects on players ('attribmods'). Previously, this table was stored on-disk even though the data is cleared at shard restart. The table was moved to be entirely in-memory, which should reduce a significant amount of contention in the database.

Attribmod save operations (potentially resulting in what the database server calls high latch contention) could be especially heavy when many high-level players leave a map or quit at the same time (e.g. after an instanced Rikti raid or after a Hami raid), due to the number of buffs that might still be present.

This change is experimental; we believe it to be stable but if issues or instability are encountered we may perform an emergency restart of Excelsior.

In addition, we've discovered a few other potential sources of issues for which a small patch may be issued on our normal patch day (this coming Tuesday). Unfortunately, I don't believe we've made a lot of progress yet on the superpack/email issues, but we are continuing to work on them.

Thanks again for your patience as we continue resolving this issue.

Please report any unusual issues on Excelsior in #report-server-issues-here or file a petition.

Edited June 24, 2022 by GM Kal

[Troo]

☏

[Arc-Mage]

11 hours ago, GM Kal said:

We are aware of the problem and looking into it!


Admin staff (the folks that run and maintain the server) have created a new type of monitoring and logging program to see exactly what is wrong with Excel, and it's been getting good data the last few days. They have several ideas of what could be wrong, but do not want to change server code till they are sure that it is in fact the problem.

I have every confidence in them, they have already solved some long standing server inefficiencies by fixing server code that have been around since live days.
The 2020 Peregrine Island crash during trick or treat was one.

 

lmao, Was that so hard?

[Arc-Mage]

20 hours ago, Apparition said:

 

For better or for worse, most communication is done on the Homecoming Discord server.

Yah, Discord Servers.....

[Troo]

3 hours ago, Arc-Mage said:

Discord

[TrelNargil]

   I am with you guys on this one...

   Discord...

 

 

[Troo]

On 6/22/2022 at 11:28 AM, TheZag said:

They have been on the forum giving updates.  It just wasnt a dedicated thread started by a team member.

 

Different topic.

Not everyone getting booted from the game is doing hundreds or thousands of super packs and having trouble claiming the associated rewards.

Folks getting routinely knocked off a game, even a small community or volunteer run game, could wonder or look for an official update on a wide spread issue.

 

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by Troo

[TheZag]

Thats why i linked it.  People in this topic were asking,  and what they wanted to see was in a different thread that they probably wouldnt have looked at.  The quick solution remains the same though - transfer off excelsior.  Its traffic is heavier than the database was designed for and players get booted among other problems.  The slower solution is wait for the team to find a fix.  But a fix can be anywhere from right now to several weeks from now.  In the meantime ill be enjoying a stable gameplay experience on not excelsior and then still on not excel after a fix is found.

[GM Kal]

Per Admin Number Six:

Quote

 

Number Six — 

We did some (more) database tuning and have not seen any SQL issues for the last 72 hours.

 

I can't say for sure it's totally fixed, but it's starting to look that way to me.

[Troo]

Saturday could be the test

[Apparition]

7 hours ago, Troo said:

Saturday could be the test

 

Thursday night was the test.  Excelsior went boom.

[GM Crumpet]

I was having endless problems early last week that went on for a couple or three days. Nothing I did would fix it and I had terrible problems even logging in on my GM account to help players with stuck enemies or missing objectives. I had to go away and come back, just because the lag and mapserver was truly unplayable. My ISP was messing about with upgrades to the network and older games like ours tend to be more susceptible to those kinds of issues. Eventually I got a router update that took a while to sort itself out and I've had no issues since.

 

But to answer the original question. one mapserver won't make me quit, but it will make me glare at the router. As long as it doesn't happen again I'll  carry on. Get another and it's straight to a reboot of the router. Any lag though gets an immediate router reboot. That never gets better, and usually gets progressively worse.

[Clave Dark 5]

I've been having occasion, severe rubberbanding as of late.  This morning I was running a solo cave mission and I swear I must have passed into one room like five times, only to pop back to just outside the door.  Tried TPing into the room, nothing.  Finally got in and then TPed like 4 times in a row.  Then mapserved when I exited - which was OK, it was time to log anyway, but still.

[Zepp]

Twice the map severed on me during a kill all mish as I was killing the last mob... Once I had finished the mish, the other time I had to redo...

[Troo]

😞

[Marshal_General]

I haven't had a problem for several days now.

 

One thing that seemed to work for me wad to close that game and flush my memory to clear up data. That seemed to fix the problem fir a good while. I wonder if their isn't/wasn't a minor memory leak going on.