How long does your server last in Multiplayer?

[Indian Chief 239]

Hey all,

Just a really quick question for those running or playing on server in Multiplayer. I 'm wondering how much play time you get before the server crashes or the file size becomes too big and won't work? On average we get 4 to 8 days max. How awesome would it be to be able to build a nice house and live in it for at least a couple of weeks before having to restart a new seed.

Happy ylanding all.

Cheers Chief

[Energritz_ 107]

All comes down to popularity and Geo Location, as for me, server is super small, some occasional players, however we are in the oceanic region so

less population overall so basically near 0% demand..

Server has been live since 0.8.. still going. I don't get much time to play, but when i do its few a few hours at a time.

Edit: Editing for clarity, the server has reset itself various amount times due to unknown reasons.. i check in each day and i might find 3-5 log files..

indicating it tripped at some point and rebooted ( auto reboot part of the hosting service features ), i check these logs and nothing to point out why

the server tripped.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Energritz_

[Indian Chief 239]

Hey Energritz, 

Cheers for your reply. Wow since .8 you're server has been up. I think we've restarted twice since the update. 
I feel as though this is probably the biggest issue in Ylands at the moment, especially those who enjoy building. 

[Baz Foobar 102]

My map has been running since 0.8 as well. I restart it twice a day and perform cleanup of corpses and other junk every day. 

Inevitably, we end up with lag, can’t reach errors, and eventual hangs if we don’t perform a restart after peak use.

it just isn’t stable enough to run without constant babysitting. Honestly at this point I’m probably not going to keep it up once it crashes hard again. There are open issues that have to be fixed like players logging in that hard crash the server instance.

[Indian Chief 239]

Totally understand you not starting a new server again until the issues are fixed. Our admin resets the server all the time too, it's just we have at least 6 players that play almost daily. Day 1... save file was 3 mb... it's now day 2 and we're at 8mb.... by 30mb the server crashes and we need to start all over again. 

Patience will be our friend, but I really hope they can increase the size limit before slowling/crashing. 30mb isn't a lot of memory with 6 almost fulltime players.

[Baz Foobar 102]

We made it up to 52MB on 0.7 before we refreshed with 0.8.  Our current map is presently at 42MB.  We'll see how long it manages to stay afloat.

[Indian Chief 239]

What seriously? Wow, I wonder why your server can hold a larger save file then our server. In an idealistic word, I think the servers need to be able to hit at least 100mb in order to make playing the Multiplayer side of the game more enjoyable.  

[Energritz_ 107]

I have noticed from previous saves that once it reaches around ~20MB in size, it starts to degrade.. and generally when "proactive maintenance" becomes a chore, aka "cleaning corpses and junk items".

I also logged in one day, loaded in fine, started making my way to a island ( live in the ocean ) and when it started loading in.. server crashed.. since then i wait and then for it to "catch up" in order for it to not crash..

[Baz Foobar 102]

What kind of resources are you guys giving your server?  Mine's a VM with 6 dedicated Xeon 3.2ghz cores and 32GB of memory.  I have a total of 144GB on the physical but I've never allocated more than 32GB to the Ylands server (running Windows Server 2016 on the VM with a Proxmox hypervisor on the host).

[Energritz_ 107]

Initially on a Windows VPS with 8GB ram, which would be ok for ~48hrs before needing a reboot, now on a hosted service due to costs of running windows vps.. and the issues that the DS comes with to not make it worth it...

I know the host is a Windows 8 system due to the logs..

Edited April 20, 2018 by Energritz_

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

My accept server has been running well from before 0.8. We look at everything that causes bugs and banned it. That has helped a LOT. 

[Indian Chief 239]

Hey Baz, Eagle and Energritz,  cheers for your feedback on your multiplayer servers. Unfortunately the server in which I play on isn't run by me... way over my head to run a server... plus here in Australia I must be one of a small group of players. I play on Stoutcrusher's server, he has posted a few bugs etc in the forum. I do know that our server gets reset daily to help with some issues. We have started making a banned list of items... would you mind sharing what items if any are banned on your server guys?

Horses are another big no no, not building near spawn, and try not to build within sight of each other to help reduce the lag spikes. 

Would anyone mind if I tried joining your current server just to compare?

Have a great weekend guys.

All 3 of you do a fantastic job for us and the ylands team

[Energritz_ 107]

I Should note our particular server has been around since ~17th Jan this year or version 0.6

We are also Australian, only 1 of 2 ( 2nd one comes and goes ) that's public in PA region.

tbh honest unless you play several hours a day, and have moderator(s), banning items never works.... there is no policing or enforcing to it..

From experience people will do whatever they want if they want to... you can't stop them unless you have active staff playing all hours... there is no logging of players actions.. which also makes administration non existent.. especially when staff are away.

I certainly cannot be online every time, and since the 0.7 fiasco server has been real quiet... i certainly got frustrated to a point i almost threw it all in... it's only very recently i have starting playing again... when i can.

My current policy on running the server is, providing a better experience than official servers, stability, reliability, up time, Active admin that maintains the server, which

can be an issue on official servers.

I keep the server up for the community, and a hope that soon... DS will get a big update making it real nice to run.

 

Edited April 22, 2018 by Energritz_

[bojo2736 1016]

I'm not sure where to put this, this seems as good a place as any.  For the last three weeks or so, since @Baz Foobar gave up and closed his server, several of us have been server hopping only to find them become unplayable very quickly.  We were on Explore NA 10 for a couple of weeks, and got some real progress.  But then ships became unsailable, the server became unstable so we moved on.  We have been on Explore NA 15 for something like three real days, and it's getting glitchy too.  I had it dump me in weird locations when the server timed out while I was on my ship.  This last time, I was on my ship which was literally nearly touching the shore.  I got a server time out.  When I tried to get back in, I had a flashing red light, clicking noise and it was telling me I was not near land. Then it told me I was freezing.  I tried to cheat to get to the shore, and I died from freezing to death.  On an arid biome.  I tried to spawn a new character and was stuck in limbo, black screen with empty hearts. Unable to die, unable to respawn.  I couldn't log back in, neither could my game mates.  

 

I feel so discouraged by this game sometimes.

 

 

output_log.txt

output_log_clean.txt

[kimbuck 746]

when BB got  dumped out,  we all were "frozen"  in  limbo.. online showed none....yet  mp  listing showed 4 on line. After  staring at a  dark starry screen only option was to open  taskbar and close ylands.  After   3  false starts , got in. but  everyone  else had given. up.  I am predicting  in another couple of days we need to move to another server ...until it too  breaks..

 

[Indian Chief 239]

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I feel as if the Ylands team need to put a lot of focus (if not already) into getting the servers to last ALOT longer. We're at 3 weeks at the moment.. but only with the ban of ships... and no one has really been playing. I'd search stoutcrusher on youtube and get in contact with him.... I'm sure he'd be more than happy to have you join the server.  He's great at restarting the server daily, and does his best to keep the server last as long as possible. 

The server's need to be able to go constantly, like in other games... 30gb max will kill the game especially with the addition of a larger world with bosses etc. 

Fingers and toes crossed!

[kimbuck 746]

@Mitch Treader --  The bit  about ships is interesting.  ----- On NA15 we had no problems until ships were built . Everything was running smoothly ( just the occasional phantom  tree) until i  put  down my ship hull  and  fitted on it the  helm and some storage  chests. After a trip back into the  center of the island to collect more logs, i returned to the old invisible  ship syndrome ..but that's not all ...some of the tables and benches on the shore adjacent to the  hull were also invisible, yet the objects  placed on them  were...    just "floating in space".    Did not bother  with screenshots  etc as its a known  issue and it  been reported multiple  times..  and also the  number of "phantom" cut  down trees  increased.

Of  course the   universal  fix of   logging out and  rejoining  worked...  

[Ane 1213]

AFAIK this is something the team is aware of but doesn't have a "quick fix". It will improve though

[bojo2736 1016]

When I got back in last night, I had not lost any of my inventory and was on a completely different island.  When I checked my map to see if I could figure out where I was, I had been mid way between the two islands.  Keep in mind, I was standing on an anchored, locked, ship when I got timed out.  I ended up out in the middle of the ocean where I died/didn't die/was a zombie twice.  When I finally got back in I was on another island, nothing missing.  I found a safe place to spend the night.  When I got in this morning, my clothes were gone as well as my miner helmet. But my inventory was still there.  So I lost armor and the miner helmet.  And time.  This is the second time this has happened to me. The last time was on 0.7.