Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

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sinewav
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Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by sinewav »

I have a few questions and I didn't want them to get burried on Discord. I seems like disconnections are happening more than ever before. Could this be related to the fact Pickup Fort NY is not running the stable branch?

Because disconnects happen in basically every match (sometimes multiple times by multiple people) I thought we should add a "Timeout" feature. Not timeout as in a lost network connection, but as playing time. I thought we could hack this with a script Team Leaders could call with /timeout that would set future score points to zero (kills, base conquered, round win, etc) which would effectively pause play until disconnected players could return and join/shuffle. Blondie also though a simple action that sets CYCLE_SPEED 0 would also work.

Finally, I feel like this is a feature the dedicated server should have and would help a lot in tournaments.

Just my thoughts.
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Desolate
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by Desolate »

No need to specifically call out the pickup servers - you're noticing it more because they're used so heavily. I've seen this happen with any server I've played in recently - whether that's sty+ct or sty+ct+ap. To continue the conversation about debugging yesterday, I've also seen it happen more frequently to specific people (Nanu, Andrei, certain people crash EVERY round in CTF / KOTH), so it might be worth targeting them to root out the problem.

I'm totally onboard with timeout/pause functionality. The closest we have now is the kill_all command (in my wonky, unstable version only) which will not affect the scores at all as long as everyone agrees to chill on the side and not kill each other while everyone reconnects.
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by blondie »

Code: Select all

CYCLE_SPEED_DECAY_ABOVE 9999
CYCLE_SPEED 		0
CYCLE_RUBBER_TIME	999999
CYCLE_BRAKE_REFILL 	0
This combination of settings would effectively freeze a game-state in real time. The player could then reconnect, and be respawned safely away from the action (in a sty+ct server at least) via the RESPAWN_PLAYER command.

I think this would be a good function to include in a general fortress tournament script that could also track some other stats like K:D, holing, zone captures, time alive, centers, average cycle position, average cycle speed.
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by spongebob »

blondie wrote: Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:03 pm I think this would be a good function to include in a general fortress tournament script that could also track some other stats like K:D, holing, zone captures, time alive, centers, average cycle position, average cycle speed.
We CAN pull K:D, holing, zone captures, time alive directly from the ladderlog without a script running in the background. I've been meaning to do that for the fort server for awhile.
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by syllabear »

There definitely was a pause or timeout function previously, I watched a ladle where it was used by Z-man
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by Z-Man »

Huh, I don't remember that. Did I maybe just make the pause that catting players can cause at the start of the round effectively infinite? That's the PLAYER_CHAT_WAIT_ family of settings.
I also once froze everyone by setting the cycle speed to 0, I think, it may have been someone else. That was a bad idea, they didn't start again when we undid the setting and we had to kill everyone :)
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by syllabear »

http://vps-zman.armagetronad.org/~manue ... _vs_Tu.zip

Shortly after 350 seconds. You used game_start 2
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Re: Pickup Servers: Disconnects, Timeouts

Post by Z-Man »

Ah! That was my evil tournament patch. It simply stopped the game clock there for a bit. That is, the rate of the game clock to the real time clock was modified. I suppose we could make that available separately as a not quite as evil server command/setting.
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