homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation DCS World Eno's Firehouse and Crew's Hollo Pointe Server Lounge

Had a server Can't Connect To Master. I believe those disconnects are on the DCS Master Server side. What do I know.

WC

I bent my little thingie -

Cue Cry Of The Valkyrie!



Walk away!



3700 Club

WC

Whoops- those links are broken I think!

I'd just like to point out that in an ideal world, with two computers side by side but connected via cable around the world would have a ping of 85 - and that's just the speed of light, not factoring in processing times.
To be realistic to current systems, I have a ping of 65-110 for Firehouse/Hollo Pointe - and that's near transcontinental. Unfortunately with current infrastructure, only those with good systems and access to the best infrastructure would be able to connect from another continent with less then 200 ping - and barely at that. For reference, connecting to China/Australia from NA is usually 350-500ms and Europe I've had 150-300 on better occasions.

Eno - in Donkey Kong currently the RED Mi-8 slots are actually Mi-28s, so nobody can use them. Had a bit of fun with CA, I had to manually drive the Paladins as they wouldn't pathfind due to the hills infront of the starting position. The other units seemed fine. Didn't have any blue air though - the ground units were vulnerable and I had to limit their speed and use terrain for camouflage - if there is enough red air some SAMs may help. Other then that, the blue FARPs could use a bit stronger air defense, one guy in a Su-25 was able to land a couple hits but lost 3 airframes in the process.

We get guys hovering in the 200 zone and I'm not willing to get pushy about it unless it's affecting gameplay for the others- which unfortunately more and more things do.

If I have to pick the guy who needs to leave the server so people can play without warping and lagging... As much as I know what you're getting at my "minimum" is simply a notification to those who are farther away and heaving 200+ pings will likely be the first who are respectfully asked to leave.

Of course then I also need to slash the AI content (already done) limit the eye candy (already done) and eliminate the ground commander slot (pending).

Sorry Wesley but as much sense as you're making, DCS netcode isn't cooperating and the show must go on.

Oh and thanks for the feedback on DK... I hadn't seen those issues and they're easy fixes. If it turns out I need to eliminate the GC spot for stability I can still keep things moving using the AI- there are few enough vehicles going to keep performance smooth.

Believe it or not the "thingy" is a part of the landing gear. Unfortunately it's modeled a little on the fragile side in my opinion.

Had a good time flying East Bound and Down last night. MUCH MUCH more challenging than previous versions. I would have like to continue the mission but after the crash I called it an evening.

thanks for the update ENO!

Glad you guys enjoyed it... I like it too but I know there are things that need to be adjusted. Fortunately, all easy stuff.

Also, Mol had an interesting idea about the evacuation of base personnel having more of an impact on the mission- somehow. The idea came up originally to try and help keep the hueys / transports out of harm's way while still giving them an assignment.

I had something similar worked into Killbox as well- with FARP based choppers having access to logistics supplies that allow for new ground units to be "spawned" in. Every time a chopper gets a load into the base, an M-1 or Stryker group comes in. 4 such loads and the base goes on the offensive. The trick is in coordinating "slashers" to cut through the enemy defensive lines... securing safe passage for the vulnerable choppers.


I've also added a red ground commander slot with a limited number of tanks... If he can get his tanks into the zone, then the Russians go on the offensive and pretty much seals the deal.

Unfortunately, I'm getting this transport.dll error for some reason and I'm having a hard time getting to the root cause of it. Part of the problem is I've been adding highly randomized content to the missions and the AI pathfinding...

Example: Supply group 1 is always going to be starting at the same place but will have sufficient time to get en-route before anyone knows where to look for him. He has 5 possible destinations- and will find its way to that destination in a variety of fashions. In some cases they stick to roads, in other cases they're not stuck to roads but will use them when necessary. Pretty awesome potential.

The only thing I'm not happy about with EB+D is the fact that we've been having issues with groups "turning on" when they're supposed to. Part of the issue is that we stumble into units that are basically "camped out" waiting for activation. Once they are hit and "wake up" they go into a "disperse" mode for 10 minutes and ostensibly don't move. This throws things into a bit of a quandary- however knowing this now I can go back in and turn disperse to "false."

I was a bit shaken up when I took over the ground commander role last night and immediately guys started complaining about frames issues... I'm simply amazed that taking over 10 vehicles and giving them somewhere to go had such an impact. So suffice to say I'm starting to wane on my use of ground commander roles at least when balanced against stability.

If they start disappearing, that's why. EB-D is okay because the AI have instructions and will go about their own business but a mission like Donkey Kong 55 is entirely dependent on ground commander input.

I think the frames hit when you entered the GC spot only effected the slower computers. I honestly had no discernible difference in frame rate when that happened, although I did see an increase on my CPU demand.

the randomization of the AI units is a good thing.. it makes flying the 'same' mission a different experience... makes a need to fly with much more awareness and thought to mission.


On a side note, curious if it would be possible to have a little blue AA or SAM cover/defense on EB&D. (maybe we did and they all died already). With my head in the TGP looking for threats down low, I was very easy prey for the SU-25 who fired 2 missiles on me. Unfortunately for the SU, I'm becoming very good at flying/landing the hog with only one wing/engine/elevator/rudder... and he wasn't credited a kill.

LOL yeah I know- I took a couple of SA13s and an 8 in the belly by the time I got on the ground each time... not to mention Bast's pot shot while I was taxiing hehe... Ah well, got her dusted off and all was well with the world again.

There are several ADA vehicles in the area- but I think they're IR and Shilkas. Thought there was a Tung as well... but I may have taken it out for balance.

haha yeah, I think I saw more burning planes last night than I have in a LONG time. the level of challenge is definitely picking up.

I always have frame rate issues when someone joins. Especially switches from one air frame to another. For instance...when someone joins and gets in an aircraft... it causes my screen to freeze for 15 to 20 seconds. not too bad if you are 1500 feet with the autopilot on. However like the other night when someone came in I was flying the huey at about 20 feet agl hauling a load of refuges to safety. My screen froze and when it came back my huey was a pile of burning wreckage.

I am not attibuting the GC to this however I did notice a hit in the frames whether it was Eno in the GC position or an A-10 opening up with a long burst from a Gau 8 I do not know.

You remind me about a post on DCS Forums where someone was complaining about new players (read 'Steam') who are joining the servers w/o any modules installed. According to the post I saw, when a Client joins a slot but doesn't have the a/c it puts a load on the mission resources -- I mean the available weps and equipment, and when these folks switch to a different slot / platform, the sim engine has to account for the resources allocation change. I believe that a script was written to id these clients and kill the slot. Shahdoh wrote the post now that I think about it, and it may be in the Mission Builders forum.

A guy came into Hollo Pointe on Sunday and did just that - went from one slot to another and wondered why he couldn't fly the Huey with us. But there was no noticeable lag prolly cause just 3 or 4 were in the mission. The guy finally admitted that he did not have the Huey module, but HEY what the heck, try it anyway!

WC

Also -- my Internet has been sooo yucckie lately that I ran connection speed tests the other day but didn't see anything wrong... Was it Friday when I said my ping to HP was going up every second? I was thinking of calling my ISP to complain; that may be a good idea this w/e before the Fly-In next w/e. I think my ISP gives me special routing after I complain, for a while

That's another reason why I'm calling for some abruptness from the mods when we see guys hopping from platform to platform- each time they do that there's a good chance that AI takes over the aircraft and flies it through its route with whatever stores are onboard.

And you can imagine what that does.

It states VERY clearly at the beginning of the briefing that a functional knowledge of the platform of choice is one of the few prerequisites of being in there. We're a friendly bunch of guys- but you have to help yourself first.

Anyway- every day I'm trending more towards TS3 / password... the benefit of the open door- in fact the entire concept is being jeopardized by the other issues we're having right now.

Thoughts?

The Steam sale has been over for a while

Hollo Pointe will not have a password on it for 99% of the time -- only for dev work.

Hollo Pointe is an open server with a variety of tough missions. If folks join and want to jerk around and an admin sees them then I want that admin to give a warning to them. Don't be harsh. But then it's Hammer Time.

If you want to come into HP and team kill when no one is watching, come on in and go for it. We are making a list.

WC

I didn't think Eagle Dynamics would let something like that slip. Chances are a lot of people who do that are probably doing so because they haven't flown multiplayer before and are trying to get a handle on how the system works.

Happened to me during the last fly-in event, that being the first time I even dared join a DCS multiplayer server...

I'll keep that in mind for the next fly-in.

Reminds me of the time deploying the ground ladder on the A-10C was known to cause crashes... guess what? Yup... guys would run server to server and crash it until it was fixed. Banned a lot of people those couple weeks.

Yeah, I know... it's nonsensical and immature but some guys love to spread it around like nutella. I can't explain why- but yes, it is an actual problem and there has been a script generated to stop it.

Unfortunately I can't find the thread right now over on ED but it is an issue- though admittedly not enough of one (yet) to implement the script in my missions.