Hello there.

As an administrator for a (mostly) stable UO server, I'm looking to clean house on our mod, and am looking for a little advice on doing it. We've had some bouts of really bad lag, connection interruptions included, and the only common denominator, from a technical standpoint, appears to be the mod- outside of that, the only other factors are the host or weather, which can't be helped.

Our mod is a customized version of AWE 2.12, with some added custom skins, reworked weapons, etc. As it exists now, there are server-side and client-side package counterparts, and my goal is to limit the size of the server-side package to as little as possible. I've heard that a smaller server-side package is preferable. I've also heard that redundancy is completely unnecessary when it comes to these packages- and I know we have at least a few files in both.

So- what I really want to know is what kinds of files are absolutely necessary in a server-side (or client-side) package? What kinds of files are better off in one or the other?

The only thing that appears to be absolutely necessary, after preliminarily poking about looking at our setup and the setup of another (now gone) server's files appears to be the UI... the server I intended to test this on is currently unavailable to me, otherwise I'd test it. Does a mod require a server side file at all?

I found all the little extras in that mod can make your server CRASh try takeing out the fog,Breath,sticky nades, satchels, and dont have your derver start with Foy.

What version of UO tyou run 1.51 or 1.41.

Donefore

Drop by our server and see

208.167.224.75:28960 uo 1.41

Donefore writes...

Why keep AWE around if you cut out all the extras? We actually like the sticky nades, remote satchels, tripwires, and the like, so I won't be trying to toss those.

We run 1.51. We typically run custom maps in rotation, and tend to shy away from the stock maps, favoring a few really good, and less resource costly, remakes. We have gone to great pains, and have been very selective, to build a rather large library of BAS maps that can run 32 players with no max_gamestate/max_chars.

I'm mostly looking to trim the fat in AWE of stuff that we don't need. Something that sticks out are the .gsc files for the new gametypes and what appear to be edits of the base gametypes. We don't run anything other than BAS on our server, so it seems to me that I can lose all of those but the BAS one.

We run trips and Multi satchels 2 Weapons with the AWE mod and there are NO CLIENT SIDE DOWNLOADS!

It works fine

Donefore writes...

Seems like we're of two different philosophies. I commend your work though- no client downloads is pretty impressive on its own.

I imagine your way has its drawbacks, though. I would think it results in a lot more communication between the client/server, and therefore higher gamestate (as I understand it, I may be wrong). Our server wouldn't be able to handle that as well, because BAS hogs a lot of gamestate on its own, and some custom maps push it to the limit (or over- I'm looking at you, broadsword/foy). Either way, giving a rough run tonight.

hi
if you email me what you want I can help you
is it gamestate or download your trying to cut down on
ff56gfm@btinternet.com

cheesymuffins writes...

First of all, let me introduce myself - I was a developer for AWE. I made the AWE mod for COD4 and World at War. So, I know a lot about the mod.

Second, whether you keep everything server-side, or opt for a client-side download as well, neither method will increase or reduce gamestate. Gamestate is how much game memory is being used by the game plus whatever the mod uses. As you probably know, with UO it's only 32k. Big maps, and gametypes like BAS, use up a hell of a lot of gamestate as standard. So, running a mod with maps like Italy and gametypes like BAS, they are going to cause problems for the mod - which they did!

AWE 2.12 was notorious for crashing servers while running BAS. We advised admins to turn off as many features as possible. But the main culprits for crashing servers were: 1) head popping; 2) weather FX; and 3) ambient FX (like sky tracers and ambient stukas). If you have any of those things running, turn them off.

Also, Linux servers suffered more with AWE than Windows servers. We never managed to figure out exactly why, and some versions of Linux are better than other (Ubantu is better than Red Hat - but Linux has changed so much since 2003-2004 those names are now obviously redundant, and I haven't kept abreast of newer versions).

CPU usage is obviously higher using a mod, and HTTP Redirect on a busy server will also push your server (sadly, running stock maps + BAS + AWE is better than running custom maps). However, modern Quad Core servers should not struggle as much as the single core Pentium servers we had back in 2003-2004. However, the code used in UO for these things obviously never envisioned things like dual core or quad core, and only one core will be used anyway. So, your server's CPU usage will still be trashed, and a busy server will still crash from time to time, even if it is only once in a blue moon, because of it. It is just something you will have to get used to. However, having said that, a good Quad Core Windows server will still be more stable than a single core server, simply because the other cores will still be used for basic Windows functioning while the game server is running.

I am not around much these days, but you can always get a hold of me either via Personal Message here or Email (tally_man@hotmail.co.uk). So, if you are still having trouble, contact me. I will see what I can do.

From what you've said, Tally, I don't see much hope. We run a Linux server, are pretty attached to our custom maps, and it appears my 'streamlining' will do more shuffling than helping-at best making something neater.

We have turned plenty of features off, including all the ones you mentioned. Luckily we've been flying under the radar on gamestate, and have even gotten away with running Italy with the mod, probably due to our 32 player limit. No clue what the technical specs for our box are, our host is less than helpful. Actually, I blame our host for a lot of things... like the random lag spikes. (They cite the heat.)

For any still paying attention, The rough run went poorly. I left out a script from the server-side file, and it just happened to be the first one AWE calls on.

cheesymuffins writes...

Stock BAS running stock maps on Linux will still have intermittent server crashes. The BAS gametype was badly coded, and using so much gamestate memory, it only just sails under the gamestate limit. So, it's not entirely the fault of the mods - it is the game itself.

If they had doubled the gamestate to 64k, it would have solved a hell of a lot of problems with UO. Heaven knows why they didn't. It's not like they had the limits of consoles to worry about in those days.