Question Regarding Locking Servers During Reboots

[splinter2k 23]

Greetings,

I've read quite a few posts on these forums and understand that it is against the TOS for public/official hive servers to be locked. However, I have a question/problem regarding routine reboots/maintenance.

Sometimes when I restart my server, I get complaints from players that their tents and vehicles didn't spawn. When this happens, I restart the server again and they usually reappear.

I've noticed that this happens most when players connect to the restarted server too soon. It seems like the server has not fully finished initializing or connecting to the HIVE or something. If I restart my server, when there are no players and give it a few minutes before connecting, I don't see this problem.

I would like to lock the server, long enough to let the reboot process finish completely and cleanly. Currently, I use a custom Admin tool that I wrote and I added a "Server Locked for Reboot" function that works. However, the user still connects to the server and is then kicked with the message "The Server is Currently Locked for Reboot."

I would rather Lock the server via the #Lock command at the server level. That way the user would never connect to the server and potentially interrupt the restart process. However, I would be violating the TOS as my server would appear locked and I would no doubt be flamed for being an abusive admin.

I can always stick to the way I am handling it now, but thought I would poll the community for ideas and thoughts.

Thanks,

Splinter

Edited April 10, 2013 by Splinter_2K

[facoptere 180]

I do the same thing during shutdown. I lock the servers 5 minutes before end, since it's not worth playing only for 5 minutes.

Public hive admins won't blacklist for that.

And I agree that the server startup is a bit cheesy.

[terrorizer33 131]

Im not aware this problem occurs on our server (anymore I have to add). People who connect when the server is still connecting to the main hive just can't get in the game yet.. Havent heard anything about missing tents anymore since 1.7.6.1

[domistyle 221]

Just go for it.

@terrorizer33 It's a problem with Arma servers in general.

When too many players join at once the server tends to desyncs which causes problems with the Hive and lag for the players ingame.

It especially happens on servers running on a bad machine.

That's why BEC allows you to lock the server if too many players are connecting.

Incase you are running BEC I recommend you enable it by the way.

[fighter139 191]

Noone gets blacklisted anymore. Don't worry about the hosting rules.