Critical Unplanned Update of 0.34 to Stable 7 February 2014

[rocket 16567]

Earlier this week we identified the source of a "respawn" bug that would cause players to become stuck in the "you are dead" screen. Because of the extent of the problem, and the difficulty it causes players, we have decided to push the 0.34 update to stable very early. 

 

What was the bug?

 

This was caused when two small bugs with existing systems combined together when another bug was fixed. When a player clicked "respawn" for an unconscious character, the game server immediately sends an urgent message to the database asking it to kill the players current character. The the server sets the players game character's damage to full, and proceeds to save the characters current inventory/position one last time to the database. Normally, by the time it has finished that the damage has been set for the character and, again, a message was sent to the server demanding the player was killed.

 

There was an old failsafe in the "save character" system on the central server, that when asked to save a character where no alive one existed, it would make a new one. What this meant was, the respawned character would be killed, then saved new, then killed again. The problem occurs that when a server comes under heavy load... both kill messages occur first. This means that a cloned, already dead, character then exists - trapping the player in a cycle of death. This complex logic state issue was identified and fixed yesterday. 

 

What does this mean?

 

This means three things:

1. The 0.34 will not be as extensive as we wanted it to be (just hotfixing)
2. There is increased risk of new bugs creeping in to stable as 0.34 has not been tested long
3. Today the whole stable network will be dropped to deploy the update

Why not wait until the scheduled update?

 

We feel that the impact of the bug is too high, and affecting too many players, to wait until we have tested the update more extensively and deploy it during our scheduled maintenance periods (wednesdays). Leading into the weekend, there is the potential for the problem to become worse as the server performance drops as more and more character have the issue and connect/disconnect trying to fix it.

 

When will this happen?

 

7 February 12PM GMT, the stable branch network will be taken down to deploy the update. Please note: it can take game server providers up to 30 minutes to drop their servers. Players who are connected to a game server while the central server drops, are at risk of losing their progress.

 

How long will the downtime last?

 

We expect it stable to be down for three hours.

 

Will Experimental Branch go down too?

 

No, Experimental Branch will not be affected, although only a small number of servers run this branch.

[Dragor69 12]

nice

[DMentMan 707]

alright, thanks for the info

Edited February 7, 2014 by DMentMan

[Zarniwoop 1193]

Good to see the important stuff has priority. ;) Nice update, keep it up.

[Redwolf (DayZ) 125]

Will todays patch include the changelog for the current experimental?

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/171660-pending-changelog-experimental-branch-034xxxxx/

[AdVentHeRpDeRp 5]

Glad to see you guys prioritizing problems, and attending to the players needs!!

[Wolfensteinsaurus 2252]

Nice!.

[law1977 17]

Good to see a company make sure they keep on top of these type of bugs and pull out all the stops to fix them. I am sure late nights have been had over this appreciate the effort

[rocket 16567]

Will todays patch include the changelog for the current experimental?

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/171660-pending-changelog-experimental-branch-034xxxxx/

 

Yes, however some of those fixes have not been verified. So not all may actually be fixed.

[MisanthropicOne 1]

Awesome. Keep up the good work!

[Redwolf (DayZ) 125]

Will todays patch include the changelog for the current experimental?

http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/171660-pending-changelog-experimental-branch-034xxxxx/

 

 

Yes, however some of those fixes have not been verified. So not all may actually be fixed.

Awesome!

Thanks for the quick reply!

[Hugh (DayZ) 1]

Well, thanks for the hotfix. I got hit with this bug first time I starved unconscious. Respawn put me in a death loop. Killed the client, waited five minutes, restart, respawn.  :thumbsup:

 

Haven't so much as seen another player, but I've starved to death twice because no food anywhere. That has a greater impact on my gaming than the death loop did. Hotfix that plz.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Hugh

[RoterBallon 68]

Nice :)

Can't await it when I have to time to play again / am back from my holidays in Thailand by the beginning of april :)

actually measn ~+4 Patches by then :D

[FatKangaroo 72]

Keep up the good work, you're doing great!

[TD808 71]

The flexibility you are showing and your dedication to the alpha testers is commendable. Keep up the good work.

[Wendsill 4]

Thank you!

 

Awesome that this is being hotfixed urgently, much obliged, :thumbsup:, :beans: and /tips hat.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Wendsill

[osiris 44]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. It is the little things, like taking the time to explain bugs like these, that really makes us feel like trusted friends. Not just consumers :-)

Edited February 7, 2014 by 0siris

[theswedishcathead 59]

Thank you

[whothehellishe 81]

Awesome, thanx guys!

[RoterBallon 68]

I want to mention adding this:

http://www.abload.de/img/hpim1363i6k.jpg

or something like that ;)

Tweeted already, but I don't think dean replies to it since he has a lot to do ;)

maybe it gets mentioned in here, dunno whether it is planned already

[onty 109]

Sorry for a stupid question but in 24hrs format..Is it at 12 or 24?  :blush:  :blush:

[theswedishcathead 59]

This should of just been a hotfix really.. no need major update.

[terrvik 2409]

This should of just been a hotfix really.. no need major update.

 

You are right, they are doing it this way for no other reason than to be an annoyance to people.

[Knallscharsche 4]

Its 12 o'clock in 24 so seen from my timezone (gmt +1) the maintenance will start in round about half an hour.

[DaMaakus 34]

Pretty nice!

 

I like the way he communicates the problem and the solution to the people!

I was in closed beta of MW:Online and there was never much of a communication of game mechanic problems to the people, not even mentioning of some bug fixes in the patch notes.

 

The way rocket and his team handle this is very good. I hope this will be the way to go in the future!

 

Thanks!