3 quick and easy ways to reduce masterserver load

[Outlaw (DayZ) 1]

Hi,

just 3 suggestions from a software engineer who loves Day Z.

1) Dynamic server names. A Server name should always show if the Server is in day or night mode. If this is not possible to code the server name string should show DAY@NIGHT as suffix generated at server start based on the current server time. That would be just a few lines of code.

Why?

My group of 3-5 people connects to like 50 servers until we find 1 that is playable for us. I am sure we are not the only ones that like to play in day mode. If we could filter for DAY@NIGHT that alone would help to reduce the masterserver load by a lot since players dont have to login on each server to check if it is day or night.

2) Select your spawnpoint. It should be possible to select your own spawnpoint out of a pool or if this is not possible cause of arma engine limitations there should be some sort of player guided parachute drop off or as a last resort the server should only give a new spawnpoint location every 30 minutes so players will spawn at the same location. This will also reduce the master server load by a big margin.

Why?

People are constantly respawning until they are near cherno/elektro to quick loot or to meet up with their group. Every time the master server needs to create a new character. This needs to stop asap cause its wasting a lot of master server resources for nothing.

3) Server hopping. There needs to be a cooldown timer so players stop serverhopping. I am sure that it would be possible to create a dynamic login cooldown. Every time a player drops from a server after less then 5 minutes played just add 2 minutes to an extra cooldown dbfield. That cooldown should reset every 2 hours. Since you can calc food etc. while a player is offline this should not be a problem at all.

Why?

There are players that hop like 10 servers just to loot gear adding a lot of load on the master server and I am sure this isnt the way its meant to be played.

Thanks for reading this.

[JudgeX 1]

I think this needs to be a dev priority... this and maybe establishing server groups.

I've also thought about the possibility of distributing the character storage task to some of the servers, as well...

[dharion@drahl.com 5]

2) Select your spawnpoint. It should be possible to select your own spawnpoint out of a pool or if this is not possible cause of arma engine limitations there should be some sort of player guided parachute drop off or as a last resort the server should only give a new spawnpoint location every 30 minutes so players will spawn at the same location. This will also reduce the master server load by a big margin.

No need for this (IMO)' date=' the premise of DayZ is that your character is ment to be you. If you die, you are dead. You don't have a group or anything else on respawn. You are a new you without memories of the old you (theoretically). I understand not everyone would play in this mindset, but it's valid with the current system.

It might actually be nicer to have the server you play on remember your character stats (after taking it from master server) and handle all future requests on said server until you log off (which at that point sends the data back to the master server for resumed play on other servers).

Then they could possibly improve the respawning system to not make you go back to lobby but just instantly respawn so that regrouping would be easier to do and give the master server less load.

1) Dynamic server names. A Server name should always show if the Server is in day or night mode. If this is not possible to code the server name string should show DAY@NIGHT as suffix generated at server start based on the current server time. That would be just a few lines of code.

2)[...]

3) Server hopping. There needs to be a cooldown timer so players stop serverhopping. I am sure that it would be possible to create a dynamic login cooldown. Every time a player drops from a server after less then 5 minutes played just add 2 minutes to an extra cooldown dbfield. That cooldown should reset every 2 hours. Since you can calc food etc. while a player is offline this should not be a problem at all.

Since admins do not label their servers with full detail, you are server hopping to find a decent one. If every server hop would add 2 minutes just because it was night or 3DP on/off or CH on/off, people would end up waiting half an hour to play just because of stumbling into servers they do not like. This will be a punishment for a labeling flaw.

I would like to see the staff enforcing detailed server labels like example:

DayZ 1.6.1 HIVE 0.9.1 [3DP:1|CH:0|TAGS:0] [GMT+1] - Hosted by ...

This will solve you server hopping for a day server and avoid some load on the MS. Maybe then you can start thinking about using the hopping cooldowns to avoid people DCing when shot or gear farming and switching, but sadly not before.

Agree with your standpoint that something should be done, but less drastic towards players that don't just hop for gear/death avoiding.

[Outlaw (DayZ) 1]

I think this needs to be a dev priority... this and maybe establishing server groups.

I've also thought about the possibility of distributing the character storage task to some of the servers' date=' as well...

[/quote']

Server groups would be hard to manage (Europe/NA/Asia) and storage of playerdata on normal servers would lead to easy hacking and corrupting the whole system. Of course its all possible but it would require a lot of time to figure something out. The things I have suggested are doable in a few days/hours. Just check the server time vs some same timezone timeserver time @ each server start and the DAY@NIGHT suffix is implemented.

---

No need for this (IMO)' date=' the premise of DayZ is that your character is ment to be you. If you die, you are dead. You don't have a group or anything else on respawn. You are a new you without memories of the old you (theoretically). I understand not everyone would play in this mindset, but it's valid with the current system.

[/quote']

You are ignoring the reality of respawning until you are near your group. This needs to stop for the master servers sake. I am talking fixes not game lore.

Since admins do not label their servers with full detail' date=' you are server hopping to find a decent one. [/quote']

This is why I wrote that a suffix should be generated automatically.

Maybe then you can start thinking about using the hopping cooldowns to avoid people DCing when shot or gear farming and switching' date=' but sadly not before.

[/quote']

This is a different matter. ALT + F4 or task killing can only be fixed if its possible that the gameserver holds a connection after the player drops off for 30-60 sec. I am not sure if this can be done at all without the help of Bohemia Interactive.

[dharion@drahl.com 5]

No need for this (IMO)' date=' the premise of DayZ is that your character is ment to be you. If you die, you are dead. You don't have a group or anything else on respawn. You are a new you without memories of the old you (theoretically). I understand not everyone would play in this mindset, but it's valid with the current system.

[/quote']

You are ignoring the reality of respawning until you are near your group. This needs to stop for the master servers sake. I am talking fixes not game lore.

I'm not ignoring it and you will see that if you read below what you quoted.

[...] storage of playerdata on normal servers would lead to easy hacking and corrupting the whole system. [...]

Please explain' date=' as you might have figured I don't have any engineer/dev experience, but always like to learn more.

How is it easier then in the current setup? Quite sure gameserver hosts have proper protection in place to avoid such a thing and I doubt that admins would want their server to be closed by DayZ staff.

Since admins do not label their servers with full detail' date=' you are server hopping to find a decent one. [/quote']

This is why I wrote that a suffix should be generated automatically.

And hence my suggestion for admins to just properly label themselves, or it being enforced by staff. No code is always preferred if you ask me.

Maybe then you can start thinking about using the hopping cooldowns to avoid people DCing when shot or gear farming and switching' date=' but sadly not before.

[/quote']

This is a different matter. ALT + F4 or task killing can only be fixed if its possible that the gameserver holds a connection after the player drops off for 30-60 sec. I am not sure if this can be done at all without the help of Bohemia Interactive.

Fair enough, would be nice to explore though.

[Lady Kyrah 1109]

As rocket said the mster server is NOT overloaded.

The server you are connected to, is.

[Outlaw (DayZ) 1]

As rocket said the mster server is NOT overloaded.

The server you are connected to' date=' is.

[/quote']

Well I can't play most of the time @ euro primetime, always waiting for server response (or endless loop of creating character -> getting ID --> ..) and then direct into the debug forest with no gear. At daytime on the same servers it works with the same amount of players (50) . Are you sure its not the master server?

[dharion@drahl.com 5]

Well I can't play most of the time @ euro primetime' date=' always waiting for server response (or endless loop of creating character -> getting ID --> ..) and then direct into the debug forest with no gear. At daytime on the same servers it works with the same amount of players (50) . Are you sure its not the master server?

[/quote']

Could be the huge amount of people trying to join the servers while full, so they just spam their enter key. Much less people doing that outside of primetime.

[Bomba1 1]

2) Select your spawnpoint. It should be possible to select your own spawnpoint out of a pool or if this is not possible cause of

think just add countdown

by follow condition: new player person can be created not more than one time for every five minutes

so players stop respawn for respawning at preferred points.

every next respawn will wait 5mins for countdown end.

player killed or died in game (more than 5 minutes after person was created) respawned without any countdown

[Outlaw (DayZ) 1]

2) Select your spawnpoint. It should be possible to select your own spawnpoint out of a pool or if this is not possible cause of

think just add countdown

by follow condition: new player person can be created not more than one time for every five minutes

so players stop respawn for respawning at preferred points.

every next respawn will wait 5mins for countdown end.

player killed or died in game (more than 5 minutes after person was created) respawned without any countdown

I think no game cooldowns should always be the last resort. If they spawn at the same loc there would be no point in respawning.

[Bomba1 1]

If they spawn at the same loc there would be no point in respawning.

Player respawn at different location, but player need wait penalty timeout before trying change location (randomy selected). So play started from respawned point or wait

[Lady Kyrah 1109]

As rocket said the mster server is NOT overloaded.

The server you are connected to' date=' is.

[/quote']

Well I can't play most of the time @ euro primetime, always waiting for server response (or endless loop of creating character -> getting ID --> ..) and then direct into the debug forest with no gear. At daytime on the same servers it works with the same amount of players (50) . Are you sure its not the master server?

From what rocket said around the master server is more than a match for the current dayZ traffic, the only thing it doesn't like is the repeated use of the respawn button.

As for the game servers themselve they get DDoSed by all the peoples spamming the enter key, it aparently creates a lingering connection on the gamespy port that can make the ram use inflate (since usually there is quite a bunch of peoples trying again, and again and again)