Changing in game server time? Is it possible? Server host says no...

[U.G.N - Jedi Panda 1319]

Hi guys,

This is really a question for the official DayZ staff, although if anyone knows the answer and can provide a reference for it that would be much appreciated.

Is it possible to change the in game server time? I have asked my host, Multiplay in the UK, they have done it once for me and moved it back to GMT-6, however it will revert back to GMT-0 whenever the server restarts. I have asked the live support guys at Multiplay to do this again for me and they have said it is not allowed, and they shouldnt have done it for me in the first place. They advise that, the only way to change the ingame time is to change the main server boxes time which will affect all game servers that are hosted on the same box. They also advise that changing the ingame time is not a feature in DayZ and that DayZ do not allow them to do it.

Please can someone (ideally DayZ staff) confirm whether there is a way to change the ingame time, and whether it is permitted.

This is a big issue for our community as our servers peak times are 7pm-2am GMT when it is pitch black in game, setting the in game time to GMT-6 lets us play in daylight during these peak times. The only option I can see is to relocate the server to New York which is GMT-5, but this is not a viable option as we will all have +120ms ping.

Any assistance on this issue would be very, very much appreciated.

Thanks

Sgt.Leon

Edited August 23, 2012 by Sgt.Leon

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

As far as I understand it, they are right -- The only way to change the time is to change the time for the entire computer the server(s) are on, and it affects all of them.

I have had hackers switch the server from 4PM to 1AM while I was playing.

[Torndeco (DayZ) 46]

Game time is based off server time @ server startup i believe.

U could try ask them to look into using utzil to alter the server time whenever u restart dayz server & alter the server time back afterwards.

But that might take them some time, assuming the quick server time change doesnt mess up another game server...

If thats not possible, i know vilayer servers allow u to alter the server time this way via the web admin panel (nice feature). Also got nice pings for eu aswell

Edited August 23, 2012 by Torndeco

[kampfkarnickel 7]

Its right ... the ingame time is the local servertime .. like the time you have in windows ... so if the hoster is using one machine for several servers... every server uses the same time ... go to another hoster... get a root or a vm with your own system and your own windows time ...

[HostVenomLLC 0]

In a VPS environment the time can typically be changed, however as mentioned in a shared environment (Run off a control panel like TCAdmin.) it has to changed for the entire computer.

[AusDayZ (DayZ) 14]

Ping really doesn't matter, especially if it's only 120. We play at ~200 pevery day and rarely even notice. As far as I'm aware you still need to change the actual box time to change your server time, although it looks as though vilayer has some macgyver Way of trying to do it. Once you get NVGs you will want it to be night anyway, I'd just push n through it if I was you.

[DrainBamaged 38]

Sgt. Leon,

Is this just a standard slot server? Or a high bandwidth server?

I run my server (via Remote Desktop) from a high bandwidth server. I can log in and switch my time of day using the tzutil function. There's a specific list of them just for doing this. For instance, I run 1550 on "Eastern Standard Time" and 2522 on "Central Asia Standard Time" so that my players always have a choice of night or day.

I don't know if the standard slot servers have a configuration for changing the time of day or not.

Hope this helps.

~DrainBamaged

aka Gravel ... admin of US 1550 and US 2522

[DrainBamaged 38]

Sgt. Leon,

Is this just a standard slot server? Or a high bandwidth server?

I run my server (via Remote Desktop) from a high bandwidth server. I can log in and switch my time of day using the tzutil function. There's a specific list of them just for doing this. For instance, I run 1550 on "Eastern Standard Time" and 2522 on "Central Asia Standard Time" so that my players always have a choice of night or day.

I don't know if the standard slot servers have a configuration for changing the time of day or not.

Hope this helps.

~DrainBamaged

aka Gravel ... admin of US 1550 and US 2522

[U.G.N - Jedi Panda 1319]

Hi all, thanks for your replies.

Firstly, ping does matter, we had co-hosted a server (shared the financial costs of a ViLayer server) with another friendly community that are based in the USA. The server was based in New York and our UK players had >120ms ping and low fps. Now its based in london our pings are <20ms and our FPS has increased dramatically.

The server we are currently using is a standard game server, not a dedicated box server, please excuse me if im not using the correct technical terms :P I purchased a standard 50 slot server with MultiPlay in London UK, so hopefuly this helps establish what type of server it is...

I would like to avoid moving to ViLayer as we have had bad experiences with them in the past. MultiPlay are an excellent host so we would like to stay with them, but this issue is something that we need to address...

Edited August 23, 2012 by Sgt.Leon

[jwiechers 92]

The server runs in real-time based off of the Windows time for the user who started the server.

This means that while the most straightforward way to change server time is to change the time of the entire system, it is possible to use the timezone environment variable to run servers with an offset; however, it should be noted that changing the server time frequently (or only having the server run sometimes instead of 24/7) will interfere with hive procedures and is not allowed.

[gwbrewer 49]

changing the server time frequently (or only having the server run sometimes instead of 24/7) will interfere with hive procedures and is not allowed.

I missed this in the rules..

[jwiechers 92]

Well, it was assumed that this was obvious and followed from the whole "no permanent daytime/nighttime" servers.

[ryahn 112]

You can change the server time for all servers. The arma server will take what the time is at startup. So if the host were to make a timezone.bat or whatever they want to call it. They can do tzutil /s "TIMEZONEHERE" in that batch file. If the file runs before startup, it will apply that time to server and then after startup, they can run another batch file to change it back to the normal server time. But if they would like to do it where none of the servers will be affected, they can run a timezone.bat file for all the servers to they always stay on the time they want.

[U.G.N - Jedi Panda 1319]

The server runs in real-time based off of the Windows time for the user who started the server.

This means that while the most straightforward way to change server time is to change the time of the entire system, it is possible to use the timezone environment variable to run servers with an offset; however, it should be noted that changing the server time frequently (or only having the server run sometimes instead of 24/7) will interfere with hive procedures and is not allowed.

Hi jwiechers, thanks for your reply :)

My server will be (and is) run 24/7, we would like the in game time to constantly be GMT-6. I will speak with Multiplay and see if this "timezone environment variable" is something they will alter for me.

For the record, the number of players on the server had roughly doubled since it has daylight during this peak time.

Thanks again :)

Edited August 23, 2012 by Sgt.Leon

[U.G.N - Jedi Panda 1319]

Can someone please post an example of the "timezone.bat" that should be run?

Thank you! :)

[U.G.N - Jedi Panda 1319]

OK this is pretty much where we're stuck at the moment, so if anyone could answer any of these I'll give you my Beans, and possibly my Mountain Dew :)

"To which "timezone environment variable" is the DayZ admin referring? Because setting the machine timezone environment variable will DEFINITELY affect every customer on the machine.".

"Sgt.Leon: timezone.bat i believe"

"Without an example "timezone.bat" file, I cannot do this."

"I can't see any command line flags to execute the batch file."

"I have to have some way of executing the batch file and then resetting the timezone after the server is started"

Multiplay are trying to help me to get this working, so they have my beans :) I guess if we get this working for my server it will also help their other DayZ customers :) I wish there was an easy way to set the server time, a command in the server.cfg would be ideal (hint for the Devs!!) :P

Edited August 23, 2012 by Sgt.Leon

[Torndeco (DayZ) 46]

timezone.bat

Thats just a batch file to run the program tzutil nothing more, no magic envolved..

tzutil /s "Atlantic Standard Time"

http://support.micro....com/kb/2556308

If multiplay server is running just dayz servers on the machine, its an easy solution. Just run the .bat file before starting the server.

But if they are running different game servers / apps it might get messy since they will need to change server time back to default after your server is started.

Plus the other apps might not like the server time changing on them

Edited August 23, 2012 by Torndeco

[jwiechers 92]

You can change the server time for all servers. The arma server will take what the time is at startup. So if the host were to make a timezone.bat or whatever they want to call it. They can do tzutil /s "TIMEZONEHERE" in that batch file. If the file runs before startup, it will apply that time to server and then after startup, they can run another batch file to change it back to the normal server time. But if they would like to do it where none of the servers will be affected, they can run a timezone.bat file for all the servers to they always stay on the time they want.

This doesn't quite work because you cannot deterministically determine (pardon), when the mission will be read. The in-game time is dependant to the mission start time, not the server process start time.

The best way to do this is to execute each server process in a separate session with distinct TZ offset.

Edited August 24, 2012 by jwiechers

[SurvivalServers (DayZ) 69]

Well, it was assumed that this was obvious and followed from the whole "no permanent daytime/nighttime" servers.

I was under the assumption the daytime/nightime rule was to prevent people from changing the time zone every day to prevent night time scenarios. I think this is a great rule but it should be clarified in the rules a bit more clearly how many time zone changes are allowed and what is and isn't acceptable (specifically).

Why can't servers stay offline? You said "or only having the server run sometimes instead of 24/7" associated with "no daytime/nightime only servers" doesn't seem to be related.

Edited August 24, 2012 by SurvivalServers