Warclaim Promises

[Daisy 9735]

Hey all,

 

As most of you are aware, there was a warclaim scheduled for last Saturday that did not happen. The reason for this was quite simple - I was not there, and my knowledge/access level was required to import the rosters into the /queue plugin. For those curious, on Friday / Saturday I was in the middle of a bidding war for my first house - and I got it! Yet due to this hectic weekend I simply forgot to do the roster setup for Saturday’s fight. However, the root issue here really isn’t if the reason for my absence was excusable or not, the real problem is that there was no contingency plan. There was no method for the moderation team, even with the assistance of @Java17 and @Greehn, to import the rosters into the queue plugin. I am sorry for this mistake, that is, relying on a system where I was the single point of failure. A system that is meant to support a fun event for hundreds of people cannot be this fragile. If not last week it would have happened eventually, this situation was inevitable with the existing setup. So, I’m here to own that mistake, and explain what we’ll be doing moving forward to prevent it from happening again, as well as addressing other open concerns about the war server.

What’s being changed to avoid another postponement?

 

I have modified the code for the queue plugin to permit the mod team to batch-import the rosters. This will allow them to import an entire side’s roster with one command, rather than relying on me to manually upload the rosters to the backend server.

 

Further, I am working with Josh and his team to document the processing for setting up a warclaim end-to-end, so that intervention by someone with technical knowledge is not required.

 

Finally, some other changes are being made to the war server plugin to simplify the setup process.

 

The last warclaim was delayed as well, are there systematic problems with the war server?

 

The last siege was actually delayed for an entirely different reason. Due to the60th’s removal, the war server was left in a half-updated state to Minecraft 1.20. This update had been started to improve performance of the server, though was never completed. We were not aware of this until a couple days before the fight, and were unable to resolve this in time as none of our core plugins had been properly updated to this version. It took around 30 hours of development time to get the war server and all of its plugins fully operational on 1.20. This was a one-off issue, and won't lead to future delays.

 

Why couldn’t we restore our items after the last warclaim?

 

Since the main server is still on 1.18.2, the format of the items in the /warsync database was in the 1.20 item format after the fight. Although the server’s API supports upgrading items from an old version to a new one, it does not support downgrading. I have however coded a custom converter script to downgrade the items after a fight, so this will not be an issue moving forward.

 

/showhealth did not work

 

The ability to toggle /showhealth was removed, as this was the root cause of the mass disconnect during one of the January/February warclaims, as typing the command causes player data to be resent for anybody within your render distance (which is a lot during blob fights). However, during this removal, it was not set as enabled by default. This has been fixed.

 

Siege issues - sign editing and RNG

 

Right-click to edit signs is a new feature added in 1.20, thus the upgrade of the war server introduced this issue. This was fixed before the start of the previous warclaim.

 

I am still investigating on how we can balance to siege plugin so it is both fair and fun for both sides. There were significant nerfs to the plugin following player feedback during the Haense v. Veletz war. No changes are planned to be made before the next siege, though should we have a test environment ready in the next week or so, we may make some changes following feedback from the next fight.

 

Horse whistles were not usable

 

We are still investigating this issue, and will announce if it is fixed prior to a warclaim. Should a field battle happen anytime soon, this will be prioritized.

 

Chat and broadcasts were not usable on the war server

 

This is also due to the 1.20 upgrade. Our chat plugin has not been updated to this version yet. We are working on this.

 

General lag issues

 

From a pure server performance perspective, the most recent fight (6/29) ran well. We made some optimizations to packet compression for the server in general during the Spring, which have been effective (as well as patching the /showhealth mass-disconnect). We will monitor upcoming warclaims with larger player counts to see what else can be optimized.

I hope these changes and insights into the issues helps resolve any open concerns about the stability of the war server and scheduling of future warclaims. If there is any other feedback about technical issues for the war server, feel free to comment on this thread, or reach out directly to me on Discord.

 

— Llir | Technical Administrator

 

p.s. thank you @Kaiser, @Rigorous, and @Josh3738 for discussing these issues with me at length over the weekend.

[Zacho 2177]

nice, hopeful for the future

[sprtn 3340]

if zacho replies, he isn't hopeful for the future

also thank you for being patient with us. tech team will sort out all the issues eventually :heart:

[rathat 868]

nub wei

[Rig 17580]

I appreciate Llir, Josh, Java, Spurf, Kaiser and others being so forthcoming about ways to fix these problems.

[LobsterLarry 1514]

ok you can stay.... i guess.... but you owe me 2 chunks of carbarum...

[Borin 7645]

Just now, Greehn said:

if zacho replies, he isn't hopeful for the future

also thank you for being patient with us. tech team will sort out all the issues eventually ❤️

not patient w you. hurry up greehn.

[sam33497 7356]

give me rep (give tech members more perms in general)

[shay 2582]

pov: llir with his new house

[Pancho 4197]

W llir, me and Kanapes drinking for ya. May is cheering with her migraine

[Frisket 4538]

W effort, go tech team

[teeylin 1688]

thank you kowaman and the java team for all you guys do! 

[christman 3529]

Is it in suburbia? 

[subatomic 1498]

Congrats on the first house

Edited August 22, 2024 by subatomic
Lowkey didnt know what I was thinking writing that corny ass message. Post forum posting clarity hit me hard 3 months later or whatever

[Unwillingly 18115]

I appreciate how genuine this reads, thanks for communicating. also congrats on the house