Ok, so this is the 2nd night in a row I can't log in because I'm stuck on Starting Game. The only permafix for this is a map wipe, but even then it'll recur because electricity is enabled. I get that, and I sympathize. In lieu of that, you can set up scheduled restarts every few hours. This would be beneficial for multiple reasons:
1. When server is full, would give players the chance to hop in at a certain time, meaning players on can't just be afk for hours
2. Memory leaks ARE an issue in this game, and scheduled restarts do help with lag/desync issues
3. Would allow us to know how much time we need to kill before the server is playable again, since now it's just whenever you guys wake up and get around to it. So I'm just SOL until probably 9AM my time
I really hope this is implemented, and please don't take this as a personal attack. TFP screwed up a LOT with a16, and while I'm frustrated that I can't play on my new favorite server, I understand that the issue lies at TFP's feet. You guys are just doing what you can with what they've given you.
Thanks for reading.
Corey and I experienced this stuck at 'starting game' last night. The harbinger being that a tract of land we traveled through just 30 min. prior was now barren 100m ahead of us and beyond. Corey was brave and dumb enough to venture into it and fell through. I was nearby but not on the barren land.
We were both stuck at 'starting game' until the server bounced on schedule - just 5 minutes after this occurred. It's a known issue and I expect that TFP will use the log files that admins are sending them and will fix it with the next patch or version.
Chanting the mantra: It's Allllphhhaaa does tend to help (relieve tension).
Well I have been running this server for over a year and a half now and have never had an issue with the prefab pack. You are correct that is a possibility if you are taking the time to tweak your own personal files, we have encountered the issue while in the testing process and corrected it.
I appreciate that you are trying to assist me but I see nothing that would indicate prefabs would be causing an issue. Without having access to my out put logs there is no way for any one to make any logical deduction of what is happening.
The best thing you can do to assist me is to gather your own console logs and report the situations you were in while the issue occurs. This will allow me to hopefully narrow down the cause of the issue.
Thanks
I read online that the "Starting game" problem is due to prefabs, if it encounters a problem with the prefab it just stops world generation for all players, could be something else causing this but I figured I would just throw that out there.
I thank you both for your concern. I ended up getting busy diving into A16.3 files last night and forgot to set up the restart schedule as I had said I would yesterday morning in the steam group when I woke up, my apologies.
That being said I just wanted to address a few things really quickly. I know it is common conception that electricity is breaking the servers but, as I have been reading through multiple output logs from all these occurrences, I have yet to find a reason to conclude this.
I don't deny that electricity may cause some lag or other issues but the occurrence which is causing the server to lock up is not related in my opinion. I know there may be other people in forums or even the TFP that disagree with me but until I can feel comfortable with that assumption, which I don't, then I will continue to run as is to gather data and hopefully resolve the issue in the future, or assist TFP to do so.
We are more then happy to address your complaints but in the future please take the time to send any issues through email. That being said, we get alerts to our phones when we are sent emails, emailing us like every minute for 10 minutes is allowed. If I don't wake up after that I am probably in a coma until morning.
P.s. Only do that for lock ups and extreme emergencies though :).
This really is quite an annoying issue, it completely locks up the server until someone is able to get up and restart it, which is a pain in the butt for both players and admins.
Automatic restarts would be a godsend, I do remember there being a plugin back in a14 where you could vote for a restart through the website, I understand that this would be quite complex to implement but there needs to be something done about this.