DISCONNECTS HAPPEN TOO QUICKLY

I notice that when I let a char set without entering any keystrokes that frequently the char(s) are disconnected from the server. I am not talking about a long period of inactivity, but rather a relatively short period of time like when I am using one char to sell or disperse all the items found on a trip. Then when I attempt to use the other chars they are non-responsive and require a re-sign-in. Or a short phone call interrupts my play and a sign-in is required. Sometimes this seems to happen within 5-10 minutes. I am using the Javatar client. Is the drop factor set rather short?

Mike

This may be due to some new Windows 10 weirdness.. I will look into some settings and report back. Thanks for the report!

In the last few days when running multiple characters, I have had some chars drop off the sys - stop responding. It has happened while still in the city after signing on and also deep in the game. Results in death when it occurs during a fight I would normally step out of, but discover the char is "frozen". Doesn't happen every char at the same time. Seems similar to what is described in the base note. I have to re-sign on to become active. Not a common incident, but very frequent in the past few days. I will see if I can replicate or describe circumstances when it occurs better.

I am actively working on this. I have not found anything specific online about this being a Windows 10 issue, but I'm pretty sure we weren't seeing this until quite recently (which makes me suspect a Windows 10 update issue). My current strategy is to change the client code (slightly) in such a way that connections left 'unattended' appear to be a bit more active to the server.. I'll post here when a new version of the client is available for download. Thanks for your updates.

-Jude

This randomly occurring freezing event creates a big problem. Especially when it happens in a fight and the char leading the group becomes non-responsive. Trying to move multiple chars in separate actions is usually deadly in a serious fight. It was almost as if the char was paralyzed with no accompanying label that said that. Today the deaths from this defect (and my stupidness) resulted in two complications on ress.

Part of the blame is mine of course. When the fight started, I set auto-fight for the swingers and cast spells from the spellers. Then I saw it was a serious fight and my actions were having no significant effect. I went back to the leader and after a slight wait for auto-fight to end so I could move the group out of the room. But that was when I realized the leader was not responding. So I went to the others to move them individually, but the delay was deadly.

Think I should not use auto-fight initially with the leader so I could move earlier, but the freeze event negated that effort.

The monsters were Jharmiskas if that makes a different.

Does this happen only to me?

This freeze thing has happened more than once: in this latest freeze a group of 5 moved from 5,24,11 to 6,24,11 and the leader was killed in a surprise attack. This move resulted in the seeker leader to be dead at 6,24,11 and returned the rest of the group back to 5,24,11 all alive.

I then moved one char into 6,24,11 to pick up the dead char. The fight appeared on the char's screen, but the char was immediately froze and unresponsive. I then moved another char into the fight and ended it. The frozen char remained unresponsive and needed to be re-login.

The previous incidents were similar although in different locations.

Are we any closer to finding a cause or solution?

Mike

Hi Mike,

I'm wondering if the 'disconnects' and the 'freeze' thing are the same thing, or different things. If it's a straight up connection issue, then you should be just as likely to lose the connection if you character is sitting at the city steps (or in the city) doing nothing. Are these freezes that you are seeing happening only in the dungeon? If so, it's probably a piece of rarely occurring glitchy display code that is popping up. (In the past, I believe some specific dungeon locations have had a greater association with freeze behavior..)

I know other players have reported more frequent disconnects, i.e. their connection just timing out for no good reason. The disconnection behavior I am assuming to be related to some sort of Windows 10 thing, because it only started to get reported relatively recently.

Regarding a fix to the disconnection thing--I spent some time looking for the client code (to do a rewrite) and didn't find it on this machine the other night. That probably means I have the archive set up on another machine in the house, probably my upstairs desktop. My plan is to add some more frequent active pings to the client side code, in order to keep the server connections alive for longer stretches of time. We used to have pings in place (for other reasons) long ago, but they were removed.. reactivating them (as soon as I find the client code) should be straightforward.

I'm also curious to know if any of the behavior--freezes and or frequent disconnects--is being seen on the JavaScript (aka web browser version). If someone could give the web browser a try on this specific issue, and provide feedback here, that would help me narrow things down. My current inclination is to 'fix' the Java (standalone) client, but I'm not 100% certain that it is the culprit or the best place to affect a fix...

I managed to Sherlock Holmes this one. There was some bad encounter data-- where I had assigned an impossible number to a certain monster... It will be fixed as soon as Jude has a moment to load up some files and reload the encounter tables.

Mike,

In the future-- could you try and be more specific with your reports? I need things like what monsters appear, in which slots, and such. It would save me significant time trying to deduce what is going on.

Thanks,

JPA

A big thank-you to JPA for sorting this one out for us.

I just uploaded his fix for the specific encounter freezes--it should be live on the server now. I am still working on a fix for the other issue. This month is pretty busy for me with prep for the holidays and a vacation thrown in for good measure... but I will be investing a significant chunk of time in Javatar when January rolls around.

I notice that when I return from any in-depth trip and all my chars are resting in the city and I am busy cleaning out my thief or distributing items found, that the chars I am not actually using for these activities will frequently disconnect from the server. At least that is what appears to happen. They are unresponsive and I have to re-sign them back in. When I re-sign them in, I do not have to kick the previous sign-on off but rather just re-connect the dropped char(s).

The length of time the original dropped char(s) was unused may be as short as about 5 minutes (est), but admittedly at other times I have seen no disconnect with an even longer "unused" time period.

I have checked with other players to see if this happens to them and they say "frequently".

Is there a solution to keeping an unattended char on just a bit longer before it is dropped off the system?