ut2k4 master server petition

[Crusha K. Rool]

The Master Server had some hard time recently, causing it to respond only slowly on queries and sending incomplete lists. This probably had a negative impact on the number of players who would join the server randomly, but it's all back to normal now.

That being said, the cause of the problem seems also to be identified: the LDG servers, which Techcom became a part of recently after the HDD of the old server died, seems to have run something that would list their servers in every gametype, regardless of what was being played. This bombardment with packages seems to have bothered the Master Server quite a lot, so Epic took action in an attempt to fix it by blocking the IP of LDG servers from the Master Server. And that fixed the problems indeed. Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not.

tl;dr: More players might join the server now again than in the young past and the competition from LDG knocked themselves out for now with their questionable attempts to increase their popularity.

http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/815 ... st29865239

[Pegasus]

Hey Crusha, how've ya been?

The Master Server had some hard time recently, causing it to respond only slowly on queries and sending incomplete lists. This probably had a negative impact on the number of players who would join the server randomly, but it's all back to normal now.[...]

Although the thread where we've been already discussing the problematic Master Server's situation is here, thank you for the update all the same. If heinz wants, he can merge these posts with it I guess. Also, I think a more correct assessment would read as "it's all back to normal for now." Given the state of every other peripheral UT2004 server and service run by Epic, I'm far from convinced they've truly reached a turning point in their relations with the community. I've hammered this point more in the other thread.

[...]That being said, the cause of the problem seems also to be identified: the LDG servers, which Techcom became a part of recently after the HDD of the old server died, seems to have run something that would list their servers in every gametype, regardless of what was being played. This bombardment with packages seems to have bothered the Master Server quite a lot, so Epic took action in an attempt to fix it by blocking the IP of LDG servers from the Master Server.[...]

To be frank, only one word comes to mind here and it's "good!" They've been abusing players' trust for quite some time now, with their continuous pushing of extra-gameplay related content like custom loading scripts/screens, team management stuff that auto-overrides the F8 keyb binding, ingame cache util and all that Nitro gunk which has no business intruding in non-RACE gametypes and also overriding otherwise commonly used keys (unless ppl go looking to change 'em). I don't expect 'em to learn anything from this, but at least it'll take 'em down a couple of pegs... for now.
Edit: If you couldn't tell, their greedily disruptive transmissions to the Master Server machines isn't an isolated incident; they haven't exactly been feeding GameTracker with completely legit player score updates either. So yeah, it's all for the lulz to them. I wonder where I may've hinted at that about 'em before...

[...]the competition from LDG knocked themselves out for now with their questionable attempts to increase their popularity.

I did seem quite odd to me that, virtually out of nowhere, about 5-6 months ago their racing server shot up in GT's popularity listings very fast and reached the top 10. I wonder if that coincides with the period where they started their omni-gametype pulse flooding.

[Crusha K. Rool]

Hey Crusha, how've ya been?

Pretty busy with studies. The math stuff at the pure Computer Science is giving me a hard time, so I might switch over to Economical Computer Science, which was my goal for later anyway. And those guys have easier math and more stuff that I could put to use elsewhere in life. I prefer to actually work on stuff that has a real world connection rather than proving with a lot of mind-boggling that some algorithm or theorem is valid.

Also spent some time on interesting singleplayer experiences like L.A. Noire, BioShock and Psychonauts. (And lots of others… I have more than 250 games available but hardly can work that list off. Well, got a lot to do for when I retire in old age.)
Would love to continue working on some of my many projects, but barely found enough time to get properly started again. A few hours a day ain't worth it and are often filled by homework.
Hopefully it will get better in the future.
Been a long time since I published something for UT2k4 and miss it a bit. And since I fragged someone the old-school way… probably lost a lot of my aim but the Flak should still be enough to get me a piece of you little Fluttershy. 8-)

[Pegasus]

I feel for ya there. Can't rightly say I enjoyed plodding through Applied Math I & II or Algorithm Analysis during my CS years, but even if you're not aiming to ace the subjects, they at least provide some essential insight into how practical problems that require higher math are broken down and crunched into programs, not to mention they ultimately help you see what smothering effects various dumb coding decisions can have on vital comp resources. Meh, you're a bright guy, I got no doubt you'll be able to power through that stuff in the end instead of going all... managerial on us . Seriously though, don't let yourself get too starry eyed by the near rock star status many web publications are too keen to attribute to various popular game producers these days; these guys are good, yes, but their daily work involves much more interfacing, synergising and macro planning and certainly don't include the pure joy of tying up one more gameplay mechanic at the end of a dev week to a project that's near and dear to you every day... you know?
Whatever direction you end up taking with regard to game design, having a vast array of gaming experiences to draw examples and inspiration from is essential for any kinda work in the industry, so you're definitely on the right track when you make it your mission to go through as many (and disparate) worthwhile games as you can. Bioshock and Psychonauts, I trust, you enjoyed quite a lot . And just for the hell of it, try to keep some UT-related side project running while you still care about this game so it motivates you more to get it done and return here to share it with us right before we force you back into the arena and kick your rusty ass all over the place so you'll know not to call people MLP names! Cause, toots, there's only one penalty for such a transgression. Besides, I'm totally more of a Rainbow Dash than a Fluttershy from what I can tell by the constant online deluge of brony propaganda.

Anyway, whatever the difficulties I hope this is an interesting and challenging time in your life and you're having fun with it. Drop by the server for some ggs when you can .

P.

[laboRHEinz]

Yes indeed, for the short period LDG were blocked, the master server worked as it should. But they have been unblocked again - is it just me or is it worse now for anyone else? It's not as bad as it was during the last 6 months, but sometimes the initial master server query is lasting too long again.

They seem to still use some kind of hacked server info. When you query the LDG-Race/AS-server in plain text e.g. with an offline server monitor, it looks like this:

LDG_Players.jpg (25.61 KiB) Viewed 11980 times

The player amount always shows as 11/97, no matter how many players being online. The current map is displayed as gametype, not as map; this can be compared with the usual server info in the second line.

[RottenToTheCore]

Hm,

experienced the same. That's why i asked last night, if the master server was online again.

It was up for some hours. Today it again takes an eternity to refresh.

And LDG is again in the list, yeah.

U got a special server tool? Still lookin after some tool, that shows players, servers etc., like the all-seeing-eye some years ago did.

[laboRHEinz]

http://www.birdieman.com/ututility.htm
Not perfect but better than nothing ;-)

[RottenToTheCore]

Thx!

[Izumo_CZ]

Hello, I'm LDG Admin. I just wanted to say that we have nothing to do with Master Server slowness (it was slow yesterday too for example). We were only blocked for the appearance under all common gametypes (http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/815 ... st29876201).

[laboRHEinz]

Hi Izumo / Skrilax!

Well, I followed the whole discussion from start.

I observed the master servers behaviour very carefully. My impression is:
1) It was almost dead during the last several months.
2) It worked perfectly whilst LDG servers were blocked.
3) It's very tardy again since they are unblocked.
Coincidence?

Don't get me wrong, I don't really care what you are doing on and with your servers. It's yours and I wish you good luck and lots of fun with them. But as soon as the master server is affected, well yes, then I'd be really concerned.

Let us wait what happens when Fl4k / Epic Games are finished with the server maintenance. I hope everything will be fine again after that.

In the meantime you should take a look at the constant 11/97 players thingie. Maybe that's the problem.