Sign in areas = less crashing

Warlock · Post by **Warlock** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:18 pm

Now I'm not going to advertise my coding game friend here (whom wishes to remain anon) but he does create for NWN2 PW worlds. Anyway, he has found the main reason thus far he can see for so many crashes, especially intial log on, is because there may be too many people in a given area, or too many things to render in a given area at once.
On the worlds he works on, they have 2-4 sign in areas, 1 initial docking place, then 4 different gates to transport you to different areas of the small world. Obviously you can't transport around once your there, but he has said there have been a huge shift in reported crashes since the once crowded areas (where PCs have a tendency to annoyingly hang out) that was near the sign in area since now there is less to initially render when one signs on.

Anyway, stuff for thought, and somehting to keep in mind once you decide to redo or expand areas.
I have been to at least 3 PW worlds that use this method ( an empty log in room with gates of transport) and find that I very rarily crash in them when I sign on.

Basically this stems from my liking the Dassaria world design tremendously, and I am jsut frustrated and bummed I can only sign on once in a while now or in the weeeee hours of the moring, by that time I have to head to bed after only a half hour of play.

SnorriHT · Post by **SnorriHT** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:34 pm

Interestingly Warlock, my old NWN1 PW had exactly this. It also had a tutorial area for new players to learn the rules (it was a hardcore server), and a place to choose a god for those who had no god.

Post by **Vahene** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:20 am

There was a greeting area/ooc area with an arena in Das1.

It was a place for us to all crash while the DM's crashed the server.

*evil grin*

K

sirius · Post by **sirius** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:32 am

I like the idea.

Maybe the creation of an inn at Thrall's Gate could serve as the second spawn, and maybe another blacksmith over that way could be added (thus giving people a store in Cear North, Aucklorn and Thrall's Gate). Unfortunately, most of the high level quests still require you to return to the Mistyvale area (Mae's, the Talon Captain), thus people would still choose to spawn in the Misty.

I guess a temporary solution would be to just move that Talon Captain into the new inn, and maybe consider moving Mae to Thrall's Gate as well.

Or, you could always force people of certain level brackets to spawn in different places (e.g. 1-10 Cear North, 10-20 Thrall's Gate). This wouldn't be very nice if you didn't adjust where quests were obtained though. Anyway, I'll cut this short before I probably offend people with my suggestions

Post by **Peregrinus** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:42 am

I expect secondary spawning areas will be added as Das2 expands. In Das1 we had at least three (maybe five) spawns.

1. Daris, Inn
2. Dasar, Inn
3. EoS spawn
4. Nergalite spawn?
5. Telkimar (sp?), Inn?

Personally I'd prefer a Aucklorn Mill spawn over a Thrall's Gate spawn, as Thrall's really isn't that far from Cear. Though it might be cool to have two spawns in Cear (one in N. Cear the other in Trades and Commons), Thrall's Gate and Aucklorn. It may also help with issues.

However, I've never crashed when loading into Mistyvale, unless my computers been on a long time, I usually crash when I go into either N. Cear or Trades and Commons, which alternate spawns wouldn't help with anyway.

I wonder, would it be possible to further split N. Cear, using the gate out of the city as the transition. This would nearly half the size of the area... which may help the transition crashes.

Minuvas · Post by **Minuvas** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:58 am

An Inn at my Doorstep?

Great....

sirius · Post by **sirius** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:09 am

I'm not sure if the DMs are planning on using a world map, but that could solve a lot of the problems. You could get the World Map thrown at you on spawn, and then you choose a location (e.g. maybe, Cear, Dasar, Morell etc.).

From memory, you can make certain areas restricted depending on which transition you are at, so, from that spot, you could restrict it to simply the main settlements like Cear or Dasar. That way people couldn't just go anywhere, and that would probably break up the spawning a bit.

EDIT: Personally though, I'd probably prefer 'binding' yourself to places. Inns would be the best choice for fairly obvious reasons, and faction-specific areas.

Warlock · Post by **Warlock** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:43 am

Now I've seen bindings on NWN 1 servers, but have yet to see them for NWN 2, and let me tell ya, I've been on ALOT of servers the past week. Its possible they didn't; include that in the scripting/coding for binding?

Well, that would be the same kind as re-spawing in a specific place after a death right?

sirius · Post by **sirius** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:03 am

I've played on one nwn2 server that had binding points. However, I didn't like the way they were implemented (with crystals and pretty much everywhere - in fact I didn't like the server at all

). I like the idea of inns and faction places being bind-able, because those are places at which your character could conceivably be operating out of (due to the presence of beds, access to food etc.).

Could be as simple as a conversation with the owner of the inn, and maybe paying a fee. I'm sure it could be implemented though.

SnorriHT · Post by **SnorriHT** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:37 am

Warlock just another thing mate, has your friend reported this to Obsidian or on the NWN2 forums? Also if he has actual crash data then I'd encourage him to PM it to Rob McGinnis:

link to post on forums

We need to keep the pressure on Obsidian to make transition crashes the priority one bugfix.

Wyvern · Post by **Wyvern** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:07 am

Binding will work exactly like it did in NWN 1 - probably better if the world map was tossed in (both of which the staff have discussed in the past). It will happen, I promise.

urgualamand · Post by **urgualamand** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:22 am

World map travel?.. binding?.. *drools at the thought of less transitions*

sirius · Post by **sirius** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:29 pm

*excited*

Warlock · Post by **Warlock** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:47 am

wow I was just on a PW world called Forgotten, they had a log in area, then that went to a very small city and from the city you can go in like sewers or outside which goes to numerous places.

Also they had thier own version of Adolo that loads everything ahead of time and updates regularily. They averaged 40 people online the time I signed on.
When I signed on, NWN2 didn't crash, I transitioned through 14 times total for various, and played about 2 hours with only 1 crash.

Man was I impressed. And they were using the World Map thingy.
The major difference i seen was there were no players standing around buffed chatting, AND there were no characters/NPCs wandering around aimlessly, only guards standing still. That does make it feel a bit desolate.
Dassaria feels very much alive in that sense.

frumdar · Post by **frumdar** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:30 am

(keep in mind i'm typing this while half asleep, so forgive me for horrible grammer and what not)
I remember reading somewhere on the offcial forums that the magic number for any given area is 34? or 35? something along that area. Anytime there are more players or npcs than 34 it could cause issues, lag crashing etc. This may have been fixed, but 30+ unique characters in a single area does seem like alot, even for todays multiplayer standards. (key word being unique)

Also if possible, keep the exits of indoor areas pointed away from heavy (polygon, fx, textures) areas or keep something between them, maybe another house etc so the extra geometry is not being rendered in view after all the information is loaded.

Another suggestion, never post rambling messages like me when you're this tired