1.4.4 A few server issues

[SylenThunder]

Ok, let me start by telling you what my setup is, then I'll work into the details....

I'm running a physical server, not some virtualbox. It's a

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with 2x 2.6GHz Opteron CPU's.
I'm running Ubuntu Server 12.04LTS on it. (Because with 10.04 anything over 10GB RAM usage boggs the server down, with 12.04 I can get up to 13GB. This is an issue I am still working to resolve.)
It currently has 16GB of RAM installed (max), and I have expanded the swapfile to 16GB as well.
I'm running off of two 73GB 15k RPM hard drives Mirrored with RAID. (RAID-1)
I'm running Psytrac's 1.4.4 release, 343 style and I haven't changed anything except added a couple of items to Gshop, and the things that I'll list below in my troubleshooting efforts.


Here's my problems.. (To be explained in further detail below.)
1. CPW just won't work.
2. Rank9 armor appears to be about as effective as standing naked.
3. When I enter Nightscream Island, the FPS plummets.
4. If anyone has any ideas about why the server bogs down with high memory, I would appreciate it.

Now to go into details....
1. CPW doesn't work:
Ok, so here's what I've done to-date on this issue. (I'm summarizing some data from this thread.)

1. From a clean server install I got my client configured how I needed it with the servers ports and everything set up and tested.
2. I then unpacked all of the .pck files and assembled the entire mess into one .7z file being careful to preserve the Chinese characters for file names.
3. Then we copied it over to the server in /opt/cpw/files/new and extracted it.
4. then from /opt/cpw, I ran "./cpw initial"
5. Once that was done, I tried to connect the client, and it won't find it.
6. I ran "./cpw revision 607" and tried again, no luck.
7. I have since taken the patcher.exe and Launcher.exe and copied them over to /opt/cpw.
8. I then, (following an English translation of the Russian instructions, thank you PsyTrac), ran "./cpw x patcher.exe" and "./cpw x Launcher.exe", then after it got done patching those files with the keys, I moved them to their respective folders in /opt/cpw/files/new and ran "./cpw revision 608" Unfortunately, still nothing has changed.
9. I additionally copied those files after they were "patched" by cpw back over to my computer and get the same result.
10. I've even done it with the original patcher and Launcher from 343's release and had no luck.

I can go to my server's IP-address/cpw and see the folders listed. I've set my PC on DMZ, and made certain that all firewall ports for the client were open and I still cannot get it to connect.
Occasionally it will tell me that there is a version mismatch, (since the server is technically at 609 now, but my clients are at 606), but when I try to verify it doesn't actually do anything, and then tells me that it can't connect to the server. (Just the patcher, the clients still run just fine.)

2. Rank 9 is ineffective
Here's what we did...

1. My wife created a Psychic logged into it and logged out.
2. I used iweb to make the toon level 101, changed the max hp, mp, reputation, spirit, and attribute points to the appropriate values for her new level.
3. I edited the XML to give her the cultivation level of 8, which I believe is right before you go Sage/Demon.)
4. She logged in and learned all of her skills, then logged out.
5. I edited the XML to give her the chi.
6. She logged back in, got her gear, made stones and refined it ect.
7. She's now got the full R9 set, loaded with JoSD's and refined to +12. (No editing here, she did it the hard way.)
8. Now we're doing her spiritual cultivation for Sage, and we go into Brimstone.
9. This is where we notice that she's taking insane amounts of damage. Each mob is hitting her for 1k+ of damage. My cleric with Rank8 isnt' taking hits that hard and I haven't even geared it as much as she geared her Psy.

Anyone have any clues about what the hell is going on there?

3. Nightscream FPS bug
OK, my computer isn't the greatest at the moment since my video card died and I'm using this integrated chip. However, I am still able to play just fine with an average FPS of about 12-20.
When I enter Nightscream Island, drops horribly to a max FPS of 6. As soon as I leave Nightscream, either by porting out or entering the Trench, my FPS jumps right back up to normal.
So far, it appears to be on just this one map. Anyone have any clues about what would cause this?
I would try verifying my files, but since CPW it's working, that's not an option atm.

4. The Sluggy Server
It runs just great, right up until I cross over 12GB of RAM usage. (Was 10.5GB when I was using 10.04LTS.)
It's not really using Swap either, even when it gets up into the high areas.
I did notice something interesting when looking at fdisk today. Here's what I see..

root@PWI:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 70.7 GB, 70653050880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8589 cylinders, total 137994240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0008be8b

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      499711      248832   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          501758   137992191    68745217    5  Extended
/dev/sda5          501760   137992191    68745216   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/mapper/PWI-root: 53.3 GB, 53280243712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6477 cylinders, total 104062976 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/PWI-root doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/PWI-swap_1: 17.1 GB, 17112760320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2080 cylinders, total 33423360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/PWI-swap_1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
root@PWI:~#

I apologize for this post being so huge, but without the details, posting for help is pretty pointless.

 

[gunse]

You didnt create any swap partition, i suggest you create it manually or just rebuid from beginning and follow the wizard instruction.

 

[DaMadBoy]

For CPW this is just a wild stab in the dark as I've never actually tried to get the patcher working with 1.4.4 before. but maybe try editing patcher.conf and changing:
min-launcher-ver=1 to 606
min-element-ver=1 to 606
min-patcher-ver=1 to 606

As for Rank 9 was your wife using the psychic skill that increases attack level but decreases defence level? Only thing I can think of that may cause such a damage increase.

 

[SylenThunder]

Just to update, I tried twister's suggestion, and it didn't work. It made me think though, so I went to /opt/cpw/files/CPW and edited the "version" file in the subfolders to 609 to match the current CPW build.
Well, then the patcher connected, and asked if I wanted to verify, so I said yes, it ran off, and actually did it this time.
The downside, after it finished, elementclient.exe closes immediately after opening with no errors.
SO, now I'm going to wipe out the data, and do the initial build again, because I figure that I screwed it up somewhere in the initial setup so I'll just try again from scratch, this time armed with more knowledge.

As for the R9 issue, even in Black Voodoo her Def level is 66, so she shouldn't be getting hit harder than a cleric with merely average R8 gear. She made a new toon, I gave it a bunch of Scarlet Fruit, and she's leveled it up that way instead of editing the data.
So far, the only difference I've noticed is that in the edited build, the Pys-att damage is 1 and the natural build has 21, the mag-att damage was 1 and 101 respectively.
She's going to do some testing between the two characters and see if there's a difference.

As for not having an actual swap partition, its using swap files on the main partition for swap. I'll go play with that later. It still very rarely actually uses the Swap space though, so I can't imagine that this is what's causing the server to slow down so much when it gets over 12GB of RAM used. I could see it slowing down if it was pushing a lot to Swap, but it's not.

 

[343]

I'll just try again from scratch, this time armed with more knowledge.

That's what I like to see :

That usually is the best way too, if I had even a penny for every time I created a server I would be a millionaire by now...

 

[DaMadBoy]

Just to update, I tried twister's suggestion, and it didn't work. It made me think though, so I went to /opt/cpw/files/CPW and edited the "version" file in the subfolders to 609 to match the current CPW build.
Well, then the patcher connected, and asked if I wanted to verify, so I said yes, it ran off, and actually did it this time.
The downside, after it finished, elementclient.exe closes immediately after opening with no errors.
SO, now I'm going to wipe out the data, and do the initial build again, because I figure that I screwed it up somewhere in the initial setup so I'll just try again from scratch, this time armed with more knowledge.

As for the R9 issue, even in Black Voodoo her Def level is 66, so she shouldn't be getting hit harder than a cleric with merely average R8 gear. She made a new toon, I gave it a bunch of Scarlet Fruit, and she's leveled it up that way instead of editing the data.
So far, the only difference I've noticed is that in the edited build, the Pys-att damage is 1 and the natural build has 21, the mag-att damage was 1 and 101 respectively.
She's going to do some testing between the two characters and see if there's a difference.

As for not having an actual swap partition, its using swap files on the main partition for swap. I'll go play with that later. It still very rarely actually uses the Swap space though, so I can't imagine that this is what's causing the server to slow down so much when it gets over 12GB of RAM used. I could see it slowing down if it was pushing a lot to Swap, but it's not.

Think that could be why you wifes char received so much damage, not quite sure how iweb works but if you can edit levels directly then maybe the level in game may have displayed as 101 but the game (in terms of stats i.e. defence, damage and so on) still think you are only level one. I know in pwAdmin you can't directly level a character like that, you have to add in the experience and spirits points then kill a mob in game and you level up to your desired level.

Sorry that my suggestion about CPW didn't work out but I'm glad you were at least able to gain something from it, hopefully you will get t working and you can let us here know how

 

[343]

(not saying that's how you did it but,) Twister is right. You cannot just edit a character in iWeb (if that is what you did) because then all you'd be changing would be 'some' of the stats (like level or att points). In order for a character to fully work correctly you would have to 'play' or 'level' it 'normally'. Otherwise, say, even if you altered the characters level and att points, and rage values etc... in iWeb it may be a level 105 with 520 stat points, but it still wouldn't have had other stats like (base) attack and def. levels altered where it would be if it was leveled 'normally'...

So, the best way to do it would be to:
-create a character, log it in and out
-edit that characters EXP value, to 2147473648 (if using normal exp rates)
-log back in, whack one mob (you will instantly become level 103)
-lather rinse and repeat until character is desired level...

Then your character will be leveled the 'proper' way, and have all 'proper stats' :

Spoiler

if you're not using normal exp rates you will have to calculate how much EXP to add in iWeb on your own, no matter what you will NOT want the EXP value to be ≥ 2147483648 including the EXP you will earn from the first mob you will kill

 

[SylenThunder]

yeah, I figured that was probably the case with the leveling via iweb.

I keep running into this problem with the files that have Chinese characters.
If I use WinSCP, I see the characters as they should, however, if I am using the terminal, the characters show up as blocks.
I tried using Putty with the encoding set to UTF-8, and it seemed to work before, but does not appear to be working now.
I think that this might be a large part of the problem with why my build didn't work. (If the OS isn't properly reading the file names, then it would definitely corrupt the build.)

Any tips?

 

[SylenThunder]

Ok, well I still can't figure out how to get the file names to display properly from the terminal, but I installed a few language packs, rebooted and figured I would give it a shot.

After several hours, I get this message...

Error while creating
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/cpw/files/new/element/gfx/??/??/??/????■■????.gfx (No such file or directory)

So, it would appear that not being able to properly read the Chinese letters in the filenames is going to be a major issue I guess.
Wish I could remember how I got Putty to read them right last time I did this. Although, if Putty is reading the properly, but the core system isn't, does it still work right?

I'm at a loss here, and hours of searching have not given me any answers.

 

[343]

How exactly are you doing all of this? First off, you should be doing everything @ the machine, and not via any type of 'remote' terminal... Secondly, you should be taking your 'initial' client build from your windows machine and fully un-compressing it, and creating a .7z. Transfer the .7z to the server any way you want (CD/DVD, USB drive, FTP, you name it) and extracting the client in it's proper location then running the CPW initial build...

If you're already doing everything 'right' then I am really stumped. Whenever I get the chance I will do another install myself, only problem is of course how long it takes to do the freakin' initial build! I haven't bothered with CPW (or any patcher) too extensively other than to make sure they worked... Though if I remember correctly you WILL get the ??/??/??/?????.ext when you look at the directory. If I am correct and that's the case, the filenames are still correct, they just wont display correctly... Again, I'm not totally sure, but that may be the case. Either way I do remember testing it, running a verify and discovering the thing about Chinese file names and having to use 7z, because before I did that it broke the client. I ran "verify" and it totally deleted anything w/ a Chinese file name. So then I used the 7z method to 'preserve' the Chinese file names, and then tested again and it DID work like a charm (after performing the "verify client" test)... The part I don't totally remember is the directory listing after extracting the 7z, I think you WILL see the ??/??/??/?????.ext like I said though.

IDK, all I do know is eventually you're bound to get it working All you need to maintain is confidence :

 

[SylenThunder]

Yeah, I un-compressed my "initial" build, made the .7z, got the files over, and extracted them on the server. If I browse the directory using WinSCP, I can see all the filenames and folders have the proper Chinese characters, they just don't show properly from the terminal on the machine itself. (More details on the how are in the first post.)

Then I ran "./cpw initial" It went for several hours, and then threw me the error, which struck me as rather odd.

I'll remove the files and start over again. I can't figure out what went wrong though to cause the error. I do have the server up while I am doing this. Should I shut it down? I can't see how that would cause a problem other than available resources, but CPU load rarely goes over 35% and there's plenty of RAM if I just shut down a couple of maps that aren't being used.

 

[343]

I don't know that it would matter or not, but for the initial build I would have everything off that you can... So at the very least, start MySQL...

 

[SylenThunder]

yeah, will take a shot at that tonight after the wife's done playing. I'll shut it all down, reboot, fire up MySQL and then run the initial build overnight. Repacking and copying right now.

 

[SylenThunder]

***** for the life of me I cannot get the files over to the server intact. I've tried .7z, I've copied em all over to my fat23 formatted usb drive, it simply isn't working for some reason. >.<
I end up getting the error...
"cp: cannot create regular file '/opt/cpw/files/new/element/building/textures/d/??.sdr.tga' File exists"

I'll keep hacking at it. I think the next step is going to copy the files over to a couple of DVD's and try copying from there. I'm starting to wonder what I could have done that's screwed up the ability to retain file names when copying or extracting.

 

[343]

I have faith in you, you'll eventually get it :

 

[SylenThunder]

I have faith in you, you'll eventually get it :

HAHAA!! I know, right? I can't believe I'm so stumped on this. I figured it out last time and it seemed so easy, but now for some reason it's thwarting me at every turn.

 

[SylenThunder]

ok, so I think I finally got it to actually retain the filenames extracting from 7z.

Was thinking and had another general question.....

Is it possible to set it to allow longer names for the users and the characters, or is this something that's too deeply encoded to tinker with?

 

[Psytrac]

1.4.4 pwi allows 12 characters, I BELIEVE that is hard-coded into the GS/client, I could be wrong though

for users, simply edit the registration page

 

[343]

I believe this to be correct. Do not count on changing the limitation of character names any time soon. Also, even though you can change username and password length to whatever you want (in MySQL and in theory), they still have a 'limit' because the client will only allow you to input so many characters for an account name or password. I think my newest release has already been changed to reflect the maximum limit (and if not it will be now )...

I'm checking on the account name, and password limitations as we speak so I can post the results (when I hit submit )

the account name and password limits are as follows:

v136:
account name-20
password-20

v144:
account name-20
password-20

v145:
account name-20
password-20

 

[SylenThunder]

1.4.4 pwi allows 12 characters, I BELIEVE that is hard-coded into the GS/client, I could be wrong though

for users, simply edit the registration page

ok, so far I have only been able to use a max of 9 characters when creating a toon, and 8 or 9 characters with the user. I'll go digging around. Personally, I think 12 is a good limit, but I would be happy to get 10.

Back at the .7z file, it extracted, and didn't show any errors. Everything looks ok on the server, but as I can't really see the file names there, it's hard to say if it worked or not. When I view it using WinSCP, the files look like gibberish, but from the terminal, they appear as I would expect them to.

I won't get a chance to run the initial build until Monday morning, so I guess we'll see.