Where do you spawn when your faction server is down?

[Billiard]

Given that factions are placed on separate servers, I was wonder what happens if you sign in or respawn and your home server is down - do you go to a neutral location? It would be nasty to respawn in an opposing faction's temple!

[powerferret]

or in limbo

[Throst54]

you respawn at the last place u were bound.(the last binding place)

i'm going to go out on a limb and guess that u dont cant respawn when your server is down?

[Gil-Este]

you would have to be on a different server than the one you are bound to (obviously) when you die. so if you pressed respawn it would probably try to port you to the server where your respawn location is, resulting in NWN going server not found or something like that. then (if vague memories about back when the cluster was split like this serve me) you would just have to wait for the server to come back up, join it from Gamespy, and you should be respawned at your respawn point. anyways, thats all just my guess about what would happen.

[Joran]

Yes, you won't actually be revived until you reach your respawn point. If you try to respawn while your bind point's server is down, you will be returned to where you died after the failed portal, still dead.

Unfortunately there's no way (yet) for us to determine the status of another server from within NWN, so there's no way to display a special message. We're working on it, though.

Also, since all four servers are in one location, it's unlikely that one will go down while the others stay up.

[Xanadu]

Unfortunately there's no way (yet) for us to determine the status of another server from within NWN, so there's no way to display a special message. We're working on it, though.

I've never done any NWN mod-work, but I have a good deal of client/server and database experience. Basically, it's a matter of getting the readily available Gamespy data into something accessible by your scripting. What about using your existing DB interface to look up a server's status in a designated DB table? This info could be regularly updated by a small external app that checks the servers every minute or so.

Also, since all four servers are in one location, it's unlikely that one will go down while the others stay up.

Very true, but the other benefit my solution gets you is the ability to ascertain how loaded a server is before permitting a transition. That could be a handy bit of data.

Like I said, I haven't any NWN-specific dev experience, but from the outside looking in, it all seems pretty straightforward...at least in theory.

-Xan

[Joran]

We currently track live player counts in the database, so we don't let you transition if the server is full (you get a message "an unseen force impedes your path", or something similar). This way you don't even have to leave the server. However, server status is something that would require an external monitor to watch and update the database, and I just haven't had time (or a really pressing need) to write such an app. But you're right, it's something we could do =)

Another benefit of the db tracking live player counts is the ability to assign pre-designated DM slot counts. This lets the server become "full" at 60/64 or some such number, at which point further player connections are given a server full message and booted after 30 seconds. This ensures DMs and Admins always have a way in to any server.

[Kurth]

Or just so they can get uber gear while the rest of us can't get in

But really I link that idea *points two post up* but I guess its not really nessisary. I would like to see a way to merge the server status of all four comps and the in-the-future 5th one for the planar regions. I think that might be possible if you where to have some sort of basic network connection (which is obviously already in place from the server switching stand point) where all the comps are linked together and act as one joint connection (i.e. when we go ingame to NWN and then Gamespy we see just one ubber server with 150 some spotts that is really 4,5 comps that are seen as one networked comp) This way if one server is experiencing major strain the other 3,4 could take up the slack. BUT that is prolly really waaaayyy to much work til NS4 goes past open beta and goes live... and I really don't know what I'm talking about past a basic networking standpoint... darn compsci 101

[lord_modred]

Yes, you won't actually be revived until you reach your respawn point. If you try to respawn while your bind point's server is down, you will be returned to where you died after the failed portal, still dead.

uh... will you take the XP/gold penalty multiple times if you try to respawn but dont??

[Pettsson]

No, as the respawn penalty is applied when you return to life, which you couldn't if the target server is down.

[Billiard]

We currently track live player counts in the database, so we don't let you transition if the server is full (you get a message "an unseen force impedes your path", or something similar). This way you don't even have to leave the server. However, server status is something that would require an external monitor to watch and update the database, and I just haven't had time (or a really pressing need) to write such an app. But you're right, it's something we could do =)

Another benefit of the db tracking live player counts is the ability to assign pre-designated DM slot counts. This lets the server become "full" at 60/64 or some such number, at which point further player connections are given a server full message and booted after 30 seconds. This ensures DMs and Admins always have a way in to any server.

Is it also possible monitor player inaction/idleness in order to automatically boot afk players after some preset time period? This way if a server is full slots get freed up for active use.

[Pettsson]

Possible, but not very hard to bypass, just sending a mouse click every ten seconds or so would render it ineffective.