[Joseph3114]

Tons of new players with questions that could be answered by people other than the fella with a red tag? For sure.

People lie or are wrong - and correcting them only confuses people more.
Red and blue tags mean you can trust them.

Did you know we can often get upwards of 100 unique new players every single day?

Quantity over quality. By the end of the day it thins out and a fourth of them stick around.

I had an idea though:
This box in theory should be able to host a few hundred slots relatively easy.
If the block lag is caused by his plugin logging all actions for rollbacks and realm credits, you could give up 2GB of RAM and run the server (not the world) off of RAMdisc.

This could alleviate even more IO for world loading time, and could, in theory eliminate lag since each action wouldn't need to logged to the hard drive, but on RAMdisc instead.

I don't know what OS the server runs off of, or if it is even compatible, but surely a linux version comparable to RAMdisc exists somewhere.

[panthers17nfl]

Tons of new players with questions that could be answered by people other than the fella with a red tag? For sure.

People lie or are wrong - and correcting them only confuses people more.
Red and blue tags mean you can trust them.

Did you know we can often get upwards of 100 unique new players every single day?

Quantity over quality. By the end of the day it thins out and a fourth of them stick around. .

Okay joseph, but if they feel like lying, then they'll lie anyway. Answer questions that are simple, like "hurr durr what do realm credits do?" You're an honest one I hope? Then answer it correctly and earn some trust. Don't bestow every single godforsaken labor on to the staff, players can help too.

That's a catchy slogan, but it doesn't work (and I assume you meant the other way around?). The way I see it, we are panning for gold with new players. We sift through all of the dirt and this crappy stuff in hopes of finding the gold (decent to above average players). That's the only way it is to be done.

[Joseph3114]

That's a catchy slogan, but it doesn't work (and I assume you meant the other way around?). The way I see it, we are panning for gold with new players. We sift through all of the dirt and this crappy stuff in hopes of finding the gold (decent to above average players). That's the only way it is to be done.

What I meant was bragging about 100+ players a day when a good portion of them get banned or never come back isn't really worth bragging about.

We need a statistic of how many return throughout the week, and that would be something to brag about if it was actually a decent number. Which it probably isn't considering the average online at peak times never seems to really pass 130.

But having over 1,000 accounts on the forums is quite an accomplishment.

This is getting off topic though.
Thank you for acknowledging the issue. We will be taking a break from the server and check back on it at a later time.

[Skyeline]

The distinct lack of derpery combined with the general quality of constructive conversation held in this thread is almost frightening. Don't expect quality like this here very often.

I also miss panthers now.

[Joseph3114]

I also miss panthers now.

Why? Is he leaving?

[Heanthor]

I also miss panthers now.

Why? Is he leaving?

I feel like I'm whispering..

[savesthedazed]

Stay on topic.

[Joseph3114]

The official Reddit PvE server has some rules I thought were interesting.
They have a large player base as well (not nearly our size) and are lag free.
However, their box hosts 4 servers with a decent amount of players(~90).

• Banned Items: Fire (flint and steel), TNT, flowing lava, boats, water buckets, lava buckets, (if you need water or lava placed please make a /req)
• Buckets are for milk only
• Redstone mechanisms and dispensers may be removed at moderator discretion; abuse of these may result in a ban
• No killing other players with any means. This includes, but is not limited to: Dropping lava on or around them, dropping blocks on them, or pushing them and forcing them to fall. Additionally, no traps designed to kill other players.
• The current PvE map is very beautiful but also very height-disadvantaged for players. As such we will warn/kick players who continuously build what are known as 'tard-towers' (towers that are only a single block wide) that tarnish the landscape. If you wish to reach floating islands or higher elevations please at least add ladders to these sorts of towers or create stairs. Be respectful of the map and do not mar the experience or view for other players.
• Don't Build any structure within 40-50 blocks from any StarGates.
• Large unique trees such as redwoods and acacias do not regrow, and may be part of an individual or community's landscaping. Destruction of said landscaping constitutes griefing, so if there is any doubt whatsoever as to the state of these trees, do not cut them down.

Some interesting points here I can make other than suggesting RAMdisc for block logging:
-Many bases have large walls bordered in netherrack. It is known that fire causes lag.
-Flowing liquids also cause lag. Now this is not to say people shouldn't use lava as a decoration but there are many many realms that all have flowing liquids somewhere.

These rules discouraged me from playing on the reddit server because I don't like feeling that restricted.

Two things I'd like to point out based on this:
-Water destruction should be allowed in our own realms (since it’s silly that is restricted compared to other things). This would allow automatic harvesting machines to function properly.
-Spawn should be privatized and protected, forcing players to move farther out.

I completely disagree with those reddit rules and am glad we don't have them in place.
However, regardless of rules, redstone clocks wouldn't even function under the lag, mob spawners hardly work, and automated farms don’t work because of infertility.
As I mentioned earlier, I work with the same type of boxes that our server is hosted on. They are capable of at least 350 concurrent connections and players online, given they are tweaked properly for TCP connections.

I’m not able to see htop, iotop, or iftop, so these are assumptions made based on our experiences with minecraft servers.


Bandwidth buffering.
As some of our smaller boxes reached upwards of 100 open connections, users experienced lag. After further investigation, bandwidth buffer errors were responsible for the lag.

To check for this:
Log in as root and do

Code: Select all

 netstat -su 

Check the output for RcvbufErrors and SndbufErrors. If the number is a decent amount compared to the total sent and received you may want to contact SoftLayer and have them adjust it to sustain that many concurrent connections.

Also, you could test and make sure it’s able to use all 100 of it’s bandwidth.

Code: Select all

curl -o /dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

Here is a 500mb download softlayer provides for bandwidth testing purposes.

http://iperf.sourceforge.net/
This is another program for maximizing TCP and UDP performance depending on which may have had buffer errors or to help speed it up. I believe Minecraft is mainly TCP based, so it could be useful for maximizing TCP performance.

[Heanthor]

The official Reddit PvE server has some rules I thought were interesting.
They have a large player base as well (not nearly our size) and are lag free.
However, their box hosts 4 servers with a decent amount of players(~90).

• Banned Items: Fire (flint and steel), TNT, flowing lava, boats, water buckets, lava buckets, (if you need water or lava placed please make a /req)
• Buckets are for milk only
• Redstone mechanisms and dispensers may be removed at moderator discretion; abuse of these may result in a ban
• No killing other players with any means. This includes, but is not limited to: Dropping lava on or around them, dropping blocks on them, or pushing them and forcing them to fall. Additionally, no traps designed to kill other players.
• The current PvE map is very beautiful but also very height-disadvantaged for players. As such we will warn/kick players who continuously build what are known as 'tard-towers' (towers that are only a single block wide) that tarnish the landscape. If you wish to reach floating islands or higher elevations please at least add ladders to these sorts of towers or create stairs. Be respectful of the map and do not mar the experience or view for other players.
• Don't Build any structure within 40-50 blocks from any StarGates.
• Large unique trees such as redwoods and acacias do not regrow, and may be part of an individual or community's landscaping. Destruction of said landscaping constitutes griefing, so if there is any doubt whatsoever as to the state of these trees, do not cut them down.

Some interesting points here I can make other than suggesting RAMdisc for block logging:
-Many bases have large walls bordered in netherrack. It is known that fire causes lag.
-Flowing liquids also cause lag. Now this is not to say people shouldn't use lava as a decoration but there are many many realms that all have flowing liquids somewhere.

These rules discouraged me from playing on the reddit server because I don't like feeling that restricted.

Two things I'd like to point out based on this:
-Water destruction should be allowed in our own realms (since it’s silly that is restricted compared to other things). This would allow automatic harvesting machines to function properly.
-Spawn should be privatized and protected, forcing players to move farther out.

I completely disagree with those reddit rules and am glad we don't have them in place.
However, regardless of rules, redstone clocks wouldn't even function under the lag, mob spawners hardly work, and automated farms don’t work because of infertility.
As I mentioned earlier, I work with the same type of boxes that our server is hosted on. They are capable of at least 350 concurrent connections and players online, given they are tweaked properly for TCP connections.

I’m not able to see htop, iotop, or iftop, so these are assumptions made based on our experiences with minecraft servers.


Bandwidth buffering.
As some of our smaller boxes reached upwards of 100 open connections, users experienced lag. After further investigation, bandwidth buffer errors were responsible for the lag.

To check for this:
Log in as root and do

Code: Select all

 netstat -su 

Check the output for RcvbufErrors and SndbufErrors. If the number is a decent amount compared to the total sent and received you may want to contact SoftLayer and have them adjust it to sustain that many concurrent connections.

Also, you could test and make sure it’s able to use all 100 of it’s bandwidth.

Code: Select all

curl -o /dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

Here is a 500mb download softlayer provides for bandwidth testing purposes.

http://iperf.sourceforge.net/
This is another program for maximizing TCP and UDP performance depending on which may have had buffer errors or to help speed it up. I believe Minecraft is mainly TCP based, so it could be useful for maximizing TCP performance.

[Intelli]

The official Reddit PvE server has some rules I thought were interesting.
They have a large player base as well (not nearly our size) and are lag free.
However, their box hosts 4 servers with a decent amount of players(~90).

• Banned Items: Fire (flint and steel), TNT, flowing lava, boats, water buckets, lava buckets, (if you need water or lava placed please make a /req)
• Buckets are for milk only
• Redstone mechanisms and dispensers may be removed at moderator discretion; abuse of these may result in a ban
• No killing other players with any means. This includes, but is not limited to: Dropping lava on or around them, dropping blocks on them, or pushing them and forcing them to fall. Additionally, no traps designed to kill other players.
• The current PvE map is very beautiful but also very height-disadvantaged for players. As such we will warn/kick players who continuously build what are known as 'tard-towers' (towers that are only a single block wide) that tarnish the landscape. If you wish to reach floating islands or higher elevations please at least add ladders to these sorts of towers or create stairs. Be respectful of the map and do not mar the experience or view for other players.
• Don't Build any structure within 40-50 blocks from any StarGates.
• Large unique trees such as redwoods and acacias do not regrow, and may be part of an individual or community's landscaping. Destruction of said landscaping constitutes griefing, so if there is any doubt whatsoever as to the state of these trees, do not cut them down.

Some interesting points here I can make other than suggesting RAMdisc for block logging:
-Many bases have large walls bordered in netherrack. It is known that fire causes lag.
-Flowing liquids also cause lag. Now this is not to say people shouldn't use lava as a decoration but there are many many realms that all have flowing liquids somewhere.

These rules discouraged me from playing on the reddit server because I don't like feeling that restricted.

Two things I'd like to point out based on this:
-Water destruction should be allowed in our own realms (since it’s silly that is restricted compared to other things). This would allow automatic harvesting machines to function properly.
-Spawn should be privatized and protected, forcing players to move farther out.

I completely disagree with those reddit rules and am glad we don't have them in place.
However, regardless of rules, redstone clocks wouldn't even function under the lag, mob spawners hardly work, and automated farms don’t work because of infertility.
As I mentioned earlier, I work with the same type of boxes that our server is hosted on. They are capable of at least 350 concurrent connections and players online, given they are tweaked properly for TCP connections.

I’m not able to see htop, iotop, or iftop, so these are assumptions made based on our experiences with minecraft servers.


Bandwidth buffering.
As some of our smaller boxes reached upwards of 100 open connections, users experienced lag. After further investigation, bandwidth buffer errors were responsible for the lag.

To check for this:
Log in as root and do

Code: Select all

 netstat -su 

Check the output for RcvbufErrors and SndbufErrors. If the number is a decent amount compared to the total sent and received you may want to contact SoftLayer and have them adjust it to sustain that many concurrent connections.

Also, you could test and make sure it’s able to use all 100 of it’s bandwidth.

Code: Select all

curl -o /dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

Here is a 500mb download softlayer provides for bandwidth testing purposes.

http://iperf.sourceforge.net/
This is another program for maximizing TCP and UDP performance depending on which may have had buffer errors or to help speed it up. I believe Minecraft is mainly TCP based, so it could be useful for maximizing TCP performance.

You really have no idea what you're talking about, in regards to how Minecraft servers work.

As I mentioned earlier, I work with the same type of boxes that our server is hosted on. They are capable of at least 350 concurrent connections and players online, given they are tweaked properly for TCP connections.

Find me a single Minecraft SMP server that has that many players online. Heck, even only 250+ players online, and I'll give you $500. Serious. Any random server, doesn't matter who owns it. You just need to find a single server with that many players.

No luck? That's because it's not possible.
Not until Notch modifies his server code to support proper multi-threading. And that won't happen until at least the 11/11/11 (or whatever date) release.