[Extended] "Canterbury and Whitstable"

[AP]

Paypal is asking what country you are based in asaphxiix. Unsure why it needs to know, but it seems to want it.

[asaphxiix]

That's strange indeed. I am in Israel.

[AP]

I believe the server may have just gone down. Unsure what triggered it as I  was doing several things at once...

[ITK Transport]

Hi asaphxiix, it seems the server just went down again.

[AP]

Asaphxiix; James has just said that to get the latest rail tracks which match the locomotive speeds correctly, we need to update the server to the latest pakset nightly.   This would be really helpful for me now I have a railway to run.

[asaphxiix]

Hello,

The server will be updated today. I hope this will also help to reduce the number of crashes.

[AP]

I seem unable to reach the http://54.37.159.140:15600/ site to download the current pakset/exe for the server. Can others connect to it?

[Rollmaterial]

You can find them here: http://bridgewater-brunel.me.uk/downloads/nightly/

[AP]

Rollmaterial - unfortunately the canterbury server does not automatically update each night like the bridgewater one. So that link to the very latest nightlys doesn't work for us, since we're often/usually several days behind, and it doesn't keep "old versions".



Whenever Asaphxiix does update the canterbury server, he is kind enough to keep whatever version the server uses on a separate link (the one I posted), to get around the issue.


Are you able to use the link I posted, or is it down?  (it could be my PC/firewall being silly...)

[Rollmaterial]

Sorry, I kind of mistook you for him... I can't open it either.

[asaphxiix]

Hello,

The web server has been restarted, and so the files can now be downloaded from there.

The game server has been updated to the latest nightly.

[AP]

Today's oddity: the server kicks me out (but does not crash) whenever I click "details" in a convoy/vehicle window. Anyone else get that?

[AP]

Ves - when you're next on the server game - I've made a  harbourside rail station by your Lake Victoria. If you want to extend your ferry service to it, I'll start the trains and we can exchange passengers.

[Ves]

That's amazing! I will connect as soon as possible when I get on the server! :-)

[AP]

Looks like server has gone down for some reason. Asaphxiix, when you get a chance, could you do the honours please? Thanks.

[Ves]

I wanted to connect to the server today, but since I have been of the grid with downloading "versions" I do not have a working pakset or executable for the server. I predict the near future for me will unfortunaltely be more sporadic, so I imagine that I will have difficulties syncing in time.
Would it at all be possible to automate the builds, like James has on his server?

[asaphxiix]

Hi Ves,

Unfortunately I do not know how to set up such automation on windows. If we had a linux server, this would be easy of course.

In the mean time, you have the ability to download the version files from ver.cant-whit.me:15600 , they are always updated.

[DrSuperGood]

My updater can be used to install James nightly onto Windows systems. Saves having to worry about self building everything.

[asaphxiix]

Great! Where can I get it?

[Ves]

That would be very usefull. Especially if it could save the pakset in a separate folder than the nightly one and perhaps save the exe with another name too?

[AP]

Server game seems to have reverted to end of December1832, and frozen (but still be online). Is it ok?


There may be a save from a few months after that point as I did some editing and exited and reloaded deliberately after.

[asaphxiix]

Hello,

I'm afraid there is only one recent save game on the server, and I'm afraid that's all the information I have. If you have a more advanced save, you might send it to me and I could restart the server from there, if nobody objects.

I hope we can understand why changes you make prior to saving the game were not, in fact, saved.

[jamespetts]

May I suggest a system akin to that on the Bridgewater-Brunel server which automatically keeps backups of a set of saved games?

[asaphxiix]

Would that not require a linux machine as well?

If you could describe it to me, I might try to recreate it using some software... IF that is not possible, then I am hoping to migrate the server to linux this month.

[AP]

Hello,

I'm afraid there is only one recent save game on the server, and I'm afraid that's all the information I have. If you have a more advanced save, you might send it to me and I could restart the server from there, if nobody objects.

I hope we can understand why changes you make prior to saving the game were not, in fact, saved.

It's OK, it wasn't a lot lost. I can probably save money by redoing it more efficiently...


It definitely reports "server offline" now though.


Edit: Back now. Hope it runs past year-end correctly this time...

[jamespetts]

I do not know whether it requires a Linux machine, but I am afraid that I do not know of any specific way of doing it in Windows other than using dedicated backup software (which I suppose is an option).

[asaphxiix]

I still wonder, though, how and why we should find ourselves in a date that precedes a date in which the game has already been saved.

[jamespetts]

I still wonder, though, how and why we should find ourselves in a date that precedes a date in which the game has already been saved.

How do you know that it was actually saved at any earlier time if that saved game no longer exists?

[asaphxiix]

That was my assumption, based on AP's report, but I cannot validate it. Of course, it is possible (and perhaps more likely), that the game was never saved at the later date, which leads to the question of why AP thought otherwise.

[AP]

Since it reports "saving" on exit, and we have been told that the easiest way to force the game server to save our efforts, is to exit, relaunch, and reconnect forcing it to do such a save. And I definitely did this. Does the server maintain a log of when people join and leave?

[asaphxiix]

It should be punctuated, that the 'saving' that takes place upon leaving the server is only on the local client - the server continues normally.

Only upon joining does the server also save the game. This is why the instruction was to leave then join again, and I understand that this is what you did. I will check the logs, do you know approximately what time this was?

Thanks

[AP]

I will check the logs, do you know approximately what time this was?

Thanks

It was this morning, within a couple of hours prior to my post reporting the issue. I can't remember more precisely, I've been doing a few different tasks today.

[asaphxiix]

Hello,

Sadly the server is having unexpected and strangely fatal issues, preventing me from resuming service. I am trying to fix this problem, and will update further soon.

Asaph

[jamespetts]

Hello,

Sadly the server is having unexpected and strangely fatal issues, preventing me from resuming service. I am trying to fix this problem, and will update further soon.

Asaph

If the server crashes at a particular point in time from a known saved state, I should be grateful if you could post a bug report and upload the saved game with that state. It might be worthwhile testing for this explicitly locally.

[asaphxiix]

Sorry, I was unclear, this is an infrastructure problem with the Windows VM. Basically, it won't start.