Multiplayer and savegames?

[helling3r 10]

Hello,

tonight i plan to start a rather long mission on our linux dedicated server and i think we will not be able to complete it in one run.

Is there any possibility how i can create a savegame when we want to go to bed, and at the day after, restart the server with that savegame?

Thanks in advance!

(i searched the forum on this, but i was not able to select the right search terms, so if this question is already answered, a link to the thread would be also great!)

[bhaz 0]

Multiplayer saves only work on hosted games, and even then with the way some larger scale missions are designed, saves wouldn't work anyway.

[helling3r 10]

Hello, thank you for your answer!

[Thats_Life 2.0 10]

They really need to fix this...

[Evil_Echo 11]

It's not something that trivial. For MP you would need to save and somehow re-establish network connections as well as huge amounts of state info for each player. In the general case that is not possible - you'd need everyone to reconnect at same time and then restore the mission.

[SnR 1]

MSO could be an alternative for you, only if your dedicated server stays up.

[Gunter Severloh 4062]

If your server runs all the time nonstop then you can put this code in the server.cfg:

persistance=1 that would keep the current mission running til you either end the mission or restart the server, or shut it down.

[helling3r 10]

persistance=1 that would keep the current mission running til you either end the mission or restart the server, or shut it down.

If all disconnect, wouldn't the mission carry on, turning my players into AI-zombis? We usually play Tuesdays, so the mission would get on for a whole week...

[Gunter Severloh 4062]

When my buddy and I played Evolution blue on our server we had this code setup to save our progress as when

you came back you could basically play where you left off, although the weather and day changed.

If all disconnect, wouldn't the mission carry on, turning my players into AI-zombis?

the mission wouldn't carry on and the AI would just stand there, they wouldn't move because they are not setup by default in the mission to follow a waypoint or attack. So when you join a server and pick a role you are basically taking over a AI spot, but when you leave the player becomes the AI but the AI wont do nothing.

Only part of the mission that would carry on would be the weather, and if you had patroling AI then they would keep doing what their doing, you wouldn't lose progress.

[helling3r 10]

Well, if an enemy AI-patrol catches my slot units, would't they kill them?

An idea is to just halt the arma-server process on the server and resume it after a week. Maybe that works; i will try that out and report results here.

[Gunter Severloh 4062]

no they wouldn't, unless your spawn area is where the enemy might patrol.

Your respawn area if your using a base spawn (respawn_west) with marker spawn should ideally be far enough that you

dont have to worry about enemy killing your AI guys, even then if they did get killed they would respawn.

To protect th spawn area create a trigger in your mission surrounding it, and put this code in the on act line of the trigger

{_x setDamage 1} foreach thisList;  

set the activation at the top for OPFOR present or Blufor if your playing OPFOR or even independant,

and then set it for repeatedly and any enemy AI that enters that trigger will die instantly.

[MissionCreep 12]

When we played GITS Evolution on a hosted setup (2 player), player hosting was saved correctly, the other player respawned at the start point and all gametime settings lost. I've also had mission corruption issues with MP saves. Basically, MP Saves is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get.

[helling3r 10]

Hello,

just tested process halting and resuming.

Basicly this works by sending the arma server process a STOP signal (halt: "kill -STOP <process id>"; resume: "kill -CONT <process id>").

This results in the kernel not assigning processor time to the oprocess anymore, causing the process to sleep. I disconnected from the server prior issuing the STOP signal, to be sure the network connections are clean, however, i think it should also work connected (the server should disconnect then automaticly because client not responding).

Basicly it worked ok, but it looks like it depends heavily on the mission.

- @japatho/liberty star: halting and resuming worked. I was able to join after resuming the process and like expected, ingame time did not proceed nor did anything else change. The only problem was, that when reconnecting as Leader, i was not able to read the mission notes anymore (but this may be a JIP-problem of the mission).

- On some lite missions, the mission ended when disconnecting, so again, this looks like an issue in the mission configuration (the mission not even allowed respawn).

[Gunter Severloh 4062]

persistent = 1; will keep the mission running, nothing to lose, when you come back the mission will be the same

before you left except the weather will change, used this code many times with evo blue for arma and arm2.

[helling3r 10]

Hello Günter,

i had persistent=1 in my config, however, the mission ended when disconnected. I was not able to rejoin. As is pointed out, i think this is caused from the mission design.

And honestly, just leaving the server running, letting AI-Patrols move on, possibly killing friendly forces and nearly surely having other positions when i rejoin a week later, is NOT the same as pausing the server. You say it yourself, the weather has changed - what if that point is important to the mission? What about time critical missions?

Please, don't get me wrong, it is entirely okay for me, if your solution works for your situation.

For me, its not suitable nor desirable and also i wanted some mechanism that works *always* (at most) and does an full pause (ie. state exactly like i left it, not only looking like it would be the same).

The halt-resume solution above solves that nicely, i think.

[edit] Also the paused process dont burn any CPU, which improves performance for other tasks during the time we don't play... This may sometimes be a concern.

Edited February 22, 2011 by helling3r

[helling3r 10]

Again tested japahto today:

- The mission notes disappeared after rejoin even when the server was not stopped.

- The tasks where gone after the stop-resume cycle, but after some minutes and some rejoins, they reappeared.

So basicly this concept is working.

[Gunter Severloh 4062]

letting AI-Patrols move on, possibly killing friendly forces and nearly surely having other positions when i rejoin a week later,

Not in evo blue or domination the Ai in those are specific to a city your trying to take so they wouldn't go no where,

and domination has side missions which are usually location specific.

I was only using the persistent=1, for missions like Evo blue and Domination and it worked np,

but depending on certain missions it might not be the best thing, if what you figured out works then thats great.

[Terrormuecke 1]

Sorry for grab this thread out, but i have some questions ;

- How can i "write" this commands into the dedicated server box? I'm new at this, but .. I don't even know how to to any command on my dedicated server..

- I don't understand the whole concept.. U can stop the server with a command and then close the whole application? Then restart the server and resume it, or what?

Thanks alot

Edit 1: And i don't even know what i have to put where.. >.<

Edited May 9, 2012 by Terrormuecke