Cantr II is not currently available. How bad is it?

[N-Aldwitch]

"Cantr II is not currently available. How bad is it?"
For the first time for me, REALLY bad.

I almost through my mouse through my speaker, after smashing it against the table five times.
I was also going to punch my LCD monitor but instead picked up my diary and threw it through a window. Then I lit my cat's kittens on fire. And let the fire burn my house down. Then I stole a helicopter with missiles on it and destroyed much of my capital city. Right now I'm hiding with my computer in some underground sewer.

[The Sociologist]

Your suspicions are right, this _is_ about the animals. The sheer volume takes processing them into the hours, and that four times a day. As player requests (using the game interface) come on in concurrently, there's a turnaround point where all processes jam up into eachother and all processing bogs down into snail speed, waiting for scripts to unlock tables that don't get finished, and turning to "Cantr is down" pages.

Since animals are an integral part of the game, we can't just turn them off. We have decided to reduce their cycles from four to two times per day for now though - this should result in less lag in the 21:30-23:30 CET interval, which is he most problematic, because both European and American players are online then. Some lag will probably still occur after 03:30 and 15:30 though.

This measure affects the entire animal system (reproduction, travel, attacking, etc), if you see significant problems in-game because of this (in particular, animals getting extinct unexpectedly), please report them here. We are looking to get back to normal animal processing in a few weeks.

This is a temporary measure - we intend to take the animal processing to a secondary database so the regular player processing don't get affected. This requires some substantial programming though, which Chris will take up after his holiday. In the meantime, I will look over the relevant scripts as well to see if I can find any way to optimize them (though don't get too over-excited about the latter - I'm not that good really). Thirdly, we're looking to cap the total animal count (which has risen to about 2 million, while it used to be around 1 million before the lag) in conjunction with RD.

We are very sorry for the problems, but must ask you to bear with us for just a little longer. There will still be lag moments over the coming period, but they should be reduced significantly. Please be patient, we are aware of the problems and looking fo solutions.

PS - oh and hi to you too, hf.

Jur, many thanks for the above post. I am no longer actively playing Cantr due to both lag and boredom, but I do appreciate seeing it. I had said right in the beginning that it was the new animal "individuation" processing which was the source of the lag, and have ever since maintained that it was, but for a long while it seemed nobody would listen to me.

Now that at last someone on staff has admitted that it is indeed that system, might I beg, plead and beseech that you back out of it and try if at all possible to restore the old merely "statistical" system. Let's be blunt. The new system brought nothing visibly worthwhile to the game and thereafter nearly killed it. It simply must be backed out of. There is no other alternative.

For years now, it seems, none of you have ever really listed to me. There is far more urgent work for the remaining programmers to do in order to try and revive interest in this game before it dies (eg the long list of pointers in my first Essay on Motivation). The last thing you need to be doing is spending all your time trying to fix a system which was always wrong in concept for a game like Cantr, and which has never worked, and which never will work. It will soak up all your remaining effort and nothing will come of it.

Thank you.

[formerly known as hf]

If getting individualisation right means the prospect of domestication, then I see no reason to roll back. Not if it's true that the processing could just be shifted to another server.


Then again, I only have 4 charries which I play, and I only spend 20 mins tops a day on them, and I never hit the laggy times... I've got no idea how bad it really is...

[Sicofonte]

If getting individualisation right means the prospect of domestication, then I see no reason to roll back

But it doesn't mean that. Domestication can be implemented with the old statistical system.

The motivation for animal individuation was never realised because we never got domestication.

But domestication can still be implemented with the "(wild)animal-pack" coding:

In the same way that items are created by projects, a tamed animal can be "created", from the wild not-individualized animals in the location, as an output of a taming-project.

So domestication can be implemented without individualized wild animals.
Animals then can be just numbers (one row for each specie of each animal in the DB, with total amount, the average health, and whatever you need to simulate the growing and decreasing mechanics of the population).
And no lag

Sociologist, you are(were) not alone. More than you have said the same, even into the staff. But none in the GAC

For years now, it seems, none of you have ever really listed to me.

I think you are right. At least, I haven't listen to you. I do know that the problem was animals just for my own deduction.

[Sicofonte]

Cantr II is not currently available. How bad is it?

Really bad.
One more straw and the camel's back will break.

Lag is everywhere.... (except out of Cantr).

[Doug R.]

I have no problem going back to the old way of doing animals.

My job is to work with the current system and get it to work, and I will work with any system I'm given.

[Sicofonte]

And you are doing well.

With the pack system (statistical), if we roll back, your job will be more confortable, and you'll be able to develop more strategies with higher population limits.

[Cherize]

Your suspicions are right, this _is_ about the animals. The sheer volume takes processing them into the hours, and that four times a day. As player requests (using the game interface) come on in concurrently, there's a turnaround point where all processes jam up into eachother and all processing bogs down into snail speed, waiting for scripts to unlock tables that don't get finished, and turning to "Cantr is down" pages.

Since animals are an integral part of the game, we can't just turn them off. We have decided to reduce their cycles from four to two times per day for now though - this should result in less lag in the 21:30-23:30 CET interval, which is he most problematic, because both European and American players are online then. Some lag will probably still occur after 03:30 and 15:30 though.

This measure affects the entire animal system (reproduction, travel, attacking, etc), if you see significant problems in-game because of this (in particular, animals getting extinct unexpectedly), please report them here. We are looking to get back to normal animal processing in a few weeks.

This is a temporary measure - we intend to take the animal processing to a secondary database so the regular player processing don't get affected. This requires some substantial programming though, which Chris will take up after his holiday. In the meantime, I will look over the relevant scripts as well to see if I can find any way to optimize them (though don't get too over-excited about the latter - I'm not that good really). Thirdly, we're looking to cap the total animal count (which has risen to about 2 million, while it used to be around 1 million before the lag) in conjunction with RD.

We are very sorry for the problems, but must ask you to bear with us for just a little longer. There will still be lag moments over the coming period, but they should be reduced significantly. Please be patient, we are aware of the problems and looking fo solutions.

PS - oh and hi to you too, hf.

Finally a man with enough self confidence to speak the truth.

Thank you.

[Frits]

The temporary measure seems to have been lifted again as i saw animals acting monday june 11th around 21:30 GMT. The bad news is i also experienced a lot of lag on this day, reminding of how it was one month ago.

[Valsum]

Yesterday it was a specially bad day. I tried 5 times during the day and none of them I could enter Cantr

[Liljum]

It really was for a lomg time. thuesday night i played the last time and now is the first time i've got in to play. Which is about 38 hours.

[psymann]

Lag is back with a vengeance on both game and forum.

So bad today, it's unplayable.

Tried at 1000ish GMT, and got unavailable; then when it did work, it took a minute just to log in, so I had to give up as I was going out.

Tried again at 1415, and it took me well over 30 minutes to log in, check events for just one character, look at one person in the same room, and say one line. That's just six page loads including login, and well over half an hour of my time. Took 26 of my 200 minutes as well.

So, just as I thought it was getting a little better, it's come back nasty.

psymann

[pipok]

Damn! Database problems again. Just after login:

Warning: mysql_fetch_object(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/httpd/vhosts/cantr.net/httpdocs/page.player.inc.php on line 109

[AngelSpice]

It's being worked on. CJ Cantr says it'll be up in about 10 minutes *crosses fingers*

[faolan]

It's still probleming arrgh.