Server sim speed drop on connect

[BeastBox]

Any advice for fixing this? I see a lot of posts about this on various boards going back years but not a whole lot recently. Running the dedicated SE server on a spare computer, CPU load hovers around 50%, game runs just peachy if we can all get on (and by "all", I mean just 3 people) but sometimes the server just restarts from someone trying to connect, which I find absolutely insane. There isn't even that much going on, just a few friends with some Earth bases and a handful of small-grid ships each. Is there some way to increase time for someone to connect so the server doesn't just give up, or some settings in the dedicated server UI I should fiddle with, or any other tips or things I should check? This one little thing is just killing us ...

[CynicDragon]

ive ran into this as well, hard to say, i want to say its related to the total world pcu, if you got ALOT ALOT of grids/blocks, counting the npcs, maybe it slows it down during mutliplayer, idk, haven't figured how this game makes multiplayer work, or not work

[Rox]

When a player is connecting to the server, the server needs to save its state, which means determining the status, position and orientation of all the grids in the world, and send all the planet and moon files to the client... if the config allows client to choose spawn point, then it also needs to determine all the possible spawn locations by checking all grids for medical rooms and survival kits and then checking if the new player has rights to use them... when the player chooses one it has to produce the view image by computing it from all the grids in the area as well as the state of the airtightness to determine oxygen level... and them compile and send to the client all the necessary data... this is why Keen servers and some other busy ones do not allow a choice of spawn point on connect.

So apart from clearing junk, restricting spawn point to the one closest to the last position of the player will help a lot. The use of cryo tubes might be considered, but they have always had issues and may refuse to work in some situations resulting in being unable to spawn and requiring admin help or somebody to go grind the cryo. Also if you have meteors enabled or are doing massive planet mining operations the planet data files can grow enormously which is obviously another potential problem. ... so take a good look at the server save, and see what you can clean out of it, either using the standard ingame or server UI admin tools or with SE Toolbox. (obviously take a copy first in case of errors)

[BeastBox]

My understanding was SE Toolbox was no longer supported. I'd love to clear out the meteor craters; we do have those on and the server's been running a while, so some area's look like a teenager's face ...

[Rox]

Originally posted by BeastBox:

... SE Toolbox was no longer supported ...

The old version on Steam is not, but a new programmer took it on and his version is updated whenever SE updates, you can download it from their github page - https://github.com/mmusu3/SEToolbox/releases

You can also use the ingame admin tool to clear craters - alt-F10 > trash removal > Voxels

[Rox]

Also the common workaround for the spawn position limit is to add timer blocks to the grids with spawn points that turn ON the med station / survival kits after a delay, then start the timer and switch off the med/survival block and respawn... it gets slow and clunky if you have a lot of spawn blocks on many grids, but them's the breaks, as they say ;)

[BeastBox]

SE Toolbox just treats it as an invalid, unrepairable save (even though SE and the dedicated server can open it fine), so that's nifty I guess.

And that trash removal doesn't clear craters worth a crap. O_o

[Rox]

I suspect the problem is you, rather than the tools and methods that work perfectly well for a great number of other server admins, but I'm done with offering assistance for today, so have fun.

[BeastBox]

That's a pretty flippant attitude considering I see this problem being common to many people going back years and years judging by my searches, but sure, I guess I'm hitting Ctrl+O wrong in SE Toobox or something for it to be saying "Invalid file" and such. I guess I'm just a problem; thanks for the assistance. :p

[Rox]

Originally posted by BeastBox:

... I'm just a problem ...

:) yeah, sorry about that, at the time I typed that I was in a real bad mood after being awake for almost 36 hours apart from the couple of hours I spent in a coma on the floor... I think you need to consider sharing more detail, like any mods in use, as the in-game voxel reset tool should never fail once you get to grips with the usual terrible Keen user interface, and I've never seen toolbox fail to open a save unless there were whierd game-altering mods in use.

Alternatively you could upload the server world save to Steam and share it so I could investigate (hidden/passworded if need be)