Over the last few days, we have received a lot of questions about the new server mod and the development of the actual servers. Today we would like to take another look at this and hope that we can answer the most important questions.
We would also like to address some questions below and will try to answer them in detail so that everyone can understand.
Let's get started.
Question no.1:
Why is the development of the new mod taking so long?
This is probably the most frequently asked question at the moment. It can't be answered in a few words, so let's start from the beginning.
The new mod was actually already finished, but unfortunately we noticed during the final tests that there are problems with a certain number or rather a larger number of players on the server. The server starts to lag and it becomes unplayable over time. The whole system was linked to and built with MySql databases, as it would simply have been impossible to process this amount of information with "CFG files and script files", at least for the server. I as a person have taught myself a lot, from scratch. Of course, my knowledge is also very limited, but of course I get help from third parties. The MySql story is one thing I can't develop myself, it's beyond my skills and development knowledge. Here again I had to rely on third parties and I had to pay a lot of money for this help. Unfortunately, this third person is very limited in time and honestly difficult to reach at the moment, for this reason the development is currently very slow, because it is not up to me, but to third parties. Of course I'll keep at it and try to push the whole thing forward, but it's not easy.
I hope that I will soon be able to continue development myself and that the MySql work can finally be completed so that the mod is ready for use.
Question no. 2:
Why does it take so long for bugs to be fixed on other servers?
This question is probably the most frequently asked question, the answer here is also very extensive and so that you can understand it, we have to start from the beginning.
When I decided to develop my own mods and create my own servers, I had no knowledge or idea of the subject matter. But after a few failed attempts and my own tests, I was able to do more and more. At that time we had the goal and the idea to create a mod for all servers, so that you can play with the mod of the SD PAM server on all other servers without having to download additional files. In the beginning, the idea was totally ingenious and implemented really well, but over time, more and more problems became apparent. Over the years, more and more scripts were developed to make the server safer and better, so these scripts are interlinked in all servers. And this is where the real problem comes to light. Because every mod has to run on every server with different functions and settings, the problems arose. Let's take the mute system as an example, the mute system was added so that people who misbehave on the server can be muted, but after the introduction of this system, there were problems on the other servers. On one server, on which the SD mode is running, the mute system also works perfectly, but on the other servers, there is the problem that the chat automatically becomes unavailable after a while. Let's assume we want to solve this problem and install a fix. If we now work on the mute system so that it runs on the other servers with a different game mode, this also has an effect on the SD PAM server because it runs in SD mode. With regard to the CTF-HQ server, we may then have other problems that cannot be foreseen.
Now you could say, why wasn't this tested before, so at that time we only had the SD PAM server, the other servers were mostly empty and nobody noticed it, we just noticed these errors much later. Up to this point, of course, there was always further development, so we decided to stop developing these old mods and rather put the energy and costs into something new, so that all the problems in the new mod belong to history.
Hopefully you now understand that it is not easy to make a small change to the code, as we are making changes to all other servers. With the new mod we will solve this interlocking of the systems so that we can react faster and easier to errors.
Question no.3:
Why are there problems with the connections to the server?
An excellent question. This is relatively easy to explain. In the past, we were often attacked with very strong DDoS attacks and the servers were sometimes hacked (Rcon hacks). Our hosting partner VibeGames has set itself the task of getting these DDoS attacks under control and being able to fend them off. But our hoster is just a hoster, like most others. A hoster simply provides the servers and support with its infrastructure and data centers, so that servers can be protected against DDoS attacks and other attacks, an external solution is needed. A few months ago we were still protected by OVH, but unfortunately there were some problems with OVH and the hoster changed providers. Now we are protected by Path Network. Path Network is probably one of the best in the world when it comes to DDoS protection, and the firewall is also many times stronger than it was under OVH. However, Path Network had to create its own firewall filters and rules for each individual game. Call of Duty 2 is a very old game and we at VibeGames are currently the only customer with this old game, so Path Network's priority is more on other things than on a small community like ours. We were often told that an update to the filters would come on day X or day Y, but it never came. Then the updates finally came and you could immediately see that the connection to the server could be established much faster and the traffic could also be controlled sensibly, unfortunately these filters then caused the firewall protection to weaken, but it took a long time for Path Network to realize this after numerous updates. They say that they know what the problem is and have a solution for it. However, we have been waiting for this solution for a very long time now and even when our hoster asks Path Network, there are always only vague answers or none at all. This is why there is currently a standstill here. The new filters should not limit the performance of the firewall and still ensure a good connection.
Question no.4:
Why do some people not have reproducibly higher pings in the evening than at other times of the day?
Again, this is not due to the hoster itself, but rather because the lines are overloaded. The lines come from DTAG (Deutsche Telekom AG). The traffic is sometimes so high that the lines are simply overloaded. The hoster cannot do anything here and only DTAG can remedy the situation. As far as I know, this problem has not occurred recently and it seems that this problem no longer exists.
Question no.5:
Why don't we activate the anti-lag system on the servers?
Well, the topic of anti-lag is a very sensitive one for us and it has been discussed and debated internally very often and in detail. We have simply come to the conclusion that we will not activate anti-lag. Of course we are aware that some players with anti lag probably have a slightly better ping and can therefore play better on our servers, but there is also a downside, even if the people concerned don't want to admit it.
For players who do not benefit from Anti lag, there are negative effects. Let's take as an example a situation that inevitably occurs every few seconds on the server. If a player who benefits from anti lag meets a player who does not benefit from it, the former will have an advantage. He is simply no longer easy to hit for normal players, and you can see that the hit box suffers greatly as a result. It goes even further, the player who benefits from anti lag gets a hit box, which also helps him with his aiming. These players often don't hit their opponents at all and still hit or kill them because the hit box is simply totally messed up.
In general, it can happen that the feel of the game changes somewhat, not dramatically, but it does change. This cannot be explained or described exactly, you simply have to experience it for yourself.
The activation of Anti Lag on selected days was also discussed and rejected, much to the regret of the few players who would like to see Anti Lag.
These were some of the most important questions at the moment, we hope we were able to explain to you why certain things are simply not so easy and why they take so much time.
For the year 2024, we have nevertheless set ourselves the goal of completing the new mod as quickly as possible and separating the servers so that we can react more easily and quickly to errors.
We will of course keep in touch from time to time with updates and ask for the community's help with the next test of the new mod.
Do you have more questions? Ask them here, we will try to answer them all.
Be patient and stay tuned.
