Old_Helena + People connecting

[Dridmar]

Now I've had the problem for a while and it annoys me greatly. Whenever we make it so far in the map it gets ruined when everyone and their uncle connects at the same time. Now here's something that players can do to reduce the chances of this happening and annoying many players who were trying to go for item X. Whenever the server changes levels all the players get disconnected then reconnected shortly after which makes our connection time reset. Now since the crashing problem can happen in the middle or during the end of the map can you connecting players please look at the connection times of the other people and do one of the following...

Right click on the server and hit "View server info"
If connection time is more than 15 minutes, don't connect.
If connection time is less than 15 minutes, connect if you want.

I believe that this could help if people followed these instructions. of course the time could be different depending on the group of people playing the map but I don't see much of a problem with sticking to the times listed above. Please players try to show some courtesy for other players because how would you feel if it was done to you multiple times.

 

[Ulquiorra]

+1

 

[Red Cell]

Tis a shame people have to do that at the moment, but if that's the only way to prevent it then I would have to concur with your statement. This mod isn't perfect guys, help each other out a bit.

 

[Thothie]

Many of the crashes on Helena can be attributed to the ApplyMultiDamage which we nixed in the next patch, so that should help...

However, I suspect the map will, sadly, become much less popular when the various exploits are removed. I suspect, also, it will make the fighting over items increase as well.

I might look into working up a system where the shop keepers present a unique inventory to each player, in much the way the new multi-inventory chests work, if the system proves to be dependable and non-sploitable. They'll need a thorough public testing first. I may also scatter the items randomly over the shop keepers, so while you won't know which to save, your odds of getting the item you want increase with the number of shop keepers saved.

Eventually hoped to have either an FN or server-side flag that'll leave not-so-old Helena either intact (as usual) or an orc-infested ruin, depending on the success/failure of the last team to attempt Old-Helena, which may make repeated mid-map re-runs less tempting, and add some amount of persistance to the world.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

The map doesn't only crash often because of the large amount of monsters team whine doesn't get to mention xp - some people (like Basoonter) think it's a smart tactic to spam skeletons all over the place. So you should add that to your post, too; stop spamming skeletons.

 

[vecraude]

You know what they say, spam is only healthy in minimal servings so please...on ANY crowded map, dont spam rats/skellys/spells/etc.

Also if you just so happen to see a mass of players in one server, and happen to have a ping of over 200 with that server then try not to join that server cause im sure it will throw off server stability in one way or another...I seem to find that players with unusually high ping affects me but others say it dont affect them...guess its just the crappy net connection or something.

And one more thing~, remember to try and not keep in the lobby for too long, server admins usually just kick people who sit in the char selection for too long .

 

[Thothie]

Bad connection means it takes longer for the server to pass the character to the client, so I could see where that might affect things, during the initial connection at least.

Skeletons on Old_Helena shouldn't be *too* bad, vs. the spells. Tis sort of a shame they cause an issue at all, however, as that sort of map is really what the guardian skeletons were designed for.

Maybe I could shave off another 2 orcs per wave, and just make the rest meaner to compensate.

 

[Thothie]

By the way, one thing that WILL inevitably crash the server (and we've fixed this in the next patch, mind ye), if you cast any sort of AOE DOT spell, or have DOT going on multiple targets, and then die - the server will almost certainly die due to an ApplyMultiDamage bug. So keep that in mind when spell flinging (which is again, sad, as this is just the sort of map made for Blizzard).

 

[Borya]

Actually, back before the current main Old_Helena exploit really caught on, I had never been to an Old_Helena run that didn't crash before the final war-cart, no matter the number of people, due to the reliance on skeletons to keep the catapults from one-shotting one or more of the NPCs (human shields seemed too unreliable). I'm not sure if that had to do with the patch at the time or possibly other factors, but just some food for thought.

When I get the chance, I'll try to get an exploit-free Old_Helena run going, and see if whatever server it gets organised on crashes by the end, and report back in this thread with (hopefully) some manner of meaningful results.

Edit: Also, what I've noticed, contrary to what you say, is if anyone is on a really bad connection (lets say 800 or more ping, and yes, I've seen them, even a few around 1400 or so), it at the very least seems to cause some manner of overall slowdown amongst the rest of the connected players that continues even post-character loading (the particularly laggy client is on their char and can do stuff).

 

[Thothie]

Well, whenever a player with a very high ping is on, those clients near him may see him teleport, and some server-side effects near him may be delayed, as is always the case with Half-Life net physics, but it shouldn't screw up server stability beyond the aformentioned connection time. Makes life hell on said client though.

I've done several legit runs on old_helena without the sploits (if I'm not smurfing, folks generally avoid sploiting in front of me). The map was quite a bit less stable in ye olden days, with another four orcs per wave, and the extra capault effects that I, ever so sadly, had to remove.

 

[Skillasaur]

I find as a general rule skeleton guardian spam on Foutpost and Old_helena is unnecessary with 4+ people, although this may be due to the fact most people seem to be around 30-35 level mark nowadays. I'm not sure of the intended level of Old_helena but it seems anyone 25+ can contribute well. I personally haven't experianced any crash bugs on Old_Helena in the past 4 or 5 runs I've done. As for item farming I still think damage points are the best way to award loot, although I know there are some people who ignore damage points and rolling altogether.