ATAG Dedicated Server is up!

[ATAG_Bliss]

Originally Posted by CWMV

Now I actually had a chance to play on the Repka server today.
Generally I have to say that I refuse to play Repka because they use the Spit MkIIa, but I have to say that I was impressed. The game ran very smoothly, and there was no issue with custom skins that people talk about here.
Is there something fundamentally different about Repka that makes it run so much better?

Custom skins spawning cause stutters on dedicated servers. This is unquestionable and can easily be tested by yourself. As far as the "smoothness", there's a whole bunch of stuff going on in the mission. At any given time there are probably in excess of 70 AI bombers in the air at any given time. Some are taking off, some are landing, some are en-route to their target, etc.,etc.,.. This can put a heck of a strain on a client. But there are many people wanting to play on non-peak times as well. It wouldn't be a whole bunch of fun playing on the channel map with 5 people without plenty of stuff to shoot at. So it's currently a compromise until A.) MP gets bigger.. B.) we have a better viewing system to find people and track other contacts.

I could easily tone down the mission, take the AI out, and have only moving ground objectives. It would be much less of a performance strain on players this way, but without the huge player controlled bomber force (more than likely due to problems with the bombers and CTD's currently), what you're left with is a huge map where people dogfight only. Might as well put up a quake map at that point.

I've reported a problem with steam with the latest official patch where servers will randomly become unresponsive (server messages stop, players are unable to see other players - then randomly, like a light switch it comes back on) This has never happened before and has only occurred during the latest official patch. Steam has updated several times since then and it's been a little while since I've seen the problem, but considering the amount of bandwidth we've been pushing lately (over 3 terabytes of bandwidth last month compared to 600gig the month before), I'd say there's a big problem somewhere. And this isn't because of leaching. It's all coming from IL2COD. We as server providers don't exactly have any sort of documentation as far as config settings, or well, anything either. I'm sure more is answered where some of the dev team responds (the Russian forums), but google translate only gets you so far.

The server has the best hardware and bandwidth money can buy. Running a IL2COD server on it is about as equivalent as playing minesweeper on your own personal PC. There are other factors, I'm sure, that cause more instability for other people, but personally, I'm smooth as silk 99% of the time when I'm flying. I do have top of the line hardware for my personal pc as well - which probably helps immensely.

Originally Posted by klem

Well its been smooth and no problem on the Jg27 server - the Kanakampf scenario currently running. About 60 players I think plus four groups of AI bombers (about 12 each).

We are getting some warping problems on ATAG lately but that may be the server rather than the game settings, it did it tonight before finally crashing. It doesn't happen all the time in fact its quite stable.

We like the ATAG server very much and hope the warping can be fixed soon although it wont stop us using it.

If the warping is caused right before server restart, this is normal. When the server restarts, it will close down the dserver and steam. Then it will restart steam and the dserver + the proper .cmd line to load the mission. But when the server is closed down you won't be kicked immediately. Usually it will take 3-5 minutes before you are kicked out of game. So in a sense, you are playing on a server in limbo that isn't even running. Every plane you see (besides your own) will be flying sideways, upside down, or just plane doing the weirdest stuff you've ever seen. I've seen the AI do plenty of weird stuff before. But it was only this latest patch where I've seen some clients rubber banding as well. Again, I'd wager a guess it has to do with the aforementioned problem we've experienced with steam, coupled with the access streaming of bandwidth. Currently there's 10 players on the server, but it wants to stream 12mbps of upload and 4.6mbps of download speed. It should be 1/20th of that. I've changed the netspeed in the config to a client level to see if it will have any sort of effect. This should will apply automatically when the 7 hours of the mission runs out and the server automatically restarts itself.

Let me know if it's helping.

[TomcatViP]

Hello Bliss,

I hve no stutters here (Fr) playing on ATAG since I disabled the custom skins on my computer.

The weird think is that I still hve skins appearing in my temp folder after deleting all file here. But I did try other sever. So I don't think this to be related to ATAG.

As a personal preference I would not like to see the amount of air activity being tunned down. With the ATAG server you are on the right way with high & Med flying bombers (although most of them are too low IMHO). However there is a too much bomber activity on the red side. It would be nice to see only bomber command sorties at dusk and low level attack by light bombers. Perhaps this will ease the level of activity on the client side and help to switch the action over southern england.

On the same ground, London mission could be nice as it is a point target were all the player and AI will hve to converge. I know tht many fear the lack of perf associated with the London area but actually, it has not to be really London. It could be an other point on the map

Still I am not a Map makers so this is only speculation. But be assured that I really Thx you for the effort you provide for all of us !

~S!

[klem]

Originally Posted by TomcatViP

Hello Bliss,

I hve no stutters here (Fr) playing on ATAG since I disabled the custom skins on my computer.

The weird think is that I still hve skins appearing in my temp folder after deleting all file here. But I did try other sever. So I don't think this to be related to ATAG.

...............................

~S!

I don't have any new .jpg or .dds files since 30th Oct which is about when I turned off skin d/load. I do have about 6 from last night in the Shaders folder - whatever they are.

[irrelevant]

Just had an amazing experience on ATAG today and a good 3 hours of flying. Managed some bomber kills and my first non-AI fighter kills. Also got shot up pretty bad a couple of tmes, but all in all it was really, really fun.

But the best part of the day was receiving an escort from another player to help get my wounded bird back to base. Fallen Angel, I salute you for being a great team player!

Hats off to the ATAG crew for giving us a great server to play on!

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by irrelevant

Just had an amazing experience on ATAG today and a good 3 hours of flying. Managed some bomber kills and my first non-AI fighter kills. Also got shot up pretty bad a couple of tmes, but all in all it was really, really fun.

But the best part of the day was receiving an escort from another player to help get my wounded bird back to base. Fallen Angel, I salute you for being a great team player!

Hats off to the ATAG crew for giving us a great server to play on!

+1

[ATAG_Bliss]

Yeah, those AI kill messages are confusing if you're not used to them. I know someone made a script to keep pilots in the planes until landing or destroy to keep people from jumping out prematurely (Kodiac perhaps?) but I could never get it to work right. The problem was if you couldn't take off, no fuel for example, you're just stick in your plane until you reconnect.

But something like that should be in option in the game anyways, like the old one!

[irrelevant]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

There's no such things as a AI fighter kill on ATAG, if it is a fighter, it has/had a pilot.

oh, good news for me then! LOL

[FallenAngel]

Originally Posted by irrelevant

Just had an amazing experience on ATAG today and a good 3 hours of flying. Managed some bomber kills and my first non-AI fighter kills. Also got shot up pretty bad a couple of tmes, but all in all it was really, really fun.

But the best part of the day was receiving an escort from another player to help get my wounded bird back to base. Fallen Angel, I salute you for being a great team player!

Hats off to the ATAG crew for giving us a great server to play on!

It's been a pleasure, mate! That's the way it should be in a fullreal server, rather than the same messy dogfight arena!
s!

[SIDWULF]

Wicked server guys im getting 88ms ping which is good enough for me considering im on the west coast. So it is perfect.

And yes good times indeed.

Flying around at 5k I was finidng it impossible to spot targets flying below me but soon i noticed a Spitfire heading towards a formation so i dived and snuck in below an blasted him with cannons at close range. He flipped on his belly and dove to the deck. I then regained altitude but noticed another spit up higher, he got the bounce on me and i split s and ran for home but then shortly i tried to regain altitude but got bounced again...this time i just dived and went for home. But it didnt stop there i noticed a wellington with both engines oput peacefully gliding over the sea....I made a few bnz passes on it and then when it splashed down in the ocean i headed for home and made a great 3 point landing.

First real mission was a good one.

[bw_wolverine]

Had a great time flying tonight. Picked up a wingman from teamspeak (George Preddy) and we flew some tight sorties, picking up a few enemy craft.

Red flyers need to get on TS! The German side is far too organized for us to keep going up alone