What is exactly happening for the FGLAN Freezes?
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ThroneJake wrote: »Were they all client errors or the PC's? I know this a good step to the competitive CF direction but fixing client errors are a priority too.
during the tournament we had a lot of client errors we found that with windows 8 and mumble if you run them at the same time with overlay you cant start CF and there is just a lot of client errors while running mumble with CF at the same time -
I'll try to relay some information here to calm the troll bait.
Errors came in 2 different forms. In Game and Setup. I'll go over the in game ones first.
Cause 1
Windows 8 - the windows key.
Most people forgot how to alt-tab in windows 8. If you press the windows key a blue screen comes up with some whatever. You have to either alt-tab or click a few bits or whatever the case to get back to the game.
A couple of rounds had to be restarted due to this. A couple of rounds lost time off the clock because it was caught early enough.
Solution- Disable Windows key, don't accidentally press Windows key, don't use Windows 8, remember to alt-tab back into the game instead of panicking about a busted game.
Game Client Errors
I'm going to throw out a random number here, this is an educated guess only on memory but we really only saw about 5 client errors that affected rounds. Maybe only 7 or 8 in total. It was definitely not "once per match". But there were client errors for sure.
Solution- Continue to work with the developers on the errors. We need to get proper reproductions and reports sent in to the devs so we can work with them to solve them. It's important for sure.
Network disconnection
The back 10 computers were easily more affected by this than the front. We had to wire the the entire convention room through 4 or 5 hubs at various locations around the room. We tried to put chairs over top of those hubs and tape them down, but after a match was over people generally mingled around the hubs (for whatever reason). ANYONE could kick the hub and disconnect 5-10 machines in one go.
Solution- Pay more attention to where your standing.
- Less people mingling around computers.
- More staff and spotters.
- Create "no walk zones" where people can't walk.
Windows 8 and Mumble and CrossFire
This one caught us by surprise. No one was sure why at the start mumble was refusing to cooperate with X-Trap and CrossFire. We contacted the devs on Saturday but couldn't get in touch with them in time. Though we may not have been able to implement a live update that quickly anyways, we will be following up on that in the future.
Note this problem had nothing to do with the operation of the game, but caused early delays.
Solution- Make sure to have ventrilo server or TS server as a backup.
- Create a server for the LAN event only using something that is working perfectly in testing prior to.
Mumble
Mumble was simply put, horrible.
The tendency for players would be to sit down at the pc and then open a copy of mumble. Not paying attention to the fact that mumble was likely already open from the previous person. Dual connections to servers would cause the mumble server to cut the computer off, and prevent you from joining for the next 5-10 minutes.
In addition to this, the people who plugged and unplugged their headphones in between matches and the closing down, and opening of multiple instances of mumble would often cause settings to be reset. I was quite amazed at the amount of people who don't actually know how to change their headphone settings in mumble. Though I needed a lesson myself on how to fix it, the solution was the same every time. Just set the input/output to the proper line in and microphone settings.
Lastly, the Steelseries headphones caused an immense amount of problems for gamers. Most people not using them didn't have problems.
Solution- Learn the ins and outs of mumble. If you use the program then learn how to change the settings for your own headphones properly.
- Have your own mumble server ready in case there is not a mumble server provided for you. Most pro teams use some sort of voice communication, there should be no reason why you can't use that voice comm server for the event.
- Organizers should look to provide a server specifically.
- Even though headphones are personal things to the user, I believe providing them at the next event should be considered. To eliminate the need for players to constantly plug and unplug their devices.
In the end the PCs provided were top notch, and even the windows 7 machines provided plenty of power to run the game. Almost all of the problems (besides client errors) were human errors.
More staff needed to be on board as well. While we had people watching computers, I caught a lot of off-cuff comments about who's sucking who's.. appendages... and a lot of suspected favoritism, even though no one at that point in time [read: after 12 hours of playing] was interested in trying to cheat or play favors.
More concrete rules about who could stand where and who could be where, and the procedure between rounds could be much more strict than it was. Creating the rules, and enforcing them with extra staff would have created more respect for the event.
The procedure for handling disconnects/client errors in game should be also more thoroughly discussed and ground rules laid out. For most instances the current round would be scrapped unless it was a less than 3 on 5 scenario (ie 2 people had already died). In the dramatic case of LL vs Carnage, the disconnect did not cause the match to be stopped fast enough, carnage was under the impression LL players were playing it out, LL players were under the impression the match was over. In the end we decided to restart the current round with a 5v3 advantage because it was such a tight game and competition. In the end that drama didn't matter, and we were able to more strictly watch for disconnects and client errors.
The entire LAN start was delayed because of the amount of time it took to set up the PC's. Purvis and Delaco were not allowed to set them up the night before, and combined with the mumble problems we had at the beginning of the day, the whole thing was probably 2 hours more delayed than it should have been.
In addition to that, the procedure between rounds was not set out and the time between rounds was extending longer than normal. Combine that with the time it took to troubleshoot microphones (so many microphone problems) and the problems connecting to a mumble server, and we had such a long event.
Don't forget that there were 2 people plus myself running a group of 75 players. 20 computers, 2 matches at a time, 2 broadcast streams and trying to troubleshoot any technical problems.
Purvis, Delaco and myself spent all day running between computers, trying to tell people to shut up, stop walking on network cables, telling people they can't eat in the convention room, telling people to calm down while we sort out their headphone issue etc.
Both Purvis and Delaco were all stars that day. And everyone was very respectful and in good spirits despite all this stuff.
Anyways, this is way longer than I expected it to be. I was going to do a thank you post and talk about this stuff, so I'll leave addition things to that. -
First thing I would like to say is, nice sig Saidin
I've learned a lot from this event. Like Saidin said, we will make things better by learning from out mistakes. If I ever do this again we will get more staff, more solid rules both in game and event wise, and try to get more outside support from sponsors to provide more prizes and equipment.
I did a lot more than I first thought I would be doing for this event. Personally want to thank Delaco for all of his time and money that he put into the event. If it wasn't for him, we wouldnt of had another 10 computers, monitors, nor Internet plus the bonus prizes.
Saidin helped greatly when things got tuff. Great guy to talk to. Honestly I don't know how we would have made it to the end with his help.
Shutout the all of the casters and streamers that helped. GREAT JOB!
Thanks to all volunteers that helped setup and take down the event.
Molson#1 
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