Cataclysm: DDA World Server

Game Talk The Lab
1

This is a server that you can log into via SSH and play C:DDA on. The only thing that’s different is that every time you login, there’s a chance you’ll join a world that’s already been played through. Any world you play in will be saved and recycled back into the pool of worlds. Currently, a new world is generated if all worlds are “Locked”. If a world is found that is not locked, that is loaded instead. That world is then essentially locked to your account until you log off without a save present. Anything you in the world will be saved for someone else to experience, or maybe even you if you stumble upon it again!

HOW TO CONNECT

Server IP: mcdda.dnsget.org
If you need to create an account, login with username newUser and password abc123, then connect again.

Windows
Download putty.
Disable application keypad mode in the Settings>Terminal>Features menu in putty.
Connect to the Server IP via SSH port 22.
If you already have an account, login. If you need to create an account, login with username newUser and password abc123.

NOTE: THe default putty window size is too small for C:DDA apparently, so stretch the window out a bit and it should work.

Linux
If you have Linux installed, you really should know how to SSH into a server. :smiley:

This is still VERY early in development, and suggestions are always welcome! Enjoy!

FAQ

Q: So I can save my game and come back later, right?
A: Yes, the world will be locked to your account until you log out without an alive character present.

Q: Can I play on the same world as someone else at the same time as them?
A: No, I haven’t even begun to look into that, and it is probably not possible without severely altering the games code.

Q: Can I start my own server?
A: Of course!

Q: …with your software?
A: Eventually, yes. I wouldn’t really call it software either. I threw together this collection of scripts in about a day when I got fed up
dealing with dgamelaunch. While it’s not exactly the same thing, it aims to achieve something similar. Once I get it a little more refined, I will allow it to be downloaded freely.

2

Would you mind overmuch if I promoted this on the front page?

3

Sure, go for it! Always good to have more beta testers! :smiley:

EDIT: Thank you, by the way! This is quite an awesome game you’ve helped make here!

4

This seems amazing, but when I try to enter the password abc123, it won’t let me type for some reason.

5

That’s weird. After you enter the password, does a banner that says “Welcome to 3D-Space’s beta C:DDA Server” appear? If not, you might have the login credentials wrong. Make sure you’re using newUser, not newuser, it is case sensitive. Also know that Linux (the host OS) won’t show the password being entered, so type the password and hit enter, even if it does look like nothing was entered.

As far as I can tell, the biggest downfall to the server so far is the lag makes it impossible to “run”. I don’t mind, as it helps me play more carefully, but others might. There’s not really much I can do about that, but if you notice anything else awry, please let me know!

6

Hmm… if ther’es lag issues already, maybe I better not link it. :wink:

7

It’s not an abundance of users, just the standard “lag” you get when you connect to a server that’s at your location. It simply can’t keep up with someone holding down the movement key like a program on a local machine can. You can still hold down the movement keys and your character will move, it will just take longer in real time compared to playing it on your own computer. :slight_smile:

8

Ah, that’s fine then. Really do need to remember to throw this up this week, maybe hold people over a bit more til .5

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[quote=“Decesus, post:5, topic:1125”]That’s weird. After you enter the password, does a banner that says “Welcome to 3D-Space’s beta C:DDA Server” appear? If not, you might have the login credentials wrong. Make sure you’re using newUser, not newuser, it is case sensitive. Also know that Linux (the host OS) won’t show the password being entered, so type the password and hit enter, even if it does look like nothing was entered.

As far as I can tell, the biggest downfall to the server so far is the lag makes it impossible to “run”. I don’t mind, as it helps me play more carefully, but others might. There’s not really much I can do about that, but if you notice anything else awry, please let me know![/quote]

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7246/puttym.png
I get this. Then I try typing abc123 in, but when I hit enter, it gives me a fatal error (not saying anything specific) and crashes.

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I’m able to make a user account, and seem to be able to log into that account. However, when I do, get this:

Soron@mcdda.dnsget.org's password: 
Linux 3D-Space 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Mon Feb 25 00:26:11 UTC 2013 x86_64

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

    #1) Respect the privacy of others.
    #2) Think before you type.
    #3) With great power comes great responsibility.

[sudo] password for Soron: 
sudo: ./update_script.sh: command not found
Connection to mcdda.dnsget.org closed.

Should that “[sudo] password for Foo:” line really be popping up? Seems like there may be a misconfiguration?

11

Soron, your issue has been fixed. I made some changes to the scripts last night and I forgot a step. Whoops. It should be cleared up now and you should be good to go! As for Vidoxs problems, I’d try another SSH client. The newUser account works fine for me on a new Windows machine and putty, so let me know how another client fares for you.

12

It seems that I can’t connect to your server. PuTTY is telling me that the host does not exist, and http://network-tools.com/ is giving me an error 1214 when I used their ping function. Any ideas?

There it goes. Not sure what happened, but it’s working now.

13

Along with the input delay, which has a nasty tendency of getting me killed by wasting turns in critical moments, it also seems to hang and have the parser black out every so often. Had to restart several times and pretty much relied on the autosave feature to get anything done. Sometimes it even crashes before the first autosave for a character kicks in, forcing me to go through the laggy character creation process again or use a preset. Kind of a bummer, really, I wanted to check out all the cool new buildings/items.

14

Question, the settings: If someone were to change those, would they affect the next user? is it even allowed?

I ask because I recommend a static option set so we can prevent abuse and a standard rule-set for griefing

and yea, the input delays for me ran in upwards of 2-3 minutes.

just a couple bugs! the input delay seems to happen most frequently when I switch off the window (i’m attempting to confirm this)

15

Yay, I made the front page! Thanks again, GG! Thank you to everyone who’s created an account and tested it out as well! This is officially the most popular thing I’ve created, so far. Now let’s try to address these issues.

The input delay:

There’s no doubt about it, this is the biggest issue with the concept so far. At 2-3 minutes of delay, the game is unplayable (What game would be?), though I feel most users are well below that. Keeping the service as something you log into (and play remotely) and resolving the input lag directly conflict with each other. Currently the server is running out of my apartment in a suburb of Denver, CO, so if you’re out of the country then I am sorry.

One thing bouncing around in my head regarding solutions is to change the main focus of the server from hosting the entire game to distributing worlds. I.E. The player downloads a world folder, places it in the right location, plays and then uploads it back to the server. This brings with it a number of vulnerabilities and short fallings, some of which I’ll list:

-The worlds would have to be activly reuploaded by the player.
-The player would have full access to the world files.
-The player could effectively delete a world. (Something which they can’t do now.)

There are plenty of other pros and cons, which I’m sure will be discussed in this thread.

The key to fixing input lag is storing the world locally, and the biggest downfall to that (besides griefing) is getting it back on the server. Right now the worlds are about 10 - 14MB each, but if people continue to expand in the world it’s only going to get bigger and I’m sure it will be more of a problem.

The game options:

Right now, the option files are account specific, so you can’t set options to mess others up. Your options will be carried through to the next world loaded for your account though. You can turn on debug and essentially make the world unusable if you wanted, as any changes you make to the world itself would be carried over to the next player. There are plenty of ideas of how you could that in my head, but I don’t want to pass them on. :stuck_out_tongue: What’s going to help with this is disabling debugging altogether, though I don’t know how to do that. Also disabling options like “Starting Stats Amount” would be helpful as well.

As I’ve stated before, this is literally version .001 (If that) of the project, so any and all suggestions and help are welcome! Let’s get this running like it should!

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woot, Beta Testers FTW!!!

but yeah, creating even an honor system would be alright, a standard of character creation and etiquette for the game.

about the Input delay: Would hosting the files on a larger/faster server help? Finances are probably a problem but just theorizing some solutions to this very important problem.

Otherwise it seems to be a case of keeping the jaggoffs from finding this and ruining all of our fun.

Side note: If anyone finds a car smashed into a building surrounded by other buildings on fire and shell casings everywhere…that was me xD (that turn came up WAY to fast and my driving was WAY to low to compensate.)

17

First off, just wanna say that I see a lot of potential here. Looking forward to the future of this project!

I have not been able to play on the server yet though, because I get a couple errors. I login fine, and Cataclysm starts in my terminal, but then the game displays a debug message:

DEBUG: Could not make ‘./save’ directory
Press spacebar…

When I hit spacebar it takes me back to the regular terminal, and reading through it I see something that sticks out. Here are the last few lines:

Confirming game files are latest version…
Done.
18
touch: cannot touch ‘/home/cdda_root/world/world_18/.playerLock’: No such file or directory
Connection to mcdda.dnsget.org closed.

So it seems to me that the server is looking for the save folder and playerLock file in the wrong places? I have tried a fresh, compiled version of C:DDA, changing directory to the game location, changing to root, and inputting the ssh command with sudo(don’t know if that would have changed anything.)

Is there something I’m missing or is this just a bug I’ve run into? Or is this telling me that world_18 is corrupt?

18

Alright, more issues fixed (but not the input lag :frowning: ). You are correct, Nopkar, in that finances are whats preventing me from trying to run this on a larger server, but I’m not sure of the load my server is currently experiencing. I’ve setup monitoring software though, so I should have more info on that in a few days.

Also, your little note at the bottom of your post is exactly why I wanted to make this. It going to be cool stuff like that that pulls new players in!

PrittyKitty, your issue has been fixed. As I’m sure you know, this is super early alpha, so some how a save folder got written directly to the world folder and it threw the world count off. I’ve made sure you’re able to play, so log on and let me know what you think.

For everyone else, thank you again for joining me in this experience. Any and all help or suggestions are welcome. If you are noticing input lag that is unbearable, please try to ping the server IP and then let me know what the delay is, and where about you are trying to connect from.

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I cant write a password :frowning:

[spoiler]##############################################################

WELCOME!

This is the beta Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Server.

It’s “Multiplayer”, in the sense that everytime you

login and don’t have a save game that is currently

being played, you might get a world that’s been played

by another player. In this way, the worlds “evolve”

with each player. This is a very early beta and

feedback is always appreciated: mcddadev@gmail.com

Please login below. If you do not have an account,

login with username “newUser” and password “abc123”

##############################################################
newUser password: abc123@mcdda.dnsget.org’s password:[/spoiler]

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What OS and SSH client are you using?