Basic server setup questions

[cbodmer]

Hi all,

I've been playing around with a local eqemu (0.7.0) server for a few days. I was wondering if some of you could shed some light on these questions:

- What does the server variable "PersistentZoneState" actually do when set to 1?

- What does the server variable "disablecommandline" do? I am not understanding the cryptic description for this variable.

- What's the practical difference between running zones dynamically or statically? Are mobs being moved, corpses timeoutted etc. in static zones even if no player is in it?

- What kind/types of zones are best loaded statically and which zones are best served dynamically? I am looking for opinions here.


Thanks!
-Chris

[John Adams]

I am no expert, but I'll give this a shot.

Originally Posted by cbodmer

- What does the server variable "PersistentZoneState" actually do when set to 1?

My best understanding is that this is like hibernating Windows XP - saves the current state of NPCs, spawns, positions, everything, when you properly DOWN a zone - so when you bring it back up, it's in the same state as before (you do not need to re-spawn the mob you fought for). I have never tried this...

- What does the server variable "disablecommandline" do? I am not understanding the cryptic description for this variable.

In net.cpp, this variable appears to be checked to allow you to do a few things ?at the command prompt of the world server dialog? (not sure):

Worldserver command line commands:
adduser username password flag    - adds a user account
flag username flag    - sets GM flag on the account
startzone zoneshortname    - sets the starting zone
-holdzones    - reboots lost zones

As for exactly what they do, or how to use them, I am not clear. I thought you could type in the WORLD.exe box, but maybe it's something non-Windows?

- What's the practical difference between running zones dynamically or statically? Are mobs being moved, corpses timeoutted etc. in static zones even if no player is in it?

Yes. Static zones are up, active, living and breathing, with NPCs going about their normal day even with no one in them. Corpses will timeout even if the zone is not static, and conditional mob spawns will happen regardless as well based on timers. The only advantage I see to static vs dynamic is access time (load time) and an ability to assign a zone a specific IP/Port.

- What kind/types of zones are best loaded statically and which zones are best served dynamically? I am looking for opinions here.

Depends on your world, really. Are your home cities most active (new players a lot)? I made all 28 home city zones static, and left only 10 dynamic zones for the rest of the game. However, if I saw my population mostly hanging out in Dawnshroud for instance, I might consider making that static as well.

Like I said, I am no expert, this is my best understanding of how this works without code diving. I'm sure there are other opinions which weigh more, so maybe we'll both learn something here. Hope this helps.

[cbodmer]

Thanks for the information you provided, John, I appreciate it.

My best understanding is that this is like hibernating Windows XP - saves the current state of NPCs, spawns, positions, everything, when you properly DOWN a zone - so when you bring it back up, it's in the same state as before (you do not need to re-spawn the mob you fought for). I have never tried this...

I ran an experiment on this today. It seems to do what you wrote, however I noticed that it only restored mob locations. Corpses on the ground disappeared and I've also noticed that when this was turned on, zones that never had a state saved before would be devoid of NPCs until I manually #repop it. Prolly best left off, since it could really cause complications with trains being zoned and then just hanging around the zoneline.

Yes. Static zones are up, active, living and breathing, with NPCs going about their normal day even with no one in them. Corpses will timeout even if the zone is not static, and conditional mob spawns will happen regardless as well based on timers. The only advantage I see to static vs dynamic is access time (load time) and an ability to assign a zone a specific IP/Port.

The reason I was asking this is because I noticed that I could boot up 40 zones or so and once they were up and running, I'd still have practically no CPU usage from it. Only when a player enters a zone it starts using a considerable amount of CPU time. Hence I wasn't sure whether the static zones were actually doing anything when nobody was in them.

Other than that, my observation is that dynamic zones load a bit slower, particularly with the persistantstate flag on.

Depends on your world, really. Are your home cities most active (new players a lot)? I made all 28 home city zones static, and left only 10 dynamic zones for the rest of the game. However, if I saw my population mostly hanging out in Dawnshroud for instance, I might consider making that static as well.

The problem I have with the dynamic zones is that rare mobs seem to be always up. Let's take SolB, Fire Giants always up, Nagafen always up. Although that's nice for testing, I'd think it's not particularly good for a public server.

Currently I am considering making all dungeons and raid zones static. I can see the merit of having the starting cities and newbie zones static for a new server as well. That's a good point you have there, loading times for static zones is a lot better than dynamic ones.

Cheers
-Chris

[John Adams]

Originally Posted by cbodmer

The problem I have with the dynamic zones is that rare mobs seem to be always up. Let's take SolB, Fire Giants always up, Nagafen always up. Although that's nice for testing, I'd think it's not particularly good for a public server.

Ahh, this is a good point. I think Angelox might have mentioned this elsewhere too... but I thought the discussion ended with the fact that spawn timers were still in effect (real world time) regardless if a zone was booted or not. Meaning, if you killed Naggy, you should not see him again until a) you restart your world, b) manually respawn him, or c) wait respawntimer minutes until he is allowed to re-appear (in Live, it used to be 7 days I think?)

Your idea is sound. Popular/raid/dungeon zones being static would be good. Still, I am not convinced of the real benefit aside from load time. I'll wait for someone else to chime in now.

[cbodmer]

... but I thought the discussion ended with the fact that spawn timers were still in effect (real world time) regardless if a zone was booted or not.

I've just tested this and it appears to work as you describe. I went to SolB, killed Naggy, then left the zone (dynamic one, so it'd shut down when I leave), came back to SolB after 2 mins and found no Nagafen. Spawn timers are apparently kept track off by the world, and not the zone. Thanks a lot for pointing this out, John!

It'll definetly alleviate my worries with regards to dynamic zones.

-Chris