DecoyJoin Date: 2012-09-11Member: 159037Members, Super Administrators, Playtest Lead, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts, Retired Community Developer
That's an issue on Valve's end, not NS2's. A lot of games are having workshop issues right now. Workshop always has a bad time during sales, then it improves when it's over.
143 log entries for Client disconnected (Missing required mod)" within a 5 hour span. This issue was not present pre-272. Players were still able to join the server. It was the server that would sometimes not load a map correctly on mapchange. When this happened, it was far more rare.. and people could actually join.
GhoulofGSG9Join Date: 2013-03-31Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
edited December 2014
Just usual business while a steam sale is going on. This has nothing to do directly with the last update. Golden rule for modders while steam sales are going on: Avoid updating!
Indeed with 272 we tried to avoid this by allowing servers and client to mount mods even if the workshop is down. Seems like this has made the situation a bit worse because our assumption that servers mostly use mods most clients will have anyway was slightly wrong. I guess it's time for us server admins to provide download mirrors of our mods.
Nope. These workshop issues happened during the summer sale. And before that it happened during the last holiday sale. And the summer sale before that. The issue was present pre-272.
The patch hit steam and the sale when live on the exact same day, hence why you're noticing them 'with' 272.
143 log entries for Client disconnected (Missing required mod)" within a 5 hour span. This issue was not present pre-272. Players were still able to join the server. It was the server that would sometimes not load a map correctly on mapchange. When this happened, it was far more rare.. and people could actually join.
Christmas wasn't present pre-272. Can you guys fix that too please? Come on CDT, Grinch it up.
I guess it's time for us server admins to provide download mirrors of our mods.
Is there a way to do that yet or are you talking future updates?
Things we have in mind for upcoming updates to solve this kind of issue are in fact such a automatically mirror system (beside switching to the newer workshop version etc.).
But what i meant here was something like a shared gdrive or ftp server maintained by most ns2 server admins and modders to give everyone the chance to download the given mods also in case steam is once again busy.
I did this before with my servers regulars and it worked pretty well.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
I hope @ZEROibis doesn't hear the claims that this issue only started with 272. All his raging since December 2013 to get a fix implemented for this very issue is a certain sign that regulars around here know the issue.
Modders and Server operators all know that a Steam Sale is the death knell for mods. Once it ends, if any of the players have a smooth enough experience to stay, the mods might even get played, but the players experience during a steam sale is a large part of the player retention issues, for those specific players...
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
Well ibis was sort of raging at times.
And yes he also posted useful info at times.
One does not exclude the other.
As for this being 272 only.. I wish.. ive been screaming at the workshop myself for a looooooong time and I actually have fully 0% mod configured servers in standbye in case we have a very very bad day.
Now why would I do that if the problem started at 272?
DecoyJoin Date: 2012-09-11Member: 159037Members, Super Administrators, Playtest Lead, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts, Retired Community Developer
Yep. That'll happen til the Steam sale ends (January 2 at 10am pst).
@KKyle you can post in this thread all you want about how many disconnects there are each day, but it's not going to change anything. If that's what you're going to do though, I'm going to sink the thread so it stops appearing at the top.
Something does honestly seem off with this patch and workshop mods TBH, anything of a significant size will 100% fail to download for me, while smaller mods are just fine. The issues in the past were centered around steam workshop completely failing to even respond, this seems like its responding just running past some internal timeout set in the engine.
Something does honestly seem off with this patch and workshop mods TBH, anything of a significant size will 100% fail to download for me, while smaller mods are just fine. The issues in the past were centered around steam workshop completely failing to even respond, this seems like its responding just running past some internal timeout set in the engine.
I agree. Unless these steam sales are different from any other sale. I've never had the issue before (as I said, fixed it with help), and I think that goes back to the first alpha release that could load on my computer.
Yep. That'll happen til the Steam sale ends (January 2 at 10am pst).
@KKyle you can post in this thread all you want about how many disconnects there are each day, but it's not going to change anything. If that's what you're going to do though, I'm going to sink the thread so it stops appearing at the top.
Actually.
One thing that definitely could have been changed is the error message itself. Fairly sure I requested that somewhere before.
Those error messages need to be more explanatory. Especially since they are yet another thing pushing down on the playercount while you scapegoat us. [-X
dePARAJoin Date: 2011-04-29Member: 96321Members, Squad Five Blue
edited December 2014
The steam workshop integration is working fine in over 95% of the cases.
And if a mod like shine isnt loaded from time to time you can fix that with an mapchange or play 1 round vanilla NS2.
The real problem are the maps loaded through the workshop cause the server end in an nirvana if steam has trouble.
The server should check that the custom map is really available before mapchange.
If not, just load a standard NS2 map instead with a small textinfo why another map loaded after a successfull vote.
Something like:
"Jambi won the vote but couldnt loaded cause steam issues"
OP's contributions to this thread are top notch. Keep us updated on your server log bro... its rather entertaining watching siege mode die.
As my personal contribution to this thread, I wiped my appdata and every mod re installed but NS2+ and one other random server mod which I manually downloaded. #blamemendasp So, to me, its nothing different from the usual workshop issues.... but who knows.
Kyle Abent: I don't see valve as the problem. I see 272 as the problem. Prior to 272 this issue did not occur. Sure, it may have occured on the server every now and then. But now i'm getting 143 and 287 occurances of it happening to clients
Kyle Abent: granted, this did occur on thanksgiving on the server alot too. It was still less common
Kyle Abent: and there's talks of a fastdownload server as being a backup. But then there's conflicting data when it comes to what is possible and not possible, and the ones who only know that are the CDT and not any of us who pretend to know
Kyle Abent: hence my "blaming of the cdt"
Kyle Abent: it's all frustrating, yes. Whatever I "reflect" on the [TA] servers I do not intend to, but when I go in the server I see the players frustration and they know nothing of my forum posts and my posts are to reflect their opinions on top of mines, so it may come out harsh unconciously
Kyle Abent: but i accept that
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
I will once again say because for some reason it seems needed.
It was VERY common pre 272.
It was VERY common on sales.
Many admins, Ibis and me for example, are quite aware of how common this could be.
Even keep non mod servers as backup because it happens, often.
When servers run 100% ok with mods, its at times the clients who can not connect. Because THEIR mods are out of date due to workshop.
Now if we will not convince you as non cdt non uwe server admins, from one to another, then what will?
So you didnt have as many issues on your server before 272? GRATZ, consider yourself lucky.
I run servers with 6 mods on the pub one and 12 on the scrim ones. Any of these mods can potentially not load. Especially big mods are effected by often timeouts.
Your clientèle matters. TAW is made up of people from around the world, and every country/region is on its own workshop server. So I VERY often see one of them have issues because their workshop server is dying, yet again.
Some regions have this more often then others.
Ive lost count the last months how much time I lost getting everyone in game as folk who dont play often, have much much to update.
I typed up a long response about how the timeouts are different this time, but you know what? **** you, why should I waste my time trying to convince people there is a problem? It sure benefits me none anymore.
Yea, as I said, I've never had the issue in 271+ patches (well, good for me, right darkling?). And people seem to be having this issue more than... usual. But, it seems to be a very touchy subject for cdt, so just wait for the next patch or fix it manually (fixes have been posted numerous times now).
and to anyone saying this error is only due to the recent steam sales going on, overwhelming the workshop..
that's just rubbish. Just for one second, could you please think clearly?
Sales or not, this error in the current state will occur at any and every time. Saying otherwise is like saying the only time to play
is when no one is playing. Resulting in not having anyone to play with.
So lets all wakeup at 3 am everybody and play then.. eh?
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
Nothing is confirmed yet, but there is a very good chance that this is not JUST due to steam sales / workshop woes.
Recent changes (as seen in the changelog) to how workshop mod reliability is handled could have made matters better in some areas (server) and worse in others (client).
Meaning if steam workshop wasn't having issues, NS2 wouldn't be either, but that's not the case.
We are aware of the issue and have been receiving lots of reports, aside from experiencing it ourselves.
More than likely this is due to the amount of times a download is allowed to be attempted, since typing "retry" without the quotes in the console (~ key) will eventually download the mod.
You can also try changing your Steam download server. Steam > Settings > Downloads > Download Region
While it is our #1 priority right now, we unfortunately cannot get a patch out until the first week of January no matter what.
So in the meantime, please utilize that "retry" command as a work around, and try to stick to servers which run few mods, or at least mods you already have / are subscribed to.
Feel free to PM me any questions or data you have.
143 log entries for Client disconnected (Missing required mod)" within a 5 hour span.
I like numbers. And facts.
We got 1945 since 272 release (~7 days) on the 42 player one (5 mods + tons of customs).
and 1400 on the 32 player one (5 mods + few customs).
Both servers had been running the steam resilience code ("file not found" fix) some weeks prior to 272 release and found zero issues with it.
During this time there was an average of 4 missing required mod errors per day(24h).
This is why you're wrongly blaming 272 and should be bitten in your face by a lerk. 3:-O
Comments
It's likely due to the steam sale as Decoy said, but you'd need the client side log to verify that.
Indeed with 272 we tried to avoid this by allowing servers and client to mount mods even if the workshop is down. Seems like this has made the situation a bit worse because our assumption that servers mostly use mods most clients will have anyway was slightly wrong. I guess it's time for us server admins to provide download mirrors of our mods.
Nope. These workshop issues happened during the summer sale. And before that it happened during the last holiday sale. And the summer sale before that. The issue was present pre-272.
The patch hit steam and the sale when live on the exact same day, hence why you're noticing them 'with' 272.
Is there a way to do that yet or are you talking future updates?
Christmas wasn't present pre-272. Can you guys fix that too please? Come on CDT, Grinch it up.
Things we have in mind for upcoming updates to solve this kind of issue are in fact such a automatically mirror system (beside switching to the newer workshop version etc.).
But what i meant here was something like a shared gdrive or ftp server maintained by most ns2 server admins and modders to give everyone the chance to download the given mods also in case steam is once again busy.
I did this before with my servers regulars and it worked pretty well.
Modders and Server operators all know that a Steam Sale is the death knell for mods. Once it ends, if any of the players have a smooth enough experience to stay, the mods might even get played, but the players experience during a steam sale is a large part of the player retention issues, for those specific players...
Here is his post:
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/133326/solution-to-workshop-mod-problems/p1
I hope you're joking. His constant posts were extremely useful in finding out who had issues when as the problem is rather diverse.
And yes he also posted useful info at times.
One does not exclude the other.
As for this being 272 only.. I wish.. ive been screaming at the workshop myself for a looooooong time and I actually have fully 0% mod configured servers in standbye in case we have a very very bad day.
Now why would I do that if the problem started at 272?
@KKyle you can post in this thread all you want about how many disconnects there are each day, but it's not going to change anything. If that's what you're going to do though, I'm going to sink the thread so it stops appearing at the top.
I agree. Unless these steam sales are different from any other sale. I've never had the issue before (as I said, fixed it with help), and I think that goes back to the first alpha release that could load on my computer.
Actually.
One thing that definitely could have been changed is the error message itself. Fairly sure I requested that somewhere before.
Those error messages need to be more explanatory. Especially since they are yet another thing pushing down on the playercount while you scapegoat us. [-X
And if a mod like shine isnt loaded from time to time you can fix that with an mapchange or play 1 round vanilla NS2.
The real problem are the maps loaded through the workshop cause the server end in an nirvana if steam has trouble.
The server should check that the custom map is really available before mapchange.
If not, just load a standard NS2 map instead with a small textinfo why another map loaded after a successfull vote.
Something like:
"Jambi won the vote but couldnt loaded cause steam issues"
As my personal contribution to this thread, I wiped my appdata and every mod re installed but NS2+ and one other random server mod which I manually downloaded. #blamemendasp So, to me, its nothing different from the usual workshop issues.... but who knows.
Kyle Abent: granted, this did occur on thanksgiving on the server alot too. It was still less common
Kyle Abent: and there's talks of a fastdownload server as being a backup. But then there's conflicting data when it comes to what is possible and not possible, and the ones who only know that are the CDT and not any of us who pretend to know
Kyle Abent: hence my "blaming of the cdt"
Kyle Abent: it's all frustrating, yes. Whatever I "reflect" on the [TA] servers I do not intend to, but when I go in the server I see the players frustration and they know nothing of my forum posts and my posts are to reflect their opinions on top of mines, so it may come out harsh unconciously
Kyle Abent: but i accept that
It was VERY common pre 272.
It was VERY common on sales.
Many admins, Ibis and me for example, are quite aware of how common this could be.
Even keep non mod servers as backup because it happens, often.
When servers run 100% ok with mods, its at times the clients who can not connect. Because THEIR mods are out of date due to workshop.
Now if we will not convince you as non cdt non uwe server admins, from one to another, then what will?
So you didnt have as many issues on your server before 272? GRATZ, consider yourself lucky.
I run servers with 6 mods on the pub one and 12 on the scrim ones. Any of these mods can potentially not load. Especially big mods are effected by often timeouts.
Your clientèle matters. TAW is made up of people from around the world, and every country/region is on its own workshop server. So I VERY often see one of them have issues because their workshop server is dying, yet again.
Some regions have this more often then others.
Ive lost count the last months how much time I lost getting everyone in game as folk who dont play often, have much much to update.
Rare pre 272? I WISH.
All this hard work wasted. Hard enough to motivate people. Then this?!!
that's just rubbish. Just for one second, could you please think clearly?
Sales or not, this error in the current state will occur at any and every time. Saying otherwise is like saying the only time to play
is when no one is playing. Resulting in not having anyone to play with.
So lets all wakeup at 3 am everybody and play then.. eh?
Recent changes (as seen in the changelog) to how workshop mod reliability is handled could have made matters better in some areas (server) and worse in others (client).
Meaning if steam workshop wasn't having issues, NS2 wouldn't be either, but that's not the case.
We are aware of the issue and have been receiving lots of reports, aside from experiencing it ourselves.
More than likely this is due to the amount of times a download is allowed to be attempted, since typing "retry" without the quotes in the console (~ key) will eventually download the mod.
You can also try changing your Steam download server. Steam > Settings > Downloads > Download Region
While it is our #1 priority right now, we unfortunately cannot get a patch out until the first week of January no matter what.
So in the meantime, please utilize that "retry" command as a work around, and try to stick to servers which run few mods, or at least mods you already have / are subscribed to.
Feel free to PM me any questions or data you have.
I like numbers. And facts.
We got 1945 since 272 release (~7 days) on the 42 player one (5 mods + tons of customs).
and 1400 on the 32 player one (5 mods + few customs).
Both servers had been running the steam resilience code ("file not found" fix) some weeks prior to 272 release and found zero issues with it.
During this time there was an average of 4 missing required mod errors per day(24h).
This is why you're wrongly blaming 272 and should be bitten in your face by a lerk. 3:-O