No one suggested you go to Gportal about server issues. Funcom is the server admin for the sever, even if Gportal runs it. So yes, Funcom is the one to go to about server issues. Just like players come to myself on the server I help admin. But I will tell you this, Gportal is incapable of running servers over 20 players with any sort of consistency. They don’t have the setup for it.
Is this Funcom’s fault? Yes it is. They should not have gone with Gportal. In 2017 they should not have signed any sort of deal with a company incapable of producing adequate gameplay. Does that statement make you all feel better? Does it solve your issue?
No it doesn’t. You want a resolution to the problem. This is 2020, not 2017. We’re here now, and its woulda, coulda, shoulda. So what do you believe is possible? I mean really think about that. I don’t know what your server admin experience is. But migrating a server while easy, is a tedious affair. Because I know what you all want to suggest. Moving from Gportal to another host. So we’ll address that first.
I’ll explain it for people who don’t know. Since I’ve done several conan server migrations so far. I’m well experienced with the process.
First you find your game.db file and download it. And you might want to take some of the backups too that it auto-generates, just in case the migration goes wonky. That file is the mother file of a server. It contains all the buildings, player characters, and everything that isn’t a server setting. Also get the ini file that shows the server name, keep that with its game.db file. Don’t want players getting lost!
Then you upload the game.db file to the new host (this is all done through FTP unless they have a fancy web UI, most don’t). You plop the settings ini files in as you want them. I imagine Funcom has copies of these for each server type they run. Place the proper ini files with its game.db
Turn on the server. Worst thing here is the IP address changes so the players will need to search for their servers. Hopefully they remembered the number.
Boom that’s it. That’s all you need to do to migrate a server for the most part.
Now do it 434 more times for all 435 PC servers (not including console). Now that’s the real tedious part. And you all are thinking… oh well if they start now, they might get it done in a few days. Yeah, that requires a few days downtime which maybe many would tolerate given they will see better performance, and hey maybe the coveted 70 player cap too. Unless they’ve got a script they can run with FTP. God forbid if that malfs up though.
But that process isn’t cheap. You do need someone (or a few) who know how to FTP and do general file management. Which quite frankly is near basic computer knowledge. I mean not intro level but not graduate level either.
But you also need a new host. And they don’t do it for free. I know this very well. I help pay for a server. For a 40 slot server, its about $35-44 a month depending on provider. Surely if you purchase hundreds of these, you get a discount though? I think so. I don’t see why not. Maybe its only $20 a month. That’s not bad. About $9000 startup and per month.
Well no, the start up isn’t just the first month’s fee. When I helped move to Serverblend a few months back, we had to wait a few weeks. They didn’t have enough machines for us. We’re just one server. So the provider isn’t likely to have the equipment on hand.
They’ll need to order it. I didn’t have to pay for that. I just waited till they had stock. Funcom in this case can’t wait for stock. If they want to move, they need 435 servers now, not 10 a week. So they’ll likely need to sign up and work out details, and then sign an agreement, a contract if you will. It makes no sense for a company to order those machines and then for it to fall through. They want a guarantee that what they order will be used and paid for.
So that’s not cheap to set up. But Funcom likely could afford it.
But since we’re talking about agreements and contracts. Ever notice that Gportal advertisement when you log in? Ever notice when you click rent a server it goes to Gportal? Oh yes. In 2017 Funcom made an agreement with Gportal. You see they ordered many machines to host, in return they advertised for Gportal for us who like to go on private servers to go to Gportal first. That’s also likely they bought and paid for the servers they are running right now.
I don’t believe Funcom pays a monthly fee like we do. An operation that large isn’t a month to month deal. They probably paid for advance. There might be some exclusion clauses too. You see moving away from Gportal may not be easy. There could be litigation involved. Or they may simply paid up for a few years (which is very likely).
If the situation is the latter. Officials will be on Gportal until that time period is up. Then and only then will you see a migration. And then and only then will you see an improvement. If they decide to migrate at that time.
So… why can’t Gportal simply be better? That’s a good question. One I don’t have an answer for. One I don’t believe Funcom has an answer for. They’re responsible. Absolutely. But the solution isn’t simple, it isn’t easy, and its possibly not even plausible.
Doesn’t get Funcom off the hook. But are you content with that? Are you content with them simply saying, “Gportal bad, we’re sorry.” Or do you want a better experience and those issues fixed?
Obviously you want the latter. Unfortunately the only fix with it all said and done is literally to limit the players to about 20-25 players. I don’t know if that’s acceptable. But that seems to be the only way to fix the server issues you see with officials.
Well no that’s not true, actually.
Those of us who run servers, who see the issues Officials have. Well we know a fix that will get them back to running smoothly at 40 players again. Its a fix we apply to our servers every few months.
That is a server wipe. You see those officials have been running for 790-800 days. Their databases have issues. There have been fixes to extend the life of a database. But those fixes are more recent. There is still over 600 days of garbage, of hundreds of players and thousands of building pieces all fragmented into that database for each and every server.
Is that an acceptable solution?
For many of us who play on the 70/70 servers. Wipes are common. Usually every 2-3 months. Some servers go longer. But in general, we’re not unaccustomed to the wipe done for server performance. Official players have never gone through it. An official player who played in May of 2018 and hasn’t logged in, can expect to login to his character today, right now. Maybe his base is lost to decay, but his character, levels, feats, and attributes are all where it left off. You all don’t understand what its like to play a character for a few months, and then login to that server to see character creation (well except for those few who had that bug a month back).
So a wipe might be out of the question for many of you.
But there you have it. The two solutions that are plausible, right now. Either limit the amount of players online to 20-25, or wipe the servers. Those are the facts. Those are the solutions that can be done, right now, today, and ready for the weekend.
You all the information you could need on the subject now.