FG slows down a lot

[darkivel]

I've just noticed this problem since the last update. While we're playing, FG slows down a lot for my players, to where they stop seeing their rolls show up in the chat window for minutes at a time, and don't see updates to the combat map.

Has anyone else been having this trouble? Any ideas what it could be?

For the record, we're running the 4e character sheet, but it had been fine until now.

[Tenian]

You most likely have a loop problem. There are really only two things you can do:

1) Make sure you're running the newest version of the ruleset (1.4.4)

2) Create a fresh campaign and run your games from it. This will mean recreating any characters. Existing modules should be fine.

[Griogre]

The 4E ruleset can get into an endless loop condition. The most obvious symptom is often a blank entry being added and subtracted to the combat tracker so fast it just flickers. Usually just exiting the server and restarting the server fixes it. You can check if this in the case next time by starting a CPU monitor and seeing how hard your CPU is working.

The last few version of the ruleset have been efforts to fix this issue.

[darkivel]

I think this problem may have started when I updated to the most recent version of the ruleset (1.4.4).

A loop problem -- is that a corruption of the database?

I can try creating the new campaign, but would prefer to do that only as a last resort. :)

[darkivel]

The 4E ruleset can get into an endless loop condition. The most obvious symptom is often a blank entry being added and subtracted to the combat tracker so fast it just flickers. Usually just exiting the server and restarting the server fixes it. You can check if this in the case next time by starting a CPU monitor and seeing how hard your CPU is working.

The last few version of the ruleset have been efforts to fix this issue.

Okay, I have noticed the looping effect.

I tried backing up to the version of the ruleset I had been using (the .0 version), but that didn't fix it. So I will re-reinstall the .4 version and watch for the looping, try to restart to fix it.

I don't know if I should be having this discussion over on the FUM forums, but I can't figure out how to work them.

[Griogre]

It doesn't appear to be a database coruption problem. More like a race condition somehow envolving interactions with the combat tracker - probably between the client and host trackers. There appears to be some precurser trigger and by the time the loop happens its far enought away from the trigger - the trigger is no longer obvious - which makes it a very difficult bug to fix.

[darkivel]

Okay. Just knowing what to watch for in the combat tracker is a big help. I can close and restart when that happens.

[darkivel]

I don't know if this is helpful or a repeat of info you already have: the loop starts to happen exactly and only when I delete creatures from the combat tracker while players are logged into the game.

In fact, if I delete one creature, it creates one looping blank entry. If I delete multiples at once (using the "clear NPCs option") it creates multiple looping blank entries.

Barbara

[Tenian]

Yup....creating a new campaign seems to fix that.

[Griogre]

I didn't create a new campaign but I recently went into the one problem child campaign I had (it was the oldest one) and deleted almost all the excess PC characters that were no longer in use (just about halved the size of the db.xml). I then went back into the XML and re-ided the characters from 1-8. I also went in and deleted all the notes from players no longer in the game. I've gone several sessions now with out a loop since I did so.