Database Errors During The Night
By Joe | April 20, 2010
Last night, or early this morning depending on your timezone, this site encountered several database errors that caused it to stop working.
This was brought to my attention at around 4:30 AM PST, and I resolved it just now, at 4:55 AM. I am unsure when it started.
Obviously, as the database was not working, events were not recorded during that time.
I apologize for any issues this may have caused.
Update 4/20 11AM PST:
My webhost, 1and1, is having hardware issues with their database servers. This has been causing corruption of data (fun!), and while troubleshooting the issue they just randomly restart the mysql process whenever they want. This is causing a slew of database communication errors when viewing pages, and it means that a lot of events will probably be lost.
This issue is out of my hands. The 1and1 system admins are looking into it now, and assure me that the issue will be resolved “soon”. This is where a hosting company proves it’s worth.
I have done everything I can to preserve the data already stored on the site, but for the next few hours it’s going to be choppy.
Update 4/20 1:30PM PST:
The database has been stable for about an hour now. I haven’t received any word from 1and1 at all, but hopefully the issue is resolved.
My game is tracking properly without needing to restart the Uploader Tool, so hopefully everything is working fine now.
Again, my apologies for this issue.
Update 4/20 3:00PM PST:
1and1 has closed the issue without a word, but sent me a survey. I had some choice words for the lack of responsiveness to the issue, but it appears as though this ordeal is over.
Update 4/20 6:30PM PST:
It’s happening again, and I have been on hold with 1and1 for 5 minutes now. The website came back long enough for me to post this, but who knows how long it will stay this time?
I’m out for blood now.
Update 4/12 12:00PM PST:
Site has been stable for 8+ hours. Again, no word from 1and1. Really poor communication on their part.
I’ve heard from other customers of 1and1 that their service has been really bad for the past week: DNS servers going down, databases crashing, etc.
No official word from 1and1, but I’m hoping this is all resolved now. One more incident like this, and I’m jumping ship to a new host.
Topics: News | 1 Comment »
Support For Multiple Pitboss Servers
By Joe | April 19, 2010
I had some spare time this week, and I finally got around to supporting multiple Pitboss servers on one machine. A new uploader (version 1.04) is required if you want to do this, and is available by clicking here.
The link on the Download the Updater page has not been changed, and still points to 1.03. I am recommending that people currently hosting games to stick with 1.03, unless you want to help test the new version. Eventually everybody will move to the multiple-support client, but for now I’d like to have some public testing before I have people with live games switch over.
The Uploader Tool looks a little different, and has a little dropdown box for the game name. It will populate with the names of all of the Pitboss games you have open on the server, and you can select the one you want to use for that instance of the uploader tool. This means you can run multiple instances of the uploader tool, select different names in the tool, and run multiple Pitboss games with multiple Uploaders monitoring them.
Tips
- Obviously, you need different names for the games
- You need to run an instances of the uploader tool for each Pitboss server.
- I would recommend having different copies / folders for the Uploader Tools. Otherwise, the logs and preference files will get jumbled up.
- The “Refresh” button is only used to refresh the game list in the Uploader Tool. If you open a new pitboss server after the tool is open, you can refresh the game list to pick up it’s name. Never hit it when the tool is running. The fact that it doesn’t “disable” when the uploader is active is a bug.
I know that quite a few people were interested in this support, and I’ll be reaching out to them now. I would love to get some more testing on this as soon as possible.
Topics: News | 1 Comment »
Diplomacy Is Here!
By Joe | April 7, 2010
It’s been a long time coming, but diplomacy is here! Players can now send messages to each other through the PlayYourTurn.com website.
A quick clarification on the design before I go any further: Messages and inboxes are based on Players (Civilizations) in Games, and not on Users themselves.
That means that in anonymous games, you can send mail to Alexander of Greece, without knowing which PlayYourTurn.com user corresponds to that civilization.
That also means that if you are playing more than one civilization in a game for whatever reason, you will have separate inboxes and messages for each civilization.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the feature some more.
Topics: Development, News | 1 Comment »
Feature Beta: Themes
By Joe | March 18, 2010
Quick update, somewhat related to the “Calling All Designers” post: I have added a very basic “Theme” system to the site.
You can choose one of the installed themes by going to the Edit Settings link on the left side of your screen. From there you can select from a drop-down list of themes available on the website. These are simply CSS files that will change some of the basic display options for the website.
Currently there are only three, really. “Default” is the site you know and love (or hate), “CivStats” attempts to look more like the old CivStats website, and “High Contrast” uses dark background colors in an attempt to make the tables easier to read.
These themes are by no means done, and I will tinker with them for a while, and perhaps add new ones.
As mentioned in the previous post, if you have ideas on how the site should be colored, feel free to send me a modified css file! I can drop it right in. You and other users can immediately start using it.
If you don’t know anything about CSS, you can just send me a mock up done in Photoshop or Paint or whatever, showing me what colors you think should go where.
Don’t grumble silently if you don’t like the look of the site. Let me know, and help me make it better.
Topics: Development | 3 Comments »
Calling All Designers
By Joe | March 12, 2010
I’ve received some feedback, and found some posts on other forums, regarding the color scheme of the website. Some people say that it’s hard to read, and I’d like to address that.
As I’ve mentioned several times before, I’m a backend guy, and not a web designer.
If you are a web designer and have any suggestions at all, please feel free to let me know. If you want to grab my CSS file and play around with it, I’d be more than grateful. Even if you’re not a designer, if you have suggestions, you can do a quick mock up in paint or Photoshop, and show me what colors you want where.
It would not be hard to add “skins” to the website, with different color schemes. If you let me know what you want, I can make it happen.
Also, on an unrelated note, I’ve noticed a few games have been created and abandoned. One of them appears to have had two instances of the uploader tool run on it, and loaded two separate games into one. If you run into issues, or if things are not clear, please contact me. I’d be happy to spend time troubleshooting issues and clarify things. If there are legitimate issues with the tool / site, I’d like to know, and I’ll fix them quickly, but I need you to report them.
Topics: Development | 2 Comments »