TEMPORARY removal of the top Z-level

[Skull132]

In an attempt to narrow down the crashing, or to see what helps and what doesn't, we are going to be removing the very top Z-level. This should alleviate the amount of memory the game uses, first and foremost. The added benefit should be that ZAS will get a bit snappier, since it has less turfs to process.

Note: by "the very top Z-level", we mean the roof. The thing which is above arrivals.

The experiment will be ran for a week at most, starting tomorrow, 02OCT2018.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE, 07OCT2018:

During the 6 days of testing, the server did not crash once. This is a strong indicator of the fact that removal of Z-levels can alleviate the issue. For the initial test, the derelict was removed alongside the roof. For the next week, we are removing just the derelict. This is us now gathering data and attempting to narrow down the issue, really: whether it's just generic Z-levels which caused the issue, or if we're stuck with having to explicitly remove the roof, due to something there.

[Shadow7889]

What does the top Z-level have in it?

[Skull132]

What does the top Z-level have in it?

 

Solars and other minor things. They'll all be either removed if irrelevant, or moved (probably) down.

[Shadow7889]

Moving the solars won't be too much of a pain. And they're usually only used or wired by engineers who are beyond bored, or blew up the SM somehow, lol. I recall the ISD's checkpoint in arrivals was a Z-Level up. Might need to close that off. Hopefully it works out.

[Nantei]

The roof solars do output the most, but it's still bearly enough to run one department, can't say I'll miss them while they are in limbo.

[Scheveningen]

The output of the solars themselves is not exactly the issue. It's the control SMESes that handle each solar unit that are the issue. They require SMES coil upgrades to up the SMES outputs to more adequately give power to the station. By default, those SMESes don't get even close to outputting the same as the main engine SMES would without it being upgraded.

The solars route this way:

Solar controller controls alignment of panels when turned on > Solar panels draw energy and move it along the wires to the solar SMES > Solars draw this energy into its input and stored capacity > Solars SMES output gets switched on, contributing its amount of power to the station dependent on its output.

While theoretically you can power the station only on the solars, the issue is the SMESes not supporting enough output to do so. They would require ridiculous amounts of upgrades and redundancies to do the task.

Since it's far too much work to make the solars work to that on-paper theoretical degree anyway, this is still a fine solution to alleviate the instability. I don't think anyone will really miss it short of picking up trash on the roof z-level.

[SatinsPristOTD]

I only wire them when I'm bored out of my mind and even then, it's to supplement the shields. It's not even remotely viable to wire them.

So removing this z-level doesn't effect us much and if it helps, fantastic.

We did lose the outpost, but removing the ladder to it isn't that difficult.

[Skull132]

During the 6 days of testing, the server did not crash once. This is a strong indicator of the fact that removal of Z-levels can alleviate the issue. For the initial test, the derelict was removed alongside the roof. For the next week, we are removing just the derelict. This is us now gathering data and attempting to narrow down the issue, really: whether it's just generic Z-levels which caused the issue, or if we're stuck with having to explicitly remove the roof, due to something there.

[Scheveningen]

It's time to remove the main level now. We must have optimal efficiency.

[Kaed]

It's time to remove the main level now. We must have optimal efficiency.

 

Everyone who lands on the surface level or spawns on it just falls through into construction level. We'll put trampolines in