Politician Archive

I was just checking my city status and we are due to advance to level 3 at 6:30am EST. That's 30 minutes before the normal daily restart. Since everything gets rolled back 15 minutes that essentially gives us 15 minutes to process the weekly cycle.

Is anyone else afraid that we may get screwed on this one? Plinka is there a way you can get the devs to postpone the server reset tomorrow since most of the player cities will be going through their weekly updates and we've had enough problems with city growth and politician xp without this monkey wrench thrown in the mix?

I'll admit I'm a little concerned . . . but not to the point of being frantic. if everyone loses out I'm sure they'll do something.

~~Shabhaii, Mayor of Tombra, Naboo
www.cityoftombra.com
The REAL BT
(Snitter): There isn't any island, Rowf...
(Rowf): There is... there... can't you see it... Our island...just stay with me.. I'll get you there...

I've noticed a few days this week there hasn't been resets.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. I can't imagine city updates actually take as long as they do. More likely it just takes that long for the server to "notice" that the city needs updating, then the actual update is pretty quick. Therefore, it will either notice beforehand, or notice after the restart. So why would it take so long to notice that an update is needed? Well because it doesn't check that often. They have 2 ways to implement this. They can either start something who's sole job it is to track when your city needs an update. Or they can just have something that periodically checks. The first is a waste of resources since you have that extra something hanging around the whole week. The second can be a waste of resources if it happens too often. So it happens rarely instead.

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Tiaga wrote:
I don't think you have anything to worry about. I can't imagine city updates actually take as long as they do. More likely it just takes that long for the server to "notice" that the city needs updating, then the actual update is pretty quick. Therefore, it will either notice beforehand, or notice after the restart. So why would it take so long to notice that an update is needed? Well because it doesn't check that often. They have 2 ways to implement this. They can either start something who's sole job it is to track when your city needs an update. Or they can just have something that periodically checks. The first is a waste of resources since you have that extra something hanging around the whole week. The second can be a waste of resources if it happens too often. So it happens rarely instead.

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actually they take anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours to process.

mine is due at 8 AM. Server reset is at 7AM. my city will update at 9 AM then I think....

Err... stupid resets.

There will be a reset this morning as there's a vendor hotfix planned.

Our update is scheduled to be a little bit after the reset, but since the clock stops while the server is down, I hope we'll be okay.

"actually they take anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours to process."

That just supports what I said. What on earth could they be doing that only takes a couple minutes for some and hours for others? Unless it only takes a few minutes or less, but it might not be noticed for a few hours. So unless you are actually watching processes on the server, which I doubt, you can't make that claim with certainty. Of course neither can I, but as a programmer it makes sense that it would happen that way.

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Tiaga wrote:
"actually they take anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours to process."

That just supports what I said. What on earth could they be doing that only takes a couple minutes for some and hours for others? Unless it only takes a few minutes or less, but it might not be noticed for a few hours. So unless you are actually watching processes on the server, which I doubt, you can't make that claim with certainty. Of course neither can I, but as a programmer it makes sense that it would happen that way.

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I would imagine is database load. Each server differs a little in the load it has at that particular moment.

If it were database load, it would have taken that long when the city hall was first placed as well. And that would have to be one horribly loaded database to do that. Trust me on this, I don't think that's how it happens.

I just checked and the city I live in is due to update within 1 second of the neighboring city. Now while it is POSSIBLE that they were placed a second apart, it is highly unlikely. That also indicates that it is just something checked periodically.

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Tiaga wrote:
If it were database load, it would have taken that long when the city hall was first placed as well. And that would have to be one horribly loaded database to do that. Trust me on this, I don't think that's how it happens.

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Sorry i don't follow your logic on that one. Placing the city hall and processing the weekly cycle are two completely different events. The weekly cycle has to process a lot more information, such as total politician xp, determine if the city is eligible for an upgrade, if so then it needs to write out the new city structure limits. It calculates the city maintenance.

Okay lets look at your list of items...

• such as total politician xp
  Hmm, 20 votes multiplied by 100 xp per vote. Done. Oh and possibly load the mayor into memory so the character can have it's xp modified... But that doesn't take long.. I mean it does it between the time you click click next in the character select and when you actually see the world.
  
  
• determine if the city is eligible for an upgrade
  Okay, it has to do this... But this is different from determining what structures are within the initial radius how? Both involve taking a circle and checking nearby structures. The server does that in a matter of seconds when you move around so your client can display them.
  
  
• if so then it needs to write out the new city structure limits.
  Which it has to do when a new city hall is placed.
  
  
• It calculates the city maintenance.
  And computers are just so slow at calculation.. But it seems to me that number is available on the city management terminal all the time... Even mere seconds after the city is started.

I bet it can do it in well under a second. I'm running to a nearby city now to check it's update time. I suspect it will oddly enough also be within a second of the city I live in and the closest neighboring city.

I'm not just throwing out random ideas. I have a programming background including database and client-server systems. I'm looking at this with an eye of different ways I might implement the system if I had to do it.