Here's a few questions I get quite often along with their answers.
1. What addons does the server run?
We run CAP for the Stargate content. We also run SBEP for the ship/station building models. Alongside these we run Wiremod, Wiremod unofficial extras and Advanced Duplicator 2.
There's also a bunch of content that I've made. Everything under the TSCM tab(s) is only on this server.
2. How do I rank up to <insert rank here>?
The requirements for each rank are as follows:
Regular:
If you are a guest with over 5 hours playtime and a good record (no bans, no warnings, not blocked from automatic ranking), you will be automatically ranked up. Member:
If you are a regular with 1 day playtime and a good record (same conditions as for regular), you will be automatically ranked up. Super Member:
This is a rank for long standing players who consistently help others and contribute to the community in the form of released code, ships etc. Moderator+:
If you are a Member with at least 1 week of playtime and we have observed you have remained helpful and active, you will be eligible to be ranked up to moderator. I will rank up members only when I feel there's a need for a new moderator and usually only one at a time. Members that are below 16 years of age cannot rank higher than member unless they have proven to behave extremely well and there are no other candidates that are above 16 years of age.
Asking about, attempting to apply for or otherwise nagging about mod+ ranks will make you far less likely to get it. Good admins never asked to be ranked up.
Note the use of the word playtime. Sitting AFK on the server is not playing and will not count towards ranking up. If you are ranked below donator you will be automatically kicked if you are AFK for more than 30 minutes and it will be logged. Your playtime will also be reduced by 30 minutes. This ensures that playtime is reliable and useful data for me.
3. Why can't I use the Asgard Transporter?
I made a decision to block the transporter from lower ranks for a very simple reason. In the right hands it is incredibly abusive and can be used to make life hell for others on the server. Thus I blocked it from spawning and duplication, meaning only members and above can spawn it. If you want to transport into your ship or station, use rings or a Stargate until you reach the member rank.
4. Why can't I use <insert entity/tool/weapon here>?
Because they are either highly abusable or cause major server lag. As you rank up you will be trusted with some entities and tools you are blocked from using at first. Examples of broken entities are the Wraith Dart which can crash the server and the Shield Core, which doesn't actually block much and can cause a lot of lag.
5. Why can't I use a lot of the Stargate weapons?
They're quite annoying to others and the server is primarily for building, not fighting.
6. Someone keeps attacking me and my stuff and there's no admins/mods/members on, how can I report them?
You can contact an Admin on Steam through our Steam group. Our Steam group page can be reached by this link: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/teamcookiesandmilk
If you need to file a more serious report, or if there is someone who comes on frequently and breaks the rules, post a report in the "Report a player" section, following the guidelines posted.
7. How do I save what I have made?
Use the Advanced Duplicator 2 tool in the 'Construction' tools. Make sure all the parts of your creation are welded together, then right click on your ship/station/creation. Then open the Q menu, right click the "Advanced Duplicator 2" folder and click save. Type a name where it says 'Filename' and click the floppy disk icon. Your creation is then saved to your client, ready to spawn exactly as it was when you come back.
To spawn it, click the Advanced Duplicator 2 tool then double click the file in the list that you saved last time. If you want it to spawn exactly where it was saved, tick the 'Spawn in original location' checkbox. Then align the ghost where you want it to be (if you didn't tell it to spawn at the original location) and left click, it should then spawn and be exactly the same creation you had before.
8. Where is the server based?
The server hardware is based in the UK. Myself and Overlord are both English, but we have many members from around Europe and overseas.
9. Why does the server lag sometimes?
The server may be lagging for one of a few reasons.
Firstly, if someone has a rather large spaceship without it being properly parented, then the server has to work out how each prop is moving and bumping into each other. For moving ships, this is avoided simply by auto-parenting your props. Use the "Auto-Parent" tool under Q > Constraints > Auto-Parent to do this. For larger creations, avoid moving them too much unless it's absolutely necessary. Also be sure to freeze all the parts that you build when you don't want them moving.
Secondly, someone may be running quite an intensive Expression 2 chip, usually something that flies around, connects to multiple EGP screens or spawns lots of holograms constantly. We generally allow people to do what they like with Expression 2, but anyone using it should be aware of the ops it is using. If the server starts to lag when your chip spawns, optimise the code or avoid spawning it if that is not possible.
Lastly, if none of the above are happening then either there's some unknown bug with an addon or we are experiencing network/performance problems with the server. There's little you or anyone can do about it if this is the case, but we will probably be aware of the issue and be pursuing a fix.
If you see anyone intentionally causing the server to lag, report them to an online admin or on our website. Contraptions known to be causing large server lag are not tolerated and will be removed on sight.
10. Why can't I spawn NPCs?
They can cause a lot of server lag and crashes. Once you are a member you can spawn them, though avoid spawning too many.
11. Why does the server sometimes crash?
For starters, Garry's Mod is a sandbox game. As such there will always be things people will do that will cause it to crash. The Source Engine (the base on which Garry's Mod runs) has many limits, especially with physics and networking. Large contraptions that suddenly come unfrozen, things crashing into other things at weird angles and bugs in addons can all cause the server to crash.
This is unavoidable. Client and server crashing is a fact of Garry's Mod. To avoid server crashes, parent moving contraptions, don't crash into things at weird angles and generally use common sense. If the server starts crashing many times in an hour, then report it to an admin and make sure what you are doing isn't causing it.
12. Why do I sometimes crash when trying to join the server?
If there's a lot of players/props already spawned and you are trying to join, your game may end up crashing. If this happens, just load up singleplayer on any map, then go back to the main menu and join the server again. You should now be able to join without crashing.
13. How do I stop an annoying sound that's looping?
If you start to hear a constant burning sound, or the sound of a lot of LS generators gets annoying, open the console (~ button by default) and type:
Code:
stopsound
This will stop all playing sounds.
14. The planets just disappeared, what happened?
This is a client bug when too many effects end up being rendered over time and a buffer overflows. You'll need to reconnect (or possibly restart GMod) to see things properly again.
15. My stuff was removed after I left, how can I get it back?
Assuming the server crashing isn't what disconnected you, type !restore into the chat and you should find your stuff restored to exactly where you left it. Your Advanced Duplicator 2 tool will also have your entities loaded to it automatically after using the restore command, which you can save or spawn again in case you accidentally undo the restored save.
Autosaves are kept for approximately 1 day after disconnecting from the server, and thus should not be relied upon for long term storage. Save your work frequently to ensure it's not lost.
16. Why doesn't welding work?
When there's a sizeable amount of weld constraints in use, even when frozen, the server will start to lag very heavily. Therefore, welds have been replaced with a fake constraint, that will still allow things like the duplicator to save your stuff, and chips to detect constrained parts, but it avoids all the lag caused by the welds. These fake welds can even spawn as normal welds if spawned in singleplayer/elsewhere, so your dupes are not at all affected.
If you think you need welds to build, you do not. Moving welded parts always ends in a mess of parts flying round each other trying to stay together. If you want to move things, use the parenting tool once you're ready to move them. Otherwise, leave them stationary while you build.
17. Why do I sometimes get stuck when I teleport/move to another area?
The game struggles when there's a lot of entities (and thus networked data) that need to be sent to a client when entering a new area.
In GMod 12, this would result in being disconnected with the "Reliable Snaphsot Overflow" message. Since then, improvements have been made to allow for larger amounts of data without disconnecting or crashing the server. However, past a certain point the server simply can't sent the data fast enough, so your client gets stuck in a loop requesting it as it doesn't receive it in time. The only workaround is to reconnect and avoid the area until the number of entities is reduced.
For this reason, players should not spawn too much in a single area. If an area exceeds around 1000 entities, then it's likely people trying to enter will start to have trouble.
The server has mitigations in place to help avoid this. Most forms of moving between areas should be covered, with the notable exception of noclip. Where possible, avoid noclipping through area walls to avoid getting stuck.
If there are any more questions you think I should add, reply here.
(25-02-2014, 01:59 PM)JoshTheEnder Wrote: Regarding point 7, the Adv Dupe 2 files are saved client side, not server side (at least from my observations).
Long ago it was saved on the server, and I never updated the post since then. I've corrected it now.
(25-02-2014, 01:59 PM)JoshTheEnder Wrote: Regarding point 7, the Adv Dupe 2 files are saved client side, not server side (at least from my observations).
Long ago it was saved on the server, and I never updated the post since then. I've corrected it now.
Ahh ok, it'd be cool if you could have a choice where to save it so for people like me who use more than one pc can have it readily available
(25-02-2014, 03:16 PM)JoshTheEnder Wrote: Ahh ok, it'd be cool if you could have a choice where to save it so for people like me who use more than one pc can have it readily available
The point of it saving cilent-side is to save space on the server, if saving serverside was an choice it would comfuse people further and everyone would choose it.
ok i am a reg on the server right now and have to use the star gate weopons but is there anything other then that since they are weak but there was a blistermount that if i link it to a cord and the active and the fire and power and the core it dont do anything when i turn the active and fire to 1(on) is this a bug or i may not be doing this right.
(08-12-2014, 10:04 PM)Matovick Wrote: You wil need to add a SBEP Weapon to the blister mount.
If you want more weapons Apply for member when you get 48hrs
oh ok that might help and i just now hit the 3 day mark so and applied as well might not be good but i did