Crashes & How You Can Respond

[Kyet]

When people say "server died", "server crash" or "game down" they can mean one of three things:

1. A network issue which is preventing people from connecting to the server, even though the server itself is fine. This can be a local issue (their router is messed up), an internet issue (a temporary outage between them and the server) or an issue with our ISP (our ISP gets knocked offline by some major event, as has happened twice in the last 24 hours). You can identify this type of issue because it usually only lasts a few minutes, and when you do reconnect, the same round is still going on. This sort of issue isn't worth contacting us about. We can't really do anything about it.
2. A github code issue is where the game application locks up or exits, disconnecting you and, when you reconnect a few minutes later, the server is starting a new round. This sort of issue is typically caused by a bug with our game code. This is the sort of issue where if you were doing something very unusual (or saw weirdness) just before the crash you should contact our maintainers/coders about it, so we can better debug the issue and patch our code.
3. A windows server issue is where the underlying physical server that runs the game has a problem. This can be as simple as an unexpected windows update restarting the server at a bad time (shouldn't happen, but just as an example) or as serious as the server's hardware failing. While I do take steps to prevent this sort of thing as much as possible (scheduling updates, having redundant hardware, etc) its still impossible to completely prevent this, and since I'm the only person that can fix this category of issue, this is the sort of thing you need to contact me about personally when it happens (unless you know someone else has already contacted me about it).

To re-iterate:

1. In a network issue, you reconnect and its still the same round. Don't contact us.
2. In a github code issue, you reconnect and its a new round. Contact the maintainers/coders.
3. In a windows server issue, then nobody can connect at all for at least 30 minutes. Contact Kyet.

Why am I making this post?

1. To reassure people who have noticed the two downtimes in the last 2 days that these were network issues, not actually issues with our server.
2. To explain how to tell the difference between the types, and encourage people to contact the right person regarding each type of issue.
3. To discourage people from incorrectly using the word "crash" to describe network issues, which results in lots of unnecessary panicking by people who don't understand that a network issue is not a "crash" at all.