[Solved] Seeking Help for Efficient Server Restart in My Game

[inctive (Andy)]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for help to create an effective way to restart servers in my game. I’m considering teleporting players to a new server once a time limit is reached. Can anyone suggest how famous games handle this? Your insights are much appreciated!

[debugMage]

theres the “migrate to new servers” button. i think thats the most efficient way to restart all servers. guaranteed too.

what other games do (maybe? this kinda sounds like an ancient system) is teleport all players to a reserved server and then teleport them back to the main server after 10ish seconds. make sure to have a custom loading screen setup so ppl can know its a game being updated.

realistically tho, just migrate to new servers. it kicks all players and says “hey developer updated the experience.” if people dont wanna rejoin then they wont rejoin. theyll just get frustrated that they were teleported and forced to rejoin.

[inctive (Andy)]

I’ve considered the option of creating a reserved server and sending players back, but I’m also looking for an efficient way to reset all servers simultaneously. One idea I’m exploring is using HTTPService to retrieve a specific time zone and reset all servers at 00:00 in that time zone. However, I’m not sure if this is the best approach.

[NotRapidV (Rapid)]

Roblox just released a new functionality for “Shut down all servers”. Instead of shutting them down and forcing the client to reconnect, it automatically reconnects them all to a new server. I’ve used it a few times and it’s super convenient.

You can use Open Cloud API to restart all servers too.

Universe | Documentation - Roblox Creator Hub

[Judgy_Oreo (DisplayName)]

@inctive

One idea I’m exploring is using HTTPService to retrieve a specific time zone and reset all servers at 00:00 in that time zone

Have you considered using MessagingService to tell every server to reset at the same time? What about the “Migrate to latest version” button?

@NotRapidV

Roblox just released a new functionality for “Shut down all servers”

I think it’s Migrate that has the auto-reconnect thing, for Shutdown I’m pretty sure it just gives a disconnect saying “The experience developer has shutdown this server” with a manual Reconnect option.

EDIT: It seems like the button is “Restart servers for updates”:

Automatically reconnect to experiences during updates

[Update] March 6, 2024 Hello Creators, We are happy to announce a significant improvement when you update your experiences! Starting today, players will automatically reconnect to your experience when you update them! Previously, players would be kicked out of the experience and have to manually rejoin. This has been one of the most highly requested features surrounding experience updates, so we are thrilled to be rolling this out! Your players in old versions of a place will be teleported …

[NotRapidV (Rapid)]

@Judgy_Oreo

I think it’s Migrate that has the auto-reconnect thing, for Shutdown I’m pretty sure it just gives a disconnect saying “The experience developer has shutdown this server” with a manual Reconnect option.

Shut down all servers has the same functionality (when I do it from the game page, not dashboard), which kind of throws me off a bit but oh well.

[inctive (Andy)]

@Judgy_Oreo

@inctive

One idea I’m exploring is using HTTPService to retrieve a specific time zone and reset all servers at 00:00 in that time zone

Have you considered using MessagingService to tell every server to reset at the same time? What about the “Migrate to latest version” button?

Automatically reconnect to experiences during updates

Yeah, but what I’m really aiming for is an efficient way to auto restart the servers at a specific time, like I mentioned earlier. Depending on the number of active servers in the game, MessagingService might not be the most efficient solution, right?

[3lectric_Coke (Coke)]

If you don’t want to do anything complicated, I’d recommend just warning players in-game when updates are going to happen (timer, scheduled updates, etc.) Then you can just use the basic shut down all servers thing, and everyone will know that it was going to happen.

[Judgy_Oreo (DisplayName)]

Again, why not use the officially-provided tools?

A 1-minute time for updating all servers for the vast majority of games sounds plenty effective to me.

[debugMage]

wait did it make u rejoin or do u have code that forces them to rejoin?

[Judgy_Oreo (DisplayName)]

No, it auto-rejoined. There is no migration code in that game. It’s as the announcement said:

@tareyza

When you use this new update functionality, players do not have to take any action to be updated - it will be as if they were kicked. Players will experience a single teleport. This teleport takes them to the updated version of your experience’s root place, which will contain the same set of players as they were previously playing with where possible. They will no longer exit the experience or be required to manually rejoin after the update.

[debugMage]

sickk, did not know this.

thanks brosquito.

[inctive (Andy)]

Ok, I thought of a solution to my problem. The best approach would be to set a time limit on the server as soon as it starts. Once the time limit is reached, I’ll use Messaging Service to find a server with a life time less than 3 hours, for example, and send the players to that server. Resetting all servers at the same time automatically would be very inefficient due to various issues.