Odd Server Behaviour

[lifeballer]

Hi all,

A group of friends and I have just set up a clanserver with a game server company. They offer Deathball v2.3 as a game option, so we fired up a Deathball server to give it a go. However, we discovered upon loading that there was something wrong... all of us were in the red skin (but were on different teams), the scoreboard was empty, the score monitor at the top centre permanently said 0-0 even after scoring, and the radar in the centre of the screen was missing its usual white circle and dots for the opposing team, though goalposts were shown. The radar in the bottom right worked, but coloured us all as red.

I didn't want to hassle their tech support just having got the server (and since deathball is unfortunately not our main game we intend to play) if it was something I had done wrong or could easily fix in the configuration. Has anyone had this happen to them before, or any ideas why it might happen? I have the log file, but it offers no obvious clues, apart from the fact that deathball is run as a gametype not a mod (presumably it has been in the same directory as UT2004, not its own one):

Log: Log file open, Fri Jan 21 21:41:20 2005
Init: Name subsystem initialized
Init: Version: 3339 (128.29)
Init: Compiled: Nov 13 2004 05:57:06
Init: Command line: DB-Bowl?Game=Deathball.DB_Deathball -nohomedir
Init: (This is Linux patch version 3339.0)
Init: Character set: Unicode
Init: Ini:UT2004.ini UserIni:User.ini
Init: Build label: Build UT2004_Build_[2004-11-11_10.48]
Init: Object subsystem initialized
Log: Executing Class Engine.ServerCommandlet
Warning: Missing Class Class Editor.TransBuffer
Log: Browse: DB-Bowl?Name=Player?Class=Engine.Pawn?Character=Jakob?team=255?Game=Deathball.DB_Deathball
Warning: Missing MaterialSequence MaterialSequence 2K4Menus.Controls.background_anim
Warning: Missing Texture Texture 2K4Menus.AVPlayer.StopPressed
Log: Collecting garbage
Log: Purging garbage
Log: Garbage: objects: 40537->40534; refs: 506615
Log: Game class is 'DB_DeathBall'
Log: Bringing Level DB-Bowl.myLevel up for play (20) appSeconds: 6.296141...
ScriptLog: InitGame
ScriptLog: Loading Admins & Groups
ScriptLog: Kick and Ban Privileges Loaded
ScriptLog: Maps & Game Privileges Loaded
ScriptLog: Admins & Groups Management Loaded
ScriptLog: Extra Privileges Loaded
ScriptLog: GameInfo::InitGame : bEnableStatLogging True
Log: Exporting DB-Echo.....Successful!
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : KeeperMaxHoldTime 7
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : Multiballs 1
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bLongShots True
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bPracticeMode False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : SelfGoalMax 3
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : MaxIdleTime 0.00
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : EndGameType 0
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : OvertimeTime 5
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : b2GoalWin False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bShortReset False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : ReplayAmount 1
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : EndGameReplays True
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bOnlyVolleyGoals False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bOnlyDistanceGoals False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bImpedeBallCarrier False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bOnlyTeamVolleyGoals False
ScriptLog: Deathball::InitGame : bSpamProtection True
ScriptLog: MasterServerGameStats initializing
ScriptLog: UdpServerQuery(crt): Port 7807 successfully bound.
Log: Resolving master0.gamespy.com...
Log: Defaulting to false
Log: Defaulting to false
Log: Resolving ut2004master2.epicgames.com...
WebAdmin: Loading Available Maps
WebAdmin: Loading Game Types
MenuText: No description configured for property 'FriendlyBotSkill'
Warning: Attempting to add duplicate property 'BoolProperty UnrealGame.TeamGame.bBalanceTeams' to PlayInfo from DB_DeathBall!
WebAdmin: xWebAdmin.UTServerAdmin Initialized on port 7802
Log: MasterServerUplink: Resolved ut2004master2.epicgames.com as 207.135.145.7.
Log: Resolved master0.gamespy.com (207.38.8.34)
ScriptLog: UdpGameSpyUplink: Master Server is master0.gamespy.com:27900
ScriptLog: UdpGameSpyUplink: Port 7808 successfully bound.
Log: MasterServerUplink: Connection to ut2004master2.epicgames.com established.
Log: Approval APPROVED

....

Some possibly notable errors:

Warning: Failed to load 'NULL': Can't resolve package name
Warning: Failed to load 'Class None.': Can't resolve package name
ScriptLog: New Player *****
Warning: Failed to load 'db_player_anim': Can't find file for package 'db_player_anim'
Warning: Failed to load 'Mesh db_player_anim.db_male': Can't find file for package 'db_player_anim'
ScriptLog: Failed to load player mesh db_player_anim.db_male
Warning: Failed to load 'db_player_anim': Can't find file for package 'db_player_anim'
Warning: Failed to load 'Mesh db_player_anim.db_male': Can't find file for package 'db_player_anim'
ScriptLog: Failed to load player mesh db_player_anim.db_male
Warning: Failed to load 'db_player_anim': Can't find file for package 'db_player_anim'
Warning: Failed to load 'Mesh db_player_anim.db_male': Can't find file for package 'db_player_anim'
ScriptLog: Failed to load player mesh db_player_anim.db_male
ScriptLog: destroyed DB-Bowl.DB_PRI at 182.58
ScriptLog: destroyed DB-Bowl.DB_PRI at 182.58
Error: DB_PawnBlue DB-Bowl.DB_PawnBlue (Function XGame.xPawn.PlayHit:02CF) Accessed null class context 'GibGroupClass'
Error: DB_PawnBlue DB-Bowl.DB_PawnBlue (Function XGame.xPawn.PlayHit:02CF) Accessed null class context 'GibGroupClass'

Any hints would be greatly appreciated, apologies if this is a stupid query!

[Imaginos]

Those are symptomatic of a server that is NOT running with the correct serverpackages lines in the server's ini.
This is easily remedied by adding the following to the [Engine.GameEngine] section of it:

ServerPackages=Deathball
ServerPackages=Deathball_rc
ServerPackages=DeathballAI
ServerPackages=DeathballSP

If I can be of any other assistance, feel free to contact me via IM or IRC. My contact details are in my profile.

[Imaginos]

Whoops. Just checked my profile.. not enough info in it.. ha.. and my B-day seems to have changed too! Made me younger!

Hit me on irc via irc.gamesurge.net #dbmixer or #dbcommunity

icq - 645796
msn - muave_bib@hotmail.com