A
AngelicFury
Guest
Hello PWO people!
It has come to my attention that many people don't quite fully understand what and how a rollback works. So I thought I would post this guide, on explaining how rollbacks work and how to very simply work your way around losing Pokemon due to rollbacks.
In this guide I will be covering 3 main things:
The first - Explaining Rollbacks and their cause.
The second - Account Saves and how they work.
The third - How you can avoid losing Pokemon to rollbacks.
Rollbacks
Generally speaking their are two main causes of rollbacks. The first being that the staff have decided to return the PWO database to a previously backed up state. A good example of when this happens is when a major bug has been found and then heavily exploited, for example; lets say that someone found a way to make all wild Pokemon become shiny. The player then tells some of his friends, they tell some more, then the next thing you know, half the PWO player-base has a massive list of shiny Pokemon. In this case, the datebase would of course be set back to when all these exploited shiny Pokemon did not exist. In this case, their isn't really anything you can do to avoid losing Pokemon. Luckily, this isn't a very common occurrence.
On the other hand, we have our second main type of rollback. The second type of rollback is when a server crashes and fails to save online players accounts. This is the main cause of why people lose their Pokemon due to rollbacks. But today I'm gonna explain to you how to avoid this from happening.
Account Saves
As you probably assume, account saves is when the server saves your Trainers details, your Pokemon, your items etc, to the database. What some of you may not know is the 3 main methods in which accounts are normally saved. Or in PWO's case 4.
The first method is simple and you've probably seen it before. This method is when an Admin or someone with access to the server types in a command to save all online players accounts. This normally happens before a planned downtime.
The second method is the main fail-safe. The server has it's own timer to which every certain amount of minutes (for my later example I will say every 10 minutes) the server saves your character. This is so that if the server crashes, it always has a very recent and up to date record of your account details.
The third method is simply by logging out. Every time you log out and disconnect from the server, the server will save your accounts details. This is how you can prevent losing your Pokemon from rollbacks.
The fourth method that Jinji pointed out to me about PWO, is that the server also saves your account when you go inactive.
The Very Simple Solution
After catching a Pokemon you do not want to lose, for example a Shiny or HR, straight away log out and log back in! This will save your accounts data.
An Example of it all in action
2:20pm, you log in and go to Viridian Forrest.
2:30pm, the server automatically saves your account. The next save is due at 2:40pm (10 mins interval).
2:33pm, you encounter aPinsir and catch it.
2:37pm, the server crashes, it fails to save all online accounts.
In this instance, when the server starts up again, it's gonna load the database and the last record of you was 3 minutes before you got yourPinsir. Hence according to the server you don't own a Pinsir.
Now I'll show you how logging out works with the same scenario.
2:20pm, you log in and go to Viridian Forrest.
2:30pm, the server automatically saves your account. The next save is due at 2:40pm (10 mins interval).
2:33pm, you encounter aPinsir and catch it.
2:34pm, you log out. The server saves your account upon logging out.
2:35pm, you log back in and continue playing.
2:37pm, the server crashes, it fails to save all online accounts.
In this second instance, when the server starts up again, it's gonna load the database and the last record of you was 1 minute AFTER catching yourPinsir. Hence according to the server you are the proud owner of a Pinsir, congratz!
Conclusion
It's so simple and easy. Yet it can save you so much time and frustration of catching your Pokemon again.
Anyway, thanks for reading guys. I hope this guide helps some people keep their prized Pokemon.
P.S Also would like to thank Jinji. Most of the stuff I knew was from experience with servers for other games that use quite similar style of saving and database handling. Jinji helped me confirm the similarities and differences between PWO and the servers I have worked with.
It has come to my attention that many people don't quite fully understand what and how a rollback works. So I thought I would post this guide, on explaining how rollbacks work and how to very simply work your way around losing Pokemon due to rollbacks.
In this guide I will be covering 3 main things:
The first - Explaining Rollbacks and their cause.
The second - Account Saves and how they work.
The third - How you can avoid losing Pokemon to rollbacks.
Rollbacks
Generally speaking their are two main causes of rollbacks. The first being that the staff have decided to return the PWO database to a previously backed up state. A good example of when this happens is when a major bug has been found and then heavily exploited, for example; lets say that someone found a way to make all wild Pokemon become shiny. The player then tells some of his friends, they tell some more, then the next thing you know, half the PWO player-base has a massive list of shiny Pokemon. In this case, the datebase would of course be set back to when all these exploited shiny Pokemon did not exist. In this case, their isn't really anything you can do to avoid losing Pokemon. Luckily, this isn't a very common occurrence.
On the other hand, we have our second main type of rollback. The second type of rollback is when a server crashes and fails to save online players accounts. This is the main cause of why people lose their Pokemon due to rollbacks. But today I'm gonna explain to you how to avoid this from happening.
Account Saves
As you probably assume, account saves is when the server saves your Trainers details, your Pokemon, your items etc, to the database. What some of you may not know is the 3 main methods in which accounts are normally saved. Or in PWO's case 4.
The first method is simple and you've probably seen it before. This method is when an Admin or someone with access to the server types in a command to save all online players accounts. This normally happens before a planned downtime.
The second method is the main fail-safe. The server has it's own timer to which every certain amount of minutes (for my later example I will say every 10 minutes) the server saves your character. This is so that if the server crashes, it always has a very recent and up to date record of your account details.
The third method is simply by logging out. Every time you log out and disconnect from the server, the server will save your accounts details. This is how you can prevent losing your Pokemon from rollbacks.
The fourth method that Jinji pointed out to me about PWO, is that the server also saves your account when you go inactive.
The Very Simple Solution
After catching a Pokemon you do not want to lose, for example a Shiny or HR, straight away log out and log back in! This will save your accounts data.
An Example of it all in action
2:20pm, you log in and go to Viridian Forrest.
2:30pm, the server automatically saves your account. The next save is due at 2:40pm (10 mins interval).
2:33pm, you encounter a
2:37pm, the server crashes, it fails to save all online accounts.
In this instance, when the server starts up again, it's gonna load the database and the last record of you was 3 minutes before you got your
Now I'll show you how logging out works with the same scenario.
2:20pm, you log in and go to Viridian Forrest.
2:30pm, the server automatically saves your account. The next save is due at 2:40pm (10 mins interval).
2:33pm, you encounter a
2:34pm, you log out. The server saves your account upon logging out.
2:35pm, you log back in and continue playing.
2:37pm, the server crashes, it fails to save all online accounts.
In this second instance, when the server starts up again, it's gonna load the database and the last record of you was 1 minute AFTER catching your
Conclusion
It's so simple and easy. Yet it can save you so much time and frustration of catching your Pokemon again.
Anyway, thanks for reading guys. I hope this guide helps some people keep their prized Pokemon.
P.S Also would like to thank Jinji. Most of the stuff I knew was from experience with servers for other games that use quite similar style of saving and database handling. Jinji helped me confirm the similarities and differences between PWO and the servers I have worked with.
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