AwakenedRage

Shut up and update chrome

Last Monday night the forums started having resource issues that would result in the website throwing a 508 error. As a result of the resource issue many functions were limited and as a result we moved to InMotionHosting.  This host ran its shared hosting environments much differently in terms of resource allocation. We quickly realized that the homepage, not being optimized for this environment resulted in long loading times. This was due to the abundance of nonstatic content that was not optimized and made accessing the site different depending on location. I did not fix the static content issue until this Monday. When i noticed these issues the webhost worked quickly with me and explained that the way IPB works for production environment is to use UPC caching methods. normally used in a VPS setting. None of the caching methods were used besides the mandatory caching. I enabled temporary cahcing that saves to the disk to solve this issue. However, now that caching is working a new threat to the webhost emerged, website crawlers. The website had very few measures to limit crawlers because the old host either blocked them automatically, or had put them to a mandatory delay serverwide. 

The first day of the site being deployed was plagued with issues caused by Crawlers, to which I had to create measures to prevent them from consuming too much resources. This, in combination with compressing most of the sites sent content made the website run smoothly. I also had to change the PHP versions used in IPB to create a boosted forum with better processing speeds. Yesterday, the forums along with many other services, were having issues. it was at this point that I applied CloudFlare to send content statically. This allowe dpage content to be grabbed by mirrored cache from a server closer to the user for better latency. After I installecd Cloudflare there was one error that I made personally, I accidently added an A DNS record for chaotic united that pointed towards the ark subdomain. So half of the time it would go to the wrong server. After I installed everything last night everything was running smoothly and quickly identified the dilemas that we previous faced that we were unable to identify. With 24 hours, more then 1000 unique vistors were on the site along with 3 malicious bots.

Our tools were only able to give us the top connections using resources along with other relevant info to the connection. It is no wonder why we were having issues without cloudflare and that is because of these bots and large amount of connections. The traffic was legitmate traffic in large volumes and the DDoS protection measures in place had a tough time filtering it. But now with Cloudflare in place, everything is set (EXEPT FOR SSL WHICH WILL TAKE ANOTHER 24 HOURS). 

This has been one wild ride and I want to make it clear that going to IMH, they had assisted in everyway they could. The issues we were xperiencing were configuration setting on our side that we had to take care of. IMH had fufilled the SLA (Service Level Agreement) They responded to all the incidents and assisted me in anyway possible, even by just telling me what the issue was and linking me to their helpful documentation. All the negative experiences was outside of their power. Host1Plus on the otherhand violated the SLA several times. Most of the errors the past two days were misconfigurations by me. Halo thinks and has said that he is fed up with IMH, but there is no reason to. I hope that everyone who may also hold the same opinion to listen to this. IMH is not to blame and certainly H1P is not a reliable alternative to this. 

Configuration changes will be less impactful for now on, most configuration chagnes are small and will not be noticable or impact uptime. 

Apologies for all the issues caused. \

Stupid A Records :3

~ Michael/AwakenedRage

The Whole concept of this page is to list all of the tribes on the server and information regarding them. Only one post per tribe that follows the format like the following:

Tribe Name: 

Tribe Leaders:

Past Wars:

Tribe Region: What Zone of the Map is the Tribe living at? Ask an Admin if you are unable to get this information. 

Tribe Members:

Also if you start having any issues on the site let me know. The latency should be good now, but DDoS protection is an new factor here. But it shouldnt be that noticable (Like 1 second)

Howdy All,

You may all have a lot of questions regarding what has happened the past couple of days with the website and this post is to address all the concerns. First off, yes, we were having issues with our old webhost Host1Plus. Although we will not be going into details about the error, we can assure you that no data was compromised and that the site was only unavailable for a short period of time. Many have messaged me asking if the other fake CU was behind it. We were able to determine that a scripting error and a combination of a backup running at the same time caused all resources to be depleted. But even so me and Halo took into consideration how crazy the high ranking staff of the fake CU servers are and wanted to be prepared if they were to start such an attack.  Our new Webhost has many differenes from H1P and we made sure to make the necessary changes to the configuration to ensure that you have a good experience. This webhost is DDoS protected and has staff monitoring the servers 24/7, so the likelyhood of anything going down is very low. All of our services have some sort of DDoS protection as of today. We are sorry for the forums for being offline for most of this week, but we very well think that these new additional measures were well worth it. 

Changelog:

- The forum now uses PHP 7

- The Forum now uses additional methods of caching.]

- Apache now optimizes the website and compresses data sent for faster latency.

- Moved to a new web host. 

- Deported Alycat....

...........No

Please give us your In game name, an estimate of when the structure was built and the block material. We will be able to look through the database for coordinates to the house and we will be able to teleport you there to recreate the Residence. 

As some of you probably noticed that the database was rolled, back. We had an Chaotic failure on all four of our database servers not being in sync with each other. 

I managed to restore from a backup I took this afternoon through the hosts panel. However, the other servers, mainly Masters 2, and Slave 1 are offline. This means for the next 16 hours we will not be using a replication setup because I simply want the forums to be up as soon as possible. 

I have constantly been making improvements to our database system, and in order to prevent this from happening again in the future, I have decided to host all the databases with one company. This means that the Slave will be terminated immediately and Master 2 will be pending for deletion. We will have three new VPS's hopefully tomorrow. 

Steps Taken:

- Slave from DigitalOcean deleted

Heres what steps I will be taking tomorrow.

- 3 VPS's will be ordered tomorrow

- These new servers will be configured. 

- The Large Databases will be imported, before the Website's databases.

-

THEN ONLY WILL the forum being taken down for maintenance for a short time before it will be back up.

These measures are being put in place to prevent future downtime,

Unfortunately no,

Its still has some concerns present. Thankfully, though we only have one CVE left out of many that were discussed back and forth. As for the bad load times, I am not having those issues. 

Okay, so here's an update for you guys. Host1Plus has since then upgraded the server to a more up to date version. I am confirming with them right now the CVE's in future releases are patched and accounted for. I am also looking into some other potential risks to the web server.

Hello Everyone,

This is Michael, and I regret to inform you all that last Tuesday we were notified of a potential exploit in MySQL based database servers. Since I am the Database Administrator for this community, it was my job to prepare for such an instance and immediately I took the proper steps to make sure our servers were not vulnerable to this exploit. At the time we currently had eight servers in different datacenters across the United States and Canada using a replication setup to prevent downtime. After checking all of our servers, we were able to determine that 1 out of the eight servers had the exploit. This specific server is for our web hosting for the forums, and this particular server I have no control over. The past couple days have mainly consisted of Halo and me making necessary measures to keep the site secure while we waited for a response from Host1Plus. Our web hosting provider has put us in this situation where the database server provided by them is using a build all the way back from 2014. This reckless action potentially makes the site vulnerable to many exploits. It is with that decision that we have made efforts to configure the website to use a Database Server outside of Host1Plus until this issue is resolved. However, at this time, we recommend that you change your password to the forums and also any passwords that were the same as the one used on here. I am not issuing mandatory password resets, however, if it comes to the point where Host1Plus admits to making a mistake, then I will be sure to issue mandatory password resets ASAP.

This is the reason why on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday that the Forums had some downtime regarding connection to the Database. There may be a bit of a delay on the site too because the Database server takes a couple seconds to send the information needed to load the page. 

If I get anymore updates from Host1Plus I will be sure to keep you all posted. 

Sincerely,
Michael/AwakenedRage
SIGMA Head Developer
CU Database Administrator

No, I just don’t have a license for Windows at the moment trying to get some money for it. Its working out fine though considering that its able to do 89% of what I need.

Click it so you can see it easily.

Dear Community,

It has been my pleasure to be a part of the community over this past year and a half as a Technician/ Administrator for Chaotic United. However now with it being my junior year and one of my biggest projects coming up I have had to make a tough decision. I’ve been working on my dream for the past 2 years and it has finally gotten to the point where it can begin launch. However this will require my full attention.

I truly enjoy and love speaking to the staff, meeting people new people in the community,  and help plan out the server setups. I love the community, the sharing, and the learning. In my mind it is the best way to keep sharp in this ever changing industry of server software.

However, today was my last day as working at CU.  I have been putting off writing this post, before my resignation because while I am excited for my next project, it is still hard to let go of my old job and make sure that Halo has a proper setup with me not hosting the server anymore.

Instead, I thought I might compose a heartfelt farewell letter. Because while this is a farewell, it isn’t a goodbye. While my whole day and night won’t be focused on this community anymore, I will still be involved. I will still help develop Demoria Online, and I will still speak at developer streams and conventions here and there.

When I managed the server I kept an eye on the server’s security and made sure that the hardware was operating normally. My team has tracked the temperature, CPU Usage and memory usage to properly optimize the server. I can safely leave without any worry of disaster or any accusations that I “Killed CU”

So, where am I going? I will be staying in the Midwest area, however we have thoughts of moving, but do not know our general target yet. While my job cannot afford to move, my family is in some financial trouble, so I had to drop hosting the server.  As many of you know, I have had a secondary role as the Lead Developer and Director for Ruletech Games the past year or more. This was mostly an internal role, and it was part time on top of my normal day job as a student and technician.

Working in that role just wasn’t easy as a part time role. As part of our new fiscal year, it was decided to reform the company to meet nonprofit requirements and make it more professional overall. In this process it was also decided that DDoS protection for CU would need to be dropped. .

After a lot of discussions, hard work, achievement harvesting, and hand wringing, it was announced last week that I will be the new Student Director for Ruletech Games Inc, reporting to the other board of directors..

This is largely an internal role driving our internal technical readiness, making sure our staff are super technically sharp. I will also be working with our financial team and other educational leaders, to help develop a curriculum. Meanwhile the other directors specializing in different areas of interest define new curriculum and content, and help drive wins on our scorecard.

In summary, Community, thanks for everything you have taught me, and for the support and friendship over the past 2 years. Keep strong, write once in a while, and make sure you keep your doors open for Falkerz (Who will be assisting) . He’s a nice guy and remember they may feel a bit out of place, a bit shy, and they won’t know how to fit in. Help them out. After all, you did that for me, and it worked out pretty well.

After much preparations and making sure that CU can thrive prosperously,  I say farewell!

With my gratitude and thanks,

Michael / AwakenedRage98

Skype: student4001243

Email: [email protected]

Alot of people might of noticed that I haven't been on for a couple weeks. I'm sorry that it took me this long to post a message, but schoolwork has been taking a majority of my time as of lately. Unfortunately, Halo has been picking up slack and has been playing Halo 5 for the past 5 days or so. Due this and other circumstances I am suspending the CU Minecraft server until I can properly fix an issue with the server and install another fan. The server's temperature has been abnormally high as of lately.

Sorry this message is short, I do not feel well at the moment.

So hope you all understand
 

The past couple of days I have been working on implementing half of the Alpha storyline. So far I got 20 quests in the game. Along with 2 areas. There are 5 more area's left and considering that I have already finished most of the 0.6.9.1 update I will be working on bug fixes that I am already aware of for the time being.

However I am also working on getting Dark Magic also into the game to being able to give players abilities that can drain health.  But that will not happen until I fix these bugs.

The Things that are crossed out are done.
Demoria 0.6.9.1 Mid Alpha
- Added Xephil Magic Skill
- Added Chivalry Skill
- Added Archery Skill.
- Added Xetero and Xetoro Spells
- Added Balance Points
- Added Stun Effect
- The Grand Raven Boss now can interrupt abilities. Be careful!
- Added Ghost Yilaveil Dungeon
- Fences Fixed in Ghost Yilaveil

- 20 Quests Implemented
- Level Cap raised to level 10!

I've also been wanting to fix 3D Model Errors and will be getting to that in the Update after this (Which I may combine into one update)

Demoria 0.6.9.2 Mid Alpha
- Fixed Various 3D Models

https://www.dropbox.com/s/88kn9pfurbmu7fo/10122015%20status.png?dl=0

Until then, I'll see you next week for the next update.

~ Michael/ AwakenedRage98

Lead Developer

Finally got around to posting the Roadmap for Demoria Online a MMORPG that brings many different scenarios and combines them into one game. Demoria Online has many different themed worlds throughout the game that each has differences in the way of combat. The game has many challenging aspects and unique mechanics that we have not seen in any other MMO's.
 
FAQ:

What Game Engine does Demoria Online use?
We use Unity3D 5 Professional, our system requirements specs can vary depending on what the video settings are.

What programming languages does Demoria use?
71% of our code is Java (Which is for the server) 16.7% of our code is in C# (Which is for the client)

We also have a small portion of our server modules in Python.

How much lines of Code
About 200,000 lines for the Information System section of the server and the whole client.

The server is about another 200,000 lines.

I want to help what do I have to do?
Message me


Roadmap:

Demoria 0.6.9.1 Mid Alpha
- Added Xephil Magic Skill
- Added Chivalry Skill
- Added Archery Skill.
- Added Xetero and Xetoro Spells
- Added Balance Points
- Added Stun Effect
- The Grand Raven Boss now can interrupt abilities. Be careful!
- Added Ghost Yilaveil Dungeon
- Fences Fixed in Ghost Yilaveil
- Level Cap raised to level 10!

Mid November
Demoria 0.6.9.2 Mid Alpha
- Fixed Various 3D Models

Mid January
Demoria 0.7.0 Mid Alpha Update
- Esterhall Quests Added
- Level Cap Increased to Level 15!
- Treebound Forest Dungeon Added
- Rebound Status has been added to make the game mor eof a challenge.
- Mitigation Spells Added! Enemies only!
= Enemies now have the ability to heal themselves.
- Players can now revive others.
- Empower Aura Reviving Spell has been added.

Mid March
Demoria 0.7.5
- The 4 Dungeons has been added.
- Grand Raven Boss Removed
- Level Cap Increased to 20!
- The Destroyer is now waiting for a challenge in Demoria. You can confront him in the Grand Temple.


Demoria 0.7.9
Expected Mid May
Protect Demoria!
- A challenge awaits you in Valgate. The 1st Arc of the story is now explained at this event.
- During this time, you will be unable to get new quests, however you will be able to level up.


END OF ALPHA

A week after the Protect Demoria Event!
Demoria 0.1.0 Beta
- The Game can be downloaded and accessed by anyone!
- Old Quests are no longer available.  
- Official Storyline has begun!
- Ghost Yilaveil Removed!
- More Area's added in Demoria!
- Level Cap increased to level 30!
Still to be determined

Now with support for iPhones!

We all know Apple sucks, and Android dominates .

I would deny his appeal, because of 2 incidents outside of the MC server recently.

1) His False ban to my developer account on Xbox Live was pretty hard to deal with because I actually got banned.

2) I don't approve of his previous behavior, which I will not be making public on the forum. But point is, I feel like he will just cause trouble that will become an annoyance.

Its your choice, but thats just my opinion.

Test server is online and the whitelist has been disabled until the other sections of the server are added.

Currently Survival Games is the only thing you can play on the test server, however there are a couple things I want to remind you all.

• This is a TEST SERVER glitches are bound to occur
• The test server will only be available on scheduled testing sessions
• If you experience any bugs on the server report them to me via PM on the forum.

The server IP is mc.nucleardistrict.net:36279

We will let you know of our progress as we complete it.

~AwakenedRage

Haha, I can see your confusion with us having no players at this moment. However yesterday we had a considerably large amount of players on the server. You have to keep in mind that we aren't a very popular server at the moment and a majority of our player base is either in High School or College (Which just recently started for most people).  Its understandable that our player base may be doing other things, but that will not keep us from contributing to the server.

Most of us have been working on other things related to the community and constantly check on the server for players in the process. If a player joins, more staff will get on the server, but as of right now it is not needed.

~ AwakenedRage98 / Michael

I'm sorry to announce that we had alot of delays dealing with the Database Permission system and as a result it has caused us to push the date back a day. So the set date is now Monday!

The staff here at CU are happy to announce that within the next coming weeks our server will once again be changing to a hub sever architecture to evenly distribute performance and perform much smoother. But that isn't the whole reason, we are also introducing a Minigame server that is mutually ran by CU and a couple small server communities.  This server includes Survival Games and many other minigames that players can participate in to receive money upon the match ending. Money on our economy system can be used to buy all sorts of items that can be used in the CU survival world as well as other servers.
In order to accomplish this alot of plugins had to be removed and replaced  with another plugin that can share data between servers. We decided to store all the data in multiple databases and transfered existing data from the current server on Tuesday in order to get a good idea on what players data is having issues transfering. Turns out, the transfer process takes alot longer then we expected (15+ hours With 1095 unique players on the server) Due to the high amount of time regarding the transfer, we have decided to retain the data from Tuesday night on the databases. We are completely aware that players will still be on the server making changes to their inventory while this is in the works. However, we request that our players who have been on the server after Tuesday night to place their whole inventory for the survival world in a chest so that items that were made/retrieved after Tuesday night will not be lost.The Estimated date that this will take place is on Next Sunday, (We encourage users to check this post often, because this date MAY change)

While transfering the database we found that the following players inventories were having trouble transfering:
- Dialga (Survival)

The players listed above will need to put their inventory in a chest before the estimated date or their inventory will not be retained.

But we wouldnt announce this much information for something that is in the works now would we? Well, I am pleased to confirm that I have my schedule completely free. With this opportunity I am positive that I can get a test server up by Sunday, maybe even earlier (No promises though)

The test server will be under a whitelist so we can test the server at a controlled limit. In order for players to get whitelisted you will have to go to the CU Test Server Registration topic on the forums. All ND Staff and CU Staff are whitelisted by default, but if I missed anyone just PM me and I will whitelist you. Preregistration are allowed and are encouraged, however you should note that world data on the test server will not be retained when the SG server goes public.

Lastly I wanted to talk about security on the new servers,  we want to let all users know that the backend of the servers will not be accessiable to anybody but me, Halo, and some ND Staff. Nobody from the other small communities will have access.

CONFIRMED DATE: Labor Day 11AM

Hope you all enjoy your labor day weekend,

~ Michael/ AwakenedRage98
 

Task List:

• XenCenter Updates
• CentOS Installed on Xenserver VM's: 2 out of 2
• Backend Configuration
• Server File Reorganizing
• BungeeCord Configuration
• Auto-In Socket Configuration
• Warps Verification
• Minigame Shop Working
• New Economy System Implementation.

IP: mc.nucleardistrict.net:36279

All of Chaotic United's services will be unavailable Friday night at 3AM to 4AM Central time so we can put the necessary fixes to our PostGRESQL and MySQL Database servers.

For your convenience we have scheduled it at a time that wont be most likely to interrupt anyone.

Thanks for the information, I noticed before looking at this message that the DBServer has completely stopped responding. Its an problem with the Operating System itself and now I am taking the appropriate action to fix the Database.

I'll be sure to update you on my progess.