Backups and Rollbacks

[Kythana]

Before I even ask, I want to state. I did not lose anything in the recent rollback, nor am I particularly upset about it. However...

Why exactly are there two types of rollbacks? It seems rather inconsistent to restore only parts of the database state at the time. Is this a technical limitation, or a deliberate choice?

Furthermore, when Vault only rollbacks happened, are they announced?

If they are not, then this feels pretty bad from a player perspective. If you placed a bunch of new items into a chest/shop, you luck out. Otherwise, one can run into a weird situation of deleting items wholesale, because the world isn't restored, but the character is.

I.E, picking up a fixture and holding it in the character's inventory. Vault rollback occurs -> Inventory is reset, but the world isn't. Fixture is deleted.

If they are announced, then this enables deliberate duping.

The main question I have is: Why not just rollback everything when a rollback needs to happen?

Rollbacks are always going to upset people, but why not make it consistent?

[MalKalz]

Before I even ask, I want to state. I did not lose anything in the recent rollback, nor am I particularly upset about it. However...

Why exactly are there two types of rollbacks? It seems rather inconsistent to restore only parts of the database state at the time. Is this a technical limitation, or a deliberate choice?

To be clear, there is not two different types of rollbacks. There is just options on how we rollback. In this case, the only thing impacted in the change was character inventories (so it would not make sense to rollback the database, only the server vault).

Furthermore, when Vault only rollbacks happened, are they announced?

We announced a rollback in Discord, I missed putting it on the forums as I was in the process of many different things and working as hard as I could to get it done and people back playing. That is on me. However, I did specify what the rollback would be touching.

If they are not, then this feels pretty bad from a player perspective. If you placed a bunch of new items into a chest/shop, you luck out. Otherwise, one can run into a weird situation of deleting items wholesale, because the world isn't restored, but the character is.

I.E, picking up a fixture and holding it in the character's inventory. Vault rollback occurs -> Inventory is reset, but the world isn't. Fixture is deleted.

We can pull logs - in the end, I cannot simply compensate everyone for losing things. That would be a lot more work than I already put into just doing the backup and getting the server in a workable state. However, exceptions are made when I can prove them in the logs and have time - this could be if someone withdrew their bank account at that moment. But no promises are made that this is something I can do or will do. It really depends.

If they are announced, then this enables deliberate duping.

People who exploit us fixing things will be seriously punished.

The main question I have is: Why not just rollback everything when a rollback needs to happen?

Rollbacks are always going to upset people, but why not make it consistent?

Sometimes not everything needs to be rolled back - in this case it was only the characters modified during that 8 hour window. It reduces the extract time, and also the time to ensure that everything is in order. If there was concerns about other areas being affected that would have significant impact on the server and the characters, I would most certainly rollback everything as required. But this was just character inventories, so I prioritized that area. I did not care so much about fixtures, banks, etc.

As I have announced (and am just posting on the forums as I had a moment away from work to post here), we are addressing the backups so that we can improve upon impact. You can find it here: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=25&p=328128#p328128

[MalKalz]

If players lost items from their chest that they picked up, or gold from their bank account, they can send me a forum PM as I can try and work through and verify. I know some are stressed about losing materials or gold.