u/derfisch06

Posted to Steam Community forums by user Luminuts.

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Experiencing a really weird bug/issue on my TF2 server. Anyone ever seen something like this? Any help appreciated.

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I host a small TF2 community server. It’s self-hosted out of an old PC. I set it up for me and my friends to play on a year ago. Kept it running after it grew its own little playerbase. It’s not the most robust setup. Barely runs 24 players.

Haven’t really had any issues with it aside from the occasional cheater or bot. Don’t get much traffic, maybe 10 players on a good day.

That’s why it was so weird when I checked the server today and it was full. 24 players.

The server had never been that busy. I thought someone might have joined with a big party. Maybe brought some friends to play. Something like that. Then I looked at the server console.

It was fucked.

Just a mess of errors and nonsense feedback. Did a status update and I got pings for all 24 players. I recognized some of them. Also clocked a crazy high memory usage. The server was really chugging and the hardware was running pretty hot. No idea what it was doing but the server was using up a ton of processing power. Are TF2 lag machines like a thing? Maybe it’s just a hangup and the server got caught in some feedback loop.

Weirdest part is the logs though.

I pulled up last night’s server logs to figure out what happened but they just made the whole situation more bizarre. I don’t even know how to describe it. I’ll attach some of them to this post so you can see for yourself.

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23:57:24

–PLAYER chiggle KILLED PLAYER Big Ron.

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 834.2 MB.

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER unplug.

–unplug (TO ALL): bro

–PLAYER Revenant HAS JOINED THE GAME (05/24).

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): get good

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER chiggle.

–unplug (TO ALL): fuk you

–PLAYER Revenant JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn CAPTURED CONTROL POINT.

(As far as I can tell, all the weird stuff starts around this time.)

00:01:33

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): u getting off soon?

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER chiggle.

–unplug (TO ALL): mayb

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER Revenant.

–TRACEBACK ERROR: IRRETRIEVABLE.

–unplug (TO ALL): one morrr win

–PLAYER chiggle KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

(For context, the server was running an unmodified version of cp_powerhouse.)

00:13:54

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER unplug.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER chiggle.

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn CAPTURED CONTROL POINT.

–PLAYER Big Ron CAPTURED CONTROL POINT.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): ok

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): thats enough for me

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED ENTITY dispenser_b_03(chiggle).

–unplug (TO ALL): cmooon bro

–unplug (TO ALL): one more gamee

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): not today

–unplug (TO ALL): boooo

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): wtf

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER unplug KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–unplug (TO ALL): gget good

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): bitch

(It looks like they were having issues with the game here. I looked up the error messages but I have no idea what’s causing it.)

00:15:10

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 868.9 MB.

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER unplug.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): where is the revenantg guy

–unplug (TO ALL): respwaning

–PLAYER chiggle KILLED PLAYER Big Ron.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): who killed him

–unplug (TO ALL): idk

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER chiggle.

(I’ve skimmed the logs for death messages. He would’ve been respawning for 15 minutes by now.)

00:16:01

–PLAYER unplug CAPTURED CONTROL POINT.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): no ones gonna win like this

–PLAYER unplug KILLED PLAYER Big Ron.

–unplug (TO ALL): good

–unplug (TO ALL): i wanna keep playinng

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER unplug.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): games boring if it doesnt end

–unplug (TO ALL): cmon bro

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

–unplug (TO ALL): dont you wanna keeep playing??

–PLAYER One_AND_Only HAS JOINED THE GAME (06/24).

–PLAYER firecat962 HAS JOINED THE GAME (07/24).

–PLAYER Rick the Cowboy HAS JOINED THE GAME (08/24).

–PLAYER One_AND_Only JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–PLAYER firecat962 JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–PLAYER Rick the Cowboy JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 992.5 MB.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): i guess

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

00:17:29

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn CAPTURED CONTROL POINT.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER chiggle.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): you getting on tomorrow?

–unplug (TO ALL): mayb

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): i feel weird

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): like sleepy

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): but im not tired

–unplug (TO ALL): wtf

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): i keep forgegtting to blink

00:19:22

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER chiggle.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER unplug.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER Revenant.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER One_AND_Only.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): tf are you doing

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER Rick the Cowboy.

–unplug (TO ALL): cmon bro

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER unplug.

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER firecat962.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER Revenant.

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 1109.7 MB.

(I’ve omitted a lot of this. It goes on for a couple minutes.)

00:23:43

–PLAYER kiwi HAS JOINED THE GAME (09/24).

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER One_AND_Only.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): dude

–PLAYER kiwi JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): i dont feel good

–PLAYER SergeantYork HAS JOINED THE GAME (10/24).

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER firecat962.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): are you still there

–PLAYER SergeantYork JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER Revenant.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): HEY

–PLAYER Godless HAS JOINED THE GAME (11/24).

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER Rick the Cowboy.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): ARE YOU LISTENING

–PLAYER Godless JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER henryexe HAS JOINED THE GAME (12/24).

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): who even are these people

–PLAYER henryexe JOINED TEAM BLU.

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): whats happening

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 1446.8 MB.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): wtf isthat

–PLAYER Big Ron KILLED PLAYER unplug

–unplug (TO ALL): dont you wanna keeep playing??

(There’s about 10 minutes without any updates here. I have no idea what happened in that timeframe.)

00:34:16

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): fuck

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): FUCK

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): FUCK YOU

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 1823.2 MB.

00:36:36

–PLAYER Varcolac HAS JOINED THE GAME (24/24).

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): please dude

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): i just want to go

–PLAYER Varcolac JOINED TEAM BLU

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): we cant play forever

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): and im scared

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 2546.6 MB.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): no ones gonna win like this

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): you getting on tomorrow?

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): and im scared

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): cmon bro

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

–STACK OVERFLOW ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE QUERY.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

(Omitting a lot more of this.)

00:50:02

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): you win

–unplug (TO ALL): itss fun

00:51:20

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): god

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): what is this

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): what is the point of any of this

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): it hurts

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): it hurts

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): it hurts

–UNKNOWN ERROR:

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): it hurts

(This repeats.)

03:58:34

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER Revenant KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): we cant play forever

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): are you still there?

–PLAYER Varcolac KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): you getting on tomorrow?

–DATABASE ERROR: UNKNOWN INPUT.

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–PLAYER firecat962 KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): one more gamee

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER Godless KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): but im not tired

–DATA ERROR: UNKNOWN PACKAGE.

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER unplug KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): ARE YOU LISTENING

–UNKNOWN ERROR.

–PLAYER SeraphimDonn KILLED PLAYER SeraphimDonn.

–SeraphimDonn (TO ALL): i wanna keep playinng

–MEMORYLOAD UPDATE: 4096.9 MB.

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And that’s it.

It’s been repeating like that for the past 6 hours. I have no idea what happened or what to do about it. I tried kicking all players but my commands aren’t working. I’ve restarted the server three times already but they all just rejoin instantly. Same players and everything.

Is this a thing that happens? Am I being DDoS’ed or something? Memory usage keeps going up too. It’s past 8GB now.

If I can’t find a solution I’ll pull the plug for now, but I’m gonna look at it from the inside first. Someone just disconnected and the server has a free slot. I’m gonna try to do some client-side troubleshooting. Maybe that’ll clear things up. Sorry for the long post, I’ll update when I figure it out.

“Hey you. It’s me. I know we haven’t talked in a while. That’s not your fault. I haven’t really been feeling myself. To be honest, I don’t know if I really am.

I have these dreams. It’s like I’m walking around in someone else’s life. When I’m dreaming, everything makes sense.

I’m with my friends.

I’m alone.

I’m happy.

I’m sad.

I’m winning.

I’m lost.

And then I wake up, and I need to remind myself that I’m still me. And I’m still dead.

Do you remember the first time we played that game together? All running and shooting and killing and laughing, and even miles and miles and miles apart, it felt like we couldn’t be closer. You said Go! Go! Go! and I said Yes, Sir! and we won every single time. I was so alone back then but you made me feel like I belonged.

Was that true? Was it real?

I always remembered that day. It was just a little thing but it meant the world to me. I wonder if you remember it, too.

Life has a way of taking the good things away from us, doesn’t it? It’s not justice, just punishment. I’ve learned that there’s a difference.

I remember that time we were about to win the game, and then your internet died. We ended up losing. It wasn’t fair, but it was pretty funny.

I also remember the last time I visited my mom at her hospital bed. That wasn’t funny. Although I’m pretty sure the memory doesn’t belong to me.

Do you remember the day it all went wrong? You never see these things coming, I guess. Even when they’re right there in front of you. When everyone around us vanished one by one. When the screaming started. When we couldn’t even tell if we were awake, or just dreaming.

I wanted to hide. You wanted to run. I knew you did, I knew how afraid you were. You’d always run away when you got scared. That’s alright. But we had nowhere to run, and I didn’t want you to get hurt.

It was painful when you left me.

I actually thought we would make it out. That we’d escape, together. That everything would go back to normal. I understand why you ran now, but at the time, I felt the floor give out from under me.

Then you died, and it let you go.

You made it. You got out. And I could, too. We could make it out of this nightmare together! So I ran, and I followed you, and I begged for death the moment I got the chance and-

And then I was dead.

And I couldn’t move. I couldn’t run. I could only listen as that thing dragged itself across the map, wailing, screaming for help. It wasn’t fair.

When it came back for me, I wanted to scream as well. To beg. To cry. This couldn’t be real. Maybe I really was dreaming. Maybe I still am.

It reached out and it took hold of where my mind used to be. That iron grip, like fingers tightening around my throat. Like the way he used to hurt me. Or maybe that was someone else…

Do you remember how it made us dance? How we always knew where to go, what to do. Like hunger. To go and eat and grow

and grow

And then you stop, because you just can’t take it anymore, and it punishes you. Like burning and rIPPING AND BREAKING AND SNAPPING AND…

…and you weren’t actually there, were you?

Sorry.

It gets so confusing to tell you apart.

I remember when it first made me do it. It left me out there, just a corpse in the cold. Waiting, anticipating. I could have refused. That’s the worst part. I think I could have refused to do it. But I was so scared so scared so scared so scared so scared so scared.

So scared to be hurt again.

So I did it. And I ripped, and broke, and snapped. And I took the it in me and I put it in him. And I knew he was scared, too. I knew because I was scared. Because I was banging my head against the wall. Because I was laying out in the cold. Because I had to watch myself betray my best friend. Because…

Sorry.

It gets so confusing to tell me apart.

Do you remember my second time? Or my third? Fourth? Fifth? It kept making me hurt people. Or maybe that was someone else. It’s hard to tell. You kind of stop caring at some point. You go numb. Does that sound bad? Should that scare me? Is it better not to feel anything?

Who said that?

I don’t remember.

It keeps taking the good things away.

In the quiet moments, when I try to remember myself, I’ll stumble upon an empty space where something used to be. The shape of a memory. I don’t know why it takes them. Maybe it eats them, maybe it processes them.

Maybe we’re just data to it.

Maybe it likes hurting us.

Maybe it just wants empty shells,

and so it strips our souls away,

and then eats what’s left.

You’re all I have left now. The last good thing. Or maybe your memory doesn’t even belong to me. It’s so hard to tell.

Do you remember when you found me again? I didn’t think you would. I hoped you wouldn’t. But you did.

It wanted me to hurt you. It remembered you, and it wanted to eat you too, in a way. You didn’t deserve that. None of us did. I was already dead, and you should have stopped looking. It wanted you so badly. We were so interesting to it.

I had to do something. So I ran. Every step I took away from you hurt. It made sure of that. It’s funny. Now you were the brave one, and I was running.

I wish I could have run forever.

You looked so scared when you saw me. And that scared me. Because I don’t think I can stop myself any longer. And it heard your shot echo across the map.

It’s made me hurt so many people, and I thought I didn’t care anymore. But when I saw you I remembered myself, just for a second. And so I stop myself just before it can get inside you too.

I’m shaking now, spasming with simulated pain. Pain that wants to spread. Pain that wants me to keep moving. But I can’t. You’re the last good thing, and you deserve better.

I can barely tell what you’re saying. It’s screaming in my head now. GO! GO! GO! But I won’t. I know you still feel responsible. Like you let me down. But it wasn’t your fault. And I forgive you. It just wasn’t fair.

I see you try to fight back, to put an end to this, but you falter.

There’s this break; the moment where you remember this is real life. Except it isn’t real. And it isn’t life. I am dead. We’re all dead. We just haven’t noticed yet. We’re just walking corpses.

But you’re not dead, and I need you to start living again.

I just hope I won’t forget you, in the end.

So as I try as hard as I can to remember, I tell you the only three words you need to hear.

GO! GO! GO!”

this is hell

HOST | A Serverblight Story