Ok, well I managed to fix my own problem, and thought I'd post the fix here, because I've seen this pop-up from time to time, with nobody mentioning anything other than a reinstall that fixed it. Here was the problem:
32 player server running fine. Had been bouncing back and forth between beta and public VAC modules, and made some other little config changes. All of a sudden, server wouldn't hold more than 22-24 people on most maps. People would try to join, and you would see them get dropped in-game. From the client end, you would see "Initializing and Downloading" and then "Disconnected". The server logs showed "Reliable Channel Overflowed". This happened on most maps. Some maps (de_dust2, de_aztec) would fill up with 32 players as soon as they loaded, but when the map changed, people would start dropping again. This plagued me for almost 2 weeks. I bounced between VAC modules, tweaked plugin configs, added and removed plugins from metamod and plugin.ini and no go. Restarted HLDS and the machine itself, no go. I finally figured it out. And I think this is a bug that Valve needs to fix. The cause was my motd.txt . It was too big. Perhaps this was in conjunction with the StatsMe console greet (which I had already trimmed and didn't fix the problem), but ultimately, once I trimmed down my MOTD message, everything was fine. Then I remembered that I had also modified that file right before I had the problem. I had added details regarding the rules of that server (no awps, nade spamming, map exploits, hostie killing, etc) and apparently all this txt along with whatever else the game sends on connect was flooding people. Glad I found the problem, but frankly I'm kinda pissed that this was it. I mean, perhaps there is a real reason why that happens, and because of the game engine/connect sequence/internet/compatibility Valve can't do anything about it, but man I was getting very frustrated. If there is indeed such a limitation, then perhaps either Valve, or someone who is active in plugin writing, can write plugin that achieves the following: Once people connect, they can hit a pre-defined key (bound by the plugin) that will bring up the rules of the server. Something that is displayed in a box like the MOTD. So in my MOTD I can just say hit "F12" or something and I can list the rules. This would be quite useful to the community I think. Anyways, hope this helps someone out, and perhaps if someone is maintaining a FAQ on this stuff, they can add it. Heck, I might even start one up. Seems I've hit every snag there is to running HLDS =]. -----Original Message----- From: Barry L. Jeung Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 12:13 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [hlds_linux] Reliable Channel Overflowed This is a multi-part message in MIME format. -- [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] Been getting this a lot lately.. Anyone else having similar issues and maybe a direction on possible resolution? Thanks _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
