Structures Plus Mod Updates NOT getting pushed to clients consistently.

[AshleyLee]

Any idea why Structures Plus Mod updates are not getting pushed out correctly to clients? Takes multiple steam restarts and have had to even send players the files manually as steam never pushes the client side update.

I run large cluster, plus host for streamers and this has been a nightmare the last week the last few updates from Structures plus are NOT getting pushed out to clients consistently. We have had to go as far as manually zipping up the files and sending them to clients and steam never pushes it to some people no matter how many restarts.  

This has affected people from multiple regions and started with the March 7 update and the March 9th update.  Even today it is still not pushing out for many people.  I don't know if this is specifically the fault of the mod author because server updates are working without issue. So it's def getting pushed into steam but steam isn't sending to clients downstream consistently.  Some people it does others it does not and I haven't been able to determine why.  

March 7th update I got after 2 steam restarts.  Then I had to send it to over a dozen people manually via zip file which they were able to join after putting the files in manually.

March 9th update wouldn't trigger for myself until today despite multiple steam restarts and connecting to non-modded ark servers.  

There have been numerous complaints about this on the steam workshop page for S+

[Larkfields]

The main reason I found for clients not getting updated is where there are multiple Steam accounts on the same PC.
Another reason I found was where players would use two different servers with slightly different lists of mods.

I suspect that Steam's handling of mods isn't too great because the mods (and the game files) are held in shared directories.  I'm sure there would be fewer problems if each steam account (on the same PC) had its own repository of game and mod files - but obviously at the cost of disk space.

In any event: clients can usually work around the issue by unsubscribing from all mods, then re-subscribing to the required mods.
They might time-out a couple of times after re-subscribing as the mods are downloaded when the clients try to re-connect to the server.

As a server owner, you shouldn't need to send mod files out to players.  That puts an extra burden on you. 
Advise them to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the mods you use.

Maybe also advise your players to verify their Steam files.

[AshleyLee]

1 hour ago, Larkfields said:

The main reason I found for clients not getting updated is where there are multiple Steam accounts on the same PC.
Another reason I found was where players would use two different servers with slightly different lists of mods.

I suspect that Steam's handling of mods isn't too great because the mods (and the game files) are held in shared directories.  I'm sure there would be fewer problems if each steam account (on the same PC) had its own repository of game and mod files - but obviously at the cost of disk space.

In any event: clients can usually work around the issue by unsubscribing from all mods, then re-subscribing to the required mods.
They might time-out a couple of times after re-subscribing as the mods are downloaded when the clients try to re-connect to the server.

As a server owner, you shouldn't need to send mod files out to players.  That puts an extra burden on you. 
Advise them to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the mods you use.

Maybe also advise your players to verify their Steam files.

Ya, I did have most of them do the above suggestions but for some reason there were still a couple that it wouldn't update, maybe they were lazy and didnt want to re-download all the mods.  Anyway I am aware of the multi-steam account issue except that doesn't explain it happening to myself and it only be s+ and only happening and pretty widespread by the comments on the workshop since the March 7 update.  Plenty other mod updates come around we haven't had it to this degree.  Usually theres 1-2 in our group but this was pretty significant chunk.

Lots of tickets about it, lol.

 

[Larkfields]

Try going back to basics...

Run a Check-disk to look for disk errors on both your client and server.
Run      sfc /scannow   in an adminstrator CMD prompt  (on both your client and server).
Validate your local game files.
Use SteamCMD to validate the files on your server.

 

[AshleyLee]

5 hours ago, Larkfields said:

Try going back to basics...

Run a Check-disk to look for disk errors on both your client and server.
Run      sfc /scannow   in an adminstrator CMD prompt  (on both your client and server).
Validate your local game files.
Use SteamCMD to validate the files on your server.

 

I guess you mean well but i'm assuming you didn't actually READ anything that was written.

[Larkfields]

I did read and I did mean well 🙂

But I'm also serious about doing the checks because HD/SSD corruption, and OS corruption can cause spurious problems.

[invincibleqc]

15 hours ago, AshleyLee said:

Ya, I did have most of them do the above suggestions but for some reason there were still a couple that it wouldn't update, maybe they were lazy and didnt want to re-download all the mods. 

It's not really an issue specific to ARK, or this specific mod, as I've seen it happens for other games as well. I'm not sure why exactly this happens but, manually deleting the entry of the item from the workshop manifest usually forces an update. For this mod, this would be the following file:

../Steam/steamapps/workshop/appworkshop_346110.acf

And the following entry from the AppWorkshop → WorkshopItemsInstalled keygroup:

		"731604991"
		{
			"size"		"xxxxxxxxx"
			"timeupdated"		"xxxxxxxxx"
			"manifest"		"xxxxxxxxx"
		}

Steam must be completely closed before the edit as this file is loaded in memory at launch.