Client side not recognizing a move, then player getting timed out as a result -- happens a lot in th

@Chipster2015,

Nice job getting the screen shot with the JS console. When you moved, did the normal "beep" occur?

I forgot to mention in my previous posts that this is always the clue to me that this is happening... the move happens on the board, but the confirming "beep" does not happen.

I feel like I can increase the odds of this happening if I click a piece and hold it for a while before "releasing" the piece on the final square -- though I do this less now as I think the bug has trained me to not "hold" the piece too long while thinking about the move.

I have sound off, so I don't know. But I can try it sometime.

Just happened again. Another pic.

This one I believe I had just moved the queen to f6.

One thing I've noticed, looking at these pics, is that my move (the one that is having problems) has not shown up in the moves list. Note the most recent move in the list in both cases is the color right before me.

I would also like to mention that I've noticed that these problems often come in pairs. In other words, if I have a problem, I will often notice one or more players will disconnect sometime during the game. Could be related, could not.

Anyway, hope this helps!

Hi @babyagun, I use wifi, have experienced the same issues with both Chrome and Firefox, no VPNs being used. Has only been an issue recently, since the main issue came up about a week ago, never happened before then, so expect that they are all related.

Have we worked out if when the move doesn't happen, does the player appear to be disconnected to the other players in the game?

first off, i really appreciate the help trying to figure this out!

by beep i assume the move sound (https://images.chesscomfiles.com/chess-themes/sounds/_MP3_/default/move-self.mp3).

When you make a move, the move is sent to the server, but nothing else happens (and it looks like here's where it "hangs"). Then the server sends the move to all people in the room (eg the players, including yourself, and the observers), and only then is the move added to the list, played on the board (in case it's not your own move), the clock updated, and the sound played.

So the first question is whether the move gets sent to the server. I suspect it is, because when i had this error happen, after reloading the window my move had been played, and frankly i doubt the other players even noticed i'd had a problem. So it seemed like the move got lost on the way back to me, or I (my browser) got the move but for some reason did not process it.

I see no errors in your console screenshots. Fyi, the "waiting..x y z" is debug info i forgot to remove, but it could actually be of use, because it's printed each time a move is received from the server. "waiting X 2 2" means it is now yellows turn (0=red, 1=blue, 2=yellow, 3=green). the X is an indication how long it took to play the move (in your browser) and depends on animation speed (setting) and probably on how fast/slow your browser/pc is.

in your screenshots, it looks like you did not get your move, as it indicates it's still your turn.

After you reload, is your move there (as i was for me?). I assume so. this means the server got the move, but it didn't send it to you, or it got lost on the way.

@mattedmonds honestly, vpn, adblock plugins or listening to the radio shouldn't have any impact. the amount of data being sent back and forth while playing chess is minimal.

that said, if the window takes 20+ seconds to load, the does sound like your internet is super slow.

one thing i have to say: four days ago i got "reconnecting" like every couple of minutes, it was very annoying. the next two days it was flawless, not a single interruption. We did not update the server or change anything at all, so can't really be a bug in the code. That said I can't be 100% sure there isn't something wrong in the code, so i'm always looking for what might be wrong.

While our server admin said already a few months back that they plan to move us (aka the 4pc app) to a new server, a few days ago he told me: "[X] is the unstable hosting company four-player is using. To make four-player stable we urgently need to get [Y] running and make it the PROD four-player chess server."
To tell you the truth, I was speechless! I'm like you've had 4pc running on an unstable server all this time???

Another phenonman that points in this direction is that sometimes games will hang - eg they just get lost. this has happend on a few occasions in the past, usually all within very narrow time frames. I always suspected that it's caused by something outside the 4pc app, eg the network, or the server just going unavailbe in some way - for short periods of time.

Anyway, the good news is that we should be getting a new server soon.

I'm guessing that's when the highlight happens too? Because that is also noticeably missing as well, but only for my color.

I've also noticed that it seems to hang when this bug is encountered. No arrows, no nothing. The only thing you can do is wait, or refresh the page. It's almost as if the client goes into lock up mode, or something.

Also, I think the scroll in pic 1 was what was in the log the time the bug came up. The other stuff came after I think. I was definitely happy to get the second shot, as it was a lot better.

Glad to help.

i just edited my post, cause i first wrote waiting 2 2 means it just got yellows move, which was wrong. it means it's now yellows turn (so it has just received blue's move)

are you saying you can't draw arrows? can you go back and forward in the game?

if the browser is unresponsive, that is indeed an indication of a client side bug.

So the current server is unstable? That must be fun.

You might be fighting a bad server and a bug. That's always great when you're fighting two things at once.

Yes. Drawing arrows. I haven't tried going back and forth in the game.

If you can't draw arrows - that's a good hint. Tomorrow I'll play a bunch to see if I can reproduce.

Calling it a night now (i'm in europe...)

Thanks again for helping, much appreciated!

> So the first question is whether the move gets sent to the server. I suspect it is, because when i had this error happen, after reloading the window my move had been played, and frankly i doubt the other players even noticed i'd had a problem.

This is what happened to me once. Other players got the move and continued playing. But I needed to reload the page to get my own move.

well i played a bunch today, and not a single problem. not sure if i should be unhappy about that?

If it happens to you, please try drawing arrows and going back in the game before you reload. to find out if the app is frozen.

I hate things like that. When you try to fix it, it doesn't break

It happened to me again today. I reloaded the browser page which fixed it, but I lost a good 10 seconds off my clock in the process. Not really a good solution.

I really think you guys should take a look at what you changed about the code ~2 weeks ago when this began happening to so many people. The code defect is probably there. 

Were you able to draw arrows?

I hadn't seen the comment about drawing arrows, and I've never tried to draw arrows for anything, so didn't try this time either. Is this arrow feature documented somewhere? 

When this bug is happening, my main concern is to try to get my game working again before my clock runs out and I lose due to bug-caused-time-outs.

Yes, it is documented. Right click = circle. Right click + drag = arrow. Left click = clean all arrows.