kicked out with "max gamestate chars exceeded"

[Cacatoes]

Just been kicked out from ROFL instagib with that message.

What I recently changed on the server is:
- setting up some elimination map
- using long strings in server setup files (vstr a1 "blablablabla ....")

I suppose it's related with the info string which is sent to each clients and which can't be too long, hmmm or is it something else..

[grey matter]

For the record, the exact error is "MAX_GAMESTATE_CHARS exceeded" from the client. The limit itself is 16000 chars.
From a first glimpse it seems like most of it will be used by configstrings like models, sounds, player info and things such as map location text. And like you mentioned, the sets cvars as well as those with the CVAR_SYSTEMINFO flag.

You can peek at all those with the /configstrings client command.

So from the two things you mentioned, I'd guess the new map is the bad guy. Does the error only occur with this very special map? Do you have many sets cvars in addition?

[Cacatoes]

I have these sets variables:

Code:

sets "Admin" "Cacatoes, ProbablySomeOtherGuys"
sets "Email" "un.c4c4t03s@gmalauxcouilles.com" # faked when pasted
sets "Website" "http://openarena.tuxfamily.org"
sets "Location" "France"

And maps were started with such lines:

Code:

set d1 "g_instantgib 1; g_gametype 4; map ps9ctf; set nextmap vstr d2"

I removed the elimination map I had the problem on since, but here was the line:

Code:

set d2 "g_instantgib 0; g_gametype 9; map ctf_inyard; set nextmap vstr d3"

I suppose using Elimination in particular adds a few cvars being added to the whole stuff. Only tried with that map (ctf_inyard) and oa_ctf4ish, I don't remember on which one I had the crash, I think the latter but not sure at all.

[grey matter]

This alone does not seem to be enough to break the limit.

If you really wish to, you could try to re-create that situation (locally? usually easier than letting others try to create the exact same server setup) and check which maps work and which don't (i.e. is the "bug" reproducible).
I can not really help any further, only make a few guesses as to what's going wrong