speed up loading and saving to redis that the move request are getting a answer when switching workers, strip data that neats to get recomuted every turn

server/GameBoard.py

@@ -151,6 +151,11 @@ class GameBoard:
 
     return {"name": self.type, "is_ladder": self.is_ladder}
 
+  def __getstate__(self):
+    state = self.__dict__.copy()
+    state['turns'] = []  # strip turn history — grows linearly, not needed for move computation
+    return state
+
   async def save(self, store_class, **kwargs):
     store = store_class(**kwargs)
     await store.save(self)

server/blueprints/battlesnake.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, cast
-import json, time, os
+import asyncio, json, time, os
 
 from quart import Blueprint, request, jsonify
 
@@ -61,9 +61,27 @@ def create_battlesnake_blueprint(server:'Server') -> Blueprint:
     server.metrics_collector.record_http_request('move')
     game_state = await request.get_json()
     move_started = time.perf_counter()
-    game_board = cast(GameBoard, await server.game_runtime.get_game_board(game_state))
-    next_move = game_board.snake_neat_make_a_move()
-    await server.game_runtime.persist_game_board(game_state['game']['id'], game_board)
+
+    game_id = game_state['game']['id']
+    timeout_ms = int(game_state.get('game', {}).get('timeout', 500))
+    budget_sec = max(0.05, (timeout_ms - 50) / 1000.0)
+
+    next_move = None
+    move_completed = False
+    game_board = None
+
+    try:
+      async with asyncio.timeout(budget_sec):
+        game_board = cast(GameBoard, await server.game_runtime.get_game_board(game_state))
+        loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
+        next_move = await loop.run_in_executor(None, game_board.snake_neat_make_a_move)
+        move_completed = True
+    except TimeoutError:
+      await await_log(server.logger.warning(f'MOVE TIMEOUT: turn={game_state.get("turn")}, game={game_id}, returning fallback {next_move!r}'))
+
+    if move_completed:
+      await server.game_runtime.persist_game_board(game_id, game_board)
+
     await server.gameplay_tracking.record_gameplay_turn(game_state, next_move, game_board)
     elapsed_ms = (time.perf_counter() - move_started) * 1000.0
     await server.metrics_collector.record_move(next_move, elapsed_ms)

server/game_state_store/RedisGameBoardStore.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
-import inspect, pickle
+import inspect, pickle, zlib
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
   from server.GameBoard import GameBoard
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class RedisGameBoardStore:
 
   async def save(self, game_id:str, game_board:'GameBoard') -> None:
     redis = await self._get_redis()
-    payload = pickle.dumps(game_board, protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
+    payload = zlib.compress(pickle.dumps(game_board, protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL), level=1)
     await redis.set(self._key(game_id), payload, ex=self.ttl_seconds)
 
   async def load(self, game_id:str):
@@ -36,7 +36,10 @@ class RedisGameBoardStore:
     payload = await redis.get(self._key(game_id))
     if payload is None:
       return None
-    return pickle.loads(payload)
+    try:
+      return pickle.loads(zlib.decompress(payload))
+    except zlib.error:
+      return pickle.loads(payload)
 
   async def delete(self, game_id:str) -> None:
     redis = await self._get_redis()