Official Discussion Thread for "ESO's Performance Improvements Plan"

flevi

There are game breaking issues for more than 2 months now, many skills not working, bugs that wipe entire groups and so on, many weekly videos can now be found on youtube with bugs pple encounter every day, which are encountered every second run on either pvp or pve.

It's ok, many pple will quit if these are not fixed after next patch, I know many who already quit the game and more who didn't buy next patch and won't buy it, cancelled subscriptions and so on.

If we can help in anyway ZOS please say so, or solve the issues. [Snip]. Which is not nice. Either ask for help or solve the issues. Going closely to 3 months with broken and unplayable game. ESO should be more than flower picking or daily crafting quests...

[Edited for bashing]

LarsS

Zos you think you have fixed the desync lag, but cant test it in advance of live. Why not have a pts event were you invite players to do a test, that should at least give an indication if the fixes work.

Elsonso

LarsS wrote: »

Zos you think you have fixed the desync lag, but cant test it in advance of live. Why not have a pts event were you invite players to do a test, that should at least give an indication if the fixes work.

I think that is what they are intending to do.

We have made several fixes for the input lag issue that appears to address the problem on our internal development environments. However, it is impossible for us to simulate “real” server load internally, so we are going to include these fixes in Update 26 ( ==> they are not yet on the PTS but will be soon <=== ). Note that until we move these fixes live, we can’t 100% be sure that this resolves the problem. Additional work may be required.

Azurya

I won't be full of joy before I see it on live.
And therefor I will not cheer here, because
every improvement so far has only changed things for worse.
Even in maelstrom Arena, where I am supposed to be alone you get laoding screens,
keys that don´t trigger, pots you cannot use and you are dead after the loading screen ends........

Fun has another definition imho!
Thanks for reading my frustration.

katanagirl1

Elsonso wrote: »

LarsS wrote: »

Zos you think you have fixed the desync lag, but cant test it in advance of live. Why not have a pts event were you invite players to do a test, that should at least give an indication if the fixes work.

I think that is what they are intending to do.

We have made several fixes for the input lag issue that appears to address the problem on our internal development environments. However, it is impossible for us to simulate “real” server load internally, so we are going to include these fixes in Update 26 ( ==> they are not yet on the PTS but will be soon <=== ). Note that until we move these fixes live, we can’t 100% be sure that this resolves the problem. Additional work may be required.

Please don’t just simulate it...go outside your local connection into the internet and back again on a PC or console with a digital or physical copy of the game, you will experience it for real. THIS is the only way to test.

Brovah

So how is everything going?

It's still the worst game to play right now performance wise.. because it's not playable at all.

Maybe actually do anything about the performance?

lucoiso

i dont see any performance improvement on the PTS with the update 26, lol.
Same FPS drops, same stutters, a lot of disconnects and crashes, and ping always 600~999+

LeoRJBrazil

Is there any plan for server on South America or especific improvement plan to here?

WrathOfInnos

No maintenance or patch today? That is an interesting decision.

Elsonso wrote: »

LarsS wrote: »

Zos you think you have fixed the desync lag, but cant test it in advance of live. Why not have a pts event were you invite players to do a test, that should at least give an indication if the fixes work.

I think that is what they are intending to do.

We have made several fixes for the input lag issue that appears to address the problem on our internal development environments. However, it is impossible for us to simulate “real” server load internally, so we are going to include these fixes in Update 26 ( ==> they are not yet on the PTS but will be soon <=== ). Note that until we move these fixes live, we can’t 100% be sure that this resolves the problem. Additional work may be required.

@ZOS_SarahHecker When can we expect to see the potential input lag fix on PTS? I don’t believe it made it into 6.0.2 or 6.0.3 (we’re still experiencing all the same issues). Will the fix be included in Monday’s 6.0.4? This seems to be the last chance to test it on PTS before Greymoor goes live.

Also will the fix address related issues like position/timing desyncs, Necromancer skills failing, and enemy NPC attack/pathing problems? All of these things seem to occur at the same time in a “bad instance” and may have a common cause. Thanks.

Destyran

The lag in Cyrodiil is beyond a joke remove ALL shadows?! I don’t care just try to fix this joke it gets worse ever day and pat h u bring out reset it give it a different server do something

HairyFairy

ZoS goes silent for months while their game is broken, and their player-bases' trust and loyalty is beyond repair. They are seemingly raking in as many profits as they can while we suffer in-game. trying our hardest to deal with the issues that they cannot fix no matter how much money we throw at them.

Does anyone else think ZOS should at least be more up-front with us? At least admit that they completely broke the game for months on end without any sort of refund in mind for the community who are still paying subs, still spending in the crown store, etc.

HairyFairy

I just wanted to play before work. That's all I wanted to do.

I get disconnected twice in a 20 minute time-span. can't log back in, especially on the character I got D/Ced on, so swap toons, go back out. Get disconnected. fill up with rage, cry on forums. rinse and repeat

MrWesleyPipes

"Working as intended"?

Banana

It's not working so far

Destai

ZOS_SarahHecker wrote: »

Hi all, we've updated the article for April: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/56681

@ZOS_SarahHecker Can you confirm that combat desyncs are being addressed in the Q3 update? The verbiage is really vague and isn't addressing very specific player concerns. I think we're all waiting for an answer as to when skills will fire when pressed.

GerStyler

Destai wrote: »

ZOS_SarahHecker wrote: »

Hi all, we've updated the article for April: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/56681

@ZOS_SarahHecker Can you confirm that combat desyncs are being addressed in the Q3 update? The verbiage is really vague and isn't addressing very specific player concerns. I think we're all waiting for an answer as to when skills will fire when pressed.

They wont answer. Performance bring no money. Think about it. U25 was a Performance Update and with it the real lags started. GG ZO$

Elsonso

Destai wrote: »

ZOS_SarahHecker wrote: »

Hi all, we've updated the article for April: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/56681

@ZOS_SarahHecker Can you confirm that combat desyncs are being addressed in the Q3 update? The verbiage is really vague and isn't addressing very specific player concerns. I think we're all waiting for an answer as to when skills will fire when pressed.

I think they are probably not going to say anything until after Greymoor has been on Live for a while. At least, given that the last thing they said was that they needed it on Live to evaluate it, I am not expecting them to say anything until the end of June, after Console ship.

Miswar

One question really. Why has the performance dropped even further with this "performance plan"?

Even if you manage to improve anything it wohnt be even that level when you announcent it.

The game performance both pve and pvp is abysmal at PS4.

* Skills not working at all
* Delayed skills
* Broken mechanics at trials... you can pick up synergy once every blue moon
* People getting disconnects, freezes etc
* Cyrodiil is utter mess despite population been lowest I have ever seen

Only thing that is working is crownstore. Rest just utter mess.

Have you downgraded your servers even more or is it just bad coding? ..or both.

How about focusing getting this mess sorted... look at your guild system which updates locations realtime and hey.. once some guild master removes members the game stops ... mail system etc... instead the last official word was combat pets!!!!

Make an live stream about these issues and for once in 6 years actual speak truth.

If we have entered milking phase of this game meaning that it is what it is than say so.

Its been years downhill... and with this plan ongoing the performance its at rock bottom.

Make the stream where you have people that actually are in charge and responsible for this to explain us customers why is this the fiasco what it is at the moment.

Thank you.

Elsonso

Miswar wrote: »

One question really. Why has the performance dropped even further with this "performance plan"?

I think that this can be simply stated by pointing out four things that are currently happening.

1. They changed how block functions on the server. In my uneducated opinion, there are two things that come from this. First, the game appears to be working differently and people can interpret this as lag or unresponsiveness. This change is significant enough that they made a video to explain and show what they did. Second, it is much more dependent upon the player's ping to the ESO servers for things to look smooth, meaning that internet latency becomes more obvious.

2. They introduced a severe bug where the game is not responding when skills are used. Again, my uneducated opinion is that this is somehow related to the changes that they made for block, and that is why it is taking so long to fix. I think that this bug is responsible for a huge part of the performance perception. Without this bug, I think things would look much different.

3. ESO is experiencing a very high player demand that is outside of the player demand that they planned for. Even with additional hardware, infrastructure within and around the game servers are under high stress. The performance work that they have been doing up until now is evolutionary (incremental), not revolutionary (transformational), and are easily eclipsed by an unexpected increase in demand for the game.

4. The internet is sort of sucky right now. ISPs have obviously been working to shore it up over the last several weeks, but there are still cases where going from A to B on the internet takes longer, and is not as solidly reliable, compared to how it used to be. When this sort of thing hits games like ESO, it can cause lag spikes and dropped connections. While some of this is related to ESO population issues, not all of it is. These tend to get lumped into the "ZOS fault" category, but won't be something that ZOS fixes.

As for the "years downhill" statement, I have been here that entire time, and so I bear witness to all of this first hand. This is rhetoric vs reality. Performance has gone up and down over the years as ZOS does things to improve the performance of the game and then add features that do the opposite. Unpopular as it might be to say this, the performance story of ESO is not all downhill. While it seems like a low point right now, I think this is largely perception driven by the severity of skills bug.

Yes, I do think they will eventually fix the problem with skills. I just wish they would hurry up about it.

katanagirl1

You know, I don’t think the sucky internet argument hold water here. I have mentioned before in other posts that I found I had a 2 mb/sec connection from my old router through wi-if before I replaced my wi-fi router and ran a wired connection through the attic to my PS4. I now have 100+ mb/sec and the game has not improved whatsoever from a playing standpoint, but my downloads for updates take minutes instead of hours.

For me, the problems started with Summerset and have gotten worse since then.

Cleveland521

I love this game, it is in a need of repairs I agree. But I still enjoy playing it problems and all. If it is so horrible as you all state, why are you playing it? I believe in time these issues will be repaired and as it is one of the most popular games out there, problems will always affect it in one form or another. Yes the lag can be bad at times and asset loading as well. I hope these issues will be repaired soon. Time will tell.

katanagirl1

Cleveland521 wrote: »

I love this game, it is in a need of repairs I agree. But I still enjoy playing it problems and all. If it is so horrible as you all state, why are you playing it? I believe in time these issues will be repaired and as it is one of the most popular games out there, problems will always affect it in one form or another. Yes the lag can be bad at times and asset loading as well. I hope these issues will be repaired soon. Time will tell.

You know, that question gets so old.

If we did not love the game we would just stop playing and play something else. We post here to try to convey useful information and hopefully help get the bugs fixed.

It is the complete lack of communication from ZOS about widespread and specific bugs and the fact that we are not seeing any improvement yet, and in fact some degradation, while this far into the performance improvement cycle, that has us concerned.

The state of the game can be different for different players. If all you do is sit in zone chat and use emotes, then your performance is probably good. If however, you run trials or PvP in Cyrodiil, then you will see the worst performance.

colossalvoids

Cleveland521 wrote: »

why are you playing it?

Maybe because it's one of the best mmo on a market and have the best combat system for us? Not even taking that it's the only elder scrolls game running right now (almost. hey skywind and skyblivion teams, be safe out there)

Cleveland521 wrote: »

Yes the lag can be bad at times and asset loading as well. I hope these issues will be repaired soon. Time will tell.

Some issues are going for years, others are soon meeting jubilee and their improvement plan is not working in a slightest for endgame pve and pvp. If you do not do that kind of content you can't see any serious issues anyway and we're going in and out for hours praying Anu for merely good instances and people are feeding up with it already, it's quite problematic to find core group replacements if people quitting because questionable company decisions, zero communication and worse performance state up to date. And its not anything new really, each major update pvp and high end pve scene shrinking to the point when groups are just disbanding. It's not alright at all and measures should be taken now and not in 2-3 years. If we would not be vocal about it things will stay as it is, it's pretty simple.

menace616

Big thank you to the devs for giving the players some much needed love in the area of client-server optimizations.

After hundreds of hours in Cyrodil on main campaigns I can attest to the fact that server optimization and responsiveness were severely underaddressed issues. Was playing a few days ago on main campaign and, unfortunately, the issues still exist in large-scale PvP instances. 3 to 5 second delays in ability casts, failed casts, rubberbanding, etc. are all still present. I understand it must be difficult to process 100-200 player inputs simultaneously without lag, but providing a smooth experience in those instances is what the team implicitly promised when they released the game. Good to know the devs are dedicating more resources to make good on that promise.

The roadmap looks well-thought and logical. There are a lot of new technologies available to implement server- and client-side so seeing that the devs are taking note of these developments is reassuring. However, what I really want to know is if we can expect any hardware upgrades server-side in the future? I think 5G is going to make client connectivity an increasingly irrelevant issue, so the focus and interest (for me) falls mainly on the server hardware.

ESO is still alive and well and the population seems to be robust and active. This being the case, I don't see server load decreasing any time soon. So what, if any, hardware improvements server-side can we expect in Tamriel's future?

Destai

Cleveland521 wrote: »

I love this game, it is in a need of repairs I agree. But I still enjoy playing it problems and all. If it is so horrible as you all state, why are you playing it? I believe in time these issues will be repaired and as it is one of the most popular games out there, problems will always affect it in one form or another. Yes the lag can be bad at times and asset loading as well. I hope these issues will be repaired soon. Time will tell.

I'm in the same boat as you. Love this game, but man it's showing some wear and tear. I'd like to think things get better in time, but the track record says differently. I'm open to being proven wrong, and the performance isn't so bad right now but it's hard to justify on a six year old game. I'm still going to play the game and hope for the best, despite getting peaved at my skills not firing.

Icarus42

To anyone who wants to know or cares. Performance in Cyrodiil last night PC NA was absolutely horrible with only two bar population. If anything it felt worse. None of my skills were going off, had a fight at Chal and people were just moving around with no skills firing, then all of a sudden someone would die when all the damage decided to register.

It feels like its completely broken now so congratulations for whatever you did for the performance update, feels real bad right now inside my my heart area. I am done being angry with this game peace!

DigitalHype

Blackreach is completely unplayable on PC-NA right now. No relief in sight. No comments from ZOS.

Elsonso

DigitalHype wrote: »

Blackreach is completely unplayable on PC-NA right now. No relief in sight. No comments from ZOS.

In case some one comes across this...

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/529931/pc-na-eu-maintenance-5-29-20-2am-edt

TheMaos

Stop releasing subpar content when people can't even do things like cast abilities without huge delays.
I keep seeing devs say things like oh we reworked how non combat pets are loaded
Oh here is a performance patch it should make things better
oh remove animation cancelling bc it causes lag
AND YET the servers feel as sluggish and laggy as I have ever witnessed them
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

TheMaos

This is how Cyrodiil has been for MONTHS, lets see if this hotfix will magically and suddenly fix all these problems like you say. Lets just say I'm ready to come back and say you have lied to us again.