999+ ping is getting out of hand (PC-NA)

SxFurey · February 2023

Earlier on I was in GH hoping to PVP but lag had gotten so bad (I was nowhere near any ball group, mind you) that I ported in to IC hoping to find other PVPers who may have wanted an escape from the laggy hell, but there was 999+ lag too. In Imperial City! Had a friend who told me there was insane lag in Skyreach too. It looked like PVEland is affected too. Why can't we have a stable working server ZOS?

Rowjoh · February 2023

Indeed.

Ping fluctuates wildly at times anytime/anywhere and can last for as little as just a few minutes to an hour+.

Doesn't matter whether out in the wilds in a totally non populated zone, or in a major town or PVP area.

This has been going on for some time, significantly so after the High Isle chapter release, so clearly there is an issue server side that is taking a long time to get to the bottom of and resolve.

Marcus684 · February 2023

Did you consider that maybe it’s on your end and not a problem with ZOS? I play every day PC/NA and I never get high ping except in large 3-way battles in Cyrodiil with lots of other players and effects going off. Lots of things affect the ping number, with ZOS’ equipment being only 1 part of it.

Dr_Con · February 2023

It's probably either someone ddosing the servers so they can do a duplication glitch, or the servers overheating.

RevJJ · February 2023

Which part of the world are you playing from? Players in SE Asia have been experiencing constant lag spikes and disconnects for the past four weeks or so, much more than before that. I’ve got an open customer service ticket about it that has been bouncing back and forth for weeks.

Punitio · February 2023

Happens every day because they don't invest the money they get from crown store into improving the game.

BretonMage · February 2023

What I can't understand is that the worst ping (600-999+) for me tends to happen between 7-11am EST (US), which should(?) be when the population of PC NA is low. It was actually unplayable on Sunday - the Undaunted enclave was empty for 20 seconds because it took that long for players and NPCs to even load. Of course, then there is taking 30 seconds to activate anything, and the constant disconnects.

I can count on one hand the number of times I was disconnected in the year before end 2022, but then it's been constant after that. These days I just log on for an hour or so, and if the lag is bad I log off and find something else to do.

Wolfshade · February 2023

Switch your router off, wait 10min and restart it. Sometimes this helps.

LadyLavina · February 2023

SxFurey wrote: »

Earlier on I was in GH hoping to PVP but lag had gotten so bad (I was nowhere near any ball group, mind you) that I ported in to IC hoping to find other PVPers who may have wanted an escape from the laggy hell, but there was 999+ lag too. In Imperial City! Had a friend who told me there was insane lag in Skyreach too. It looked like PVEland is affected too. Why can't we have a stable working server ZOS?

Hi thread, I.T. student here. Not an expert, but trying to share something helpful.

Ping/Latency is affected by your distance from the physical game servers, as well as many other factors. Some less-than-stellar ISP's have networks structured in such a way that , even if there's nothing going on in your home wifi, it can still be poor at peak usage times if many other people in other locations are using said ISP's network. That idea might not make a lot of sense , but the best way I can think of to explain that type of arrangement would be to imagine it as one giant access point (The ISP's infrastructure) with a bunch of things tethered to it (your individual home internet). The more devices tethered/the heavier their consumption, the worse the ping can be.

I'm not the greatest at explaining this stuff yet as I'm still studying and learning, but i'm trying to help.

If you have an older machine (even by a few years), the networking components within could also play a role. I have a friend with gigabit internet speeds but she can't really play ESO because the wifi card in her machine is about 6 years old.

TL:DR: ZOS servers absolutely need work, the netcode is spaghetti, but this issue is likely not entirely on them. It's not really on the individual user either if they've taken appropriate steps to ensure adequate up/down speeds and hardware quality.

SxFurey · February 2023

Thank you for the insight @LadyLavina .

I'm from SE Asia and I've been playing since Morrowind. I do both PVE and PVP. If you cared to know, 250 ping is normal for folks here and for me, I was able to do difficult group content and PVP just fine. Ping seldom fluctuates. It wasn't perfect but it was bearable, but lately (a month or 2), the frequency has been happening so much that I find myself unable to tolerate any further in any sort of content bar overland and normal dungeons. For now, I just have to rediscover my enjoyment doing these 2.

Jammy420 · February 2023

Playing last night in overland PC EU and my weaving flat out isnt working, really sucks when I need it to work for craglorn bosses or dlc world bosses

RevJJ · February 2023

LadyLavina wrote: »

SxFurey wrote: »

Earlier on I was in GH hoping to PVP but lag had gotten so bad (I was nowhere near any ball group, mind you) that I ported in to IC hoping to find other PVPers who may have wanted an escape from the laggy hell, but there was 999+ lag too. In Imperial City! Had a friend who told me there was insane lag in Skyreach too. It looked like PVEland is affected too. Why can't we have a stable working server ZOS?

Hi thread, I.T. student here. Not an expert, but trying to share something helpful.

Ping/Latency is affected by your distance from the physical game servers, as well as many other factors. Some less-than-stellar ISP's have networks structured in such a way that , even if there's nothing going on in your home wifi, it can still be poor at peak usage times if many other people in other locations are using said ISP's network. That idea might not make a lot of sense , but the best way I can think of to explain that type of arrangement would be to imagine it as one giant access point (The ISP's infrastructure) with a bunch of things tethered to it (your individual home internet). The more devices tethered/the heavier their consumption, the worse the ping can be.

I'm not the greatest at explaining this stuff yet as I'm still studying and learning, but i'm trying to help.

If you have an older machine (even by a few years), the networking components within could also play a role. I have a friend with gigabit internet speeds but she can't really play ESO because the wifi card in her machine is about 6 years old.

TL:DR: ZOS servers absolutely need work, the netcode is spaghetti, but this issue is likely not entirely on them. It's not really on the individual user either if they've taken appropriate steps to ensure adequate up/down speeds and hardware quality.

And if people from several countries in the same region have been having an issue for the last few weeks but it was fine before that, do you have any idea what the underlying reason could be?

Not trying to be a smartbehind, just hoping someone can point ZOS in the direction of a solution.

LadyLavina · February 2023

RevJJ wrote: »

And if people from several countries in the same region have been having an issue for the last few weeks but it was fine before that, do you have any idea what the underlying reason could be?

Not trying to be a smartbehind, just hoping someone can point ZOS in the direction of a solution.

@RevJJ I'm very much a novice when it comes to knowing about that kind of thing so I honestly couldn't speculate in any kind of credible/accurate way , I wish I knew

I apologize friend

BretonMage · February 2023

RevJJ wrote: »

And if people from several countries in the same region have been having an issue for the last few weeks but it was fine before that, do you have any idea what the underlying reason could be?

Not trying to be a smartbehind, just hoping someone can point ZOS in the direction of a solution.

Is it primarily impacting those in Asia/Asia-Pacific? Perhaps the time has come for ZOS to consider an Asian server after all.

method__01 · February 2023

BretonMage wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

And if people from several countries in the same region have been having an issue for the last few weeks but it was fine before that, do you have any idea what the underlying reason could be?

Not trying to be a smartbehind, just hoping someone can point ZOS in the direction of a solution.

Is it primarily impacting those in Asia/Asia-Pacific? Perhaps the time has come for ZOS to consider an Asian server after all.

no,pc EU have also latency probs since dragon event,my camera spins for no reason while im doing a survey or just farming
pvp is unplayable after 7-8 pm every day,pc EU was stable for me for years but now it reminds me the ps4 servers back in 2020,where you couldnt play at all

Tandor · February 2023

The further you live from the servers, the more important a stable internet connection becomes - and one key to that is using wired connections rather than wireless ones. Similarly, if you are struggling to get skills working instantly then make sure you are using a wired mouse and keyboard rather than wireless ones.

LadyLavina · February 2023

Tandor wrote: »

The further you live from the servers, the more important a stable internet connection becomes - and one key to that is using wired connections rather than wireless ones. Similarly, if you are struggling to get skills working instantly then make sure you are using a wired mouse and keyboard rather than wireless ones.

Absolutely, the difference between wireless/ethernet connection can be like night and day

Wolfshade · February 2023

Even the difference between single or mu-mimo wifi-router can be huge. Don`t understand me wrong, i´am not the guy who says the problem is on playerside. There are huge problems on zos-side, but i always think it is a kind of outrageous to demand new or better server, while zos is working on it and the players didn`t do anything to improve the performance from their side.

BretonMage · February 2023

Tandor wrote: »

The further you live from the servers, the more important a stable internet connection becomes - and one key to that is using wired connections rather than wireless ones. Similarly, if you are struggling to get skills working instantly then make sure you are using a wired mouse and keyboard rather than wireless ones.

As a number of us have mentioned, this is a recent issue. Ping was consistently around 250-300 before. That's not great, obviously, but the game was playable. In recent weeks, 700-999+ has been common. And I'm fairly certain 999+ ping won't be improved by a wired kb/m.

I don't know if this is due to the recent influx of new users from Asia (Simplified Chinese version released 11/22, closure of WoW in China 1/23), or if there is something else at play here. If the population has increased to a point where the game becomes unplayable, then, again, this is not something the player can have any control over. Whatever the reason, I hope it gets resolved somehow because I'm sure the situation is not tenable for a large portion of ZOS' customers.

ZOS_Hadeostry · February 2023

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding

RevJJ · February 2023

ZOS_Hadeostry wrote: »

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding

Please don’t take this as “discussing moderator action”, but could threads like this stay on the main forum? I’ve already seen in another thread that someone only came across this issue by accident. It’s affecting a lot of players and deserves proper attention. When it gets moved to one of the sub forums that people barely read you’re only going to get more new topics opened instead of everyone replying to the same thread.

Kappachi · February 2023

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

wilykcat · February 2023

Kappachi wrote: »

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

Same here. I haven't gotten any issues logging into PC NA servers as well. I can log in and play the game without lag and disconnections. My latency never goes above 70ms. I agree with your post because if this were a problem with the servers then everyone will experience disconnections and latency issues.

If having issues connecting to the game, please check your internet connection. Also check to make sure its not an issue with the ISP. There are many ways to diagnose and fix common connection issues. If none of those work then contact technical support for further assistance 😀

BretonMage · February 2023

999+ ping again at 9am EST (US) from Asia. It took a whole minute to equip one piece of gear.

RevJJ · February 2023

wilykcat wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

Same here. I haven't gotten any issues logging into PC NA servers as well. I can log in and play the game without lag and disconnections. My latency never goes above 70ms. I agree with your post because if this were a problem with the servers then everyone will experience disconnections and latency issues.

If having issues connecting to the game, please check your internet connection. Also check to make sure its not an issue with the ISP. There are many ways to diagnose and fix common connection issues. If none of those work then contact technical support for further assistance 😀

From both of your replies it seems that you have not really read the other replies well. If your latency never goes above 70 or 80 I assume you are playing from North America. I’m used to playing with a steady ping of around 300. That’s not the issue here. The issue being raised is that many players from a certain part of the world have all been experiencing the same issues and it all started recently when previously it was fine. Is it all players from that part of the world? I don’t know because I don’t know all of them personally. But the ones I have spoken to all have the same issues and these are players from different countries within the same region of the world. I find it highly doubtful that all of these players are suddenly experiencing the same issues because of their ISP or their setup.

I’m also not saying it’s a ZOS server issue btw, but I’m trying to get help from ZOS to find out what is happening and what can be done to solve it. Do we need to use a vpn connection to a specific country so that a different route to the ZOS server is used that’s shorter than without vpn? I don’t know, but I’m hoping someone knows.

SpiritKitten · February 2023

Im in Texas u s a and I have this issue recently.

Kappachi · February 2023

RevJJ wrote: »

wilykcat wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

Same here. I haven't gotten any issues logging into PC NA servers as well. I can log in and play the game without lag and disconnections. My latency never goes above 70ms. I agree with your post because if this were a problem with the servers then everyone will experience disconnections and latency issues.

If having issues connecting to the game, please check your internet connection. Also check to make sure its not an issue with the ISP. There are many ways to diagnose and fix common connection issues. If none of those work then contact technical support for further assistance 😀

From both of your replies it seems that you have not really read the other replies well. If your latency never goes above 70 or 80 I assume you are playing from North America. I’m used to playing with a steady ping of around 300. That’s not the issue here. The issue being raised is that many players from a certain part of the world have all been experiencing the same issues and it all started recently when previously it was fine. Is it all players from that part of the world? I don’t know because I don’t know all of them personally. But the ones I have spoken to all have the same issues and these are players from different countries within the same region of the world. I find it highly doubtful that all of these players are suddenly experiencing the same issues because of their ISP or their setup.

I’m also not saying it’s a ZOS server issue btw, but I’m trying to get help from ZOS to find out what is happening and what can be done to solve it. Do we need to use a vpn connection to a specific country so that a different route to the ZOS server is used that’s shorter than without vpn? I don’t know, but I’m hoping someone knows.

That still doesn't point to it being a problem on the game's end, you're connecting to the same server as the rest of us, so if your ping is spiking it must be something on your end, if the majority of people playing are having absolutely zero issue with ping I would think.

BretonMage · February 2023

If a region of players is having a ping issue, it's not an individual player's problem, it's a ZOS problem.

RevJJ · February 2023

Kappachi wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

wilykcat wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

Same here. I haven't gotten any issues logging into PC NA servers as well. I can log in and play the game without lag and disconnections. My latency never goes above 70ms. I agree with your post because if this were a problem with the servers then everyone will experience disconnections and latency issues.

If having issues connecting to the game, please check your internet connection. Also check to make sure its not an issue with the ISP. There are many ways to diagnose and fix common connection issues. If none of those work then contact technical support for further assistance 😀

From both of your replies it seems that you have not really read the other replies well. If your latency never goes above 70 or 80 I assume you are playing from North America. I’m used to playing with a steady ping of around 300. That’s not the issue here. The issue being raised is that many players from a certain part of the world have all been experiencing the same issues and it all started recently when previously it was fine. Is it all players from that part of the world? I don’t know because I don’t know all of them personally. But the ones I have spoken to all have the same issues and these are players from different countries within the same region of the world. I find it highly doubtful that all of these players are suddenly experiencing the same issues because of their ISP or their setup.

I’m also not saying it’s a ZOS server issue btw, but I’m trying to get help from ZOS to find out what is happening and what can be done to solve it. Do we need to use a vpn connection to a specific country so that a different route to the ZOS server is used that’s shorter than without vpn? I don’t know, but I’m hoping someone knows.

That still doesn't point to it being a problem on the game's end, you're connecting to the same server as the rest of us, so if your ping is spiking it must be something on your end, if the majority of people playing are having absolutely zero issue with ping I would think.

And you’re still not reading what multiple people are writing.

Kappachi · February 2023

RevJJ wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

wilykcat wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

Same here. I haven't gotten any issues logging into PC NA servers as well. I can log in and play the game without lag and disconnections. My latency never goes above 70ms. I agree with your post because if this were a problem with the servers then everyone will experience disconnections and latency issues.

If having issues connecting to the game, please check your internet connection. Also check to make sure its not an issue with the ISP. There are many ways to diagnose and fix common connection issues. If none of those work then contact technical support for further assistance 😀

From both of your replies it seems that you have not really read the other replies well. If your latency never goes above 70 or 80 I assume you are playing from North America. I’m used to playing with a steady ping of around 300. That’s not the issue here. The issue being raised is that many players from a certain part of the world have all been experiencing the same issues and it all started recently when previously it was fine. Is it all players from that part of the world? I don’t know because I don’t know all of them personally. But the ones I have spoken to all have the same issues and these are players from different countries within the same region of the world. I find it highly doubtful that all of these players are suddenly experiencing the same issues because of their ISP or their setup.

I’m also not saying it’s a ZOS server issue btw, but I’m trying to get help from ZOS to find out what is happening and what can be done to solve it. Do we need to use a vpn connection to a specific country so that a different route to the ZOS server is used that’s shorter than without vpn? I don’t know, but I’m hoping someone knows.

That still doesn't point to it being a problem on the game's end, you're connecting to the same server as the rest of us, so if your ping is spiking it must be something on your end, if the majority of people playing are having absolutely zero issue with ping I would think.

And you’re still not reading what multiple people are writing.

I did read, but I also understand servers and everyone is connecting to the same server cluster which means... ? the issue is on the end of people having the ping spikes is it not? But ZOS themselves also need to open servers in the asian area since there's a big population of players there, but until then you should check with your ISP and make sure your connection is as stable as it should be.

RevJJ · February 2023

Kappachi wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

wilykcat wrote: »

Kappachi wrote: »

I've had no issue with ping on PC NA but have heard of many people having issues, maybe it's something to do with people's setups because if it was an issue with the game's servers then everyone would be experiencing it, but with /latency on i've never gotten beyond like 80 ping.

@RevJJ
personally i browse the forums through "Recent" which shows all forums, this is a technical issue on PC and whenever there's a specific subforum for a topic that's being discussed then it belongs there just like with any forum.

Same here. I haven't gotten any issues logging into PC NA servers as well. I can log in and play the game without lag and disconnections. My latency never goes above 70ms. I agree with your post because if this were a problem with the servers then everyone will experience disconnections and latency issues.

If having issues connecting to the game, please check your internet connection. Also check to make sure its not an issue with the ISP. There are many ways to diagnose and fix common connection issues. If none of those work then contact technical support for further assistance 😀

From both of your replies it seems that you have not really read the other replies well. If your latency never goes above 70 or 80 I assume you are playing from North America. I’m used to playing with a steady ping of around 300. That’s not the issue here. The issue being raised is that many players from a certain part of the world have all been experiencing the same issues and it all started recently when previously it was fine. Is it all players from that part of the world? I don’t know because I don’t know all of them personally. But the ones I have spoken to all have the same issues and these are players from different countries within the same region of the world. I find it highly doubtful that all of these players are suddenly experiencing the same issues because of their ISP or their setup.

I’m also not saying it’s a ZOS server issue btw, but I’m trying to get help from ZOS to find out what is happening and what can be done to solve it. Do we need to use a vpn connection to a specific country so that a different route to the ZOS server is used that’s shorter than without vpn? I don’t know, but I’m hoping someone knows.

That still doesn't point to it being a problem on the game's end, you're connecting to the same server as the rest of us, so if your ping is spiking it must be something on your end, if the majority of people playing are having absolutely zero issue with ping I would think.

And you’re still not reading what multiple people are writing.

I did read, but I also understand servers and everyone is connecting to the same server cluster which means... ? the issue is on the end of people having the ping spikes is it not? But ZOS themselves also need to open servers in the asian area since there's a big population of players there, but until then you should check with your ISP and make sure your connection is as stable as it should be.

Sigh. I’ll try one last time because you don’t seem to understand a couple of basic things.

1) You know Asia is a continent and not a country, right?

2) And that people in different countries all have different local ISPs (key fact here being that, again, we are talking about different countries)?

3) And that people in different countries are all experiencing the exact same issues that only popped up recently?

Which means that unless everyone in Asia switched ISPs or PCs at the same time the issue is most likely somewhere between the local ISPs and the ZOS server. And for that we are asking for help from ZOS to figure out what that issue could be and if there is some way to circumvent it by, for example, setting a VPN to a specific location to force a different route between whatever congestion point there may be between any kind of hub in Asia and the ZOS server.