ZOS, Massive Spike in Ping/LAG in Recent Days - What Gives?

MrGarlic · May 19

TaSheen wrote: »

Yeah, I was assuming it was group content and pvp, neither of which I do. So, nice for me, not nice at all for people who play the content (or try to....) that I'm just not interested in!

It's overland as well.

TaSheen · May 19

MrGarlic wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Yeah, I was assuming it was group content and pvp, neither of which I do. So, nice for me, not nice at all for people who play the content (or try to....) that I'm just not interested in!

It's overland as well.

Not for me. I'm not seeing any lag outside of my normal satellite ping. I'm also not having any problems with connection at all.

anadandy · May 19

MrGarlic wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Yeah, I was assuming it was group content and pvp, neither of which I do. So, nice for me, not nice at all for people who play the content (or try to....) that I'm just not interested in!

It's overland as well.

Yeah - it is brutal today on PC NA. I jumped on to grind antiquities levels. 4PM ET. I'm on a wired connection, in Arteum - I mount my horse and my FPS plummets to the mid -teens/20s and plays choppy for a minute or two, springs back, rinse and repeat. Ping is reasonably low just awful framerate playing like a slide show.

Photosniper89 · May 19

MrGarlic wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Yeah, I was assuming it was group content and pvp, neither of which I do. So, nice for me, not nice at all for people who play the content (or try to....) that I'm just not interested in!

It's overland as well.

Yup, having issues here in PvE land myself.

Thrasher91604 · May 19

Well this is just getting worse and worse.

Queuing for IC just hangs. And IC population is only 1 bar across all factions.

Logging out, relogging, and trying again worked.

Just_Attivi · May 19

Just reiterating, as people seem to be confused:

a lot of the lag complaints are outside of PVP land, in overland/dungeons/trials. Cyrodiil performance is always a joke the moment more than 2 people are in an area and we all know it/expect it. The lag that is occurring outside of PVP is also occurring inside pvp, but being that pvp complaints are generally thrown out back and forgotten, it is important to note that these issues are and have been affecting PVE as well, even in unpopulated areas.

While performance does seem overall better than it was 2 weeks ago ish, there are still plenty of lag issues going on, and they come and go intermittently seemingly regardless of client side actions, and seemingly regardless of location (complaints from all parts of the US, not just outside US).

While I am sure some people have troubleshooting problems they can fix, these ongoing issues are largely outside of client control, and hearing feedback from ZOS regarding the multiple weeks of issues people are having would be welcome.

FlopsyPrince · May 19

I would bet anything that it is a combination of a poorly thought out initial architecture and undersizing of the support hardware today.

The former is quite common from systems that are this old. They need some backend redevelopment to fix that, which can be costly and will not outwardly help the users in a visible manner. But it is necessary to keep things going with more than chicken wire and duct tape! This is not an ESO-exclusive problem, but it is something that management has likely not wanted to spend enough money and time (including developer time) on to fix.

The latter is simply not being willing to really upgrade the hardware to modern standards. Most large companies now rotate work systems on a 2-3 year basis, but default. (At least the smart ones do that.)

How much do you want to bet that most of the hardware, especially in Europe, is far older than that and that the new hardware replacing it (such as in NA) was not high end, but was much lower, putting it behind the possibilities at the start?

Hopefully I am wrong and this can be easily fixed, but since it just seems to be going downhill, I will only believe that when I see it.

I have worked on many large systems that need to always be up. A huge outage window like we have her would not be acceptable. Those systems receive much more care or the company using them goes out of business.

blktauna · May 20

When I do a traceroute on the server it goest through 5 sometimes 6 akamai hops. That seems excessive

Sluggy · May 20

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I would bet anything that it is a combination of a poorly thought out initial architecture and undersizing of the support hardware today.

The former is quite common from systems that are this old. They need some backend redevelopment to fix that, which can be costly and will not outwardly help the users in a visible manner. But it is necessary to keep things going with more than chicken wire and duct tape! This is not an ESO-exclusive problem, but it is something that management has likely not wanted to spend enough money and time (including developer time) on to fix.

The latter is simply not being willing to really upgrade the hardware to modern standards. Most large companies now rotate work systems on a 2-3 year basis, but default. (At least the smart ones do that.)

How much do you want to bet that most of the hardware, especially in Europe, is far older than that and that the new hardware replacing it (such as in NA) was not high end, but was much lower, putting it behind the possibilities at the start?

Hopefully I am wrong and this can be easily fixed, but since it just seems to be going downhill, I will only believe that when I see it.

I have worked on many large systems that need to always be up. A huge outage window like we have her would not be acceptable. Those systems receive much more care or the company using them goes out of business.

Well, yeah. It's exactly this. Zos has said so themselves. And we know exactly how old the hardware is because they told us about the one and only time they ever replaced it.

FlopsyPrince · May 20

Sluggy wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I would bet anything that it is a combination of a poorly thought out initial architecture and undersizing of the support hardware today.

The former is quite common from systems that are this old. They need some backend redevelopment to fix that, which can be costly and will not outwardly help the users in a visible manner. But it is necessary to keep things going with more than chicken wire and duct tape! This is not an ESO-exclusive problem, but it is something that management has likely not wanted to spend enough money and time (including developer time) on to fix.

The latter is simply not being willing to really upgrade the hardware to modern standards. Most large companies now rotate work systems on a 2-3 year basis, but default. (At least the smart ones do that.)

How much do you want to bet that most of the hardware, especially in Europe, is far older than that and that the new hardware replacing it (such as in NA) was not high end, but was much lower, putting it behind the possibilities at the start?

Hopefully I am wrong and this can be easily fixed, but since it just seems to be going downhill, I will only believe that when I see it.

I have worked on many large systems that need to always be up. A huge outage window like we have her would not be acceptable. Those systems receive much more care or the company using them goes out of business.

Well, yeah. It's exactly this. Zos has said so themselves. And we know exactly how old the hardware is because they told us about the one and only time they ever replaced it.

Then they should have picked better hardware when they replaced it most likely. Not that many organizations don't try to skimp on that....

Jaraal · May 20

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Sluggy wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I would bet anything that it is a combination of a poorly thought out initial architecture and undersizing of the support hardware today.

The former is quite common from systems that are this old. They need some backend redevelopment to fix that, which can be costly and will not outwardly help the users in a visible manner. But it is necessary to keep things going with more than chicken wire and duct tape! This is not an ESO-exclusive problem, but it is something that management has likely not wanted to spend enough money and time (including developer time) on to fix.

The latter is simply not being willing to really upgrade the hardware to modern standards. Most large companies now rotate work systems on a 2-3 year basis, but default. (At least the smart ones do that.)

How much do you want to bet that most of the hardware, especially in Europe, is far older than that and that the new hardware replacing it (such as in NA) was not high end, but was much lower, putting it behind the possibilities at the start?

Hopefully I am wrong and this can be easily fixed, but since it just seems to be going downhill, I will only believe that when I see it.

I have worked on many large systems that need to always be up. A huge outage window like we have her would not be acceptable. Those systems receive much more care or the company using them goes out of business.

Well, yeah. It's exactly this. Zos has said so themselves. And we know exactly how old the hardware is because they told us about the one and only time they ever replaced it.

Then they should have picked better hardware when they replaced it most likely. Not that many organizations don't try to skimp on that....

They literally told us not to expect any performance increases with the hardware refresh. For all we know they could have downgraded capacity with newer, but less expensive equipment. They never gave any details.

FlopsyPrince · May 21

Jaraal wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Sluggy wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I would bet anything that it is a combination of a poorly thought out initial architecture and undersizing of the support hardware today.

The former is quite common from systems that are this old. They need some backend redevelopment to fix that, which can be costly and will not outwardly help the users in a visible manner. But it is necessary to keep things going with more than chicken wire and duct tape! This is not an ESO-exclusive problem, but it is something that management has likely not wanted to spend enough money and time (including developer time) on to fix.

The latter is simply not being willing to really upgrade the hardware to modern standards. Most large companies now rotate work systems on a 2-3 year basis, but default. (At least the smart ones do that.)

How much do you want to bet that most of the hardware, especially in Europe, is far older than that and that the new hardware replacing it (such as in NA) was not high end, but was much lower, putting it behind the possibilities at the start?

Hopefully I am wrong and this can be easily fixed, but since it just seems to be going downhill, I will only believe that when I see it.

I have worked on many large systems that need to always be up. A huge outage window like we have her would not be acceptable. Those systems receive much more care or the company using them goes out of business.

Well, yeah. It's exactly this. Zos has said so themselves. And we know exactly how old the hardware is because they told us about the one and only time they ever replaced it.

Then they should have picked better hardware when they replaced it most likely. Not that many organizations don't try to skimp on that....

They literally told us not to expect any performance increases with the hardware refresh. For all we know they could have downgraded capacity with newer, but less expensive equipment. They never gave any details.

Impossible not to get some better performance with more modern hardware, unless you go the budget route as you note.

Shagreth · May 21

Same for EU, I even though it was my ISP, made a big deal calling them etc. Ping last week was 65 to 80, now its 90 to 110 with lot's of spikes of 260+.

Nothing too weird to be honest, ESO always has *** ping for me when compared to WoW, GW2 and FFXIV.

Photosniper89 · May 21

Just_Attivi wrote: »

Just reiterating, as people seem to be confused:

a lot of the lag complaints are outside of PVP land, in overland/dungeons/trials. Cyrodiil performance is always a joke the moment more than 2 people are in an area and we all know it/expect it. The lag that is occurring outside of PVP is also occurring inside pvp, but being that pvp complaints are generally thrown out back and forgotten, it is important to note that these issues are and have been affecting PVE as well, even in unpopulated areas.

While performance does seem overall better than it was 2 weeks ago ish, there are still plenty of lag issues going on, and they come and go intermittently seemingly regardless of client side actions, and seemingly regardless of location (complaints from all parts of the US, not just outside US).

While I am sure some people have troubleshooting problems they can fix, these ongoing issues are largely outside of client control, and hearing feedback from ZOS regarding the multiple weeks of issues people are having would be welcome.

Literally begging to get something from @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin on this. This thread had a ton of widespread complaints about PvE/PvP performance.

PvP lag spike and overall performance is getting worse and worse with each passing day now.

davidtk · May 21

Shagreth wrote: »

Same for EU, I even though it was my ISP, made a big deal calling them etc. Ping last week was 65 to 80, now its 90 to 110 with lot's of spikes of 260+.

Nothing too weird to be honest, ESO always has *** ping for me when compared to WoW, GW2 and FFXIV.

Yesterday was for me on the EU painfull. ping 200+ in Auridon.
But there was one interesting thing.
When I logged out and logged back in and the game put me in another instance. My ping went down nicely to the usual 46-66. But as soon as I got into the delve, the ping went back up to 200. We have little time to play right now, and that's in the evening rush hour 20:00 - 22:00 CEST. So that experiences in just overland without playing pvp or trials are just enough to start playing another mmo.

Wildberryjack · May 21

I ended up with a 999+ sustained last night and had to just shut down. Is nothing going to be done about this? How are we supposed to play? Yes I checked my connection, yes I could play other games fine with normal latency.

Photosniper89 · May 21

Wildberryjack wrote: »

I ended up with a 999+ sustained last night and had to just shut down. Is nothing going to be done about this? How are we supposed to play? Yes I checked my connection, yes I could play other games fine with normal latency.

Unfortunately I wouldn't expect much from ZOS as it comes to communication relating to PvP - kind of a head horse there for many years.

Now that it's hitting PvE land we might start to see some communication. I'm still convinced that they are working on something unannounced network/DB wise and thats where all these issues are coming from as of late - also that is why they won't chime in and say anything.

I wish they would just say yes working on some unannounced things and performance might be up and down for a bit. Otherwise we are left to just believe that it's typical ESO performance that we have come to know for many years now - which is disappointing.

they have a chance to control the narrative but wont for some reason...

Jaraal · May 21

Photosniper89 wrote: »

PvP lag spike and overall performance is getting worse and worse with each passing day now.

Yes, it's been an unusually long time since a maintenance was performed. Anecdotally, the performance improves after a server reboot, and usually becomes worse the longer it goes without one.

Document your ESO performance now, and then compare it to what you get after the next reboot. Yet another way to rule out client side issues being the culprit.

valroy_cl · May 21

It started yesterday for me, horrible lag spikes and numerous disconnections, cant play at all.

davidtk · May 21

Photosniper89 wrote: »

Now that it's hitting PvE land we might start to see some communication.

TBH, I doubt about it. They could already say at least "Hey we know about it" but radio silence.
What I see at dev tracker are just responses to momentary outages or "population drop"

Well, we will see after tomorows maintenance.

N00BxV1 · May 21

I've been experiencing unusual lag/desync in ESO at least since the last maintenance. My ingame ping has been teetering almost constantly between 70-120+ even while just standing around and doing nothing.

Here are some of the things that I've been experiencing in ESO more often lately than usual:

(In instanced/group areas) When trying to use a skill or do a rotation nothing happens, but then a few seconds later several skills will fire in rapid succession (if it fires at all).
(In instanced/group areas) When trying to activate a single-barred proc set nothing happens, but then a few seconds later the proc will fire even while on the opposite bar. For example: If I have Void Bash on the front bar and Turning Tide on the back bar, when I try to proc one of the sets while on its bar nothing happens, but then a few seconds later after swapping to the opposite bar the proc will eventually fire.
(In instanced/group areas) When trying to loot a corpse nothing happens, but then a few seconds later the sound will play and the game's loot history appears.
(In overland areas) When trying to summon a mount nothing happens, but then a few seconds later the sound will play and the mount appears.

None of those things are new, the lag/desync in this game always comes and goes. But lately those things have been happening more often than usual.

During the recent Anniversary Stream, a developer said that "the servers are ahead of their time"... Well maybe they should think about bringing the servers back to the Present, because being in the Future seems to be causing too many problems.

I also play Destiny 2 a lot, but have never had this kind of lag/desync in that game, especially not on a regular basis like I do with ESO. And Destiny 2 doesn't even have the same kind of dedicated servers like ESO does, instead it uses a hybrid model with server + peer-to-peer connections. So if it was my connection, then I would surely be having issues in Destiny 2 as well...

Priyasekarssk · May 21

N00BxV1 wrote: »

I've been experiencing unusual lag/desync in ESO at least since the last maintenance. My ingame ping has been teetering almost constantly between 70-120+ even while just standing around and doing nothing.

Here are some of the things that I've been experiencing in ESO more often lately than usual:
(In instanced/group areas) When trying to use a skill or do a rotation nothing happens, but then a few seconds later several skills will fire in rapid succession (if it fires at all).

(In instanced/group areas) When trying to activate a single-barred proc set nothing happens, but then a few seconds later the proc will fire even while on the opposite bar. For example: If I have Void Bash on the front bar and Turning Tide on the back bar, when I try to proc one of the sets while on its bar nothing happens, but then a few seconds later after swapping to the opposite bar the proc will eventually fire.

(In instanced/group areas) When trying to loot a corpse nothing happens, but then a few seconds later the sound will play and the game's loot history appears.

(In overland areas) When trying to summon a mount nothing happens, but then a few seconds later the sound will play and the mount appears.

None of those things are new, the lag/desync in this game always comes and goes. But lately those things have been happening more often than usual.

During the recent Anniversary Stream, a developer said that "the servers are ahead of their time"... Well maybe they should think about bringing the servers back to the Present, because being in the Future seems to be causing too many problems.

I also play Destiny 2 a lot, but have never had this kind of lag/desync in that game, especially not on a regular basis like I do with ESO. And Destiny 2 doesn't even have the same kind of dedicated servers like ESO does, instead it uses a hybrid model with server + peer-to-peer connections. So if it was my connection, then I would surely be having issues in Destiny 2 as well...

Exactly. I never this kind of lag in other games . Some troll will come and complain it’s our pc and network cause the issue.

Photosniper89 · May 21

Priyasekarssk wrote: »

Exactly. I never this kind of lag in other games . Some troll will come and complain it’s our pc and network cause the issue.

Don't ya just love that? I feel like I have to include a specs chart when posting something on the forums just to dismiss these kind of responses lol.

Necrotech_Master · May 21

i wish i could help, as i rarely ever seem to experience any severe issues unless something is actually happening to the server (or its like full poplock cyro with a 40+ person keep fight lol)

pve side dungeons (with or without group), trials, overland, never really have any issues in those outside of rare occasional spikes that last for only a few seconds

dont have long load times either, usually a maximum of 10 sec, but probably closer to 2

and im playing on a desktop thats now about 4-5 years old roughly

typical stats for me is 75-120 fps with 75-90 ping (occasionally spikes up to like 300+ but only for a few seconds if im in overland, in pvp in grey host i used to consistently sit at around 120-200+ ping, but that was a few years ago before the server hardware update, since then its pretty rare ill get above 125-130 ping)

i have a laptop i play eso on with a different experience, its definitely not as powerful as the desktop and a super slow HD the game is installed on, ping still sits about the same as the desktop but the FPS and load times are long but thats because of the laptop, not the game

olsborg · May 21

Ive had high ping consistently last 2 days in cyrodiil. My ping is usually at 80-90, but last couple of days its been 120-330.

Photosniper89 · May 21

Dear ZOS gods please give us some kind of communication (other than we are aware). @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

kyle.wilson · May 21

we've seen pings as high as 2500ms in greyhost the last 2 weeks. My ping to most other servers is usually <25ms with fiber optic internet.

I keep recommending pvpers mass report the lag through the report system and the forum.
It seems that every server "test" is only done for ZOS to see how much server performance they can cut before players mutiny.

The Oakfather set worries me with how it is computing against each and every player it interacts with.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_MattFiror

bloodandiamonds · May 22

My ping is usually below 80, but for the last few weeks it's been 300-600+. I pretty much live right where the servers are. I have 1gb internet. Doing anything in the game is becoming annoying.

Photosniper89 · May 22

Whatever is happening tonight (this past 3 weeks tbh) is absolutely unacceptable for a company of this size with this many resources and departments - especially when you just have a lead go on and brag about how flawless their dlc has been and how their game is 10 games in one.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert What the hell is going on here?! Paging the communication department.

Photosniper89 · May 22

I know you all cant admit something is wrong because then people can request refunds but come on.