Hey everyone, computer programmer here! The intense crashes we experienced may have been intentional or unintentional, but are in any case unlikely to reflect the your experience when the patch goes Live.
Consider the following possibilities:
- The servers were intentionally periodically reset to test different optimization configurations. I recall markedly different performance on different resets despite being in similar combat situations.
- The servers were intentionally periodically reset to get better sampling for a variety of PvP activities, including ganking, running between keeps, resource capture events, keep siege, and large battles. I'm sure the sudden horse stops will be better diagnosed after having to ride back to Glademist so many times.
- The strain of the data collection tools they used caused the server to crash. If they were doing a complete log of data for every active character in Cyro during the event, you betcha there's going to be enormous performance issues associated with that. Once the test event was over, I noticed absolutely no issues in big battles, even though they were of similar scale and the server population was still at 2 bars across the board.
I hope that alleviates some of the frustration and worry you're all feeling, though I respect that you may have your own reasons for still being antsy about it. In any case, we'll see what the future brings together, yes?
Men'Do PC NA AD Khajiit
Grand High Illustrious Mid-Tier PvP/PvE Bussmunster