ZOS, please, please invest in more server resources to support ESO. Performance matters.

EdmondDontes · April 2022

I am going out on a limb here and it might cost me, but I feel it needs to be said point blank.

Please ZOS, please invest in more server resources when you release new zones and new calculation heavy proc sets.

It's undeniable, no matter what the white knights will have to say about it, that the servers can't handle prime time and weekend PvP or end game trials and progression groups without adding additional server resources. The problem will be exacerbated significantly, yet again, when High Isle is publicly released.

With every new zone release performance gets a little worse, and it's not really possible to reduce the population caps in Cyrodiil any lower than they already are.

The primary solution to fixing performance issues during intense group fights is to add additional server resources that can handle the load during end game trials and large group fighting in the three banners war.

Please ZOS, please just lease more server resources to support all the new content and calculation heavy proc sets that have been released in the last five years.

Most of my friends list has left the game due directly to performance issues. They'd love to come back, but they won't until these outrageous, ongoing performance issues are effectively dealt with. The obvious solution is to increase the investment in server resources to a point that the servers can actually handle the load put on them by end game group fighting.

End game group fights is, after all, supposed to be ESO's primary selling point, whether it be end game trials or the three banners war. The lore is nice, but the combat system is what keeps people loving the game....when it works. Unfortunately the window for "when it works" is shrinking with every release of new content and new proc sets. The only time things work now is for about 8 hours a day during the week, and never during weekends. It's blatantly obvious the server resources currently allotted for the game is not sufficient.

Please ZOS, please just invest in enough server resources to support your game. We've heard so many excuses to date that the forever chain of excuses has radically diminished ZOS's credibility in the gaming industry and with all the long term customers who've heard the same excuses over and over for years. You can reverse this by simply investing in enough server resources to support the game.

Thank you for any consideration that can be given to this issue. The players that have been paying monthly and more for over 8 years now have earned it.

xFocused · April 2022

I think one of the biggest "theories" as to why they don't invest more into PvP is that it would take too much time and work to re-work the servers, also because PvP isn't exactly a money making area like PvE is. Crown crates and other crown items definitely cater more to PvE players in a sense. Again, this is all just speculation but I've been playing ESO for years now and have been a PvP player for the same amount of time and I've just never seen any kind of notion that Zos has plans to improve Cyrodiil. Hopefully one day

EdmondDontes · April 2022

xFocused wrote: »

I think one of the biggest "theories" as to why they don't invest more into PvP is that it would take too much time and work to re-work the servers, also because PvP isn't exactly a money making area like PvE is. Crown crates and other crown items definitely cater more to PvE players in a sense. Again, this is all just speculation but I've been playing ESO for years now and have been a PvP player for the same amount of time and I've just never seen any kind of notion that Zos has plans to improve Cyrodiil. Hopefully one day

It's a myth though that PvP players don't spend significant bank on the game. The average PvP player spends WAY more on the game than PvE players do. All the long term PvP players have most all the shinies and stuff from crown store. We buy, or at least used to buy, crowns regularly, crown crates too....until performance got so unbearable a few years ago.

PvP players spend more per capita on the game in almost every case. With such bad performance though, and such low population caps, ZOS has pushed many of the long time PvP players away from their game. ...and with them, the money they were spending.

Svartulv · April 2022

I'm afraid, it's not that simple. Most likely, all the performance issues are a result of non-scalable cornerstone architectural decisions rather than simple lack of server resources. I'm playing ESO for 8+ years by now (since beta) using the same PC and the same network, so judging by the performance changes over the whole game lifecycle. I don't think this is something easy to fix, otherwise ZOS would have already done that.

EdmondDontes · April 2022

Svartulv wrote: »

I'm afraid, it's not that simple. Most likely, all the performance issues are a result of non-scalable cornerstone architectural decisions rather than simple lack of server resources. I'm playing ESO for 8+ years by now (since beta) using the same PC and the same network, so judging by the performance changes over the whole game lifecycle. I don't think this is something easy to fix, otherwise ZOS would have already done that.

Except ZOS HAS fixed performance for the most part in the past, but only on a temporary basis. They fixed it every MYM event up until this year.

The problem is too many promises with no results and no communication. At this point we can only judge based on results.

Amottica · April 2022

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

neferpitou73 · April 2022

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Gaeliannas · April 2022

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

Amottica · April 2022

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

Gaeliannas · April 2022

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

Yes, they have "communicated" many things that have yet to happen... some 5-7 years ago and we are still waiting for them. Sorry, but empty promises don't carry much weight, the whole fool me once thing ya know.

EdmondDontes · April 2022

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

They've been nothing but excuses for over 5 years now. The trust is gone, as it should be at this point.

Lebkuchen · April 2022

You are not the first, and will not be the last customer, begging for answers. But for some reason we are not allowed to know what is going on. Nobody really wants to talk to us.

It feels great to read posts like yours. You have some good points. And it hurts reading the same meaningless answers (from other players) every time.

The frustrating thing about this game is that most people do not really see all the problems and bugs until they have played for a while. After they have invested a lot of time and money. After they fell in love with ESO. When they have finally reached endgame and feel like great warriors instead of innocent adventurers.

I want to play at primetime. Not in the middle of the night and not in the morning. But ESO endgame does not work at primetime. When a game does not work, it would be normal to just move on and never buy anything from that company again (i have not bought a game from EA for over 10 years). But it is hard to leave this beautiful game after playing for hundreds of hours and spending hundreds of euros/dollars... Leave my favourite game, because of some easy to fix game breaking problems? No. They will fix it. They have to! Right? They can not just sell an unfinished product without a warning, saying "endgame not working yet". So i feel trapped. Waiting. Hoping. For years. Stupid me.

Yes i enjoyed questing and farming. I learned all the different playstyles because it was fun. I tried housing and trading for a while. I caught a lot of fish, and digged for mythics. Maybe i will even waste some time playing the card game...

But what i really wanted to do for years is play PvP, Arenas, Trials and Dungeons. And i still hope it will be possible one day.

BlakMarket · April 2022

Took a week off because of lag, finally motivated to play again purposely log in nowhere near prime time, pop is 2 bar, 3bar, 3 bar. Pretty much unplayable.

What is going on? No roadmap, no communication. No wonder why everyone including content creators are leaving this game, its a joke.

EdmondDontes · May 2022

It's so bad now that the ONLY time slot that still functions even remotely close to advertised during the weekends is 11pm to 3am EST. Luckily that's roughly the time slot I play. That leaves only 4 hours per day that cyrodiil works anywhere near how it should on weekend days.

During the weekdays cyrodiil begins becoming unplayable about 4pm EST and remains unplayable until about midnight. Making cyrodiil nothing but a rage inducing exercise in frustration for at least 8 hours per day during the week as well.

We can practically set our clocks as to when the lag will set in so severely that the best policy is to log out and play a different game or find something else to do....as one of the lead developers wife suggested we should do if we aren't satisfied with performance.

It is undeniable that the majority of the issue is too many players, zones and calculation heavy proc sets to support without also increasing server capacity. The more people logged on, the worse it is. The situation is too predictable and ongoing to make any claim otherwise.

Please ZOS, please just lease enough server to support your game. That's all those of us who've been playing AND PAYING since inception are asking. It's not an unreasonable expectation that ZOS would lease enough server to support their game.

At this point "We're working on it" is the same as a slap to the face given there is ZERO evidence to support that claim over the last 5 years plus.

When High Isle drops and adds yet another zone without also adding more server to support it we will undoubtedly see yet another decrease in overall game performance, just as it has happened with every new zone release over the last 5 years.

Amottica · May 2022

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

And that is what they recently started working on, reorganizing the foundation of the code to make it more efficient.

And heck, I get it that Zenimax has said they are doing a lot of different things to increase performance and yet we have not seen any results. We can hope and cross our fingers but we will believe it when we see it. I am just pointing out what Zenimax has said they are working on, that is all.

Zachary_Shadow · May 2022

As someone who is studying game development and design in college, what they are trying to do with the code is no easy thing. In fact, they even said in their post it was the last thing they wanted to do and I don't blame them. Code can always be volatile and I can only imagine the hundreds of thousands of line of code that makes the game run. Trying to fundamentally change those lines of code is such a difficult process and they don't want to mess it up. They can test it internally all they like, but finding what improves performance and what doesn't without breaking the game with that foundational code is probably nerve-wracking for them. Even with many QA testers, we have seen situations where bugs or issues with the game aren't found until live even or something changes upon hitting the live server. Another issue could be they need to take out all that code and rewrite all of it to ensure performance improvement, as going through line by line could take even longer. If we consider how long the game took to develop, obviously not all of that time went into writing the foundational code of the game, but a significant portion likely went to it and likely changed over the years of development.

Consider a situation where they are working on the code in their development build and find something that works internally for them, but the moment they run it into PTS or the live servers, it crashes the game or servers. I believe there were many bugs in the recent mainline update that people weren't experiencing while on PTS and it only occurred after going live. Now imagine that with this foundational server code being changed, which would likely lead to even more problems if there was anything wrong with it, even a line of code or lines of code that didn't work well with one another. This code also needs to work with the 1000s of other scripts or lines of code in the game to ensure it works all with one another, where it could be as simple as NPCs not working with the new code to quests going missing or being unable to grab a needed quest to more serious, account-altering issues. I haven't seen how ESO's code works, but these are all just assumptions we can make with these planned changes.

Obviously, it is a frustrating situation and understandably, people are upset over ZOS' communication over the years; however, I do believe they have improved in that department as I continually see people like ZOS_Kevin talking with people on the forums with more frequent updates. We also have to realize that many of ZOS' employees may still work from home and COVID-19 has slowed their development for them drastically over the years. Their recent hardware replacements for the PC/NA server would have happened sooner if not for the shortages of hardware that I'm sure many of us are feeling (trust me, I really want to upgrade my graphics card but they are still being price gouged in most situations). They still need to be able to release their yearly content plan to ensure people continue buying the game, chapters, DLC, ESO+, etc. and that likely is their priority, even when they know they need to fix issues relating to the game. They have a massive team; however, I'm sure some of the team has been going around and possibly being placed in different areas of work relating to the other projects they are working on, such as the Loremaster for ESO moving to be Loremaster for one of their new projects. I'm sure that's not what people want to hear; however, even with them actively hiring for these other projects, it's likely they are having to pull from ESO's development team to work on these projects and it's not ZOS' fault, to an extent. A lot of it is business and higher-ups, likely from ZOS to Bethesda to even now Xbox, telling them they need to finish certain deadlines relating to their other projects. Again, these are all assumptions, but given the game development pipeline and how COVID-19 has affected the industry, it's very likely they've had to do so. We've seen this with many other gaming companies and ZOS is likely no exception.

These are just observations I've made and, again, many of these are assumptions we can make based on the industry and what ZOS has told us. This is not me saying you don't have the right to feel frustrated or upset with ZOS to an extent (please don't bash the development team, they are people too), but more to provide their POV on all this and how it may be affecting those plans to change that code. Like Matt said, the changes to the foundational server code of the game will likely take most of 2022 to complete and there have been many things that are simply outside of their control, like the hardware replacements. You can make the argument that they should have done so sooner with the server hardware replacements, but even if the entire development team wanted that change, it all requires approval from those higher-ups for funds to be allocated to those server resources, and, many times, those higher-ups aren't closely tied to the development process or even know what it takes to develop the game and are instead people who know business and how to make money. Simply put, if it doesn't make them money immediately, they may wait until the very last minute to make those changes or to allocate those funds for improvements. Many of my professors who have worked in the industry with companies like Ubisoft or Crytek have said that the thing that stops changes or improvements to a game is usually not related to the development team at all, but instead what they are being told to do by higher-ups (not saying it's Matt or anyone closely related to the ESO team, but even higher-up than that), especially if it is going to cost them money like server hardware or investments into new servers. We are starting to see more people who know the game development process be placed in those higher-up positions in the industry, but this is a possible explanation that I wanted to provide as it has happened many, many times for other companies and games. I'm not pretending to know ZOS' hierarchy and who works in what, but again, I want to provide all possible explanations that may have slowed those decisions or development. The acquisition of all of Bethesda's studios, including ZOS, by Xbox likely put a hold on some things as well to ensure a smooth transition. Again, all of this is not to say you shouldn't feel what you feel, whether that is anger, frustration, etc., but to show all the different possible facets that may have affected these planned changes over the years.

Gaeliannas · May 2022

Amottica wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

And that is what they recently started working on, reorganizing the foundation of the code to make it more efficient.

And heck, I get it that Zenimax has said they are doing a lot of different things to increase performance and yet we have not seen any results. We can hope and cross our fingers but we will believe it when we see it. I am just pointing out what Zenimax has said they are working on, that is all.

Well apparently optimizing their code wasn't needed as much as simply putting back all the servers they borrowed from Cyrodiil to run all the DLC's they kept releasing over the years. I am just hoping they purchased/put enough back to increase the pop caps back up to a reasonable level as well.

EdmondDontes · May 2022

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

And that is what they recently started working on, reorganizing the foundation of the code to make it more efficient.

And heck, I get it that Zenimax has said they are doing a lot of different things to increase performance and yet we have not seen any results. We can hope and cross our fingers but we will believe it when we see it. I am just pointing out what Zenimax has said they are working on, that is all.

Well apparently optimizing their code wasn't needed as much as simply putting back all the servers they borrowed from Cyrodiil to run all the DLC's they kept releasing over the years. I am just hoping they purchased/put enough back to increase the pop caps back up to a reasonable level as well.

Yep! It's time to bring the population caps in cyrodiil back up to at least 125-150 players/faction. That would still be a radically lowered population cap as compared to times when Cyrodiil worked much better than it does now, even with the server reworking done recently.

Maybe consider giving us larger group sizes too. Maybe just up max group size to 18 if we can't go back to the 24 man cap on group size we used to enjoy. It's hard to get newer players into group and teach them the ropes with a 12/group cap because we have to have all experienced players in a group as small as only 12 players. With a higher group size we could carry a few newbies and teach them the ropes better....and lets face it, Cyrodiil is a nightmare for anyone not ready for it and not able to get into a group.

Amottica · May 2022

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

And that is what they recently started working on, reorganizing the foundation of the code to make it more efficient.

And heck, I get it that Zenimax has said they are doing a lot of different things to increase performance and yet we have not seen any results. We can hope and cross our fingers but we will believe it when we see it. I am just pointing out what Zenimax has said they are working on, that is all.

Well apparently optimizing their code wasn't needed as much as simply putting back all the servers they borrowed from Cyrodiil to run all the DLC's they kept releasing over the years. I am just hoping they purchased/put enough back to increase the pop caps back up to a reasonable level as well.

Not necessarily unless we do not want Zenimax to add anything to the game ever. Since the performance of the game deteriorated over time as more systems were added to the game it stands to reason that as they add more systems to the game that it is best done on a well-organized system so we can have good performance for years to come.

That may be just me but I try to think about tomorrow, not just today. I hope Zenimax has a good vision for the future as well.

neferpitou73 · May 2022

EdmondDontes wrote: »

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Which sounds great but unfortunately I think most of us are at the point where "We're working on it!" doesn't mean much anymore. We want to see results.

Of course.

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Zenimax has started a project to rearchitect our server which basically means reworking the code that comprises the foundation of the game. This was announced by Matt Firor a few months ago. This is probably much more important than adding hardware since code is more fundamental.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/595442/eso-pvp-update-january-2022/p1

Yes, they look like they are doing every conceivable thing to avoid replacing their 10 year old servers, and it hasn't worked yet, and won't work in the future. You can only put so much load on hardware before it can't keep up, and every new DLC & Chapter puts additional load. The last DLC brought the entire game down to its knee's for nearly 2 weeks, how much more of a wake up call do they need?

And please don't mention the malfunctioning NIC/Port, that is the worst excuse I have every heard, and in the real world, would never be a thing. If it was for some bizarre reason, the entire network and monitoring teams would be fired over it. I get alerts for my "ports" dropping a few packets, never mind malfunctioning for a week. And oh yeah lets not forget, they mistook it for "normal" post patch performance issues.

Anyhow, hoping I am wrong, but fully expecting another crash and burn when they release High Isle.

They are in the middle of a hardware refresh and have communicated that. They ahve also communicated that this hardware refresh is going slower than planned as it is harder to obtain the hardware due to supply issues that are affecting every industry.

But also, bad code, in this case, it is really code that needs to be reorganized due to how much has been added over the year, will still perform poorly on improved machines.

And that is what they recently started working on, reorganizing the foundation of the code to make it more efficient.

And heck, I get it that Zenimax has said they are doing a lot of different things to increase performance and yet we have not seen any results. We can hope and cross our fingers but we will believe it when we see it. I am just pointing out what Zenimax has said they are working on, that is all.

Well apparently optimizing their code wasn't needed as much as simply putting back all the servers they borrowed from Cyrodiil to run all the DLC's they kept releasing over the years. I am just hoping they purchased/put enough back to increase the pop caps back up to a reasonable level as well.

Yep! It's time to bring the population caps in cyrodiil back up to at least 125-150 players/faction. That would still be a radically lowered population cap as compared to times when Cyrodiil worked much better than it does now, even with the server reworking done recently.

Maybe consider giving us larger group sizes too. Maybe just up max group size to 18 if we can't go back to the 24 man cap on group size we used to enjoy. It's hard to get newer players into group and teach them the ropes with a 12/group cap because we have to have all experienced players in a group as small as only 12 players. With a higher group size we could carry a few newbies and teach them the ropes better....and lets face it, Cyrodiil is a nightmare for anyone not ready for it and not able to get into a group.

Let's not do anything drastic with the pop caps until we can confirm that this is here to stay. If it goes on a week or 2 I'll happily agree to that.

The larger group sizes tho I absolutely agree with. I think it's one of the biggest mistakes they've made.