Agreed! I have often wished for this. It used to be much worse, however -- the timer used to be only a few seconds and there would not even be time to turn in the quest often, if everyone else immediately left.

On a related note, I would also like the option to opt out of getting immediately pulled to a boss as soon as the speed runner arrives at it. I often get pulled away from a chest I am opening, loot I am collecting, or trash mobs I am fighting. I am glad the option for the pull exists (so you can still get credit for the last boss even when there is a speed runner) but it should not be obligatory.

I'd love it if the timer was just extended, so you could go back and check boxes etc. It's daft that we get some dungeons with a lot of loot, but nobody usually gets the time to collect it

Sometimes it is disband too. Sorry, can't explain it to you since don't understand it too. If player stay in dungeon, I usually don't leave group as long as I could. If I have another group activity, then I just leave.

Agreed. Not having a timer would allow people to explore, find lorebooks, find any missed chests. They probably don't want instances hanging around and accumulating, but most players drop right away so I doubt there would be tons of instances clogging up the system.

It's because each dungeon is an instance, and the goal is to get that server space back.

Yes, people run dungeons solo and then the timer doesn't trigger, but I think that's an edge case that was not considered when the timer was implemented. But in general, the original idea was that people would run the dungeon and get out so the instance could be freed, and not have one person AFK in the instance holding it open for eternity.

Finn made a post on the PTS forum talking about how more smaller instances actually make performance worse for the overall game, so the idea is that one person is not able to essentially hold the game's performance hostage. I'm sure they could increase the timer, but the exact thing they don't want is for one person to make a permanent instance of an empty dungeon (times hundreds of players) which would start to degrade performance over the whole game.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It's because each dungeon is an instance, and the goal is to get that server space back.

Yes, people run dungeons solo and then the timer doesn't trigger, but I think that's an edge case that was not considered when the timer was implemented. But in general, the original idea was that people would run the dungeon and get out so the instance could be freed, and not have one person AFK in the instance holding it open for eternity.

Finn made a post on the PTS forum talking about how more smaller instances actually make performance worse for the overall game, so the idea is that one person is not able to essentially hold the game's performance hostage. I'm sure they could increase the timer, but the exact thing they don't want is for one person to make a permanent instance of an empty dungeon (times hundreds of players) which would start to degrade performance over the whole game.

Yet the same person or hundreds of players can walk into a fresh instance and create a new instance of the same dungeon. That doesn't make any sense when you think it out. A person wanting to explore an empty run for missed things would take a lot less time than they would trying to solo the dungeon so they can see the same thing.

You can ask for some to stay grouped with you. I tend to leave dungeon without leaving group so if some want to stay they can, this even work if the other player log out or switch character.

As for disbanding group, its simply very stupid, even had some moron done with in a trial then players was swapping gear after the run. Some did it yesterday then I and a friend was grouped and did an dungeon, some disbanded it and we was not grouped anymore

PoveusRonin wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It's because each dungeon is an instance, and the goal is to get that server space back.

Yes, people run dungeons solo and then the timer doesn't trigger, but I think that's an edge case that was not considered when the timer was implemented. But in general, the original idea was that people would run the dungeon and get out so the instance could be freed, and not have one person AFK in the instance holding it open for eternity.

Finn made a post on the PTS forum talking about how more smaller instances actually make performance worse for the overall game, so the idea is that one person is not able to essentially hold the game's performance hostage. I'm sure they could increase the timer, but the exact thing they don't want is for one person to make a permanent instance of an empty dungeon (times hundreds of players) which would start to degrade performance over the whole game.

Yet the same person or hundreds of players can walk into a fresh instance and create a new instance of the same dungeon. That doesn't make any sense when you think it out. A person wanting to explore an empty run for missed things would take a lot less time than they would trying to solo the dungeon so they can see the same thing.

I am not excusing it, I am merely answering the question “why does it exist.”

They did already extend the timer once before; it used to only be 30s, but it was extended to about 2 minutes specifically because of the BCI quest that takes that long dialogue afterwards to be able to turn in. I’m sure they could extend the timer again if it were an issue.

I imagine it's an instantiation cost on a shared resource in their data center for each dungeon. In layperson terms, these instances are probably not always on and only created when a team queues into a dungeon. This costs money to spin up and maintain so closing it when the dungeon is complete is a garbage clean up activity that saves zos money.

It is very normal.

Orbital78 wrote: »

I don't see how it would be different than story instances.

For certain story instances (specifically the Harborage at the different main quest stages) one of the updates made it so that players actually shared instances but were invisible to one another. That was done specifically to reduce server load and improve performance. I don't remember if there was talk of extending that approach to other story solo instances or not, though.

Otherwise, it would be rare for someone to stay long in a solo story instance, especially since some of them close out when you do the final quest turn in for that instance.

Thumbless_Bot wrote: »

I imagine it's an instantiation cost on a shared resource in their data center for each dungeon. In layperson terms, these instances are probably not always on and only created when a team queues into a dungeon. This costs money to spin up and maintain so closing it when the dungeon is complete is a garbage clean up activity that saves zos money.

It is very normal.

As I mentioned earlier, the same people can walk into the same dungeon solo and have unlimited time to explore. They are also making solo versions of dungeons that will have these extra instances loaded up. So the time limit does not make sense in this instance.

I did think and wonder though, does the instance keep the full group tied to it until it closes? If so, that could be why they want it to shut down so quick. A person could not queue for a fresh version of the same instance if their player ID was tied to it and another player was exploring.

YffresTrill wrote: »

Agreed! I have often wished for this. It used to be much worse, however -- the timer used to be only a few seconds and there would not even be time to turn in the quest often, if everyone else immediately left.

On a related note, I would also like the option to opt out of getting immediately pulled to a boss as soon as the speed runner arrives at it. I often get pulled away from a chest I am opening, loot I am collecting, or trash mobs I am fighting. I am glad the option for the pull exists (so you can still get credit for the last boss even when there is a speed runner) but it should not be obligatory.

I agree, except not taking out the Joining option. But put in an option for speed runners to group together and players who want to enjoy the dungeon.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It's because each dungeon is an instance, and the goal is to get that server space back.

Yes, people run dungeons solo and then the timer doesn't trigger, but I think that's an edge case that was not considered when the timer was implemented. But in general, the original idea was that people would run the dungeon and get out so the instance could be freed, and not have one person AFK in the instance holding it open for eternity.

Finn made a post on the PTS forum talking about how more smaller instances actually make performance worse for the overall game, so the idea is that one person is not able to essentially hold the game's performance hostage. I'm sure they could increase the timer, but the exact thing they don't want is for one person to make a permanent instance of an empty dungeon (times hundreds of players) which would start to degrade performance over the whole game.

This opinion doesn't hold water.

killians66 wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It's because each dungeon is an instance, and the goal is to get that server space back.

Yes, people run dungeons solo and then the timer doesn't trigger, but I think that's an edge case that was not considered when the timer was implemented. But in general, the original idea was that people would run the dungeon and get out so the instance could be freed, and not have one person AFK in the instance holding it open for eternity.

Finn made a post on the PTS forum talking about how more smaller instances actually make performance worse for the overall game, so the idea is that one person is not able to essentially hold the game's performance hostage. I'm sure they could increase the timer, but the exact thing they don't want is for one person to make a permanent instance of an empty dungeon (times hundreds of players) which would start to degrade performance over the whole game.

This opinion doesn't hold water.

You might not like it, but Tom literally linked to an official dev statement explaining how instances can degrade server performance. It's actually the only thing I see in this thread that isn't just someone's "opinion".

No one here can "know" why zos included the dungeon timer, unless a dev wants to pop in here and answer.

Regardless, this issue has been brought up for years and I'm sure zos could extend the timer as they did once before (see https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/493691/removing-from-area-timer-will-be-adjusted-to-2-minutes/p1 ) and maybe this is something they can consider for players who'd like to explore.

Or perhaps now that they are actually making solo dungeons, this will be less of an issue in the future as more solo dungeons are added.

[Edit to fix link].

PoveusRonin wrote: »

Thumbless_Bot wrote: »

I imagine it's an instantiation cost on a shared resource in their data center for each dungeon. In layperson terms, these instances are probably not always on and only created when a team queues into a dungeon. This costs money to spin up and maintain so closing it when the dungeon is complete is a garbage clean up activity that saves zos money.

It is very normal.

As I mentioned earlier, the same people can walk into the same dungeon solo and have unlimited time to explore. They are also making solo versions of dungeons that will have these extra instances loaded up. So the time limit does not make sense in this instance.

I did think and wonder though, does the instance keep the full group tied to it until it closes? If so, that could be why they want it to shut down so quick. A person could not queue for a fresh version of the same instance if their player ID was tied to it and another player was exploring.

I don't know about that being the case. As soon as someone drops group they can't go back to that same dungeon on their own. It opens a new one right away. They can only return by traveling to the player in the dungeon. So seems like that proves the dungeon is only open to the last player and then only for a few short seconds.
Also, it doesn't really matter, because only a tiny fraction of players group for dungeons. The fastest pop is for daily just to get the bonus xp. There is no incentive at all for "Specific Dungeon" or "Vet dungeon" if you are trying to grind out a dungeon set that you want. ESO says "Best of luck to you" "Have fun sitting for 30 -60 trying to get a specific vet dungeon"..