Clash in Cyrodiil – Fight the Devs on PTS!

Merlin13KAGL

Initial start was downright painful, slow motion to the point of unplayable. Before even exiting the keep, noticed skills not reacting. Got outside, heard the sound effects, but no visuals leading to the first death/kick.

Figured first boot to character selection was Dev initiated.

Rolled back to starting wayshrine, Fell through world on login... Death #2.

Second run was better, would go for a while, ping rate would spike, impending kick, again.

This went on several times (5-7 during the duration for me, at least.) During the brief stints where it was responsive, it felt really responsive.

I was focused single target and some support, so it was hard to get useful overall feedback on many things. Siege could be placed, but not used or put away.

Politically, things like this help bridge the gap so much more than I think you realize. It shows us you're out there and it pretty well guarantees you're seeing a version of what we are seeing, as we're seeing it.

The idea is sound, and I certainly hope you choose to do this more in the future, whether on PTS or Live, or both. It was hard to see the overall cumulative effect of the battle (walls never had a chance to be breached due to rollbacks), but it could certainly revive some player confidence and appreciation.

Run some dungeons with us, capture some resources. Smaller things that don't take as much of your time, but show us you're there.

Again, didn't really get to see many synergies, etc. The system just wasn't handling it well.

Seeing chefs, jesters, and bride(s)-on-pack-guar was, well, different...

Regarding CP's, there are some passives that don't seem to make sense in some of the lines (reduced gathering time, for instance). Most seem like they have potential, but I can definitely see focusing in very specific areas.

Regarding the overall effect they (CP's) have, it's hard to tell right now.

Single target build and responsiveness (PvP - wise) on Sorc feels pretty good. Dealing with the swarms, well...we're working on that

For the record, in future, one hour (even a full working hour), probably not enough. It's just enough to get warmed up, just enough to tease.

Looking forward to a better run next time! (This sort of thing also poses some interesting strategies for next time.)

EDIT: Two things:

• Didn't post /Feedback in game after, as was still on Pause, figured Devs were collecting data or getting ready to roll back again.
• Though I know you're limited in what you can/should/will express, it would be nice to hear your impressions (ZoS staff) beyond "It was fun with you guys."

Crogster

Ok lets first of all say that I was not mad about the lag night or the rolls backs or the 4 server crashes infact I am happy that I now feel like you have seen what it is like for us to play the game. We have built up communities and guilds here and we are hanging on to all the goods things you have done with this game but if this Lag, roll backs and non-responsive sills carry on there will be no game to safe. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE KEEP WORKING ON THE PVP SIDE! This is end game if you don't fix it, the game will end, before you have really even had chance to finish it.

Gameplay and Abilities
• Do you like the new abilities, specifically the new class and AvA abilities?
The new guard function seemed a little Broken. It did not always seem get the projectile to hit the char using guard eve thou I could clearly see that it was active and full stamina. In gave the chars around it a buff on the char screen saying guarded but then I had 3 of these at one point and I was still getting hit. This needs some further testing.

The new Magicka bomb did not seem to do enough damage.


• Do you like the new buff/debuff system?
Yes I do but I feel like you have made it more confusing with the different names.

• Do you think there too many synergies on the screen? Do they feel more useful/powerful?
I Synergies as I like the undaunted skill like and the new passives in champion points. But if there is lag there is no synergy.


• Are the synergies more exciting to use now? Do you think there are too many/not enough synergy prompts available?
I like that I don't get synergies now when I don't need them. this is very useful.


• How do you feel about the revised AOE caps and new ultimate generation?
• Now that the meatbag catapults no longer stack with other healing debuffs, do they still feel too powerful?

I could not test this and siege was unresponsive when there were enough people on pts to test.

New Combat Animations
• How does combat in general feel overall?
LAGGY! UNRESPONSIVE!! INSTANT DEATH BEFORE YOU SEE HEALTH EVEN LOWER!!!!

• Does combat feel more responsive? NO!!

Champion System
• Do you feel choices and what you focus on are more important? YES

• How is the overall difficulty compared to what’s currently on the Live megaservers? N/A


• Was there anything not worth spending points in? I LIKE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE WITH THE SORC!

• How does light, medium, and heavy armor feel now in terms of balance?
THIS WAS A GOOD CHANGE!

• How does enlightenment feel? GOOD

• Is it fun to spend Champion Points on non-veteran characters? YES

SpAEkus

Only three major issues after the server settled down a bit and I got to stay in to keep up with my raid group.

These items may already be known as I'm not a long-time PVP player.

1) When placing siege inside keeps or other structures, even though the siege would place and be fully operational, I couldn't aim it afterward if my character was under or too close to any walls or overhangs. I could still fire but I could not elevate my line of sight to full elevation aim as if I was standing under a bridge even though the siege (Trebuchets mostly) was fully functional and I could elevate my view over my character. I also could fully rotate the siege view but not fully elevate it.

Possible Fix - If this is as designed then the siege should not allow setup if the character-operator location when attached to the siege will not allow full elevation sighting. Otherwise, if the siege is allowed to successfully setup and operate then all line of sight restrictions should be removed from the character-operator.

2) After combat was often stuck in combat and unable to mount for up to a minute or more. This was even after dying and returning back from resurrected location.

Possible Fix - If this is tied to current Group Combat status on top of character status, any way to remove the Group Combat Status if not within set range of Group Leader? Or remove Group combat status from character and only mount from character status?

3)Restoring Light - Ground Activation circles. I am not used to the new mechanism on PTS. I tried with Ground Activation range locked and unlocked, no difference.

When trying to place the affect area the first ring would be as large as I assumed the maximum area of affect. But as soon as I moved my cursor the slightest bit the ground ring would shrink and then begin to oscillate from max to minimum size and I had no idea what actual targets I was going to affect once I activated the spell. This oscillation was active in both 1st and 3rd person.

I don't know if this is some new visual being given to show the changing number of affected targets as they move in and out of the projected placement, but it seemed impossible to know if my spell was actually aimed on anything. Upon the last second of activation the range-ring would disappear completely and I had no idea if it had activated or not.

JTorus

I do not believe the servers crashed, I believe they were reset, each time using different parameters. I also suspect the population cap was probably wide open.

Round 1 - Smooth until everyone got to Glade, I suspect there were no less than 200 people in the Glademist area (including resources). Latency dropped through the floor
To the best of my recollection my latency pushed well past the 2.6k mark though I think I saw it peak at like 6800ish.

-Server Reset-

Round 2 - Smooth again until one army met another. Smaller skirmishes went smoothly, but lag picked up again, however, latency wasn't as bad. This said I experienced weapon swap lock/ could not mount/unmount. No attacks processed, except for light attack animations. All in all typical lag, but latency was not like round 1
Latency seemed only to push up in the lower 2000's and for not as long

-Server Reset-

Round 3 - Doing better, less lag this time, though at this point I strongly suspect the large groups feathered out and population dwindled, though Zone chat was pretty busy. That said, my faction took a resource, then blue took it back, then mine came again, all in about 10 minutes time, a total of maybe 50 to 70 toons all together (not counting NPC's) I was lucky enough to get stuck on top of the tower (sieging folks below) and was able to witness what appeared to be smoother fighting.
Latency maxed at about 1,600 ish

-Server Reset-

Round 4 - Everyone seemed to feather out more. There were a lot more skirmishes, but some big groups rushing about. From what I recall there was another push towards a resource, and a decent fight that took place. I sieged up and fired at the DC onslaught. I don't recall any weapon locks or potion non-responsiveness.
Latency might have tipped at about 1k but I don't really think it even got that high.

-Server Reset-

Final round? I think this was the last reset. They happened about every 10 minutes or so there may have been one after this. I recall a lot of skirmishing and ganking. Latency wasn't anything of note for me and I played around for the next 45 minutes doing whatever.


Here's what I did notice. Somewhere after the first or second reset, some particle effects (rezzing beam) didn't show. I don't know if this was specific to my client or a ZOS parameter modified in the instance reset. Latency improved each time the instance was reset, though that could have been in part that because everyone spread out a little more, numbers weren't as congested.

ArconSeptim

tbh it was pretty crappy performance

bosmern_ESO

Cogo wrote: »

ZOS_JasonLeavey wrote: »

Thanks for taking part in the event, everyone. We enjoyed playing with you all!

We'll certainly be looking into the crashes and any related performance issues. Be sure to continue providing any feedback that you have from the event.

I mean no disrespect but I can't find any other words to ask.

Playing with....who? Non in my group was able to do any fighting before they lagged out or crashed.

What my group figured was that ZoS was running a bunch of Data mods on the server to make it very hard to play. We also thought that each time they reset the servers they would change something with them to see how well the preform (everyone kept running to glademist and that was all 3 factions in 1 spot and there were tons of people)

I hope it was a well done stress test, and they found out some leads on what could be causing pvp to get so laggy and unstable.

Argurios

Darkintellect wrote: »

Gyudan wrote: »

Cyrodiil right now:


The dim-witted barbarians and the pointy-eared cowards cannot handle the great Covenant warriors.

It's PTS, nobody cares and all that progress is gone.

You care, because you commented.

ZOS_JasonLeavey

Hey, everyone. We've identified the bug that was causing the repeated crashing during last night's PvP test on PTS. We are working on a fix to be included in the next PTS patch after v1.6.1.

While certainly frustrating to experience, your reports certainly helped us to identify the issue, so we do appreciate your participation in the test event.

Garbrac

ZOS_JasonLeavey wrote: »

Hey, everyone. We've identified the bug that was causing the repeated crashing during last night's PvP test on PTS. We are working on a fix to be included in the next PTS patch after v1.6.1.

While certainly frustrating to experience, your reports certainly helped us to identify the issue, so we do appreciate your participation in the test event.

Does this mean we'll be having another Fight The Devs session so we can test this fix? :D

Darklord_Tiberius

ZOS_JasonLeavey wrote: »

Hey, everyone. We've identified the bug that was causing the repeated crashing during last night's PvP test on PTS. We are working on a fix to be included in the next PTS patch after v1.6.1.

While certainly frustrating to experience, your reports certainly helped us to identify the issue, so we do appreciate your participation in the test event.

I hate to be Johnny rain cloud, but I highly doubt you all fix the issue on the PTS last night. It'll still be lag city central and we will all crash out if you try and set up another battle like that, just sayin.

Wolfenbelle

@ZOS_JasonLeavey‌

Hi, first thank you so much for arranging this event for the devs to play with or against players. I think this sort of thing should happen much more frequently on PTS.

Second, if possible, please consider holding some of these dev participation events at times other than just the eastern time zone. Using myself as an example, I live in the Pacific time zone and was still at work when this event happened. The three-hour time difference means 7:00PM to 8:00PM EST translates to 4:00PM to 5:00PM PST. I'm sure it's even worse for people in Alaska, Hawaii, and other time zones around the globe.