Loading screen . . . . 20 minutes and counting . . .

Caroloces

Call me a masochist, but I wanted to see just how long the loading screen would stay on as I tried to bring a character into deshaan. I alt-tabbed to post this discussion, and it is 20 minutes now.
I did report this to support, and they sent me a message about setting port forwarding in my router to solve problem. Did so, and hey, the problem is still there. Just checked my internet speed, and I'm doing 20 Mbps down/6 Mbps up.

Oh! Guess what (God, I'm usually not this sarcastic!) Just alt-tabbed back and the lovely art work of deshaan is still there. Now it's 25 minutes! Should I take a nap, have a snack . . .

Maybe it's time for ctrl-alt-delete.

[Moderator Note: moved to PC Technical Support]

nastuug

Caroloces wrote: »

Call me a masochist, but I wanted to see just how long the loading screen would stay on as I tried to bring a character into deshaan. I alt-tabbed to post this discussion, and it is 20 minutes now.
I did report this to support, and they sent me a message about setting port forwarding in my router to solve problem. Did so, and hey, the problem is still there. Just checked my internet speed, and I'm doing 20 Mbps down/6 Mbps up.

Oh! Guess what (God, I'm usually not this sarcastic!) Just alt-tabbed back and the lovely art work of deshaan is still there. Now it's 25 minutes! Should I take a nap, have a snack . . .

Maybe it's time for ctrl-alt-delete.

Contact Support maybe?

jkemmery

Caroloces wrote: »

Call me a masochist, but I wanted to see just how long the loading screen would stay on as I tried to bring a character into deshaan. I alt-tabbed to post this discussion, and it is 20 minutes now.
I did report this to support, and they sent me a message about setting port forwarding in my router to solve problem. Did so, and hey, the problem is still there. Just checked my internet speed, and I'm doing 20 Mbps down/6 Mbps up.

Oh! Guess what (God, I'm usually not this sarcastic!) Just alt-tabbed back and the lovely art work of deshaan is still there. Now it's 25 minutes! Should I take a nap, have a snack . . .

Maybe it's time for ctrl-alt-delete.

I would just close it out in Task Manager and try again. This happened to me once and that's what I did. When I did, it loaded right away. I think sometimes the connection gets stuck or the software hits some kind of loop that it can't get out of, but for me at least, as I said, it has only happened once. Try that and let us know if it hangs up again.

Omenpapa

Yea, you should just kill the app and start ESo again. Prolly that will fix it.

I did encounter an "infinite" loading screen too, altho I did not wait more then 2 mins tbh, but a restart solved it.

BeardLumber

Caroloces wrote: »

...I did report this to support, and they sent me a message about setting port forwarding in my router to solve problem. Did so, and hey, the problem is still there...

@Caroloces So I recall this post back from November.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/141575/psa-please-dont-use-port-forwarding-for-eso-zos-shouldnt-be-telling-people-to-do-this#latest

I don't assume to know your experience with port forwarding but I thought it might be a good thing to link. This guy elaborates on Port Forwarding and why it's not exactly the safest thing to do.

c.p.garrett1993_ESO

I've had this happen a few times. Starting up task manager and killing it/ relaunching the game works for me. If that doesn't work I kill the launcher too and reopen it all from scratch. Never had an instance where one of the two didn't work.
It's still annoying either way.

pugyourself

Omenpapa wrote: »

Yea, you should just kill the app and start ESo again. Prolly that will fix it.

I did encounter an "infinite" loading screen too, altho I did not wait more then 2 mins tbh, but a restart solved it.

This works every time. It's not your router by the way. It's the game. That said, it doesn't get stuck often.

Epona222

If I hit a loading screen for more than a few minutes I assume that there is an issue with the server and just force-quit, it is usually quicker to just ALT-F4 and reload rather than sit forever waiting for something that may never happen.

I would like to apologise to the people who invited me to group for a quest in Grahtwood earlier this evening and then I hit a loading screen issue - nowhere there should have been a loading screen, just in the middle of a quest location. It was not my intention to drop out of the group.

Robbmrp

nastuug wrote: »

Caroloces wrote: »

Call me a masochist, but I wanted to see just how long the loading screen would stay on as I tried to bring a character into deshaan. I alt-tabbed to post this discussion, and it is 20 minutes now.
I did report this to support, and they sent me a message about setting port forwarding in my router to solve problem. Did so, and hey, the problem is still there. Just checked my internet speed, and I'm doing 20 Mbps down/6 Mbps up.

Oh! Guess what (God, I'm usually not this sarcastic!) Just alt-tabbed back and the lovely art work of deshaan is still there. Now it's 25 minutes! Should I take a nap, have a snack . . .

Maybe it's time for ctrl-alt-delete.

Contact Support maybe?

And do what? Support will tell him it's his system and or ISP and do nothing.

Athas24

Whenever this happens to me, I just kill the game using the task manager and when I reload it's fine.

LameoveR

I'm just curious, are you still waiting?

GaldorP

Happens sometimes. Whenever a loading screen takes longer than a minute or two I just hit Alt + F4 and restart the game. Loading screens that suddenly appear in the middle of a group dungeon have the highest chance to be infinite loading screens for me (happened a few days ago again at the bridge in Spindleclutch). Pressing Alt + Tab during a loading screen in the wrong moment can also provoke an infinite loading screen for me. I have this problem a lot less often since I switched to Windowed Fullscreen mode instead of real Fullscreen mode. If you port to a place like Rawl'kha at prime time though, loading screens can actually take a lot longer than usual. In that case it's not the bug but just tons of player character models that need to be pre-loaded I assume

Arkadius

They said they fixed long loading screens with the latest patch. Luckily for them, they didn't define "long".

Caroloces

Thanks, folks, for all of your input, particularly @boisits for the alert on port forwarding. I plan on sending that link to the support person who provided me with the advice on port forwarding.

I did finally do task manager, and immediately got back in with no problems.

qsnoopyjr

Ya I hate them too, I get them too, already did my spill about them like a few weeks ago.

One other thing I dislike is all that advertising or like logo videos you see when you get into the game.
Like it shows ubisoft or whatever, and whatever else, like lil video or whatever.
I just don't like having to click super fast to bypass all that junk. Its nice to see the first time, but ANNOYING after the first time. I just want to play the game, not deal with all that junk. Like serious, it feels like too much time trying to get into the game itself.
The login should be at the patcher, why you make me login after I go through like 3 or 4 different steps?

GW2 does the login at the patcher, I think EQ does the same thing too. Why does this game have to be different??
EQ and GW2 they don't showoff there logo and advertise it in cinemia everytime you start the game. If anything, EQ does it AT the loading screen. You don't see no "SONY" or ya know, yall remember the Playstation, when you boot it up, it says SONY and I cant remember but I think I was pressing x really fast to bypass all that junk. Well that's how I feel with this game too LOL. EQ doesn't do that though, they don't start with a "SONY", you just get right into the server select, get right into the character select and right into the game. None of that showing off your brand stuff.

Heck GW2 understands that pain, and when you open that game... RIGHT to character select THEN RIGHT into the game, that's how I like it. It doesn't do "Arenanet" or any of that type of time wasting stuff lol.

Also, how long it takes to get into the game... That's very bad when complemented by crashing a lot inside the game too.
Like ya gotta wait 20 mins, (I never waited that long maybe 10 mins tops), and than you crash like 2 mins later...

Just imagine how angry the person that waited all that time for loading screen and then his game crashes is....

Bad for business, just saying.

BTW, I'm about to play the game, and whenever I start playing, like first time playing for the day... I swear this game just LOVES to crash like 2-10 mins in the actual game... If it does.... ILL BE HERE and ILL post screenshot lol.

I swear this game, loves to crash right when I start playing it, after the first crash, well its normally like an hour or two on occasion that the 2nd crash will come... Well just have to wait and see if I come back and post my crash to see if my thoughts on this crashing is true.

But yes, that loading screen, very annoying, like others have said, after patch day its very notorious, and theres been a lot of patches but I haven't seen any improvement in my game seriously LOL. Must be non related to level 21s like me, I'd like to see some game bug fixing patches though! Like, 100% no more crashes unless of course, my virtual memory runs low, which wont happen because its not like I'm boxing or anything, or have 50 instances of internet explorer up.

Cody

I perform the ancient art of getting ticked off and taking deep breaths, then i log out and log back in.

RSram

boisits wrote: »

Caroloces wrote: »

...I did report this to support, and they sent me a message about setting port forwarding in my router to solve problem. Did so, and hey, the problem is still there...

@Caroloces So I recall this post back from November.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/141575/psa-please-dont-use-port-forwarding-for-eso-zos-shouldnt-be-telling-people-to-do-this#latest

I don't assume to know your experience with port forwarding but I thought it might be a good thing to link. This guy elaborates on Port Forwarding and why it's not exactly the safest thing to do.

I strongly agree. Do not use port forwarding it is not needed and I don't know why they even suggest it. I tried port triggering (a non-permanent mode of port forwarding) using two types of routers, one using software and the other using hardware NAT, and in both cases, and it doesn't resolve any issues or decrease the latency of your ESO connection.

Never use port forwarding, use port triggering instead. Every node (computers, routers, switches, etc) connected directly to the internet is probed on an average of every 40 seconds where the attacker is looking for vulnerabilities in ports or opened ports like those used in port forwarding etc.Case in point: my computer is on the Comcast network, and my router is probed every 5 minutes from hackers as far away North Korea, China, and Russia. I'm no one of importance, and yet my router gets probed this many times a a day! I passed my router's log files on to Comcast and even notified the FBI, but they can do nothing about it.

BTW anyone using their own personal router need to do the following:

1) Check for firmware updates every month.
2) Change the default password of your router to a 16 or more complex character password - a password the uses special characters, numbers and alpha characters. This password should be unique and not used on any other system.
3) Enable logging on your router - this will be your legal document in a court of law should your network get hacked, or is used as a bot network that has attacked other networks. Some routers can email you this document on a regular interval.
4) Do not use port forwarding - use port triggering instead instead if you have absolutely need to bypass your router's security.Note that port forwarding was originally used to increase the network speed of older routers using software NAT, or is currently used to make direct connections for protocols not supported by the router. Modern routers have faster processors and support most known Internet protocols, so this isn't much of an issue any more.
5) Ensure that your router is set to stealth mode so it doesn't respond to external connections that are not initiated from your computer. In this mode the router will not respond to port scans from the Internet, thus making it less susceptible to discovery and attacks.
6) Ensure that the router's remote administration option is turned off.
7) Use mac filtering to allow only devices that you authorize to connect to your internal network - this is mostly for those who have WiFi enabled. Note that mac filtering alone is not enough to secure your WiFi network. It's just another security layer that WiFi hacker must defeat.
8) Use WPA2 encrytion for your wireless connection and ensure that the passkey consists of 16 or more complex characters. This passkey should be unique and not used on any other system.
9) If possible, turn off the SSID broadcast of your router's WiFi channel, but sometimes you can't because some devices will not connect to a WiFi network unless the SSID is being broadcasted; for example, my Iphone will not connect to my WiFi network unless the router is broadcasting a SSID.
10) Change the name of the WiFi SSID from the default - the default names of all SSID(s) are well published and gives a potential hacker the make and model of the router you are using.

I hope that I didn't go overboard in my reply, but I'd have been involved in so many hacking incidents or investigations over the last 12 years, that if those users would have followed just these ten guidelines on their home networks, they would have been spared a year of legal headaches.

Caroloces

Thanks, @RSram, but how do you actually implement port triggering.
I have to admit that I followed Zos advice on the port forwarding, and except for the long load screen at that one time, the gameplay for app. 6 hours today was flawless.
I had done a support request on not only loading screens, but I was getting a lot of crashing to login screen last night.

RSram

Caroloces wrote: »

Thanks, @RSram, but how do you actually implement port triggering.
I have to admit that I followed Zos advice on the port forwarding, and except for the long load screen at that one time, the gameplay for app. 6 hours today was flawless.
I had done a support request on not only loading screens, but I was getting a lot of crashing to login screen last night.

I sent you a reply to your ESO inbox.

RSram

Caroloces wrote: »

Thanks, @RSramhttp://, but how do you actually implement port triggering.
I have to admit that I followed Zos advice on the port forwarding, and except for the long load screen at that one time, the gameplay for app. 6 hours today was flawless.
I had done a support request on not only loading screens, but I was getting a lot of crashing to login screen last night.

In port triggering, port forwarding is enabled when a specific port is requested from a device inside your network. Once that port is no longer used, port forwarding is disabled. You can have multiple port triggering rules for many different Internet applications. I have a really fast router that uses hardware NAT, so I do not need to use port triggering.

The problem with the ESO setup is that the ports are not contiguous and are selected randomly which can make it difficult to set up port triggering on many routers. I put a "feedback" request back in beta to fix this, but I guess they just ignore it like usual.

The support forum states that you need to open these 72 ports for port forwarding:

TCP / UDP Ports 24100 through 24131
Note: 32 ports used with no conflicts on www.iana.org)

TCP / UDP Ports 24300 through 24331
Note: 32 ports used with conflicts on ports 24321 - 24322 that are reserved for Transport of Human Interface Device data streams

TCP / UDP Ports 24500 through 24507
Note: 8 ports used no conflicts on www.iana.org)

Several ESO players that I helped previous used the entire range in one rule opening all ports from 24100 through 24507 leaving 336 ports opened that didn't need to be.

Why not use one range of 72 ports (4100 through 24171) and use port 24100 as the trigger port so that port triggering can easily be used on all routers with no potential conflict any other Internet application?

Woenprom

Tried to log-in 5 minutes ago, got infinite loading screen. Killed the proccess, did another try - character loaded in, but got "UI error dismiss" thing, all my non-default key settings stopped working. Killed the process, making bets on 3rd try.

The game was fine before latest

Fixed an issue where you could get blocked on a loading screen.

patch.

Dear ZOS, what a team of upstart amateurs you have there, since IN ENTIRE YEAR you CANT GET BASIC THINGS (like logging-in, zone changing and UI) WORKING ?!


EDIT. Now I am sitting at the loading screen between city and outlaws refuge, which never happened before. In weeks.

Nice patch.

RSram

I'm getting multiple load screens each time I teleport from one way-shrine to another. In between the load screens I can see my character falling in a blue sky. Eventually my character falls in front of the destination way-shrine after 3 to 5 minutes of hell. Really weird.