Maintenance taking place during peak hours?

Alpharos7

I am intrigued. I appreciate that maintainable is a necessary measure, but being in the Euro, I am wondering why the maintance almost always occurs during peak playing time. As I have a day off today, I was really hoping to get some work done on the game, but that seems unlikely as I have things planned later on today. Is there any compelling reason why the timing of maintance is as it is, or is it simply for convinience?

It seems weird that maintanance for NA starts at 6am their time, but not until 9am here.

Anyways, I am sure the EU servers will be back up soon!

TerraPython

What I dont get - is that US maintanance orrours when they are all sleeping. But im sure someone from ZOS needs to get up at 3am to start it all.

Surely it would be better for ZOS to do the EU maintanance when WE were all sleeping. They would be awake and probabally still in the office - no crazy overtime to be paid.

Or am I still wrong - is this all done automatically?

Kayira

The maintenance start at 9 am british standard time and is taking a bit longer. But it is barely Peak time. Peak time would be around 15pm not 1pm. And a lot of people are also going to school or working and are barely home unitl 16pm. I dont really think you can complain about the timing.

Herdis1987

Normally the maintenances take place at night, but the one time Im actually not playing at night and get up early, the maintenance is moved? >.<

Knightpanther

Generally speaking daytime GMT wouldn't be classed as peak playing time, due to a lot of people having jobs/school etc.
Also people tend to work more efficiently and make less mistakes when carrying out tasks during 'normal' hours and not trying to rush things overnight when you are mentally more tired.

Be safe

Alpharos7

@TerraPython - I agree, but I doubt it is an automatic process.
@Kayira - It may not be absolute peak, there are always a lot of people on the EU servers during the day. The irritating thing is that the NA maintenance is mainly when they are sleeping, but ours is the opposite.
@Knightpanther - So why does the NA maintenance start so early compared to ours? Wouldn't that lead to more mistakes during the NA patch if you are correct?

I love a good discussion

Knightpanther

Alpharos7 wrote: »

@TerraPython - I agree, but I doubt it is an automatic process.
@Kayira - It may not be absolute peak, there are always a lot of people on the EU servers during the day. The irritating thing is that the NA maintenance is mainly when they are sleeping, but ours is the opposite.
@Knightpanther - So why does the NA maintenance start so early compared to ours? Wouldn't that lead to more mistakes during the NA patch if you are correct?

I love a good discussion

Good question !
Maybe Americans are just slower than us Europeans at completing things
Or they have bigger breakfasts!

Be safe

TerraPython

Alpharos7 wrote: »

@Knightpanther - So why does the NA maintenance start so early compared to ours? Wouldn't that lead to more mistakes during the NA patch if you are correct?

I love a good discussion

And also @Knightpanther - if this is true, then is that why our game is so damn buggy.

They do our maintance at 4am (their time) 9am our time, we are awake and alert and checking every 5 mins if it is ready yet - meanwhile in the USofA, they are all sleepwalking, hitting all the wrong buttons, and putting textures in the wrong places, and forgetting to code the functions for the "Queue" button in the grouping tool?

TerraPython

Its up now anyway

nine9six

It pains me to have to explain this to someone but 9 AM local time is in no way, shape, or form "peak time" for any game.

Sunburnt_Penguin

lol since when has midday weekdays been classed as peak time? If the lag from 6pm-11pm on weeknights is classed as off-peak then I've no idea how it's even playable in the day.

Epona222

Start a character on the NA server whilst the EU server is down... the population on NA won't bite, I promise!
I have characters on both servers and I am rarely inconvenienced by server maintenance, except in the case of big updates where they want to release new content simultaneously and bring both servers down at the same time.

Knightpanther

And also @Knightpanther - if this is true, then is that why our game is so damn buggy.

Ok, my take on this one.
Ive been playing this stuff since MMOs were invented, I even moderated one of the first ever online games (a text based MUD), bugs will Always be a part of life.
In my opinion after only a few years this game aint in that bad a state, sure I encounter bugs like most people but nothing compared to some games that have been running 10 years or so that STILL have major bugs.

I'm not a programmer so I don't claim to know how long it takes to fix stuff but there's a balance to be had with fixing issues (which may not be that easy) Vs rolling out new content as fast as possible to keep people playing.

meanwhile in the USofA, they are all sleepwalking, hitting all the wrong buttons

I had a Harley once, im pretty sure that was built at night, made my old Triumph look like it was built by the Gods and that was saying something.

But then don't mention BSA's

Be safe

Epona222

nine9six wrote: »

It pains me to have to explain this to someone but 9 AM local time is in no way, shape, or form "peak time" for any game.

It can seem like "peak time" to an individual just coming off a 12 hour night shift and just settling in for an "evening" (at least in terms of their daily cycle) of relaxation! Whenever a server goes down for maintenance, it is always going to be inconvenient to someone, somewhere.

Alpharos7

nine9six wrote: »

It pains me to have to explain this to someone but 9 AM local time is in no way, shape, or form "peak time" for any game.

Peak time or not, why do ZOS clearly put effort into trying to fit in the NA maintenance whilst they are sleeping, but do our maintenance why the servers are bustling? From someone who has played both the PC and console versions, I have never seen ESO quiet during the morning, afternoon, evening or (to a lesser extent very early morning). It just seems counter-intuitive to me.

Servers are back, yippee!

nine9six

Epona222 wrote: »

nine9six wrote: »

It pains me to have to explain this to someone but 9 AM local time is in no way, shape, or form "peak time" for any game.

It can seem like "peak time" to an individual just coming off a 12 hour night shift and just settling in for an "evening" (at least in terms of their daily cycle) of relaxation! Whenever a server goes down for maintenance, it is always going to be inconvenient to someone, somewhere.

And none of that warrants a thread or anything other than the thought in their head of, "Oh, yeah it's Patch Day. I'll go do _____ for a little while and check back in a few."

People...

Epona222

Alpharos7 wrote: »

nine9six wrote: »

It pains me to have to explain this to someone but 9 AM local time is in no way, shape, or form "peak time" for any game.

Peak time or not, why do ZOS clearly put effort into trying to fit in the NA maintenance whilst they are sleeping, but do our maintenance why the servers are bustling? From someone who has played both the PC and console versions, I have never seen ESO quiet during the morning, afternoon, evening or (to a lesser extent very early morning). It just seems counter-intuitive to me.

Servers are back, yippee!

They don't though, this week is unusual - usually EU maintenance starts at around 3am BST which is nothing to complain about, whereas NA maintenance starts much later on in their day, and on some occasions has still been in progress into the evening, EDT. EU maintenance is usually much more towards the middle of the night than the NA server. This week is an exception.

(Just as an aside, I live in the UK and play on both servers).

Duiwel

Please shhhush I prefer this time over the 6-10pm time they sometimes have.

THAT is peak time