Can ZOS add proxy servers to reduce ping?

ManDraKE

I'm from South America, in general i have like 160-190 ping to NA east coast, but in ESO i have like 250-280 ping. It would really help (for me me and i guess many people that connect from diferent countries) if ZoS add low-latency proxies that allow better and faster routing to the game servers, i guess it shouldn't be a big deal to add such a thing and it would help a lot, reduce the ping by around 80-100 is a big deal, specially on Cyrodrill were the ping is already high.

This would also help people inside NA, i know that the ping diference for people in diferent parts of the country can be significant.

ManDraKE

damm, i should have posted this in another section, it went to the page 3 in 1 hour lol

Anti_Virus

They should add them.

Bump.

NewBlacksmurf

To be. Fair, this sounds like a good idea but then you have to realize that this game unlike any other runs on massive "mega server" concept.

To add in proxy servers, you'd have to slow down a lot of the gameplay we enjoy because offering a closer and better ping for you when the massive group of servers is elsewhere still creates the problem you're describing.

It almost makes better sense for ZOS to have 4-5 different mega servers but where our characters are accessible on all.

Requires a lot of change tho

Autolycus

I spent a considerable portion of the last 3 months investigating latency issues with ESO. In that course of time, I worked closely with 8 different ZOS support reps (a couple of reps higher up on the chain, for escalated issues), two different ISPs, and several technicians, engineers, and their supervisors.

I ran several traceroutes, and had several other people from all over the NA continent (coast to coast, north to south) run them as well. In order to run this traceroute, an IP address is necessary, which ZOS provided. In every test, the result was the same: zero issues hopping from server to server along the phone lines owned by the ISP, followed by zero issues hopping between severs along phone lines owned by another provider, which in most cases was AT&T (but not all cases). In every traceroute, the packets were successfully delivered and passed along to the next server in line, except for the final destination. Every packet delivered to the IP address given by ZOS (which I looked up via the registry and confirmed it actually is a ZOS server) was rejected. Not a single traceroute successfully pinged their server.

My initial thought was that there was something wrong with the last server in line before ZOS. In most cases, the last server in line was one that belonged to AT&T (because they own pretty much all of the phone lines between the east coast and midwest). So, I contacted AT&T. After several days (maybe a week or two), AT&T finished testing their servers, attempted to ping ZOS themselves (as did my ISP), and confirmed that the issue is with the way ZOS accepts or rejects the packets being delivered.

So in a nutshell, what this means is that ZOS is rejecting the information our computers are trying to send to their server, resulting in high pings. As for the fix, well, that's something ZOS and ZOS alone can do, because it's their server. It could be something as simple as an addon (which is entirely possible, since the issue is prevalent and exclusive to PC), or it could be that their megaserver can't handle the flow of traffic. Either way, it's completely in ZOS's hands.

I forwarded all of this information to them, including every traceroute that was run and every email, name, phone number, and method of contact for every tech I worked with. Also, just as a point of reference, ZOS is an AT&T customer. If they wanted help to fix this, they can just work with AT&T directly. I suspect that the methods in place to prevent botting are the same mechanics that are rejecting our packets, further evidenced by the fact that this is an issue exclusive to PC. As for my ticket... well, it's been "resolved."

"There is nothing further we can suggest to improve your experience, but be sure to pick up Dark Brotherhood and let us know if it gets better. Thanks for all of the great information. It will be escalated for investigation."

ManDraKE

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

To be. Fair, this sounds like a good idea but then you have to realize that this game unlike any other runs on massive "mega server" concept.

To add in proxy servers, you'd have to slow down a lot of the gameplay we enjoy because offering a closer and better ping for you when the massive group of servers is elsewhere still creates the problem you're describing.

It almost makes better sense for ZOS to have 4-5 different mega servers but where our characters are accessible on all.

Requires a lot of change tho

This is not a solution to server lag, but a solution to high ping produced by non-optimal routing from the clients to the megaservers.

You don't have to slow down anything. If you have a proxy server that have a low-latency route to the datacenter (less than 10ms), it will allow the trafic to be routed more fast to the megaservers, ofc the proxy routing should be an option that can be toggle on/off on the launcher (as many other MMO's have, Star Trek Online is a pefect example of it)

Proxy servers only route traffic. Having multiples servers with the data is far more difficult because you have to deal with data replication and synchronization,. A proxy is something you can "glue" on top and won't affect the normal functioning of the game.

rotaugen454

They are more likely to add Proxy Det servers...

susmitds

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

To be. Fair, this sounds like a good idea but then you have to realize that this game unlike any other runs on massive "mega server" concept.

To add in proxy servers, you'd have to slow down a lot of the gameplay we enjoy because offering a closer and better ping for you when the massive group of servers is elsewhere still creates the problem you're describing.

It almost makes better sense for ZOS to have 4-5 different mega servers but where our characters are accessible on all.

Requires a lot of change tho

Proxy servers does not work like that. It only routes according to location. So basically if you are near the Mega Server location, you will enjoy a direct connection to it without a proxy.

NewBlacksmurf

ManDraKE wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

To be. Fair, this sounds like a good idea but then you have to realize that this game unlike any other runs on massive "mega server" concept.

To add in proxy servers, you'd have to slow down a lot of the gameplay we enjoy because offering a closer and better ping for you when the massive group of servers is elsewhere still creates the problem you're describing.

It almost makes better sense for ZOS to have 4-5 different mega servers but where our characters are accessible on all.

Requires a lot of change tho

This is not a solution to server lag, but a solution to high ping produce by non-optimal routing from the clients to the megaservers.

You don't have to slow down anything. If you have a proxy server that have a low-latency route to the datacenter (less than 10ms), it will allow the trafic to be routed more fast to the megaservers, ofc the proxy routing should be an option that can be toggle on/off on the launcher (as many other MMO's have, Star Trek Online is a pefect example of it)

Proxy servers only route traffic. Having multiples servers with the data is far more difficult because you have to deal with data replication and synchronization,. A proxy is something you can "glue" on top and won't affect the normal functioning of the game.

susmitds wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

To be. Fair, this sounds like a good idea but then you have to realize that this game unlike any other runs on massive "mega server" concept.

To add in proxy servers, you'd have to slow down a lot of the gameplay we enjoy because offering a closer and better ping for you when the massive group of servers is elsewhere still creates the problem you're describing.

It almost makes better sense for ZOS to have 4-5 different mega servers but where our characters are accessible on all.

Requires a lot of change tho

Proxy servers does not work like that. It only routes according to location. So basically if you are near the Mega Server location, you will enjoy a direct connection to it without a proxy.

@ManDraKE and @susmitds

Read the comment here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/3061585/#Comment_3061585

The proxy server is going to be yet another ZOS server so in what I wrote above, it's going to cause more problems.
Basically asking for proxy servers is asking to further add to the problem that the comment link very efficiently explains.

This was a discussion during closed beta and at the end of the day, it's 100% on ZOS.

It's why many of us asked for the Xbox one version to be on an Xbox one server instead of a ZOS server.