Please reduce the number of Loading Screens!![PC EU]

Siliziumdioxid

I don't know what how long your average Loading screens are in my case it ranges from 20 seconds to more than 5 min (Excluding Loading screens of death)
[Edit: wrote "high" instead of "long"]
However some of them are really annoying:

Example 1: Let's say im in Craglorn and i port to Stormhaven but i receive a "Loadingscreen of Death". when i login again i'm still in Craglorn.
Why is that the case? I already expressed my will to be in stormhaven.

Example 2: I'm in a dungeon and my group abandoned. Then that timer starts which basically removes you from this location. It has never worked for me to travel to another location while the timer is running. hy can't i simply select another wayshrine pay the money and travel directly to it?

Example 3: the current Groupfinder produces sometimes some situation where you port into a dungeon and immediately the timer starts that removes you from this instance. Has the game decided that my group is not worthy for this instance? Since no member of my group has cancelled ready check or done something like this...

Please change this ... this game has so many loading screens right now and many of them are not necessary.

Is this the right place for such feedback?

Uviryth

I asked the same thing 2 weeks ago. As an answer I got "thats the way the game is, deal with it".

Tandor

This is certainly the right place for feedback, but it always helps with technical/performance issues if you start by mentioning your platform and server.

I've played on the PC EU server since launch and although I don't do group dungeons or PvP, I do a lot of zoning including in and out of Craglorn. Loading screens for me are generally up to 30 seconds but instant, for example, if I'm entering or exiting a building (other than player housing).

Phatmattfu

Let's rebuild the game because you are impatient! Oh wait, that would take a lot more time then loading screens.

Flame aside, are you talking about the number of loading screens or the time of loading screens? Title is confusing hehe

Siliziumdioxid

I'm talking about the actual number of Loadingscreens. thats right.

Balticthunder

I can somehow endure long loading screens, which happens time from time, but for me more anoying is many loading screens in one instance, Abahs landing being the worst. One is to load there, then i rush to Thieves den and bah, another loading screen on the way. Then next loading screen to enter thieves building and then bah, another screen right before quest giver. So there is 4 loading screens just for covering few meters to deliver quest! Crazy!
Also why there is another loading screen sometimes inside Malestorm arena, if it is just solo instance and theres only few npcs besides me!

Sigtric

Siliziumdioxid wrote: »

I'm talking about the actual number of Loadingscreens. thats right.

Soooo

how do you get from Wayshrine A to Wayshrine B with out a loading screen?

From Stormhaven port into any given dungeon?

Back to old school 'fast travel' methods where you watch your character ride a computer controlled mount to your destination?

AdamBourke

Loading screens occur whenever something needs to load. Even on the highest-end systems, there is a lot of data to retrieve from the hard disk.

When travelling by foot/mount, there is no loading, because the game keeps the required data for nearby areas in memory - it even manages to do this for going into buildings and things, which is pretty cool - Oblivion/Skyrim couldn't do this.

When you teleport to somewhere else, the game doesn't know where you are likely to go until you press the button. therefore it can't pre-load any data and you get a loading screen. This preloading doesn't happen across zones or into dungeons, which is why they need to load when you enter them. There is absolutely no way that this is going to change. Very few games manage to eliminate loading screens - and it tends to be the very linear ones with many cutscenes (The loading happens while you're watching the cutscene).

The issue where you teleport, and then the loading screen fails, and then you are back where you started is due to the fact that an error has occurred. Most likely, a network error, but also it could be an unlikely bug on the server. Your copy of the game sends a message saying, OK, i want to go to stormhaven. And then it starts loading. But for some reason the server doesn't receive the message. IT doesn't even know that you wanted to go to stormhaven. Your client is waiting for the message to say "OK, you are in Stormhaven now", but it never receives it. Best case scenario, it gets a "log out" message to the server, and you are back where you started when you log in. Worst case scenario, it can't connect at all, and the server still thinks you are logged in. You have to wait 15-20 mins for the login timeout to finish before you can log in again.

This is just one of the (simplified) ways that can go wrong - there are several more just because of how the internet works, and probably more due to the fact that there will be some bugs in the code (NO code is bug-free unless it is very simple).

---

The other points were not technically about loading screens, but since it's similar, i'll discuss them anyway (very speculatively)...

The purpose of the "removing you from this location" timer in groups is likely to be because if there are network issues, it could for some reason thinks you shouldn't be in the instance. However, there is a possibility that it might be able to recover from that, and so doesn't just kick you out straight away, it puts you on the timer - it would be even more annoying if it wasn't there! If it's happening all the time, for many people, it's a bug. If it's happening some of the time, it could be something to do with network issues (or still a bug).

I did think you could port to a way shrine during the timer though.... this might be the only thing you wanted that could actually be changed...

AdamBourke

Balticthunder wrote: »

I can somehow endure long loading screens, which happens time from time, but for me more anoying is many loading screens in one instance, Abahs landing being the worst. One is to load there, then i rush to Thieves den and bah, another loading screen on the way. Then next loading screen to enter thieves building and then bah, another screen right before quest giver. So there is 4 loading screens just for covering few meters to deliver quest! Crazy!
Also why there is another loading screen sometimes inside Malestorm arena, if it is just solo instance and theres only few npcs besides me!

I didn't think you had to go through two loading screens to get from Abah's Landing into the thieves den - I thought it was just entering the cistern that you needed to do it for - the other door isn't a loading screen, it just fades to black, right?

If I'm wrong, you can reduce the number by one if you use the secret entrance to the thieves guild outside of the city :-).

For Maelstrom Arena, (and probably most of the loading screens) it's the environment that takes up the loading time. Every stage is completely different, so the game needs to (nicely) clear out its caches and then refill them from the hard drive with the data for the new scene.

Madness1

It's not as simple as removing all/some of the loading screens, even if wasn't a pain in the arse to figure out, it'd also cause actual problems. Just for reference, here are a few reasons why these loadings are a good thing.

• The loading between zone/region/instance serves as to reduce the load on the zone and gate each individual mini-server on the mega-server. The larger the area, the larger the player count would likely be, and thus the bigger the load. Of course you could just keep a similar player count, but then you'd have a spacial issue where players would be too spread out for it to be noticeable as an actual MMO. Think of it as a bag of sweets, the bigger the bag the more you can fill, but also the bigger it is the more empty space you have; or you could just fill it to the top where the bag could break and/or spill over.
• The loading screens also help control the issues pretty much every computer faces in this game, recourses. Just because you're in a zone that doesn't mean everything is already loaded, that's far from the case, and if that were so, you'd need a more powerful machine than any that the consumer market would get. Your machine, whether you realise it or not is constantly loading and dumping assets. These loadings help hide those unloaded assets whether they be graphical or otherwise. Also remember that PC games are not optimised for one special part, but many, so the game (especially being an MMO) needs to cater to the current low and high end.
• The loading screens also give the games server time to catch up, and move the player to it's designated position. If you removed that you'd surely see things the player is not meant to and cause latency for you and/or others. It's not as simple as a click of the finger or a hum of a drive, it takes tome to not just keep track of you, but other players.