PC EU: What is happening to ESO? Why cities are so empty?

Balticthunder

I also noticed that some zones now are more emptier than how it was right after Homestead patch - you can even find thieve troves and lock boxes lying around. Probably there were lot of players, who came back specially for housing and now, when novelty is off they also are off for another games with another big ""new contents"'. So, till Morrowind then...

FloppyTouch

People are in there homes with there guilds

mandricus

Balticthunder wrote: »

I also noticed that some zones now are more emptier than how it was right after Homestead patch - you can even find thieve troves and lock boxes lying around. Probably there were lot of players, who came back specially for housing and now, when novelty is off they also are off for another games with another big ""new contents"'. So, till Morrowind then...

Based on what is happening to my trading guilds (sales are flowing better than ever) I really don't know if population really shrinked. To me looks like there are just "apparently" less people around due to the fact that people are spread across multiple instances, rather than actually having less people playing the game.

Mayrael

TBH Ive noticed slight reduction of crowds in the cities but its nothin terrible. After big updates population always rises and then falls down. But even now when youll travel to Auridon, Glenumbra, Stonefalls youll see crowds (because of event), Elden Root, Mournhold, Wayrest, Belkarth, Abahs Landing... This cities are full of people when I play. The only one that lost its crowds imho is Rawlka which used to be so overcrowded that caused issues with loging in there.

MCBIZZLE300

I'm PS4 eu and its the opposite. Everywhere is absolutely rammed full of players. (apart from imp city which is always empty for the most part)

MakoFore

as an australasian player who once played on EU- the homestead patch ruined the server for me- for some reason pings went from a barely playable 350-450 - to a moving mess of 450+.

me and quite a few others i know from my parts moved to the NA server where the pings were a more decent 250-350. I sometimes return to the Eu server to do a writ or see if friends are online-but i have noticed the pop is way down. they did something with the instances or servers - I'm not sure - but i can verify that performance is down and population seems dead at what were once peak hours. Only 5 months ago at one tamriel i remember hundreds of people running around Craglorn in the morning to do writs before work, it was packed- even on workdays- now it seems like about 30 people are there. dead..

Illurian

RoamingRiverElk wrote: »

Didn't they mention years ago that the technology tries to place you in the same instances with your friends and guildmates? If so, I wonder if those who are constantly experiencing empty zones aren't in many large guilds?

This hardly ever happens for me. I can be in my own house with my friends (and guildies), and as long as we aren't grouped up, we end up in different instances the moment we walk out the door.

LMar

MarkusLiberty wrote: »

Callous2208 wrote: »

As a roleplayer, I have heard whispers of the EU community being down quite a bit overall, wasn't sure though. Sorry to hear this, PC/NA seems to be booming still in all areas of play.

That's a separate issue, the roleplaying community on EU is practically non-existent.

That doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of players who wants to get involved with roleplaying, the problem is that there just aren't any established communities for them to join anymore. What EU needs is someone who can take the initiative to establish and maintain a strong role playing presence, untill then it's just going to keep fading.

There's plenty of RPers and central hubs for collecting RPers. Just need to ask in zone chat

I have also found busy cities and locked Cyro campaigns. Perhaps if you are finding empty cities it could be the time of day you log in? A few months ago it was christmas so more people with free time.

Housing has driven some people in houses but they don't stay in there for very long tbh unless it is an RP event.

Duiwel

Most people are out farming XP

malicia

If you TP to a player, do you get put in the same instance as them?

VarilRau

xSkullfox wrote: »

but i would prefer:

#Craglorn-de1
#Craglorn-......
#Craglorn-en1
#Craglorn-.....
....
#Craglorn-Int1

but they never would do this.

It kinda does already. When the original launch happened, i saw some finnish people around for the first few days. Soon after, though none, mainly germans. And i mean a lot of germans. Went for a good 1½ year break. Now, its the other way around, i see a lot of Finns again and not that many germans, a lot of the trade guilds are still germans and so on.

Ie. the game prioritises and tries to put you together with the same people/friends/guildies.

Iyas

Can only speak for PvP and there are def less players.

Chilly-McFreeze

Sometimes I wonder if I accidently changes chat tabs because no one seems to post anything there. E.G. Deshaan and Craglorn feel much emptier than some time ago.

Elloa

I've the feeling that Cities are very crowded most of the time on the Eu mega server.I play every day, and sometimes there is so many players that the grafism of the zone lead slowly.

So maybe I'm placed in a "high populated" instance of the game, and you are placed in a "low populated" instance. As the game is supposed to place you depending of your guilds and friendlist... Itmight be the reason why I always think there is tons of players playing.

That being said, I was someone doing pledges every day, and I'm now most of the time buzy doing my crafting Writs and hunting blue prints in delves or public dungeons or motifs... From a Dungeon crawler I became a gatherer - crafter. Maybe this happened to more poeple.

But may everyone be reassured, wherever I go, no matter the zone, I always find relatively a LOT of players doing delves, world bosses, dark anchor, public dungeons and the likes. Maybe the population is more spread than it was before. Maybe players are doing less dungeons and more of the other content.

Teridaxus

Well one tamriel and homestead hype died down.

I enjoy the peace until morrowind breaks the servers soon.

Saint_Bud

Many play mass effekt or just frustrating or bored with the game. On eu pc pvp fells really emty at the moment. Reason can be that zos dont make anything against the ap farmers during the testevent and it was to long called for balance (destroulti and procsets). In pve there is not really what to to. Moast raiders have colplete nearly all raidachivments and struggel on vmol hm for to long + the rng loot. And the leakes cp changes were for many the coffin nail for the game.

Dreyfron

Ozstryker wrote: »

Can honestly say I have not noticed the population declining, our guild is busier than ever, cities appear well populated, overland is very busy, dolmens and delves always have a crowd!
Sry OP just not seeing it! Although I do take myself to my house to craft/decon etc. These days, maybe others are too... dunno?

I agree, I thought the opposite how busy it seems. I never do a quest without someone else doing it. The server is rocking.

Dreyfron

malicia wrote: »

If you TP to a player, do you get put in the same instance as them?

Not sure?

Elloa

malicia wrote: »

If you TP to a player, do you get put in the same instance as them?

Yes you do!

malicia

Elloa wrote: »

malicia wrote: »

If you TP to a player, do you get put in the same instance as them?

Yes you do!

Thanks. Next time I'm in an empty zone, I'll see if there are any guildies in the same zone. With luck they will be in an emptier instance.

Tabbycat

Didn't WoW recently drop their Pathfinder 2 patch? I think I recall reading about it on some game forum somewhere.

That could account for some missing players.

There also seems to be less "Make this game more like WoW" threads lately, too.

Blobsky

mandricus wrote: »

I play ESO since about a year and a half, and I'm a bit confused about what is happening to the game. I play on EU server, mainly in the evening.

Back in the days, almost every city of the game was very crowded, full of players, to the point that logging in some cities (e.g. Mournhold) was an issue at peak hours, due to the huge number of player textures to load at login. Zone chat was very populated, every single evening, full of people looking for Damage Dealers, Tanks and Healers in order to create groups for pledges. With the constant "noise" in the zone chats of guilds recruiting, trading guilds recruiting, people trying to sell stuff, people looking for stuff to buy, people just chatting, and so on). Cities felt exactly like a city should feel: very crowded, and full of life. Setting up a group was usually a matter of seconds. You called for 2 DDs for pledges in zone chat, and you were usually whispered by 4-5 players in no time, having to write most of the time "sorry, we are already full" to the late ones. Mournhold center was everytime full of players deconstructing equipment, dueling (when duels were introduced) or just messing around spamming skills or doing stupid things just for the fun of it.

Now get to what is happening today. The situation feels very different, and I honestly don't understand exactly what is happening.

In the last two or three weeks I've almost never been able to set up a group in order to run pledges. Cities are almost empty. Zone chat is almost empty. Tried in Mournhold, Belkarth, Rawl'ka, Elden Root, Wayrest. All cities looks exactly the same: almost nobody is there. Using dungeon finder, it's almost the same. Back in the days it took seconds to be put in a group to start a dungeon. Nowadays, it often takes hours to find a member for your group (and the funny thing is that often, after all this time spent waiting in queue, when you find a member and the dungeon starts, you are ported in the dungeon and then all the group is removed from instance, because group finder is still broken and nobody seems to care about it. AND, when you are thrown out, you are on 15 mins queue cooldown (this I think is the most annoying thing).

So my question is: what am I missing?

Are people spending time doing different things todays (normal and vet trials?) so nobody is anymore messin'around in cities?

Are all players too busy crafting stuff and decorating their houses, so nobody cares anymore about being in city or doing group content? For sure housing put out of the cities a lot of people that are now "hidden" in their instanced houses, but is this really the reason why nobody is in city anymore? And, if so, don't you think this may be hurting the "social" aspect of the game? If I go in a city, shouldn't I expect to find a lot of other players there?

Or may be it's because (easiest answer) ESO's active player base is actually shrinking?

What do you think about it? Am I the only one having the feel that city todays looks a lot emptier than before?



p.s. sorry for my english, I'm not a native speaker.

As a Trade guild leader I can answer this from experience - Each zone has many many different instances. These fill in order. If your zone is empty, you are likely in a 'newly filling instance' - try porting to a friend or guildie in the same zone and you can get a different instance full of players.

Happy hunting!

Asardes

When I check my trading guild there's certainly no decrease in people playing. Most of the trade ones have more than 200/500 people connected at peak hours, when I also tend to play. Also my sales have been pretty good lately. I finally topped 500K in a week in my main one with 1.6M in the last month overall. So people are definitely there, buying and selling, even much more than before. In fact my sales have been constantly increasing since Homestead dropped.

WeyounTM

I do play every day with my wife and we both see a lot of players around. Sometimes it is too crowded for my taste. And it happens quite often that I have to rejoin an instance/map to actually be with my wife. Therefore I think there are still a lot of players around, but just not in your "instance".
On the other hand: housing and farming dolmens or XP might be a reason why you see less people too. And being a member of 2 big guilds I still see a lot of people around in the member-roster. So no, I really don't experience a huge drop in population on the EU server from my point of view.

DarcyMardin

I've been playing on PC/NA since beta. Recently I decided to make a new character on the PC EU server, for the challenge of starting from scratch, as it were. I've noticed a big difference in the apparent populations of the two servers--just as the OP mentioned, EU zone chat is really quiet and the cities seem almost empty. I did join a guild, and there is some chatter there, but generally the EU server seems much less active than the NA server. Even during the double XP period, the Auridon dolmen train was tiny compared to the NA Auridon dolmen train.

I'm thinking of abandoning my EU effort since it feels as if I'm playing a single player RPG there. Besides, I have plenty of alts to play on NA...

Dreyfron

WeyounTM wrote: »

I do play every day with my wife and we both see a lot of players around. Sometimes it is too crowded for my taste. And it happens quite often that I have to rejoin an instance/map to actually be with my wife. Therefore I think there are still a lot of players around, but just not in your "instance".
On the other hand: housing and farming dolmens or XP might be a reason why you see less people too. And being a member of 2 big guilds I still see a lot of people around in the member-roster. So no, I really don't experience a huge drop in population on the EU server from my point of view.

This.

Blud

parkham wrote: »

Hrmm, might be time to head over to the EU server and check it out.

Do you get to keep your CP from NA?

Asardes

DarcyMardin wrote: »

I've been playing on PC/NA since beta. Recently I decided to make a new character on the PC EU server, for the challenge of starting from scratch, as it were. I've noticed a big difference in the apparent populations of the two servers--just as the OP mentioned, EU zone chat is really quiet and the cities seem almost empty. I did join a guild, and there is some chatter there, but generally the EU server seems much less active than the NA server. Even during the double XP period, the Auridon dolmen train was tiny compared to the NA Auridon dolmen train.

I'm thinking of abandoning my EU effort since it feels as if I'm playing a single player RPG there. Besides, I have plenty of alts to play on NA...

Well, depends on the hour. If you are residing in US there's probably a 7-8h timezone difference so in order to catch the prime time there you will have to play in the early morning to noon in the US. I have played a few times in the morning during week days when I was in vacation and the server was almost completely empty, with nobody in towns, guilds or on zone chat. It starts coming alive only in the afternoon, when people return from school or jobs. That's why it never crossed my mind to make chars on PC-NA.

Asardes

Blud wrote: »

parkham wrote: »

Hrmm, might be time to head over to the EU server and check it out.

Do you get to keep your CP from NA?

Nope. You don't get to keep anything, it's like starting from scratch on a new account. You even have to re-buy all the DLCs and all the other unlockables from the crown store. I understand why there's the CP & char separation but I really don't see the point of having separate crown store unlockables and be charged twice. I think there are few people who play both servers a lot, so there isn't really a huge profit to be made from the doubled purchases. Probably something to do with sales & import taxes, though I'm not sure.

menedhyn

Hmm. I haven't noticed anything significant. Evening and weekends seem to be more or less the same. Mind you, I often play late at night when zones are a bit quieter anyway.