Main Thread for Long Loading Screens

Elsonso

gp1680 wrote: »

Did I just read this right? She didn't really say week of December 4th for Xbox...no way...speechless.

I would say complain to Microsoft for such a long certification process, but probably would not help...

Jammer480

Ok, ok this is a long term relationship so I can be patient, still not gonna join the whiners...but a lil somethin' somthin' on the side as a thank you couldn't hurt, no?

Buffler

So basically 1 month of unplayable content. What a disgrace.

The_Lex

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom

While I appreciate the detailed explanation of the problem and the action steps for the future, 22 days of extremely minimal playability with zero effort at compensation is too much of a bitter pill to swallow. My ESO+ renewal is coming up on December 8th, which I will be cancelling. You simply cannot treat us this way without consequence. I know I'm just one player and my sub does not mean much in the grand scheme of your share price (which probably the only thing that truly matters to your higher-ups), but at least my conscience will be clear. I will more than likely continue to play every so often, but not nearly as much as before.

Know this: we are passionate in our responses because we love this game, Tamriel, and the Elder Scrolls franchise. However, there are limits to what we will tolerate for the sake of passion.

I3akerOfcakes

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone,

We’d like to explain what happened to cause the recent issue with long loading screens, and what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

So, what was the bug? In Update 16, we added in a new system that refined the character texture loading pipeline as part of our ongoing effort to increase performance and framerate in high-intensity situations (such as in Cyrodiil and densely-populated cities). Unfortunately, this new pipeline was causing some character textures to get lost, which was causing the load screen to never drop because there were still textures that need to be loaded.

While we continue to work on fixing this issue fully, we’re going to be making two changes to an upcoming incremental patch. First, we’re going to be reverting to the old pipeline which doesn’t have this issue, but may affect how quickly you see other characters loading in (this will essentially be the same as it was before Clockwork City). Further, we’re introducing a new failsafe that will force your load screen to drop after two minutes if it is only waiting on textures. This patch is currently with first party certification for testing; the patch for PlayStation 4 and PC/Mac will be published next Tuesday, November 28. The patch for Xbox One requires a bit more time with first party certification, and we’re targeting a publish during the week of December 4.

In the future when we have a more permanent fix, we plan to re-enable the new pipeline because it makes for better game performance, but when we do that, we’ll be adding the equivalent of a switch on our side that we can turn off (to fall back to the old system) if we see these kinds of issues crop up again, rather than make you wait for another patch.

We sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused, and we will endeavor to make sure that problems like these aren’t introduced in the future when adding new systems or making performance enhancements.

Wow 22 days of nearly unplayable content and all we get is a mere apology. Looks like I'm canceling my ESO plus...

Kilandros

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

Umm, the infinite loading screens have been an issue in Cyrodiil for nearly a year now.

DjMuscleboy02

I3akerOfcakes wrote: »

Wow 22 days of nearly unplayable content and all we get is a mere apology. Looks like I'm canceling my ESO plus...

There was 7 months of mol being broken and 4 months of every trial being broken. I think you'll be ok m8

Zyjin

@ZOS_GinaBruno I'm gonna be honest, while I'm happy that the issue is being worked on and what not, and I understand that some of the issues of the patch taking so long to come out to fix this and revert things is because of verification stuff, especially for Xbox and what not.

That being said, there should be some compensation, just as a smart thing to do, because otherwise that's going to be a lot of bad PR, and while myself on PC have had really no issues at all, I'm sure others have had plenty of issues, and this will cause many of them to quit.

I don't mean to sound entitled or anything, it just seems very dangerous to have this long wait for alot of console players who can't play at all barely(I personally haven't noticed many issues on PC again) as this could cause some harsh damages.

That's almost 15 bucks worth for most of the community on these systems, and it doesn't even have to be a free month or anything crazy like that, but there should be something in my opinion.

An apology is nice, but it doesn't make the issues magically have gone away.

I say this as a passionate individual who loves this game, I just don't want mass riots of people leaving due to the circumstances of this situation. I have appreciated the recent moves towards more transparency, but stuff like this is a really rough stone in the road to a better community relationship.

So please, take my words and others into consideration ZoS, I only want what is best for this game.

Apache_Kid

December 4th?!?!?!? LOL so this issue will have persisted for near a month by the time it gets fixed. Absolutely wild.

Docmandu

Kilandros wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

Umm, the infinite loading screens have been an issue in Cyrodiil for nearly a year now.

Indeed.. that ZOS response frightens me... as I can already see it not fixing the issue we've been having for a year now.

CatManDew

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone,

We’d like to explain what happened to cause the recent issue with long loading screens, and what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

So, what was the bug? In Update 16, we added in a new system that refined the character texture loading pipeline as part of our ongoing effort to increase performance and framerate in high-intensity situations (such as in Cyrodiil and densely-populated cities). Unfortunately, this new pipeline was causing some character textures to get lost, which was causing the load screen to never drop because there were still textures that need to be loaded.

While we continue to work on fixing this issue fully, we’re going to be making two changes to an upcoming incremental patch. First, we’re going to be reverting to the old pipeline which doesn’t have this issue, but may affect how quickly you see other characters loading in (this will essentially be the same as it was before Clockwork City). Further, we’re introducing a new failsafe that will force your load screen to drop after two minutes if it is only waiting on textures. This patch is currently with first party certification for testing; the patch for PlayStation 4 and PC/Mac will be published next Tuesday, November 28. The patch for Xbox One requires a bit more time with first party certification, and we’re targeting a publish during the week of December 4.

In the future when we have a more permanent fix, we plan to re-enable the new pipeline because it makes for better game performance, but when we do that, we’ll be adding the equivalent of a switch on our side that we can turn off (to fall back to the old system) if we see these kinds of issues crop up again, rather than make you wait for another patch.

We sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused, and we will endeavor to make sure that problems like these aren’t introduced in the future when adding new systems or making performance enhancements.

@ZOS_GinaBruno so will there’s be any compensation for pushing out a broken feature? For Xbox, this is almost a month of being broken (that’s if the fix is implemented on 12/4/17). Should we be goin to Microsoft to request a refund on our November month’s worth of ESO+?

Yellow_Monolith

@ZOS_GinaBruno Is ESO plus membership going to be extended by the unplayable days?

DPShiro

DjMuscleboy02 wrote: »

I3akerOfcakes wrote: »

Wow 22 days of nearly unplayable content and all we get is a mere apology. Looks like I'm canceling my ESO plus...

There was 7 months of mol being broken and 4 months of every trial being broken. I think you'll be ok m8

This^

But if this patch reverts too much crap and doesn’t include support for XOX hardware etc I’m taking a break until it’s fixed. Not going back to the slideshow that was before.

OutLaw_Nynx

I don’t understand why Xbox is so much later update wise? I’m happy they’ve figured out what is going on but I am a little upset for Xbox players that have to wait even longer.


I don’t like to say this type of things but I really feel like ESO+ members should get like a month free and non ESO+ maybe get like crowns or they can get a mount of their choosing.

allup8679

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone,

We’d like to explain what happened to cause the recent issue with long loading screens, and what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

So, what was the bug? In Update 16, we added in a new system that refined the character texture loading pipeline as part of our ongoing effort to increase performance and framerate in high-intensity situations (such as in Cyrodiil and densely-populated cities). Unfortunately, this new pipeline was causing some character textures to get lost, which was causing the load screen to never drop because there were still textures that need to be loaded.

While we continue to work on fixing this issue fully, we’re going to be making two changes to an upcoming incremental patch. First, we’re going to be reverting to the old pipeline which doesn’t have this issue, but may affect how quickly you see other characters loading in (this will essentially be the same as it was before Clockwork City). Further, we’re introducing a new failsafe that will force your load screen to drop after two minutes if it is only waiting on textures. This patch is currently with first party certification for testing; the patch for PlayStation 4 and PC/Mac will be published next Tuesday, November 28. The patch for Xbox One requires a bit more time with first party certification, and we’re targeting a publish during the week of December 4.

In the future when we have a more permanent fix, we plan to re-enable the new pipeline because it makes for better game performance, but when we do that, we’ll be adding the equivalent of a switch on our side that we can turn off (to fall back to the old system) if we see these kinds of issues crop up again, rather than make you wait for another patch.

We sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused, and we will endeavor to make sure that problems like these aren’t introduced in the future when adding new systems or making performance enhancements.

So a total of 3 weeks of this s.h.I.t. Awesome. Congrats on killing the game. Catch you on the flip side.

davidj8291

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone,

We’d like to explain what happened to cause the recent issue with long loading screens, and what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

So, what was the bug? In Update 16, we added in a new system that refined the character texture loading pipeline as part of our ongoing effort to increase performance and framerate in high-intensity situations (such as in Cyrodiil and densely-populated cities). Unfortunately, this new pipeline was causing some character textures to get lost, which was causing the load screen to never drop because there were still textures that need to be loaded.

While we continue to work on fixing this issue fully, we’re going to be making two changes to an upcoming incremental patch. First, we’re going to be reverting to the old pipeline which doesn’t have this issue, but may affect how quickly you see other characters loading in (this will essentially be the same as it was before Clockwork City). Further, we’re introducing a new failsafe that will force your load screen to drop after two minutes if it is only waiting on textures. This patch is currently with first party certification for testing; the patch for PlayStation 4 and PC/Mac will be published next Tuesday, November 28. The patch for Xbox One requires a bit more time with first party certification, and we’re targeting a publish during the week of December 4.

In the future when we have a more permanent fix, we plan to re-enable the new pipeline because it makes for better game performance, but when we do that, we’ll be adding the equivalent of a switch on our side that we can turn off (to fall back to the old system) if we see these kinds of issues crop up again, rather than make you wait for another patch.

We sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused, and we will endeavor to make sure that problems like these aren’t introduced in the future when adding new systems or making performance enhancements.

Nah. You guys are done. You won’t be getting my subscription back. This is ridiculous. A MONTH of being completely unable to play the one element of the game I play?!? If Netflix or Hulu did this, they would no longer be in business.
But it’s okay for y’all? Nah. Good riddance.

Bajlk

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

So you introduced Clockwork City years ago?!

Twohothardware

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone,

We’d like to explain what happened to cause the recent issue with long loading screens, and what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The source of the long loading screens came down to a bug we introduced in the Clockwork City DLC.

So, what was the bug? In Update 16, we added in a new system that refined the character texture loading pipeline as part of our ongoing effort to increase performance and framerate in high-intensity situations (such as in Cyrodiil and densely-populated cities). Unfortunately, this new pipeline was causing some character textures to get lost, which was causing the load screen to never drop because there were still textures that need to be loaded.

While we continue to work on fixing this issue fully, we’re going to be making two changes to an upcoming incremental patch. First, we’re going to be reverting to the old pipeline which doesn’t have this issue, but may affect how quickly you see other characters loading in (this will essentially be the same as it was before Clockwork City). Further, we’re introducing a new failsafe that will force your load screen to drop after two minutes if it is only waiting on textures. This patch is currently with first party certification for testing; the patch for PlayStation 4 and PC/Mac will be published next Tuesday, November 28. The patch for Xbox One requires a bit more time with first party certification, and we’re targeting a publish during the week of December 4.

In the future when we have a more permanent fix, we plan to re-enable the new pipeline because it makes for better game performance, but when we do that, we’ll be adding the equivalent of a switch on our side that we can turn off (to fall back to the old system) if we see these kinds of issues crop up again, rather than make you wait for another patch.

We sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused, and we will endeavor to make sure that problems like these aren’t introduced in the future when adding new systems or making performance enhancements.

No offense but that puts the fix at a full month for Xbox One and all you guys are doing is taking away whatever performance improvement we got from the new loading pipeline in CwC and reverting the game back to pre-CwC with no date on a future real fix. Why wasn't that issue found and a patch sent to certification a few days after the 7th since all you're doing is reverting the change? This wasn't a small bug, this completely killed Cyrodiil nearly as much as you guys just turning the servers off. And don't Microsoft and Sony have a way for you guys to pay to get critical patches pushes through certification faster?

Twohothardware

ESO Plus subscribers especially deserve some kind of actual compensation for paying for a month of a nearly unplayable game.

Vanthras79

Sounds like "stuff" happened because of "things."

Apache_Kid

So how drastic will these performance roll-backs be? I was now able to go to places like Vivec City and many other DLC areas without my Xbox making the shuttering sound and crashing. Other than the infinite load screens the game was FINALLY starting to show signs of running better on Xbox and now here we are taking multiple steps backwards.

UppGRAYxDD

December 4th....wow

KrishakPanettier

With all due respect, ZOS. This is unacceptable. Waiting several weeks for a true fix is too long to wait. This should be round-the-clock work to correct the issue, and pay whatever necessary to implement the fix, acquire certification from the console manufacturers.

This impacts us all too great. You and your customers; Us and our guild mates, friends, etc. that drop out of the game each and every day this is not corrected. Many will not return. Makes for a sad state of affairs for a game we otherwise love.

KrishakPanettier

ZOS, should have reverted to the old pipeline immediately, not two weeks later? With incremental updates, you should be able to roll back quickly if it impacts Live as much as it did.

KrishakPanettier

I am just so angry. And this four day weekend we still have to deal with long load screens because the revert will not happen until next week. Really!?!?

dotme

90% of my game time is spent in Cyrodiil. The infinite load screens have been frustrating and had a very negative impact on PvP population.

But I'm keeping my ESO+ active. I look forward to the patch. I've adjusted my playstyle to avoid load screens as much as possible, and I've spent a little time in other zones. I got the Precursor for my house. I know PvP on console got wrecked by the last update and I understand if people want to kill their subscription as a protest. I don't feel "entitled" to compensation though, because I can always stop paying if the game goes in a direction I dislike.

I can imagine the moment the dev team realized that server maintenance alone wasn't going to resolve this. That had to be an "Oh crap" moment. Wish the client rollback had happened more quickly, but I'm glad it's now finally in the pipeline.

Vesper_BR

Ridiculous...

What games you guys recommend?
I'm thinking about swbf2... Now with cash crates removed it could be more fair... What u guys think?

allup8679

Vesper_BR wrote: »

Ridiculous...

What games you guys recommend?
I'm thinking about swbf2... Now with cash crates removed it could be more fair... What u guys think?

I plugged a NES controller into a sweet potato and it loaded fine...

ZOS_GinaBruno

KrishakPanettier wrote: »

ZOS, should have reverted to the old pipeline immediately, not two weeks later? With incremental updates, you should be able to roll back quickly if it impacts Live as much as it did.

Unfortunately, this is the fastest we can do this, and it is happening in an incremental patch. Big code changes like this aren't something we can quickly hotfix on console; it needs to go through a full patch with certification.

Twohothardware

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

KrishakPanettier wrote: »

ZOS, should have reverted to the old pipeline immediately, not two weeks later? With incremental updates, you should be able to roll back quickly if it impacts Live as much as it did.

Unfortunately, this is the fastest we can do this, and it is happening in an incremental patch. Big code changes like this aren't something we can quickly hotfix on console; it needs to go through a full patch with certification.

Are you guys considering any compensation for at least the ESO Plus subscribers? Like free Crowns or one of the new mounts from the Flame Atronach Crown Crates or something if you're currently subscribed? Would go a long ways to show you guys care about your player base that invest monthly into the game when a game breaking issue like this comes up and takes you guys a full month to address.