One Tamriel, I think not!

Hezzie

This past week my guild, Scourge Alliance NA, EP hosted a Werewolf vs Werewolf Fight Club in the Rift at the shrine. We advertised in all the zones and to all the factions, receiving much interest to attend the event. As we gathered at the shrine, the night of, we noticed a less than expected crowd was gathering. Then we started getting whispers like 'I am at the shrine, where is everyone?' We quickly realized that there are several 'instances' of the Rift. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of some of my Guildies, heading out to the zones and grouping up folks to port them to the right instance, the event would of been less successful. My apologies to those who tried to attend but saw nothing. We will do it again in the near future and try to provide better 'taxi' service so all can attend.

Nifty2g

Need multiple instances or you get lag

Furcula

The fact that you guys didn't know there were multiple instances of same zones is amusing. This game would be horrible if we didn't have multiple instances. Lag in major cities would be ridiculous. All resource nodes would be gone, thieving would be terrible at popular spots and mob farming would be even worse. The small inconvenience from time to time is a tiny price to pay for a much better overall game.

Waffennacht

Furcula wrote: »

The fact that you guys didn't know there were multiple instances of same zones is amusing. This game would be horrible if we didn't have multiple instances. Lag in major cities would be ridiculous. All resource nodes would be gone, thieving would be terrible at popular spots and mob farming would be even worse. The small inconvenience from time to time is a tiny price to pay for a much better overall game.

Does other people's thieving affect yours? I wasn't aware (though not surprised)

SirAndy

Waffennacht wrote: »

Furcula wrote: »

The fact that you guys didn't know there were multiple instances of same zones is amusing. This game would be horrible if we didn't have multiple instances. Lag in major cities would be ridiculous. All resource nodes would be gone, thieving would be terrible at popular spots and mob farming would be even worse. The small inconvenience from time to time is a tiny price to pay for a much better overall game.

Does other people's thieving affect yours? I wasn't aware (though not surprised)

Not all containers are instanced to you, some are shared, so the answer is "sometimes" ...

PlagueSD

Hezzie wrote: »

This past week my guild, Scourge Alliance NA, EP hosted a Werewolf vs Werewolf Fight Club in the Rift at the shrine. We advertised in all the zones and to all the factions, receiving much interest to attend the event. As we gathered at the shrine, the night of, we noticed a less than expected crowd was gathering. Then we started getting whispers like 'I am at the shrine, where is everyone?' We quickly realized that there are several 'instances' of the Rift. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of some of my Guildies, heading out to the zones and grouping up folks to port them to the right instance, the event would of been less successful. My apologies to those who tried to attend but saw nothing. We will do it again in the near future and try to provide better 'taxi' service so all can attend.

Yep. Best/easiest way to handle this is set up a raid where people can join (if you're not in the same instance, you'll automatically get prompted to "Travel to leader") once you travel to leader, you can leave the raid. Rinse/repeat for everyone doing the event.

Tandor

Multiple instances have precisely nothing to do with One Tamriel, they've been in the game since launch.

Great job organising the event, however, and I hope all present enjoyed it.

MLGProPlayer

This is needed or you wouldn't be able to load into any zone. Popular towns like Rawl'kha would run out of instances last year (still do sometimes) and you'd lag out trying to teleport there. Every MMO does this, or else you'd be rendering 1000+ players on screen.

TheYKcid

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

This is needed or you wouldn't be able to load into any zone. Popular towns like Rawl'kha would run out of instances last year (still do sometimes) and you'd lag out trying to teleport there. Every MMO does this, or else you'd be rendering 1000+ players on screen.

Out of curiousity, what exactly happens when a zone runs out of instances? Do people trying to port-in get barred from doing so? Are they given some error message acknowledging the problem?

Danikat

For future reference the best thing to do when trying to organise an event like this is to give people a person (or several people to contact) so they can group up and get the prompt to move to their copy of the map.

Unfortunately we don't have an LFG tool which can be used for open-world maps, so you can't use that to advertise the event and get people into the right map like you can in some games.

Furcula wrote: »

The fact that you guys didn't know there were multiple instances of same zones is amusing. This game would be horrible if we didn't have multiple instances. Lag in major cities would be ridiculous. All resource nodes would be gone, thieving would be terrible at popular spots and mob farming would be even worse. The small inconvenience from time to time is a tiny price to pay for a much better overall game.

I wonder if this is why some people (not the OP) are always convinced the game is dying? They think the people they see in their instance are all the people in the game (or at leave on that server) currently in that map, so if they go to a normally populated location like Rawl'ka or the latest DLC and don't see many people they think the only possible reason is that no one is doing it.

TheYKcid wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

This is needed or you wouldn't be able to load into any zone. Popular towns like Rawl'kha would run out of instances last year (still do sometimes) and you'd lag out trying to teleport there. Every MMO does this, or else you'd be rendering 1000+ players on screen.

Out of curiousity, what exactly happens when a zone runs out of instances? Do people trying to port-in get barred from doing so? Are they given some error message acknowledging the problem?

Back in the betas (when everyone was trying to get into the same 3 maps) it would come up with a message saying the map was full and put you into a queue. I've not seen it since the betas, but I assume the same thing still happens.

Meetre

Danikat wrote: »

Back in the betas (when everyone was trying to get into the same 3 maps) it would come up with a message saying the map was full and put you into a queue. I've not seen it since the betas, but I assume the same thing still happens.

They have gotten good at spinning up new instances as needed. I've actually been ported out of an instance that was under-populated and put into a different one before!

wenchmore420b14_ESO

Tandor wrote: »

Multiple instances have precisely nothing to do with One Tamriel, they've been in the game since launch.

Great job organising the event, however, and I hope all present enjoyed it.

This^..
I remember at launch, running up to a node just to have it "Disappear to a Invisible Player" i.e. some one in another instance grabbing it.. Yes, some things are shared across instances.
But GOOD LUCK on your next one! It's sounds awesome!

Malmai

Nifty2g wrote: »

Need multiple instances or you get lag

You lag in this game no matter what...

kargen27

We used to have a hell of a time organizing fishing events in one of my guilds. You can also be instanced by whether or not you have done a quest in the area so part of the time we would be fishing with invisible partners.

Rosveen

I for one am glad that we have instances. I wouldn't want to stand in a crowd of 600 people + pets every time I go to the bank and crash every two minutes.

SirAxen

Malmai wrote: »

Nifty2g wrote: »

Need multiple instances or you get lag

You lag in this game no matter what...

I rarely do.

teiselaise

SirAxen wrote: »

Malmai wrote: »

Nifty2g wrote: »

Need multiple instances or you get lag

You lag in this game no matter what...

I rarely do.

That's because of the content you do, if you by lagging mean server lag, go into the biggest cyrodil server at peak time, if you mean fps, go into a trial on max graphics

zaria

TheYKcid wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

This is needed or you wouldn't be able to load into any zone. Popular towns like Rawl'kha would run out of instances last year (still do sometimes) and you'd lag out trying to teleport there. Every MMO does this, or else you'd be rendering 1000+ players on screen.

Out of curiousity, what exactly happens when a zone runs out of instances? Do people trying to port-in get barred from doing so? Are they given some error message acknowledging the problem?

Server can always put more players in, you could also create more instances, problem would be to get rid of instances then population goes down during the night, game need to get all players out before it can be closed.

This is changed from time to time, Morrowind will have fewer instances than then it was released.

Now for an event, grouping will solve it you could even have some in area leave group and create their own. they would still be in instance.

monktoasty

So that's where I got the fleas

SammyFable

It took you over a year to realise there are several instances of each zone?

heaven13

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Multiple instances have precisely nothing to do with One Tamriel, they've been in the game since launch.

Great job organising the event, however, and I hope all present enjoyed it.

This^..
I remember at launch, running up to a node just to have it "Disappear to a Invisible Player" i.e. some one in another instance grabbing it.. Yes, some things are shared across instances.
But GOOD LUCK on your next one! It's sounds awesome!

This still happens sometimes (or it was last time I played back some months ago).

eso_lags

heres a fun fact.. Sometimes in craglorn at the alchemy station, or mournhold at the bank, the walls will disappear.. When this happens if you look through the walls and up into the sky you can see other players up there.. Tiny little players above you like ants. Riding their mounts with their pets following, or doing whatever.. I would like to think that this is the other instance of that zone.. Okay thats all.

zaria

itzTJ wrote: »

heres a fun fact.. Sometimes in craglorn at the alchemy station, or mournhold at the bank, the walls will disappear.. When this happens if you look through the walls and up into the sky you can see other players up there.. Tiny little players above you like ants. Riding their mounts with their pets following, or doing whatever.. I would like to think that this is the other instance of that zone.. Okay thats all.

Now that one is interesting, and its two reasons to create instances, one is server performance, the second is client, too many players in one spot will increase client load even if players are mostly standing around who is easy for server.

Danikat

itzTJ wrote: »

heres a fun fact.. Sometimes in craglorn at the alchemy station, or mournhold at the bank, the walls will disappear.. When this happens if you look through the walls and up into the sky you can see other players up there.. Tiny little players above you like ants. Riding their mounts with their pets following, or doing whatever.. I would like to think that this is the other instance of that zone.. Okay thats all.

I think the insides of all the buildings are actually under the map.

When Morrowind was on the PTS there was a bug with the two new houses where if you went inside you ended up in a room with invisible walls (and doors, floor etc.) under the map and could look up to see the ground above you.

I'm not sure why it's done that way, but I know ESO isn't the only game that does it. In some games it's necessary because the outside of the building is actually a lot smaller than the inside.

zyk

Danikat wrote: »

itzTJ wrote: »

heres a fun fact.. Sometimes in craglorn at the alchemy station, or mournhold at the bank, the walls will disappear.. When this happens if you look through the walls and up into the sky you can see other players up there.. Tiny little players above you like ants. Riding their mounts with their pets following, or doing whatever.. I would like to think that this is the other instance of that zone.. Okay thats all.

I think the insides of all the buildings are actually under the map.

This is correct. This is why the interior of buildings have fake windows. The interiors are all located under the world map for performance purposes. This is not a result oft he dynamic instancing/phasing.

What the OP noticed is the megaserver tech. Each world zone is divided into sub zones and each sub zone can have multiple instances/phases. These instances can be created and merged dynamically based on the number of players in the area. Some areas have different phases for players who have completed different portions of a quest. They're not the same as other instances like dungeons because zone chat and other elements are shared.

Busy areas like Rawl almost always have more than one. If you log into different characters parked in a busy zone, you might see different players around you each time you log in.

Saturn

Hezzie wrote: »

This past week my guild, Scourge Alliance NA, EP hosted a Werewolf vs Werewolf Fight Club in the Rift at the shrine. We advertised in all the zones and to all the factions, receiving much interest to attend the event. As we gathered at the shrine, the night of, we noticed a less than expected crowd was gathering. Then we started getting whispers like 'I am at the shrine, where is everyone?' We quickly realized that there are several 'instances' of the Rift. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of some of my Guildies, heading out to the zones and grouping up folks to port them to the right instance, the event would of been less successful. My apologies to those who tried to attend but saw nothing. We will do it again in the near future and try to provide better 'taxi' service so all can attend.

I wish I could have attended that. You should do one in the winter holidays XD!
The phasing can be really annoying, but the game sadly would be unplayable without them, since ESO has got nasty issues with server load, like imagine rawl'kha if everyone who went there was in the same phase... I shudder to think of it.

SirAxen

teiselaise wrote: »

SirAxen wrote: »

Malmai wrote: »

Nifty2g wrote: »

Need multiple instances or you get lag

You lag in this game no matter what...

I rarely do.

That's because of the content you do, if you by lagging mean server lag, go into the biggest cyrodil server at peak time, if you mean fps, go into a trial on max graphics

Nope. That includes Cyrodiil and Trials.

PlagueSD

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

This^..
I remember at launch, running up to a node just to have it "Disappear to a Invisible Player" i.e. some one in another instance grabbing it.. Yes, some things are shared across instances.
But GOOD LUCK on your next one! It's sounds awesome!

That actually has to do with "phasing". I've run up to a node, have it disappear, back up a few steps and it appears again. If you run into an area, depending if you've completed the quest track there or not, you'll be faced with a "different" phase.This is mostly areas where you have to free a town. Everything is hostile to you in the beginning. Once you complete the quest track, hostiles are kicked out and you have city guards.