July 6 - Update on Recent Issues (Stability, Steam, Motifs, Daily Rewards)

ZOS_GinaBruno

Hello everyone,

We’d like to give you an update on a few recent issues in one consolidated thread.

Game Stability Issues
First, we’d like to talk a little bit about the crashing and freezing many of you have been experiencing since Summerset went live. We’ve already mentioned in a couple threads we’re working on including fixes for these in another incremental patch, but we can confirm we do have an additional patch for consoles scheduled in less than 2 weeks. It’s important to note the fixes that will be included in this patch are specifically for game stability, not necessary performance. That’s not to say we aren’t working to improve overall performance, but addressing the current stability is our priority right now. Below is a list of what’s causing a lot of the crashing and freezing, and will be fixed in the patch:

• A crash that happened in Cyrodiil when Keep pieces were destroyed. This would cause most players close enough to the event to freeze all at once.
• We’ve fixed a couple different character loading issues so the game won’t become overwhelmed so easily in high-density character situations.
• Fixed some problems that caused long loading times, especially when you are loading near a Keep in Cyrodiil.
• CPU and GPU crashes from running out of memory when in situations with many players, specifically keep fights in Cyrodiil. We've taken a number of steps to improve this, but more work needs to be done, and we are continuing to work on this until it is resolved.
• Textures being applied at the wrong time on certain assets, most commonly in post-Morrowind content.
• Occasional animation memory threading crash.
• Occasional crash when loading scene lighting elements.
• A crash that happened occasionally when previewing furniture or pets, or when placing furniture.

On a somewhat related note, while we haven’t yet announced the date for Midyear Mayhem, some of you may have guessed a general date range based on this month’s Crown Store Showcase and when the event was held last year. Making sure the game is stable enough to hold an event in Cyrodiil is critical; the current start date will be sometime after the console incremental patch goes live, and we’ll continue to shift the date if we feel we need to.

Steam Login Issues
We are fully aware of the intermittent issues with launching ESO from Steam reliably, and we have been working with Steam over the last few weeks to diagnose and fix the underlying problem. These efforts are ongoing and as soon as we have an update, we'll let everyone know.

Scalecaller & Fang Lair Motifs
A couple days ago, we re-added the Scalecaller and Fang Lair Motifs to the Crown Store after discovering an issue when they first went up. However, anyone that purchased these when they first became available for sale will find they aren’t able to use them properly yet. In order to fix the affected accounts, we’re planning to run a script during the next scheduled downtime that will resolve this issue and allow you to correctly use the Motifs you purchased – no action is required on your part. Currently, this is scheduled to occur during the week of July 16 for all platforms.

Daily Rewards
When the Daily Rewards switched over to the new month, there was an issue that wasn’t allowing you to claim the new items, and we disabled the system until we were able to resolve it. The Daily Rewards system is back up and working as of 3 days ago, and we appreciate everyone’s patience while we fixed the system.

We did see concerns from some players that they weren’t able to claim the Crown Crates from the last day in June. The UI element for the last day’s reward is confusing if you are not qualified to claim it. When viewing the upcoming Daily Rewards, each item with a white lock icon is an item you will be able to claim before the month’s rewards reset (assuming you don’t miss any of the upcoming days). If there are items on your Daily Rewards page that have a grey lock icon, there are not enough days left in the month in order for you to eventually claim those rewards. All that said, we are working on ways to improve how unobtainable rewards are communicated on the Daily Rewards page with a much clearer visual element.

To thank everyone for their patience while we worked through the issues with the Daily Rewards system, we’re planning to grant one 100% Experience Scroll for each day you logged in during the first 3 days in July. You’ll receive these Scrolls after the maintenance during the week of July 16.

Komma

Not any mention of the disappearing structures. Any word on this? Started after last patch.

casparian

Thank you for the updates, Gina!

Can you clarify whether the fixes mentioned under "Game Stability issues" are for console-specific issues that will only be addressed in the console patch? Or are those fixes coming to PC as well?

Miswar

How us console players patience been thanked? I mean lets be honest the game is fundamentally broken and remains to be at least 6 weeks.

Also as someone said stop thanking them since the product is flawed for weeks.

Jailbirdy

Thank you for posting what is going on and addressing the issues.

One question (same question for the past 3 years): What steps are you taking or going to take, to prevent further issues from happening after every release of new content, whether it is a chapter or DLC, etc???

FastBen

Nothing for the heavy attack issue!?!!?

commdt

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

To thank everyone for their patience while we worked through the issues with the Daily Rewards system, we’re planning to grant one 100% Experience Scroll for each day you logged in during the first 3 days in July. You’ll receive these Scrolls after the maintenance during the week of July 16.

No please dont! I already worked my fingers off deleting that stuff

SGT_Wolfe101st

An experience scroll? Is that a joke? Like I’m 100% sure this experience has been inexcusable. I’ve effectively not been able to play with any certainty since Summerset release. How about refund my ESO+, or make the next DLC free, or anything of substance. Fixing the game would also be a nice start. Pathetic!

DrSweetazz

This explanation is what we've wanted for a month.... My next fears that you guys are going to try to fix everything all at once, and potentially miss the issue or create a new issue, and we'll have to wait a month to try again.

I wish so badly that you didn't rely on monthly patches to put together patches and try everything all at once (8 bullet points mentioned in this post). It would be so much easierr on you guys and us if you did smaller updates more frequently, especially with all the issues happening right now.

Here's hoping you're able to get it right. PLEASE promptly check feedback after the patch and after the DLC so we dont run into this mess again. 6 weeks of terrible performance should be inexcusable within your company.

casparian

SGT_Wolfe101st wrote: »

An experience scroll? Is that a joke? Like I’m 100% sure this experience has been inexcusable. I’ve effectively not been able to play with any certainty since Summerset release. How about refund my ESO+, or make the next DLC free, or anything of substance. Fixing the game would also be a nice start. Pathetic!

They're trying to retain the new players they brought in with Summerset (the main point of Summerset), not reach out to vets. Their business model is about bringing in a constant influx of new players, not keeping you and me around for years. Makes me a little sad.

Elsonso

Awesome. Thanks for the update. One question for @ZOS_GinaBruno ... you talk about a game stability patch. I think you are implying that this is a console only patch that will be going out? Is this already rolled out for PC, or will be be rolled out for PC? Yesterday was a lot of Crash-To-Desktop for me, which is highly unusual, and so I wonder.

Sygil05

Thanks for the update, Gina.

Posts like these are exactly what I've been asking for through all of these issues, and I hope this is setting a precedent for the handling of future similar issues that will come up.

Jailbirdy

Can you get the Cyrodill PVP team to come on ESO Live too. Even have them on for 5 minutes. Would really like to hear what they have plans for in the future relating to stability.

Jailbirdy

Sygil05 wrote: »

Thanks for the update, Gina.

Posts like these are exactly what I've been asking for through all of these issues, and I hope this is setting a precedent for the handling of future similar issues that will come up.

So, you would like them to post something 6 weeks after the fact or you would like a more timely response like this?

Blobsky

Is this mini patch for PC too? Many of us ecperience freezes and crashes at near-console level

Sandman929

Anything for the last 32 days I've been trying to play without freezing? Or the next 10 where I'll likely still be freezing?

Apache_Kid

If anyone here actually thinks the crashes are going to be fixed (Xbox) you are out of your minds. We've been through this song and dance before. They might be able to fix the freezing that was introduced with summerset but the hard crashes to the dashboard with buzzing sounds? those will be on Xbox forever.

inthecoconut

Thank you for providing us with an update! I am personally appreciative of your efforts to keep the community apprised of the issues and your efforts to fix them. I know you can't always go into specifics of what you are doing to resolve these issues, but many of us just want to know that you at least acknowledge our concerns and reassure us that they are being worked on. Again, thanks for taking the time to update us on these issues.

Kagukan

Thank you for the communication. Keeping the customer base updated on issues is a winning policy.

neverwalk

The Corporate world continues to lie and cheat the little people of the world, but we are AWAKE to your evil plans to take the world under a ONE WORLD ORDER. Qanon.

tsukikage_ESO

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Textures being applied at the wrong time on certain assets, most commonly in post-Morrowind content.

Is this referring to the issue with parts of the world becoming invisible depending on camera angle? If not, I really hope you guys are giving that priority. I don't experience the issue myself much, but I have personally seen at least 2 popular streamers quit playing the game out of frustration in front of hundreds of people because of this issue. It is literally driving people away from the game.

Junipus

@ZOS_GinaBruno Can you have some communication from the dev team(s) as to why adding new content destabilises existing content?

It's understandable that new content has the potential to be buggy and glitchy, but new content that breaks the old unrelated content seems to indicate poor programming skills from the developers, or at the very least the common problem of not releasing memory at the end of functions.

casparian

SGT_Wolfe101st wrote: »

That $130 House is up and running.

Is it?

There have been so many things broken recently that I don't know how anyone can trust that they'll get what they pay for in ESO at this point. Trials have massive stability issues, overland content has disappearing environments, BGs have invisible players, Cyrodiil has hordes of performance issues (not to mention gamebreaking bugs like missing keep walls that ZOS won't even talk to us about), new motifs can't be learned, patch notes say things are fixed that aren't fixed, a large number of reported bugs haven't been acknowledged (let alone fixed), and all that is just this patch -- every recent patch has brought a laundry list like this of things that just don't work anymore.

If I had been planning to spend $130 on that house, I would hold out. ZOS is giving us no reason right now to believe that their content is what they say it is and will do what they say it will do. Their track record on releasing content that turns out to be just broken and takes literally months to restore to functionality is just too bad right now to justify big Crown Store purchases.

I say this as someone who is optimistic about the future of the game and who continues to support it -- ZOS, you have to step up your quality-control game.

sevomd69

Apache_Kid wrote: »

If anyone here actually thinks the crashes are going to be fixed (Xbox) you are out of your minds. We've been through this song and dance before. They might be able to fix the freezing that was introduced with summerset but the hard crashes to the dashboard with buzzing sounds? those will be on Xbox forever.

FWIW...Actually haven't had one of those in months...XB1X on SSD...

Easily_Lost

[Snip]
I just want to say to the ZOS Team, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I hope that is not to many THANK YOUs.
Once again THANK YOU.

[edited to remove quoted post]

valeriiya

My first thought is that "great, they'll fix the game!" then I remember the other times we were told things would be fixed but they were just broken even more. I don't have a lot of hope for this. I want to but ZOS does not have a good track record of fixing anything outside of the Crown Store
Second thought is, go easy on @ZOS_GinaBruno she's just the messenger and I would guess that she would also love the game to function properly and not have to make these posts.

SergeantJinx

Thanks for the update Gina, much appreciated.

Apache_Kid

sevomd69 wrote: »

Apache_Kid wrote: »

If anyone here actually thinks the crashes are going to be fixed (Xbox) you are out of your minds. We've been through this song and dance before. They might be able to fix the freezing that was introduced with summerset but the hard crashes to the dashboard with buzzing sounds? those will be on Xbox forever.

FWIW...Actually haven't had one of those in months...XB1X on SSD...

I too have an Xbox One X on SSD. Happens to me every day. Ive spent countless hours on the phone with xbox support and my internet provider. According to two different reps from micro soft i spoke with, those are crashes due to coding errors.

Consider yourself extremely lucky.

inthecoconut

tsukikage_ESO wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Textures being applied at the wrong time on certain assets, most commonly in post-Morrowind content.

Is this referring to the issue with parts of the world becoming invisible depending on camera angle? If not, I really hope you guys are giving that priority. I don't experience the issue myself much, but I have personally seen at least 2 popular streamers quit playing the game out of frustration in front of hundreds of people because of this issue. It is literally driving people away from the game.

I hope it gets fixed. I experience it multiple times within only an hour of play time and it literally makes the game unplayable. It is easily fixed by just reloading the area, but that becomes frustrating when it doesn't happen until you are halfway through a dungeon or in the middle of a delve and can't easily walk out and back in again.

Maybe reloading UI will fix it too, I'll have to try it tonight when it inevitably happens again.

Recon4thCav

Happy I canceled my ESO+. Doubt this fixes anything.

RMerlin

Summerset introduced a long list of regression - more than any of the past chapters/DLC. Issues aren't just limited to consoles, PC also has a lot of regressions introduced with this Chapter, including (but not limited to) portions of PvP structures showing as damaged/destroyed even when they aren't (allowing exploiters to bypass a wall and enter into an undamaged keep ), quickslot items sometimes requiring you to press Q twice or more for them to work, the entire city of Bruma randomly disappearing while moving into specific camera positions, a lot of random mini load screens while riding around Dragon keep (and a few other locations, but Dragon's the worst place), and so on...

I'm hoping that these issues are also on ZOS's radar (since after 6 weeks, these are still unresolved, making us wonder if /bug reports actually make it to the dev team, or they are just trashed by the QA/support team).