To be clear regarding questions about Australian servers.

mousekime111rwb17_ESO

We don't actually want an oceanic mega-server - what we want is there to be shards of the NA mega server located in Australia, so where applicable we can play at sub 300MS. This wouldn't affect the cyrodil shards at all, it wouldn't affect the American players at all unless they joined a party who's leader was on an Australian shard. I'd love to hear back some kind of official feedback as to why nothing like this has been implemented and if it's on the roadmap at the moment or not.

Acrolas

The term Megaserver refers to the type of server implementation used in The Elder Scrolls Online.

This differs from most current massively multiplayer games, which typically use separate servers referred to as "shards," in that every player is connected to the same logical server.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Megaserver

mousekime111rwb17_ESO

Acrolas wrote: »

The term Megaserver refers to the type of server implementation used in The Elder Scrolls Online.

This differs from most current massively multiplayer games, which typically use separate servers referred to as "shards," in that every player is connected to the same logical server.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Megaserver

Technically the megaserver is not one single physical server, but rather a network of servers combined into a single logical unit.
A server unit located within Australia could still seamlessly phase people onto a server unit located in America through the Megaserver technology. A simple ping check alongside the current population check when phasing is occurring would prevent Americans from connecting to a server located in Australia.

Ratzkifal

Would that reduce the ping though? It was to my (limited) knowledge that the transatlantic ocean cables are what allows EU players to have a low ping despite the server location in America. An Australian server shard to me sounds like the delay is still there, just that it is now between the shard and the main server rather than your PC

Androconium

Acrolas wrote: »

The term Megaserver refers to the type of server implementation used in The Elder Scrolls Online.

This differs from most current massively multiplayer games, which typically use separate servers referred to as "shards," in that every player is connected to the same logical server.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Megaserver

In ye Olde Worlde Maineframe dayes this was know as 'tightly coupled'.

mousekime111rwb17_ESO

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Would that reduce the ping though? It was to my (limited) knowledge that the transatlantic ocean cables are what allows EU players to have a low ping despite the server location in America. An Australian server shard to me sounds like the delay is still there, just that it is now between the shard and the main server rather than your PC

That implies that all actions and consequences of an individual player are being communicated across all of the server platforms simultaneously which sounds rather in-efficient - when there could be a dozen different phases for a single zone at any given time. I'd have thought that having a server group physically located in Australia could handle all of the tasks required to maintain a single phasing of an area.

kargen27

Might wreak havoc on trial groups? Not that they can't be a mess already I suppose.

mousekime111rwb17_ESO

kargen27 wrote: »

Might wreak havoc on trial groups? Not that they can't be a mess already I suppose.

Could do, but there are workarounds - in wow for instance LFR shoves the group onto whatever server location most people in the group are from (typically an NA one) - and in premade raid pugging Australians tend to advertise that it's an AU realm to avoid people leaving because of the lag.

LadyLethalla

mousekime111rwb17_ESO wrote: »

We don't actually want an oceanic mega-server - what we want is there to be shards of the NA mega server located in Australia, so where applicable we can play at sub 300MS. This wouldn't affect the cyrodil shards at all, it wouldn't affect the American players at all unless they joined a party who's leader was on an Australian shard. I'd love to hear back some kind of official feedback as to why nothing like this has been implemented and if it's on the roadmap at the moment or not.

Why only NA? I'm Australian and I play on EU. The distance from Melbourne to TX is 2000km closer than to Frankfurt - not all that much of a difference really.

swippy

Androconium wrote: »

Acrolas wrote: »

The term Megaserver refers to the type of server implementation used in The Elder Scrolls Online.

This differs from most current massively multiplayer games, which typically use separate servers referred to as "shards," in that every player is connected to the same logical server.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Megaserver

In ye Olde Worlde Maineframe dayes this was know as 'tightly coupled'.

ah yes, before this Worlde Wyde Webbe, back when networks had sophistication and class, and not so many Xes before and after everyone's name. i remember it well, old chap.

lokulin

Acrolas wrote: »

The term Megaserver refers to the type of server implementation used in The Elder Scrolls Online.

This differs from most current massively multiplayer games, which typically use separate servers referred to as "shards," in that every player is connected to the same logical server.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Megaserver

Having a Megaserver and "sharded" instances that are geographically diverse are not mutually exclusive. With anycast addresses, account broker type systems, and geoip lookups you can mask that people are connecting to different physical servers while presenting the illusion that there is one single server.

Googles use of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as IP addresses for public DNS servers are a very rudimentary example of this. the challenges for developing this type of technology are not trivial but doable none the less. I doubt ZOS would see the payback for implementing something like this now they are this far down the route they have taken unfortunately.

lokulin

LadyLethalla wrote: »

mousekime111rwb17_ESO wrote: »

We don't actually want an oceanic mega-server - what we want is there to be shards of the NA mega server located in Australia, so where applicable we can play at sub 300MS. This wouldn't affect the cyrodil shards at all, it wouldn't affect the American players at all unless they joined a party who's leader was on an Australian shard. I'd love to hear back some kind of official feedback as to why nothing like this has been implemented and if it's on the roadmap at the moment or not.

Why only NA? I'm Australian and I play on EU. The distance from Melbourne to TX is 2000km closer than to Frankfurt - not all that much of a difference really.

If it was implemented for NA then there is no reason it couldn't be done for EU as well. It could even be possible to merge EU and NA in this instance. I am guessing the reason ZOS has not done this is that the technology and expertise required to do this type of thing is not cheap and probably beyond what their current game engine could handle.

Bhaal5

Do what ever guild wars 2, whatever they did is working, even with their "megaserver".

Playing in Australia and sit around 180-240 with a large meta event in guild wars 2 compared to Eso on the other hand, with a LOT less going on, going towards the 600+

Alinhbo_Tyaka

Androconium wrote: »

Acrolas wrote: »

The term Megaserver refers to the type of server implementation used in The Elder Scrolls Online.

This differs from most current massively multiplayer games, which typically use separate servers referred to as "shards," in that every player is connected to the same logical server.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Megaserver

In ye Olde Worlde Maineframe dayes this was know as 'tightly coupled'.

Using Channel to Channel adapters. It was called OS/VS1 and OS/VS2 when I started my career in operating system development.