U21 launch day load times and how you can help

ZOS_GinaBruno

Next Monday with the PC launch of Update 21, we’ll be implementing some code related to ESO’s database that will allow us greater flexibility with updates and maintenance as it continues to grow over time. Due to this change, after downloading the patch on Monday, you are likely to encounter a very long load screen upon first logging into the game. This will only occur the first time you log in after character select, and it will not affect subsequent logins. That said, the length of the load screen could vary anywhere between 5-10 minutes to a couple hours. We understand this is far from ideal and is frustrating on launch day, but it’s a necessary evil just this one time.

Now, this loading is actually directly tied to the total number of bank items, inventory items, and mail attachments everyone has. This means if you’re able to clear out excess items in your inventory and attachments before maintenance begins Monday morning (or even just reduce them), this will greatly help the amount of loading the client will need to do! Additionally, once you’re at the load screen, please just wait until you’ve made it into the game; closing the client will not speed things up.

Thanks for your understanding, everyone, and we look forward to Wrathstone and Update 21 launch in just a few days!

Edit: This may occur during console launch as well.

Starlock

For reference, will this also be the case for the later launches on the console side, @ZOS_GinaBruno ?

MyNameIsElias

ZOS_GinaBruno

Starlock wrote: »

For reference, will this also be the case for the later launches on the console side, @ZOS_GinaBruno ?

Yes, same thing will occur when we launch on console March 12. Similar to PC launch, it'll only be the first time you log in.

JobooAGS

Joyful. Would logging into a toon with essentially nothing on it for the 1st time on monday help avoid as big of a load screen as when I log off such toon and log into my main?


That is I log into my toon with a small inventory, I suffer the load screen from that, then I log off and log in to my main and not suffer the load screen of death?

Starlock

Thanks for the clarification! Gives us on console side a bit more time to prepare.

croakie

Does inventory include crown chests or just what your characters have on them?

WyndStryke

Will there be a warning on the screen?

Only a tiny fraction of people will be aware of this long loading screen in advance, the others will probably assume the game has crashed & kill the process.

I'm guessing that the delay is while inventory is being exported onto another database or something like that.

ManwithBeard9

Well RIP my hoarding

Loralai_907

I'm going to have to set a reminder to login with one of my name holding "characters" instead a real one Monday lol, they have nothing on them of interest at all. I am so going to forget and kick myself, I already know it lol

Nando70

How is this any different from normal log in? Apart from the possible prolonged loading screen up to a couple of hours? And as usual no kind of compensation to the community for losing maybe 1 day login reward. That is a loss for everyone that uses eso+.

ZOS_GinaBruno

JobooAGS wrote: »

Joyful. Would logging into a toon with essentially nothing on it for the 1st time on monday help avoid as big of a load screen as when I log off such toon and log into my main?


That is I log into my toon with a small inventory, I suffer the load screen from that, then I log off and log in to my main and not suffer the load screen of death?

Not really, no. It'll be checking your entire account, so it doesn't matter which toon you log in with.

WyndStryke wrote: »

Will there be a warning on the screen?

Only a tiny fraction of people will be aware of this long loading screen in advance, the others will probably assume the game has crashed & kill the process.

I'm guessing that the delay is while inventory is being exported onto another database or something like that.

We'll be putting up an MotD just for awareness, but at that point, it'll just be an FYI for the load screen.

radiostar

Did she say a couple of hours? LOL

JobooAGS

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

JobooAGS wrote: »

Joyful. Would logging into a toon with essentially nothing on it for the 1st time on monday help avoid as big of a load screen as when I log off such toon and log into my main?


That is I log into my toon with a small inventory, I suffer the load screen from that, then I log off and log in to my main and not suffer the load screen of death?

Not really, no. It'll be checking your entire account, so it doesn't matter which toon you log in with.

WyndStryke wrote: »

Will there be a warning on the screen?

Only a tiny fraction of people will be aware of this long loading screen in advance, the others will probably assume the game has crashed & kill the process.

I'm guessing that the delay is while inventory is being exported onto another database or something like that.

We'll be putting up an MotD just for awareness, but at that point, it'll just be an FYI for the load screen.

Damn, this will suck. All well, at least it is only once. Thanks for clarifiying!

MagicalLija

TIME TO CLEAR OUT EVERYTHING

SantieClaws

It will be a long, long night for this one …

Khajiit also wonders will dumping any furniture in an inventory into a mostly empty space in, say Coldharbour, help at all?

Also storage chests? These count as inventory yes?

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

DirkRavenclaw

Hm, interesting, my Bank has 450 items, my Toons beetween 50 and 200, i have 10 Toons, my Storage chests are all full, luckily i play so much that i can get the Log in reward before Maintenance, hm, Time to clean House on Sunday, Spring Clearance

Jolipinator

Now that's what I call communication. Cheers Gina.

Hiruda

What about players having the game on a SSD ? my loading screen are usually a few seconds
How much i should expect with this patch ?

WyndStryke

Might be a good idea to take screenshots of your most precious items. ... just in case something goes wrong during the process for one of your characters.

We'll be putting up an MotD just for awareness,

Good stuff. Otherwise I'd foresee people repeatedly killing the process and trying to log in again.

phileunderx2

Well I'm borked lol.

Liko

If someone plays on both NA and EU, does this mean we need to sit through it twice?

Marcusorion1

Thanks for the head's up

So, all those alts serving as bank mules...looks like a long wait for many of us ( interested in the storage chest answer too, although not sure what I can do about that anyway! )

And....2 words : craft bag - ouch

JamieAubrey

I get the long load times every patch anyway, I leave it 5 mins, force quit the game and log back in

Zelos

I probably just wont login anymore then:) I already cant get out of combat and loading screens are already a issue. What did you guys do steal code from Anthem?

DirkRavenclaw

JamieAubrey wrote: »

I get the long load times every patch anyway, I leave it 5 mins, force quit the game and log back in

As Gina said that wont help this time, if you dont wait, it starts anew to scan all your Items accountwide, just leave it

Grynnyl

My load time for the first play after a patch is already 10-15 minutes normally. Shudder to think about what this will be.

Not an ultra-important item, but they may want to offset the daily rewards schedule to compensate. This month is pretty lackluster anyway, but some people are still wound fairly tight about those types of issues.

Princess_Ciri

A couple of hours????

How can the game run so poorly that inventory space and bank space is tied to load screens......... like..... what

nathan_bri

I really, really, really hope there will be an on-screen alert with an actual progress bar or some other message telling the user how much longer they have to wait. If you don't do that, then anyone who has not been given this notice (which will probably be quite a few), will be killing and restarting their client over and over to try to solve an unsolvable problem.

Of course, knowing the developers at ZoS and how they manage to mangle the simplest of things sometimes, I am not holding my breath.

To recap:

1. PROGRESS BAR
2. USER ALERT
3. WARNING TO NOT QUIT THE PROGRAM

Turgenev

... By your rules, with all my mules and mail storage set ups, I should be able to login by April.

Akgurd

Please add YouTube/twitch within the loading screen so we can survive the hours of boredom.