PC-EU Server Update - April 11

Tevlak

Save to say PC EU upgrade either is not workin or never happened

DJfriede

The only upgrade on PC EU is the number of login error messages.

CallmeSunny

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

Everyone,

After seeing the commentary about the queuing system being enabled on the PC EU servers yesterday, I thought I'd let everyone know what has been leading up to this, and what we are doing to alleviate the situation.

Please note that the situation that led to the queuing system being enabled is not related to the overall client performance issues that we talked about at the end of last year - those engine optimizations are still underway and hopefully you'll see them in-game at some point this year. The situation that led to queuing has nothing to do with client performance - it is because our servers are overloaded.

Starting in January we've had an influx of new players - we've have had some of our highest weekly average user, daily active user, and peak concurrent user numbers in the last six weeks since we launched on console back in 2015. So, it was in January when EU players started noticing degraded server performance. We made tweaks and updates to the service to free up extra database resources and other boosts to performance, which is why you have been seeing more and longer maintenance outages than normal in the last couple of months.

However, in late March, we really saw a huge spike in the number of users logging in, which led to too many concurrent users for the platform to effectively support. As a result, players on PC EU have seen a severe degradation in service. This degradation started in January, but has greatly accelerated in the last week - lag spikes, disconnects, inability to zone from instance to instance, weird interactions with LFG, etc. These problems are greatly exacerbated by having serious load on the servers, as there are too many users for the hardware to handle.

A quick aside: these problems affect the PC EU more than the other megaservers because it has our highest peak concurrency of any of our six megaservers. The reason: the EU is a highly PC-centric gaming market - and also because almost all of our EU players are located in two time zones. Compared to the North American servers, where there are four time zones to spread out the "peak playing time", the EU has almost all its users logged in at the same time, which leads to very high peak usage.

So, here is what we are doing to fix the problem:

• Short term, we are turning on our queuing system (as you saw yesterday), which will cap the maximum number of players allowed on the PC EU megaserver. You should only see the queue at peak times, when demand is higher than the hardware supports. As was posted yesterday, the estimated time to login may not be 100% accurate, but it will give you an idea of how big the line is. ALSO: if you are disconnected from the server for any reason, you should have a twenty minute grace period to log back in and "skip" the queue.
• Longer term: we are spinning up additional hardware in both our NA and EU datacenters in order to support our growing user base. We expect the time frame for this to be about two weeks, but we will keep you posted. And yes, we are adding more capacity to PC NA as well as EU because we are rapidly approaching the same problem in NA and want to get ahead of it. We will also be looking very closely at our Console megaservers to make sure they have enough capacity.

I know it is frustrating to be stuck in queue, but it is better to do this than have the entire service be unstable and frustrating for everyone. We will do everything we can to get the new hardware online as quickly as possible and stop queuing and have the service return to normal. Stay tuned for details.

Matt

CallmeSunny

Hi Matt,

Thank you for the update.
Please do not take this comment offensive , but here are my thoughts:
I have pre-ordered this game before launch, and been an eso plus player ever since.
I do understand that population increased, which means me as a user and you as a service provider , we both happy.
I would like to mention most players I got to know in the past 5 years, are working people , or having family, with limited
time able to play. Since we are paying for this service, we would like to decide when and how long we would like to play,
and sometimes the queuing time is just as long as we dedicated to play.
I know i am not professional, but more subscribers, more players = need bigger server, to have the same experience.
Thank you for listening,
and no offence.
Callmesunny

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

Game constantly bugging, if it's not one thing it's another...Meh.

Tried to do a BG in the week, wasn't possible -> friends just logout frustrated and play something else.

RobZha

Hey Matt,

Please try getting a Templar character and going into pvp when it's pop locked on a weekend or during an event, and try playing for a couple of hours using puncturing sweep regularly in fights.

If you do maybe you could let us know how it went? Maybe you could tell us if the hits with the skill connected regularly, or if not maybe that you had a few problems? And what you or anyone else at ZOS is planning on doing to fix it if so?

You could do the same with several other skills as well I think, dizzying swing being one of them. Or if you find yourself in a keep battle with one or two ball groups around, maybe you'll get lucky and find that you can't even barswap here and there.

There has to be some way that major pvp errors in an online game can be fixed by a company with the resources that ZOS has.

LeinadOrarogep

Again @ZOS_GinaBruno, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom it would be really appreciated if we could have any kind of information whatsoever about what kind of upgrades have been made to the EU server, especially in light of today's outage.

ManwithBeard9

LeinadOrarogep wrote: »

Again @ZOS_GinaBruno, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom it would be really appreciated if we could have any kind of information whatsoever about what kind of upgrades have been made to the EU server, especially in light of today's outage.

There are no upgrades. They never used the word upgrade. They said they would increase capacity.

FlyingSwan

Remediation went well then @ZOS_MattFiror - I politely refer you to my post prior to the remediation activities, where I pointed out you lack credibility, and we, therefore, did not believe anything material would change.

Androconium

"Take pride in your work, I always say"

WoRei

Dungeon finder completely broken on PC/EU (once again !!!)

When will you finally install that new hardware?
Cant be that hard to get new hardware ... or are you building it yourself?

DaveMc

Cant log in to EU getting the 103 error

Verbal_Earthworm

Still waiting for a new server, an apology and a pony.

FierceSam

Verbal_Earthworm wrote: »

Still waiting for a new server, an apology and a pony.

My bet’s on the pony coming first - and then dying at a ripe old age before you get either of the others.

Clarkieson

so who can actually login to EU?

todokete

got in, finder broken for 20 minutes, got dced, can't log back in

ZOS_JesC

Greetings, we've removed a few comments that contained personal insults and baiting in nature. This is a friendly reminder to keep comments on topic and free of inappropriate language.

daemonios

I started playing ESO during one of the last beta stages. Was here for early access and subscribed continuously through the major change to One Tamriel. I ended up leaving the game for two years because I was unhappy with the focus on the crown store and the decreasing size of content updates. Came back last year to find much unchanged and increased performance issues.

ZOS have not delivered on their promise to ramp up communication. They have not delivered on the issues with the PC-EU server. I've never bought crowns because I am firmly against this form of monetization, but I bought the base game and its expansions and have subscribed for the entire time I've played. I can't justify continuing to spend my money on a game where the only thing that seems to matter is crown store sales. ZOS are of course free to choose this as their main source of income, but I am also free to opt out of it.

I have not pre-ordered Elsweyr and have now cancelled my subscription. Unfortunately it seems to be my only way of showing ZOS that I don't feel they're delivering my money's worth, since myriads of threads in the official community forums simply go unanswered, the actions that have been taken recently have been ineffective at best, and there is no word on any further actions planned or underway.

FierceSam

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

.
[*] Longer term: we are spinning up additional hardware in both our NA and EU datacenters in order to support our growing user base. We expect the time frame for this to be about two weeks, but we will keep you posted. And yes, we are adding more capacity to PC NA as well as EU because we are rapidly approaching the same problem in NA and want to get ahead of it. We will also be looking very closely at our Console megaservers to make sure they have enough capacity.
[/list]
I know it is frustrating to be stuck in queue, but it is better to do this than have the entire service be unstable and frustrating for everyone. We will do everything we can to get the new hardware online as quickly as possible and stop queuing and have the service return to normal. Stay tuned for details.

Matt

Hey Matt,

Just over 2 weeks since the original post and the end of the month. It would be really helpful to get some kind of an update on the progress of this from ZOS’s perspective. Like you say, you want to keep us posted.

Has the work been completed or is it still ongoing?

Has the performance improved to the extent that you are satisfied with it?

What plans/processes have been put in place to ensure this does not happen again?

Cążki

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

Everyone,
We've been working very hard on prepping additional server hardware to accommodate our burgeoning player base, especially in the EU

error 103
pings lags latency same
af bug same
af not swap players sometimes same
emials tp need same
cancel items tp need same
disconnections same
bg penalty for unlogic bugs in bg same
i heard cyro has lags to same


Mates did something was change ? Or I miss something ?

LeconDC

Still can't queue. Upgrades done yet?

necropola

LiraTaurwen

Another day another fail... waiting 20 minutes to get on a BG cause of "someone declined" just to be ported to a lag fest where pressing skills and changing weapon didn't work everytime... fun!

chaz

Hey zos people, since you seem to be hammering away at the issues I had, I decided to renew my subscription.



YAAAAAAAAA!


Don't mess it up!

GrimClaw

Still nothing upgraded yet and next addon is knocking on your door.

ManwithBeard9

GrimClaw wrote: »

Still nothing upgraded yet and next addon is knocking on your door.

They never said there would be an upgrade. Just that they were expanding capacity.

LiraTaurwen

ManwithBeard9 wrote: »

GrimClaw wrote: »

Still nothing upgraded yet and next addon is knocking on your door.

They never said there would be an upgrade. Just that they were expanding capacity.

What does this sounds like to you?

We've been working very hard on prepping additional server hardware to accommodate our burgeoning player base, especially in the EU - and I'm very happy to say that we've done it much faster than anticipated. We are wrapping up the work, and will have the additional capacity online for PC EU players before the upcoming Easter holiday weekend.

Here's how it will work:
We will take PC EU offline tomorrow (Thursday, April 18) morning at 12pm CEST/6am EST for maintenance to configure the megaserver to recognize the additional hardware. Stay tuned for messaging from our Social and Community teams on how long the outage will be.

One could say that adding hardware to expand capacity is an upgrade I guess. None of that matters though because it seems that what they did was... NOTHING! EU server is still crap and now ZoS has been quiet as if everything was allright.

KoultouraS

ManwithBeard9 wrote: »

GrimClaw wrote: »

Still nothing upgraded yet and next addon is knocking on your door.

They never said there would be an upgrade. Just that they were expanding capacity.

They also said that this was a MASSIVE open world PVP, focused on big scale battles.
All I can see in Cyrodill is something that resembles a Powerpoint presentation rather than a video game , due to extreme lag, and faulty hardware.
Shall we reconsider what did they promised and did they deliver for once, since the very begining?

Androconium

KoultouraS wrote: »

ManwithBeard9 wrote: »

GrimClaw wrote: »

Still nothing upgraded yet and next addon is knocking on your door.

They never said there would be an upgrade. Just that they were expanding capacity.

They also said that this was a MASSIVE open world PVP, focused on big scale battles.
All I can see in Cyrodill is something that resembles a Powerpoint presentation rather than a video game , due to extreme lag, and faulty hardware.
Shall we reconsider what did they promised and did they deliver for once, since the very begining?

Is the triangle thing mad at the tube?

Octopuss

I wonder where the server upgrades ended up instead of where they were supposed to get to.
It sure does not look like anything changes - or actually yes, for the worse.
I completely gave up on playing today.