Awful ping + lag spikes

dmvab

My ping was constant 130 up to 150ms, now is 220+ ms, nothing on my ISP has changed or even on my computer

InfaM

Cyrodiil is unplayable, asked many players in there and everyone suffer from 2 to 4 seconds delay when using skills , myself included on EU server.

Servers need to be upgraded to something decent because right now Cyrodiil is a game mode that they can't handle...

NeKryXe

I pre-ordered the next chapter, I have the ESO+ paid, and I've been unable to play since Updated 25.

I already tried my 3 routers, I even bought a new one this week, I tested with 2 ISPs, all requested ports are open, no anti-virus, no firewall, the game is freshly installed, the system and drivers are updated and still... I always get a ping between 350 to 999+.

I can't even play PVE and ZOS keeps counting my paid ESO+ as if i'm able to play. it really feels like a fraud!

If they don't wand an ESO+ player in the game, at least they should let us pause the ESO+ until the game is fixed.

Cronopoly

Same. Xbox cannot login. After 10 minutes it times out. I'd love to have an intelligent conversation with one of their Firewall technicians about their inner and outer DMZ(s) and login servers to assist in troubleshooting, but "i understand that should be super private.

My 21 year experience is helping enterprise level large corporations permanently fix Networking related issues with tens of thousands of concurrent sessions via Large Routers, Aces, Content Switches, Enterprise level Firewalls (DMZs / NAT Tables, etc )...

Or the game could just be full.

InfaM

Cronopoly wrote: »

Same. Xbox cannot login. After 10 minutes it times out. I'd love to have an intelligent conversation with one of their Firewall technicians about their inner and outer DMZ(s) and login servers to assist in troubleshooting, but "i understand that should be super private.

My 21 year experience is helping enterprise level large corporations permanently fix Networking related issues with tens of thousands of concurrent sessions via Large Routers, Aces, Content Switches, Enterprise level Firewalls (DMZs / NAT Tables, etc )...

Or the game could just be full.

They should hire you or anyone able to do something, because ZOS doesnt seems to be able to do anything on their own when it comes to cyrodiil lag... their servers simply sucks right now, cyrodiil still not playable after years of never fixed lags, today even dodge rolls are laggy with 5+sec delay...

Olupajmibanan

No changes after maintenance.

My usual stable ping before April 2020 was 87, now it's 145. That would be fine if not for periodic ping spikes. My ping goes to 400-500 like every 2 minutes when nothing is happening around. In combat, especialy in trials, the ping spikes are much more frequent, like every 30 seconds. I don't get disconnected tho. During the spike, my ping goes to 400-500 for like 10 seconds and than gets back to stable 145.

Did traceroute, nothing special found: whole route from my PC to Zenimax Frankfurt takes +-80 miliseconds. Guildmates from same country (Slovakia) that live in different cities, have different ISPs and different nodes along the route to Zenimax are suffering the exact same symptoms - periodic pig spikes. They solved the issue by buying expensive VPN (unaffordable for me).

Is there anything I can try aside from excrement Zeminax advices that I tried million times such as port forwarding, power-cycling the router or deleting the ProgramData folder, please?

ZOS_FalcoYamaoka

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Olupajmibanan

Additional observation:
No ping problems occur during morning on PC/EU. No lag, no ping spikes, smooth gameplay. Ping spikes start around 12:00 (UTC+2) and last till like midnight. Been observing this for 4 consecutive days with 100% replication rate.

To provide complete info, I've been observing periodic ping spikes in every zone including overland. I haven't stepped into Cyrodiil or any PvP activity. Ping spikes get much worse in trials. The biggest ping spikes with extreme frequency (like every 20 seconds) occur in veteran Sunspire (Hard mode) especialy in portal on Nahviintas. The second worse is veteran Cloudrest+3. Veteran Asylum+2 is +- as laggy as overland, not so bad as in SS or CR but definitely not better than overland.


I would really like to believe that problem is on our/ISP end. But all the symptoms tell otherwise.

Mysanne

I'm also having crazy ping spikes, and getting kicked from the server consistently...
I can't play anymore after 8 am.

DharmaXII

I've been having this problem as well. Big lag spikes. Can't dismount, interact or talk to npcs, resulting in a kick from server after all. This only happened very recently.

oxygen_thief

Olupajmibanan wrote: »

I would really like to believe that problem is on our/ISP end. But all the symptoms tell otherwise.

its not our isp its zos's isp problems

chuable

I found something unusual on the networktraffic path to ZOS server

Linking my findings here:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/523990/pc-na-server-routing-to-milan-italy-high-latency#latest

Looks like ZOS team needs to reach out to their edge node/ISP/network providers upstream as to why traffic routing is going through EU when source origin is coming from US west coast

MilkJugg24

It appears that ZeniMax's game director released a blog that put some spotlight on this issue here: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/58045?

I think a lot of these issues boil down to increased network traffic during busy times of day. I've always had 110ms to the NA megaserver, but none of the issues you guys are mentioning have affected me personally. I also live in a rural area that doesn't get heavily impacted by surrounding residents using our bandwidth. The COVID-19 stay-at-home orders has been putting a huge strain on networks worldwide, and I hope you guys are understanding in that a majority of intermittent issues are not directly at the fault of ZeniMax, but rather their's or your's internet service providers. Regardless, knowing that the issue is within their scope is about as much as we can hope for at this point.

Tammany

Issue still stands, every day is a spike from 70ms to 900+ every 20-30 seconds.
Nah, its not "busy internet" thing, cause in the same time in other games i have standart low ms as usual.

Darkenarlol

since last update instead of my common 80-100ping i had

999+ ping spikes evry 10-20sec in any zone, any combat encounter, any time of the day/night

Tammany

Today i was playing Cyro for like 3 hours, zero lags.
Qued for rbg, changed instance and started lagging immediately, 70ms to 900 ms every 20 seconds.

Yeah, clearly heavy internet problem, sure.

MilkJugg24

I was also having this issue myself last night while solo questing in Summerset. However, I did not feel the +999ms ping issue. It felt like my stable 111ms I'm used to.

Therefore, I think that there is a visual bug with the latency panel right now. Whenever I get +999ms latency, it's usually a sign that my entire network disconnected. When you see +999ms on the panel, please test to see if you are lagging. I have a feeling that the visual error is causing more emotional stress than it is physically.

Tammany

MilkJugg24 wrote: »

Therefore, I think that there is a visual bug with the latency panel right now. Whenever I get +999ms latency, it's usually a sign that my entire network disconnected. When you see +999ms on the panel, please test to see if you are lagging. I have a feeling that the visual error is causing more emotional stress than it is physically.

What should we test exactly ?
Spike lag happens before 900ms being shown on your screen.

You run with 60 ms. You lag for 2-3 seconds, you unlag, and nly then game shows 900ms wich feels like normal ping, bit spike lag still there, its not visual. I mean i'am pvping and i see people stay on the places, and within next 3 seconds they teleport to real positions and i'am dead or ported back to my place.
This is not a visual bug, problem is here and not about quarantine abused internet, cbecause you can play perfectly without zero delay during peak time, but once you reloged you start spike lagging.

MilkJugg24

@Tammany

Thank you for the clarification. I don't currently participate in PvP, so the only thing I have to go off of is the damage text that pops up when I cast abilities and inventory management. People running-in-place and being rubber-banded after the lag recedes indicates that it's a de-sync with the server, possibly caused by dropped packets due to bad routing. Whether this is at the fault of yours or ZOS's ISP, is unknown.

In the performance blog that was posted earlier this week, the game director stated that server capacity is being added to EU to accommodate the influx of players. Regardless of where you're located, I think the main issue is regarding the data-center ZOS uses, and the ISPs they use to hook into them.

Unfortunately, I don't really have a solution for you, but I hope this discussion helps ZOS work towards a solution. The NA Megaserver is (from what I understand), located in Dallas, which is typically a 65ms ping for myself. I've always had a 110+ms of latency since launch. Therefore, I feel like if I would be equally as frustrated with PvP due to that issue alone. I'm excited yet dreading this upcoming Greymoor launch.

KhajiitiLizard

Well I just spent 10 mins trying to log back in after being disconnected... I think I might have even got every login error...

Tammany

KhajiitiLizard wrote: »

Well I just spent 10 mins trying to log back in after being disconnected... I think I might have even got every login error...

I've tested that lagspike yesterday - every second relog fixes the problem untill you change instane, it may apper again.

MilkJugg24 wrote: »

@Tammany
People running-in-place and being rubber-banded after the lag recedes indicates that it's a de-sync with the server, possibly caused by dropped packets due to bad routing. Whether this is at the fault of yours or ZOS's ISP, is unknown.

It's not possible for me on my side, since every second relog fixes the problem.
It's really easy to reproduce, log Cyro f.e., relog till you get zero spike - game runs witrh stable ms even during peak time (so no heavy servers excuse). Que RBG - when you enter RBG, you start lagging RIGHT there. You can relog the same way, and make instance unlaggable as well, but then when you come back to town or Cyro you start lagspikeing again.
I can make a video with that if it may help to solve the problem.

I feel like its some kind of crap happens upon loging. And to be fair i doubt devs gonna fix it soon - every my ticket with fully explained problem has been answered with "yo check your crappy router good luck bro".
But i dont have router and i mention it as well, simple 100Mb e5 straight to PC.

Alezzzander

Same here.Having in game latency 999+ spikes periodically during last month.. My ping avg 45-55 to 159.100.232.x network.In game latency shows me 90-110.

Alezzzander

Probably i found the source of lag spikes.
Telia link has ~ 50-60 % packet loss.

Alezzzander

and one more:

betonidas

Was anyone able to fing the ping spikes? Game is unplayable for me.

betonidas

fix*

NVNNN

Jesus, have finally managed to register on the forum.

So yeah, I've been having this problem as well: severe lag spikes, sudden jump in latency from the usual 80-120 to 999+ making the game totally unplayable. I've made a research on the matter and here's what's up.

Alezzzander and the others were right to suspect that the problem was in the route. Some of us unlucky enough exchange information with EU Server via certain routes which have this particular so-called "hop" on the way - ae-2-3202.ear2.Frankfurt1.Level3.net (4.69.163.82). This IP address is currently malfunctioning due to Thalos knows what reason and is losing packets severely. It's approximately around 80-99% for me.

Please note that neither you, your local ISP or ZOS is responsible for this malfunction and neither can fix this until the responsible party is involved. This is how it works (from my understanding): You are point A and you send packets of information or are expecting 10 packets of information from point B. These packets have a predetermined route depending on your location (so, from A to B there can be C, D, E in between). The bigger the distance between A and B, the more complex this route becomes gradually increasing the time for these 10 packets to be delivered. I am from Russia, so my route actually has 12 steps in between my PC and EU ESO server.

This particular Frankfurt IP does receive and send packets accordingly, but due to it's malfunction it loses the majority of information, so the server has to request this information again and the lost packets have to be re-sent. It happens until everything required for a proper and responsive gameplay has been sent and received and this is what happens when your in-game latency becomes 999+ and the whole world freezes until you are able to move again.

Yet again, I'm not an expert and there might be multiple ways to resolve the issue, but the only one i found and have been successfully using for the past few days is a VPN service. VPN among all other things allows you to change the route between point A and point B. I am not going to recommend any particular service (just a general tip to avoid any free services in the regard), but i've been able to find a server that allows me to play the game at a x2 less latency than i was able to before this Frankfurt issue. So, if you read online that VPN increases your latency, reduces performance, if you are getting overwhelmed with some technical bs about it - just ignore it. It's all about finding the most fitting route to exchange information between your PC and the ESO server.

Hope it was helpful.

Tammany

Yeah awesome, in additional to eso plus we have to play for vpn >.>

betonidas

VPN doesn't solve the issue for me.

NVNNN

betonidas wrote: »

VPN doesn't solve the issue for me.

You should test different servers and see what route to EU ESO server do they provide. In my case, it took me to test 20 different servers before my latency became perfect.