Any Plans to Add Capacity in Light of the Current Crisis?

bellanca6561n

Forgive me if I've missed an announcement, but given the millions of people being sent home and/or being told to shelter in place, clearly lots more folks will be online a lot more.

Most online game companies have issued statements regarding the pandemic. Discord has added capacity too. I've even received announcements from the studio that makes IL-2 in Moscow.

Bottom line: what are ZOS's plans to add capacity for this game during this crisis?

actosh

ESO is in permacrisis since release, and they either need to half the amount of calculations the game needs to do on the server, or maybe give up that megaserver idea and split it into different servers.

Performance was ok a long long time ago.


Short version: They *** up a lot so that ppl keep staying away with all the recent "performance" changes, so i think thats their plan.

oxygen_thief

they will present a mask as an outfit just for 16000 crowns

xxthir13enxx

VaranisArano

You do recall that it took ZOS around 6 months to add capacity to PC/EU even when they saw the increased demand coming, right?

L2Pissue

They are minimizing the capacity every update 🤦‍♂️
New content on the same infrastructure

Stevie6

I think I will give this game a rest for a while. Probably give Elite Dangerous / EVE Online some more time now. The lag, skills not firing, and desync have played it’s part in deciding to look elsewhere. Maybe by June the Devs will have a solid fix by then. Good luck.

redspecter23

If they could add capacity that easily they would have done it years ago when it became apparent it was necessary. Do people think they have some switch in the office that is currently toggled in the "lag" position and they can just turn it off?

Sanctum74

Added server capacity is not going to fix years of neglected coding

GenjiraX

Add capacity? They need to send their workers home to be safe and if systems go down and take a few days to fix then so be it. For our part, those of us who can afford crowns and subscriptions should buy them to help keep the show on the road.

Hallothiel

GenjiraX wrote: »

Add capacity? They need to send their workers home to be safe and if systems go down and take a few days to fix then so be it. For our part, those of us who can afford crowns and subscriptions should buy them to help keep the show on the road.

Ffs! A sensible response - are you new?!

Stevie6

They need to delete the server and start over. If they have a copy of the server from 2017, they should use it. It was fine back then.

CMDR_Un1k0rn

GenjiraX wrote: »

Add capacity? They need to send their workers home to be safe and if systems go down and take a few days to fix then so be it. For our part, those of us who can afford crowns and subscriptions should buy them to help keep the show on the road.

Seriously. This guys.

It's a literal video game. If it goes down, it goes down.

Nice to see some people value their video game more than the health of other people.

This is why I buy a book every week and never read it.

dotme

redspecter23 wrote: »

Do people think they have some switch in the office that is currently toggled in the "lag" position and they can just turn it off?

They did turn it off. It just hasn't taken effect yet due to lag.

Jolipinator

Negotiations with the Hamsters Union are ongoing.

bellanca6561n

I guess then the answer is no.

Never meant to suggest or even imply that they should put their lives at risk for an online game. They may be competing with EA for most hated game company but that's not real hate. Just disappointment.

But keep in mind that adding capacity may not require gatherings of people in the flesh. They're in Hunt Valley, Maryland, after all, probably in the old Microprose offices. Not exactly a population or tech center.

And, based on the design of ESO, they're already experts in social distancing.

Pirateassassin3

I am sure most devs can access the server from home. So they could make changes and stay safe. But we all know the wont do a damn thing !!!

VaranisArano

Pirateassassin3 wrote: »

I am sure most devs can access the server from home. So they could make changes and stay safe. But we all know the wont do a damn thing !!!

What are you expecting, exactly?

When ZOS could actually work at the office, their time frame for adding much needed capacity to PC/EU was half a year, while it took them several months to fix the Groupfinder choking up the whole system under high demand.

Sure, there are things ZOS can do to work on the game remotely.
Realistically? This isn't a company that gets work done quickly even when they can work in the office.

TheFM

They are clearly able to do this, they do it every time there is an event.

mav1234

Would be nice, but understandable there are bigger priorities in employees lives right now

tului78

I wouldn't mind an event. Maybe even tie it to the Knahaten Flu and add a debuff to everyone but increase drops and XP a bit. Not sure how much planning they need to roll out an event, especially if a lot of workers can't contribute from home.

I've always wondered if whatever cloud/server(s) the megaservers run on are at the highest end CPU, RAM, disk speed, etc that is possible or if they're cheaping out and could pay more for 25% more or whatever amount it might be.

tului78

mav1234 wrote: »

Would be nice, but understandable there are bigger priorities in employees lives right now

Perhaps, but once whatever paid leave they have and any government unemployment and additional emergency unemployment runs out they're probably gonna still want paychecks and if they can work from home...

Varana

Paid leave? Government unemployment benefits? They're in the US, what are you talking about? ;D

Sylvermynx

Well, many companies in the US have stepped up to provide that relief. I don't know about ZOS of course.

VaranisArano

I'm guessing here, but I imagine that, even if extra server capacity is immediately available, ZOS would also be competing for that additional capacity with a bunch if other companies and services who have suddenly needed to support a ton more users working/streaming online. User demand shot up all across the board and some of that demand is a lot more crucial than gaming.

(This is somewhat academic for me, since my rural internet provider is already overloaded with demand.)

tului78

VaranisArano wrote: »

I'm guessing here, but I imagine that, even if extra server capacity is immediately available, ZOS would also be competing for that additional capacity with a bunch if other companies and services who have suddenly needed to support a ton more users working/streaming online. User demand shot up all across the board and some of that demand is a lot more crucial than gaming.

If it is like it was years ago when I was in the industry you can pay for guarantees of a minimum level of performance.

Sylvermynx

VaranisArano wrote: »

I'm guessing here, but I imagine that, even if extra server capacity is immediately available, ZOS would also be competing for that additional capacity with a bunch if other companies and services who have suddenly needed to support a ton more users working/streaming online. User demand shot up all across the board and some of that demand is a lot more crucial than gaming.

(This is somewhat academic for me, since my rural internet provider is already overloaded with demand.)

HughesNet emailed me earlier to state:

Our user traffic has doubled over the last week. To improve network performance during this time of extremely high demand, we implemented the following changes on March 18th:


1. Increased speeds for customers who have exceeded their plan data (i.e., we have raised the "caps")
2. Prioritized Cloud based business applications to help people working from home.
3. Online Educational applications have also been prioritized.

I contacted their CS to ask if my use of service to play ESO during the day was an issue; the reply was that a game like this one takes very little available bandwidth, so I was fine. But if they asked me to stop, of course I would.

oxygen_thief

VaranisArano wrote: »

ZOS would also be competing for that additional capacity with a bunch if other companies and services

they wont they will rather sell their own capacity to others