Upcoming PC NA Datacenter Hardware Replacement

DaisyRay

sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Thank goodness someone said what I was thinking. I think it is utterly ridiculous to expect free things over them fixing the game. Something people have been making countless videos about. While I agree it should have been done, it is a big job and I cannot imagine how much time and work is going into this project. I appreciate zos for doing this and hope it will make my pvp experience more fun. I do however think they should give an extra day for people to get their bids in for auction traders and give the daily reward that people may have missed, but anything further is just silly.

See you all in game!

Gaeliannas

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sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Well TBH, players have been asking for performance improvements, which this isn't. This maintenance only benefits ZOS.

Sachsen71

Gaeliannas wrote: »

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sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Well TBH, players have been asking for performance improvements, which this isn't. This maintenance only benefits ZOS.

Your comment is nonsensical. They said they are replacing hardware to avoid unexpected downtime in the game. In what world does that only benefit ZOS? If the game goes down less than it otherwise would have, how does that not benefit players?

vsrs_au

Gaeliannas wrote: »

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sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Well TBH, players have been asking for performance improvements, which this isn't. This maintenance only benefits ZOS.

It benefits every PC/NA player, because new hardware means less server downtime due to hardware faults. The existing hardware was about a decade old.

Merenwen_812

be warned. There is a working Q

Sylvermynx

Merenwen_812 wrote: »

be warned. There is a working Q

It was a quick one though for me - 6 seconds on the first account; 1 minute on the second one. Grabbed my daily rewards and logged off so others can get in. Back to normal tomorrow.

Gaeliannas

Sachsen71 wrote: »

Gaeliannas wrote: »

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sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Well TBH, players have been asking for performance improvements, which this isn't. This maintenance only benefits ZOS.

Your comment is nonsensical. They said they are replacing hardware to avoid unexpected downtime in the game. In what world does that only benefit ZOS? If the game goes down less than it otherwise would have, how does that not benefit players?

Well when you can barely play when it is up, it really doesn't matter how much it is up. Also, how often has the game unexpectedly crashed in your memory, in mine it is zero, so they are fixing an issue that basically doesn't exist from a player perspective. BTW, bad patches and updates don't count for unexpected downtime, that is just poor execution and has zero to do with hardware.

Stalwart385

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Sachsen71 wrote: »

Gaeliannas wrote: »

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sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Well TBH, players have been asking for performance improvements, which this isn't. This maintenance only benefits ZOS.

Your comment is nonsensical. They said they are replacing hardware to avoid unexpected downtime in the game. In what world does that only benefit ZOS? If the game goes down less than it otherwise would have, how does that not benefit players?

Well when you can barely play when it is up, it really doesn't matter how much it is up. Also, how often has the game unexpectedly crashed in your memory, in mine it is zero, so they are fixing an issue that basically doesn't exist from a player perspective. BTW, bad patches and updates don't count for unexpected downtime, that is just poor execution and has zero to do with hardware.

That's pretty fortunate. In my experience, you are lucky to get through a trial without a couple of ppl crashing. Also switching toons to do writs commonly leads to at least one crash/disconnect at a loading screen.

Gaeliannas

Stalwart385 wrote: »

Gaeliannas wrote: »

Sachsen71 wrote: »

Gaeliannas wrote: »

.

sinnereso wrote: »

Scaletho wrote: »

I really hope ESO decides to gives us some compensation for almost a entire day in maintenance! I'll lost the endeavors and other stuff because today is almost over to me. I don't live in US or Canada, btw.

Why should u get compensation? We've all been asking for system upgrades etc. When they finally do it you want compensation for the time it takes them to swap the hardware and make sure its running properly?

Well TBH, players have been asking for performance improvements, which this isn't. This maintenance only benefits ZOS.

Your comment is nonsensical. They said they are replacing hardware to avoid unexpected downtime in the game. In what world does that only benefit ZOS? If the game goes down less than it otherwise would have, how does that not benefit players?

Well when you can barely play when it is up, it really doesn't matter how much it is up. Also, how often has the game unexpectedly crashed in your memory, in mine it is zero, so they are fixing an issue that basically doesn't exist from a player perspective. BTW, bad patches and updates don't count for unexpected downtime, that is just poor execution and has zero to do with hardware.

That's pretty fortunate. In my experience, you are lucky to get through a trial without a couple of ppl crashing. Also switching toons to do writs commonly leads to at least one crash/disconnect at a loading screen.

That is a performance issue, like I originally said, and not something this hardware refresh will address, they plainly stated that. For the lag, freezes, disconnects, skills not working... for that you need to wait for another year, while they work on optimizing their code.

surfcat

alphasquid wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

It's a 386SX Windows 95 box shoved under Matt's desk. He uses it as a footrest in the afternoons while drinking his coffee...

I love the fact you used a 386SX instead of the much better 386DX. You are a person that knows their computer history.

You sure? I managed to squeeze windows for workgroups 3.11 on a 286 back in the day... SMOOOOOOTHEEEEEE..... upgrade that bad boy to max memory, maybe 4mb, yes i said MEGABYTES, with some external serial connected hard disk space.... we be FLYIN'!!!!!

Sylvermynx

surfcat wrote: »

alphasquid wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

It's a 386SX Windows 95 box shoved under Matt's desk. He uses it as a footrest in the afternoons while drinking his coffee...

I love the fact you used a 386SX instead of the much better 386DX. You are a person that knows their computer history.

You sure? I managed to squeeze windows for workgroups 3.11 on a 286 back in the day... SMOOOOOOTHEEEEEE..... upgrade that bad boy to max memory, maybe 4mb, yes i said MEGABYTES, with some external serial connected hard disk space.... we be FLYIN'!!!!!

Heh. My first machine was a Xerox with DOS 3.2 or something (hey, this was back in 1984.... I don't exactly remember now....) A couple years later, I "graduated" to a 286 of some sort, still had just floppy drives. A year later, I added a hard drive - I think it might have been 2mb. Yep.... I was ecstatic. After that I built my own boxes for a couple decades, until I got to the point where I just did NOT want to mess with it. And now, I just call my guy David and tell him what I want. Got a really great new rig all set up to ship in the fall - and I hope husband doesn't divorce me over the cost!

oldbobdude

I play my EU toon when NA is down for maintenance. The infrastructure replacement may have taken longer than estimated but EU is playable. I farmed ARX for Medusa, did my daily chores and some questing.

NanoTechnicianHQ

I was starting to wonder what was going on, thanks for the headsup on how things are progressing!

FlopsyPrince

Would those of you who think the outage is just fine or even great accept the same outages from your electricity provider? Your Internet provider? An entertainment source you use a lot of?

chaz

Lag is Horrible, rubber banding forever, I can't even play now.

LalMirchi

I would like to thank the team for the update.

ceiron

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Would those of you who think the outage is just fine or even great accept the same outages from your electricity provider? Your Internet provider? An entertainment source you use a lot of?

Its completely different as thats a main service. Eso is a luxury option. Also a lot of people live where they regularly have rolling black outs. Planned outages otherwise are generally a network failure due to an accident or weather etc. The companies act as fast as possible to rectify and also offer compensation appropriately. Mostly here in the uk as its in the contracts and regulated etc

You can choose to leave eso at any point. Find another game. Or just not.

You can not just switch power networks or fibre lines ...

You can come off the grid yes or use a different type of isp etc but its not something you can just abandon etc

deleted221205-002626

Overall feels better everywhere but ive notced 3 seemingly random super slow zonings i cant explain like nearly 1min to zone.

FlopsyPrince

ceiron wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Would those of you who think the outage is just fine or even great accept the same outages from your electricity provider? Your Internet provider? An entertainment source you use a lot of?

Its completely different as thats a main service. Eso is a luxury option. Also a lot of people live where they regularly have rolling black outs. Planned outages otherwise are generally a network failure due to an accident or weather etc. The companies act as fast as possible to rectify and also offer compensation appropriately. Mostly here in the uk as its in the contracts and regulated etc

You can choose to leave eso at any point. Find another game. Or just not.

You can not just switch power networks or fibre lines ...

You can come off the grid yes or use a different type of isp etc but its not something you can just abandon etc

Not true. Internet is not a "main service" in the strict sense. Nor are other entertainment sources, as I also noted.

My point is that people would not be so tolerant of this in other areas, but they are for MMOs. That means MMO providers (far beyond ZOS) don't pay sufficient reliability to uptime and the ability to update without bringing it all down.

Ramber

So we're getting 2012 servers replaces with... 2012 servers? Any hardware upgrades would improve performance no matter how bad the code so this is pretty much what they are saying. Secondary market replacements i assume. Ah well we still have a game.

vsrs_au

Ramber wrote: »

So we're getting 2012 servers replaces with... 2012 servers? Any hardware upgrades would improve performance no matter how bad the code so this is pretty much what they are saying. Secondary market replacements i assume. Ah well we still have a game.

Can you clarify the question at the start of your post ? Why would ZOS be looking for 10-year old hardware to replace the current hardware ? That makes no sense.

Alvalanna

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Not true. Internet is not a "main service" in the strict sense. Nor are other entertainment sources, as I also noted.

My point is that people would not be so tolerant of this in other areas, but they are for MMOs. That means MMO providers (far beyond ZOS) don't pay sufficient reliability to uptime and the ability to update without bringing it all down.

I think you are confused about how upgrades work. You cannot replace hardware without disconnecting the old hardware. Therefore, the system has to be brought down. The same happens with upgrading software. It is not unique to MMOs. If you think about upgrading Windows, you cannot use your computer while doing the upgrade. When I worked in IT, we brought the system down at night to do upgrades. Since MMOs are 24/7, that is not possible.

Elsonso

Alvalanna wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Not true. Internet is not a "main service" in the strict sense. Nor are other entertainment sources, as I also noted.

My point is that people would not be so tolerant of this in other areas, but they are for MMOs. That means MMO providers (far beyond ZOS) don't pay sufficient reliability to uptime and the ability to update without bringing it all down.

I think you are confused about how upgrades work. You cannot replace hardware without disconnecting the old hardware. Therefore, the system has to be brought down. The same happens with upgrading software. It is not unique to MMOs. If you think about upgrading Windows, you cannot use your computer while doing the upgrade. When I worked in IT, we brought the system down at night to do upgrades. Since MMOs are 24/7, that is not possible.

You cannot replace hardware without disconnecting it, that is correct. However, there are no Rules that say that ZOS could not have designed the megaserver to be up and running, with players online playing the game, the entire time they were working on it Tuesday.

I mean, it isn't like the hardware that they purchased to run the megaserver came with no hot plug capabilities. This is enterprise level stuff, based on the pics. It is likely easier to buy it with that capability than without it. They could have been upgrading "all the hardware in their datacenter" every day this week without us even knowing. (Edit... Until I realized what they had done, I actually expected that they _were_ doing this regularly over the last 8 years...)

Ask them why they did not design the game to have a higher availability, but it is probably cost and complexity with no practical benefit to make the extra uptime worth it.

FlopsyPrince

Alvalanna wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Not true. Internet is not a "main service" in the strict sense. Nor are other entertainment sources, as I also noted.

My point is that people would not be so tolerant of this in other areas, but they are for MMOs. That means MMO providers (far beyond ZOS) don't pay sufficient reliability to uptime and the ability to update without bringing it all down.

I think you are confused about how upgrades work. You cannot replace hardware without disconnecting the old hardware. Therefore, the system has to be brought down. The same happens with upgrading software. It is not unique to MMOs. If you think about upgrading Windows, you cannot use your computer while doing the upgrade. When I worked in IT, we brought the system down at night to do upgrades. Since MMOs are 24/7, that is not possible.

I worked on a very important sales website that did exactly that: Swap hardware while the site was live. It was quite challenging to get to that point, but it can be done.

I am not sure that ESO is designed to do that and changing it may be quite difficult, but that would be one of my top priorities if I were in charge, at least conceptually. All MMOs seem to take the "long outages at times for updates/upgrades" now so I am sure management doesn't feel huge pressure for such a change. (It is ultimately a management decision.)

Remember that lots of things get upgraded and are 24/7, so that argument isn't accurate.

FlopsyPrince

Elsonso wrote: »

Alvalanna wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Not true. Internet is not a "main service" in the strict sense. Nor are other entertainment sources, as I also noted.

My point is that people would not be so tolerant of this in other areas, but they are for MMOs. That means MMO providers (far beyond ZOS) don't pay sufficient reliability to uptime and the ability to update without bringing it all down.

I think you are confused about how upgrades work. You cannot replace hardware without disconnecting the old hardware. Therefore, the system has to be brought down. The same happens with upgrading software. It is not unique to MMOs. If you think about upgrading Windows, you cannot use your computer while doing the upgrade. When I worked in IT, we brought the system down at night to do upgrades. Since MMOs are 24/7, that is not possible.

You cannot replace hardware without disconnecting it, that is correct. However, there are no Rules that say that ZOS could not have designed the megaserver to be up and running, with players online playing the game, the entire time they were working on it Tuesday.

I mean, it isn't like the hardware that they purchased to run the megaserver came with no hot plug capabilities. This is enterprise level stuff, based on the pics. It is likely easier to buy it with that capability than without it. They could have been upgrading "all the hardware in their datacenter" every day this week without us even knowing. (Edit... Until I realized what they had done, I actually expected that they _were_ doing this regularly over the last 8 years...)

Ask them why they did not design the game to have a higher availability, but it is probably cost and complexity with no practical benefit to make the extra uptime worth it.

The last part is a key point. The motivation of competitive pressure is not there for such continuous availability. Otherwise more MMOs would not need these outages that exist across the field, as far as I am aware.

Retrofitting a system for the ability to take components out of service without stopping the service must be done up front or as part of a major refitting. It would take strong competitive pressure to do this for management to want to spend the money most likely.

It is far easier to just shut it all off, replace whatever and then bring it all back up.

Note that my posts are saying everyone should charge ZOS with pitchforks over outages, but that we should also not be as "that is just the way it is." Noting things should be better at least has a chance of changing things over time. Complete acceptance means nothing will likely ever change.

Shagreth

The European megaserver has so many issues, can't wait for this. Though I'd like for an actual full replacement of the hardware, but that will probably never happen. My biggest issue is ping, playing with 100 plus ping is unacceptable. All my other games run max 50. Upgrades will sadly not fix that.

Sylvermynx

I'd kill for 100 ping....

LashanW

I'd really like to see some sort of rough estimate on when EU would get the new hardware.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

I'd kill for 100 ping....

Same.
In my experience PvE is playable with upto 350ms ping. I've been doing trifecta progressions around 310ms. It's not smooth, but still playable, I can do high damage and not die. Upwards of 400ms is not playable with 2 bars, god knows what bar you'd end up on, and what skills actually fired. Safer to stick with 1 bar. Upwards of 500ms is my limit. At that point I'd take a deep breath and uninstall the game.

PvP I won't touch with a 10-foot pole unless ping is below 250.

vsrs_au

LashanW wrote: »

I'd really like to see some sort of rough estimate on when EU would get the new hardware.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

I'd kill for 100 ping....

Same.
In my experience PvE is playable with upto 350ms ping. I've been doing trifecta progressions around 310ms. It's not smooth, but still playable, I can do high damage and not die. Upwards of 400ms is not playable with 2 bars, god knows what bar you'd end up on, and what skills actually fired. Safer to stick with 1 bar. Upwards of 500ms is my limit. At that point I'd take a deep breath and uninstall the game.

PvP I won't touch with a 10-foot pole unless ping is below 250.

Sorry, but I disagree with your first statement. My ping is almost always about 400, and I manage to play PvE.

SimonThesis

This was the magical fix to pvp! NJ Zos, Skill delay is gone in Grayhost!