HOW TO KILL THE PVP POPULATION ON CONSOLES

MISTFORMBZZZ

I originally posted this when we had the pvp event:

"The game is literally unplayable on greyhost, you cant even cast skills at the gate.
How you want to make pvp attractive for the pve community and new players, if they have to queue up 1 hour to not be able to cast skills ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53A0S32UbU0 "

Since then a lot has changed. As soon the event was over the population on PS EU went down completly.

It was not only the pve players who stopped playing, it was also a huge ammount of pvp players.

Reasons for this, is for example what they did to greyhost. During the pvp event, there was a maintenance, which broke something on greyhost.

Its not the normal horrible lag, its so unplayable, you cant bar swap, cant cast skills, cant use siege, have frame drops etc. PS EU is used to horrible performance, but this time it was so bad, people stopped playing on gh.

Back in the days we had queues on gh in prime time, after the event we had like 2 bars of each alliance on blackreach, because it was playable there.

Meanwhile we dont even have 2 bars each on br in the evening , its a shame.

I know its different on PS NA, the population is bigger there.
I have friends playing there, they have bad performance too, but they can play.

On PS EU pvp has been ended, the perfomance has been killed.
And zos is doing nothing.

Troodon80

Exactly the same in Grey Host on PC-EU. I tend to do morning/afternoon if/when I can and then leave before prime time. Can't cast abilities, can't dodge, break free doesn't work (you often have to break free three or four times), sprint takes a full five seconds before you move faster, you get locked/stunned while mounting for 5+ seconds, etc. It's just not a fun experience.

Brrrofski

I was spamming jabs on someone because nothing else worked.

Then I suddenly died. Ok, whatever.

I spawned after a good 20 seconds of checking the map while dead, I spawned in a keep and without pressing anything, jabbed for about 15 seconds straight.

Great experience.

MISTFORMBZZZ

thats what i mean , how shall new players or pve players be attracted to try out pvp outside of the event, when this is the experience they make , while playing the game ?

Brrrofski

What happened to me doesn't even make sense. After pressing jabs a few times and dying, I pressed a button to look at death recap, pressed to close, pressed a button to open my map, pressed to close, pressed a button to respawn.

Then it fired multiple jabs

I pressed a lot of stuff in between them, all while I was dead lol.

The event needs looking at while servers are this bad.

It's a worse experience for PvP players. You can't play like you normally would. I play on NA but from UK, so I usually get a good few hours in my evening where performance is good.

Even if I play during prime time US, yes there's lag, but not this bad. So it's two weeks of playing a worse version of PvP with double AP, which I already have millions of already.

And it isn't good for PvE players. They join PvP, can't cast any skills, die randomly from things they didn't see and probably crash a few times.

Why are they ever going to bother when the event ends?

TechMaybeHic

Not to mention things just not rendering. I've died to eye of the flame a few times for the first time in year's because I just done see anything around me and health is fine; until the screen suddenly goes gray and I see the recap.

FWIW; It seems like something was off since the maintenance PCNA on Monday July 25th. Before MYM started.

malistorr

I have a separate post about this as well.

1. Voice chat (PVP guild all members 1) rarely works. You press "A" and can't get in the channel

2. Game crash to desktop of Xbox Series X on half-gig wired fiber internet on average 2-3 times per night. This is happening to all members of my guild

3. Playing with Bow means I can barely kill anyone. When I cast poison arrow the bow points up in the air and if the skill is actually happening, at the very least the animation isn't playing. So I end up kind of running/walking in place for 2-5 seconds and keep getting killed when I should be just quickly firing the skill and then continuing on my way or to stealth. I was using bow light attacks as they were the only attack that was somewhat reliable and after the maintenance yesterday even that was barely working last night. The maintenance actually made things significantly worse. I didn't think that was possible.

So yeah, can't talk to people in my guild/group. Get kicked out of the game, and when I'm in can't even fire skills. What is the point of trying to play? I give ZOS/MIcrosoft an F grade for this event just like the last one. If anything they're showing the player base why you should avoid PVP completely. I really wish I could say something positive about ZOS and this game. I really do. But honestly I don't think anyone at the company plays the game at this point. How can you allow the game performance to be this bad? It's almost like they paid money to produce a commercial for other games and are advertising for their competition at this point. Players can and will take their dollars to other games that actually work and have an enjoyable experience for players.

MISTFORMBZZZ

Brrrofski wrote: »

Why are they ever going to bother when the event ends?

they wont. And thats the issue, this event is made to bring more people into pvp and eventually try it out after the event aswell.

But tbh who would do that, if THIS is your pvp experience in that short time period?

And also its a shame because obviously only the pvp event has issues like this. Only for pvp event you need to queue up , time of Q depending on campaign and server.
And only pvp event has performance issues like this.
I know its not to compare technically with some overland event , because there not everyone is in the same area.
But if youre a player, event is event. You have 3 good overland events in a year and then you have THIS here; when you queue up for an hour to not be able to cast skills, cant break free, can do nothing ..

MISTFORMBZZZ

TechMaybeHic wrote: »

Not to mention things just not rendering. I've died to eye of the flame a few times for the first time in year's because I just done see anything around me and health is fine; until the screen suddenly goes gray and I see the recap.

FWIW; It seems like something was off since the maintenance PCNA on Monday July 25th. Before MYM started.

jeah we also have invisible negates, siege and all that..

MISTFORMBZZZ

malistorr wrote: »

What is the point of trying to play? I give ZOS/MIcrosoft an F grade for this event just like the last one. If anything they're showing the player base why you should avoid PVP completely. I really wish I could say something positive about ZOS and this game. I really do. But honestly I don't think anyone at the company plays the game at this point. How can you allow the game performance to be this bad? It's almost like they paid money to produce a commercial for other games and are advertising for their competition at this point. Players can and will take their dollars to other games that actually work and have an enjoyable experience for players.

I feel you, its just so frustrating at this point.
Back in the days there was a rumor about the servers being increased somehow for this event.
This is deffo just a myth and nothing like this is happening.

I think aside from pc na, every platform has the same issues unfortunatily, because only them got the new hardware yet

malistorr

There has been providers/technology available for at least 10-years now where companies can essentially lease server space from major cloud providers to keep sites/products up and running at all times and scale with demand dynamically. ZOS was clearly not using this and still isn't. Hopefully with their purchase by Microsoft they'll find a way to leverage Azure or whatever Microsoft is calling their platform these day. If you have enough players to need 1000 servers then the game dynamically scales up and uses those 1000 servers. If demand drops a few minutes later some servers stop being used. Then you're billed for the actual hardware uses of your product/platform at the end of the month. I really don't understand why ZOS (especially with Microsoft's help) shouldn't be able to keep a game like this performing reliably well. They say they're working on acquiring the hardware needed to replace the console servers. Sounds like lip service to me as I've replaced a whole ISP/Telco's servers even during the pandemic and had no issues at all. Even if it were true it shouldn't have delayed any upgrade by more than a few months. They should have started the process years ago and all the servers should already be replaced. Or better yet use solutions that have been around for years that would have solved the problem without needing to replace a whole fleet of static servers.

Didgerion

Cyrodiil is designed that way that all the players tend to go to the same location at the same time. There is no point to upgrade hardware until that design flaw persist.

The following small adjustments will improve the performance (any of it will help):
1. Increase siege damage, force players to find different ways into the keep instead of just front door.
2. Get rid of siege bubble, it does not make any sense to reduce siege damage it only promotes clustering.
3. Make walls and doors quicker to break so the players don't need to wait and gather, the quicker you let them in the faster they start to die, the smaller is the zerg is.
4. Gate keeps can be converted into towns, this way you will promote small group play-style in there. Focused groups will try to quickly disrupt fast traveling or they will try to recover them back. Also Big groups will be forced to leave some people behind to protect the towns while they run for the scroll. Also there will be more options of the loosing faction to counterattack the motion.
5. Get rid of the campaign combat bonuses. Convert it into the winning points bonuses instead. It does not make any sense to buff up the wining faction.

MISTFORMBZZZ

today its so unplayable , right now 7.45 uk there are 2 bar ad and ep on gh loool

Oakenaxe

We have been suffering from bad performance for a long, long time. The only way I'm able to play Cyrodiil is by paying programs like NoPing, since I live in South America and, even with that, performance still gets real bad sometimes. Cyrodiil is the thing I enjoy the most in this game, I'm not sure how they could improve it, but I wholeheartedly hope they figure it out.

malistorr

Unfortunately things won't get too much better for you. They can't fix the issue with internet between continents and if you have a slow or unreliable internet connect. I'm in mainland US using an Xbox Series X on half-gig wired fiber internet so if they ever replace their servers or do other meaningful improvements I'll actually notice a big difference. If you're not on the best/latest hardware, close to the servers (at least the same country) and using top-notch internet you're always going to have issues unfortunately.

Oakenaxe

malistorr wrote: »

Unfortunately things won't get too much better for you. They can't fix the issue with internet between continents and if you have a slow or unreliable internet connect. I'm in mainland US using an Xbox Series X on half-gig wired fiber internet so if they ever replace their servers or do other meaningful improvements I'll actually notice a big difference. If you're not on the best/latest hardware, close to the servers (at least the same country) and using top-notch internet you're always going to have issues unfortunately.

Things did get a lot better after I started using that kind of program. Now I can have a 'decent' performance, I even stopped crashing when approaching massive fights. The problems I experience these days are also reported by other people, regardless of their location, such as few seconds freezes that the entirety of players at determined location get sometimes.

malistorr

Good to hear you got at least some improvement.

MISTFORMBZZZ

wtb some improvement too, today even br lagged

MEBengalsFan2001

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

The game is literally unplayable on greyhost, you cant even cast skills at the gate.
How you want to make pvp attractive for the pve community and new players, if they have to queue up 1 hour to not be able to cast skills ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53A0S32UbU0

Hate to break it to you but GH is not PVE player friendly. This zone is loaded with PVP players that love PVE players who don't know how to PVP. It's best go to another PVP zone and get the tickets and AP in another zone.

If you are tired of PVE and want to join a PVP guild going forward, I recommend finding a guild and simply waiting to get into GH.

geonsocal

took a day or to break from cyrodiil...getting ready to head in now, hopefully not too bad a queue on NA GH at this time...

"usually" non-primetime play isn't too bad from a game performance experience, thing is, with the event on - it's crowded a lot...

haven't checked game performance in IC since the event started...i remember the last couple of events it was lagging there also...

honestly, from a new player perspective - hopefully they come on during a period when the knuckleheads in zone chat aren't continuously discussing the private parts of themselves and others...

the oft juvenile nature of zone chat can be a bit off putting if it's something you haven't encountered previously...

Lebkuchen

MEBengalsFan2001 wrote: »

Hate to break it to you but GH is not PVE player friendly. This zone is loaded with PVP players that love PVE players who don't know how to PVP. It's best go to another PVP zone and get the tickets and AP in another zone.

You are cute. You know you are talking to a ballgroup player who has been farming noob zergs for years, but can't do it now because the game does not work? And you know that most veteran players are playing on blackreach instead of gray host, because the performance is way better and it is way more fun to play there? Gray host is broken, something they did made it unplayable.

MISTFORMBZZZ

Lebkuchen wrote: »

MEBengalsFan2001 wrote: »

Hate to break it to you but GH is not PVE player friendly. This zone is loaded with PVP players that love PVE players who don't know how to PVP. It's best go to another PVP zone and get the tickets and AP in another zone.

You are cute. You know you are talking to a ballgroup player who has been farming noob zergs for years, but can't do it now because the game does not work? And you know that most veteran players are playing on blackreach instead of gray host, because the performance is way better and it is way more fun to play there? Gray host is broken, something they did made it unplayable.

sure the evil ball group player has no right to complain about the performance >:(

Joke aside, blackreach on PS Eu was also unplayable yesterday

MISTFORMBZZZ

geonsocal wrote: »

took a day or to break from cyrodiil...getting ready to head in now, hopefully not too bad a queue on NA GH at this time...

Sup geon, how was the performance then ? xD

Lebkuchen

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

sure the evil ball group player has no right to complain about the performance >:(

I just wanted to remind MEBengalsFan2001 that you are an experienced player, who does not need to be told how to play this game.

Maybe i misunderstood his post.

I wonder why we still get no reaction to our reports and tickets about the last maintenance. Are they ignoring us for a reason, or do they not know about the new problems because we are not loud enough in the forums? The zonechats are very angry with the performance, but there is almost nothing about it here in the forums.

MISTFORMBZZZ

Lebkuchen wrote: »

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

sure the evil ball group player has no right to complain about the performance >:(

I just wanted to remind MEBengalsFan2001 that you are an experienced player, who does not need to be told how to play this game.

Maybe i misunderstood his post.

I wonder why we still get no reaction to our reports and tickets about the last maintenance. Are they ignoring us for a reason, or do they not know about the new problems because we are not loud enough in the forums? The zonechats are very angry with the performance, but there is almost nothing about it here in the forums.

all good mate i was just playing ^^ The games state is at the worst place it has ever been, during a pvp event. What should they say about it. They just try to sit it out as always. Not even a maintenance this week, which could fix what ever the last maintenance broke.

MEBengalsFan2001

geonsocal wrote: »

took a day or to break from cyrodiil...getting ready to head in now, hopefully not too bad a queue on NA GH at this time...

"usually" non-primetime play isn't too bad from a game performance experience, thing is, with the event on - it's crowded a lot...

haven't checked game performance in IC since the event started...i remember the last couple of events it was lagging there also...

honestly, from a new player perspective - hopefully they come on during a period when the knuckleheads in zone chat aren't continuously discussing the private parts of themselves and others...

the oft juvenile nature of zone chat can be a bit off putting if it's something you haven't encountered previously...

System performance even in over land when new events first start take a hit, so does PVP zone. PVP zone are a bit laggy if you don't have the right IPS and system.

Lebkuchen wrote: »

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

sure the evil ball group player has no right to complain about the performance >:(

I just wanted to remind MEBengalsFan2001 that you are an experienced player, who does not need to be told how to play this game.

Maybe i misunderstood his post.

I wonder why we still get no reaction to our reports and tickets about the last maintenance. Are they ignoring us for a reason, or do they not know about the new problems because we are not loud enough in the forums? The zonechats are very angry with the performance, but there is almost nothing about it here in the forums.

Every update adds more to the game and when you load up a zone with more players than the system is designed to handle you will experience issues. The devs have stated that the game server architecture is approaching 10 years old and it needs to be adjusted; that alone could cause major issues given all of the updates done to the game since it launched.

Add to the issue you have proc sets, ball groups, more players in the zone than what the server can handle, etc... all of this adds to stressing the system and can result in serve performance issues.

Yeah lag isn't fun but its part of online gaming in MMO games. I've seen lag in EVERY MMO game I have played. Not just lag but some really bad rubber banding where I am on one part of a zone and next thing I know I'm where I loaded into the zone, which was over 30 minutes ago.

Even with the best possible setup on both the player and developer end there is always a chance for system performance issues.

Lebkuchen

MEBengalsFan2001 wrote: »

[...] System performance even in over land when new events first start take a hit, so does PVP zone. PVP zone are a bit laggy if you don't have the right IPS and system. [...]

Every update adds more to the game and when you load up a zone with more players than the system is designed to handle you will experience issues. The devs have stated that the game server architecture is approaching 10 years old and it needs to be adjusted; that alone could cause major issues given all of the updates done to the game since it launched.

Add to the issue you have proc sets, ball groups, more players in the zone than what the server can handle, etc... all of this adds to stressing the system and can result in serve performance issues.

Yeah lag isn't fun but its part of online gaming in MMO games. I've seen lag in EVERY MMO game I have played. Not just lag but some really bad rubber banding where I am on one part of a zone and next thing I know I'm where I loaded into the zone, which was over 30 minutes ago.

Even with the best possible setup on both the player and developer end there is always a chance for system performance issues.

In the first hour after maintenance (not update, no new content!) some of us started the game, went to Cyrodiil and wanted to play PvP in Gray Host. The event started 28th of July. The maintenance was on the 3rd of August. The event was not new. The servers were almost empty in the hour after maintenance, nobody played the game but a few people. But the performance was broken, in Gray Host. A lot worse than the days before, when the servers were full and there was a lot of action going on, before the maintenance. Nowhere else was the performance so bad, as far as i know. After a dodgeroll your bars stayed black for 5-6 seconds, abilities worked after pressing the buttons 5 or 6 times if you were lucky. For everyone in zonechat this was new, and a reason to talk about the unbelievably bad performance since the last maintenance, at least on Gray Host PS EU, for days! It's better now, but still with empty or half empty servers it is really bad most of the time. That's why people do not want to play there anymore. Many more people play in Blackreach than in Gray Host! Because it was not affected by the maintenance like Gray Host. The whole game has not beed working very good for years, but that's not what we want to talk about here. How often do we have to repeat it? We are talking about Gray Host here! After the last maintenance. Only Gray Host! Just Gray Host, nothing else!

I get why people have the urge to tell us their theories and repeat whatever they read somewhere... But it is not helping to ignore the fact that after this maintenance something special happened to Gray Host. Not the whole game, not the other campaigns, just Gray Host. And that's odd, isn't it?

malistorr

In Blackreach (Xbox NA) it is really bad as well. It became worse after the maintenance. I can barely use/fire skills most nights. As a bow player it's nearly impossible for me to play as when I use the snipe skill my bow points up in the air for a few seconds and it's hard to tell if the skill even fired. I feel like it's holding me hostage and has led to many unnecessary deaths. Sometimes even bow light attacks are bogged down by slowness. This event has been a really bad experience with constant crashing to desktop, voice chat working only sporadically, and very very bad lag and skill casting slowdowns.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Honestly it was great on PC/NA. More crashes than usual, but only twice that I couldnt get right back in. Ill take the occasional crash over lag any day of the week.

Best MYM performance in 4 or 5 years. A few times it got a touch laggy in massive 3 way fights, but even those worked pretty darn well. I got about 9 mil AP over the week across 2 characters, so I was in there a decent amount.

Performance was so good in PVP that I resubbed and bought the chapter.

malistorr

Yeah well they replaced those servers, not console. I have an Xbox Series X and am on wired half-gig fiber with no problems and performance has been absolutely horrible. This is in comparison to the same event over the past few years. My experience in 6-12 person groups with my guild in Blackreach is constant cursing by people not able to fire skills. I hear yelling, button/controller pounding, and people literally contemplating leaving the game for good because it's so bad.

Lebkuchen

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Honestly it was great on PC/NA.

I am glad PC NA is able to have fun. Gives us hope that things can change.

But i still wonder why that is. Can not be the servers, because we have been told ours are fine for many many years. Must be the crappy internet in Europe then. Or the weak hardware we have here. Or something else ZOS can not control and is not allowed to tell us. So i guess we do not have to sweat the useless server upgrade, right? /s