Maintenance for the week of December 16:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – December 16
• NA megaservers for patch maintenance – December 17, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 17, 9:00 UTC (4:00AM EST) - 17:00 UTC (12:00PM EST)
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – December 16
• NA megaservers for patch maintenance – December 17, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 17, 9:00 UTC (4:00AM EST) - 17:00 UTC (12:00PM EST)
The issues on the North American megaservers have been resolved at this time. If you continue to experience difficulties at login, please restart your client. Thank you for your patience!
Is maintenance permanently moving to Wednesdays?
NeKryXe
✭✭✭✭✭
✭
✭
Usually I don't even try to play on Mondays because I already know it's maintenance day, but I see now that it's changing to Wednesday. Is this going to be a single case and in the following weeks maintenance returns to Mondays or is it moving permanently to Wednesdays this year? I'd like to know just so I can plan ahead my free time to play, nothing more.
0
-
MidniteOwl1913✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Usually I don't even try to play on Mondays because I already know it's maintenance day, but I see now that it's changing to Wednesday. Is this going to be a single case and in the following weeks maintenance returns to Mondays or is it moving permanently to Wednesdays this year? I'd like to know just so I can plan ahead my free time to play, nothing more.
Huh, I thought Tuesday maintenance was the normal one. There have been some Monday ones recently, but I thought that was a new thing...
PS5/NA2 -
zaria✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Think they moved it to Wednesday for this time so it don't crash with the event.
Add that they might want to clean up after the event during maintenance.Grinding just make you go in circles.
Asking ZoS for nerfs is as stupid as asking for close air support from the death star.1 -
ldzlcs065✭✭✭I think this one is exceptional, if not for the logging issue, there might be no maintenance this week.3 -
NeKryXe✭✭✭✭✭
✭MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »Usually I don't even try to play on Mondays because I already know it's maintenance day, but I see now that it's changing to Wednesday. Is this going to be a single case and in the following weeks maintenance returns to Mondays or is it moving permanently to Wednesdays this year? I'd like to know just so I can plan ahead my free time to play, nothing more.
Huh, I thought Tuesday maintenance was the normal one. There have been some Monday ones recently, but I thought that was a new thing...
Now I got confused. I always thought it was on Mondays.
0 -
Grizzbeorn✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭I think this one is exceptional, if not for the logging issue, there might be no maintenance this week.
Today's maintenance has been posted since last week, and it was likely scheduled for today so that it didn't interfere with the event that ended yesterday.
The log-in issues that cropped-up yesterday are a separate matter, and probably related to there being such a gap since the last maintenance during a heavy load on the servers due to the event.Edited by Grizzbeorn on January 4, 2023 10:02AM0 -
Tyralbin✭✭✭✭MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »Usually I don't even try to play on Mondays because I already know it's maintenance day, but I see now that it's changing to Wednesday. Is this going to be a single case and in the following weeks maintenance returns to Mondays or is it moving permanently to Wednesdays this year? I'd like to know just so I can plan ahead my free time to play, nothing more.
Huh, I thought Tuesday maintenance was the normal one. There have been some Monday ones recently, but I thought that was a new thing...
Now I got confused. I always thought it was on Mondays.
I'll try to clear this up a little bit.
Maintenance used to be on Mondays unless there was a national holiday or some other irl event that meant it had to be moved onto Tuesdays.
Todays maintenance is to do with the other banner that is at the top of the page. Some people cannot log in therefore there is an emergency maintenance.
Usually, if a maintenance is planned there will be a banner on the top of the forums at least 48 hours before.Edited by Tyralbin on January 4, 2023 10:15AMLive a little love a lot send all your gold to this Imperials pot.0 -
Tyralbin✭✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »I think this one is exceptional, if not for the logging issue, there might be no maintenance this week.
Today's maintenance has been posted since last week, and it was likely scheduled for today so that it didn't interfere with the event that ended yesterday.
The log-in issues that cropped-up yesterday are a separate matter, and probably related to there being such a gap since the last maintenance during a heavy load on the servers due to the event.
Weird, I was here yesterday and I did not see any banner.Live a little love a lot send all your gold to this Imperials pot.1 -
Grizzbeorn✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »I think this one is exceptional, if not for the logging issue, there might be no maintenance this week.
Today's maintenance has been posted since last week, and it was likely scheduled for today so that it didn't interfere with the event that ended yesterday.
The log-in issues that cropped-up yesterday are a separate matter, and probably related to there being such a gap since the last maintenance during a heavy load on the servers due to the event.
Weird, I was here yesterday and I did not see any banner.
It has been up there since last week (Friday).Edited by Grizzbeorn on January 4, 2023 10:23AM1 -
Thrasher91604✭✭✭✭✭Monday was a national holiday in the US, so that could have something to do with it, along with the event running to Tuesday morning.2
-
Danikat✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Personally I think they should avoid doing maintenance on Mondays because there's often national or international holidays on Mondays which mean a lot of players will be at home and wanting to log in even if ZOS are at work. Also I assume the EU servers are actually in Europe, and therefore maintained by European employees so doing maintenance on Mondays regardless of international holidays will often mean requiring them to work on a bank holiday. (Which depending on their contracts could also mean paying them double.)
If I remember correctly they actually did move the maintenance which was scheduled for the May Day holiday (first Monday in May) last year because so many countries have a public holiday then.
On top of that most of ESO's events end on a Tuesday so there's often complaints that having maintenance on a Monday means a lot of people lose a day, especially since the scheduled end time is usually close to the start of prime time in Europe so any extension means it's cutting into prime time, and I think the normal time is right on top of prime time for Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Of course no day is going to be ideal for everyone, but I think scheduling it for a Tuesday or possibly Wednesday is less likely to cause disruption than having it on a Monday.PC EU player | She/her/hers | PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!
"Remember in this game we call life that no one said it's fair"3 -
Tyralbin✭✭✭✭Tuesdays are really bad.
If there is an issue with either maintenance or patch it can run into trader bids.
This has in the past caused issues.
Maybe move trader bids to a different day like a Friday.
Thursday would be bad for trader as well due to events starting then.Live a little love a lot send all your gold to this Imperials pot.1 -
SkaraMinoc✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Monday was a holiday and they wouldn't do maintenance the first morning after a holiday weekend. This means Wednesday, January 4 is the earliest day.PC NA0 -
ApoAlaia✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭To the extent that 'maintenance downtime' is a completely unnecessary evil in a day and age where you can spool up and down VMs to your heart's content with negligible impact, if ZOS is determined to stay firmly anchored in the past Wednesdays work best IMO in terms of minimising disruption for players.
They don't coincide with the start or end of any event, don't clash with trader swaps and they are the least likely to be bank holidays anywhere.
Edited by ApoAlaia on January 4, 2023 11:24AM6 -
Danikat✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭To the extent that 'maintenance downtime' is a completely unnecessary evil in a day and age where you can spool up and down VMs to your heart's content with negligible impact, if ZOS is determined to stay firmly anchored in the past Wednesdays work best IMO in terms of minimising disruption for players.
They don't coincide with the start or end of any event, don't clash with trader swaps and they are the least likely to be bank holidays anywhere.
I've often wondered why they don't do that.
For many years Guild Wars 1 and 2 were the only MMOs I played and both are able to do maintenance and even install updates without taking the servers offline, even when a new expansion comes out if you're online at the time you'll just get a notification that a new build is available and only have to log off long enough to download it then get back on.
Add on the fact that most other websites and services work that way and I assumed that was how all modern MMOs did it and it came as quite a surprise to find out most don't and still need to take servers offline (either all together or one at a time) for maintenance, especially when it's a game released after GW2 that does it.
I don't really understand how GW2 does it, but in laymen's terms it's because all their physical servers are interconnected (like ESO's are) and the 'sever' your account is on only exists digitally, so they actually do take them offline one at a time (or maybe a few at a time) for maintenance but if your server is offline another one will 'cover' for it, so you can still log in and play and won't notice any difference. Players only notice maintenance has happened when they get that notification to download a new build, even then you get something like an hour to do it, so you can finish what you're doing before updating.PC EU player | She/her/hers | PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!
"Remember in this game we call life that no one said it's fair"2 -
TechMaybeHic✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭To the extent that 'maintenance downtime' is a completely unnecessary evil in a day and age where you can spool up and down VMs to your heart's content with negligible impact, if ZOS is determined to stay firmly anchored in the past Wednesdays work best IMO in terms of minimising disruption for players.
They don't coincide with the start or end of any event, don't clash with trader swaps and they are the least likely to be bank holidays anywhere.
I think it's pretty obvious they do not have extra compute standing by to just cycle other servers even if we assume video game servers act the same as other servers. I mean even New World ran by Amazon has downtime. They literally own a lot of the infrastructure a big chunk of the world uses. I assume it has something to do with the code itself but unless I've seen their environment; it would only be a guess1 -
ldzlcs065✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »Grizzbeorn wrote: »I think this one is exceptional, if not for the logging issue, there might be no maintenance this week.
Today's maintenance has been posted since last week, and it was likely scheduled for today so that it didn't interfere with the event that ended yesterday.
The log-in issues that cropped-up yesterday are a separate matter, and probably related to there being such a gap since the last maintenance during a heavy load on the servers due to the event.
Weird, I was here yesterday and I did not see any banner.
It has been up there since last week (Friday).
I didn't see the banner either, until today...2 -
ApoAlaia✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭TechMaybeHic wrote: »To the extent that 'maintenance downtime' is a completely unnecessary evil in a day and age where you can spool up and down VMs to your heart's content with negligible impact, if ZOS is determined to stay firmly anchored in the past Wednesdays work best IMO in terms of minimising disruption for players.
They don't coincide with the start or end of any event, don't clash with trader swaps and they are the least likely to be bank holidays anywhere.
I think it's pretty obvious they do not have extra compute standing by to just cycle other servers even if we assume video game servers act the same as other servers. I mean even New World ran by Amazon has downtime. They literally own a lot of the infrastructure a big chunk of the world uses. I assume it has something to do with the code itself but unless I've seen their environment; it would only be a guess
Given that Microsoft owns both Azure and ZOS I am pretty sure they could work something out if they wished to.
Thing is, they won't because they don't have to. For as long as the customer base repeats the mantra 'regular maintenance downtime is necessary' they really don't.
The beauty of it is that we are indoctrinated so well that we don't even question it, we just repeat the mantra.
If our customers would actually put up with 'regular maintenance downtime' we wouldn't have needed to find ways to make the concept obsolete, which had a cost associated to it.
Alas the services we offer our customers could source elsewhere, for instance a competitor that doesn't have such shortcomings where, as another fellow forum dweller pointed out, you can only get ESO from ZOS.Edited by ApoAlaia on January 4, 2023 12:34PM1 -
TechMaybeHic✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭TechMaybeHic wrote: »To the extent that 'maintenance downtime' is a completely unnecessary evil in a day and age where you can spool up and down VMs to your heart's content with negligible impact, if ZOS is determined to stay firmly anchored in the past Wednesdays work best IMO in terms of minimising disruption for players.
They don't coincide with the start or end of any event, don't clash with trader swaps and they are the least likely to be bank holidays anywhere.
I think it's pretty obvious they do not have extra compute standing by to just cycle other servers even if we assume video game servers act the same as other servers. I mean even New World ran by Amazon has downtime. They literally own a lot of the infrastructure a big chunk of the world uses. I assume it has something to do with the code itself but unless I've seen their environment; it would only be a guess
Given that Microsoft owns both Azure and ZOS I am pretty sure they could work something out if they wished to.
Thing is, they won't because they don't have to. For as long as the customer base repeats the mantra 'regular maintenance downtime is necessary' they really don't.
The beauty of it is that we are indoctrinated so well that we don't even question it, we just repeat the mantra.
If our customers would actually put up with 'regular maintenance downtime' we wouldn't have needed to find ways to make the concept obsolete, which had a cost associated to it.
Alas the services we offer our customers could source elsewhere, for instance a competitor that doesn't have such shortcomings where, as another fellow forum dweller pointed out, you can only get ESO from ZOS.
I mean; it's a business offering a product. Cost of product to consumer is impacted by cost to operate and still turn a profit.
If you are really bothered by regular maintenance, the way you'd send the message would be to not only not sub, but to not log in and show up as a potential buyer of subscription or crowns. I imagine it would take a lot of players to do so for a considerable amount of time and also have it be well understood that it's because of regular maintenance windows, but given that a few hours every couple weeks is too much for some to miss out on ESO; I'm sure their calculation would easily be it's best to let you complain rather than try to raise prices and/or cut corners elsewhere to keep potential customers they actually have to compete for.
Personally; I wish they'd do maintenance more often. Performance to me is noticeably worse the longer the game goes without and unlike adding hardware or some other means depending on their code and system architecture; the cost is relatively nothing to them and only limits my access a few hours on 1 day0 -
Grizzbeorn✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭@ZOS_Kevin
When did the forum banner for today's maintenance go up?
(I.e., when was today's maintenance schedule posted?)0 -
TaSheen✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »@ZOS_Kevin
When did the forum banner for today's maintenance go up?
(I.e., when was today's maintenance schedule posted?)
It was definitely there early Saturday morning, and has been there ever since. I remember thinking, wow, they moved it clear to Wednesday next week, that's new..______________________________________________________
"But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West
PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....1 -
Grizzbeorn✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »@ZOS_Kevin
When did the forum banner for today's maintenance go up?
(I.e., when was today's maintenance schedule posted?)
It was definitely there early Saturday morning, and has been there ever since. I remember thinking, wow, they moved it clear to Wednesday next week, that's new..
It (the banner) went up Friday evening [US Eastern time], like it always does, I'm just asking for clarification.0 -
TaSheen✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »Grizzbeorn wrote: »@ZOS_Kevin
When did the forum banner for today's maintenance go up?
(I.e., when was today's maintenance schedule posted?)
It was definitely there early Saturday morning, and has been there ever since. I remember thinking, wow, they moved it clear to Wednesday next week, that's new..
It (the banner) went up Friday evening [US Eastern time], like it always does, I'm just asking for clarification.
Yeah, I wasn't in the forum Friday evening to see it.______________________________________________________
"But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West
PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....0 -
Grizzbeorn✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Grizzbeorn wrote: »Grizzbeorn wrote: »@ZOS_Kevin
When did the forum banner for today's maintenance go up?
(I.e., when was today's maintenance schedule posted?)
It was definitely there early Saturday morning, and has been there ever since. I remember thinking, wow, they moved it clear to Wednesday next week, that's new..
It (the banner) went up Friday evening [US Eastern time], like it always does, I'm just asking for clarification.
Yeah, I wasn't in the forum Friday evening to see it.
I don't make it every Friday, but I do try to be here at some point Friday evening/night to catch Bowd's Vendor threads.
The maintenance banner is usually up by then.
Edited by Grizzbeorn on January 4, 2023 2:40PM0 -
Lydawobbles✭✭✭✭Monday was a holiday. Them moving it once doesn’t mean it is the new norm, calm down 😂3 -
Marronsuisse✭✭✭✭I was definitely glad it was moved to Wednesday because I was able to collect my three final tickets on Tuesday morning without worry about maintenance running past the end of the event.
I don't think that was the reason they moved it though, more likely due to holidays or some other internal reason.
It'd be nice if they didn't end events on maintenance days going forward though...0 -
FlopsyPrince✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Fixing the architecture to allow continuous operation is probably impossible or at least very difficult. Support for that normally needs to be built in ahead of time, at least for an real-time system like this.
That said, the only reason MMOs have these outages is because it is common in the industry and working against it would take time and effort, with no direct benefit, as annoying as it is.
I have worked on "always-on" projects for many large websites and the problem is solvable, it just takes desire and effort.
ZOS doesn't have either for this kind of change now.
PC
PS4/PS52 -
ElvenOverlord✭✭✭✭MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »Usually I don't even try to play on Mondays because I already know it's maintenance day, but I see now that it's changing to Wednesday. Is this going to be a single case and in the following weeks maintenance returns to Mondays or is it moving permanently to Wednesdays this year? I'd like to know just so I can plan ahead my free time to play, nothing more.
Huh, I thought Tuesday maintenance was the normal one. There have been some Monday ones recently, but I thought that was a new thing...
I've rarely seen it on Tuesdays. Vast majority of the time since I started playing in 2019 its been on Mondays.2 -
Mesite✭✭✭✭I tried to do a poll a couple of weeks ago asking what day was best. I lost connection so didn't finish it. Mondays are an annoying time for me as I have more Mondays free2
-
NeKryXe✭✭✭✭✭
✭Well... looks like it's now clear that maintenance is definitely moving to Wednesdays.2
