ZOS, Massive Spike in Ping/LAG in Recent Days - What Gives?

fizzylu

React wrote: »

This is an all time low for performance.

Yep, I've been seriously baffled about how bad performance is even in BGs that only have a maximum of 12 players.

Photosniper89

fizzylu wrote: »

React wrote: »

This is an all time low for performance.

Yep, I've been seriously baffled about how bad performance is even in BGs that only have a maximum of 12 players.

I've had issues just me inside my house that's 75% empty.

ArchangelIsraphel

So, the lag spikes are back for me. They haven't been too terrible in the last few days, but now I am experiencing problems everywhere except the West Weald. Performance is better in the new zone than it is anywhere else.

In any base game zone- ping spikes, but also, FPS drops to 30.

I can't explain why the FPS drops are even happening. I've never had this problem before, but in all base game zones, I am experiencing intermittent FPS drops to 30, while any DLC zone or West Weald performs fine, with no FPS drops. (Not having any issues in games more graphically intense than ESO)

All of this has manifested since the last maintenance.

Photosniper89

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

So, the lag spikes are back for me. They haven't been too terrible in the last few days, but now I am experiencing problems everywhere except the West Weald. Performance is better in the new zone than it is anywhere else.

In any base game zone- ping spikes, but also, FPS drops to 30.

I can't explain why the FPS drops are even happening. I've never had this problem before, but in all base game zones, I am experiencing intermittent FPS drops to 30, while any DLC zone or West Weald performs fine, with no FPS drops. (Not having any issues in games more graphically intense than ESO)

All of this has manifested since the last maintenance.

Thats a good point, I haven't really brought up the fps drop but fps have been nuking as well lately. avgs now around 100+ but when the spikes happen I drop to around 20 and just ride there for a while.

Sambucca1973

I was doing dailies in Skingrad around 6 or 6:30 pm on June 17.

Constant changes in FPS, but never above 50. Finished dailies, was heading to wayshrine, and got kicked to lobby. Waited a minute, logged back in, and everything was fine. Still some FPS changes but stayed mostly in 50-60 range rat if the time. First time seeing a noticeable FPS lag in West Weald. Guessing I got on a different instance.

FPS is all over the place in Craglorn and Rwaper’s March.

kyle.wilson

What use are community managers if they ignore major issues being discussed on the forum?
The server performance is a [snip] and it won't get fixed on its own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
@ZOS_Kevin

[edited for baiting]

ArchangelIsraphel

Sambucca1973 wrote: »

I was doing dailies in Skingrad around 6 or 6:30 pm on June 17.

Constant changes in FPS, but never above 50. Finished dailies, was heading to wayshrine, and got kicked to lobby. Waited a minute, logged back in, and everything was fine. Still some FPS changes but stayed mostly in 50-60 range rat if the time. First time seeing a noticeable FPS lag in West Weald. Guessing I got on a different instance.

FPS is all over the place in Craglorn and Rwaper’s March.

I was also in Reapers March when my FPS issues became noticeably worse. Following that was Eastmarch and the Rift.

Strangely enough Stormhaven and Malbal Tor weren't too bad, but there were still some noticeable drops.

I'm honestly wondering if the new sustainability feature is causing problems in some way, in spite of the fact that most of us have it turned off. It does deliberately drop FPS on menus, so I'm wondering if it could be playing into the FPS issues.

Even so, it might be something else causing it, because it's specific zones.

Photosniper89

kyle.wilson wrote: »

What use are community managers if they ignore major issues being discussed on the forum?
The server performance is a [snip] and it won't get fixed on its own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
@ZOS_Kevin

@ZOS_Kevin has been very helpful throughout this thread. I'm sure he will give us an update here in the next day or two. I'd take a guess they are waiting to see how the maintenance levels out and what the next step fwd is before they comment.

Pure speculation on my part though.

[edited to remove quote]

Sepultura_13

All that I can add is this: there's a free ESO+ thing going on. Some of these issues might resolve themselves when the free ESO+ ends tomorrow.

I've noticed over the years that issues compound with free ESO+ / free logins during an event or chapter launch.

This, too, shall pass...

kyle.wilson

Photosniper89 wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

What use are community managers if they ignore major issues being discussed on the forum?
The server performance is a [snip] and it won't get fixed on its own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
@ZOS_Kevin

@ZOS_Kevin has been very helpful throughout this thread. I'm sure he will give us an update here in the next day or two. I'd take a guess they are waiting to see how the maintenance levels out and what the next step fwd is before they comment.

Pure speculation on my part though.

The problem is, every time there is a Cyrodiil server issue, we get "investigation" and "tracking" messages, but nothing results from it.
Maybe they can cut group sizes to 2 with a total pop of 6 per faction, and somehow it would still lag out.

we've even been the guinea pigs for their testing in the past, and those benefits have only lasted a few months before returning with a vengeance. If ZOS employees played in PVP, we wouldn't have had a stuck in combat bug for 10 years now.

[edited to remove quote]

Just_Attivi

Ive been trying to pop over here and note whenever I start to feel the mega lag, but since this maintenance I actually have not had any significant issues myself. save for a few moments of lag here or there where siege was delayed about half a second (and i do mean a moment here or there, maybe a total of 2 minutes in a 4 hour play session), in PC NA Grayhost, even in a pop lock tri fight I actually had remarkably good performance, albeit a little floaty in the huge fight, but it was what id call 'normal' of a scene of that magnitude. Cant blame my deaths on lag, it was all skill.

I will note though, I am speaking for myself. Its been noted that this does not seem to be affecting everyone equally at all given times. one of the players I generally run with, who lives closer to the servers (im currently in WI, theyre in TN) was experiencing all manner of ping spikes, skill delays, the slow down/speed ups, etc. Now, I can only take their word for what they experienced, and cannot tell you if their ISP was tootin the poodle or not, but they described the same issues we all have been experiencing for the past 43 Days. I will note that Zone chat was remarkably less chatty regarding the lag while I was on, so i assume fewer people are experiencing issues (or they got booted from the game because of it lol).

This is not to downplay the experiences of others, just personal notes from someone who was experiencing seemingly the worst of the lag to now... none of it. just my 2 gold, Ill chime in as experiences update.

Photosniper89

Just_Attivi wrote: »

Ive been trying to pop over here and note whenever I start to feel the mega lag, but since this maintenance I actually have not had any significant issues myself. save for a few moments of lag here or there where siege was delayed about half a second (and i do mean a moment here or there, maybe a total of 2 minutes in a 4 hour play session), in PC NA Grayhost, even in a pop lock tri fight I actually had remarkably good performance, albeit a little floaty in the huge fight, but it was what id call 'normal' of a scene of that magnitude. Cant blame my deaths on lag, it was all skill.

I will note though, I am speaking for myself. Its been noted that this does not seem to be affecting everyone equally at all given times. one of the players I generally run with, who lives closer to the servers (im currently in WI, theyre in TN) was experiencing all manner of ping spikes, skill delays, the slow down/speed ups, etc. Now, I can only take their word for what they experienced, and cannot tell you if their ISP was tootin the poodle or not, but they described the same issues we all have been experiencing for the past 43 Days. I will note that Zone chat was remarkably less chatty regarding the lag while I was on, so i assume fewer people are experiencing issues (or they got booted from the game because of it lol).

This is not to downplay the experiences of others, just personal notes from someone who was experiencing seemingly the worst of the lag to now... none of it. just my 2 gold, Ill chime in as experiences update.

I agree with most of what you are saying here. SINCE maintenance last weeks brutal lag spikes haven't appeared. There are the usual spikes/choppiness here and there that we have come to expect in Cyro for the last 7 years or so but the 10 second skill delay isn't present ATM.

Also agree with you the zone chat hasn't been complaining about the lag near as bad as last week. This isn't to say it's "fixed" as usually the servers being restarted for maintenance improve the experience for a few days and then it progressively gets worse until the next restart - that could be what is happening here.. who knows.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

Sepultura_13 wrote: »

All that I can add is this: there's a free ESO+ thing going on. Some of these issues might resolve themselves when the free ESO+ ends tomorrow.

I've noticed over the years that issues compound with free ESO+ / free logins during an event or chapter launch.

This, too, shall pass...

If the lag is related to the free ESO+ promotion then it shows that the game infrastructure in inadequate to handle an increase in players. While things might improve once the promotion ends it doesn't resolve the underlying problem and goes against any intent to grow the player base.

Destai

Photosniper89 wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

What use are community managers if they ignore major issues being discussed on the forum?
The server performance is a [snip] and it won't get fixed on its own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
@ZOS_Kevin

@ZOS_Kevin has been very helpful throughout this thread. I'm sure he will give us an update here in the next day or two. I'd take a guess they are waiting to see how the maintenance levels out and what the next step fwd is before they comment.

Pure speculation on my part though.

IMO, they should be providing us weekly updates and, from a technical perspective, what the issue is. I don't think "we're investigating" or "we're passing thing along to the team" is really helpful; it doesn't tell me anything definitive. I would hope they'd be more transparent on these performance, especially with how frequent they are. And really, if they're checking in on the thread, and reading it, which I believe they are, they should see the requests for information. I wish they were more forthcoming with providing context when it's requested.

Photosniper89

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

Sepultura_13 wrote: »

All that I can add is this: there's a free ESO+ thing going on. Some of these issues might resolve themselves when the free ESO+ ends tomorrow.

I've noticed over the years that issues compound with free ESO+ / free logins during an event or chapter launch.

This, too, shall pass...

If the lag is related to the free ESO+ promotion then it shows that the game infrastructure in inadequate to handle an increase in players. While things might improve once the promotion ends it doesn't resolve the underlying problem and goes against any intent to grow the player base.

There is always an increased amount of lag during the free to play events but the bulk of the lag mentioned in this thread was prior to the DDos attacks and prior to the free to play event.

@ZOS_Kevin any chance we can get an update soon on where the team is at, what you all think the issue is, and maybe any path fwd?

Kainarel

Lag spikes do happen, and it can happen anywhere. Can't say anything about the new zone because I haven't bought it, but everywhere else in the world that still keeps happening.

Also, fps do drop dramatically at times, and for me personally it happens in Skyrim castle in 90% cases and in Galen's city. I come there and fps immediately drop to 20 or 12 and it becomes jittery. Sometimes it evens out if I stay there waiting, or it doesn't at all. Only those two places out of everything, and it happens to me for the first time in all years I've played. It's baffling.

One more thing I noticed: Red Rook Camp in Glenumbra (the icon) is greyed out on my map. I noticed it recently and after some research I found other people reporting the same thing after Gold Road update. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with how accessible that place is, but seems to be just a cosmetic issue. I cannot attest to that, however, because I haven't been there on any new characters, and my main has it completed from long ago. Just a weird bug, but would be nice to have it fixed.

It would be so great to hear from you, @ZOS_Kevin ! We would love to hear any news and updates concerning our issues that are still going on for us here on both PC EU and NA. We would appreciate it immensely if you dropped by to tell us anything. Thank you.

Photosniper89

Destai wrote: »

Photosniper89 wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

What use are community managers if they ignore major issues being discussed on the forum?
The server performance is a [snip] and it won't get fixed on its own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
@ZOS_Kevin

@ZOS_Kevin has been very helpful throughout this thread. I'm sure he will give us an update here in the next day or two. I'd take a guess they are waiting to see how the maintenance levels out and what the next step fwd is before they comment.

Pure speculation on my part though.

IMO, they should be providing us weekly updates and, from a technical perspective, what the issue is. I don't think "we're investigating" or "we're passing thing along to the team" is really helpful; it doesn't tell me anything definitive. I would hope they'd be more transparent on these performance, especially with how frequent they are. And really, if they're checking in on the thread, and reading it, which I believe they are, they should see the requests for information. I wish they were more forthcoming with providing context when it's requested.

I hear you... but think of it from their perspective (I'm someone who has hammmmmered ZOS communication over the last 7 years for being absolutely unacceptable for a company this size so keep that in mind).

From their perspective.. you have an issue going on and you're not sure what the cause is.

1) Put something out saying we are passing along and going to investigate
or
2) Don't say anything until you know what the root cause may be. Given they have to rack and stack tickets w/ various priorities theres no telling where the lag issue ranks - with that in mind it may be days/weeks before they begin to investigate.

If they do option 1 people will make comments like you did.

If they don't say anything people make comments like I do about how they don't care about PvP and just ignore us.

It's a lose lose situation for them.

Personally, I would much rather have communication like @ZOS_Kevin has provided during this thread. IMO he has been very open and transparent about where they are at and asking for assistance in getting clips and our experiences documented in tickets. I believe Kevin is coming to this thread in good faith and not just giving us some corporate speak.

From where coms were years ago to now I think they have done a great job.

One slightly negative point I will make is that if you're not on the forums and not monitoring this thread you would have over a month of crazy wild lag with no real idea as to why or if ZOS is even aware since there isn't really in game notifying people of what is going on - thats a valid point I would agree with.

[edited to remove quote]

Sepultura_13

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

Sepultura_13 wrote: »

All that I can add is this: there's a free ESO+ thing going on. Some of these issues might resolve themselves when the free ESO+ ends tomorrow.

I've noticed over the years that issues compound with free ESO+ / free logins during an event or chapter launch.

This, too, shall pass...

If the lag is related to the free ESO+ promotion then it shows that the game infrastructure in inadequate to handle an increase in players. While things might improve once the promotion ends it doesn't resolve the underlying problem and goes against any intent to grow the player base.

Agreed. No argument here.

M33tr3

This thread started 43 days ago. The issue(s) is/are still ongoing. Has ZOS done anything other than say 'we are looking into it"? ANY update that isn't "we are looking into it"?

@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
@ZOS_Kevin

Photosniper89

Photosniper89 wrote: »

Just_Attivi wrote: »

Ive been trying to pop over here and note whenever I start to feel the mega lag, but since this maintenance I actually have not had any significant issues myself. save for a few moments of lag here or there where siege was delayed about half a second (and i do mean a moment here or there, maybe a total of 2 minutes in a 4 hour play session), in PC NA Grayhost, even in a pop lock tri fight I actually had remarkably good performance, albeit a little floaty in the huge fight, but it was what id call 'normal' of a scene of that magnitude. Cant blame my deaths on lag, it was all skill.

I will note though, I am speaking for myself. Its been noted that this does not seem to be affecting everyone equally at all given times. one of the players I generally run with, who lives closer to the servers (im currently in WI, theyre in TN) was experiencing all manner of ping spikes, skill delays, the slow down/speed ups, etc. Now, I can only take their word for what they experienced, and cannot tell you if their ISP was tootin the poodle or not, but they described the same issues we all have been experiencing for the past 43 Days. I will note that Zone chat was remarkably less chatty regarding the lag while I was on, so i assume fewer people are experiencing issues (or they got booted from the game because of it lol).

This is not to downplay the experiences of others, just personal notes from someone who was experiencing seemingly the worst of the lag to now... none of it. just my 2 gold, Ill chime in as experiences update.

I agree with most of what you are saying here. SINCE maintenance last weeks brutal lag spikes haven't appeared. There are the usual spikes/choppiness here and there that we have come to expect in Cyro for the last 7 years or so but the 10 second skill delay isn't present ATM.

Also agree with you the zone chat hasn't been complaining about the lag near as bad as last week. This isn't to say it's "fixed" as usually the servers being restarted for maintenance improve the experience for a few days and then it progressively gets worse until the next restart - that could be what is happening here.. who knows.

So yeah... its slowly getting worse again. Even chat is lagging right now.

SandandStars

Big hint: No one is driving the bus.

Just_Attivi

welp, my praise yesterday jinxed us.

around 9:30pm EST, PC NA GrayHost, consistent lag of 1-3 seconds for about an hour (which is when i logged off). There were several spikes of 8 second delays. My ping did not reflect this, staying in a 150-250 range (normally im teetering 100-117). I did not get any 999+ spikes like previous weeks, but the delay was definitely there. The earlier hours of the day I had no noticeable issues, save for occasional little bits of lag here and there that werent overly impactful over the ~5 hours I was around. Zone chat was only moderately commenting about the lag.

on a Resource (which happened to be exactly when the lag seemed to start) with 2 AD 2 DC and 3 DC sieging from their keep, I did converse with the DC player after fighting them. they felt the same lag as we did. My AD partner felt it as well. I cant speak for the others involved besides those mentioned, but it was enough that my DC Frenemy said his goodbyes and logged off , and I quote, "...until they make this game playable." because lag that bad makes it impossible to have any real engaging gameplay.

We will see if it continues to degrade daily I guess. My eso+ sub officially ran out today and I do not have plans to renew if this is the performance after ... is it 44 Days now? nearly an 1/8 of a year. Imagine ordering a pizza but every pie you buy has one slice thats missing... you go to a different pizza place. Crude analogy, I mostly just am excited for pizza tonight, but the point stands, its pretty miserable performance when it does get bad, and unfortunately not everyone is patient nor addicted enough to put up with it. People are leaving. Maybe not enough for a company to care, but individuals do. and as peoples friends stop logging in, guild leaders stop showing up, communities dwindle, those few missing players turn into many, as they migrate elsewhere.

this last bit was just frustrated ramblings really, but its a truth Im witnessing daily as the people that make this game fun slowly stop coming around, going back months now Ive got friends that still havent come back after the PTS fiasco because it was handled abhorrently. Seeing more quit playing by the day, its depressing. I'm probably not gonna keep updating when the lag happens. a Month and a half is more than enough time to have sorted this or at least given info as to what the heck is going on.

keep up the good fight and communications @Photosniper89 , be the hero Tamriel (or at least its player base) needs

-the ramblings of a frustrated former patron

edward_frigidhands

Perhaps it might be time to upgrade server hardware again soon?

I had read that 3-5 years is standard for replacing/upgrading server hardware.

Photosniper89

Just_Attivi wrote: »

welp, my praise yesterday jinxed us.


this last bit was just frustrated ramblings really, but its a truth Im witnessing daily as the people that make this game fun slowly stop coming around, going back months now Ive got friends that still havent come back after the PTS fiasco because it was handled abhorrently. Seeing more quit playing by the day, its depressing. I'm probably not gonna keep updating when the lag happens. a Month and a half is more than enough time to have sorted this or at least given info as to what the heck is going on.

keep up the good fight and communications @Photosniper89 , be the hero Tamriel (or at least its player base) needs

-the ramblings of a frustrated former patron

This last part here resonates with a large majority of people who play this game, unfortunately.

And thanks, trying to keep the dialogue doing and keeping the lag feedback coming.

@ZOS_Kevin Pretty please with ice cream and sprinkles on top can we get an update?

bunnydaisuki

I thought the connection/performance would be better after the end of the free ESO+ event, but nope. I still kept getting tons of error when trying to log in, or being placed on an infinite queue. If I manage to log in to my character, I'm greeted with 999+ latency, then get booted out from the server after awhile.

At this point, I'm not even surprised if the devs don't know what is causing all these issues.

Photosniper89

bunnydaisuki wrote: »

I thought the connection/performance would be better after the end of the free ESO+ event, but nope. I still kept getting tons of error when trying to log in, or being placed on an infinite queue. If I manage to log in to my character, I'm greeted with 999+ latency, then get booted out from the server after awhile.

At this point, I'm not even surprised if the devs don't know what is causing all these issues.

To be fair - they have openly said for many years they aren't entirely sure what is causing the lag issues related to PvP. Aside from refactoring code because of the way the game was coded, mainly the calculations, they have tried a bunch of stuff to try to get it fixed.

Would be nice to have a bit of an update now... it's been a few weeks with these issues and no update from ZOS.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

Jaraal

Photosniper89 wrote: »

bunnydaisuki wrote: »

I thought the connection/performance would be better after the end of the free ESO+ event, but nope. I still kept getting tons of error when trying to log in, or being placed on an infinite queue. If I manage to log in to my character, I'm greeted with 999+ latency, then get booted out from the server after awhile.

At this point, I'm not even surprised if the devs don't know what is causing all these issues.

To be fair - they have openly said for many years they aren't entirely sure what is causing the lag issues related to PvP. Aside from refactoring code because of the way the game was coded, mainly the calculations, they have tried a bunch of stuff to try to get it fixed.

The only difference between PvP and PvE is that PvP is double calculated, through the Battle Spirit filter. All heals, health regen, damage, and damage shields are calculated twice, both incoming and outgoing. And that's why I fear that with nearly 4,000 different new scribing combination calculations, the performance can only get worse going forward.

vsrs_au

Every time I get the repeated lobby connection error, it's during EU late evening times (which for me is early morning), I almost never get the error later on in my day (when EU gets past midnight). Now I'm sceptical about whether any DDOS is causing this. It seems like the servers simply can't handle any reasonable number of players any more.

anadandy

Ooof, Craglorn is brutal right now. The "boss fight" for the intro quest, total slide show. FPS drops from 60 to 18 mounting my horse. PC NA

Cronopoly

Datapoint: PC/NA
I'm in South Carolina with Charter.net ISP. Here's my TRACERT from Charter's 2nd network hop to elderscrolls.com if in the same datacenter. All the Router hops look excellent from my house to elderscrolls.com so not the Network currently 6:00pm EST.

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms [My home Router] Hidden from Spyz
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 7 ms 10 ms 8 ms lag-53.dtr01ssvlsc.netops.charter.com [96.34.64.106]
4 11 ms 9 ms 9 ms lag-27.crr02spbgsc.netops.charter.com [96.34.93.6]
5 11 ms 8 ms 10 ms lag-808.bbr01spbgsc.netops.charter.com [96.34.2.50]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 17 ms 17 ms 15 ms lag-802.prr01atlnga.netops.charter.com [96.34.3.111]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 172.69.68.7
10 13 ms 12 ms 12 ms 104.18.247.44