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

Luna13 · June 21

Today is the worst performance so far -
lagging when in excavation screen
lagging with main map open
lagging when mounting
when riding
when opening a door or vendor window
in cities, outside of cities

When will something be done about this?! I'm so glad I'm not currently paying for ESO+ cause you can't play!

Aces-High-82 · June 21

PC EU: usually sitting around 65-85 Ping in cyro with ocassional spiking up to 135 during heavy combat (These are already ridic numbers for a server situated in Frankfurt Germany - for comparison I have better latency and more stable data interactions to servers in Asia in other games). Since the update massive lagspikes are very common. The positional desync worsen tremendously and one frame/gcd kills/deaths happen regularly. Not fun on the receiving nor the other end.
Damage and effect distribution by the server are all over the place. knockbacks getting people stuck midair, inputs not registering ... the list goes on

edward_frigidhands · June 21

Cronopoly wrote: »

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

Hey. My apologies in case this was already mentioned, but what has your latency in game been as of late.

Has it changed over the past 4-6 weeks?

Photosniper89 · June 21

edward_frigidhands wrote: »

Cronopoly wrote: »

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

Hey. My apologies in case this was already mentioned, but what has your latency in game been as of late.

Has it changed over the past 4-6 weeks?

Not really, no.

The ONLY change I have felt is when the spikes happen instead of going to 999+ I go to like 680.

@ZOS_Kevin think we can get an update before heading into the weekend?

EDIT: just standing in my house right now and my pings going from 65ms to 600ms. Also have ping plotter running and not dropping any packets or anything - it's on the ZOS side.

Photosniper89 · June 21

Another update: was in a smaller zone today and kept getting brutal spikes trying to interact with things. Zone chat agreed it's happening to everyone.

These were two different people that responded btw.

@ZOS_Kevin Pretty pretty please can we get an update.

M33tr3 · June 21

M33tr3 wrote: »

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

We are at day 45, see my signature

Photosniper89 · June 21

M33tr3 wrote: »

M33tr3 wrote: »

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

We are at day 45, see my signature

Lol ZOS gave me a warning and removed that exact same signature from my signature. Found it odd I got a warning for using a quote from their own team but... whatever.

Disappointing to see @ZOS_Kevin kinda just ghosted us. Hopefully this isn't an intentional coms shut down about this issue.

Sambucca1973 · June 21

I’m going to have to take a break from ESO. The constant stuttering/lag has gotten to me. Can’t even enjoy housing. Every once in a while, things go smoothly and I think something got fixed. Then, next day, back to the same issues.

Trying to do the ZoZ daily, it was awful just getting from the quest give to the boss, and back. I had a total of four loading screens during that - two of them after just taking one step.

I hope ZOS figures it out. I’ll lurk on the forum to see if/when a fix happens. Sending good vibes you figure it out.

Photosniper89 · June 21

Sambucca1973 wrote: »

I’m going to have to take a break from ESO. The constant stuttering/lag has gotten to me. Can’t even enjoy housing. Every once in a while, things go smoothly and I think something got fixed. Then, next day, back to the same issues.

Trying to do the ZoZ daily, it was awful just getting from the quest give to the boss, and back. I had a total of four loading screens during that - two of them after just taking one step.

I hope ZOS figures it out. I’ll lurk on the forum to see if/when a fix happens. Sending good vibes you figure it out.

Another soldier down in the never ending fight with lag.

Rest easy.

TimeViewer · June 22

Getting brutal lag in both ESO and Fallout, not sure if servers are in the same area but...
I just got a new modem and router thinking it was my ISP over the last 2 months but now I see this, and I'm still getting severe lag.

blktauna · June 22

Trials yesterday on PC EU had many of us rubberbanding in Hall Ra. I couldnt port in, I got the loading screen of neverendingness. All sorts of skill lag and/or ignoring inputs.

Today PCEU cyrodil, the one huge AD ball group just locked up whatever area they were in with lagg switch efficiency. It's stupid and wholly unnnecessary

Photosniper89 · June 22

blktauna wrote: »

Trials yesterday on PC EU had many of us rubberbanding in Hall Ra. I couldnt port in, I got the loading screen of neverendingness. All sorts of skill lag and/or ignoring inputs.

Today PCEU cyrodil, the one huge AD ball group just locked up whatever area they were in with lagg switch efficiency. It's stupid and wholly unnnecessary

All day yesterday and all night PvE/PvP was terrible. 3 or 4 attempts to interact with anything before it registered. Stuff gets deposited into the bank and takes forever to show up. Spikes are back to the 600-700 range again. Progressively getting worse - I'm sure until the next maintenance then we rinse/repeat the slow progression till next reboot.

Jaraal · June 22

I was grinding in an old world public dungeon last night, and things were so delayed that the skill sound effects didn't even fire until well after the trash packs were already dead. Very disconcerting!

VouxeTheMinotaur · June 22

PS5/NA, performance mode.

I'm never one to complain, in fact, this is most likely the very first time that i've had such frustration with ZOS and ESO because of the state of the game. Beforehand i had nothing but praise, even on things generally deemed as unfavorable, but this is just absurd..

Here's most of everything I've experienced so far:

the rubber banding is out of control lately and forcing the environmental sustainability feature to console settings without an option to turn them off is just adding fuel to the fire for console players.

The 30-fps, 60-fps, 30-fps, 60-fps jumping back and forth, I'm sorry ZOS but this experience is not why I was sold on getting a PS5, I'm not expecting it to run like Ghosts of Tsushima or something, but I'd compare this to a classic PS4, not even the slim or pro.

running dungeons and trials are nearly impossible due to either myself or other players in group complaining about DC's, lag, rubber banding, frame drop, pixelated screens, blank screens, infinite loading screens, people complaining that they are getting headaches, feeling sick or nausea.

People in my guilds are getting pissed off that they're missing the event and chance to get tickets because the state of the game is running so poorly. Lucent Citadel looks like dog water in ESO's current state. Out of a 12-man group trying to run it the other night, THREE PLAYERS SUDDENLY DC'D AT THE SAME TIME.

Exploring West Weald is not enjoyable, it's becoming a challenge, or more of "How many things can i find before i blue scr- welp, not many this time." Incursions are a great addition to the game, I love the set up to them, but having targeting problems is annoying, where my crosshair is quite literally over the enemy, yet I can't hit them? The red outline does not show, and skills that only apply directly to enemies are faded out as if I'm looking at nothing, but it's the opposite.

Scribing quest chain was just unfortunately bad. Glyphs do not appear after initiating the focal points, the invisible bridge created by the fox in The Crow's Wing is still broken, quests cannot be completed, and we'd have not only close app, but abandon the quest, close app, and start over. The character models for the Indrik, Netch, Gryphon, and Dragon as well as supporting characters from the Order of the Lamp who are with us in The Scholarium have double character models, or repeated dialogue.

Again, i apologize if this is harsh, I'm not one to complain so much but the current state of ESO is just... I don't know. I look forward to playing with friends around the country or world after work and errands, hanging out and getting things done together, just de-stress the day away. But we don't even want to play for more than 30 minutes at times, and we're missing out on things that will take months to years to return. I know ZOS has acknowledged the problems, but it does not make up for lost time, and is very unfortunate to happen during a time where ESO celebrates its 10-year lifespan, only to be met with this.

Hopefully, this gets fixed sooner than we think.

And for the love of god, please make the environmental sustainability feature an option for console!

cptscotty · June 22

Lag is definitely back with constant spikes over 999+. Just trying to quest on a new character and cant weave anything, making nightblade pretty unplayable.

The response to this issue is so weird...Blizzard posts automated messages to the player base if even just a small hiccup in latency occurs in WoW...yet in ESO you can have game breaking latency for weeks and nothing. Really weird.

Firstmep · June 22

These 999 spikes are so bad they legit affect my connection outside the game. And when I close the game my connection magically fixes itself. And no it's not low bandwidth, beacuse that wouldn't come in random spikes.

Jaraal · June 22

Firstmep wrote: »

These 999 spikes are so bad they legit affect my connection outside the game. And when I close the game my connection magically fixes itself. And no it's not low bandwidth, beacuse that wouldn't come in random spikes.

ZOS is modifying your explorer.exe files, which can affect other processes. This is a known issue, and also 'working as intended.'

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7619724/#Comment_7619724

Sambucca1973 · June 22

For PC, I might have found a bandaid fix. Too many variables, so no guarantees but:

Yesterday I deleted the ShaderCache.cooked file in the Elder Scrolls online/Live folder. It rebuilds itself when you launch the game. If you do this, the first time you log back in will take longer while the file rebuilds.

Since then, I’ve logged in three different times (Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon) and performance is noticeably better. Still not great, but ESO is playable.

I have not been into Cyrodiil or trials, but things have been fine at dolmens and public dungeons - a little stutter but nothing major. Still more than “normal” but FPS jumps seem to be less and/or smaller.

Of note is that the ShaderCache.cooked file was 18,675kb before deleting it and is now 53,285kb. So maybe the file got corrupted when ZOS made changes to the setting menu?

Photosniper89 · June 22

Sambucca1973 wrote: »

For PC, I might have found a bandaid fix. Too many variables, so no guarantees but:

Yesterday I deleted the ShaderCache.cooked file in the Elder Scrolls online/Live folder. It rebuilds itself when you launch the game. If you do this, the first time you log back in will take longer while the file rebuilds.

Since then, I’ve logged in three different times (Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon) and performance is noticeably better. Still not great, but ESO is playable.

I have not been into Cyrodiil or trials, but things have been fine at dolmens and public dungeons - a little stutter but nothing major. Still more than “normal” but FPS jumps seem to be less and/or smaller.

Of note is that the ShaderCache.cooked file was 18,675kb before deleting it and is now 53,285kb. So maybe the file got corrupted when ZOS made changes to the setting menu?

Going to try this.

Man, @ZOS_Kevin we really need an update. This issue is going on 50+ days now and aside from you there's been jack poop from ZOS on this issue.

This desperately needs to be elevated to top priority if its already not.

Firstmep · June 23

999 ping into disconnect into error 103. This is just not acceptable for an online game in 2024. No other game or service i have has this issue, none.

reazea · June 23

I disconnected 3 times in less than 15 minutes today during guild raid. ZOS could fix this if they tried, and that's the part that is the most frustrating about this situation.

Kainarel · June 23

Ping is becoming a more prominent problem, it gets higher and higher. 120s is already high for my norm 80-90, but now 130s is posing as new normal. It's frustrating.

Tried deleting ShaderCache file like of the players here suggested, but it didn't do anything about performance, only made my traveling loading screens significantly longer while before I was able to travel between wayshrines almost instantly. I wonder now whether I should put the old Cache file back in the folder to fix that new issue.

The performance and lag in this game is becoming worse every day and once again we get no maintenance tomorrow. It's sad.

@ZOS_Kevin please, please speak to us, we need any update and acknowledgement for our issues, they are breaking our game. Please, help us.

kyle.wilson · June 23

Firstmep wrote: »

999 ping into disconnect into error 103. This is just not acceptable for an online game in 2024. No other game or service i have has this issue, none.

It wasn't even acceptable in 2014 when this game launched. Yet 10 years later we are still here.
I've had dozens of conversations with various members of the dev team over the years, and at this point I doubt there is any incentive to actually fix the problems. It feels as if the only goal left is to milk as much money out of us as possible till the engine collapses completely.

kyle.wilson · June 24

PVP and Combat Lead @ZOS_BrianWheeler

SaffronCitrusflower · June 24

kyle.wilson wrote: »

Firstmep wrote: »

999 ping into disconnect into error 103. This is just not acceptable for an online game in 2024. No other game or service i have has this issue, none.

It wasn't even acceptable in 2014 when this game launched. Yet 10 years later we are still here.
I've had dozens of conversations with various members of the dev team over the years, and at this point I doubt there is any incentive to actually fix the problems. It feels as if the only goal left is to milk as much money out of us as possible till the engine collapses completely.

Yep. No more milk in this cow until I get fed some better food.

SeaUnicorn · June 24

SeaUnicorn · June 24

Destai · June 24

Photosniper89 wrote: »

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

Granted, I don't know what their platform(s) are like, but I would think there'd be some insight on the issue after, what, 50 days, now? Is it hardware, is it software, roughly how much effort would it be to fix. It’s fine at first if it’s “we’re passing along”, but that’s only if there’s actual follow up and a pattern of improvement.

Photosniper89 wrote: »

It's a lose lose situation for them.

It doesn't have to be. It's all about the priorities they set for themselves. I think what's missing from their communications is just the recognition that performance is frequently an issue. They should know that any time performance has problems, people will want details. I don't feel like we get that often enough. The vast majority of communications are either commercial or moderation, at least from what I can tell. A lot of other studios are quite transparent when these things happened, I don't know why we can't get that here.

Photosniper89 wrote: »

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.

Of course, simple acknowledgement is better than nothing at all, but there has to be a recognition that people are asking for more. But I'm not sure what he's actually being transparent about here - like we know he's passing tickets back and forth. great. But that's it. And, like the U35 Q&A, the communications seem to drop off after a certain point and it creates this situation where people start begging.

ZOS_Kevin · June 24

Kainarel wrote: »

Ping is becoming a more prominent problem, it gets higher and higher. 120s is already high for my norm 80-90, but now 130s is posing as new normal. It's frustrating.

Tried deleting ShaderCache file like of the players here suggested, but it didn't do anything about performance, only made my traveling loading screens significantly longer while before I was able to travel between wayshrines almost instantly. I wonder now whether I should put the old Cache file back in the folder to fix that new issue.

The performance and lag in this game is becoming worse every day and once again we get no maintenance tomorrow. It's sad.

@ZOS_Kevin please, please speak to us, we need any update and acknowledgement for our issues, they are breaking our game. Please, help us.

Just following up here. We have been reporting your ticket numbers, anecdotal accounts, and spikes in reports every time they come up in this thread and in other threads on the forum as well. We're providing our teams with all of the info you are providing here in the thread. So we just wanted to make it clear that we haven't forgotten about this. Currently, we do not have an update other than to continue posting your reports and issues in the thread. It's the best way for us to seem them and add everything to our ongoing report on this.

kyle.wilson · June 24

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Kainarel wrote: »

Ping is becoming a more prominent problem, it gets higher and higher. 120s is already high for my norm 80-90, but now 130s is posing as new normal. It's frustrating.

Tried deleting ShaderCache file like of the players here suggested, but it didn't do anything about performance, only made my traveling loading screens significantly longer while before I was able to travel between wayshrines almost instantly. I wonder now whether I should put the old Cache file back in the folder to fix that new issue.

The performance and lag in this game is becoming worse every day and once again we get no maintenance tomorrow. It's sad.

@ZOS_Kevin please, please speak to us, we need any update and acknowledgement for our issues, they are breaking our game. Please, help us.

Just following up here. We have been reporting your ticket numbers, anecdotal accounts, and spikes in reports every time they come up in this thread and in other threads on the forum as well. We're providing our teams with all of the info you are providing here in the thread. So we just wanted to make it clear that we haven't forgotten about this. Currently, we do not have an update other than to continue posting your reports and issues in the thread. It's the best way for us to seem them and add everything to our ongoing report on this.

Isn’t it about time that ZOS utilizes its parent company and has Microsoft assist in identifying why the servers never seem to work correctly.