When will the game be playable again?

Kadigan

I'm seeing a ton of reports here in the forums that a lot is going wrong with ESO at the moment, from enormous issues like the launcher deleting game files instead of delivering a minor patch (!?) to little things like game sound not working. What I haven't seen is forum/tech support addressing these problems (aside from the usual "we're looking into it" posts).

Since I don't dare to even open my game launcher at this point without news of a confirmed fix, I have just been lurking here on the forums in the meantime. Can someone sum up for me exactly what major problems are making ESO unplayable at this particular point in time? Just trying to keep myself and everyone else in the loop.

For example, a couple of things I've seen so far:

• The launcher is breaking everything?? [Not resolved]
• The game sound doesn't seem to be working for everybody. [Not resolved]
• Discrepancies between early access time, grace periods, 30 days free, subscription plans, and full-charge authorization checks, oh my! [Not resolved]

TL;DR - It's chaos out there. I think there are a few people who would like a proper explanation on all of this, myself included. Thanks in advance if you can clear this up for us!

- Kadigan, Downtime Defenders
(North America)

Thete

Not had any problems of this sort. Is this a large number of player complaining of the issue (in which case may be a genuine problem) or just a small but vocal number (in which case maybe their own computer setup/skills which is at fault)?

mutharex

After the snafus last night, the patcher seems ok (I tried it this morning and it didn't eat my folder)

Kadigan

Thete wrote: »

Not had any problems of this sort. Is this a large number of player complaining of the issue (in which case may be a genuine problem) or just a small but vocal number (in which case maybe their own computer setup/skills which is at fault)?

Check the links I put up in the original post and you'll have about as much information as I do

FlameStar

I've only had one minor issue where you character occasionally freezes during combat till you die.. happened about 3 times over 8 or so hours.
Just jump in game and have a go. They have already patched up some issues during the week. I think its just the minority that are having issues.

mutharex

Kadigan wrote: »

Thete wrote: »

Not had any problems of this sort. Is this a large number of player complaining of the issue (in which case may be a genuine problem) or just a small but vocal number (in which case maybe their own computer setup/skills which is at fault)?

Check the links I put up in the original post and you'll have about as much information as I do

Aside from the patcher problem, I haven't had any of that stuff so... what's your point? Tech Support forums are always full of bug and problem reports, that doesn't mean it affects everyone. If you don't wanna play, wait...

Kadigan

mutharex wrote: »

After the snafus last night, the patcher seems ok (I tried it this morning and it didn't eat my folder)

Thanks, good to know! I never saw anything from the support team on whether or not they had fixed the problem so I was a little hesitant to give it a try, even though this is normally when I play.

mutharex

Kadigan wrote: »

mutharex wrote: »

After the snafus last night, the patcher seems ok (I tried it this morning and it didn't eat my folder)

Thanks, good to know! I never saw anything from the support team on whether or not they had fixed the problem so I was a little hesitant to give it a try, even though this is normally when I play.

They had stuff in Tech Support last night about it but then I went to bed leaving the patcher on, I am not sure if they said anything about it but seeing that no one is talking about this and that this morning I could relaunch the launcher without problems, I'd say this is ok now

As I said, didn't have the other issues. But remember, not all issues that come up in Tech Support affect EVERYONE. Even if they affect 10K people, on a population of 1mil o more, it's a tiny percentage and doesn't mean it will affect you too

Kadigan

mutharex wrote: »

They had stuff in Tech Support last night about it but then I went to bed leaving the patcher on, I am not sure if they said anything about it but seeing that no one is talking about this and that this morning I could relaunch the launcher without problems, I'd say this is ok now

As I said, didn't have the other issues. But remember, not all issues that come up in Tech Support affect EVERYONE. Even if they affect 10K people, on a population of 1mil o more, it's a tiny percentage and doesn't mean it will affect you too

There's no need to condescend, my friend, I'm well aware.
If you take a proper look at the links I provided, you'd see all except the sound bug are relatively common, persistent, and confusing issues which I am trying to shed some light on. I think the majority of people experiencing them may have just gone to bed/work/etc. Can't expect them to spend all their time on problems they're having with ESO. People are still talking about it so I'm going to assume it's still a concern for now.

Kadigan

As a side note, this thread was intended as a place for people to discuss these particular problems. If you're not experiencing any of them, that's great, but not a very constructive thing to add

Kadigan

These problems would appear to still be in effect judging from recent discussions. If anyone has an update or an explanation, please share. I for one would like to know if the launcher will be safely functional any time soon or if people are still waiting on an official fix.

lupusrex

I won't deny that they are serious problems, but I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that the game is unplayable. I still see many, many characters running around having fun. Perhaps it's not useful to say that not everyone is having those problems, but there are at least workarounds.

1. Someone in that thread mentions that they are able to play the game without involving the launcher by using the game's .exe file. On my computer, this is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online\The Elder Scrolls Online\game\client\eso.exe. So we can play without worrying about the launcher, until of course a patch comes out (hopefully a patch that fixes the problem! ).

2. This is probably the one that would bother me the most. I can grin and bear the occasional random German voice acting, but no sound at all would make me sad. I could probably still play with some music of my own blasting on the headphones.

3. I really do understand why people are upset about this. I am thankful to be in a position where $15 now vs. next month will not break my budget too badly, but I recognize that some people are not. At any rate, you're not being charged extra, just early. As for the early access time lost, it boils down to 50 cents per day for 5 days or fewer. To this part I can only say, don't sweat the small stuff.

Audigy

I find that the client is very stable at this point, compare this to SWTOR or Warhammer at release. Those were not even beta clients and the community had to tweak the ini files all the time to actually be able to play.

Not defending ZO here, especially the Launcher issue is crucial - however, its not as bad as it seems compared to other releases. The client is great as far I can tell and that's the most important thing. With a broken client games will still not work after several years as we can see with Warhammer, AOC or SWTOR that never managed to supply a decent client.
-
Give them a bit of time here and I am confident the result will be worth it

Kadigan

@lupusrex haha well I don't think it's an exaggeration for the people currently experiencing these problems! Not everyone is willing to take a risk on unofficial workarounds either, myself included. Thanks for the reply, though I was hoping more for some kind of explanation of what exactly is going on. I'll have to leave that to the ESO officials and hope when I come back later they'll finally have these various situations under control.

nochance

I've had 3 rollbacks in the past hour pretty much just wasting my time.. How long before this is over or we don't have to worry about rollbacks happening every 20 minutes? Really un-playable when i have to re-do things i already did twice! Only to get rolled back a 3rd in under a hour. Really not even worth the attempt to go through it again...

uselessbass

Been stable as can be only issue I had was a helmet disappeared other then that been great

Absynthe

Sounds like it may be best not to play this title until they get it all sorted.

dannomite82

1 hiccup last night for me, and the odd quest bug. You think this is unplayable... you should play Skyrim... many trips to the debug console did I have to make to get progress through some of the bugs.

mcatchlovb16_ESO

I have had no problems for the last 5 days along with a lot of people. People that aren't having a problem are playing and not posting that's why it seems like a lot are having a problem. I'd say most aren't having an issue.

Zershar_Vemod

No issues here.

Either it's the complainers' end or just small hiccups (which is normal for launch days).

lolage

just started clearing my fourth area (greenshade) and I've had two rollbacks in the last 30 minutes, although from the sounds of zone-chat people are more than frustrated with it. Kinda frustrating but it's never rolled me back far.

Kadigan

dannomite82 wrote: »

1 hiccup last night for me, and the odd quest bug. You think this is unplayable... you should play Skyrim... many trips to the debug console did I have to make to get progress through some of the bugs.

lol Skyrim? try going back in Elder Scrolls history a bit further

Saera

I have had a few of these issues, and for each thread I have posted in about these issue a CS rep has came in to help us work on the issues and get a fix.

(This next part may come off rude, but i assure you it is not meant that way)
The problem is, that MOST people do not use the search function and tend to open multitudes upon multitudes of forum posts about the same thing, and they tend to only go back to their own personal thread to see if they have been responded to and / or get fixed and get no response and then in turn think that they are not being helped when in all honesty there have been responses and directions on how to fix something in another thread about their issues.

Kadigan

As for everyone else, you're clearly not reading these posts properly. If you're not experiencing these problems, great, there's no need for your input. Most of these problems are not with the game itself at all. The game itself I found to be perfectly playable, enjoyable, and downright excellent for a starting MMO. The problem is that a lot of people cannot even get into the game at the moment due to problems with the launcher, etc etc. Read the topic and comments thoroughly, then post.

dannomite82

Kadigan wrote: »

dannomite82 wrote: »

1 hiccup last night for me, and the odd quest bug. You think this is unplayable... you should play Skyrim... many trips to the debug console did I have to make to get progress through some of the bugs.

lol Skyrim? try going back in Elder Scrolls history a bit further

Touche, but Skyrim is identifiable even to Elder Scroll noobies!

Kadigan

mcatchlovb16_ESO wrote: »

I have had no problems for the last 5 days along with a lot of people. People that aren't having a problem are playing and not posting that's why it seems like a lot are having a problem. I'd say most aren't having an issue.

On the contrary, I think it's pretty indicative of how widespread the problem is when so many people have been vocal and posting instead of playing

Kadigan

@Saera I completely agree that people would do better to check if their problem has already been addressed/solved before making a new thread but alas.

byghostlightrwb17_ESO

first rule of the internet don't believe everything, not saying these things didnt happen but people on the net have a way to make things far more epic and dire than they really are.

This game has been the most stable MMO at launch I have played in years, to say nothing of Diablo III and Simcity. Yes there have been issues and yes some of them serious but instead of keeping their heads and realising (or should I say respecting) that the devs dont want downtime anymore than we do, they scream "OMG this game is the worse thing eva, they owe us blah blah"

it isnt chaos out there, it is the normal standard MMO launch, its only chaos if you live in an ideal world where everything is perfect and unicorns and everything works as if by magic.

Nate

This whole thread is dumb. Why don't you actually TRY it yourself instead whining about hiccups that other players may or may not have experienced. Probably because you're just some derp that feels like trolling rather than playing.

Also, I'm assuming you never drive because some people have had accidents. Or you never eat out because some people have got food poisoning.

mutharex

Why don't you discuss this in the Tech Support area?

Enteum

FlameStar wrote: »

I've only had one minor issue where you character occasionally freezes during combat till you die.. happened about 3 times over 8 or so hours.
Just jump in game and have a go. They have already patched up some issues during the week. I think its just the minority that are having issues.

I have had this. Minor annoyance. But, wth...hopefully it will get patched. Other than that, it's all been a smooth ride so far