Unidentified Add-on Causes Game Client Crash Upon Attempt to Access Crown Crates

Shadowshire · June 2018

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_Wrobel

UPDATE: the following events do not occur while all add-ons are disabled, and I have not identified which one(s) is responsible.

Please refer to Feedback Ticket #180626-000683 (submitted in-game on 2018-06-26) for which a more detailed report follows.

Recently, five Psyjic Crown Crates were offered as a Daily Reward.
I claimed the reward while logging out of one of my characters.
Subsequently, I chose to play the same character again.
After the log-in was complete, I used the keybind to access the Crown Crates (as I've done several patches ago).
The response was only a sound, apparently signifying the Crown Crate UI had been accessed. There was no display of the NPC nor any other audio. Instead, the ESC menu disappeared from the HUD along with the Compass and the character's attribute bars (which I've configured to always be displayed). The only remaining feature of the UI was part of the Chat pane. I could move my character, but I could neither access the character's Bags, nor interact with an NPC such as a Banker. The rest of the displayed content (NPCs, furniture, etc.) remained as it had been before I used the Crown Crates keybind.
Entering the keybind for the Crown Crates feature should close the UI. It might have done that insofar as I heard the same sound after pressing the key, but that was the only thing that happened. Nothing else changed.
Entering the command /exit in the Chat text entry field was ignored.
The only way to recover was to use the Windows Key on the keyboard to display the task bar, then terminate the ESO client. Of course, afterward, I ran the Bethesda Launcher to use the Game Options menu to Repair Files.
Afterward, I resumed play without any problems evident as a result of the previous game client crash.

Subsequently, while logged-on to a different character:

Using the keybind for the Crown Crates output the corresponding sound, and also displayed the NPC in a very blurry overlay of the existing displayed content for St. Delyn's Penthouse in Vivec City, Vvardenfell. It was shortly followed by a greeting from the NPC. Nothing else happened until I moved my character and the blur dissipated, leaving the NPC, a deck of cards in hand, sitting on a stool in the apartment.
Using the keybind again produced the same sound, and the NPC was moved to a position "facing" the back of my character. I used the keybind at least once or twice more, and all that happened was that the NPC was moved in an attempt to "face" my character, but rather oddly sometimes occupied the same space as my character.
As before, the ESC menu and other elements of the HUD disappeared when I used the Crown Crates keybind. However, at some point, the "Exit" keybind appeared in the lower righthand corner of the HUD. After I used it, its prompt on the HUD disappeared, but the NPC remained.
Of course, the only way to resume play of the game was to use the Windows Key to display the task bar, then terminate the game client. Followed, of course, by running the Bethesda Launcher to use the Game Options menu to Repair Files before resuming play of the game.

mrpaxman · June 2018

Add on's that give different camera angles to the standard game ones gave me the same result. I no longer use any of those add on's from when i realised it was causing this issue with the crown crate menu only

Shadowshire · June 2018

mrpaxman wrote: »

Add on's that give different camera angles to the standard game ones gave me the same result. I no longer use any of those add on's from when i realised it was causing this issue with the crown crate menu only.

As far as I know, none of the add-ons which I use affect the camera angle(s). One affects keybinds. I cannot recall any that affect the Crown Store, and I don't use any that have anything explicitly to do with the Crown Crates.

Mystrius_Archaion · June 2018

You're going to have to disable them all then enable one by one to figure this out. It shouldn't take much time.

I can help you out though. I only use lorebooks and skyshards and "map pins" and none of them cause this for me.

Shadowshire · June 2018

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

You're going to have to disable them all then enable one by one to figure this out. It shouldn't take much time.

I can help you out though. I only use lorebooks and skyshards and "map pins" and none of them cause this for me.

I know how to investigate it. It will take more time than I have. Since I do not buy Crown Crates and rarely have any reason to access that feature, I simply won't use it -- or I will disable all of the add-ons before I do. That would happen about once a year, which is seldom enough for me to forget all about this issue the next time that I have reason to use the Crown Crates keybind. .....

Mystrius_Archaion · June 2018

Shadowshire wrote: »

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

You're going to have to disable them all then enable one by one to figure this out. It shouldn't take much time.

I can help you out though. I only use lorebooks and skyshards and "map pins" and none of them cause this for me.

I know how to investigate it. It will take more time than I have. Since I do not buy Crown Crates and rarely have any reason to access that feature, I simply won't use it -- or I will disable all of the add-ons before I do. That would happen about once a year, which is seldom enough for me to forget all about this issue the next time that I have reason to use the Crown Crates keybind. .....

Then don't expect them to fix it as an addon issue when they don't even know which addons you use and aren't using your PC and connection.
They rely on addon users to fix their own bugs most of the time, unless it's legitimately caused by perfectly working addon code using a broken command they made or something like that. The addon author probably just used a line of code wrong.

Shadowshire · June 2018

@Mystrius_Archaion

Where did I ever say that this issue should be fixed by ZOS?

When I wrote the OP, I forgot that I had not tested the Crown Crates feature without any add-ons loaded. I have not used the Crown Crates UI very often at all, and don't recall any problems with it previously when I did. After I realized that I had not used the Crown Crates feature without any add-ons loaded, I did that, and discovered that it worked as expected.

So, I immediately edited the OP to report that. I considered deleting the OP entirely. However, I decided that both players and the ZOS personnel who read it should be advised of the problem.

Frankly, many add-on developers do not test their software any more or any better than ZOS tests theirs before they release it. Both parties apparently expect players to spend their time and effort discovering, investigating, and reporting "bugs", as well as any "work around" that they might have found which will excuse the developer from correcting their mistake(s).

Then we sometimes discover that a developer just does not have the humility to admit that they made a mistake in their design or implementation of the software's features. They either don't fix it, or they change it in some way that makes matters worse. Developing reliable, well-featured software that does anything complex ordinarily requires far more time and effort than anyone realizes when they set out to create it.

Which is also to say that anyone who believes that that learning how to use a programming language makes the programmer a hero or a saint is cruising for a rude surprise. As a programmer, I seldom made a mistake, but when I did, it was usually rather obvious, significant, and very embarassing. So I know whereof I speak.