Oh ESO...

SilverArrowsMP · October 2018

I haven't played ESO since around the time Morrowind was released. I thought today I would revisit the game.
- 10ish hours to download on a wired 75mbps connection. I never know who is really to blame for the crazy slow PS4 download speeds.
- Tried to get on the ESO account site to create a new one. Down for maintenance. Ok, I'll come back in an hour or so. 14 hours later and it's back up. 14 hours!!!! Um, what?!?
- Game is finally done installing. Go to log in.... Error. Error. Error.
- Go to Bethesda Support's Twitter. "We are currently investigating issues some players are having regarding logging into the @TESOnline North American #PS4 megaserver." Fantastic.

Then I remembered this is part of the reason I stopped playing ESO. So. Many. Issues. Imagine you just bought the game today and were all excited to come home and play, and this was your experience. Would you be happy??

I have been playing WoW for the last 4 or so months because of the new expansion, and even though Battle for Azeroth is pretty meh for me at the moment, I cannot honestly think of a time I was not able to log in to the game, other than maintenance. Yes, they do weekly maintenance. Guess how long that typically takes? 25 minutes. They say it will take an hour, but most servers are back up in way less time than that.

I wanted so much to be happy about coming back to revisit ESO. Day one and I already am like "Hmm, WoW has been playable all day... why am I trying ESO again??"

Bhaal5 · October 2018

SilverArrowsMP wrote: »

I haven't played ESO since around the time Morrowind was released. I thought today I would revisit the game.
- 10ish hours to download on a wired 75mbps connection. I never know who is really to blame for the crazy slow PS4 download speeds.
- Tried to get on the ESO account site to create a new one. Down for maintenance. Ok, I'll come back in an hour or so. 14 hours later and it's back up. 14 hours!!!! Um, what?!?
- Game is finally done installing. Go to log in.... Error. Error. Error.
- Go to Bethesda Support's Twitter. "We are currently investigating issues some players are having regarding logging into the @TESOnline North American #PS4 megaserver." Fantastic.

Then I remembered this is part of the reason I stopped playing ESO. So. Many. Issues. Imagine you just bought the game today and were all excited to come home and play, and this was your experience. Would you be happy??

I have been playing WoW for the last 4 or so months because of the new expansion, and even though Battle for Azeroth is pretty meh for me at the moment, I cannot honestly think of a time I was not able to log in to the game, other than maintenance. Yes, they do weekly maintenance. Guess how long that typically takes? 25 minutes. They say it will take an hour, but most servers are back up in way less time than that.

I wanted so much to be happy about coming back to revisit ESO. Day one and I already am like "Hmm, WoW has been playable all day... why am I trying ESO again??"

Sorta lost me in the middle, but makes sense. Buying the game now and turning it on.... You would have just spent money on a screensaver. I wouldnt be happy and how is this acceptable these days.

Siohwenoeht · October 2018

Hey there! There was a worldwide internet issue where some games/sites were unavailable to some people. I understand the frustration but it wasn't on zos this time. Give it a shot again, many wonderful times to be had in Tamriel!

idk · October 2018

I would suggest asking for help via tech support instead of just complaining. If you just want to complain then that is fine.

If you want to ask for help then detail what is occurring, error codes etc, without getting into the rage and rant part. Essentially stick to the details.

An_An · October 2018

Forums is a good way for ZOS to know what they need to improve on. Game stability and performance comes before everything else.

We don’t need a new DLC every four months or new storylines or animations or even gear sets or class buffs or nerfs. Too much of this and you lose interest because the average person does not want to keep buying stuff which doesn’t work smoothly.

What we really need is to be able to play and not worry about when we are going to crash and lose progress. We need our weapons to be in our hands and not at our feet. We need to PVP in Cyrodiil with friends and not get kicked out of the server when we approach a fun fight. We need to be able to log in smoothly and not have to retry four times. We need to get our mail on time and not have to /reloadui every time.

I’d assume these things are just common sense. But no, apparently designing a deer mount and giving it three colors gets people interested so ...

SilverArrowsMP · October 2018

idk wrote: »

I would suggest asking for help via tech support instead of just complaining. If you just want to complain then that is fine.

If you want to ask for help then detail what is occurring, error codes etc, without getting into the rage and rant part. Essentially stick to the details.

Why do I need to go to tech support when (1) it said right at the top of the forum and on their Twitter that the Store and Account sites were down for maintenance as of 6am EST, and, according to their Twitter, didn't come back up until 4pm EST. So, my bad, it was 10 hours, not 14. Apologies for the mistake. (2) it said on their Twitter, as I copy/pasted in my OP, that there were login issues on the PS4 megaserver. Again, no need to contact support when they have already told me there is a problem.

During the time I was actually playing ESO almost a year ago, I had submitted 13 tickets to support. I'm not an idiot, I know how it works. The point of this post was not to rant or complain, but to simply show what my experience was today, to show how frustrating it can be to a new/returning player, so your white knighting isn't really necessary.

This game isn't new. 10 hour downtimes for account sites, which are necessary to even play the game, is absurd. Constant login issues shouldn't still be a thing. I have played WoW, FFXIV, Tera, the list of MMO's could go on and on. And ESO has by far been the most problematic when it comes to actually being able to play the game.

Edit: typo

SilverArrowsMP · October 2018

An_An wrote: »

Forums is a good way for ZOS to know what they need to improve on. Game stability and performance comes before everything else.

We don’t need a new DLC every four months or new storylines or animations or even gear sets or class buffs or nerfs. Too much of this and you lose interest because the average person does not want to keep buying stuff which doesn’t work smoothly.

What we really need is to be able to play and not worry about when we are going to crash and lose progress. We need our weapons to be in our hands and not at our feet. We need to PVP in Cyrodiil with friends and not get kicked out of the server when we approach a fun fight. We need to be able to log in smoothly and not have to retry four times. We need to get our mail on time and not have to /reloadui every time.

I’d assume these things are just common sense. But no, apparently designing a deer mount and giving it three colors gets people interested so ...

Couldn't agree more. Since WoW is what I have been playing most recently, I will use that as my reference. A vast majority of the community is NOT happy with the state of BfA. But it is not for performance or stability reasons. Yes, there are bugs, but the expac has only been out for just under 2 months. The complaints revolve more around gear and CD times and class balance. Those are things that can be fixed on the fly. For a game like ESO, which has now been out on the PS4 for over 4 years, still having performance and stability issues is just ludicrous.

I am with you... I'd rather still be playing a stable version of the base game than an unstable, laggy version with all these expansions.

Shraar · October 2018

It took me a full week to download ESO with the computer running day and night
The game was confusing and even signing up for the forums to ask for specific help was a hassle
The maintenance for this game IS pretty crazy and unpredictable and seems to take so long

The difference between this game and WoW is that you're free to return to it at any time while the other one will charge you for every last second, and that's on top of the price of the "expansion" I mean what's the point of a subscription if it doesn't get you the newest content? It's a horrible cash grab!!

I would trade you my Ashes of Al'ar if I could. I am a bitter ex-girlfriend when it comes to WoW, because of Void Elves. At least ESO lets me play High Elves! Screw you Ion! You'll never lay eyes on me again!

SilverArrowsMP · October 2018

Shraar wrote: »

It took me a full week to download ESO with the computer running day and night
The game was confusing and even signing up for the forums to ask for specific help was a hassle
The maintenance for this game IS pretty crazy and unpredictable and seems to take so long

The difference between this game and WoW is that you're free to return to it at any time while the other one will charge you for every last second, and that's on top of the price of the "expansion" I mean what's the point of a subscription if it doesn't get you the newest content? It's a horrible cash grab!!

I would trade you my Ashes of Al'ar if I could. I am a bitter ex-girlfriend when it comes to WoW, because of Void Elves. At least ESO lets me play High Elves! Screw you Ion!

While I do agree the ESO Buy to Play model is better, I would have no qualms paying a sub fee for ESO if it's performance was on par with FFXIV and WoW. I was an ESO Plus member for a bit. Then let it lapse. I remember when I logged back in, I had all these items in my crafting bag (they stay in there, you just can't add to them) and was like, why is this crafting bag something I have to pay real money for?

Just the other day in WoW, I spent 3,200 gold to get 120 slots in my inventory. To get 120 slots in ESO, it costs 70,100 gold. Almost 22 times the cost. To get 210 bank slots in WoW would cost around 5,600 gold, depending on auction house prices. To get 210 bank slots in ESO costs 529,200 gold... almost 95 times the cost. Granted, gold gain rate/amounts may be different, but even as a newer WoW player, I never felt burdened by paying to increase bank/inventory space, thereby never feeling burdened with endless inventory management. I managed to get on an EU server earlier just to get in the game, and my inventory was full before I even reached Vvardenfell. Yes, I filled it in the tutorial zone. Not cool.

Marabornwingrion · October 2018

Welcome back. In few hours you'll have another maintenance (which won't take 25 mins like in WoW)

Red_Feather · October 2018

Anyone else getting random disconnects to login screen.

Also this forum is looking weird. Completely different styles and a giant background image of the elf lady.

yodased · October 2018

False equivalency. For right or for wrong ESO infrastructure is completely different than the MMOs being referenced here

The other mmos have multiple server locations, redundant backup servers and the ability to hotswap while keeping a node online.

Eso for some reason decided to be different and have one server farm for each halfof the world, simply restarting takes on average 3 hours, so the patch itself is 25-30 minutes, self test a other 45 or an hour and then 3 hours for restart.

If the patch is corrupted or doesnt pass self test, its another 3 hours at least.

Like it or hate it, thats how it is.

Add a layer of steam or console connections and chaos ensues.

Also the login server is not the game server

Wildberryjack · October 2018

I came from WoW also and even though their servers are generally more stable the fact is that game has slipped so much that it isn't fun to play. I'll take the occasional annoyance of a server hiccup or longer maintenance over an unfun game any day. WoW's leveling now is horrid and slow, the end game is nothing but repetitive WQs, everything is time gated, rep locked, and total RNG so you can't work for anything you just have to hope you eventually get it. Ugh. No thanks.

Right now you can't even say WoW has stable servers though. They are having a very odd lag issue that they can't figure out. They claimed it only affected Oceanic servers but that is not true, it's affecting all servers. As it is now it's not likely to be fixed at all. It reaches the point of being infuriating trying to play when your latency shows 47 home and world but the game takes 2-6 seconds for every button push to react as if the latency were crazy high. It even affects vendors and looting.

No game is perfect. If you go to the boards of all of them you see the same complaints. I'll stick with the game I find fun, and that is this one. FF isn't bad, GW2 isn't bad, but I enjoy this game most.

Nerdrage9000 · October 2018

Out of curiosity, if you’ve been playing WoW, why are you playing ESO on a ps4 and not your pc?

Fleshreaper · October 2018

SilverArrowsMP wrote: »

Then I remembered this is part of the reason I stopped playing ESO. So. Many. Issues. Imagine you just bought the game today and were all excited to come home and play, and this was your experience. Would you be happy??

I have not played a video game in the last 10 years, that I have been able to bring home, install, and start playing straight away. Everyone, without exception, has had hours worth of patches and fixes to download. Then, there are usually still tweaks that have to be made in order to get the game to play properly.

Odovacar · October 2018

If I had a decent PC as I'm assuming you do since you play WoW I would recommend playing ESO on that over PS4, IMO.

Hoolielulu · October 2018

The PS4 stuff from yesterday was Sony's problem. I couldn't even log into their store.

Starlock · October 2018

You do realize these occurrences are rare, right? And that you just happened to try to do ESO again during a rare downtime event for your platform and server?

This... well... it kinda strikes me as analogous to "well, I hadn't been to Florida in a while so I started my drive down there. Then I found out there was this hurricane happening, and had to turn around. Why am I bothering to try to visit Florida again?"

Bhaal5 · October 2018

yodased wrote: »

False equivalency. For right or for wrong ESO infrastructure is completely different than the MMOs being referenced here

The other mmos have multiple server locations, redundant backup servers and the ability to hotswap while keeping a node online.

Eso for some reason decided to be different and have one server farm for each halfof the world, simply restarting takes on average 3 hours, so the patch itself is 25-30 minutes, self test a other 45 or an hour and then 3 hours for restart.

If the patch is corrupted or doesnt pass self test, its another 3 hours at least.

Like it or hate it, thats how it is.

Add a layer of steam or console connections and chaos ensues.

Also the login server is not the game server

So you are saying, we should forgive them for choosing a cheaper, inferior infrastructure that can hardly provide a reliable service to most other countries around the world, while still charging a premium for this?

boombazookajd · October 2018

can i have yer stuff?

yodased · October 2018

Bhaal5 wrote: »

yodased wrote: »

False equivalency. For right or for wrong ESO infrastructure is completely different than the MMOs being referenced here

The other mmos have multiple server locations, redundant backup servers and the ability to hotswap while keeping a node online.

Eso for some reason decided to be different and have one server farm for each halfof the world, simply restarting takes on average 3 hours, so the patch itself is 25-30 minutes, self test a other 45 or an hour and then 3 hours for restart.

If the patch is corrupted or doesnt pass self test, its another 3 hours at least.

Like it or hate it, thats how it is.

Add a layer of steam or console connections and chaos ensues.

Also the login server is not the game server

So you are saying, we should forgive them for choosing a cheaper, inferior infrastructure that can hardly provide a reliable service to most other countries around the world, while still charging a premium for this?

No, i am stating facts. You are projecting what you feel is my opinion.

validifyedneb18_ESO · October 2018

Doesn't help when the steam version downloads the game twice.

Work seriously needs to be done in this area, its a major problem when I try to get people into eso.

ImmortalCX · October 2018

idk wrote: »

I would suggest asking for help via tech support instead of just complaining. If you just want to complain then that is fine.

If you want to ask for help then detail what is occurring, error codes etc, without getting into the rage and rant part. Essentially stick to the details.

This kind of interaction leads couples to divorce.

He obviously is just venting. What he went through sucks.

When someone is venting they dont want someone telling them what they should have done.

LadyLethalla · October 2018

Fleshreaper wrote: »

SilverArrowsMP wrote: »

Then I remembered this is part of the reason I stopped playing ESO. So. Many. Issues. Imagine you just bought the game today and were all excited to come home and play, and this was your experience. Would you be happy??

I have not played a video game in the last 10 years, that I have been able to bring home, install, and start playing straight away. Everyone, without exception, has had hours worth of patches and fixes to download. Then, there are usually still tweaks that have to be made in order to get the game to play properly.

I remember having to download patches on one of my first PCs, back in the mid to late 90s. So it's been a problem for longer than 10 years, just saying.