Closing the Bug Reports Forum

Kilnerdyne · January 2019

This forum is doing more harm than good. People see no responses or no action on what they report. This can lead to less players reporting issues, loss of confidence in Community Support/Developers and less sales of ZoS products in the future.

Either:

Close this Forum.
Hire someone to read, evaluate, reply, relay info, & close threads.

A thread of currently known issues updated once a week wouldn't hurt either.

Suddwrath · January 2019

Kilnerdyne wrote: »

A thread of currently known issues updated once a week wouldn't hurt either.

This is exactly what needs to happen.

Other major MMO's all have a section of "Known Bugs and Issues" which is maintained by the company. So many bugs/issues have been reported by players for literally months and even years but have yet to even be acknowledged by ZOS.

Soleya · January 2019

Agreed.

After posting bug here and getting no response, I do wonder why I even bothered to post it and take time to do screenshots showing the issue.

Ironically, none one at ZOS will read this thread either.

Teutoburger · January 2019

yep they dont care. people still get the stuck in loading screen when loading into dungeons and getting the ready check bug when going into dungeons and its still not fixed

Teutoburger · January 2019

and still not getting credit for killing an enemy or assisting when i done atleast 70% damage on someone in a battleground

Shadi_Trixter · January 2019

The core root of the problem isn't the forums. Its a combination of the lack of community involvement by the company coupled with the inaction of not resolving game breaking issues in a timely manner (company). ESO is now all about a long game of string-along. How can they monetize the new content they create while doing more of the same.

Their main focus is on generating new content for new revenue and that's not bad if they addressed issues.

I am sure If you report a game-breaking bug that directly impacts an upcoming release (while your on the PTS) they would adress it if its not PVP. Outside test the unspoken communication has and continues to be "thank you for your money, we appreciate you care... we don't". That's not to say all the people working there don't, just the decision makers based upon their actions.

The servers and its many issues seem more like pets than cattle anyway from what I've seen. If you've worked in a NOC or operations center you know all about that reference, and there are just some things you need to have (which it appears they don't).

The game is long past its expiration date anyway at this point and they should just let it die since they don't have the budget or apparently the commitment to make things right.

A bug report forum anyway is a poor way of tracking issues; that's what ticket systems were made for and excel at but you don't get the community involvement and any system is only as good as the people setting business objectives.

I kinda want my 450 hours back knowing what I know now about ZoS.

Kilnerdyne · January 2019

If you make a new post on this forum, or use F1 or /bug in-game, about an issue in the game it can take Months & Years for a response. Only after repeated pressure from 10-20 pages of replies might they glance at the thread.
If you make a new post on the General Discussion forum about an issue in the game. It gets moved to here.

This forum is the recycle bin, the hole in the desert, drop a bag over it.
An EU Representative who lives in the EU and is allowed to post on the English Forums would be a start.

Maxime · January 2019

Kilnerdyne wrote: »

This forum is doing more harm than good. People see no responses or no action on what they report. This can lead to less players reporting issues, loss of confidence in Community Support/Developers and less sales of ZoS products in the future.

So very true.
Please ZoS go train yourself in customer satisfaction and give us the support we are entitled to

Turelus · January 2019

ZOS (Gina specifically) has noted that the teams doing bug hunting do check this forum regularly and they move bugs over to the internal bug tracking sheets they have.

I do agree they should let those people post though so they can say "please can you give more information on this"

agegarton · January 2019

The level of communication from ZoS has steadily declined over the past several months - it has gone from just below average to astonishingly poor. I don't know what is going on there at ZoS HQ, but someone needs to take accountability for the lack of comms and remember that it's the player base - especially the subscriber base - who pay the bills and keep the lights on.

Maxime · January 2019

agegarton wrote: »

The level of communication from ZoS has steadily declined over the past several months - it has gone from just below average to astonishingly poor. I don't know what is going on there at ZoS HQ, but someone needs to take accountability for the lack of comms and remember that it's the player base - especially the subscriber base - who pay the bills and keep the lights on.

Total nonsense. this has nothing to do with the slow response and the lack of information, or the fact you get on every question the same old standard replies.
Common curtesy is that you reply and help your customers

Maxime · January 2019

Maxime wrote: »

agegarton wrote: »

The level of communication from ZoS has steadily declined over the past several months - it has gone from just below average to astonishingly poor. I don't know what is going on there at ZoS HQ, but someone needs to take accountability for the lack of comms and remember that it's the player base - especially the subscriber base - who pay the bills and keep the lights on.

Total nonsense. this has nothing to do with the slow response and the lack of information, or the fact you get on every question the same old standard replies.
Common curtesy is that you reply and help your customers

Sorry this was a reply on @Turelus

Turelus · January 2019

Maxime wrote: »

agegarton wrote: »

The level of communication from ZoS has steadily declined over the past several months - it has gone from just below average to astonishingly poor. I don't know what is going on there at ZoS HQ, but someone needs to take accountability for the lack of comms and remember that it's the player base - especially the subscriber base - who pay the bills and keep the lights on.

Total nonsense. this has nothing to do with the slow response and the lack of information, or the fact you get on every question the same old standard replies.
Common curtesy is that you reply and help your customers

Are you talking about support tickets or bug reports? Because they're very different things handled in very different ways.

agegarton · January 2019

Turelus wrote: »

Maxime wrote: »

agegarton wrote: »

The level of communication from ZoS has steadily declined over the past several months - it has gone from just below average to astonishingly poor. I don't know what is going on there at ZoS HQ, but someone needs to take accountability for the lack of comms and remember that it's the player base - especially the subscriber base - who pay the bills and keep the lights on.

Total nonsense. this has nothing to do with the slow response and the lack of information, or the fact you get on every question the same old standard replies.
Common curtesy is that you reply and help your customers

Are you talking about support tickets or bug reports? Because they're very different things handled in very different ways.

They are different things, but I’m not sure I agree that they are or should be handled in very different ways.

Look at it his way: if you’re a customer, it feels as though your problems are ignored. I have raised bug reports and had zero feedback. I have raised issues relating to serious game performance problems, and had no response. I’ve raised tickets and been provided with nothing more than cut and paste responses telling me to reduce my graphics settings (= I was ignored). And today we have a series of server wide issues, and the communication back into the forum and to customers in general has been appalling (= customers have been ignored).

If I treated customers like ZoS treats its customers, I would be fired. As would the vast majority of people reading this post. It’s that simple. I have said this before on these forums: the game issues won’t kill this game, ZoS will. And they’ll do it by eventually pissing their customers off so much that the game’s reputation will suffer.

Kilnerdyne · January 2019

Every game gets a reputation whilst it's alive & it keeps it long after the servers have shut down.

Players will remember 2018 as the year ZoS fell silent on too many long-term issues with the game, essentially giving up in the cases of infinite loading screens, peaktime pvp latency, time trial issues, events that always break some part of the game and the group finder to just touch the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe they've been working on it, we have no idea. But a post every 18months from your lead pvp designer, lead combat designer leaving & moderator-only staff members on the forums isn't helping. From a public relations standpoint it's a disaster and I agree with @agegarton in any other community support or PR department in another company people would have been rolled out the door years ago.

Kilnerdyne · February 2019

In the last year, 3990 posts on the bug forum, 220 responses. That's 15 posts to read for a staff member per day given a 253-day working year (which is very generous indeed). I'm not sure keeping the forum open so you can read 5% of posts is worth it.

This is a good example of why you have such a terrible image problem atm. Also that maintenance the other day but mostly this. Talk to us; we're trying to tell you stuff.

bitels · February 2019

@Turelus i would agree with you, if not for a fact that this whole sub-forum is filled with same topics containing same bugs over and over again.
Even if you talk with people in game, most of them will say its better to post bugs in "General" section, just because its better way to get some attention to a problem from other players. Or even better- dont even bother with reporting anything, because general public understanding is that "ZoS dont give a ****". And tbh Zenimax worked hard for that reputation.
I agree that either smth have to change with Bug forum, or ZoS might as well just close it, because right now is just place where topics come to die without any response from ZoS.

Turelus · February 2019

bitels wrote: »

Turelus i would agree with you, if not for a fact that this whole sub-forum is filled with same topics containing same bugs over and over again.
Even if you talk with people in game, most of them will say its better to post bugs in "General" section, just because its better way to get some attention to a problem from other players. Or even better- dont even bother with reporting anything, because general public understanding is that "ZoS dont give a ****". And tbh Zenimax worked hard for that reputation.
I agree that either smth have to change with Bug forum, or ZoS might as well just close it, because right now is just place where topics come to die without any response from ZoS.

It's better here because this is where the teams noting them look. Posting in general is just more spam/rage/vent posting which gets lost in the mire of other spam/rage/vent posts and unlikely the bug testing teams see it.

Also most bug reports generally just say "this is broken fix it" and don't give any information. What format, what server, what were you doing, what game build version was it etc.
If the team can't reproduce a bug they can't find how to fix it, additionally different bugs are going to get rated depending on their impact on the game and number of players suffering from it.

One thing ZOS could really do with is something like over on the Paradox forum where when you make a post in the bug report section it actually gives you a standardised form you complete.

End of the day however the more people doing good bug reports in the correct way will do more to help the game, sadly not many people do that.

bitels · February 2019

I think you are missing a point here. Problem is that almost no one cares about reporting bugs any more, because they feel (and in many cases they are right) that ZoS wont do anything about them. There is lack of communication here, posting topic on bug forum feel like screaming into void, where no one will ever listen.

That is also why people prefer to make a topic in General forum, because if your problem will not get serious attention from players there is almost zero chance you will get any kind of acknowledgement from ZOS.

I also will not agree with trying to shift blame to the players for that situation. No one here is professional beta tester, what we are doing we doing from a passion for the game and if Zenimax need more information on any kind of issue they can just ask, which would also make it look like there is someone actually reading this forum.

You have also bugs that are well documented, easy to reproduce and are so common, that by now they basically become a feature.

Stuck in combat
Group finder
Not receiving mail unless you change zone
Cyrodil's keeps and outposts doors

And probably many, many more that I simply cannot remember now. Yet good luck trying to get any kind of response to those problems. Are they working on it? Will we ever get a fix? When? Anyone even reading? Who knows? So its not hard to get opinion that ZOS is more interested in pushing another new half-baked content, that they are dedicated to fix what they have

So once again- either close that forum all together or something need to change. Unless you want to end up in situation where no one will report anything any more.

Kilnerdyne · February 2019

Turelus wrote: »

Also most bug reports generally just say "this is broken fix it" and don't give any information. What format, what server, what were you doing, what game build version was it etc.
If the team can't reproduce a bug they can't find how to fix it, additionally different bugs are going to get rated depending on their impact on the game and number of players suffering from it.

One thing ZOS could really do with is something like over on the Paradox forum where when you make a post in the bug report section it actually gives you a standardised form you complete.

End of the day however the more people doing good bug reports in the correct way will do more to help the game, sadly not many people do that.

The Uninvited · February 2019

Kilnerdyne wrote: »

This forum is doing more harm than good. People see no responses or no action on what they report. This can lead to less players reporting issues, loss of confidence in Community Support/Developers and less sales of ZoS products in the future.

Either:
Close this Forum.

Hire someone to read, evaluate, reply, relay info, & close threads.

A thread of currently known issues updated once a week wouldn't hurt either.

Eddie, this should be a sticky. You've outdone yourself and are totally right about this.

Robin_the_Noble · February 2019

Kilnerdyne wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

Also most bug reports generally just say "this is broken fix it" and don't give any information. What format, what server, what were you doing, what game build version was it etc.
If the team can't reproduce a bug they can't find how to fix it, additionally different bugs are going to get rated depending on their impact on the game and number of players suffering from it.

One thing ZOS could really do with is something like over on the Paradox forum where when you make a post in the bug report section it actually gives you a standardised form you complete.

End of the day however the more people doing good bug reports in the correct way will do more to help the game, sadly not many people do that.

Last year I decided to open threads for some of the Time Trial problems that i'd submitted in-game (some multiple times over 2-3 years), thinking that if I made a more public presence regarding the issues then the staff involved would be more inclined to fix them. I kept to a standardized format; userid, server, when, everytime, what happens, what is meant to happen, since when has this been happening.

Same thing as with the in-game system. 0 replies. In total 3 have been actioned, vHOF pylons, vMOL aspects & vHOF textures/terrain.

Veteran Dragonstar Arena - Missing Narrator Dialogue
Veteran Dragonstar Arena - Hiath the Battlemaster invisible
Veteran Dragonstar Arena - Hiath the Battlemaster: Parcour
Veteran Dragonstar Arena - Enemies casting same ability multiple times quickly
Veteran Cloudrest - Shadow of the Fallen invisible or missing
Veteran Dragonstar Arena - Stuns & knockbacks cause you to fly in slow motion
Veteran Asylum Sanctorium - Olms the Just: Jumps only Once or Twice
Veteran Asylum Sanctorium - Felms the Bold: Jumping Animation missing
Veteran Maw of Lorkhaj - Rakkhat: 1st Hulk not spawning
Veteran Aetherian Archive - The Mage: 1st set of Axes not spawning
Veteran Maw of Lorkhaj - Suneaters: Eclipse field not despawning
Veteran Hel Ra Citadel - Final door to last boss triggers an infinite loading screen
Veteran Maw of Lorkhaj - Rakkhat: floating orbs in main room & backyard are invisible
Veteran Halls of Fabrication/Sanctum Ophidia/Aetherian Archive - Terrain/Textures disappear
Veteran Halls of Fabrication - Pinnacle Factotum: Lightning AOEs upstairs invisible
Veteran Sanctum Ophidia - Stonebreaker Troll: Boss stuck in animation.
Veteran Halls of Fabrication - Archcustodian: stuck in combat
Veteran Aetherian Archive - The Mage: Conjured Reflections not despawning
Veteran Hel Ra Citadel - Yokeda Rok’dun: Welwa respawns after boss dies
Veteran Hel Ra Citadel - Gargoyle: Petrying Bellow stunning before animation
Veteran Halls of Fabrication - Reassembly Commitee: Ruined Factotums reposition after spawning
Veteran Halls of Fabrication - Archcustodian: 1st wave of mobs spawn directly on the boss
Veteran Halls of Fabrication - Assembly General: Calefactors resetting spontaneously
Veteran Halls of Fabrication - Archcustodian: Pylons to activate beams are missing.
Veteran Maw of Lorkhaj - Aspects not being assigned correctly

The Stuck in Combat bug in PvP also has only a tragic & lonely trail of suffering. It's hard to know what to say or do to PvPers these days. Do you try to console them? Do you hug them and cry? Do you just not mention the performance at all? I think the latter is the one Zenimax has decided on. Especially since Brian's last post about PvP Performance was well over 19 months ago and now he's switching to another role.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/441902/stuck-in-combat-bug-still-not-fixed
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/444860/stuck-in-combat-and-cant-mount-cyrodil
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/428893/stuck-in-combat
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/444227/stuck-in-combat-who-was-the-evil-master-mind-behind-the-murkmire-changes
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/435399/oh-plz-zos-you-made-stuck-in-combat-more-annoying
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/426565/stuck-in-combat-for-literally-ever-sprint-bug-block-bug-eso
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/133427/stuck-in-combat-stuck-in-combat-stuck-in-combat-stuck-in-combat-stuck-in-combat
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/437507/anyone-else-got-the-stuck-in-combat-bug-again
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/429981/stuck-in-combat-an-exploit
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/283516/for-the-love-of-god-fix-stuck-in-combat
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/223259/please-please-please-fix-the-stuck-in-combat-bug
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/88796/stuck-in-combat-and-unable-to-hide
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/411094/constantly-stuck-in-combat
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/411094/constantly-stuck-in-combat
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/118862/still-no-fix-or-any-information-about-the-stuck-in-combat-bug
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/102283/bug-getting-perma-stuck-in-combat-mode-all-the-time
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/133465/still-stuck-in-combat
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/197345/for-the-love-of-talos-please-fix-the-pvp-in-combat-bug-before-imperial-city

This, here, is what we're talking about when we say "we get zos'ed". A term that means nothing to the CMs but sums up our suffering in game. The biggest problem we're having here is that we pay for this game. It is not our fault you have a small team to work on developments and bug fixes.Not our responsibility whatsoever. I have submitted a mountain of tickets over the years about the server stability issues, various random disconnects and mid fight loading screens and the best I got from zos was instructions to port forwarding. No my internet is fine, you just need to feed the hamster a little better. I don't know the actual percentage but I'm sure as hell most people in the game are playing with eso+ for well over 3 years or so, the least you can do for people who are paying your bills is to acknowledge the problems that has been present for years and show some effort in fixing them.

Peace be with you..

themaddaedra · February 2019

Kilnerdyne wrote: »

This forum is doing more harm than good. People see no responses or no action on what they report. This can lead to less players reporting issues, loss of confidence in Community Support/Developers and less sales of ZoS products in the future.

Either:
Close this Forum.

Hire someone to read, evaluate, reply, relay info, & close threads.

A thread of currently known issues updated once a week wouldn't hurt either.

You have never been more right :kappa:

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo · February 2019

Too many issues with the game at the moment and not enough communication from the developer's side. I agree with previous comments. More organisation please. Repeated errors are unproductive.

KhajiitFelix · February 2019

Also remove every PvP forum.

Moloch1514 · February 2019

I think the trick is that the bug will be fixed if related to the Crown store. If not related to monetization, there is little urgency since there is less direct $$ returned for time spent fixing the bug.

Rittings · February 2019

It's not just that bugs are ignored here either, even when you submit a ticket you rarely receive a response. You might get an automated response if you report a player etc, but reporting a bug through the correct options usually ends up in silence - giving the customer no chance to add further information (which means these forums are the only real option, and then more than often they are ignored here too).

ZoS have a terrible customer service. It needs a complete overhaul. They have the potential of a wonderful product, but I fully believe they really retain die hard fans through the franchise name itself, and not really anything to do with how the game functions (or often, dysfunctions).

It's almost heartbreaking to watch the dismissive and capitalist attitude at times. I've no doubt some of the team really pour their hearts and souls into this - but it's really all of naught if the follow up team (customer service) is weak and apathetic. I'd for sure run things VERY differently given the chance. The consumers need to be given far greater concern and a feeling of importance to generate more confidence in the product.

Morgul667 · February 2019

An intern could do the job

Seriously ZOS this is communication 101, make people feel listened

Pathfindr · February 2019

OP is right. I'm one of those that have already stopped testing and reporting bugs. Since launch (early access in March 2014) only one of my numerous reports has generated a response of any kind, and most problems I -- along with many others -- have reported still exist. At least the community has become very good at finding workarounds, and if there is none... well, I either give up and go do something else or I suffer through it. I no longer spend hours testing, troubleshooting and writing detailed reports that aren't even read, I have better things to do.

Kilnerdyne · February 2019

They are playing the last few cards in their hand at the moment.

The plan will be to gather the last few Crowns out of the community before the "Thanks for playing" and "It's been a crazy rollercoaster ride" threads from individual developers start appearing in 2020-2021. This is why General Discussion & Bug Reports are devoid of responses/abandoned and all of their staff focus has switched over to the PTS forum.

When Elswyr is released they need to have saved up enough capital & attached enough bandaids to the servers to run the game on minimal staff & minimal performance for that last glorious year of Khajiit & Dragon related Crown Store/Crown Crate related items.

This is why this forum should be closed. Players posting here actually think they're doing a good service, improving the game or helping other players; when really it's all just a sham.

Blackleopardex · February 2019

Agreed