The Gold Road Chapter – which includes the Scribing system – and Update 42 is now available to test on the PTS! You can read the latest patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/656454/
Maintenance for the week of May 6:
• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – May 6, 4:00AM EDT (8:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – May 8, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – May 8, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)

They should design and build the server BEFORE starting the maintenance!

d.crosgrove_ESO
d.crosgrove_ESO
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I mean, come on! I haven't seen server maintenance problems this bad since 1999 when Origin was running Ultima Online! And even then, the weekly server downtime wa... 1 hour! We are up to 5.5 hours!

I mean, TEST the upgrade/change BEFORE to downtime--don't test and fix during the downtime!

Come on people!
  • RunAway
    RunAway
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    Makes sense. RuneScape does it best.
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  • Daethz
    Daethz
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    /plugs in ram while server is running, person gets zapped, dies, server starts on fire.
    Thats what I got out of this lol.
    Waiting, and watching, for the return of Melee Weapons.
    -Subsidiary of The Fighters Guild
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  • Vedrix
    Vedrix
    You forgot they leave for lunch too and make us wait while they eat.
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  • d.crosgrove_ESO
    d.crosgrove_ESO
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    /plugs in ram while server is running, person gets zapped, dies, server starts on fire.
    Thats what I got out of this lol.

    The sad part is, any decent company would have had the servers back up and running faster than this even if the primary server had caught on fire...
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  • brandon_burton159b16_ESO
    I guess you've never played WoW? Even in recent expansions down time for server maintenance has gone a full day at the extremes and most server maintenance days last up until anywhere from 11am to 2pm EST.

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  • Turelus
    Turelus
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    Server maintenance doesn't always mean actual work on the servers.
    They could be correcting database issues, applying patches and running the servers in test environments to make sure things are running smoothly.

    If you have been playing MMOs since 1999 you should be used to some downtimes taking longer than scheduled due to unforeseen issues.
    What's happening today is nothing out of the ordinary for any MMO from time to time, what's important is going forward they learn how to get their downtime a short as possible.
    @Turelus - EU PC Megaserver
    "Don't count on others for help. In the end each of us is in this alone. The survivors are those who know how to look out for themselves."
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  • SilverWF
    SilverWF
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    WTF with you, Zenimax, again? Why prime-time?
    WE DO NOT NEED ANY PATCHES IN THE OUR PRIME-TIME!
    Even if it will be bugfixes or something. Seriously!

    http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/76915/na-megaserver-offline-4-12-14-11-47pm-edt-complete#latest

    But this is about NA server only, so what happened with EU-server? Why it's unavialible?!
    • PC EU. Ebonheart Pact. CP 1k+
    • YouTube: All ESO disguises (2014)
    • EU players are humans too! We want our maintenances in the least pop time (at deep night) and not lasted for several hours!
    • Animation canceR - is true PvP cancer! When you can't see which actions your opponent do - you can't react properly on them!
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  • Nikyiky
    Nikyiky
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    I guess you've never played WoW? Even in recent expansions down time for server maintenance has gone a full day at the extremes and most server maintenance days last up until anywhere from 11am to 2pm EST.

    And now we know one of the many reasons I never played WoW
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  • Fenbrae
    Fenbrae
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    People are so overreactive. If ESO isn't working, then go do something else.
    It's not like you are paying them, all of us are running on our 30 free days.
    Yes, you might say "ehrmergerd i'm losing valuable free time" but i'm pretty sure they gave you a free month because there will be a lot of fixing and noone wants to have long downtimes while paying for your gametime.
    Currently playing:
    Swims-In-Sap - CP200+ - Argonian Templar

    I like my healing like i like my characters: generic
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  • ashton
    ashton
    those free days cost quite a lot more than subscription
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  • d.crosgrove_ESO
    d.crosgrove_ESO
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    Fenbrae wrote: »
    People are so overreactive. If ESO isn't working, then go do something else.
    It's not like you are paying them, all of us are running on our 30 free days.
    Yes, you might say "ehrmergerd i'm losing valuable free time" but i'm pretty sure they gave you a free month because there will be a lot of fixing and noone wants to have long downtimes while paying for your gametime.

    You got free days? I sure didn't get any free days--I had to shell out $79.00 for my ability to play during theses 30 days.

    So, how did you get free days?
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  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    /plugs in ram while server is running, person gets zapped, dies, server starts on fire.
    Thats what I got out of this lol.

    Actually, server class hardware has things like hot swappable RAM, power supplies, and even CPU's.

    This isn't a hardware issue anyway, they are working on an issue with the database (my guess it's to fix the bank issue people have been having).
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  • d.crosgrove_ESO
    d.crosgrove_ESO
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    /plugs in ram while server is running, person gets zapped, dies, server starts on fire.
    Thats what I got out of this lol.

    Actually, server class hardware has things like hot swappable RAM, power supplies, and even CPU's.

    This isn't a hardware issue anyway, they are working on an issue with the database (my guess it's to fix the bank issue people have been having).

    They should have worked on it BEFORE they took it down to fix it.
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  • george.smithb16_ESO
    I'm guessing they are dealing with their promise to review player logs and restore lost items, which sounded pretty ridiculous to me, as it no doubt entails untold gazillions of hours of searches and scanning to deal with the many, many people who were screwed over by the bank bug.

    They would be MUCH smarter to make a gold restitution, apologize and tell people to buy their crap back.

    Whatever the issue, obviously they don't want downtime any more than we do. As much as the bugs annoy us, it must really keep the devs up at night, knowing they've got all these people relying on them to deliver. That's a lot of pressure.
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  • Saerydoth
    Saerydoth
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    /plugs in ram while server is running, person gets zapped, dies, server starts on fire.
    Thats what I got out of this lol.

    Actually, server class hardware has things like hot swappable RAM, power supplies, and even CPU's.

    This isn't a hardware issue anyway, they are working on an issue with the database (my guess it's to fix the bank issue people have been having).

    They should have worked on it BEFORE they took it down to fix it.

    You realize, that working on the database requires taking the game down right? They started the patch on the EU server first, then they took the NA server down. During that process, they found an issue on the EU server that took longer than expected to fix, and then they found that the NA server had the same issue.
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  • d.crosgrove_ESO
    d.crosgrove_ESO
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    Saerydoth wrote: »
    /plugs in ram while server is running, person gets zapped, dies, server starts on fire.
    Thats what I got out of this lol.

    Actually, server class hardware has things like hot swappable RAM, power supplies, and even CPU's.

    This isn't a hardware issue anyway, they are working on an issue with the database (my guess it's to fix the bank issue people have been having).

    They should have worked on it BEFORE they took it down to fix it.

    You realize, that working on the database requires taking the game down right? They started the patch on the EU server first, then they took the NA server down. During that process, they found an issue on the EU server that took longer than expected to fix, and then they found that the NA server had the same issue.

    You realize, of course, you are flat out wrong. You can work on a database in a multitude of ways from copying it and working on the copy which you then, when it is done, take the working database down and copy the fixed version over. total downtime 15 minutes.

    Or, if you must manually repair records, you do it on the fly.

    I've worked on databases, so you should not talk about things you don't understand.
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  • Malediktus
    Malediktus
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    GW2 patches without downtimes.
    @Malediktus --- Ebonheart Pact, EU-Megaserver
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  • _Lunchbox_
    _Lunchbox_
    Soul Shriven
    They better hurry. The servers are now trying to kill themselves due to the downtime. http://i.imgur.com/mk5rbvg.gif
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  • george.smithb16_ESO
    Saerydoth wrote: »
    You realize, of course, you are flat out wrong. You can work on a database in a multitude of ways from copying it and working on the copy which you then, when it is done, take the working database down and copy the fixed version over. total downtime 15 minutes.

    Or, if you must manually repair records, you do it on the fly.

    I've worked on databases, so you should not talk about things you don't understand.

    Actually, I think it's you sir who is not thinking this through. Really, you lose all credibility with your 15 minutes statement, making it super clear, you have no concept of how much data they are dealing with.

    Besides that, the primary reason to take the database offline, is to stop users adding more data to it. Hardly any point in taking a hot copy, fixing it over a few hours, and then telling people they are losing those few hours of playtime to get rolled back to the newly repaired database.

    Get it? What's the point of letting me play, only to *** me off later with a rollback??? Creates more work for them, and customers are even more angry with the rollback.

    Think about it. It's not always about ensuring people have uptime. The priority is to repair the issue, and uptime is secondary until the thing is stable and functioning properly.


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  • Elember
    Elember
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    Fenbrae wrote: »
    People are so overreactive. If ESO isn't working, then go do something else.
    It's not like you are paying them, all of us are running on our 30 free days.
    Yes, you might say "ehrmergerd i'm losing valuable free time" but i'm pretty sure they gave you a free month because there will be a lot of fixing and noone wants to have long downtimes while paying for your gametime.

    Thing is though it is my day off today. I knew it was maintenance day and I planned for the 4 to 5 hours of maintenance which any competent sever maintenance crew should be able to complete the job in. However ZOS maintenance crew, which is obviously sub par, decides to extend maintenance for another 6 to 8 hours which basically ruins my day off completely.

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  • d.crosgrove_ESO
    d.crosgrove_ESO
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    Saerydoth wrote: »
    You realize, of course, you are flat out wrong. You can work on a database in a multitude of ways from copying it and working on the copy which you then, when it is done, take the working database down and copy the fixed version over. total downtime 15 minutes.

    Or, if you must manually repair records, you do it on the fly.

    I've worked on databases, so you should not talk about things you don't understand.

    Actually, I think it's you sir who is not thinking this through. Really, you lose all credibility with your 15 minutes statement, making it super clear, you have no concept of how much data they are dealing with.

    Besides that, the primary reason to take the database offline, is to stop users adding more data to it. Hardly any point in taking a hot copy, fixing it over a few hours, and then telling people they are losing those few hours of playtime to get rolled back to the newly repaired database.

    Get it? What's the point of letting me play, only to *** me off later with a rollback??? Creates more work for them, and customers are even more angry with the rollback.

    Think about it. It's not always about ensuring people have uptime. The priority is to repair the issue, and uptime is secondary until the thing is stable and functioning properly.

    Your lack of knowledge shines brightly:

    1. Fifteen minutes is plenty of time to swap in a new copy of the database.
    2. You only need to drop the database entirely for a protracted time period IF you haven't yet fixed the problem and don't know yet how to fix it. Otherwise, you:
    A. Repair the code problem.
    B. Then bring the server back online and
    C. Manually (or with a script) give people the items that have been removed.

    End of problem.

    And, as other people have already pointed out, what you say is "impossible" is how other games actually do it.
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  • Reymas
    Reymas
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    Malediktus wrote: »
    GW2 patches without downtimes.

    Yes, this. I remember being so impressed with GW2's hot fixes. You simply had to relog.

    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ @ZOS_GinaBruno‌

    Your patch guys at ZOS really need to get a more efficient pipeline, so far we've lost at least 24 hours to maintenance time this month and it's only half over. This is where it begins to cut into the value of a sub fee.

    As suggested, build and test a new patch on the PTS or clone servers and perform maintenance on that instead of the main mega-server, then simply port over that code . This will prevent you ticking off paying customers and taking servers down for far longer than they should. Servers should go down for no more than 1-2 hours per week. That would be acceptable. The current set-up is not acceptable. In this day-and-age it's down-right amateur, sorry to say.

    You guys are live now, this is no longer beta, and expectations are raised just as customer patience wears thin. Fair warning, of all things this is what could drive customers away at the end of this month.

    On the flip side, glad to see you are addressing issues and applying fixes but there has got to be a better way as seen by so many other examples in the past.
    Edited by Reymas on April 15, 2014 7:00PM
    Honor, Duty and Piety for Morrowind
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  • d.crosgrove_ESO
    d.crosgrove_ESO
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    Elember wrote: »
    I knew it was maintenance day and I planned for the 4 to 5 hours of maintenance which any competent sever maintenance crew should be able to complete the job in. However ZOS maintenance crew, which is obviously sub par, decides to extend maintenance for another 6 to 8 hours which basically ruins my day off completely.

    Sums it up nicely.
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  • Deluged
    Deluged
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    You think they give our posts a second glance? Not a chance. As long as the money keep rolling in they will never really listen.
    Money talks...B.S. walks...
    Truth? It's a person..
    Truth? It will set you free.
    Truth? only trumped by Love.
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  • Reymas
    Reymas
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    Elember wrote: »
    I knew it was maintenance day and I planned for the 4 to 5 hours of maintenance which any competent sever maintenance crew should be able to complete the job in. However ZOS maintenance crew, which is obviously sub par, decides to extend maintenance for another 6 to 8 hours which basically ruins my day off completely.

    Sums it up nicely.

    I went to sleep when the server went down, woke up after a restful night and it's still down.

    Something is either wrong with the people working on the server or wrong with the server itself, sorry to say.
    Honor, Duty and Piety for Morrowind
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  • AngryNord
    AngryNord
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    Deluged wrote: »
    You think they give our posts a second glance? Not a chance. As long as the money keep rolling in they will never really listen.
    Money talks...B.S. walks...

    B.S. talks -> customer walks
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  • Varivox9
    Varivox9
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    How dare they fix problems! Where do they get off performing maintenance on their newly released MMO!?! No other MMO has ever had issues with maintenance taking longer than expected at launch! EVER!! /sarcasm

    Seriously though, if you want to avoid this sort of thing, never buy a MMO on launch. It will happen.

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  • warlockcoub17_ESO
    SilverWF wrote: »
    WTF with you, Zenimax, again? Why prime-time?
    WE DO NOT NEED ANY PATCHES IN THE OUR PRIME-TIME!
    Even if it will be bugfixes or something. Seriously!

    http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/76915/na-megaserver-offline-4-12-14-11-47pm-edt-complete#latest

    But this is about NA server only, so what happened with EU-server? Why it's unavialible?!


    How is this PRIME-TIME? Its in the middle of the day, during the week. Prime-Time is early evenings during the week and weekends, as far as gaming goes.
    Edited by warlockcoub17_ESO on April 15, 2014 7:06PM
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  • Reymas
    Reymas
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    I'm guessing they are dealing with their promise to review player logs and restore lost items, which sounded pretty ridiculous to me, as it no doubt entails untold gazillions of hours of searches and scanning to deal with the many, many people who were screwed over by the bank bug.

    They would be MUCH smarter to make a gold restitution, apologize and tell people to buy their crap back.

    Whatever the issue, obviously they don't want downtime any more than we do. As much as the bugs annoy us, it must really keep the devs up at night, knowing they've got all these people relying on them to deliver. That's a lot of pressure.

    All that searching and cross-checking could have been done with the server still up. Then prepare restore patch and let it fly.

    Also the one thing that money can't restore is quest rewards. Many people probably decon, or trash these but I personally keep all of mine in my bank. If they have a little blurb on being rewarded with something I'll hang onto it as a kind of trophy. Getting all that stuff back would be a huge pain, so I am so glad I did not lose my bank. Hopefully it's not gone when the servers come back up. ;)
    Honor, Duty and Piety for Morrowind
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  • Pseudofire
    Turelus wrote: »
    Server maintenance doesn't always mean actual work on the servers.
    They could be correcting database issues, applying patches and running the servers in test environments to make sure things are running smoothly.

    If you have been playing MMOs since 1999 you should be used to some downtimes taking longer than scheduled due to unforeseen issues.
    What's happening today is nothing out of the ordinary for any MMO from time to time, what's important is going forward they learn how to get their downtime a short as possible.

    Except for one important difference... just our best desktop machines run more than 50x faster than 15 years before. Who's to say how fast server power is now.

    So for this kind of downtime, I find it really hard to give any sympathy to their length of downtime.


    CPU of the day
    1999 - PENTIUM III 800(100) 2.136 GIPS
    2014 - Core I7 980x 106.84 GIPS
    GIPS (Billions of instructions per second)
    Edited by Pseudofire on April 15, 2014 7:09PM
    "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."
    - Pulp Fiction's Ezekial 25:17
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This discussion has been closed.