Error 318... EVERY SINGLE DAY

lagrue · November 2019

For the last month, since Witch's Festival started, I've been plagued with Error 318 every single day.

"You have been dropped from the server because you hit the message rare limit. Please avoid excessive messaging (i.e. spamming.)

But here's the thing... I haven't messaged anybody. I haven't put text in zone chat, I haven't written a single thing. I haven't sat here spamming buttons or anything. I don't understand why this keeps happening.

I'm sick of losing out on crafting nodes, chests, coming back to the game dead because the game logs me out mid-fight - all because i'm being flagged as spamming when I've done nothing at all.

Either this game is throwing false errors, or some issue on ZOS end causes this. Incredibly frustrating.

Asardes · November 2019

This happens on PC quite frequently due to addons. But I see you're on console. Odd.

lagrue · November 2019

Asardes wrote: »

This happens on PC quite frequently due to addons. But I see you're on console. Odd.

Yup, happens on PS4 to me

very frustrating. You can always tell when it's about to happen because every NPC in the game world freezes in place, nodes become unharvestable - then 30 seconds later you get booted.

ZOS_Bill · November 2019

On consoles the error 318 can happen because of latency issues or using non-standard controllers. You can find troubleshooting for this error in our help article below.

What should I do if I receive "Error 318" on console?

dotme · November 2019

lagrue wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

This happens on PC quite frequently due to addons. But I see you're on console. Odd.

Yup, happens on PS4 to me very frustrating. You can always tell when it's about to happen because every NPC in the game world freezes in place, nodes become unharvestable - then 30 seconds later you get booted.

If everything seems to freeze, then it's most likely an issue with your internet connection. In simple terms, every move you make results in packets being sent to the ESO server. If those packets get hung up in transit, or the console requeues and retries them because of packet loss/connection issues, when the connection is finally restored they all hit the server at once, triggering server-side rate limiting and then you get dropped for "spamming" (The term "Messages" in the 318 warning probably refers to server TCP/IP requests in this instance, not actual chat messages - and that freeze you experience is an indicator that packets you're sending/receiving from the ESO server have temporarily stopped flowing)

I used to see this from time to time on my PS4 when I was using WiFi and when my ISP was also having occasional latency/packet loss issues. They fixed their network, I ran ethernet to my PS4, and haven't had any trouble since. If you're on WiFi I'd recommend checking to make sure you have no interference and that your bandwidth/speed is good, and then also check your ISP & router via ethernet for speeds, packet loss etc.

lagrue · November 2019

dotme wrote: »

lagrue wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

This happens on PC quite frequently due to addons. But I see you're on console. Odd.

Yup, happens on PS4 to me very frustrating. You can always tell when it's about to happen because every NPC in the game world freezes in place, nodes become unharvestable - then 30 seconds later you get booted.

If everything seems to freeze, then it's most likely an issue with your internet connection. In simple terms, every move you make results in packets being sent to the ESO server. If those packets get hung up in transit, or the console requeues and retries them because of packet loss/connection issues, when the connection is finally restored they all hit the server at once, triggering server-side rate limiting and then you get dropped for "spamming" (The term "Messages" in the 318 warning probably refers to server TCP/IP requests in this instance, not actual chat messages - and that freeze you experience is an indicator that packets you're sending/receiving from the ESO server have temporarily stopped flowing)

I used to see this from time to time on my PS4 when I was using WiFi and when my ISP was also having occasional latency/packet loss issues. They fixed their network, I ran ethernet to my PS4, and haven't had any trouble since. If you're on WiFi I'd recommend checking to make sure you have no interference and that your bandwidth/speed is good, and then also check your ISP & router via ethernet for speeds, packet loss etc.

Well I use ethernet, but I guess my internet could have been playing up. Just strange for 4 years or so it's been fine and the last month it's happening every day.

I'm also not using an offbrand controller and the help article just told me how to check my connection as though I don't know how -_-

redlink1979 · November 2019

lagrue wrote: »

But here's the thing... I haven't messaged anybody.

Due to the latency, when you push buttons multiple times (in frustration, usually, because the game isn't working as it should) the system will take that as spamming...

dotme · November 2019

lagrue wrote: »

Well I use ethernet, but I guess my internet could have been playing up. Just strange for 4 years or so it's been fine and the last month it's happening every day.

You could try a new cat5 cable just to rule out a bad connection, perform a router reboot, maybe router factory reset (drastic, but in come cases routers can get a little corrupted over time and setting back up as new can fix issues). If you have a PC hardwired, you could run a lengthy ping test too with a tool like Pingplotter to see over time if your ISP is dropping randomly. Random drops when streaming video etc can go unnoticed because of local client buffering but gaming is a different animal and needs that constant connectivity. Reboot any switches between the PS4 and router too maybe.

Hope you get it worked out