The real problem behind all of this lag, latency, desyncs etc...

scorpius2k1 · June 2020

thedavidventer wrote: »

Alternatively, using Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS could also make a difference.

Absolutely not.

If the ESO client even uses anything DNS related at all, it's only brief to resolve the server/instance hostname => IP which would then be cached locally by your OS as an IP from there on out. Once it's cached, your system already knows the IP address of that host and only uses the DNS server to refresh that cache every once in a great while or if you manually clear it. If you are already connected to the server/instance there the hostname is already resolved, no DNS used after. DNS server selection has absolutely ZERO bearing on any of these issues. Again, I would honestly be surprised if internally ESO even uses hostnames instead of using IP's of their systems directly, and if so DNS isn't even used at all. Advantages to DNS server selection are more important to things like web browsing, period.

I would read up a bit on DNS to understand it a bit more before making claims like that, it provides false hope for those who don't understand how it works and makes you look misinformed to those who do.

thedavidventer wrote: »

When my ISP is having issues, I use a VPN to play.

I'm 50/50 on this. It only makes sense to use a VPN if your ISP is using a bad route to the server, otherwise your issues will carry right over to the VPN. Using a VPN strictly for latency correction (assuming that was your point) is going to be hit and miss, it could make it slightly better or dramatically worse depending on the VPN service/servers you use and it also adds an extra layer of network overhead best left for privacy concerns while on the Internet. If a VPN can consistently outperform your ISP, it might be time to find a better one if possible.

Bottom line: As long as our Internet connections and gaming system of choice is up to the task, every problem with ESO is 100% with the design of the game and related systems itself. There isn't a whole lot we can do to make much of a difference to the game experience, especially when it comes to things that are network related. In the end, it's up to Zenimax to make their game run properly, or not.

Ashtaris · June 2020

Raudgrani wrote: »

Ashtaris wrote: »

And so if I had a friend or relative who I wanted to explore with located on the East Coast, too bad? Adding capacity might lessen the load and improve issues temporarily, but the problem with the servers goes far beyond a capacity issue.

I'm not exactly an expert on servers, but I don't think this is how it works. There's a Facebook server here in my city, if I went there and blew it up (I won't, I promise!), it's not like Facebook worldwide would suddenly collapse and be no more. Because there are other Facebook servers. Maybe it would cause an interruption and a lot of trouble for a while, but I doubt a single piece of content would be lost. Because it's part of Facebook, which is not "regional" - but a global network with several servers.

It's a bit hard to toss these terms and descriptions around, because I'm not a native English speaker. But I suppose you understand what I mean.

Well I ran my own gaming server for another MMO several years ago, so I have a pretty good idea on how it works. I’m pretty sure their NA gaming megaserver is located in one location, around Dallas if I’m not mistaken. They probably have several separate hardware severs linked together on the lan, creating the Megaserver. When they need to add capacity, they just load the software on another hardware server or servers and now can create more instances for players. Now you can split up the Megaserver making a Megaserver East and Megaserver West, but then how do you connect them so that players can play together? Using the internet to link the two wouldn’t be practical so you would have two sets of players that would never be able to join up and play together. I don’t see ZOS ever doing this.

And for those of you curious, the gaming server I ran was for a old MMO called “Uru: Myst Online”. I ran the Great Tree shard for several years on a remote Linux server located in Dallas. Heh, go figure

idk · June 2020

The analysis is incorrect. Especially when talking about the latency of skills in Cyordiil. A skill taking 2-3 seconds to fire has very little to do with latency from one's home to the server. To demonstrate how little of a differences evening a west coast and east coast server would make is when I log into the PC EU from NA my latency is 175 or less.

That is not even 20% of one second. That alone demonstrates that the premise made in the OP is incorrect and that there are issues server-side that are the cause of the bulk of the problems with Cyrodiill lag.

Granted, different players will have different experiences but that has more to do with routing, bad switches, and more that can occur just as easily with short routes as with long routes outside of discussing AUS/NZ.

MincVinyl · June 2020

baggio27 wrote: »

MincVinyl wrote: »

What is funny is that during lag it seems the only things that work are things like aoe/dots/proc since alot of direct abilities seem to not work or disappear because of targeting issues with the servers during lag and in general these mechanics take off layers of skill that make them easier for anyone to use for guaranteed damage output. Thus the meta is pushed towards these forms of damage being viable and actually working better than the more traditional single target damage being everyone's main source of damage.

Actually, if you really see that, it might be server-side optimization technique for Cyrodiil. Under heavy load that is dense in one place (zerg) it is easy to realise that "numbers" and situation outcome are mostly dominated by AOE dmg and heals. They have years of statistics that can prove that. Devs, knowing that small scale single-target fights around are negligible to the encounter outcome, can prioritize AOEs for those heavy loads and drop randomly single target skills to keep most important part going, thus not affecting the big picture (but ruining non-zerg experience). That would be wise to do, if your server cannot satisfy requirements for 100% accuracy.

I get what you are saying, but what I was trying to get across was that if zos pushed the meta towards ways to reduce calculations they could effectively remove the player driven aspect of why the server gets bogged down. We all know greyhost works fine in the morning(EST) and then terrible at primetime during the night(EST). Generally that would point to the server not being able to handle what that amount of players pushes through the server.

Zos could push:

Non stacking Overtime effects, which used to be how the game handled dots/hots. Made class abilities more important. Different morphs were more important. Out of class options could not be abused by everyone. Large uncoordinated groups could not overpower smaller coordinated groups based on shear numbers. BiS hots/dots could not take over the meta every other month.(think of the sloads/soultrap meta). Thousands and thousands of less calculations.
Simplified abilities There used to be a time in the game when a damage ability was a damage ability. A utility ability would be utility. Sometimes an ability might cost more or do less damage to have a stun tied to it.
Non stacking Persistant ground effects Catapults/caltrops/procs would not stack(again would work like #1^)
Incentivize small man groups to form No i do not mean the super elite 1vXer 6 year veteran players. Newer or average tier players have little to no incentive to learn or want to play solo/small group. Doing simple things like making large groups make severely less ap distributed from kills/ticks. At the end of the day large raid groups are fighting for the campaign score for the faction a reward should be tied to that. Ideally guilds claiming keeps during campaigns should gain benefits from what their members accomplish during a campaign and high performing guilds get rewards based on performance. This stops larger guilds gaining direct benefits for just stacking random pugs on top of their own. Making Resources around a keep give a higher bonus for attacking/defending during a keep seige. Make the resources buffs to keeps more important to the siege. Add Reasons for the outer outposts to be used and fought at.
Avoid adding calculation heavy sets/abilities into the game. I believe it is a general consensus that proc sets were not healthy for the game from a playing perspective, but they cause alot of issues calculations wise aswell.
Redesign the cp system to be flat buffs without extra tacked on bonuses(slot 75 or 120cp). Make nocp better by removing the stat bonus for slotting cp and give it as a base bonus for being lvl50.

For aspects that would affect pve, these suggestions could simply be put through battlespirit