I've been playing for 5 years now, and it seems to me that loading times and loading screens are only getting worse as time goes. Even though my rig as severely improved over the years, with more RAM, a faster CPU, SSD drives for both system and programs... Nothing cuts it.
So, nowadays, ESO be like :
- Launch game. This is actually pretty fast and you get to the loading screen in a matter of seconds.
- Enter credentials, then wait until the login server identifies you. Might take a while.
- Loading screen to the character selection.
- Pick a character, and then get "requesting character load". Might take over a full minute.
- Then, the actual loading screen. Usually takes well over a full minute.
- The world is loaded, and your ping is red. Wait a few more seconds for it to become normal.
- Move inside the zone you're in. Get random loading screens. Reglar zones seldom have them, Craglorn has them all the time, Cyrodiil is a monstrosity.
- Get to a teleporter. Loading screen.
- Want to change character ? Click "log out", then wait. May take up to a full minute. Or "your chazracter will be logged out in 10 seconds". Lies, the countdown will often freeze at 0 for a while before actual logout occurs.
- Loading sdcreen back to character selection, then rince and repeat the whole thing.
And with the current event, I've grudgingly returned to Cyrodiil. Basically, I go there once a year, for the event, and only for the tickets. Well, it's getting worse each year, isn't it ? Yesterday I had 10 freaking loading screens during the time it took me to go to a scouting area and back, and it was really not that far. Today only 1, apparently loading screens are worse in the north of the map...
Dear ZOS, how is your performance plan coming alone ? Getting to those database improvements yet ? I'm no IT expert (1), but I think you should have started with that. It's been almost a year since you started, and it had taken a year between acknowledging the issue and actually starting, so it's time we see results. You want me to spend money on your game, you might want to give me something worth spending on.
(1) I'm no IT expert anymore. Used to be systems and networks tech, some years ago, before I switched to a completely different field because I was fed up with corporate bosses never wanting to spend a dime on much needed improvements, even when doing nothing meant a risk of major data loss and whatnot. I guess some things never change. Starting an improvement process backward, by making things "smoother" on client rigs when the issue is obviously how poorly servers handle the load, bad bandwidth and extremely low database access... That's a telltale "we'll do it only if we absolutely must spend that money" behaviour.
Edited by Uryel on June 30, 2020 9:18AM