Update on Cyrodiil Performance & Upcoming AOE Tests

Qbiken · September 2020

Bring the October tests please. Especially the 2nd one and make that one permanent

renne · September 2020

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi all, just posted the details for these upcoming tests in this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/544305/details-for-aoe-testing-in-cyrodiil/

"For example, if you cast Ritual of Retribution" said no one ever anymore.

relentless_turnip · September 2020

I would actually like some aoe's to have a cooldown as a quality of life change. Like stuff you spam by accident and it kills your resources.

These include things like:
Engulfing flames
Inhale
Shalks
Turn evil.

If they took the logic of certain skills would be fine or even better with a cooldown attached. Skills like jabs could be single target and healing kept to groups of a smaller size(as proposed in the latest test announcement). Skills that could effectively be single target should be looked at.

I would also like a healing priority button in settings that allows my heals to always prioritise me and save me spamming them and causing unnecessary area checks.
Skills like:

Cauterise
Rapid regen

There are also aoe skills that should have a ramping cost attached like purge, as it shouldn't be able to be spammed and mitigate every bit of incoming damage.

There are skills imo that shouldn't be affected as that is what makes them fun, things like whirlwind as an example.

What I'm ultimately saying is all these tests could be effective and work with minimal impact to combat. If all skills are looked at individually and the appropriate provision is applied based on their use.

MKintr · September 2020

Which time of the day does the test start?

Sarousse · September 2020

The 3 secs cooldown on AEs isn't up yet as I'm posting.

Xarc · September 2020

with october's tests, ball groups will just continue to play but without grouping...

ZOS_GinaBruno · September 2020

MKintr wrote: »

Which time of the day does the test start?

We're in the process of getting it spun up now. The main stickied thread will be updated once it's live and verified.

Bergzorn · September 2020

Xarcus wrote: »

with october's tests, ball groups will just continue to play but without grouping...

Isn't Purge group-exclusive?

EchoesofThunder · September 2020

Will the double AP from your testing stack with the double AP from killing a delve boss?

deleted221106-002999 · September 2020

mmmm

EchoesofThunder wrote: »

Will the double AP from your testing stack with the double AP from killing a delve boss?

Delve boss is +20% not double. Also only last 1 hour.

And yes, bonuses stack - I just watched someone get 26k+ ap from a keep for test bonus + 20% delve boss bonus + leftover pelinals. They laughed and I lamented because I never thought to use pelinals on a spare character and not relog until now.

edit: It seems ap earned is not attributable to alliance skill rank/AvA rank.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/544868/double-ap-does-not-count-towards-ava-rank/p1

Flash-Asuna · September 2020

if this goes through bye eso #killpvp #quiteso

Thanos7895 · September 2020

As a group healer in PVP this change effectively makes it impossible. I guess cyro will have less lag without all the skills but the gameplay is now garbage and not even worth my time. The combat in this game (even with lag) is what makes this game fun to play. Without this why bother playing...

If this goes live I would expect many people will just move elsewhere and you will get a lag free (although empty) cyro map as people just hit the uninstall button.

I would suggest that this test is already doomed to go into the trash heap of bad ideas - Why not just cut it short now? -and save us the frustration of a week of this crap.

keto3000 · September 2020

@ZOS_GinaBruno Can the ZOS team publish here (or pin) a 'CURRENT LIST, BY CLASS, OF WHAT ZOS CONSIDERS "AOE ABILITIES" AFFECTED BY THESE TESTS' so that we all have an easy to reference list please?

This is especially important for newer players to know what is actually being tested here.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

MKintr wrote: »

Which time of the day does the test start?

We're in the process of getting it spun up now. The main stickied thread will be updated once it's live and verified.

renne · September 2020

I'm pretty sure they don't even know. Best to assume that it's everything that has remotely an AOE aspect to it.

RobotSparkles · September 2020

Thanos7895 wrote: »

As a group healer in PVP this change effectively makes it impossible. I guess cyro will have less lag without all the skills but the gameplay is now garbage and not even worth my time. The combat in this game (even with lag) is what makes this game fun to play. Without this why bother playing...

If this goes live I would expect many people will just move elsewhere and you will get a lag free (although empty) cyro map as people just hit the uninstall button.

I would suggest that this test is already doomed to go into the trash heap of bad ideas - Why not just cut it short now? -and save us the frustration of a week of this crap.

This was my experience as a healer tonight as well... it was absolutely AWFUL. I was dead the majority of the time as all my heals had cooldowns. If these changes are made permanent, I won't be participating in Cyro at all anymore.

EmEm_Oh · September 2020

Thanos7895 wrote: »

As a group healer in PVP this change effectively makes it impossible. I guess cyro will have less lag without all the skills but the gameplay is now garbage and not even worth my time. The combat in this game (even with lag) is what makes this game fun to play. Without this why bother playing...

If this goes live I would expect many people will just move elsewhere and you will get a lag free (although empty) cyro map as people just hit the uninstall button.

I would suggest that this test is already doomed to go into the trash heap of bad ideas - Why not just cut it short now? -and save us the frustration of a week of this crap.

This. [snip] If this is perm, I'm finding something else. This is just a slap in the face of logical thinking.

[snip]

[Edited for Bashing]

olancho · September 2020

So I got several characters to 25k AP with the dbl AP, yet none are Tier 1? What a rip.

The 3 second cool down is extremely clunky too. Not much fun to PvP like this.

Ps. And as a solo Cyrodiil player, I would much rather deal with the latency issues (as many others have stated), run for my life from a ball group, or get steamrolled by a ball group than play PvP like this.

keto3000 · September 2020

I found this thread by Class Rep, GLORY, offers a detailed compilation list showing AOE CDs:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/539605/compiled-list-of-aoe-cooldown-skills#latest

Again, it would be better if ZOS would publish an 'official' list of all AOE abilities that are currently being tested here.

Here is another list of AOE abilities, categorized by Class and type of AOE. This is a good reference for newer players:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Area_of_Effect

Hope these are helpful!

relentless_turnip · September 2020

I have tried on the 4 main characters I play to participate in the tests, but none so far can really get past the buff phase 😂

They are magdk, stamden, Stamcro and stamsorc

I could play stamsorc if I switch to 2h and streak wasn't broken...

I should be able to join in during the individual cooldown phase. For now this is as frustrating as skill delay.

Jaimeh · September 2020

I PvP with a templar healer, and so far I can say the changes for this week are horrendous. Not only you are completely ineffective against constant pressure and incoming damage, you can't even help another ally, let alone a group. Not to mention that they absolutely negate reactive healing, and reactive playing in general. The delay on the skills is not compatible with the combat in the game, playing my class yesterday and today felt awful. Please consider and explore other ways to fix Cyrodiil performance, bucthering combat is doing the game and everyone a disservice @ZOS_RichLambert.

techyeshic · September 2020

Gameplay during test 1: Well; it's a test and abilities are not balanced for this type of play but I would like to point out that while this is happening, you have people choosing to siege even if they outnumber you because you cannot even self-cast purge outside of a necro or maybe a warden netch removal. So many classes are majorly gimped while others are a lot less affected. Magica classes in general have like 95% of their heals on CD and many defenses they rely on, on CD. Templar pretty much unplayable.

Bugs and issues during test 1: We noticed last night that if you cast an AOE that has a cooldown and immediately try to cast another, but then just block or sprint; the 2nd ability you press goes off automatically after the cooldown or once you stop sprinting. Also seems to be "invisible damage"/health desyncs.

Observations of impact on performance: Hard to say. I still see some ability delay but not as bad; yet PCNA is not pop locked across all factions. Given the pains of playing during the test and AP not counting toward rank while simultaneously having an Imperial City event is poor planning to say the least. Gap closers are still broken but I would love to be able to test them to see if they cause position desync still if/when we actually get pop locked on all 3 factions.

olsborg · September 2020

Certain abilities that arent always an aoe, for instance Conjured Ward, if cast when you dont have pets slotted only applies to yourself, should be under "special" rules so they dont come under the "aoe ruleset" of these tests and future results of these tests. IMO there should also be options for certain abilities to only be "self only" or regular.
Like Rapid Regeneration or Healing Ward, if you have these set to only ever target yourself they should not trigger the "aoe ruleset".

Also, streak/ball of lightning should not be under the "aoe ruleset" either because they already have a significant ramping cost for continuous casting it.

Icarus42 · September 2020

Out of curiosity and mild amusement.. Zenimax why are you conducting these tests in Cyrodiil during the Imperial City PvP event? No one is playing in Cyrodiil because of this, does this not defeat the purpose of these tests? Especially stress testing how these tests would ultimately effect large scale coordinated play, with ball groups etc.?

I am dumbfounded really at the timing of this event, I don't know what the logic of this is really... Am I missing something here?

Thanos7895 · September 2020

Icarus42 wrote: »

Out of curiosity and mild amusement.. Zenimax why are you conducting these tests in Cyrodiil during the Imperial City PvP event? No one is playing in Cyrodiil because of this, does this not defeat the purpose of these tests? Especially stress testing how these tests would ultimately effect large scale coordinated play, with ball groups etc.?

I am dumbfounded really at the timing of this event, I don't know what the logic of this is really... Am I missing something here?

Some of the organized group PVP guilds in Cyro have decided to not bother with this since it is so frustrating having cooldowns on skills.

I suspect these tests are just getting people ready for the changes they have already decided to implement. These "tests" likely are just getting the cyro population ready for radical changes to the combat which will kill off the remaining population of people that enjoy the responsive combat and the large siege warfare that cyro is.

olsborg · September 2020

Thanos7895 wrote: »

Icarus42 wrote: »

Out of curiosity and mild amusement.. Zenimax why are you conducting these tests in Cyrodiil during the Imperial City PvP event? No one is playing in Cyrodiil because of this, does this not defeat the purpose of these tests? Especially stress testing how these tests would ultimately effect large scale coordinated play, with ball groups etc.?

I am dumbfounded really at the timing of this event, I don't know what the logic of this is really... Am I missing something here?

Some of the organized group PVP guilds in Cyro have decided to not bother with this since it is so frustrating having cooldowns on skills.

I suspect these tests are just getting people ready for the changes they have already decided to implement. These "tests" likely are just getting the cyro population ready for radical changes to the combat which will kill off the remaining population of people that enjoy the UNresponsive combat and the large siege LAGGfare that cyro is.

I fixed your typos.

HanStolo · September 2020

Is the data they are getting from this first testing phase even going to be viable with having performed the tests during the IC event? The population in Cyrodiil isn't what it usually is because a lot of players are in IC during this testing.

polarbehr76 · September 2020

test 1 is utter garbage. gap closers dont even work how is that an aoe?

olsborg · September 2020

Id say, in terms of testing wether or not this would fix lagg issues in cyrodiil, the answer is no. During prime time the game is still unplayable, I did however, notice that the game runs just a littlebit smoother outside of prime time.

Starshadw · September 2020

Sadly, the thing that I'm finding most disheartening during this first test is that it simply isn't fun. I find myself staring at my skill bars more than the actual game environment, and I just don't find that at all enjoyable.

I'd also like to know why single-target skills like Honor the Dead, Rapid Regen, and Healing Ward are somehow considered AOE while Proxy Det is not. The logic behind what the game considers to be an AOE and what is not makes no sense.

olsborg · September 2020

Starshadw wrote: »

Sadly, the thing that I'm finding most disheartening during this first test is that it simply isn't fun. I find myself staring at my skill bars more than the actual game environment, and I just don't find that at all enjoyable.

I'd also like to know why single-target skills like Honor the Dead, Rapid Regen, and Healing Ward are somehow considered AOE while Proxy Det is not. The logic behind what the game considers to be an AOE and what is not makes no sense.

Yes, I dont get why Conjured Ward is an aoe, even when you have no pets slotted. Its like they just took a comb over everything that could, would or should hit more then yourself and slap a cd on it.