Athan1 wrote: »

Having instanced zones is a flawed system. They should be separate channels. It's extremely creepy that all instances of a zone exist on literally the same map and as such invisible ghosts (other players) walk around us all the time.

Your friend is standing next to you but in a different instance so you just see a speech bubble floating in the air without any avatar below it.

You are interacting with a node but then it suddenly says "someone is using this" although you are alone, and then the node disappears.

Nodes disappear around you but there's no-one there.

Party member indicators floating in mid-air.

So, we know/suspect/guess from what ZOS has said, and observations, that the game pretty much works as you suggest in the first paragraph. Zones are, in fact, separate channels, and that is the proper term (per Nick Konkle). We don't know how many channels exist for a particular zone. At least one for every populated zone, more for heavily populated ones. Channels are dynamic and can apparently be created. and merged, as needed. Probably rare on the Live servers, but unpopulated zones may need to be "spun up" if someone enters it. (Probably their private dev server, not so much on Live) When a player is added to a zone channel, the game prioritizes group, friends, and guild members so that they will be together. As stated above, if you travel to someone, you get put into the same channel.

Players in different channels are separated. They will not see players from other channels. Nothing from a /say, /yell, or /zone will be seen outside of the channel. Only /group /guild and direct messages work between players in other channels.

What goes wrong, then? Bugs, of course. Also, "phases".

There are apparently still some quest-specific "phases" that players can encounter. Players at different stages of a quest may find that they can no longer see players who are not at the same stage. They are still in the same channel, and apparently share the same resources, but cannot see each other. They removed a lot of these, but apparently, some are still there. One example is in Stonefalls at Fort Virak. Bots used to hide in there because anyone who had completed that story line would be unable to see them.

These phases do not work like World of Warcraft phasing in main cities where people vanish and appear as they enter and leave Ironforge or Stormwind. They are not to separate population but to present a different game world to people based on quest stage.

Eccentric_Vampire wrote: »

I've seen nodes disappear too. I had just loaded in from another area though so I assumed it was that. I'm not sure what platform you're on, but since I play on Xbox myself, I'm wondering if it's a console thing.

No. That is not a console thing. That happens on PC. The nodes only exist on the server, and sometimes the server has to tell the client that a node is not there. Outside of phased areas, I think that if the client is mistaken about whether a node is there, it will simply vanish when the server corrects things. Inside phased areas, if the resource node is shared, then it will simply vanish as an invisible player takes it. Fortunately, there are very few phased areas.

Avalon wrote: »

Athan1 wrote: »

What I'm saying is that the instances should be separate and not physically on each other. It's just awkward. All MMOs I've played have different channels so this issue never occurs.

What you, and a couple others, are not getting: different instances ARE separated, and have different spawns for enemies AND nodes - you cannot interact with a different instance's stuff, it's not the same 'entity'.

ALSO, there is no such thing as 'unrelated to quests' in this game. Unless you are in a dungeon, delve, or trial, that is. Every overland zone has various quests built into them to determine how they work, look, and more. So, you might think, "We're not even WORKING on quests!" but the game doesn't care a bit what you are or are not doing. It cares at what stage each of you are in each of the questlines for whatever particular zone you are in, and more importantly for the region of the zone.

If you have done all of your alliance's basic quests, but have a friend who just started, you might be almost incapable of grouping in those areas because they will keep 'poofing' when you walk into certain areas. They are STILL in your instance, and can see the stuff you see, including nodes... but you cannot see them, they cannot see you. You can see the arrow/chevron above their heads. But that's only because you are grouped - if you weren't, they'd still be in your instance, able to affect your environment, etc... you just wouldn't be able to see them.

THAT is what the OP is describing, and THAT is what people are trying to explain. There ARE others wandering around us, IN our instances, who we cannot see, and can 'steal' our chests, nodes, etc. They are just not at the same stage of whatever quests are important for that particular area/region/zone. And, btw, having not even accepted a quest or questline counts as being at 'stage zero' for that quest most of the time. So, you ARE on that line, you just haven't done anything, including talking to the starting NPC or activating whatever item, etc.

What you're describing is what I think people call "phasing," right? ESO is my first MMO, and even though I've been playing for nearly 4 years now I'm still learning some of the terminology-- mainly because I feel no burning desire to learn it until I run into a situation where I need to use it; but also because it seems like different MMOs can use different terms for the same things, and perhaps even use the same terms to mean different things, so you get people using other MMO's terminology to refer to things in ESO (for instance, saying "raids" instead of "trials"); plus, people can use terminology that technically doesn't really mean what they're using it to mean (for instance, "FPS"). So, yeah, I freely admit that I might not be using "instancing" in the precise way that ESO means it, and it doesn't help that seems some websites seem to refer to (and I quote) "instance/phase" as if those two terms are interchangeable.

VaranisArano wrote: »

Instanced zones are a requirement so the server/client isn't overwhelmed with trying to send the info to and from every visible person. In other words, when you wayshrine into Mournhold, you get placed in an instance that doesn't include everyone because if there were only one instance with ALL the players in it, you'd be having the same problems that players in Cyrodiil do as their server/client connection struggles to render and transfer data on lots of players. ESO doesn't handle lots of players in the same place particularly well.

It does get a little funky with grouping, though. Assuming you aren't dealing with a specific quest, the solution that worked for me and my friend was to go to another zone, reform the group, then travel back to the zone so we ended up in the same instance.

That and it is pretty much a standard design for MMORPGs. It is an ideal design for server load. I have found traveling to someone I am grouped in or if I am grouped with them when I traveled to the zone we can see each other.

This has happened to me too. Sometimes it is quest instancing, where players have taken different quest options, but it has happened that we go an area with no quest and one person is running around in the same area but not the same instance. They get different loot nodes, different monsters, and the boss has not yet spawned when the others are already fighting it.
We have usually solved this with Travel to Player, but it doesn't always work.