Kwoung wrote: »

Youyouz06 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Youyouz06 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Youyouz06 wrote: »

McTaterskins wrote: »

Hello all,

Some friends and I have been watching closely over the last several weeks to see if we could identify common denominators in regard to the game's performance. As we all know, the performance issues are definitely not isolated to just Cyrodiil. These issues have been increasing in other content as well. At an alarming rate. Even instanced content including BGs, Trials, and Dungeons.

There's many an instance where you get periods, even during peak times, where the game runs "ok". The days of it running "great" anywhere are seemingly behind us.



In turn, we started watching closely for specifics. Common denominators regarding performance issues that we've specifically noted that make things take a turn for the worst during gameplay at a rather rapid pace are:

Cyrodiil NPCs:
Upon engaging, agro, or often times just being in close proximity, the guards etc. at resource nodes and keeps (especially resource nodes) will immediately cause the game's performance to change.
Myself and some others have brought this point up on other occasions.

Question: Is this a memory issue? I believe Matt? had brought up in a stream/interview one time that there were memory issues with the game on certain platforms that did not allow for the addition of more animations, skills etc. - Could this perhaps be related? Being that the NPC's are using outdated class skills and abilities that no longer jive with the rest of the game? Are there too many calculations involved with engaging these NPCs in their current form?


Plaguebreak and Kynmarcher's Cruelty:
Game will be performing "ok". Can be in a full BG, IC, or even in a decent sized fight in Cyrodiil. Then one of these sets arrives or gets applied and it is downhill from there.

Question: Can these sets be investigated? They are still relatively new and they have brought new functions to the mix.
In no way, shape, or form, am I saying to ditch these sets. They're pretty cool in their own right and do add flavor to combat. They just need to be looked at from the ZoS side as they are most definitely culprits in regard to performance dips.


Outfits/Style items:
We made some flashy outfits. We play for a bit in outfit 1. Then for a bit in Outfit 2, 3, etc. - Noticeably, the game performs differently when wearing base game outfit styles than it does in the latest and greatest bling. In my own current example of this, I made an outfit with crimson oath and some other spikey stuff, used the flashy reflective Frozen Blood color, and threw on the Spellscar weapons currently available in the crown store and through endeavors. (Used Endeavors to purchase them fyi.) - Noticeable difference in performance.

Question: As mentioned above, could this be memory related? Are these graphics or effects pushing some boundaries with the current capabilities?


I'm sure other things have been identified. There's quite the list running for bugs etc. - But I felt we could try to narrow down some focal points that might be manageable without having to wait for the core code architecture rebuild etc.

If anyone else has noticed actual specific things that cause desync or fps issues, please share.

When looking for these things or making observations, it is difficult to distinguish between just straight server/game delay or desync due to 10-50 players all inputting data at once, vs hey, it was just 2 of us and "X" person or NPC showed up, did "Y", and everything just went to H-E-Double Hockey sticks.

Please factor that when sharing observations. This is not an "ermergerd proc sets r bad" thread. This is likely more of a "oof, these graphics or animations are causing trauma" scenario tbh.

Hey OP,

They are video game specialists. I'm sure they know what is and isn't working at this point, but your points are interesting.

I'm just bewildered that they would even think of introducing these sets in a broken environment in the first place?

As for costumes:
In PvE raids we've already been using the skeleton polymorph for years as there were rumours that costumes/outfits would add to FPS drops and possibly latency issues.
I have some rather newer items (clothing wise) on my Nightblade, I honestly still lag/misfire/no weave/you know the rest, just as much.

It's pretty obvious that the game can't handle the organised groups (12+) which are on the servers. It's a shame for them and for us, I suppose, but I'm kind of surprised they did nothing definitive to at least reduce the urge for people to play like that

I mean, it's kind of hard to disincentivize organized PVP guilds from playing Cyrodiil when that's exactly the type of 8-24 man group play that Cyrodiil was originally designed for. Even now, if you want to take objectives and farm a bunch of AP, there's really no playstyle as effective as a ball group.

Moreover, the tests restricting player skills, healing, and sets that impacted ball groups all didn't show that they were the root of the problem. It goes deeper than that, hence the rearchitecture.

Not that ZOS hasn't tried to disincentivize that playstyle, in their own way. Chopping group size to 12 hurt a lot of PVP guilds, especially the organized raids who picked up PUGs. Proximity Detonation and Plaguebreak are supposed to be anti-ballgroup tools. So is Dark Convergence.

Why add those sets?
Because ball groups were a pain point for players. ZOS listened and gave them sets that counter ball group tactics like Purge spam and moving in a tight ball when used correctly.

Who uses those sets and skills?
Well, mostly the ball groups, instead of their less organized but more numerous opponents. Goes to show that ZOS can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink any more than they can make zerg players use their new anti-group tools effectively.

I'm not getting into this (I'll just reply briefly)
I think 80% of the player base would agree with me. The next 20% are those playing in those organised group ball settings (hey if they like it, sure why not), but it's performing like a hunk of guar droppings for all concerned (Ball group or no ball group). I don't see the 'pleasure' they are getting during prime time as it just gets 'worse'.

I don't see many of these 'sets' killing balls groups very effectively either. I see these set being used against randoms who don't apply the 35k-40K HP rules (Yeah that's the amount of HP those groups run now, it's kinda sad to see)

Then I'll give you a brief response: ZOS' tests showed that performance issues involving ball groups are correlation, not causation. You can think what you like about their gameplay, but the accompanying performance drops are a symptom of the underlying problems with the code.

Yes I get what you mean. But the two go hand in hand, right?
If you have something that is on the the brink of 'breaking' why put pressure on it knowing it's going to break? *scratches head*

I have spent considerable time in Cyrodiil, and in my experience, zergs create massive lag, much more so than ball groups. As a matter of fact, I have been frozen, kicked from game, etc... 95% more from the EP or AD zerg rolling in, than ever from a ball group showing up. Anyways, ZOS just needs to fix their game, as the entire manta here is "Play how you like" isn't it? And some folks like zerging, some being in ball groups and the numerous other types of PVP play... all are valid styles and the game supports all those styles of play... when it is actually working, which currently is only once or twice a year during MYM, or whatever the new name for it will be.