So 8 Hour Maintenance With Possibility Of Extensions Like Last Time?

randconfig · February 10

Can we get any clarification as to what to expect with this maintenance, if there's a possibility of more extensions? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

NoSoup · February 10

Why have the maintenance schdules been so random lately? Is this week on a sunday/monday because of the superbowl?

barney2525 · February 10

well, says 5 hours ... so ....

we should be up again by Wednesday

SeaGtGruff · February 10

I think the previous maintenance was some kind of backend maintenance involving the database, which was definitely not a normal (i.e., usual) thing. The current maintenance is a "patch" maintenance, which is a normal thing.

Ella_Mental · February 10

NoSoup wrote: »

Why have the maintenance schdules been so random lately? Is this week on a sunday/monday because of the superbowl?

I have a weekly reoccurring calendar event set up for Mondays from 4am to 9am PST for the potential weekly server maintenance downtimes, so this is actually quite normal. It obviously doesn't ALWAYS occur at these times, but it's a good "default" day/time to keep in mind for these.

(Wish I would have remembered this week though, lol - took a break from game to do other things so RIP my time management.)

agelonestar · February 10

Must admit I'm surprised to see another maint already.

randconfig · February 10

barney2525 wrote: »

well, says 5 hours ... so ....

we should be up again by Wednesday

You only read the first line, the second line includes account servers... So in total it's 8 hours, no?

randconfig · February 10

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I think the previous maintenance was some kind of backend maintenance involving the database, which was definitely not a normal (i.e., usual) thing. The current maintenance is a "patch" maintenance, which is a normal thing.

The previous maintenance was "ESO Store and Account System for maintenance", which is also what is happening today, I'm 99% sure it's the same description they had during that 20 hour maintenance.

EF321 · February 10

NoSoup wrote: »

Why have the maintenance schdules been so random lately? Is this week on a sunday/monday because of the superbowl?

They have that big maintenance (that was last week) every year (or half a year?), and today is regular maintenance.

SwimsWithMemes · February 10

Can we get an explanation for what actually goes on during a 5hr weekly maintenance? Have we ever found out?

tomofhyrule · February 10

strebor2095 wrote: »

Can we get an explanation for what actually goes on during a 5hr weekly maintenance? Have we ever found out?

The banner says it's a patch maintenance. They post patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/patch-notes

If the banner just says 'maintenance,' then is essentially a server power cycle.

KekwLord3000 · February 10

randconfig wrote: »

Can we get any clarification as to what to expect with this maintenance, if there's a possibility of more extensions? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

I mean the 8 hours extension wasn't intended something *** up with the migration so they had to restart do you think zos loves to keep the game down while paying extra for devs?
Zos won't know for sure until close to the end of the maintenance.
I'm no zos shill and will call them out when they act bad, but here it's not their fault use a bit of common sense.

randconfig · February 10

KekwLord3000 wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

Can we get any clarification as to what to expect with this maintenance, if there's a possibility of more extensions? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

I mean the 8 hours extension wasn't intended something *** up with the migration so they had to restart do you think zos loves to keep the game down while paying extra for devs?
Zos won't know for sure until close to the end of the maintenance.
I'm no zos shill and will call them out when they act bad, but here it's not their fault use a bit of common sense.

Oh I didn't mean to imply they're intentionally doing this, or that they're bad people. I just mean, could we get a statement from zos as to whether there is a possibility of similar setbacks/extensions happening with today's maintenance.

I think the issue most players had with the 20 hour downtime was that it was originally just supposed to be 12 hours, and the announcement of it being 12 hours was short notice, so people who took off work/made plans to play were burnt, and those who thought it would surely be done after 12 hours and planned to play after/made plans were also burnt by the 8 hour extension.

SwimsWithMemes · February 10

tomofhyrule wrote: »

If the banner just says 'maintenance,' then is essentially a server power cycle.

Do they have to turn the power plant back on too?

tomofhyrule · February 10

strebor2095 wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

If the banner just says 'maintenance,' then is essentially a server power cycle.

Do they have to turn the power plant back on too?

Last week's maintenance was different. That was the standard quarterly datacenter fixes/updates one. We got that one last on October 16, so that was due.

These maintenances also are reported to us before they happen, and there's a thread detailing them in this forum: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/official-news

It was not expected that it would have to be extended by 8 hours, and that it not normal.

Also the PSN downtime over the weekend had nothing to do with ZOS, so PS users will need to complain to Sony about that one.

Look, I realize that ESO has a lot of downtime for maintenance (remember before Stadia we used to get weekly patches instead of biweekly!), but to say "uhh they don't ever tell us why" is a blatant falsehood because they do post the why for everything except the standard server power cycle that we get between patches.

randconfig · February 10

strebor2095 wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

If the banner just says 'maintenance,' then is essentially a server power cycle.

Do they have to turn the power plant back on too?

Yes, but since their hamsters unionized, they have to engineer a way to push two hydrogen atoms close enough together to cause nuclear fission in order to replace the hamsters, to keep the demonic streetwall cultists happy.

Though what will happen the next time the cultists demand more, and there are no hamsters to replace.... *visions of cash grab and p2w intensifies*

KekwLord3000 · February 10

randconfig wrote: »

KekwLord3000 wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

Can we get any clarification as to what to expect with this maintenance, if there's a possibility of more extensions? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

I mean the 8 hours extension wasn't intended something *** up with the migration so they had to restart do you think zos loves to keep the game down while paying extra for devs?
Zos won't know for sure until close to the end of the maintenance.
I'm no zos shill and will call them out when they act bad, but here it's not their fault use a bit of common sense.

Oh I didn't mean to imply they're intentionally doing this, or that they're bad people. I just mean, could we get a statement from zos as to whether there is a possibility of similar setbacks/extensions happening with today's maintenance.

I think the issue most players had with the 20 hour downtime was that it was originally just supposed to be 12 hours, and the announcement of it being 12 hours was short notice, so people who took off work/made plans to play were burnt, and those who thought it would surely be done after 12 hours and planned to play after/made plans were also burnt by the 8 hour extension.

I guess I worded it poorly, zos won't know if the patch went through properly until the end of the expected patch time. Imagine you download a win rar file it extracts for 3 hours and then suddenly on the 95% it fails and wasted 3 hours so you go download it again. Same thing here they don't know until close to end of the patch timeline, we actually got a statement about extension quite fast I think 15-20 minutes past the patch time. Things like that aren't predictable and there isn't much you can do.

randconfig · February 10

tomofhyrule wrote: »

strebor2095 wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

If the banner just says 'maintenance,' then is essentially a server power cycle.

Do they have to turn the power plant back on too?

Last week's maintenance was different. That was the standard quarterly datacenter fixes/updates one. We got that one last on October 16, so that was due.

These maintenances also are reported to us before they happen, and there's a thread detailing them in this forum: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/official-news

It was not expected that it would have to be extended by 8 hours, and that it not normal.

Also the PSN downtime over the weekend had nothing to do with ZOS, so PS users will need to complain to Sony about that one.

Look, I realize that ESO has a lot of downtime for maintenance (remember before Stadia we used to get weekly patches instead of biweekly!), but to say "uhh they don't ever tell us why" is a blatant falsehood because they do post the why for everything except the standard server power cycle that we get between patches.

Woah now brother, I think they just meant that as a playful joke and you might be shadowboxing. I don't think anyone is really mad at zos, just seeing if we can get more information to plan accordingly/adjust expectations. We all love this game and the zos employees/mods/artists/programmers/tech guys/etc that make it possible.

Grizzbeorn · February 10

randconfig wrote: »

I don't think anyone is really mad at zos

The fact that these maintenance complaint threads show up every single week would say otherwise.
People can't seem to handle the fact that the game isn't available 24/7.

Xarc · February 10

another patch day no play

and pls stop the comments about "go outside get a life" etc.

aussie500 · February 10

Well considering I was on this morning (AEST) on all my accounts multiple times doing stuff up to around 11am and not a single notification popped up warning me the server would go down at 8pm, I was annoyed. I am not always going to remember to check this forum to see if I am going to be able to play ESO. A simple in game warning should not be too much to ask, I was trying to log on a 7.55pm saw the notice and gave up hopes of playing tonight.

Yes after the massive 20hr downtime and all the problems shortly after that that had us booted from the server, endless queue times and losing connection to the server for another extended period when we could not play ESO, I am just disappointed the usual patch maintenance caught me unawares.

Calastir · February 10

Xarc wrote: »

another patch day no play

and pls stop the comments about "go outside get a life" etc.

Especially since we could be typing this outside in a park somewhere.

Orbital78 · February 10

agelonestar wrote: »

Must admit I'm surprised to see another maint already.

Glad I don't have ESO+ going this month.

SwimsWithMemes · February 10

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Look, I realize that ESO has a lot of downtime for maintenance (remember before Stadia we used to get weekly patches instead of biweekly!), but to say "uhh they don't ever tell us why" is a blatant falsehood because they do post the why for everything except the standard server power cycle that we get between patches.

I moreso want to know the standard downtime is 5 hours. What exactly happens? Why does a server power cycle take 5 hours? Do they turn them off one at a time, wait til they're all off, then turn them on one at a time?

I don't think it's wrong to ask for an explanation. I don't expect them to ever give us a satisfactory one though.

Maitsukas · February 10

6. Availability of Services and Content; Game Maintenance, Patches, Updates; Termination of Services

Xarc · February 10

Maitsukas wrote: »

6. Availability of Services and Content; Game Maintenance, Patches, Updates; Termination of Services

This was only written to avoid legal action from customers who are unhappy about not being able to access services during multiple maintenances.

Of course, we all accepted these conditions, but ZOS does not prohibit us from expressing our dissatisfaction.

tomofhyrule · February 10

strebor2095 wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Look, I realize that ESO has a lot of downtime for maintenance (remember before Stadia we used to get weekly patches instead of biweekly!), but to say "uhh they don't ever tell us why" is a blatant falsehood because they do post the why for everything except the standard server power cycle that we get between patches.

I moreso want to know the standard downtime is 5 hours. What exactly happens? Why does a server power cycle take 5 hours? Do they turn them off one at a time, wait til they're all off, then turn them on one at a time?

I don't think it's wrong to ask for an explanation. I don't expect them to ever give us a satisfactory one though.

Just to give them time, and then they open early if they need to. Technically today’s maintenance window is still ongoing for another hour and a half, but the work is already done.

There’s also the fact that “satisfactory explanation” varies by person as well. Me personally, I have never had a problem with their explanations of downtime because it’s a thing that happens. But there are also literally people on this forum who start complaint threads about “unexpected downtime” on DLC release days, which is announced over 6 weeks in advance.

I can almost guarantee that on March 10th, there will be at least one thread asking why there’s downtime and expecting compensation because “ZOS didn’t tell them it was coming.”

Grizzbeorn · February 10

Xarc wrote: »

Maitsukas wrote: »

6. Availability of Services and Content; Game Maintenance, Patches, Updates; Termination of Services

This was only written to avoid legal action from customers who are unhappy about not being able to access services during multiple maintenances.

And every single online live service game in existence has such a clause in its TOS.
It's a fact of life in the video game world that online games are not guaranteed to be available 24/7.

LalMirchi · February 10

randconfig wrote: »

Can we get any clarification as to what to expect with this maintenance, if there's a possibility of more extensions? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

Despite the doomsaying the maintenance is complete an hour earlier.

randconfig · February 10

Grizzbeorn wrote: »

randconfig wrote: »

I don't think anyone is really mad at zos

The fact that these maintenance complaint threads show up every single week would say otherwise.
People can't seem to handle the fact that the game isn't available 24/7.

Sure, but this isn't a maintenance complaint thread, just asking for more info regarding the maintenance.

My thread is an exception because something exceptional happened last week during maintenance.

Calastir · February 10

It's been 2 hours since patch maintenance. Any patch notes?