Console addons: Does this mean eventual cross play?

tomofhyrule · March 20

Sometimes I feel like the forum needs a "FAQ" area for the threads that pop up every month or so with the exact same topic...

From before:

tomofhyrule wrote: »

A lot of people keep arguing that ZOS isn't doing crossplay because of the economies or the addons or whatever. It's actually a lot simpler than that:

It's physically impossible with the current server architecture

ESO, unlike other MMOs, runs on a megaserver architecture. That means that any player on a megaserver will be able to play with any other character on a megaserver, but that also means that server transfers are not possible.

I'm sure if this was easy, ZOS would have done it by now. However, we know that they can only copy data from one server to a blank server like they did when the consoles first appeared. Even the PTS every cycle will wipe the data clear and copy a server over from scratch.

If ZOS were to add something like that, they'd need to essentially make a brand new "crossplay" megaserver and then copy and merge all of the data, which would require the creation of a new tool specifically to do so. That definitely would be rife with conflicts and bugs - see what happened with the PTS debacle from last year. It's not impossible to do so, but it would take a lot of work.

One of the first things they could do to help though would be to create a "server transfer" service where only one data set is transferred from one megaserver to another. That of course would require a heavy investment and likely result in the transferred account losing some or all character names due to conflicts. But if they could get that to work smoothly, then they could possibly start to consider making a way to merge megaservers in the future.

Of course, this is implying that there would be no legalese as well. We know that PC and XBox servers would play nice since they both are under Microsoft, but I'm sure Sony's lawyers would not be happy about a way for people to stop playing on a Sony console and start playing on a competitor's system...

ZOS's official answer: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/25807

We have not built, and do not plan to build, the capability to move individual characters from platform to platform. We were only able to move characters in bulk for consoles once on June 1st, 2015 because the database tables we copied to were brand new (empty). Now that the database tables are filled with other data, the techniques we used before no longer work.

Crossplay in ESO, because of the way the game was designed, is not a matter of "durr, just push the 'crossplay' button and it'll be there!" It would take essentially a rebuilding of the entire server architecture to do it.

Now do I personally think it'd be a good idea? Yeah, it's something they should start thinking about, especially with the dwindling playerbase and how crossplay is seen as a norm by the gaming industry at this point. But it will be a difficult process to do, and will take a lot of time and energy.
I do want to highlight something that Kevin said in a different thread:

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Technical limitations can encompass a lot. Some of it is we would need to build out the tech to make x thing happen. Sometimes it's "we could do x thing, but then it could cause y issue to happen and that could impact performance." So it is working around those problems and hopefully finding a good solution. And those things conflict with the biggest enemy of all, time.

Now that being said, the good news is we are working on things to better adapt to some of the limitations. That is why we asked for that list of top pain points and bugs. And Rich recently followed up to note that we are working on some of those asks right now and have several others on the roadmap internally. We are working to see what can be tackled now and problem solve how to tackle other requests down the line. This is always going back to what Matt said in the end of year letter. This is a year of change and the goal is to better meet the wants and needs of you, the player.

Also want to note that when we note a technical limitation, that doesn't mean we won't do it. It just means we can't right this second. We take this feedback to the team and we continue to evaluate on what is possible and when. The list of pain points and bugs is also helpful to narrow down our focus.

So for Crossplay: Is it possible? Not in the game's current state. Will it ever be? Maybe, if the team devoted a lot of time and energy to it, which would need to involve a lot of work. Would it be worth it? We don't know, and that's likely something for their data analysts to say.

Grizzbeorn · March 20

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So for Crossplay: Is it possible? Not in the game's current state. Will it ever be? Maybe, if the team devoted a lot of time and energy to it, which would need to involve a lot of work. Would it be worth it? We don't know, and that's likely something for their data analysts to say.

For a ten-year-old game? I don't see them putting the time and effort for the level of restructuring needed into it, at this point.
This was something that, if they were going to do it, they should have done in 2015 when Console platforms were first added.

the1andonlyskwex · March 20

Grizzbeorn wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So for Crossplay: Is it possible? Not in the game's current state. Will it ever be? Maybe, if the team devoted a lot of time and energy to it, which would need to involve a lot of work. Would it be worth it? We don't know, and that's likely something for their data analysts to say.

For a ten-year-old game? I don't see them putting the time and effort for the level of restructuring needed into it, at this point.
This was something that, if they were going to do it, they should have done in 2015 when Console platforms were first added.

Yeah. A lot of people in this thread seem to see cross play as a way to extend the life of a dying game, but I don't see how the (huge) investment required can be justified for a game that's declining in popularity and approaching end-of-life. ZOS would be better off spending that money developing a new game (which is what they seem to be doing).