Why nine hours maintenance daytime every week?

CiNNeR · April 20

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

Nemesis7884 · April 20

The hamsters that power the servers are union members so they get a mandatory day per week off...

Eskibidus · April 20

Always been like this, and nothing will change it.
Is it insane? Yes

spartaxoxo · April 20

Yeah the maintenance downtimes in this game are some of the worst in the biz but I guess the alternative is worst.

dcrush · April 20

CiNNeR wrote: »

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

APAC may arguably have it even worse - afternoon until middle of the night meaning you won’t be able to play until the next day in most cases.

Calastir · April 20

Back in 2021 there used to be different downtimes for EU and NA servers, one after another.
So I made accounts for both, thinking I'd still be able to play while either one was down. Problem solved, right?

So from then on, ZOS decided to take them down simultaneously.

Horace-Wimp · April 20

CiNNeR wrote: »

...every week...

There was NO downtime for maintenance last week. None.

I wish they'd take the servers down for a fill week (168 hours) and just fix ALL the bugs. I'm tired of getting dismounted in areas that I never used to get dismounted. I am DEEPLY concerned that there will be new areas after today's "downtime." I am also tired of the random MASSIVE lag, the random game lockups and crashes and errors that last for an hour or more the prevent being able to log back in.

THIS is one of the main reasons I am not inclined to buy ESO+ again. It's a waste of my money to do so with these ongoing persistent issues. Just take the game down for a week or two and fix all this mess.

Anyhow, I feel your pain. It sucks dot being able to play when you have the time to play and want to play.

PoveusRonin · April 20

It's 9 hours of maintenance every time they turn Vengeance on and off. I will be glad when they finish testing it on LIVE servers. If people were interested in it enough, they would have went to PTS for it. So unless something changes, expect 9 hours next week for them to turn it back off.

JARTHEGREY · April 20

PoveusRonin wrote: »

It's 9 hours of maintenance every time they turn Vengeance on and off. I will be glad when they finish testing it on LIVE servers. If people were interested in it enough, they would have went to PTS for it. So unless something changes, expect 9 hours next week for them to turn it back off.

What is "Vengeance" please?

Delimber · April 20

JARTHEGREY wrote: »

PoveusRonin wrote: »

It's 9 hours of maintenance every time they turn Vengeance on and off. I will be glad when they finish testing it on LIVE servers. If people were interested in it enough, they would have went to PTS for it. So unless something changes, expect 9 hours next week for them to turn it back off.

What is "Vengeance" please?

Vengeance is a PVP setting. basic sets and skills and I think it still runs without champion points. It is suppose to allow for lag free play with a larger player base as I recall.

spartaxoxo · April 20

Calastir wrote: »

Back in 2021 there used to be different downtimes for EU and NA servers, one after another.
So I made accounts for both, thinking I'd still be able to play while either one was down. Problem solved, right?

So from then on, ZOS decided to take them down simultaneously.

So it was you! (just kidding)

Eskibidus · April 20

JARTHEGREY wrote: »

What is "Vengeance" please?

New PvP campaign, where they stripped out all the theorycrafting, no subclassing (this one is good), and reworked abilities.
All of this to get better performances in cyro campaigns and make PvP more accessible to new players.

I suggest you try it out. But it didn't feel good to me in the previous iterations.

ApoAlaia · April 20

Delimber wrote: »

JARTHEGREY wrote: »

PoveusRonin wrote: »

It's 9 hours of maintenance every time they turn Vengeance on and off. I will be glad when they finish testing it on LIVE servers. If people were interested in it enough, they would have went to PTS for it. So unless something changes, expect 9 hours next week for them to turn it back off.

What is "Vengeance" please?

Vengeance is a PVP setting. basic sets and skills and I think it still runs without champion points. It is suppose to allow for lag free play with a larger player base as I recall.

Funny thing is, if the threads on the subject are anything to go by, PvP players don't like it

Just hoping they don't extend it like the last Juan, messes up with the research scrolls if they do (not sure why they left them on a 20h rolling cooldown rather than make the reset daily when they changed everything else).

lagrue · April 20

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Funny thing is, if the threads on the subject are anything to go by, PvP players don't like it

As a more casual PVE player I love it. It's the easiest time to level up alliance skill lines because you don't need a dedicated PVP build.

In normal cyro all I can do is scum the odd kill another player dealt 99% of the damage on, or maybe repair some keep walls, and die in .1 seconds the moment I'm spotted.

In Vengeance I can actually deal earned deathblows and not get absolutely danced around by hyperskilled veterans of war.

Maybe that's the reason they don't like it lol, but I have more fun when I don't have to try excessively hard and can still dip my toes into the PVP content.

And on that note, I'll be finishing my lines from Rank 9 to 10 this week to get that done with.

Orbital78 · April 20

Hopefully this is also getting us ready for the end of the month event's night market and fixing all the last minute bugs that testing they have been feverishly doing to make sure the Writhing Wall fiasco never happens again.

Dimorphos · April 20

I don't mean this in any hateful or disrespectful way but clearly pointing out how the situation concerning this matter appears to be..

ESO has very long and frequent server down times. On top of those scheduled maintenances we even have to endure surprise ones quite often. Still the servers keep having technical issues and any high pop. event will stress them to a point we get long login ques and even server crashes.

Bigger games in this genre manage it way smoother, games that have many times over the population of ESO and even Wow that is 10 years older than ESO manages to keep up their XX-amount of servers up and running way smoothly. Also, games that fall below ESO active numbers manage to keep their games up and running better.

It is also just bad customer service to always have these long maintenances running during prime time/day time.

I think, and this is only my educated opinion, that it is purely a money/willingness to invest problem. More money invested in server hardware and working hours would most likely fix this issue. Of course, they do run a business and business needs to be profitable, but I honestly believe that they are making enough revenue that would have some "air" to invest in better upkeep. I also believe that while that may sound just adding more production costs, would eventually lure in more activity to the game and so more paying customers. I know for a fact that quite many people who play Wow rejected ESO because of the known technical issues.

++ I do tip my fedora for the company for this "new road" of ESO they have chosen and we've seen so many great changes to the game, QOL improvements and will see those in the future too. But I would also like to see them investing more into ESO technical improvements. I would also like to see the game to take steps towards future and finally drop the support for older gen. consoles that are a major reason for a lot of things why ESO is "lacking". As Microsoft now works as the mother company, I don't get it why not push people to upgrade their older consoles to newer generations. Isn't that quite normal business model in consumer electronics? It is quite common thing for games that are meant to remain in production for years to come, upgrading minimum system requirements.

FurryCandyHearts · April 20

JARTHEGREY wrote: »

PoveusRonin wrote: »

It's 9 hours of maintenance every time they turn Vengeance on and off. I will be glad when they finish testing it on LIVE servers. If people were interested in it enough, they would have went to PTS for it. So unless something changes, expect 9 hours next week for them to turn it back off.

What is "Vengeance" please?

Vengeance is mine sayeth the LORD!

L_Nici · April 20

Delimber wrote: »

JARTHEGREY wrote: »

PoveusRonin wrote: »

It's 9 hours of maintenance every time they turn Vengeance on and off. I will be glad when they finish testing it on LIVE servers. If people were interested in it enough, they would have went to PTS for it. So unless something changes, expect 9 hours next week for them to turn it back off.

What is "Vengeance" please?

Vengeance is a PVP setting. basic sets and skills and I think it still runs without champion points. It is suppose to allow for lag free play with a larger player base as I recall.

Thats wrong. In vengeance there is NO Sets at all, no CP, no Attributes, nothing. All stats are fixed. Its garbage and they are told since a year, they do not care, they want to push it through and I look forward to seeing it die within 1 month at best or turning into a waiting room for Grey Host.

They killed 3 Campaigns for it...pressing everyone into Grey Host when it launches full, which will lead to huge queues, people will go to Vengeance to wait for Grey Host and ZOS will say: "See we told you everyone likes it, look at that population."

olda90 · April 20

I know this game is a kind of drug and many are just too addicted but its not every week and last maintenance was on 30 March so it was a good 3 weeks ago and it was definitively time for a maintenance considering the game performance and changes.

i think they should really add hours cap for players in a 24 hour day it would probably make ppl more conscious of themselfs.

CiNNeR · April 20

olda90 wrote: »

I know this game is a kind of drug and many are just too addicted but its not every week and last maintenance was on 30 March so it was a good 3 weeks ago and it was definitively time for a maintenance considering the game performance and changes.

i think they should really add hours cap for players in a 24 hour day it would probably make ppl more conscious of themselfs.

Honestly, I think this is a really stupid remark. Lot's of people pay for eso+ and like to play on Monday when they have the day off or on holidays. And like today there was 9,5 hours of downtime where very little was done and all kind of bugs are still there.

lostineternity · April 27

CiNNeR wrote: »

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

In US it's night because zos respect US players and consider EU players as second sort.

Its_MySniff · April 27

lostineternity wrote: »

CiNNeR wrote: »

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

In US it's night because zos respect US players and consider EU players as second sort.

4am to 12pm isn't night in the States. It's morning. Many may not play that early, but I generally play from 6am to 10 am or so. It affects all of us. But maintenance is a must and I seriously doubt zos sees EU as second class.

ApoAlaia · April 27

Its_MySniff wrote: »

lostineternity wrote: »

CiNNeR wrote: »

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

In US it's night because zos respect US players and consider EU players as second sort.

4am to 12pm isn't night in the States. It's morning. Many may not play that early, but I generally play from 6am to 10 am or so. It affects all of us. But maintenance is a must and I seriously doubt zos sees EU as second class.

It is not impossible that this might be a contributing factor, 'American exceptionalism' and all that jazz, however I reckon that there are other factors at play that weigh heavier like coordination between teams, local staff availability and anything I can't think on because I don't have a good understanding on how ZOS operates on the 'non customer facing' side.

I find it hard to believe that maintenance times are scheduled to deliberately inconvenience a large portion of the customers based on some idiosyncratic principle of 'inherent superiority'.

Calastir · April 27

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Its_MySniff wrote: »

lostineternity wrote: »

CiNNeR wrote: »

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

In US it's night because zos respect US players and consider EU players as second sort.

4am to 12pm isn't night in the States. It's morning. Many may not play that early, but I generally play from 6am to 10 am or so. It affects all of us. But maintenance is a must and I seriously doubt zos sees EU as second class.

It is not impossible that this might be a contributing factor, 'American exceptionalism' and all that jazz, however I reckon that there are other factors at play that weigh heavier like coordination between teams, local staff availability and anything I can't think on because I don't have a good understanding on how ZOS operates on the 'non customer facing' side.

I find it hard to believe that maintenance times are scheduled to deliberately inconvenience a large portion of the customer based on some idiosyncratic principle of 'inherent superiority'.

To be fair, they have hosted several real life events here in EU (ESO Tavern in Germany) including the 10th year anniversary (In Amsterdam and even one in Brazil) and none so far in the US.

lostineternity · April 27

Its_MySniff wrote: »

lostineternity wrote: »

CiNNeR wrote: »

I understand there is a need for regular maintenance. But now for EU it's nine hours in daytime we can't play, every week. Am I the only one that thinks that's a bit insane? Specially for eso+ members.

In US it's night because zos respect US players and consider EU players as second sort.

4am to 12pm isn't night in the States. It's morning. Many may not play that early, but I generally play from 6am to 10 am or so. It affects all of us. But maintenance is a must and I seriously doubt zos sees EU as second class.

Because this maintenance is longer than usual, but all the previous ones are always like this, in the US it happens at night and everything is ready in the morning, while in Europe it takes all day until the evening. I think most people have the opportunity to play during the day, not late at night, so this approach is very inconvenient for European players.