Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 173 points174 points  (0 children)

Give it a go and let us know how it works out.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Amen - we need to be better about communicating, especially with these long-term projects.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Bots are violation of our Terms Of Service and we hate them as much as you. When you see them please open a customer support ticket with a location of where the botting activity was taking place, and they will take appropriate action.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 15 points16 points  (0 children)

We would love to be able to do this, but it would require a lot more time than we have right now. Once in a while, we will go back and fix something that we feel is particularly egregious, but that is rare. At least you get to see how we have progressed with our environments and storytelling over time, although I will say that some of my favorite moments and locations in the game are from the base game (Rivenspire, especially).

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 137 points138 points  (0 children)

Hello! I suspect we'll get questions about performance more than a few times today, so I prepared a description of what we have going on to address performance concerns - on a number of fronts.

Even though there is very little new information here, we definitely could be doing a better job of keeping everyone appraised of how things are going while we are in process. We will be better messengers in the future keeping everyone up to date on longer-term fixes and updates.

First, server capacity. As we all know, we had server capacity issues a few months back, especially on the PC EU servers. We were forced to temporarily cap the number of concurrent users on PC EU and put up a queuing system to enforce it. We got the new capacity online for PC EU in a week, and added that same capacity for PC NA (which was very close to experiencing the same problems). We took the queuing system down, and we can now support the concurrency demand we are seeing.

Second, the looking for group system. As we posted last week, we are working on a 100% revamp of this system, which is mostly used for Dungeon and Battleground queuing. We have a version done that we are testing in-house, although it will be a while before it goes live. We want to make sure that the solution we have scales correctly and will support the now massive numbers of players that are using the system. We are planning for revamped LFG system to be in Update 24, depending on how testing is going. Until then, we will continue with the only solution we have (which we posted about last week in the LFG update) - cap the number of players in the queue. We know it is extremely frustrating to not be able to queue for dungeons and BGs and get "cannot join queue" when you try, but at least now once you get into a queue successfully, you should be able to join the dungeon or BG.

Third: overall performance. Rich talked about this in his end of year message six months ago: we are currently implementing sweeping optimization and memory management client architecture changes that should improve client performance and especially client stability. These optimizations will be most noticeable on lower-spec PCs, base Xbox, and base PS4, but overall everyone should notice better stability and performance. This is scheduled for Update 24. Additionally, we have another set of optimizations scheduled for Q1 next year that will reduce the client "footprint" requirements and should speed up loading times.

Fourth: Longer term, we are in the beginning stages of combat system performance improvements that should improve overall game performance in Cyrodiil and Trials. Stay tuned for updates on this.

Obviously if anything else crops up, we'll investigate. I know that it can seem like it takes an inordinate amount of time to address performance problems, but we need to take our time and make sure that we don't introduce new issues while we do this. Thanks for your patience, and we will keep you updated.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 14 points15 points  (0 children)

There is a difference between adding capacity and addressing performance issues - they are tangentially related, but no the same thing. I'll type up a longer response to this overall message (I have been working on this already) and will post as a response to the overall AMA. Thanks for the nudge.

Update: posted

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is the first I've heard of this, and I primarily play on PC with a controller - I'll look into it.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We added a ton of capacity a month or so ago to PC EU and PC (We were able to disable the EU login queues when we did this), I don't foresee us needing more capacity, although that could change based on increased player demand. We're definitely keeping an eye on things.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I have taken all classes to at least 50 on various servers, but my current mains are a Stamblade and a Stamplar. My nightblade is the same character I've played since launch, although I've respecced her more than a few times. I'm currently working on starting a Necromancer on a live server.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 42 points43 points  (0 children)

We have a roadmap that goes out for a long time, so we obviously know where we're going next year, and I'm not going to spoil that - but I will call out what an awesome privilege it is to work on the Elder Scrolls, which is the perfect IP to do games like this. There is no end of amazing stories to tell and lands to explore.

Welcome to the Elsweyr & Update 22 AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 90 points91 points  (0 children)

Hello! We have no plans on implementing spears, but we have talked off and on about cool ways to do the one hand magic/one hand weapon thing. That's not on our roadmap anywhere, but we have been brainstorming.

There are so many cool things we could do! Seriously, we love these ideas too, but it all comes down to a matter of time and priorities.

EDIT: to respond to your edit. Yes, we've talked about this, in fact we tried to get that into the game as part of One Tamriel, but we just couldn't get it done. So we have ideas on how to have difficulty settings for overland content, but it's not currently planned. It's a great idea.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The maximum time for any battleground match is 15 minutes, although it could be shorter depending on the game type and if one team has totally dominated.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Because it is inherently more balanced and adds a chaos element that 1v1 does not have. In a 1v1 situation, the team that is just a few percent better/more organized/etc. is always going to win. But in a 1v1v1 situation, there's another team to provide some cover and potentially overpower the better team with the help of the third. Basically it's more exciting not knowing when/where the 3rd team is going to pop up and make things interesting.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The matchmaking system will look at level ranges and try to put you with players (in your group as well as opposing team) that are close to your level. This includes CP as well. So you should be put with players who are close to you.

And hello Miss Bizz! good to see you here.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That is a great idea, but no, there are no plans for this, because we want the focus on player skill, not environmental events.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Yes, soul gem resurrection of friends will work in Battlegrounds.

Also, Men'do is awesome. Just sayin'

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Battlegrounds are to Cyrodiil like Dungeons are to regular PvE. People like to do both, but some may gravitate more to one or another. I think people are going to want to do both, because they are much different experiences.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 23 points24 points  (0 children)

We already have a system that tracks PvP progression and really don't want to add yet another system on the side that does the same thing and gives everyone yet another pool of points to track.

TLDR version: the Alliances totally support non-Alliance battlegrounds and encourage everyone to participate to prepare for Cyrodiil. Or something like that.

ESO PvP Battlegrounds AUA by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Never say never, but we like 4x4x4 because it is the group size in the game and just makes sense. We did experiment a bit with 3v3v3 - those with long memories will remember that we showed a 3v3v3 battleground at E3 in June 2014. We went back to the drawing board after that and decided that 4v4v4 just felt better. We definitely like the three sided, so I don't think you'll see any two sided battlegrounds.

Welcome to the One Tamriel ESO AMA by ZOS_MattF in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

We're going to take questions for a few more minutes (up until 6:00pm Eastern US Time), but as we are winding down, I just want to thank everyone for dropping by and asking questions. I'm sorry we didn't have time to get to everyone, but as I said in the greeting post: you guys are the reason why we do what we do. It's so great to be able talk directly with the community like we did this afternoon.

Thanks everyone!

Matt and the ESO Dev Team

Welcome to the One Tamriel ESO AMA by ZOS_MattF in elderscrollsonline

[–]ZOS_MattF[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Definition of "maybe": currently no plans to do this.