The developers presented a short roadmap for The Elder Scrolls Online at QuakeCon 2019. This shows that the developers want to work on a problem that has been annoying players for a long time until mid-2020.
What problem is it? Specifically, the performance of ESO is supposed to be improved. Players have been complaining about the game’s performance since ESO was first released. This has particularly negative effects on the fun in PvP.
In April 2019, queues were introduced to mitigate the problem somewhat. However, this temporary solution was not received very well either.
Therefore, ZeniMax announced in July that they want to sustainably improve the performance now. The kick-off should be the finale of the Elsweyr saga, which is set to be released in the fourth quarter of 2019. Now there is new information and concrete plans.
What happens in Q4 2019 in ESO?
These changes come with Update 24: For the last quarter of 2019, very large changes have already been made to some of the game’s features:
- Overhaul of memory management
- Complete redesign of the “Group Finder” system
- The first part of the “Behind the Scenes” improvements for the combat system
What do the changes mean for me? In particular, the memory management is supposed to help ESO run more smoothly on all platforms and crash less. This is especially useful for devices with lower performance, like the standard models of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The changes to the combat system are also intended to help by changing how abilities interact with the game, thereby causing fewer problems. The actual performance of the abilities is not considered, only their interaction with the server and client.
What happens in Q1 2020 in ESO?
These changes come with Update 25: According to the developers, Update 25 is supposed to bring one of the “biggest innovations” for performance:
- Overhaul of the patch system
- Faster loading of environment details and characters
- The second part of the “Behind the Scenes” improvements for the combat system
- First improvements to the frame rate
- Optimization and improved stability of the servers
What do the changes mean for me? Here, especially the new patch system is interesting. It is supposed to ensure that the entire ESO client becomes leaner by removing old, no longer needed files and making patches smaller. This also reduces loading times.
This is especially beneficial for devices and consoles with less memory. However, the game must also be completely redownloaded once for everything to go faster from that point on.
What happens in Q2 2020 in ESO?
These changes come with Update 26: With the last announced update, several smaller changes and improvements are added:
- The “Cold Storage” of the account database
- Second improvement of the frame rates
- Further bug fixes and updates
What do the changes mean for me? Here, especially the concept of “Cold Storage” is important. However, this has not been explained in detail. Generally, “Cold Storage” refers to data that is not altered and rarely used, but is important when needed.
Some users on reddit suspect that ESO puts long inactive accounts “on ice” to reduce loading times for active players. Those logging back in after a long time might take a bit longer while their old data is retrieved from “Cold Storage”.
A detailed breakdown of what these changes will cause is supposed to be published in the course of the next week. Until then, you can look forward to the new DLC:
