The Elder Scrolls Online has finally installed new server hardware for Europe and PC. This aims to solve one of the biggest problems of the MMORPG: weak performance. The first impressions are positive, but that doesn’t say much yet.
What is new? On April 4th, there was a long server maintenance in Europe. Players could not log in from 2:00 AM until around 8:00 PM. The reason was the migration of ESO to new server hardware.
This hardware is important to get the performance issues under control. These have been discussed for years:
- Already in 2019, the developers announced various measures aimed at improving the gameplay experience. The memory requirements of the MMORPG have been reduced, refresh rates adjusted, and some features that were said to drain a lot of performance improved, such as the group search tool.
- However, the problems persisted. Especially in PvP mode Cyrodiil, there are skill lags, endless loading screens, or disconnects. But even with world bosses in the open world, there were repeated FPS drops.
- In 2023, the Creative Director Rich Lambert revealed to us in an interview that there will be no major adjustments or innovations for PvP as long as the servers and performance do not improve.
However, since yesterday, the new servers are online in Europe. North America received the upgrade almost a year ago, in April 2022.
ESO will receive the new expansion Necrom in the summer. In line with this, there is already a cinematic trailer:
First players are optimistic, but the big prime time is yet to come
What is the first impression of the new servers? In the ESO forum, there are first statements about the performance from last night, and they are mostly positive:
- The user Zeraw86 writes: “I have to say it runs great in Cyrodiil on Graue Schar (PC/EU), once in a while there is a stutter, but it is nothing compared to before.”
- Even xMauiWaui is satisfied: “At least I haven’t had such good performance since 2014 as last night. Even though it wasn’t perfect.”
However, some players complain that the freeing feels a bit strange, which has also been criticized for a year in America. Additionally, some players apparently experienced ping issues, which were resolved during the evening (via ESO Forum).
However, for proper feedback, it seems generally a bit too early, some players point out. The servers only came back online after 8 PM and were correspondingly less populated – also because some had already given up hope of being able to play that day. The maintenance was originally supposed to end at 4 PM but was then extended by 4 hours.
The real stress test will probably take place only on the weekend when many want to log in simultaneously in the evening and explore Cyrodiil together.
Are you looking forward to the new servers in Europe? And how much have the performance issues annoyed you? Feel free to write it in the comments.
Lastly, ESO received two new dungeons in March. One of them has a really interesting mechanic:
A new ESO dungeon from this year has a mechanic that has never existed before
