META THREAD: Complaints about the game

So I'm going to complain here:

Giving SotS1 away for free does absolutely nothing for those of us who bought it years ago and have played the crap out of it since. In fact, giving it for free to people who didn't play SotS1 displays how big of a fuck up SotS2 is, and how good it could have been.

I hope one day that SotS2 is on par with SotS1, because SotS1 is to SotS2 as Scarlet Johansson is to Danny DeVito covered in Vasaline.

Also, and I know this belongs in the refund thread, but since responses to refunds have all just been 'We are processing', I wanted to spread the question to here. Is there an update on when refunds will go out? You said last Monday there would be an update.

Congrats on killing the SotS franchise.

Here is my list of things that are broken in the game and need to be fixed.
1) Basic gameplay needs extensive testing to help get rid of all the crash bugs that are being encountered as there are still many out there.
2)Space stations being fixed should be a priority as they affect not only defense and combat but finance in the game as well.
3) sat's and other defensive structures need to be put back into the game.
4) Balance the game economy so that in the beginning your not 3 mil in debt just to get started with research and colonization etc etc.
5) Bring back the interface for fleet actions and ship status from SOTS1 I like being able to see my ships status without zooming way up close on it
6) Targeting individual sections seems to have taken a flying leap which was one of the things I loved from SOTS1. Shooting off a ships guns was an awesome way to turn the tide of a battle. (So what happened to this awesome feature??)

that's all I can think of at this juncture I am sure I can find more. However at this moment I do love the way the game is looking like it will play when finished

Simply go look at the first, say, three to five pages of suggestions at Kerberos' forums, or the many here, and say the first two or four pages of technical support issues, and you've got at least 100 major bugs, and another 100 UI show-stoppers that make the game unplayable.

I don't mean to belittle your list of 6 items - I just mean that it's those 6 plus the other 94 before its really a playable game. D'oh!

EzekialKarn said:

Here is my list of things that are broken in the game and need to be fixed.
4) Balance the game economy so that in the beginning your not 3 mil in debt just to get started with research and colonization etc etc.

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i don't ever in any way have this problem with the Liir-Zuul alliance, and i've started a lot of games. i suspect this might be you; that said, the economy is still due to change, so i can't really say.

that said, running with a deficit is viable in this game.

6) Targeting individual sections seems to have taken a flying leap which was one of the things I loved from SOTS1. Shooting off a ships guns was an awesome way to turn the tide of a battle. (So what happened to this awesome feature??)

Click to expand...

it is in the game and works; i have lost turrets to enemy fire.

Mordachai said:

Simply go look at the first, say, three to five pages of suggestions at Kerberos' forums, or the many here, and say the first two or four pages of technical support issues, and you've got at least 100 major bugs, and another 100 UI show-stoppers that make the game unplayable.

I don't mean to belittle your list of 6 items - I just mean that it's those 6 plus the other 94 before its really a playable game. D'oh!

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My list of six included extensive testing for all bugs first and foremost then some things that I thought specifically hampered the game a little more than normal as I have been able to somewhat play the game (just not as Sol Force) also as it states It is my list of complaints things i find annoying. Thusly attempting to make my list sound or seem unworthy was quite futile as it helped me express my own concerns to the developers.

Mordachai said:

And there have been several posters who've pointed out that they're adding stickers and glitz while the core is a CTD nightmare.

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Possibly because many people aren't experiencing CTD's. Generally speaking, if it's working fine for everyone and CTD'ing on one system, it's not a problem in the code...

anaris said:

i don't ever in any way have this problem with the Liir-Zuul alliance, and i've started a lot of games. i suspect this might be you; that said, the economy is still due to change, so i can't really say.

that said, running with a deficit is viable in this game.



it is in the game and works; i have lost turrets to enemy fire.

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Yeah I have lost turrets to enemy fire but the targeting seems to be meh at best 99% of any weapons fire goes all over the place. I play Sol force mostly so chances are its a race specific issue.

speaking from past experience with this kind of thing, and i'm aware that some of the turrets in the game are misplaced,there could be wild inaccuracies based on the offset of the theoretical aiming point from the actual firing point.

You know maybe im starting to lose my patience....

Someone posted a very respectful very PG rated concern of the game in the main forum
This is the reply from Castellon an admin:

"People we have that bright and shiny meta thread for these comments, as well as a sticky thread to point you that way.
See how easy it is to miss things.
*Closed "

You want to start pulling sarcastic **** on someone who legitimately posted a very PG rated not even complaint or rant just a concern... ( not even specifically about Sots)

I might start losing my acceptance for your mess of a game.

Only reason i have been under standing is games are released with bugs now a days its commonplace. Sword of the stars 2 is defiantly very very buggy but i have seen worse. And face it its sword of the starts its an amazing game when it works.

The complete absence of content defiantly moves my opinion from buggy release to lazy half-***ed joke. Its like (Insert your favorite singer or band here) Releases a CD they say there 12 brand new songs, well you buy it there 4 songs and 8 tracks of static. Anyone would be pissed off.

In conclusion, I still have a level of acceptance of this game but , Mods and Admins your treading in thin water keep your sarcastic bull to yourself. a simple "Closed" would suffice.

Im sure im not the only one feeling like this half of us are already getting close to the edge, if not some of us already off it, So if i am showing acceptance id like to see the same shown back to me and other "disgruntled" customers on this forum.

Be careful where you walk im not a diehard paradox fan sword of the stars 2 just happened to have the paradox name on it. You are about two more sarcastic comments away from me refusing to buy your stuff.

/rant :glare:

Agree with DeadlyPeanut.

You would expect that the forum admins would be the last to resort to sarcasm bordering on rudeness given that they will rightly reprimand any posters doing the same.

I am going to assume the folks unhappy with Paradox forum mods being borderline aggressively stupid with their customers have not been on the Kerberos forums where it is pretty much standard protocol.

Archonsod said:

Possibly because many people aren't experiencing CTD's. Generally speaking, if it's working fine for everyone and CTD'ing on one system, it's not a problem in the code...

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That concept may work on a game that is 99% stable, but not here. There are problems in the code that cause regular CTD's. Saying otherwise is just silly. It may not hit everyone all the of the time, but they are definitely there and many can be reproduced.

The problem is more of how the public interprets CTD's. The public wants them fixed right away, but they aren't really the easiest thing to fix. They have to be hunted down, then the cause fixed, then whatever potential effects the error was having tracked to make sure there weren't other potential effects no one noticed. Ideally CTD's should be at the bottom of the "to fix" list but since they are the most visible (and annoying) bugs most people run into there is a lot of demand to fix them first.

A lot of CTD's will take a while to repair. Especially since a lot of them are linked to cascades that are linked to currently disabled features.

I know that there working hard to fix the game and i dont really want to add to there stream of complants but i was hopeing someone on the forms could help or anyone for that matter.
If i start the game with the "windowed" not checked. I dont have sound and when i try to slect something the mouse selectes things that are higher the where its at. Like, for example, I try to slecet Create Game and it highlights Continue Game. If i do have "windowed" checked then my screen flickers white all the time and if i go into full screen with it then i only have the trouble with the curser.

I dont know if this has been covered before or not. I havent found anything or ive searched for the wrong thing or i just misspelt things or some other thing. Im sorry for the trouble. and for all the "things" and for saying "things" a lot.

Archonsod said:

Possibly because many people aren't experiencing CTD's

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Erm, have you tried to play a game? Sorry, but the CTDs are affecting almost everyone. Just go look at their technical support page and watch the threads grow by the hour.

Irony: look at the post above mine: Zepher is a classic example of the "quality" of this release. Do you know any other game currently selling for $40 or more, released in the past month or two, that has this degree of total-failure written all over it?

peekitup said:

Giving SotS1 away for free does absolutely nothing for those of us who bought it years ago and have played the crap out of it since.

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There's some use in being able to add it to a Steam account. I didn't actually get a newsletter though.

Yes I and I'm sure many others are in the same position, people should have been given a choice.

My complaint is what many have already said here: I paid for a 100% working game, not for some paid beta! I did play the game for few hours just after the launch and I haven't launched the game since. This game has more bugs than my back yard in the summer. To be fair for the developers and the publisher, I'll wait until January 2012 and check the game out then. If it's not what I paid for... well, Sword of the Stars 2 will be the last product I bought from Paradox and Kerberos. Also this mess made me understand one thing: Never preorder a game from any publisher. Preorders are a scam.

Castellon. a simple "Closed" or "Moved to meta thread" is all that's needed and is all that you should say anything else, even something even hinting of sarcasm or disrespect or as your new post threats of "infractions".

Im not insulting you or any admin even some other users, i just want to make the point that putting salt in to an already gaping wound its not smart and will piss people off.

Its your forum you can do what you want. But from what ive seen there are people here trying to keep there cool and being respectful for the most part ( there are others making a scene and ruining it for others ) , Sarcasm and threats is a surefire way to push an already disgruntled customer over the edge.

Im sure everything will work out its going to take time and admins/developers/forum mods and anyone associated with this game is going to be performing damage control until the game is at least playable. And, it is only going to get worse with time i don't know how to tell you to do your job but a release like this will bring a lot of anger thats only going to build until we get a game that can be played and is enjoyable.

What DeadlyPeanut said. +1

The reality is I did my best to not comment for a long time, take everyone's word at face value, assume benefit of the doubt for Kerberos and Paradox. I said supportive things, tried playing the game, reported bugs, suggested UI improvements (respectfully), and kept the drama from me to zero.

But as time has passed, it has become clear that there wasn't some mistake with messed up code sent to the server - at least, that's not the real issue. The real code is clearly alpha quality. And no explanation - no honest "how did we end up here" has been forthcoming from either Paradox or Kerberos. "I'm sorry" doesn't explain "why did it happen?" Nor does it explain/reassure "this is what we're doing to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again."

So I posted two very respectful, honest, and I thought professional messages: one to you guys (Paradox), and one to Kerberos, indicating what this says about your respective companies three weeks after the release date with the code as it currently stands, and with the aforementioned lack of answers / corrective actions.

The reaction at Kerberos was to ban me from their forums (personal issues with Arinn Dembo, who has some beef with me personally).

The reaction at Paradox was to close my threads, with in one case a snarky remark, and the other the comment that effectively my well-disciplined, thoughtful responses were hating' on Kerberos, or inappropriate here because "there is a thread for complaints." I suppose you can see my threads as "complaints" in some vague general sense. But I think I would easily win over a jury of my peers that what I did wasn't "complaining" at all, but simply stating what I thought went wrong from my customer-perspective, and offering constructive ideas as to how to move forward so we're all at a better place.

So to me, despite my self-restraint, my avoidance of throwing oil on the fires, or vitriol to the many voices calling for blood, I get told that I don't have the right, I cannot be afforded the respect to post my concerns even in a diplomatic fashion. And banned.

I am no longer willing to try to calm folks down (something I was previously doing). I am no longer willing to give you or Kerberos the benefit of the doubt. You both clearly had to know what a train wreck this was, and you decided to pull the trigger at the expense of all of us customers. You both operated in bath faith. This is fundamentally the definition of fraud.

So I am going to do everything in my power to let folks know that you have operated in bad faith. That I have been manhandled and disrespected when I went out of my way to be a good guy to you both. I am going to do everything I can to let potential customers know that you both willfully misled your customers and fleeced us of our money, full-well knowing that you did not have a product to offer, but only vaporware. Were I lawyer, I'd be drawing up papers for a class action suit now.

So yeah, your heavy-handed smack down of what I consider to be a very generous approach to this mess by me has most definitely turned me from fan & supporter to enemy.

I would be quite happy to see both of your organizations suffer for your abusive behavior. And you both richly deserve it.