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Stellaris Dev Diary #161 - Development Update

Hello everyone!

For this week’s dev diary we chose to switch the order of a couple of dev diaries to be able to give you some updates earlier rather than later.

The Stellaris brand has understandably been under more scrutiny than usual for the last few months, and we want to address situations related to work-in-progress art in Federations. As an example, we had some UI design mockups (shown during PDXCon) that contained placeholder art. We want to make clear this is not how the game will appear in its final version.

Moving on to Federations: During PDXCON 2019 we said that we would give more information on the expansion later during the year – and today we want to share some news that Federations is targeted for release in early 2020. Although we understand that some of you might be disappointed that Federations will not be released in December, we want you to know that we are taking more time to make sure that the next update is going to be amazing.

In addition, to give us the best chance of improving some of the pain points you’ve shared with us, we have assigned some of our team members to focus solely on trying to improve performance and AI. It is very important to us that 2.6 does not compound any of the current issues with the game, and that we can take the time we need to address some of the issues remaining from 2.2. It’s important to remember, however, that working on these kinds of issues is not a sprint, but a marathon – it's something that is constantly being worked on over longer periods of time.

If you want to read more about performance, and how we work to maintain it over time, we shared some more information on this topic in Dev Diary #149.

While we have been unable to give concrete information or specifics related to these issues, we can say that it is very important to us. With that said, it's important for us that you know that your feedback is not being ignored, even if we have no news to share.

We want to thank you for being such a dedicated community and helping us by providing feedback and reporting issues with the game. We appreciate this to no end and encourage you to continue voicing your thoughts to us.

From the beginning of next year, we’ll be doing a series of dev diaries dedicated entirely to answering questions related to specific topics each week. The schedule for those dev diaries will be released later in December when we’ll summarize and round up the year.

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That is it for this week! Dev diaries will resume their regular schedule, and as promised last week, next week we will be talking about some of the new things affecting diplomacy, such as Envoys.

P.S:
Since this dev diary had no pictures I felt it was necessary to add something, so here's a picture of the premade Lithoid-empire that some of you have been asking us to add to the Lithoids Species Pack! (Will also be updated with 2.6)

upload_2019-11-21_15-28-57.png
 
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@Duuk I actually tried to fix the bug by modding last week. Couldn’t squash the bug. But the local mod “Duuk bug fix” still sits in the list.
I've tried, too. It can't be fixed with a mod. It's definitely a bug in the way that the message parser handles messaging. There is a variance in the way it handles messages from one message file to the next and someone used code that would work in one file that does not work in another. I'm about 95% certain I know what the exact bug is (without having access to the source code) and can psuedo-code out the bug, but having fixed message parsing errors in C output before I can also 100% tell you that what seems like "such a little fix" can sometimes literally break every message output in the game because it fixes _one_ message but _every other message_ was already used to the fact that the message parser was broken and was adapted for the broken parser and thus EVERY OTHER MESSAGE breaks because they took the broken parser into account.

I may or may not have had that happen to me way back in the stone ages of the 1990s.
 
Honestly, I don't think it would break the system to know in-game what techs are required for others, or what techs are unlocked by picking this one over that one. They already have the little "unlock" symbol on certain techs (like railguns, for example), indicating that taking it unlocks more tech. That way you aren't pulling your hair out over not getting the tech card from the draw when you're actually missing a prerequisite.
Yes, I know that, but still there is no visible tree.
If you want to see the tech tree go to:
https://turanar.github.io/stellaris-tech-tree/index.html
 
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I've tried, too. It can't be fixed with a mod. It's definitely a bug in the way that the message parser handles messaging. There is a variance in the way it handles messages from one message file to the next and someone used code that would work in one file that does not work in another. I'm about 95% certain I know what the exact bug is (without having access to the source code) and can psuedo-code out the bug, but having fixed message parsing errors in C output before I can also 100% tell you that what seems like "such a little fix" can sometimes literally break every message output in the game because it fixes _one_ message but _every other message_ was already used to the fact that the message parser was broken and was adapted for the broken parser and thus EVERY OTHER MESSAGE breaks because they took the broken parser into account.

I may or may not have had that happen to me way back in the stone ages of the 1990s.

Actually I think it might be that the leader is deleted due to death prior to message generation unlike CK2 dead characters are no longer relevant, therefore any reference to the leader brings up a “no ruler” error, which is handled by using the country’s default non gender specific leader title, which you can’t define, allowing the option to define all three leader titles (male, female and non specific) might fix it. Alternatively generating the message before on the death trigger, not on the position being empty might work better.
 
Actually I think it might be that the leader is deleted due to death prior to message generation unlike CK2 dead characters are no longer relevant, therefore any reference to the leader brings up a “no ruler” error, which is handled by using the country’s default non gender specific leader title, which you can’t define, allowing the option to define all three leader titles (male, female and non specific) might fix it. Alternatively generating the message before on the death trigger, not on the position being empty might work better.
It's either that the leader no longer exists or that the leader isn't passed in the message. Either way a 0 is being passed when a leader is expected and the game engine error handler's response on $RULER_TITLE errors is the game default $RULER_TITLE rather than either the male or female $RULER_TITLE you have created.

It's a nifty bug. Personally, _my_ fix for it would be to create an error catcher that $RULER_TITLE's array for custom empires uses male for any undefined and call it good, which is probably easier than actually fixing the real bug of passing undefined leaders in the message. But Jamor will probably want to fix the actual bug because he's an overachiever.
 
I appreciate this, I think it is a step in the right direction, but I feel that Stellaris on the whole needs to take some time off and properly polish the plethora of already existing features before trying to introduce new ones. Please consider taking some time after Federations to work on balance and polish of gameplay!
 
I want to say thank you very much for focusing on the quality of life and performance issues regarding Stellaris before releasing Federations, even if it means Federations will not be out for the holidays. Better to have a polished patch that takes a little longer than immovable deadlines by which a patch has to be released, ready or not.

I love Stellaris, but I do not like the game turning into a slideshow come endgame.
 
First, let me start off this post by saying that taking time off of content and focusing more on performance, bug-squashing, and AI is what the game needs more than anything.

However, I have to express honest skepticism that this time will be the time that things are finally fixed. We've been told for now literally years that these issues were being worked on, but no substantial fixes have ever made their way to release. So, if these fixes really do happen eventually (as I hope they do), great! But I can't help but feel like I have no real reason to believe that they will.

Simply put, I don't really see how we're supposed to believe that this time will finally be different. The community has waited so long for critical issues to be fixed that it's become something of a pipe dream, and it's hard to believe that the issues will be fixed at all if they haven't been in all this time.

I hope this post is not construed in any way other than it is intended: honest skepticism.
 
The devs have confirmed that not fixing this bug is traditional, and thus they will leave it alone. It will exist forever and will raise the blood pressure of countless generations players...Sadly Duuk will not be there to witness this since this realization has likely made his head explode
I posted that on Duuks bug report thread.
 
moving on to less silly topics, thank you very much devs for taking your time to make this update less of a clusterduck than 2.2, i would happily wait until 2021 if it meant tjis update was mostly bug free at launch. . It will inevitably have It's fair share of bugs, any update that overhauls a major part of the game has problems that don't get noticed til release. However since you guys are taking your time with this one i hope it will be the update that fixes the biggest issue in the game, the performance. I have always said that the performance is the biggest issue in stellaris.
If the ai sucks but the game runs without issues for 500 years in a large galaxy i will not complain, you know why that is? the most fun part of stellaris is late game(at least for me) when i have already reached the point where i can crush the fallen empires under my boot. the part where you go nuts with mega structures is so fun, the only thing that takes away from my favorite part of the game is the fact i can barely get through 1 day per second on the fastest speed. at that point the AI is pathetic, no matter how good it is, it can't compete with a reasonably competent player, all of that means that by the time i reach the part of the game i most enjoy the AI is insignificant, the only thing detracting from my fun is the performance issues.

I am by no means saying the ai doesn't need a fix. it desperately needs work, but the priority should be on making the player able to enjoy the game for longer, not making the ai able to screw in a lightbulb
 
Look. This is getting ridiculous. Is it not time that the @Duuk bug had it’s own mega thread so that it doesn’t crop up in every discussion?
 
it crops up because it's a community joke. it's never gonna get fixed and it's hilarious
 
It’s also why it deserves it’s own megathread ;)
It doesn't need a megathread. THE BUG THAT IS, WILL BE; THE BUG THAT WILL BE, WAS.

Perhaps the Bug loves you, and perhaps you should love the Bug?
 
It doesn't need a megathread. THE BUG THAT IS, WILL BE; THE BUG THAT WILL BE, WAS.

It’s posts like this which show we need a “hilarious” reaction alongside helpful and agree! Seriously, no sarcasm!
 
I see you’ve embraced the bug!
I've just accepted that it's never, ever going to be fixed. And since it's now become meme-worthy and the rest of the forum (including Jamor) has run with it, I may as well learn to just accept it. I mean, as a bug it bothers me, but as a meme it has its own special value.
 
sorry... i had to