How can so many major game aspects be broken?

[Onkel_Bums]

I don't necessarily blame the team working behind the scenes on Stellaris, but whoever is in charge of the project now (Daniel?) needs to set a precedent that the core features of the game, including previously paid for content, should never ship in this broken state ever again. I've had enough of the excuses.

Well, Daniel might be in charge now. But I think the way it played out, namely, Wiz fucked off for some cool new project (which I am sure he will run just the same way he did with Stellaris) and left the steaming pile of manure for Daniel to clean up, is very very weak.

I'd like to see these issues addressed as well, but let's not blame the guy in charge now.

 

[TheAtreides84]

Well, Daniel might be in charge now. But I think the way it played out, namely, Wiz fucked off for some cool new project (which I am sure he will run just the same way he did with Stellaris) and left the steaming pile of manure for Daniel to clean up, is very very weak.

I'd like to see these issues addressed as well, but let's not blame the guy in charge now.

It may seem callous to say, but honestly I think Stellaris will be better off without Wiz. I have some cautious trust in the new management.

 

[UltimateTobi]

As far as Crises go, Swarm and Contingency got shipped with #TODO-code. No wonder they don't function.

There's a lot of work to be done for 2.2.

 

[gokudo01]

you can vote with your wallet if you feel you have been screwed.
Next time, don't jump on the hype train and wait to purchase.

 

[Onkel_Bums]

It may seem callous to say, but honestly I think Stellaris will be better off without Wiz. I have some cautious trust in the new management.

I was trying to say, and now I am purposefully placative, but this is my personal opinion, that it is good that Wiz moved on; I think he could have done a better job with Stellaris; I don't have high hopes for the new project with him on the helm if he continues with his decision style; I am sorry for Daniel that he needs to clean up the mess Wiz left.

It is mean to say this, placative and toxic, I know, but I find it to be the truth.
I just REALLY hope that decisions will be reviewed and some proper measurements are taken to mitigate the current state of Stellaris and the policies which led to it.

 

[MrMess85]

I'm a long time Paradox fan having played EU 1 when it first launched.

They've had a few stumbles in their time but this launch is a complete mess. It's the first time I've considered not paying for expansions when they are first released. How long now since it came out, a month, two? The game is an unplayable mess. I don't have the time to QA their expansion.

What went wrong? ...

• Rushing it for a Christmas release?
• Overly ambitious goals?
• Lack of QA

Paradox need to sort this out. Stop releasing expansions and fix basic game mechanics e.g. How on earth does the end game crisis still not work?!

 

[MrMess85]

you can vote with your wallet if you feel you have been screwed.
Next time, don't jump on the hype train and wait to purchase.

Problem is. They update the game outside of expansions so the game is unplayable if you use your wallet or not.

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]

Player keep buying it because there is no game like Stellaris in market currently. My first playthrough ruined due to Gaia terraforming bug, yet I start new game because this is the only space sim game that available for me. Bit tired to complain so I just post it in bug report section and leave it there. If Dev have time they will see it and fix it.

2.2 is entirely free, Megacorp DLC adds something nice here and there but it's not mandatory to enjoy the new system.

 

[monkeypunch87]

2.2 is entirely free, Megacorp DLC adds something nice here and there but it's not mandatory to enjoy the new system.

But city worlds make the new economy a hell lot of easier to handle. Also the new megastructures.

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]

But city worlds make the new economy a hell lot of easier to handle. Also the new megastructures.

Neither is mandatory. You can play without them and still experience the new system.

Also, you can try Ecumenopolis with the First League precursor quest line.

Players bought a 20$ DLC without even checking the feedback that was floating on Reddit, where people who had early access versions already highlighted the numerous issues about the game. Given that PDX is known to release wonky updates, people could have waited for, what, 24 hours, before spending 20$? In 24 hours the majority of issues were sufficently clear and posted everywhere, so people could have taken an informed decision about the DLC.

But no, people jumped the train as soon as the DLC was released and got stomped by bugs. Feel free to spend your money however you want, but don't tell me you were forced to buy Megacorp because otherwise you couldn't play Stellaris. You can play 2.2(.2) for free. You wanted the DLC too regardless, and got screwed by a buggy release, but you could have prevented it just by waiting a single day.

 

[monkeypunch87]

You were talking about "enjoying the new system" and the DLC makes it a lot more enjoyable. That's all I wanted to point out.

I'm not interested in a discussion about if it would have been wise to wait a couple of days with a purchase. I did, but the majority is not reading reddit or even Steam reviews. Everyone could at least expect less bugs at a full release.

 

[Radix_Sal]

I don't necessarily blame the team working behind the scenes on Stellaris, but whoever is in charge of the project now (Daniel?) needs to set a precedent that the core features of the game, including previously paid for content, should never ship in this broken state ever again. I've had enough of the excuses.

This is in my opinion the main issue behind such a buggy update - the project management turned into chaos mode at Paradox. I am a software developer myself and I have worked for a few companies with different project management pipelines and when I look at 2.2 it just smells like whomever is handling project management can't handle it. Or is doing too much coding herself/himself because project management is not very fun for coders (you have to talk to people, yuck). That can happen when you make a lead dev into a project manager and she/he is not very much into new duties. This can be made worse if the main decision makers cannot make up their minds and change plans after they commit to a release date and the project manager does not have the power (which requires experience) to say 'no'. Paradox needs a dedicated project manager who knows how to get this job done well and all our problems will go away. In my opinion.

A good project manager for a large project does not do any coding or does it only a small percentage of time. Main duties lay in having a general oversight of the project and making sure that everything fits together. This cannot work if you have to do the dirty work yourself.

You won't find any number, but developers hinted many times that Stellaris is very if not the most successful product they currently have (for example when discussing resizing team, with more members joining). You'll also find some press release about Stellaris breaking PDX records of most sold/fast selling game.

It's safe to say they wouldn't lose money if they allocated a bigger budget towards quality, they just wouldn't earn as much.

Even more reason to get a proper project manager + assistant if need be. Stellaris team did not scale up well is seems.

 

[Askorti]

It seems to me that PDX as a whole has staff shortages in certain areas. For example when someone once asked them on FB about potential ship design DLC, they said that they don't currently have enough art people to work on Stellaris because they had to "lend" those people to other projects. It would seem like in Paradox people move from project to project quite a bit. Who knows, maybe this kind of shuffling people around could also be responsible for why this new version came out as undercooked as it did, maybe they moved some Stellaris personnel to a new project.

 

[Faeelin]

Player keep buying it because there is no game like Stellaris in market currently. My first playthrough ruined due to Gaia terraforming bug, yet I start new game because this is the only space sim game that available for me. Bit tired to complain so I just post it in bug report section and leave it there. If Dev have time they will see it and fix it.

Endless Space.

 

[Korruna]

You can either choose to believe that the guys who made this game are beyond incompetent and blind and didn't realize all those bugs were there, or you can choose to believe they released the update despite knowing it would take a couple more patches to iron out.

I find it so bizarre that you're using their willful knowledge of how buggy this release is as some sort of defense to Paradox and the state of 2.2. I am assuming the latter, and this is the biggest indictment you can make for what they've done.

A few bugs or balance issues here or there is fine and to be expected, but they chose to release and market this thing as a finished product. They're also self-publishing so the only reasons this could have happened was to capitalize on the holiday rush and/or to satisfy some goal of sales their quarterly report. We call this a "calculated risk", and what they're risking is the trust of their customers. Shifting the blame saying, "the customers should know better!" is absurd to me, but you're free to believe whatever you want. If they still have your trust, then that's fine; they don't have mine anymore.

 

[The Boz]

Endless Space.

Pseudo-real-time nonsense. Avoid.

 

[Spyhawk]

It may seem callous to say, but honestly I think Stellaris will be better off without Wiz. I have some cautious trust in the new management.

I don't really agreed with what I'd refer as "a change of vision from the original team" that I felt since Wiz took charge (I might be the only one, and I might be wrong too), but I really don't think Wiz should be blamed for the poor state of the game.

The issue is upper management, not coders.

To be fair, there isn't many game studios that put players experience before extra money. PDX isn't an exception (this is business), although certainly not an exemplary reference imho.

A few bugs or balance issues here or there is fine and to be expected, but they chose to release and market this thing as a finished product. They're also self-publishing so the only reasons this could have happened was to capitalize on the holiday rush and/or to satisfy some goal of sales their quarterly report. We call this a "calculated risk", and what they're risking is the trust of their customers. Shifting the blame saying, "the customers should know better!" is absurd to me, but you're free to believe whatever you want. If they still have your trust, then that's fine; they don't have mine anymore.

Yes. From what I'm seeing, and as far as I'm concerned, this was a blatant cash grab.

 

[Spacemadnesss]

I'm honestly surprised these forums aren't on fire. I am relatively new to Paradox games, Stellaris being my one and only empire game of theirs that I've ever played but this is one of the most botched releases I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing, second only to that time an EVE-ONLINE patch deleted boot.ini from the windows directory.

Had something like this been put out under the umbrella of EA you wouldn't hear the end of it but it seems Paradox game veterans are just.. meekly reiterating the obvious issues over and over again for weeks on end while the developers enjoy their holiday break. Am I to assume things like these are normal and expected, for the game to be practically unplayable if you play solo and only halfway broken if you're engaging in multiplayer for weeks (months?) after release?

The developers have the nerve to make fun of EA and loot boxes when they themselves push a broken update during the holidays to cash in on that sweet december revenue. That they're not on here begging for forgiveness offering up a roadmap to fix Stellaris up from top to bottom is honestly surprising. This is shameful, absolutely shameful. This entire affair has tarnished PDX's rep for a long time to come, I will no longer be recommending Stellaris to anyone until they put in some serious work into how they do business.

 

[Onkel_Bums]

The developers have the nerve to make fun of EA and loot boxes when they themselves push a broken update during the holidays to cash in on that sweet december revenue. That they're not on here begging for forgiveness offering up a roadmap to fix Stellaris up from top to bottom is honestly surprising. This is shameful, absolutely shameful. This entire affair has tarnished PDX's rep for a long time to come, I will no longer be recommending Stellaris to anyone until they put in some serious work into how they do business.

Yep. I completely agree.

 

[TheAtreides84]

I'm honestly surprised these forums aren't on fire. I am relatively new to Paradox games, Stellaris being my one and only empire game of theirs that I've ever played but this is one of the most botched releases I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing, second only to that time an EVE-ONLINE patch deleted boot.ini from the windows directory.

Had something like this been put out under the umbrella of EA you wouldn't hear the end of it but it seems Paradox game veterans are just.. meekly reiterating the obvious issues over and over again for weeks on end while the developers enjoy their holiday break. Am I to assume things like these are normal and expected, for the game to be practically unplayable if you play solo and only halfway broken if you're engaging in multiplayer for weeks (months?) after release?

The developers have the nerve to make fun of EA and loot boxes when they themselves push a broken update during the holidays to cash in on that sweet december revenue. That they're not on here begging for forgiveness offering up a roadmap to fix Stellaris up from top to bottom is honestly surprising. This is shameful, absolutely shameful. This entire affair has tarnished PDX's rep for a long time to come, I will no longer be recommending Stellaris to anyone until they put in some serious work into how they do business.

We just know the drill by now. You may not believe it if you're new, but PDX QA actually improved enormously since EUII days. Back then there were more bugs than features at day one. But even nowadays, PDX games need a lot of time in the oven after release. They haven't got a nice early access tag, but we basically know that's what they are. Good thing is that they usually deliver, if the game sells well enough. But honestly there is no point in buying a PDX game before, like, six months unless you're a very hardcore grand strategy fan.