is 2.2.3 or 2.2.2 playable?

[fleetothemoon]

I haven't touched Stellaris for a while.

I saw many threads on this forum and others, talking about the various bugs and micromanagement issues due to poor sector mechanics.

In its current state, is the game actually enjoyable to play? Compared to say, pre-pop Stellaris?

Is there anything I should keep an eye out when playing to avoid game breaking bugs?

 

[Zag14]

Crisis, perfomance and ai absolutely broken, so no

 

[Eelectrica]

Yes it is playable. AI could use some work, but it's a great way to learn the new systems and see how it all works. I've been enjoying it.
It's not perfect by any means, but yeah, it's very playable.

 

[Olterin]

It depends on what you find enjoyable. Learning the new systems and finding out what works best for your style of empire-building? Yes, that is enjoyable, much more so than pre-2.2. The AI needs some real help, though - so if you derive your enjoyment not from figuring things out and telling internal stories, but from beating AI opponents, you might need to look into mods for the time being.

 

[LWE]

Playable with Glavius' AI, as long as you don't have performance issues (mine were mild - 2.3 seconds per day in 2480'ies).

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]

If you get day1 stuttering/microfreeze, it's not playable unless you like headaches.

If you don't, it has some pretty big issues (AI the bigger one) but playable. And truly enjoyable. Right until the stuttering got me, i was really liking the overall changes.

 

[Nussor]

Completely unplayable if your PC is average. The lag is the worst it has ever been. There is also a lot of stuff that's simply broken.

 

[Vanhal]

I haven't touched Stellaris for a while.

I saw many threads on this forum and others, talking about the various bugs and micromanagement issues due to poor sector mechanics.

In its current state, is the game actually enjoyable to play? Compared to say, pre-pop Stellaris?

Is there anything I should keep an eye out when playing to avoid game breaking bugs?

Yes. There are some bugs, but if you're not a compulsive minmaxer new economic system is so much better, that it's almost incomparable.

 

[y1kdcb5au9rqw]

Completely unplayable if your PC is average. The lag is the worst it has ever been. There is also a lot of stuff that's simply broken.

"Average" in this case meaning a fairly new computer. My old i7-3770S and GTX 660 runs it quite well the first 150-200 years - at that is at 3440x1440 with max gfx setting.

Most people who have posted their PC specs, when reporting problems, seems to be running GTX 1060 cards so if you have one of those you might be in trouble.

 

[LeSingeAffame]

If you are lucky enough not to have massive performance issues, it's very enjoyable
If you are part of the unlucky crowd, then there isn't much to do

 

[pkco2]

yea if you enjoy broken AI, awakened empires that wake up and do absolutely nothing, ai ships with empty slots, and performance issues that slow the game to a crawl on even medium galaxies.

 

[Awakezzz]

Although there are some balancing and tweaking issues still to be done, the game is playable under the condition that you are one of the lucky people not majorly effected by the mid-late game performance issues.

Unfortunately, this issue seems to be on a person by person case and relative computer power seems to matter very little. The only way to know if the issue will effect you is to actually play a campaign and find out for yourself.

Having played several campaigns since Megacorp release, I find the new mechanics interesting and engaging to learn with early on in the campaign so in that regard, if you are just looking to "check out" what has changed, its perfectly fine to do that. Just be aware that actually finishing a campaign right now is hit or miss due to crisis bugs and late game stutter lag.

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]

Just be aware that actually finishing a campaign right now is hit or miss due to crisis bugs and late game stutter lag.

Also be aware that actually being able to play is hit or miss due to day1 stuttering.

 

[Incompetent]

Playable with Glavius' AI, as long as you don't have performance issues (mine were mild - 2.3 seconds per day in 2480'ies).

Glavius' AI builds quite a lot of ships, making it dangerous in the early game, but if you survive that period, it still struggles a bit with the peacetime economy. (It's not clear how much the latter is the inevitable consequence of prioritizing alloy/ship production, given how expensive it is to build a strong early-game fleet in 2.2.) Still, for an independent modder, Glavius is doing a good and remarkably quick job of fixing the worst of Paradox's mistakes here; one can only wonder what Paradox themselves could do if only they put some more resources into keeping the AI up to date.

It's kind of telling that some of the most popular 2.2 mods on Steam right now are not really new user content, but rather 'corrections' to some of the devs' more eccentric choices: for instance, a mod that makes populations grow proportionally, or a mod that makes 'Encourage Growth' a stable on/off toggle (for a steady monthly cost) to avoid the hassle of refreshing something every 10 years on a planetary level. It's great that the community is so proactive about this, but it makes me wonder about what the devs' own reasoning was for these design decisions, when it could so easily have been different.

 

[Razzlie]

If you get day1 stuttering/microfreeze, it's not playable unless you like headaches.

If you don't, it has some pretty big issues (AI the bigger one) but playable. And truly enjoyable. Right until the stuttering got me, i was really liking the overall changes.

Have to second this. It's a shame because 2.2 is really fun and adds so much depth, but the day one stutter means I just can't play the game until it gets resolved. Which I strongly feel may be two or (many) more months from now. What a shame.

 

[Pootino]

Well technically it is playable, as long as you play on the lowest settings and don't finish the synthetic ascension and don't expect the AI to do much and don't play as a machine empire and you be careful not to cause one of the many permanent bugs, you can play a normal game with it.

 

[George_L]

Feels like a laggy tutorial beta

 

[Blurb]

Stellaris 2.2.2 feels very much like the original PC port of Dark Souls: borderline broken, and needs mods to fix core features.
Without Glavius AI, you might as well be playing a sandbox game.
Then there's the performance issues, which many players are currently struggling with.
If you're not bothered by the pathetic AI and somehow not affected by performance, then you've got to force yourself to suffer through the bloated UI.

9.5/10, I expected it to be a lot worse - IGN

 

[Magdaki]

It depends. Some people are experiencing extreme stuttering. For them it probably isn't playable. Otherwise, it is quite playable (suggest getting Glavius's AI and Realistic Growth mod though). Currently at 94 hours played on MegaCorp and having a great time personally. But these things are subjective, those saying it isn't playable are equally right from their point of view.

 

[Alastor]

If you didn't jump the gun and buy MegaCorp just stay away for now. When the devs are back from their vacations (sigh) hopefully some substantial fixes will come out. Then will be the time to enjoy the game. It's a damn shame, the new mechanics are interesting, but the game is just too problematic atm.