is 2.2.3 or 2.2.2 playable?

[AlanC9]

@ Alastor: Hmmm.. it's weird that your performance is that much worse than mine, even with the greater load you're putting on it. Whatever's going on, it looks like it isn't a linear relationship. Doubling the number of planets and whatnot seems to way more than double the processor load.

 

[SectorsAreOkay]

Can any of you post a gif or short YouTube video so I can see how long your day ticks are by midgame? Im genuinely curious

I don't have things set up for that, but in my current game, in the early 2300s, I'm getting one day per second at normal, and about 2 days per second on faster speeds. But it's less consistent at faster speeds, and there's some stutter when panning the map. I am also starting to get some latency with clicking certain things. It's still quite playable, but it's not smooth. 800 star galaxy, all DLC enabled.

 

[Alastor]

Going back to 2.1 absolutely works. You don't get MegaCorp, but you get a game that functions for you and you get most of the content you've paid for. Don't whine to me about the $19 bucks you dropped on MegaCorp as if you've been screwed out of your family inheritance. Where I live, that's two meals eating out. Get over it.

And yet thats exactly what I paid to get. And does it actually matter if the sum is big or not? Does it change the principle of the matter? It's attitudes like this that allows companies to screw us consumers with impunity.

 

[SectorsAreOkay]

And yet thats exactly what I paid to get. And does it actually matter if the sum is big or not? Does it change the principle of the matter? It's attitudes like this that allows companies to screw us consumers with impunity.

Sometimes you order a meal and it's not good. Like I said, not all transactions come with the kind of guarantees you are looking for. Look, when it comes to small dollar luxury items, I just can't muster up the concern. I also can't when the product does work for a lot of people and it certainly will be fixed at some point in the not too distant future. Again, perspective.

 

[Alastor]

Sometimes you order a meal and it's not good. Like I said, not all transactions come with the kind of guarantees you are looking for. Look, when it comes to small dollar luxury items, I just can't muster up the concern. I also can't when the product does work for a lot of people and it certainly will be fixed at some point in the not too distant future. Again, perspective.

And then I complain about it, demand a new one, ask for a refund, and/or don't buy from that restaurant again. What exactly is your point?

 

[Jambrandt]

I would say no right now. I get massive FPS drops in the late 2400s that make it very difficult and no fun to play. There are also some systems they need to look at such as piracy being impossible to manage in the late game because needing a fleet of over 1,000 Piracy suppression is ridiculous. Also the micromanagement needed for planets right now is through the roof and when you get to the end game it becomes untenable. Sectors are also not very well designed as the AI just makes tons of new ones for every planet. I really liked what they did with this update, but as with previous major updates they need to come back and fine tune the systems and do performance improvements before it becomes an enjoyment to play. I also don't think they are really coming back until early January so we're kind of stuck with this until next year. This has definitely been he poorest release so far for Stellaris.

 

[Alastor]

I see the entitled gamer brigade has stormed in. Lol. Go outside or talk to humans or find something else to do until Stellaris meets your standards.

Yes, expecting a product you paid for to work properly is entitlement. Also, clearly, only people with no lives, would care. You say entitled gamer brigade, I say corporate shill. And that's that.

So what about when the Stellaris team has already released two patches and is working on a third? Does that count for nothing? If a restaurant gives you a bad deal one time, but they are good at other times, or they work to address it, do you still act like an entitled asshole?

Yet, they aren't really working on it are they? They are out enjoying their vacations. And it's not like performance issues are a new thing with LeGuin, if anything this was supposed to be the release that would finally improve performance. The irony.

 

[SectorsAreOkay]

Yes, expecting a product you paid for to work properly is entitlement. Also, clearly, only people with no lives, would care. You say entitled gamer brigade, I say corporate shill. And that's that.

It does work! Parts of it don't work as well as you'd like. Some people are having more serious issues, which they are slowly addressing. The entitlement is not that you expect it to be usable at all, it's that you expect it to be beyond a level that can be reasonably expected for the price that you are paying.

Yet, they don't really work do they? They are out enjoying their vacations.

Good! They are humans, not robots. Here it is again, complaining that they aren't dropping everything to make sure that you are properly entertained over the holidays. That's the entitled asshole behavior I'm talking about.

And it's not like performance issues are a new thing with LeGuin, if anything this was supposed to be the release that would finally improve performance. The irony.

The patches do work. Many folks have reported improvements. A number of bugs and design issues have been addressed. A whole bunch of remain and they will continue to get fixed. That's what happened post 1.5/1.6 and that's what happened post 2.0. They've shown that while we can't trust them to produce a polished initial release, they will do the work, for free, to fix and polish after the big upgrades.

I suspect the performance problems are related to new stuff like trade routes, and not to the removal of the tile system. Software is complex and you can squash bugs and performance issues in one area and create new ones in a different area. It may also be that the new economic system will allow for better performance, but does not guarantee it. I also think people were overstating how much Le Guin was supposed to improve performance. Wiz mentioned once that the tile system caused some performance issues for the AI and this would remove that problem. It was never stated that this would fix all performance issues and make the game run super-smooth. I suspect they simply didn't have time to optimize because they rushed this release. It's unfortunate, but I'm not getting irrationally angry over it.

 

[Delthor]

micromanagement issues due to poor sector mechanics.

No one seems to be addressing this. People are having micromanagement issues for two reasons:

1. They play like it's 2.1 and refuse to learn the new systems. They constantly fight against it in an effort not to adjust to the new way of playing, often making costly mistakes. Then they try to make up for it with micro, often forms of micro that aren't really supported. This is frustrating a lot of people, but the problem is with their stubborn approach, not the game.

2. They object to colonies needing regular attention while they're developing instead of being able to mindlessly queue everything up. These players will probably be able to avoid this once the sector AI, sizing, and resource situation is improved. However, once again, adjustments to your play style can mitigate or eliminate the issue.

The perf issues are very hit or miss, and if you're playing the game to beat a competitive AI, you'll be disappointed. However, these issues aren't game breaking if you're playing for your own development.

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.

I'm enjoying the game now. Even with the bugs and AI issues, the game has never been as fun to me as it is now. I'd rather play 2.2.0 than earlier versions of Stellaris or even many other games I love. I would be extremely disappointed if this version of the game was held hostage in the name of pleasing players who think anything less than perfection is unacceptable.

If it were branded as a beta, people wouldn't be upset, and half the community viewed it that way anyway. I sympathize with people who are having performance issues. I couldn't continue a late game save while on vacation since my lap top couldn't handle it. I would have liked to see more attention paid to that, but I'm not going to hold that against them, since I know how hard performance is to deliver. I also understand the influence of the holidays and how much money they'd be throwing away to wait, which would mean they'd need to charge more or cut corners in the future. As it is, the early release might pay for an extended post-launch support that would otherwise game been much shorter.

 

[Alastor]

It does work! Parts of it don't work as well as you'd like. Some people are having more serious issues, which they are slowly addressing. The entitlement is not that you expect it to be usable at all, it's that you expect it to be beyond a level that can be reasonably expected for the price that you are paying.

I said properly. And I know first hand that patches improved on a horrible situation. I've been using all those betas. So what? The end result is the same. The performance of the game, late-game in particular, is god-awful. And I find it really funny you keep talking about the price I paid. I paid the full price they asked. If they wanted to be more expensive, they could have said so. That's what they asked, that's what I gave them. And yes I expect it to be properly playable, start to finish for that money.

Good! They are humans, not robots. Here it is again, complaining that they aren't dropping everything to make sure that you are properly entertained over the holidays. That's the entitled asshole behavior I'm talking about.

They are a company. Paradox is a company. And yes I paid them to be properly entertained over the holidays and they should have made sure of that. It is only reasonable I would expect that much.

As for the rest. Meh.

 

[MrApophenia]

To the thrust of the main question - I am one of the lucky folks without major performance issues, and the verdict is, the game is quite playable, if you use Glavius’ AI and also set the difficulty to max (Scaling or not, to preference), and if you disable the crises.

The AI in the game as released is currently not able to actually play the game with the new rules they have instituted- I don’t mean that they are strategically inferior, as has always been the case (and is understandable), I mean the AI literally doesn’t know how to use the new planetary rules from this expansion, can’t upgrade or repair buildings, and thus cannot build fleets or really do much of anything else.

Glavius’ mod built in some events to force the AI to upgrade buildings at the appropriate time, and disabled the functionality of buildings being ruined by war so you don’t want up with every AI planet full of permanent wrecked buildings. Throw in Grand Admiral level resource bonuses, and you get something like a functioning galaxy, which lets you actually enjoy the legitimately quite interesting new features.

The crisis is currently just broken - they literally left the code unfinished when they released it. Fortunately, you can turn them off. (And Glavius is actually working on a fix for those, too.)

So - with mods to patch some of the more gaping holes, yes, playable. Without, no.

 

[Onedreamer]

Note to everyone: the OP asks if the game is ENJOYABLE not PLAYABLE. They are two quite different definitions of a game.

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?

It's as playable as an early access game would be. You would have to withstand numerous bugs and unbalanced mechanics (and this after they fixed many already), and to make it enjoyable you have a selection of about 10-15% of the possible species/factions due to the others being pointless to play because of bugs. Besides all of this, many players suffer from performance issues that make the game unplayable no matter what, so you'll have to see for yourself if this is the case or not for you, but honestly I wouldn't advise anyone to bother until they fixed it, which realistically means at least a month at the rate things are moving. The good news is that at least we can switch to the previous version 2.1.4

 

[Awakezzz]

I see the entitled gamer brigade has stormed in. Lol. Go outside or talk to humans or find something else to do until Stellaris meets your standards.

How dare consumers expect products they pay for to actually work.

Quality assurance and management is a very real part of every business environment, and while I love Paradox and their games, that doesn't make it ok when they release official paid DLC and/or update a paid product in broken states.

I can't in good conscience right now recommend the game to a new player for purchase even as a fan of the game, and that's a big problem.

 

[Alastor]

you do make it very hard do defend the whole gamer entitlement thing people started flinging around, because you really come across as an entitled twat.
They deserve their holiday just as much as you. So sucks that they couldn't fix your problems (or mine), but i still enjoy myself (disabling wormholes and gateways really helped my end game stutter.) And i am glad i can play this beta version of Megacorp, instead of no stellaris (or pre-2.2)

Ah more name-calling. How civilized.
There are people that work over the holidays you know, me included for that matter. And yes a company should be held to account when they release a problematic product. They want to release a game just before Christmas? So they can catch the Christmas sale season? And earn more money? Ok, then they can hire more people and ask them to work, with the appropriate extra-perks the law requires, during the holidays. So they can make sure they can deliver on their promises. If they don't deliver, I, as the consumer, have every right to complain about it and feel cheated.

 

[Onedreamer]

you do make it very hard do defend the whole gamer entitlement thing people started flinging around, because you really come across as an entitled twat.
They deserve their holiday just as much as you. So sucks that they couldn't fix your problems (or mine), but i still enjoy myself (disabling wormholes and gateways really helped my end game stutter.) And i am glad i can play this beta version of Megacorp, instead of no stellaris (or pre-2.2)

The fact you're happy with something doesn't entitle you to call others entitled about anything.

 

[Alkaid98]

Aside from when 2.0 made it so AI literally could not declare war, this might be the buggiest release we've had. The new features are good, but the complexity of the changes has really done a number on the AI among other things. Not sure what's up with the performance issues either (I didn't have any before, but now with 2.2.3 I'm part of the stutter crowd). This update probably needed more time in the oven and will likely take a few more weeks before Paradox can iron more of this out.

That said, the update overall is good just it really needs a lot of fixes. It's playable, but there's enough issues it may be better to just wait a while before trying to dive into a game for the long-haul.

I'll also say that this update has changed my stance on buying any more Paradox DLC on release. Despite their track record with bugs I decided to have confidence in them and buy Megacorp on day 1 anyway.(like many, I've been excited for the update for months and was thinking it took so long that it'd be mostly fine) That was a mistake, since the game's not been stable enough to make much use of my purchase even now weeks later. (especially since I'm somebody who almost always plays democracies, which were the ones with missing leader traits and still have broken mandates) Next time I'll just wait and see for a while before putting down any money. I already dropped doing pre-orders(in general, not just Paradox), but now I'll reconsider day 1 buys for Paradox DLC as well.

 

[Ramiren]

It does work! Parts of it don't work as well as you'd like. Some people are having more serious issues, which they are slowly addressing. The entitlement is not that you expect it to be usable at all, it's that you expect it to be beyond a level that can be reasonably expected for the price that you are paying.

You keep using the word entitlement as if paying customers aren't entitled to a working product. If I sold you a robot that plays chess, and it could move the pieces around but wasn't programmed with the rules to actually play chess, you'd say that robot was broken. This is the exact problem we have with stellaris, sure there's an AI but it can't play the game and with the endgame crisis also broken unless you're playing multiplayer you may as well be fighting an empty galaxy. That fundamentally breaks what a strategy game should be since with no opposition there's no requirement for strategy. And as for multiplayer, desync issues are rife, hell even basic performance is abysmal as shown below. Having a playable game doesn't mean the game doesn't crash at boot, it means the various elements within the game that allow you do perform tasks associated with the core mechanics function as intended, and unfortunately we've been sold a product where this isn't the case.

 

[Alastor]

@Ramiren
That's actually not half-bad. You should see how bad mine goes.

Perhaps we should all make youtube videos and start a contest. Worst performance wins.

 

[Razzlie]

@Ramiren
That's actually not half-bad. You should see how bad mine goes.

Agreed. The day one stutter is actually even worse than this. Totally broken and unplayable.

 

[MrApophenia]

I'll also say that this update has changed my stance on buying any more Paradox DLC on release. Despite their track record with bugs I decided to have confidence in them and buy Megacorp on day 1 anyway.(like many, I've been excited for the update for months and was thinking it took so long that it'd be mostly fine) That was a mistake, since the game's not been stable enough to make much use of my purchase even now weeks later. (especially since I'm somebody who almost always plays democracies, which were the ones with missing leader traits and still have broken mandates) Next time I'll just wait and see for a while before putting down any money. I already dropped doing pre-orders(in general, not just Paradox), but now I'll reconsider day 1 buys for Paradox DLC as well.

This is where I’m at, too. I don’t really care about the debate about entitled or not, but this has convinced me not to trust that the products Paradox puts up for sale are worth my money anymore. I will be waiting on any further purchase until after I see a general consensus that I am buying a working product.