Losing confidence in the dev team

[LiberiusX]

Not me. I got hyped seeing the game I really-really wanted and awaited for long time. And on that hype I did a mistake - I bought the game after watching a half-hour walkthrough on youtube. Foolish rush for my age. The only practically good thing happened with a purchase of Stellaris - I got XP that tells me 3 things:
1) never buy a game before fully watching walkthrough for it to be completely sure what to expect;
2) never buy a game right after release, wait for the responses, lurk the forums and other sources to discover things that may not be revealed by walkthrough representation;
3) never buy a game from unreliable developers - check their product history, ensure they are able to deliver quality products.
As a result, not a single game I bought for a year. Thanks PDX for the experience I bought for forty bucks - it saved me a lot of money, I guess.
But yet, I am not giving up demanding from PDX, since they still did not delivered what I paid for.

By your own 1, 2, 3, criteria you would have purchased Stellaris. Both HOI4 and Stellaris were fun for the first month or two. It was only after the glitter wore off that people saw the flaws.

1) many early reviews were lukewarm to positive.

2) as I said, many players expressed their view that this was a strong entry in the space 4x genre. It was only after a couple of months that people started expressing frustration with some design choices.

3)again, flawed reasoning because Vicky 2, CK2 and EU4 are all extremely high quality products.

I would advise you to

4) wait until PDS is done releasing all DLC/Expansions and buy everything for a discount.

Something tells me that you and your mates would still be unhappy though.

 

[Spyhawk]

Not me. I got hyped seeing the game I really-really wanted and awaited for long time. And on that hype I did a mistake - I bought the game after watching a half-hour walkthrough on youtube. Foolish rush for my age. The only practically good thing happened with a purchase of Stellaris - I got XP that tells me 3 things:
1) never buy a game before fully watching walkthrough for it to be completely sure what to expect;
2) never buy a game right after release, wait for the responses, lurk the forums and other sources to discover things that may not be revealed by walkthrough representation;
3) never buy a game from unreliable developers - check their product history, ensure they are able to deliver quality products.
As a result, not a single game I bought for a year. Thanks PDX for the experience I bought for forty bucks - it saved me a lot of money, I guess.
But yet, I am not giving up demanding from PDX, since they still did not delivered what I paid for.

If there is something Stellaris taught me, that would be:

1) never buy a game before watching a full walkthrough for it to be completely sure what to expect. Seeing how the emphasis was on the initial contact with the game (exploration phase) at the detriment of showing the big void in the middle game and borked crisis end game, you'd wonder if the official stream wasn't somehow tilted to make more money;
2) never buy a game before the already founded post-development that aims to fix most bug after release, and make your judgment only after it (usually around 3-4 months for most game, or 2 then 3 patches in the case of Stellaris);
3) developers that are considered reliable in their genre can completely miss the target when trying some other genre they haven't experience with; the post mortem revealed Paradox completely underestimated the 4X genre (because GSG is so much superior to 4X, right?), and can have very questionable practice despite many years in the industry (no prototyping, really?);

And if I should add one more, that would be:
4) do not expect very successful sale results to necessarily means the product is of great quality, as that can be the direct result of the quality of the marketing campaign instead; nor should you expect that the earned money be reinvested in that particular title (a cow's gotta be milked, especially when the company just went through an IPO like Paradox). The spirit and dedication of the dev team doesn't mean anything when upper management has to maximize profitability for shareholders.

 

[mike8472]

Wow. Stellaris is a good game with the potential to be great and it is moving in that direction. Its scope and size are massive for a space 4x game. It has been the game I was waiting for, was it everything at launch....no. It certainly went along way though. Yes the game has areas I would like fleshed out like the economy, doom stacks, espionage, war. Im sure all of these will be addressed in time. Will it have the same economic depth as Victoria, no same as Victoria you did not customise ships in Victoria. Stellaris has the great aspect that Civ has except better, every game is different, random. You don't know what you will get, it is the great unknown and I would like this aspect expanded further.

I would like to see an even earlier starting time, like in Distant worlds prior to faster then light travel. More stories like the Horizon event.

Stellaris has the perfect setup to have dozens of event chains all linked to the Fallen Empires, the history they left behind, what did they stagnate, a great war, artefacts left behind and so on. So much is possible in Stellaris. Gvie it time. I have already played about 1500 hours but I do like to play on slow and take my time and enjoy the journey.

For what $100, I would spend about the same going to the movies a few times for maybe 6 hours of entertainment. I would be happy to spend $200-$300 more on Stellaris over the next 2-3 years with expansions and DLC;s. Give me the content and I will show you the $$$.

 

[Anschau]

I am super bummed about the AI Crisis being gelded into something boring. At some point they are going to need to add some depth and complex interactions to counterbalance the blandness of the procedurially generated aspects. Events that trigger between two empires, in-depth map modes that track species distribution and their feeling about other species. More depth on the politics. And eventually they will have to fix everything that doesn't work right (AI prosecution of wars and colonies, especially fallen empires/awakened empires).

I just hope its in months and not years.

 

[Spyhawk]

At some point they are going to need to add some depth and complex interactions to counterbalance the blandness of the procedurially generated aspects. Events that trigger between two empires, in-depth map modes that track species distribution and their feeling about other species. More depth on the politics. And eventually they will have to fix everything that doesn't work right (AI prosecution of wars and colonies, especially fallen empires/awakened empires).

I pretty much feel that is not in Stellaris best interest (not anymore).

I just hope its in months and not years.

One year in makes me feel that part was really funny.

 

[Yandersen]

IMO, this response from PDX QA deserves to be screenshoted in this topic:

If I understood correctly, the dev recommends to try to delete gfx and ui folders if the 32 bit memory limit exceeded. Any comments?

 

[LeSingeAffame]

IMO, this response from PDX QA deserves to be screenshoted in this topic:

View attachment 273437

If I understood correctly, the dev recommends to try to delete gfx and ui folders if the 32 bit memory limit exceeded. Any comments?

I don't really understand what you're trying to say

 

[Yandersen]

Judging by that post I see that Jamor was right putting the blame on QA for 1.6.0 fiasco.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

IMO, this response from PDX QA deserves to be screenshoted in this topic:

View attachment 273437

If I understood correctly, the dev recommends to try to delete gfx and ui folders if the 32 bit memory limit exceeded. Any comments?

You do not understand correctly.

The recommendation there is twofold:

1) Is it a memory issue?

2) Have the GFX/UI folders become corrupted so that the background is missing?

If your reading comprehension is *that* poor, perhaps you shouldn't be criticising communications from Paradox?

 

[Yandersen]

1) "game would eventually exceed the 32 bit memory limit" = "Is it a memory issue?"
2) "try verifying files (maybe after deleting the GFX and UI folders to be sure)." = "Have the GFX/UI folders become corrupted so that the background is missing?"
Nice reinterpretation. Good job.

 

[Torakka]

If I understood correctly, the dev recommends to try to delete gfx and ui folders if the 32 bit memory limit exceeded. Any comments?

"Could that [the memory problem] be a thing in your case? If not, try verifying files" Emphasis mine.

Based on that quote, I would think that the verifying game files is not suggested as a solution / band-aid to the possible memory problem. (And bsed on my own understanding of computer programs, it seems rather unlikely that such solution would work, as I suppose you too are implying.)

 

[Jorrhast]

At some point they are going to need to add some depth and complex interactions to counterbalance the blandness of the procedurially generated aspects.

For that matter, they should start with empires, not crises.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

1) "game would eventually exceed the 32 bit memory limit" = "Is it a memory issue?"
2) "try verifying files (maybe after deleting the GFX and UI folders to be sure)." = "Have the GFX/UI folders become corrupted so that the background is missing?"
Nice reinterpretation. Good job.

Break it up properly, and according to natural english.

I have seen missing UI elements in V2, where it was related to memory issues (particualry with mods where the game would eventually exceed the 32 bit memory limit).
Could that be a thing in your case?

Could a memory issue be causing the problem? I.E. "Is it a memory issue?"

If not, try verifying files (maybe after deleting the GFX and UI folders to be sure).

"Have the GFX/UI folders become corrupted so that the background is missing?"
Alternatively, "are the files for those panels missing?"
Both things that can be dealt with by verifying the files, especially if the suspect files are deleted first to force a re-download of the correct versions.

Does that make more sense now? Especially with the very clear "Is it X? IF NOT try Y"

 

[Emraldis]

I am super bummed about the AI Crisis being gelded into something boring. At some point they are going to need to add some depth and complex interactions to counterbalance the blandness of the procedurially generated aspects. Events that trigger between two empires, in-depth map modes that track species distribution and their feeling about other species. More depth on the politics. And eventually they will have to fix everything that doesn't work right (AI prosecution of wars and colonies, especially fallen empires/awakened empires).

I just hope its in months and not years.

How do you know? Oooh have you tried it? Can you give us some insight as to what happens that we don't know, but you apparently do since you know for sure it's boring?

 

[Mr Thursday]

I get the feeling that Paradox (and the Stellaris team in particular) are all programmers first and game designers second. Any games designer would not use the current salvage system, as it punishes research. Even the naked corvette issue is a pure games design issue. Perhaps Paradox should hire a boardgames maker to help them understand game play.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

IMO, this response from PDX QA deserves to be screenshoted in this topic:
[...]
If I understood correctly, the dev recommends to try to delete gfx and ui folders if the 32 bit memory limit exceeded. Any comments?

I recommended to check if the user's system has memory issues, since I have seen disappearing UI elements caused by either exceeding the 32 bit memory limit (yes, that is a thing that can happen with a heavily modded V2, although I'd think that you have to try *really* hard to make that happen in Stellaris) OR the actual physical memory/page file size (I actually cannot remember 100%, it has been quite a few years).

If memory isn't the issue, a good old file verification (to check for missing files) should do the trick.
I suppose I could have swapped the order, since the latter is more likely.

...but I gotta admit, I lost confidence in my english there for a second.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

I recommended to check if the user's system has memory issues, since I have seen disappearing UI elements caused by either exceeding the 32 bit memory limit (yes, that is a thing that can happen with a heavily modded V2, although I'd think that you have to try *really* hard to make that happen in Stellaris) OR the actual physical memory/page file size (I actually cannot remember 100%, it has been quite a few years).

If memory isn't the issue, a good old file verification (to check for missing files) should do the trick.
I suppose I could have swapped the order, since the latter is more likely.

...but I gotta admit, I lost confidence in my english there for a second.

And indeed, verification was the answer.
Thanks for that.

 

[Sarmatian]

Accept it or not, if there is no (or vastly reduced income), then developers and QA can't be employed.


The image link didn't come through.

That's like a producer demanding you buy another product if you want your warranty to be valid for the one you've already bought. Doesn't make sense. QA needs to do its job prior to release. If some bugs slip, they get fixed later with patches. The funds for bugfixing need to be incorporated in the budget.

The image doesn't work for some reason. It's a ss of Johan saying that 7.99 is cheap and should have been possibly even higher.

Missile weapons are a problem. They are however (from what has been said) proving difficult to rebalance in a way that makes them workable. And again, different solutions are apparently being tried behind the scenes.

Sectors are being continually worked on. They appear to be working fine for me though, if a little too enthusiastic about food production.

FTL being unbalanced? Well, since I see threads that decry all of them as being "too powerful" and others that decry them all as "hopelessly weak", I'd guess that they're all good for different playstyles. I can't stand wormholes (for needing to keep building gates and potentially getting my navy stranded), or hyperlanes - I don't like artificial bottleneck systems where you can effectively get pinned in one arm of a galaxy because someone hostile happens to overlap your only connection to the rest of the galaxy. Does that mean that they're unbalanced? Not really, just that they don't work for me.

Again this excuse of "it's being worked on". It's been a year. How long is that going to be valid? People should have been livid that Paradox released the game in the state it was a year ago. They did it because they could, because they knew people would buy it. People will hopefully be more careful next time, waiting for reviews. If people vote with their wallets, Paradox (and other devs) will think twice about releasing a beta version.

The thing is, the software does work. It doesn't crash to desktop. It doesn't completely freeze up and require a reboot of your system. It produces (mostly) consistent results, subject to RNG. It has faults, but then again so do virtually all pieces of software. The game can be played, on a stable and reliable basis.

No one bought the game to have it not crash to desktop. They bought it to enjoy it based on advertized features.

 

[Yandersen]

I have seen disappearing UI elements caused by either exceeding the 32 bit memory limit (yes, that is a thing that can happen with a heavily modded V2, although I'd think that you have to try *really* hard to make that happen in Stellaris) OR the actual physical memory/page file size (I actually cannot remember 100%, it has been quite a few years).

32-bit memory limit exceeded, u say? R u implying (second time) the existence of a system with 4 bytes of memory on board? Sorry, but even BIOS has more. If u have no idea what u r talking about, then just limit your response to "can be a memory issue". U r a PDX representative, would be nice if u r at least state correct things as QA.

If memory isn't the issue, a good old file verification (to check for missing files) should do the trick.

I think I need to inform u that just deleting game files as u suggested will cause nothing but the game crash. If u want to give a helpful advice, u also need to mention the file verification as a second step.

...but I gotta admit, I lost confidence in my english there for a second.

Not the case. Try another explanation.

Paradox (and other devs) will think twice about releasing a beta version.

Hold on here, betas are good. But they need to be updated when bugs discovered and reported and turn into release once there are no significant bugs reported for a control time. Currently, we have a bugged release and beta. And THAT is bad.

 

[BrokenSky]

2) as I said, many players expressed their view that this was a strong entry in the space 4x genre. It was only after a couple of months that people started expressing frustration with some design choices.

This isn't actually entirely true. There were people on the forums complaining about stuff before the game even released. Often the response was "how do you know if it's good, the game isn't out yet"; the concerns were occasionally justified though, and sometimes lead to changes, even before release (e.g. new colonies starting with small borders which grew until the colony finished, rather than immediately getting pop-1 planet sized borders) or as late as utopia (individualist or egalitarian etc.).

That said the biggest problems (early game was good, but a lot of mid/late game content was missing) weren't really noticed until aft a couple of months, as you said.