Paradox, you need to step up your game

[Maphibo]

Now... I know there's gonna be rocks thrown at me for saying that... but Paradox, you leave many of us very disappointed, maybe for the first time.

I have not been around for very long, I started playing CK1 2 years ago before switching to CK2 after a few months. I've only been there for two expansions, Conclave and The Reaper's Due, but I have not seen the kind of problems Monks & Mystics is bugged with.

Monks & Mystics is a great idea, but the expansion was rushed, unbalanced, unpolished and with literally game-crashing bugs. You released two hotpatches to try to remedy the situation, which is great, but it didn't fix all the problems. Then you released a beta version of the upcoming patch, which is great too, but the patch itself is not bug-free, and frankly, to my experience, unstable. I run the game on an old used-up laptop that overheat quite rapidly, so it's very possible the problems are on my end and not yours, but I've read the complains on this very forum, and I know many players are in a sort of limbo, not wanting to start a new game until the full patch is released.

We need to know that the full 2.7.1 patch will be bug-free, stable, and balanced. We need to know that clicking on a character's portrait won't crash the game, that the game program won't suddenly shut down when you press alt+tab to see something else (that's the problem I have), or that features like succession laws and viceroyalties are right again.

Make it right this time.

 

[Kumicho]

Pretty sure any instability is purely your laptop. There are some issues with the DLC, particularly with regards to balance, but overall I haven't heard anything (or experienced anything) about the game crashing when doing something as simple as clicking on a picture. I also have zero issues with Alt+Tab to check other things on my computer.

 

[EricTheGreat12]

I do agree that unfortunately we won't be getting any improvements beyond this patch in terms of content, but at least the devs are still willing to work and improve current bugs.

In terms of your game crashing, I can tell as an individual who owns a Macbook Pro which is not meant for gaming, my computer's fan will go on constantly, and this will often cause random crashes in CK2. So it might be your computer's fault considering it can't take the heat.

 

[Mafiabrett]

My biggest issue with patches is they're not frequent enough. I see a issue when people stop playing because of 1 or 2 major problems (for me it was the Elective faction and Society imbalance) but if everyone is doing that then that's less people playing the game reporting other harder to find bugs. (Potentially gameplay breaking bugs, the Army maneuver bug).

 

[kmh42]

I play CK2 for around 3 years now and this major problems aren't something new right after a big patch and DLC. WoL, HL and Conclave did had some problems which took several patches to fix. After Conclave something in the development change to the better and the devs did some self reflection. This leaded to the very stable and bug free release of TRD. In the anniversary stream they openly did some self criticism on some of the DLCs and aknowledged many mistakes. This made me belive that M&M could be a good release, but I was mistaken. I currently play with 2.7.1 beta and don't have huge issues but it speaks for it self when weeks after the release the official stable release isn't stable or bug free.
Furthermore it doesn't help that the dev diarys stoped. I guess they have lot of work to do with PDXcon but still it would be great to hear from them.
Tltr: it's nothing new and be patient!

 

[Sofyan Rghiwi]

Sometimes I wonder whether paradox ever tests their new DLCs and patches before releasing them. It has became a habit for any new release to be really bugged. Game-breaking bugs which can be spotted if the game was tested for only a short period of time.

 

[blackninja9939]

Sometimes I wonder whether paradox ever tests their new DLCs and patches before releasing them. It has became a habit for any new release to be really bugged. Game-breaking bugs which can be spotted if the game was tested for only a short period of time.

They obviously do, to think they literally test nothing in the DLCs and patches is just an overreaction to there being some bugs.

As echoed by others in this thread I have not seen these game breaking bugs and massive instabilities, they are probably down to your laptop OP especially that alt+tab issue.

 

[Legal Assassin]

We need to know

I wish folks would stop using the plural to soap-box melodramatically. I don't need to know anything, I'm just waiting on the fixes that always trickle in, half frustrated, half with anticipation for a better game.

 

[pavig]

With any complex modern game release it pays to either have the patience for bugs or to wait two patches (excluding hotfixes) before becoming too emotionally invested. It is just what happens when complexity meets real world use. No amount of testing in the lab can match the difficulties a title will face post release. In Formula 1 it often takes a few races in the new season before most of the field can reliably get to the finish line. Even Elon Musk crashes a few rockets from time to time.

I still buy a lot of titles on release, but particularly for Paradox DLC I may wait a little while before turning them on, just to see how the patch cycle is going. For most other games game-breaking bugs are a minor setback, but a CK2 play through can last for tens of hours, so I like them to be "just so". I might pop in to check out the new features, but don't commit to a full playthrough until the angry voices on the internet die down a bit. Patience = sanity in my case.

The only particular foible I think Paradox has that is unusual is how seriously they take holidays. If they ever release something just before the swedes take a break, it might be time to play something else for a while. If you play Paradox games long enough you'll come to plan your gaming around the Swedish festive calendar.

 

[kmh42]

Sometimes I wonder whether paradox ever tests their new DLCs and patches before releasing them. It has became a habit for any new release to be really bugged. Game-breaking bugs which can be spotted if the game was tested for only a short period of time.

They test their games but no company can test the way like thousands of players out there. We are speaking of an software the started development 6 or even 7 years ago. The refined and tweak the game engine as much as possible and change so many features over time. It is no wonder things can go wrong. I personally thought they did find a way to make things better after self reflection but obviously they didn't. But after all CK2 is still one of the best games for me and where do you get five years of active development after release.

 

[pavig]

Crisis averted. it looks like an update is rolling out now with accompanying patch notes as long as your arm. Hooray!

 

[theStormWeaver]

It is painfully obvious that people who demand bug free releases of games have literally zero experience in software. Video games are some of the most complex pieces of software ever developed by humanity, and Paradox games rank amongst the most complex video games. To ask that they are bug free reveals your tremendous ignorance.

Monks & Mystics added the single greatest amount of script of any DLC. It has added hundreds of events, dozens of decisions, and other measurements as well! It is practically impossible for them to do a truly rigorous test of the game. There are simply too many variables at play.

If you want stuff fixed, give detailed bug reports in the appropriate forum. Be a part of the solution, not a whiner.