the bump is on the 3rd, before the release, and it has a sudden drop, not a slow tapering, if you look at the january numbers you will see how it is well rounded, while the december numbers drop off suddenly then tapers, that is a much more sudden drop off than the other dlc's.
So after 2,5 years and ~800 hours I uninstalled
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the bump is on the 3rd, before the release, and it has a sudden drop, not a slow tapering, if you look at the january numbers you will see how it is well rounded, while the december numbers drop off suddenly then tapers, that is a much more sudden drop off than the other dlc's.
It's higher than the Leviathan's peak, it's a little higher than the Leviathans peak, It's higher than the Synthetic Dawn peak, It's higher than the sort of peak for Distant Stars.
It's beaten by the release peak (not a surprise), and the Apocalypse peak. But - look at the relative drop offs one month after those peaks, and how massive they are in comparison to where the initial peaks are.
Focus in. You can change the date covered by the chart.
The bump is on the 6th, with a further increase to the 8th/9th.
The multi-year chart you get looking at the history is a little deceptive for the actual dates.
I am not arguing that the player count doesnt drop off on every single dls, I am looking at how suddenly it did vs the other ones, while the other dlcs had a nice rounded increase and then drop over a month or two, this dlc has a very sudden and apparent drop within a few weeks of release. the drop off in the graph for this release looks very different than all the other ones.
you are sort of correct, it says the bump starts on the 5th with a 44.3k average, which goes to 50k on the 7th, on the 9th it goes from 50k @10 am (my time) to 21k @11pm and has stayed around the same ever since.
that is a drop off of more than 50% in less than 24 hrs...
It's great that most of what you play of stellaris works. If you habitually quit before the midgame gets going, play on small galaxies and don't expect or want the AI to oppose you as they should (save for midgame crisis/FE) then yes I'm sure you can have a very enjoyable time playing stellaris. I did too when the update just came out because I was hyper focused on the new features and restarted my game long before the issues became apparent.
However once you do play on large galaxies, expect the AI to oppose you as they should and also want to encounter the not at all minor gameplay feature of endgame crisis that are meant to test your mettle at the close of the game, Stellaris is by definition unplayable as a completed product because the game does not offer these features at present time.
At the very least we can say that the game is playable for you but not for me because you're not engaged with the features that are currently broken.
It does drop off differently.
But compare that to the initial release losing 2/3 of the players over a month.
And yes, the shape is different because the intital dip stabilised for a while.
Release would however put this as one of the top releases for the game on initial figures which was what I was mostly responding to with the first post you responded to. Also the way the hump in player figures goes on some of those is weird - humping a good way before the release and then decaying through release date.
The 5th being where the bump starts shows as the 6th for me - perhaps it's giving the figures in local timezones for some reason?
I know part of the reason I haven't been active in game during that time (at least most days) is that I've been otherwise busy, and I don't know how much this applies to other people. I'm also suffering from "i've got no idea what to try to play" with the new setup.
*Hopefully* we can get some responses to everything that's been dropped into suggestions and bugs over the holidays though, and we'll see what can be solved quickly and what will need more time.
For me, I just find the whole 'we are disappearing for weeks while the game is in this condition' thing as unacceptable. In most industries if you have a broken release, you do what you have to do to make it right as quickly as possible. You at LEAST have a person continuing to monitor and communicate with the clients (or customers). You do NOT simply 'go dark' for 3 weeks.
Even a single person checking in from time to to thank people for bug reports and inform people that the items are being looked at and will be corrected would be a huge help. That's the way you should do business, not just 'here you go! enjoy the mess, we're off on holiday....BYEEEEEEEE!'
That said, I know that everyone is entitled to time off with family etc. But I think as a professional company you should have some sort of rotation set up where SOMEONE is available at least one every few days to keep your customers updated or at least mollified.
Even a single person checking in from time to to thank people for bug reports and inform people that the items are being looked at and will be corrected would be a huge help. That's the way you should do business, not just 'here you go! enjoy the mess, we're off on holiday....BYEEEEEEEE!'
That said, I know that everyone is entitled to time off with family etc. But I think as a professional company you should have some sort of rotation set up where SOMEONE is available at least one every few days to keep your customers updated or at least mollified.
It's a game company not a hospital. This is entertainment, and niche entertainment at that. Get over yourself. It's not that important.
LOL at the downvotes. Get some perspective, people. We have someone literally saying that the should have folks on call or whatever -- for a VIDEO GAME. Seriously??? And that's after they already released two minor patches and a beta branch before the holidays.
I also want people to find any other form of entertainment for 25c an hour (for this 800 hour guy). That's dirt cheap. You still get free updates. They still listen to the community. It's a steal. You can be upset and disappointed about the state of this release -- I know I am -- without resorting to histrionics and demanding that they work over the holiday so you can sit on your fat ass and play a particular video game when you want to.
if you look at jan to feb you see that apocalypse had 61,467 peak, which is more.
I do believe it is based upon timezone which is why I mentioned my time since it would look different for you.
Honestly, there really isnt much to explain a sudden drop of 50% in less than 24hrs, and within 72hrs of a major release except for the issues people have been reporting.
Most games taper off over a few months like we see on all the other dlcs, but a 24hr drop like that is not normal.
And clearly they share your point of view. I don't work for a hospital either, but I wouldn't be able to leave a release in this state for 3 weeks.
'Game companies' still charge customers for services. Just because it's entertainment doesn't mean you should overlook basic customer service business practices. The dust bin is FILLED with companies who have done that and failed.
Where I would agree with you is if this was just a beta patch and people were free to download or not. But entertainment or not, they sold a product. And that *should* make them accountable for product support in some fashion (even the rudimentary steps I mentioned above).
End of the day...they are business whether they are making video games, aircraft parts, or medical support. The product you sell doesn't automatically exempt you from the need to handle your business properly. YMMV.
I really want to play the game too but I simply can't do it anymore. The slow-down is just too much, I tried all settings possible, no wormholes, no gateways, very small galaxies, very few AI, lowest graphical settings, I installed the mods that are supposed to fix the stutter but it just does not work. In my latest game I am 95 years in and my FPS are alrady down to 25 even though I set a small galaxy with only 6 other empires, 2 FEs and 2 marauders. If I zoom out completely and don't have anything open (no planet view etc.) my FPS are a little bit higher, around 35 but that's no way to play the game, I can't stay zoomed out as far as I can the whole game long and also, it will become worse in the next ingame years anyways.
I know I could reduce the settings even more but at some point it's just not fun anymore, I don't want to play in a galaxy that a science ship can fly through in a month nor do I want to play with 2 AIs - that way I can't find the "grand" in grand strategy game because I get more "grand" strategy in Empire Earth with 11 AIs.
The performance really needs to be fixed as soon as possible, my computer is not that great but still, it can still manage to play newer games on high settings just fine.
I know I could reduce the settings even more but at some point it's just not fun anymore, I don't want to play in a galaxy that a science ship can fly through in a month nor do I want to play with 2 AIs - that way I can't find the "grand" in grand strategy game because I get more "grand" strategy in Empire Earth with 11 AIs.
The performance really needs to be fixed as soon as possible, my computer is not that great but still, it can still manage to play newer games on high settings just fine.
So I keep reading all these posts about people " I quit after 300 hours, I quit after 500 hours, I quit after 800 hours".
I actually do envy you. I got into stellaris about 1 month before megacorp release, got most dlc and was super hyped because the game felt great. Only 4X game I every played were Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend (maybe Anno 1604 and 1503 count, if anyone has played them?). I have never seen an engame crisis. I have just recently tried out the psionic ascension after trying out synthetic first and genetic, from which I liked the Synthetic the best.
You guys got so much fun out of this game, meanwhile I played for a month before 2.2 and now 1 month after 2.2 I have no longer fun with this game. I did force myself to start it two or three times recently, because I wanted to experience the endgame crisis for once.
I have 2 save files, one with synth ascension which is forever bugged because of the stupid "no ruler bug" for Synths because I didn't give them citizen rights beforehand. Also I played on standart settings and build a couple gateways, the game is unplayable now.
The 2nd save file, I already toned down gateways and wormholes but its still lagging really bad. I'm probably around 2418 but I can't see myself playing any further.
Browsing around the forums and reddit a lot, I have read that some of the engame crisis types are actually broken and don't work at all. So if what I am waiting for doesn't even work properly, where is the reason and the goal to keep playing? The present gameplay isn't fun. Its full of bugs, exploits, imbalance against Robots. Real min/maxing is gone because its 1000x more tedious to min/max every pop for miner/technician/science/unity jobs. AI is basically nonexistend, just some colours on the map until Khan wakes up or FE wakes up. Synth Ascension is a lot worse and seems to have gotten bandaid solutions with the bio-reactor which is just a terrible building in itself.
I actually do envy you. I got into stellaris about 1 month before megacorp release, got most dlc and was super hyped because the game felt great. Only 4X game I every played were Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend (maybe Anno 1604 and 1503 count, if anyone has played them?). I have never seen an engame crisis. I have just recently tried out the psionic ascension after trying out synthetic first and genetic, from which I liked the Synthetic the best.
You guys got so much fun out of this game, meanwhile I played for a month before 2.2 and now 1 month after 2.2 I have no longer fun with this game. I did force myself to start it two or three times recently, because I wanted to experience the endgame crisis for once.
I have 2 save files, one with synth ascension which is forever bugged because of the stupid "no ruler bug" for Synths because I didn't give them citizen rights beforehand. Also I played on standart settings and build a couple gateways, the game is unplayable now.
The 2nd save file, I already toned down gateways and wormholes but its still lagging really bad. I'm probably around 2418 but I can't see myself playing any further.
Browsing around the forums and reddit a lot, I have read that some of the engame crisis types are actually broken and don't work at all. So if what I am waiting for doesn't even work properly, where is the reason and the goal to keep playing? The present gameplay isn't fun. Its full of bugs, exploits, imbalance against Robots. Real min/maxing is gone because its 1000x more tedious to min/max every pop for miner/technician/science/unity jobs. AI is basically nonexistend, just some colours on the map until Khan wakes up or FE wakes up. Synth Ascension is a lot worse and seems to have gotten bandaid solutions with the bio-reactor which is just a terrible building in itself.
Yes, because they work for an entertainment company, not a hospital and they work in countries where people don't believe workers should be ground to the bone to be slaves to the almighty consumer.
Does the license say that? Do they say they are selling support and providing a minimum level of quality? Very likely not. Most products are not sold that way. I had this argument in another thread. My company sells software to people who sign support contracts. And we honor that by actually dropping things to fix their pet bugs -- because they pay us specifically to do that. I do not see anywhere that Paradox is selling a support contract or guaranteeing every feature. The EULA says that support is offered at their discretion (free patches and updates, and some answers on the forums), and that they only guarantee "generally" the features listed on the website: https://store.steampowered.com/eula/281990_eula_0. It's a limited warranty and pretty close to as-is. You get what you get. The fact that they have released as much free content as they have is amazing, to be honest.
There are different levels of guarantees, different priorities, different legal requirements. It's not the same. You can't pretend it's the same. And for God's sake, can we let go of this entitled consumer mindset? We have a forum full of "let me speak to the manager" type people and it's a bit disgusting. Note there's a difference between making very reasonable complaints and commentary about the state of the game (which I have never denied has many problems; I myself use Glavius because the AI sucks on vanilla), and being an entitled twit.
The only mistake they made was releasing this early -- it obviously needed probably 2 more months to bake. Since then, like I said, they have released three patches already and will probably drop another update this week based on the timeline they gave before the holidays. So they haven't done nothing, despite it being around holiday time.
You can always revert the game to 2.1, or better imho (at least RP wise) to 1.9 and enjoy the game as we did. But that's a shame, I agree
OK, generally when you have to resort to calling people things like 'entitled twit' and being 'disgusted' by people who may not share the same opinions as you it's time to move on.
I ignored the game's flaws for a while since I played through with Glavius' AI mod to and enjoyed it for a while. But when friends asked me for a recommendation on purchase I had to surprise myself and tell them I wouldn't bother at this point. And it was then that I realized that the state of this release and disappearance was actual doing tangible damage. So, while poking on the forums, I saw that apparently a LOT of people are upset to various degrees. I simply added my own opinion to the way they handled (and are handling) the situation. I'm 99.9% anything I saw will have no impact but the joys of game forums is that you can see trends and in this case the trend isn't something I'd want to come back to. Again, you may feel free to disagree with everything I've written but I don't see anything in my posts to warrant the tone of your responses.
Now the pearl-clutching comes out. We have thread after thread where people make hyperbolic statements and express irrational anger. We have accusations of Paradox fanboyism. And then someone comes along and says "hey, stop acting like that", and then they are the problem. Funny. I am disgusted by the attitude, not the people. And yes, it's entitled twit behavior. Y'all are grown adults who ought to have perspective, patience and a life outside of Stellaris. Act like it. We don't need another thread where someone wants some sort of sympathy and pity for having spent 800 hours of their life on a game that currently isn't in a state they'd like. Boo-hoo. Are the thread-starters five-year olds who got their their favorite toy taken away? That's honestly what it looks like to me.
I wouldn't recommend it right now either, but I also know that PDX will fix it in time, as they always have, so it's not worth the amount of forum threads and complaints about the same things, over and over again, like it will make a difference at all. It won't. The bugs will get fixed. The game will improve. People will still buy it, still enjoy it, still play it. Remember still that the forum-going population is a tiny percentage of the player base. The forum has also always complained about the game. That's the chief topic. I've been here more or less since the game came out (mostly lurking) and from pretty much day one after release, it's just been a place to complain about the game. So coming here and finding people complaining about the game is neither surprising nor interesting.
He's not disagreeing with you on the quality of the content. He's disagreeing with your assertion that the Devs should give up their hard earned holiday because the game has some bugs. I absolutely agree with everyone that says that this update shouldn't have been released 2 weeks before they went on holiday. It should have waited until the new year even if that would've hurt Q4 profits for the company, because ensuring the goodwill of your customer base is important for a games company.
However, you didn't say that. You said they shouldn't have gone on holiday at all. That's the kind of self-absorbed mindset that leads to incredibly toxic forums and horrendous work environments. It takes away the empathy in the equation. The devs are people too. They're allowed to have time off with their families, to enjoy Christmas, to have time away from work. They may enjoy their job but they're still human and trying to act like they should bow to the customers' whims because of a game? You need to get your priorities in order, mate. At the end of the day, no matter how fun this game might be, it's not the end of the world if it takes a bit longer to bring it up to snuff.
This thread will get moderated if we can't bring it back to more civil conversation.
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