State of Stellaris forums

[stnylan]

Currently playing on a 1000 galaxy, maximum empires, going to guess from memory total pop 8-10k pops.

My performance has slowed down, but I don't regard it as unplayable. Admittedly I don't play the game on top speed, but then I generally never do. Others, due to their preferred playstyles, may find greater issues. Ultimately I can only speak to how I play. I don't play "the right way" or "the only way". But I do play a way, and my experience of having fun in Le Guin/Megacorp is as valid as the person who finds they are not.

And yet increasingly as I read these forums I am finding my experience to be regarded as invalid.

I am finding it very frustrating that so many people here seem to be saying there is only one way to play this game. Some people say you have to play it on 1000-size galaxy and fastest and everyone who isn't has an illegimiate point of view. Some people say that if you are having issues you should play on slower speeds or a smaller galaxy. The Stellaris forums these last few weeks have taken a distinctly vile turn.

I rarely post here, though I follow plenty of threads, and I am forcing myself to post now despite my better instincts.

Is this really the environment people here wish to be part of? I am increasingly feeling that this area of the PDS forums are descending to the level of Brexit-twitter. Despite the rights and wrongs and whatnots of Le Guin/Megacorp, I really don't see how all this emotion is helping anyone. Not the developers, not other members, and not the game.

I realise I am possibly getting to be an old fogey, and this is hardly the first forum fire I have seen, but I have to say I am disappointed in so much bile and mean-ness. This is not the behaviour on these forums which has seen me devote considerable portion of my free time to spending here.

I will probably regret this thread, but sometimes one just has to post.

For the devs: I can imagine some of the more intemperate feedback is glum reading right now. I know you know there are issues with Le Guin/Megacorp. I know you guys are working on them, and I look forward to seeing further improvements as and when they are ready

To everyone else: Call me a fanboi or anything else if you wish, but stop trying to insist I am not allowed to enjoy this expansion.
This line was ill-advised and detracted from the point I was/am trying to make. I apologise for it.

 

[Nikolai]

Totally agree!

 

[Attitude Adjuster]

You're experience isn't invalid, but your experience and experiences like it is often put in at very inappropriate times.

When a bunch of people are having problems with their game experience, and people chime in that they are experiencing no problem, it can appear as though the person saying they have no problem is trying to invalid the person having the problem.

If people aren't having problems, that's great for you, but maybe threads about problems, where people are understandably frustrated isn't the place to air your lack of problems, as it doesn't really add to the discussion and instead fuels the fire.

I do generally agree with your sentiment, I'm just trying to offer the reason why your experiences might receive a less than warm welcome.

 

[milesfromordnry]

Totally agree. The subreddit is even worse.

The game has problems right now (not going to point them out, others have done so already x 1000), but it is still very fun with various playstyles. I particularly enjoy building up a large empire using the new economy mechanics, which in my opinion are the best of any 4X game.

Get ready for the hate train to pile on this thread. Those people experienced a bug, and like all well-adjusted level headed people must complain about it in every forum thread, otherwise in their minds "Paradox will not learn".

EDIT: also, in before the "are you saying we can't criticize the game?!" people arrive.

 

[Cat_Fuzz]

There's valid criticism for sure about the state of the release, but some take it too far and I believe the rancour will continue until a patch is due unfortunately.

 

[Mavkiel]

Perhaps I am missing most of what you are talking about. People are kinda rightly annoyed that a major dlc was dropped right before their holidays. Worse yet it had and has some fairly major issues. Worse yet is the radio silence on what or when the next patch will land. Sure, announcing a pre release notes on a patch is abnormal, but this whole situation is abnormal.

 

[Medicine Man]

I'd be pretty upset if Glavius didn't exist.

People have a right to feel however they want about the situation though. Up to you to decide how much you're going to let it effect you.

 

[FriendlyEntropy]

I don't understand point of this post. You play "differently" than most other players and this allows you to enjoy the game as is. Why can't other people be upset? PDX deserves blow back for releasing a sub-par product. You're upset about the state of the forums.. what do you expect unhappy paying customers to do?

 

[fuinril]

@OP : your experience is indeed valid but you're missing the point.

I do think you do not really play the game. Lets' be clear : you enjoy it ? Great for you, you play the game in ONE available way. The critiscisms are well justified and I'll go further : are very moderate compared to the actual state of the game.

Now, let's be VERY clear : if what you said about your setup is true then you can not give any order outside of active pause without experimenting some serious lag. If that's fine you it is. No problem. I do not judge YOUR way of playing, please do not judge mine. The fact is that the game used to work for everyone, not just YOU. And all of this mess is about the not working for the majority of people where it used to work (being on perf issues or AI).

Now that is said, please tell me.... Did you ever finished a game ? Because I can understand people playing a pseudo turn base game, I can understand people not realizing how broken the AI is.... I can not, however, understand people saying all's fine with the game when the crisis do not work. That is the endgame, the utimate goal of every playthrough ... And they currently are broken with TODO on code, so every playthrough, whatever your setup, whatever difficulty, is broken...

And, please, do not serve me some "journey before destination friend", I would agree IF the journey had any interest but due to the AI unable to do anything that's just a lonnnnng, boring journey until an ultimately broken crisis which does not present any threat. So, where are you enjoying yourself ?

 

[Robotkiller]

I haven't reached the late game in 2.2 so far due to the current functional and design issues that don't scale well as a game progresses. In my case, early and mid game is playable, but late game is not.

 

[danfarnsy]

But I do play a way, and my experience of having fun in Le Guin/Megacorp is as valid as the person who finds they are not.

And yet increasingly as I read these forums I am finding my experience to be regarded as invalid.

Your experience is officially valid. By officially, I mean something very vaguely about moderators and rule 12 without questioning or challenging any of their actions whatsoever, in the least. There might be hostility in the forums, but you will definitely not be silenced for these opinions. Whether somebody else's experience or opinion might be, I wouldn't say, because I definitely wouldn't ever want to question or challenge such a thing.

 

[Amorenkaire]

I certainly agree. I always keep in mind whenever I experience a bug in the game that I'm playing that something always slips through, especially when you're mixing softwares and hardware, can only test in a LAN setting (like I imagine Paradox is limited to). On the reverse, when I have no issues with the game (at least performance wise), I also know that that's not the case for everyone. I'm fairly fortunate to have a decently powered machine built to be a gaming rig, and even though its several years old now, its CPU still manages to handle 2.2 at a decent clock. But I think its something people should keep in mind even when they're frustrated, that theirs isn't the objective experience for everyone - not that that should discourage them for reporting their issues and leaving constructive feed back of course. The key point being constructive.

Of course there are several issues in the programming side of things, the infamous #todo section of the code for example. But what I'm mostly impressed with is how determined the dev team has been on trying to improve it with the limited post-release time they had. But ultimately, I'm also spoiled. I was like many people that would have killed to get access to an open beta. So a flawed release that still allowed me to go back to playing one of my favorite games rather than deal with pre-release anticipation disorder was still appreciated.

 

[fuinril]

Of course there are several issues in the programming side of things, the infamous #todo section of the code for example. But what I'm mostly impressed with is how determined the dev team has been on trying to improve it with the limited post-release time they had. But ultimately, I'm also spoiled. I was like many people that would have killed to get access to an open beta. So a flawed release that still allowed me to go back to playing one of my favorite games rather than deal with pre-release anticipation disorder was still appreciated.

I just would like to be like you. When I buy a chair, if it is wobbly I do tend to curse the designer and the guy that states it was saleable.... I did not realized I was spoiled.... I admit the determination of the ones who operates the machines that built it do not come in my mind.

You, dude, are a saint.

 

[Amorenkaire]

Hah, I'm just easily pleased. I can't even be bothered to return my fast food order if they fuck it up. I grumble and scrape the pickles or sauce they didn't take away off and make do. I'm also biased in the fact that I've had no major issues (aside from desyncing with Galvius' until he fixed it for multiplayer). I still recognize that the release obviously has overt flaws, but I appreciate that the studio has recognized the mistakes they've made, have made steps to identify what allowed these mistakes to happen, and tried to cram in as many fixes as they can for their player base following before the studio shut down for the holidays.

That speaks to a level of dedication to their consumers that is sadly lacking in a lot of bigger studios. Yes, ideally it never having gone wrong in the first place would have been ideal. But I appreciate that our approval of them matters enough of them that they're trying hard to fix it and stay in contact with the community as they do so.

 

[fuinril]

That speaks to a level of dedication to their consumers that is sadly lacking in a lot of bigger studios. Yes, ideally it never having gone wrong in the first place would have been ideal. But I appreciate that our approval of them matters enough of them that they're trying hard to fix it and stay in contact with the community as they do so.

Would have agree 3 weeks ago. A bit late now, I just call that damaged control, and - heck ! - I have seen EA do better in this regard

 

[Beric]

I'd be pretty upset if Glavius didn't exist.

People have a right to feel however they want about the situation though. Up to you to decide how much you're going to let it effect you.

Agreed. Gaviius's AI mod is the only thing saving the current state of Stellaris right now.

 

[Zoomun]

I understand everyone's anger. I have it too but you need to stop taking it out on other people. This guy is only wants to keep the forums civil. You don't need to attack him for it. The game clearly has a lot of problems but these problems might not affect some people. I can understand the anger at the people who act like there is no problem because they have no problem but this guy is only trying to help. You are only proving his point about how toxic the forums are getting.

 

[stnylan]

I am just going to reply to one post here, not to single out but because something that @fuinril said I think really covers many replies.

Now that is said, please tell me.... Did you ever finished a game ? Because I can understand people playing a pseudo turn base game, I can understand people not realizing how broken the AI is.... I can not, however, understand people saying all's fine with the game when the crisis do not work. That is the endgame, the utimate goal of every playthrough ... And they currently are broken with TODO on code, so every playthrough, whatever your setup, whatever difficulty, is broken...?

This is precisely what I mean when I see posts saying my experience is invalid.

The implication in this passage that I am not playing a proper game. The idea that the end-game crises are "the ultimate goal of every playthrough" is a sign where one apparently rejects playthroughs which might have other objectives as being proper ways to play the game. Now, that may not be the intent, but that is never the less what ends up being saying. As it happens I do play with crises on, and am expecting one to hit pretty soon in my current game. I don't expect it to be a particular challenge, because apart from anything else for this game I set the end-game date to be quite late and the strength to only be x1.25. But then, my purpose for this playthrough wasn't to have a challenging end-game crisis.

And if you note, I do not say things are fine with the game. I clearly state I am getting performance issues even when played on Normal speed, for example. I do not say people cannot legitimately criticise aspects of the game which are currently problematic. I do say things are not fine with the tenor of many posts on this forum, where even in a thread like this I have been called a crybaby. Frankly, that is not the behaviour I have come to expect in 16½ years on the Paradox fora from the community, and it saddens me that I am seeing so much about it here.

 

[BigPony]

I agree with you that any opinion you have is no less valid than anyone else's op, however, most people will expect that when they buy a game it is actually playable to them without major bugs - including #TODO left in a major part. It is like if you buy a 4 cylinder car and at 50 mph it starts missing a cylinder, and at 65 misses on 2. If you do not mind this issue that is your choice, but you should not be surprised when a large number of ppl are not happy.

 

[Don_Quigleone]

I've found the game quite playable, and have enjoyed many hours playing through it and monkeying around with economic builds.

Are the bugs there? Yes. Do they render the game unplayable? No.

I wonder if some of the people complaining have short memories. Paradox releases have always been buggy. Does nobody here not remember Hearts of Iron 3?

While a bug free release would have been ideal, I preferred to be able to play the game over Christmas rather then not at all.