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Vern The Fern

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Feb 14, 2021
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  • Crusader Kings II
  • Cities: Skylines
  • Stellaris
  • Stellaris: Digital Anniversary Edition
  • Stellaris: Leviathans Story Pack
  • Stellaris - Path to Destruction bundle
  • Stellaris: Synthetic Dawn
  • Stellaris: Apocalypse
  • Stellaris: Federations
This all started a few days ago when I updated to the new launcher, and once I did, the game basically broke. I'll list off my experiences in chronological order.

1: Launcher gets updated to its newest version, and after this I could not install new mods and the game would crash whenever I would click exit to menu or desktop.

2: The game would then start to load up very slowly and sometimes would change resolutions randomly.

3: After I tried to install a new mod, the game broke in its entirety. I could not get passed the 30% mark in the loading screen, and once I did, while loading, it would constantly change resolutions until it turned into a small box I couldn't do anything in regardless.

4: I reinstall, launcher works fine, game crashed on 30%. I worked on trying to fix this for the past 3 days.


5: Yesterday I uninstalled and deleted everything related to Stellaris off my computer and this morning I reinstalled, everything looked fine until I tried to change some settings once I got into the main menu. It wouldn't let me change any resolution settings, any graphical settings, nor sound settings. I then tried to make a custom empire, to which the game decided to crash.

6: I've then spent my entire day working on fixing this too, and couldn't do that. Along with all of this, I couldn't install any mods either. I then re-installed AGAIN, for the seventh time, and now we're at a point where the launcher will launch, yet the game will just crash on 30% again, and I can't fix it AGAIN.


Right now, as we speak, I am playin with ZERO mods, I have deleted Stellaris' files several times and reinstalled several times. I have tried this with no DLC on and then slowly went through with enabling one DLC at a time. Each time, game couldn't get passed 30%. This is really getting on my nerves considering I spent a base 30$ on this game, along with Federations, Utopia, Apocolypse, Plantoids, Synth Dawn, and Leviathans. I only got Federations and Plantoids recently and was looking foward to playing it with my friend, who I also got Stellaris for, for 10 bucks.


This is getting to a very ridiculous point and I would love an explanation from the Dev's as to how I could fix this. And to add, this has nothing to do with my Anti-Virus. I already checked that. I made an exception for Stellaris in my Anti-Virus already and that didn't help.
And to add, the only mods I had played with were from the Steam Workshop, and were all up to date.
 
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I think you have at least two separate problems, with the launcher and the game/Windows.


For the launcher, despite what you've tried it is almost certainly an antivirus problem. Please try the following:

- unsubscribe from all mods
- delete the folder Documents/paradox/stellaris/mod/
- delete the file Documents/paradox/stellaris/mods_registry.json
- delete the file Documents/paradox/stellaris/launcher-v2.sqlite

Add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list. You should add steam.exe and C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2021.1/paradox launcher.exe to that list.

- subscribe to a few mods
- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.


For the game, DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach system.log , error.log .
 
I think you have at least two separate problems, with the launcher and the game/Windows.


For the launcher, despite what you've tried it is almost certainly an antivirus problem. Please try the following:

- unsubscribe from all mods
- delete the folder Documents/paradox/stellaris/mod/
- delete the file Documents/paradox/stellaris/mods_registry.json
- delete the file Documents/paradox/stellaris/launcher-v2.sqlite

Add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list. You should add steam.exe and C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2021.1/paradox launcher.exe to that list.

- subscribe to a few mods
- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.


For the game, DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach system.log , error.log .
Some things I forgot to add.


1: I use Avast and had added it into Avast's exceptions. I also use Windows 10 if this helps

2: The Launcher is fine, it gets up and running with no issue.

3: I tried to find the launcher-v2.sqlite earlier into my search to fix the game and had deleted it, though now after reinstalling a bunch of times, I can't find it.

4: I can't seem to be able to find the mod folder in the Stellaris folder either, nor can I find mods_registry.json
 
Avast is the AV app causing us the most problems at present. You might need to get help from their support to ensure that the launcher and game can read and write to the Windows User Documents folder.

You may not have mods_registry.json as that's an old file no longer used, but the sqlite one ought to be there. In Windows Explorer click on Documents in the left column, then in the right pane double click on Paradox Interactive and Stellaris. You should see it in there. Depending on your Windows Explorer settings it may display as just launcher-v2. And the mod folder should be there too.
 
Avast is the AV app causing us the most problems at present. You might need to get help from their support to ensure that the launcher and game can read and write to the Windows User Documents folder.

You may not have mods_registry.json as that's an old file no longer used, but the sqlite one ought to be there. In Windows Explorer click on Documents in the left column, then in the right pane double click on Paradox Interactive and Stellaris. You should see it in there. Depending on your Windows Explorer settings it may display as just launcher-v2. And the mod folder should be there too.
I still cant find it. I followed a guide early into my search of various fixes that said to delete sqlite, and so I did, and after 3 days I haven't been able to find it anywhere, after various reinstalls and Steam verify file integrety searches. Would there be a way to recover it?

Another thing too. This all started after Avast gave me a warning about sqlite too and asked me to give it permissions because Stellaris was trying to edit it or something. Would that be the issue?
 
The sqlite file gets created when mods come into play in the launcher, it's essentially a database of what mods you are subscribed to. The only reason I can see for it not being there is no mods subscriptions ... ?

Yes, Avast is absolutely the issue here, I am sure. I don't use it so can't really help with it in detail I'm afraid. There must be ways of telling it to leave our launcher alone as others have done that successfully!
 
The sqlite file gets created when mods come into play in the launcher, it's essentially a database of what mods you are subscribed to. The only reason I can see for it not being there is no mods subscriptions ... ?

Yes, Avast is absolutely the issue here, I am sure. I don't use it so can't really help with it in detail I'm afraid. There must be ways of telling it to leave our launcher alone as others have done that successfully!
Oh! I didn't know it was created when mods are subscribed to. This then brings me to a new issue because whenever I subscribe to a mod, the sqlite file isn't created.


Quick edit! I looked through my blocked apps for Avast, and it says that both Paradox Launher and Boostrapper-v2.exe are blocked. I think this may be one of the causes.


Another edit! Apparently unblocking that file fixed every single issue I had!
 
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