Stellaris is boring and tedious

[scaper12123]

Sometimes I think the inclusion of "victory conditions" was the single worst design decision made with this game for encouraging that style of thought & play that seems so prevalent in the forums.

Not necessarily. In my mind, they're a way of nudging players towards the overall ultimate goal: dominate the galaxy. But, I will admit that the implementation is not the best and there needs to be a more subtle way of giving the player a final, ultimate goal. Not telling us how close we are to the goal would be one way of doing it, adding a level of ambiguity and making it less of a "here's what you need to do to win" and more of a "hey, here's something you can do but if you don't wanna, that's cool."

 

[Galleblære]

Overall I rather like Stellaris, but I find warfare to be a mixed experience. I never seem to get bored watching massive fleets smash together. However, besieging 15+ planets, chasing tiny fleets all over the place whilst protecting your transports from being sniped is not quite as much fun.

The whole troop transport / invasion mechanic could perhaps use a rework. Maybe it could even be abstracted to a certain degree. You still have to build ground units, but it is assumed that available units can be selected for planetary invasion mission once control of a system is secured.

This would probably require Stellaris to have some sort of supply chain system. Which IMO it does.. I don't think you should be able to send a ship to the other side of the galaxy. This would also make keeping control of planets you have successfully invaded deep in enemy territory much harder to hold on to. No supply coming for your doomed space marines...

 

[DragonWasTaken]

Sometimes I think the inclusion of "victory conditions" was the single worst design decision made with this game for encouraging that style of thought & play that seems so prevalent in the forums.

If PDX patched out victory conditions right this second none of the issues the OP or anyone else in this thread is having would go away.

 

[Garfazz Steamfang]

Problem is that people (I was also caught by this thought) seem to think that Stellaris is properly released game.
Actually this is a big mistake. It is early access game and actual version of this game is deduced via formula actual game version = "listed game version" - 1
So now we have 0.6.1 version of early access game, and for early access game that is only 60% complete it's more or less decent.

I admit it's my first paradox game bought on release date so i can't compare with crusader Kings early state but comparing with MOO or ES for exemple, witch are similar games to Stellaris, I can definitly say that the game is far to be complete. When i'm playing Stellaris i get bored quite quick coz, exept militaristic doomstack way you can't really do Nothing in this game. It's full of bug, without trade or deep diplomatie, without deep internal management... Well actually you can eventually be amazed if you like space battle playstyle but without this you don't have too much options.. And i don't know if i would have the patience to wait 2 more years and pay 200 euros to have a functionnal game when you have 4X like MOO or ES on the market.

 

[Morbid Gerbil]

Why do people who keep going on about how boring /broken/ unplayable the game is keep on playing it? If you're getting stressed out by it & it's perceived flaws, just move on.

Possibly because
they bought a game they hoped would entertain them, and the post lets the developers know
they weren't entertained

is the post the best kind of feedback, well no
but it's neither a rant or overly critical

good constructive feedback isn't just about saying "this is broken/bad/boring"
it's about saying "have you thought of doing xyz instead of abc as I think it would improve gameplay aspect theta"
but when you're not trained, qualified or experienced in game design it can be hard to know
what works well & what doesn't
what is possible & what is not
what you have time/resources for and what you dont
etc

answer this
how much time & resource investment (in man hours) do you think is required for something as simple as a ship model :-
if they are feeling nice, maybe someone from the dev team can enlighten the unlearned

 

[Almond_Brown]

Takes about a month between new Starts now. Given the last >10 starts that all ended in a galaxy of little pissant powers all guaranteed by the BIG BAD boys so after 2350 any War one wishes to start generates a Galaxy wide conflict and ends the same way. "Whoops! Go back a Save or 2 and try something different, but nothing makes a difference. Time to start again but the early grind of the "same ole" takes a month to wear off and that time frame is ever expanding which is bad as the longer that time frame becomes quickly means a complete STOP to playing...

 

[Vanhal]

Minmaxing is really a curse. Reminds me about this one guy who was pissed playing Baldur's Gate because all that nonsensical talking, walking and quests interruped his only real quest for getting every +1 possible.

 

[Drowe]

Minmaxing is really a curse. Reminds me about this one guy who was pissed playing Baldur's Gate because all that nonsensical talking, walking and quests interruped his only real quest for getting every +1 possible.

It very much depends on the game you're playing, there are games where minmaxing is a big part of the fun. Baldur's Gate certainly isn't one of them, but in Stellaris there can be some fun gained from this. I love to minmax towards research and unity, I want to build megastructures and have that feeling of having built an empire that can call itself a peer to fallen or awakened empires. But even if I minmax in that regard, it's more about RP than for any other reason.

 

[long_fella]

@Lady Lacroix if you find the vanilla game boring have you tried any of the mods? Star Trek New Horizons is excellent. It's still Stellaris, but it gives you much more context for the game, from the 4x to the story telling.

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

Possibly because
they bought a game they hoped would entertain them, and the post lets the developers know
they weren't entertained

is the post the best kind of feedback, well no
but it's neither a rant or overly critical

I understand where you're coming from and I do appreciate that the OP's post was not a vitriolic bile fuelled rant (as is seen all too often here), if it had been I never would have engaged with the thread. However I don't think it's really true to say that OP was not entertained. Sure they are bored with the game now, and that's fine. Maybe they'll take some time away from it and come back to a game that feels fresh again. Or maybe they'll never play it again. But OP pre-ordered Stellaris. They have been playing the game for over a year. I think it's pretty fair to say that they must have gotten some serious amount of entertainment out of this game in that year, even if they are now fed up with it.

I don't want to seem like I'm attacking the OP, because that's not my intention. Their post was a respectful airing of grievance.
The only thing that worries me is that it seems there are many others who are very vocal on these forums, usually in a much more bitterly negative manner than OP and the common denominator between them seems to be this belief that this:

Every start is the exact same regardless of where I start or who I play as: Rush minerals, rush colony ships, rush corvettes, conquer neighbors, snowball out of control, repeat ad nauseam.

Is the only way to play the game.

I'd be bored if I played like that. None of good my friends who play the game (but never visit/post on the forum) would enjoy the game if we all just played our mp games like that. It would be boring.

I just hope that Paradox don't start catering too much to that crowd just because they're the ones making all the noise..

I'm all for constructive feedback but as @Morbid Gerbil points out, many simply aren't capable of it, instead acting like spoiled children throwing their toys out of the pram.

 

[Dodge]

being a galactic overlord is never easy

 

[Dr. B]

I agree that you kind of have to roleplay to enjoy Stellaris, being a compulsive min-maxer will fry your brain here. Got to limit yourself and try specific builds without going fot the fastest win if you want to have some enjoyment while playing the game as it is now.

However:

When getting ready to go to war with a powerful enemy with lots of planets, you know how I feel? Exhausted. The same kind of exhausted you get when you take one look at a messy room and think to yourself "Fuck this is going to take forever..."

This is so 100% totally true! Exactly my feeling, I cant say it better myself.
Some important parts of Stellaris (that you can not delegate), chiefly war, is a big chore.
I will buy Endless Space 2 in hope of finding a more relaxing game to play.

 

[Dodge]

the reality is that big wars in Paradox games are always a chore, from EU1 to Stellaris there is no big difference. The only way to address that is via semi-AI assistance like in HOI series, and that is not going to be easy with Stellaris

 

[Drowe]

I understand where you're coming from and I do appreciate that the OP's post was not a vitriolic bile fuelled rant (as is seen all too often here), if it had been I never would have engaged with the thread. However I don't think it's really true to say that OP was not entertained. Sure they are bored with the game now, and that's fine. Maybe they'll take some time away from it and come back to a game that feels fresh again. Or maybe they'll never play it again. But OP pre-ordered Stellaris. They have been playing the game for over a year. I think it's pretty fair to say that they must have gotten some serious amount of entertainment out of this game in that year, even if they are now fed up with it.

I don't want to seem like I'm attacking the OP, because that's not my intention. Their post was a respectful airing of grievance.
The only thing that worries me is that it seems there are many others who are very vocal on these forums, usually in a much more bitterly negative manner than OP and the common denominator between them seems to be this belief that this:

Is the only way to play the game.

I'd be bored if I played like that. None of good my friends who play the game (but never visit/post on the forum) would enjoy the game if we all just played our mp games like that. It would be boring.

I just hope that Paradox don't start catering too much to that crowd just because they're the ones making all the noise..

I'm all for constructive feedback but as @Morbid Gerbil points out, many simply aren't capable of it, instead acting like spoiled children throwing their toys out of the pram.

That's probably the best analysis of such complaints I've read so far. If someone has played a game for hundreds of hours, and then finally get bored by it, that doesn't mean there is something wrong with the game. There are very few games that focus on SP and have infinite replayability, you won't play a game like Deus Ex or BioShock for several hundred, if not thousands of hours, yet they have roughly the same cost.

And with Paradox games, you can shelve the game for a year, get the new DLC and play the game again for a while, the game might have changed so much, that it becomes fun again. I don't know many other companies that, can revitalize their games in such a fashion.

 

[Dodge]

At end of the day, money talks, so if the RPer's buy more games, it will get more story driven
if competitive MPs buy more games, it will get more Starcrafty

 

[Red192]

alysis of such complaints I've read so far. If someone has played a game for hundreds of hours, and then finally get bored by it, that doesn't mean there is something wrong with the game. There are very few games that focus on SP and have infinite replayability, you won't play a game like Deus Ex or BioShock for several hundred, if not thousands of hours, yet they have roughly the same cost.

And with Paradox games, you can shelve the game for a year, get the new DLC and play the game again for a while, the game might have changed so much, that it becomes fun again. I don't know many other companies that, can revitalize their games in such a fashion.

634 hours to paradox games in total, yes, 634h

the reality is that big wars in Paradox games are always a chore, from EU1 to Stellaris there is no big difference. The only way to address that is via semi-AI assistance like in HOI series, and that is not going to be easy with Stellaris

A dream... a dream!

 

[Bouchart]

I found Stellaris to be a bit disappointing when compared to Master of Orion 2, Galactic Civilizations 2 or even Aurora 4X.

 

[Dodge]

I have 700 hours on stellaris alone, but most times are spent modding

 

[Red192]

I have 700 hours on stellaris alone, but most times are spent modding

mother of mod...

 

[Thomas Gideon]

Some threads make it feel like I'm one of the VERY few that entered this game with the understanding that it is a framework for future development. You know, like other Paradox grand strategy games.