Stellaris Launcher Turns Black Upon Boot Up

[SniperPlus]

Hello Paradox,

I recently got my girlfriend stellaris and we've been having fun with it, but unfortunately we've run into a problem that doesn't allow her to play anymore. Whenever she presses play on steam, the launcher comes up for a quick second normally but then turns black, and doesn't allow any interaction with it. This only seemed to happen after launching the game with some mods enabled, it was fine before. We tried unsubscribing from all mods, verifying game files, reinstalling the game, but nothing seems to work. What should we try next?

Thanks!

F&L

 

[Shakril]

Same Problem. Started today.

 

[SushiSquid]

Yeah, this just started not very long ago today and affects every game using the Paradox Launcher. As soon as the launcher logs in, it goes to black screen. You can still launch the game by launching Stellaris.exe directly, or by turning off your Internet so the launcher can't log in. Any mods and DLC you've already set to launch will. I'm not sure we can change those right now.

 

[Deusion]

Seems to be affecting a lot of us at the moment sadly. Not much we can do.

 

[Basskiller_44]

Yeah I have it too, no idea. There were a couple of forums from earlier similar issues, tried all the fixes on that and nothing

 

[Kooreha]

I'm having the same problem. I tried all the known methods for the black launcher screen, but it didn't work. After the DLC advertisement and dev note pop up, black screen appears. It looks like a server problem, not a launcher problem.

I've been having the same problem since yesterday afternoon, and I thought it was a problem with my computer, so I even installed a new Windows. Of course, Its not works

 

[Slybak]

Had the same problem and noticed the launcher failed as soon as it finished logging in, and that it was happening with multiple games (Stellaris, CK3, and HOI4), so I figure its something to do with Paradox's servers. Tried it in "offline" mode and it works.

Basically the quick workaround is to disable your internet connection (disconnect your ethernet cable, turn off wifi, whatever) and then start the game launcher. Your mod list might be messed up but you can manually fix it and launch the game.

 

[Shakril]

I concur, offline the Launcher works suddenly. So i do believe now it has something to do either with the servers or an update that does not work as it should.

 

[Tzartar]

Based on what ya'll have said here I've found that a temp fix is to block outbound internet access to both versions of the paradox launcher. Prevents it from trying to login and shouldn't prevent your paradox games from accessing multiplayer

The following steps should work on Windows 10:

1. Open up your firewall and network protection in settings
2. Click on Advanced settings
3. In this new window click on Outbound Rules and make a new rule
4. Select Program -> This program path: C:\Users\{Your user profile}\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2021.1\Paradox Launcher.exe
5. Repeat 3&4 for the launcher-v2.2021.4 folder as well

 

[AndrewT]

We are aware of the issue that's currently affecting some customers. We're looking into it but sadly have no estimate on when it will be sorted. For now though what you could try is the following:

1. Disconnect from the internet
2. Start the launcher and sign out (if you're still signed in)
3. Reconnect and see if the launcher loads as normal (we think the issue is the account login part)

If it doesn't, then running the .exe file from the installation directory or running the game whilst offline is the current workaround until we have it fixed.

Sorry about that!