Confirmed Stellaris - Stellaris [3.0.1] (c04b) Multiplayer Select Empire Screen shows only first 9 empires

[LeiraHoward]

Description
Stellaris [3.0.1] (c04b) Multiplayer Select Empire Screen shows only first 9 empires

Game Version
3.0.1 (c04b)

What version do you use?
Steam

What expansions do you have installed?
Synthetic Dawn, Utopia, Leviathans Story Pack, Apocalypse, Megacorp, Ancient Relics

Do you have mods enabled?
No

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
This bug might also be called "Can't find player empire when loading multiplayer game," as the behavior of this bug can cause that to happen.

When loading a saved multiplayer game, only 9 empires are available to choose from in the "Select Empire" screen, even when more than 9 empires exist in the saved game. This can cause issues when a player's empire is not among the 9 empires shown on the select empire screen. (It is not clear if there is any rationale to the order or why certain empires are chosen on the load screen.)

In our particular situation, we have 4 human players and 7 AI empires, for a total of 11 empires. Only the first 9 empires are shown. The 4th human player's empire happens to be one of the two empires not shown on the "Select Empire" screen, and so the game is not resumable.

We can verify that the actual empire does exist in the save file, either by opening the save file directly or by loading the game up in observer mode.

No mods are being used, and all computers involved were using the same version of the Stellaris software (Steam, v.3.0.1 (c04b)). All players own the exact same DLC (from the recent Humble Bundle sale).

In the attached screenshots, please note that in the first two, you can see the "Select Empire" screen, which ONLY has 9 empires available. However, in the third screenshot, (showing Contacts" as seen in observer mode on the same game) there are TWO additional empires that are not available as choices on the "Select Empire" screen. One of these is the empire belonging to our 4th human player. I have written numbers on the sides of the screenshots to identify the 9 empires shown, and two arrows in the third screenshot identify the empires that did not make it into the "Select Empire" screen.

This bug is reproducible. I loaded multiple save games with more than 9 empires and every single one would only show 9 empires on the "Select Empire" screen when loading back up.

For now, the obvious workaround is to be sure to only create games with a maximum of 9 empires, but this appears to be broken and should be fixed.

Steps to reproduce the issue.
1. Create a multiplayer game with more than 9 empires (this number includes player empires, and AI empires combined, including fallen empires). The more human players, the better the chances are of having one unable to join the save game later.
2. Save the multiplayer game.
3. Load the multiplayer game.
4. Note that you can only see 9 empires in the "Select Empire" list. (It shows the empire of the host first, then an empty slot marked "Observer Mode", and then 8 more slots including other empires.)
5. If another human player happens to have their empire not show up, tough luck for them. No way to select their own empire again.

Note that if you choose the "Observer Mode" in step 4, you can load the game and see ALL the empires available, so the full 11 empires do exist in the save game. This appears to be a bug (or possibly setting) that limits the number of empires that can be listed in the "Select Empire" screen.

I can produce my own save game for testing if required, but feel confident that you can easily reproduce this with ANY game of over 9 playable empires.

Upload Attachment
File(s) attached

 

[LeiraHoward]

The description may actually be misleading, as I don't know that the empires are in any particular order, so it might not be the "first" 9 empires. A better description might be: The Select Empire screen only shows a maximum of 9 empires even when there are more than 9 empires. But that was long.

 

[NiedzwiedzzCyberLasu]

Hello!

Thank you for the report!

Unfortunately, the issue does not reproduce on our end.
We require a save game to properly investigate the issue. Please attach a zipped save here, if possible.
Save games can usually be found at:
Windows: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\save games
Mac: /Users/USERNAME/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/save games
Linux: $HOME/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/save games/

 

[LeiraHoward]

After more research, I think I am needing to revise the name of the bug. It isn't that ONLY 9 empires are shown... it is that not ALL the empires are shown. I just happened to be lucky/unlucky enough to have my settings spawning games that were only 10 or 11 empires during my original reproducing steps. It actually appears that in cases of having 10 or less empires, ONE less than the total number of empires is shown. And in cases of having 11-14 empires, TWO less than the total number of empires is shown.

In the case of having 4 empires, the "Select Empires" load screen is showing only 3 options, not 4. (only 4 empires.sav)
In the case of having 10 empires, the "Select Empires" load screen is showing 9 options, not 10. (3 humans 10 empires.sav)
In the case of having 11 empires, the "Select Empires" load screen is showing 9 options, not 11. (4 human players 11 empires.sav)
In the case of having 12 empires, the "Select Empires" load screen is showing 10 options, not 12. (12 empires.sav)
In the case of having 14 empires, the "Select Empires" load screen is showing 12 options, not 14. (14 empires.sav)


I am attaching multiple different save games that show the same issue. I renamed them for easier identification (rather than a million autosaves with dates).
The first one (4 human players 11 empires.sav) is the one from the screenshots in the original bug log.

I created the 14 empires.sav file using the steps to reproduce I provided above.

I created the 12 empires.sav file using the steps below: (I used one of our other computers to do this in order to test whether the issue was confined to my machine. It isn't.)
1. Create a new multiplayer game with at least 2 human players and a total of over 10 empires.
2. Start the game and run it for a while (not sure how long is necessary, the shortest file I am providing here goes to 2203.08.15)
3. Save and quit.
4. Reload game and check for behavior.

As I was poking around to try to identify possible issues, I noticed that the behavior exists if I attempt to load a game from previous versions of Stellaris (obviously, those games wouldn't work properly after the updates, but I thought I would see if they showed the extra empires in case it was a Stellaris "feature" to only show 9 empires). So I am also including this old save game (old version save game.sav) to show the issue.

I don't know if some combination of the settings that we used to create the game have caused this (as we tend to use the same settings all the time) or if there is something else going on, but appreciate any assistance in getting this working again. The most recent game was going very well until our 4th player couldn't rejoin, so there is much sadness at the moment since we cannot finish it.

 

[LeiraHoward]

I just had a thought- I don't know if the number of empires not shown is possibly the same as the number of fallen empires in the game, rather than being related to the total number of empires as it appears from my sample. If so, there might be some setting that is related causing this issue.

 

[LeiraHoward]

That might be it.... See the attached files. One has NO fallen empires, the other has THREE fallen empires. The one with NO fallen empires behaves as expected on "Select Empire" load screen and has ALL options available, the one with THREE fallen empires is missing THREE options on the "Select Empire" load screen.

 

[LeiraHoward]

... or not.... the original one with the problem (4 humans, 11 empires) only has one fallen empire, and still has two missing players. So that's not it, or at least not completely. Have to be missing something here, but since I don't know exactly how things are supposed to work on the back-end, hopefully you can figure it out.

 

[LeiraHoward]

Perhaps the non-showing of fallen empires is a design (looks like it consistently doesn't show those) and therefore the actual issue might be just with my original save file (4 humans, 11 empires.sav) in not showing the other human for some completely unknown reason. But previously, the fallen empires were showing up (this was noticed, as in one of our previous multiplayer games, one of the players switched to playing a fallen empire when the game loaded, which made everyone else upset). Looking online, that may have been a glitch in an earlier version.

 

[LeiraHoward]

If needed, I can create a different bug report showing the issue with my original save file (4 human players 11 AI empires.sav) not showing all human players, as I think I may have confused the issue here. I saw behavior that seemed corellated with my issue and didn't do sufficient testing in all end-use cases to eliminate possibilities.

It appears that the save games are (correctly) not showing fallen empires, but in some situations they are also not showing human players. The specific situation of not having the human player shown is what I really need to have resolved.

 

[NiedzwiedzzCyberLasu]

Hello!

Unfortunately, the issue again does not reproduce on our end. Can you please double check that there are no mods enabled, and verify the game files in Steam (if not using Steam, please try reinstalling). If the issue persists after Steam verification please try a clean reinstall, by uninstalling the game, deleting the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris (for windows) folder and reinstalling the game.

 

[LeiraHoward]

Thank you. There are definitely no mods on my end. I have not downloaded or installed any mods for any game at any point since owning Stellaris (I don't generally mod my games anyway.)

I uninstalled Stellaris.

• I completely uninstalled Stellaris using Steam (right-click on game in library, "manage" -> "uninstall"),
• Then deleted the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris folder.

I reinstalled Stellaris

• I restarted my computer (just in case)
• I re-downloaded and installed Stellaris using Steam.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: after installing Stellaris again, the version number updated. I now have v.3.0.2 (91c1). There does not appear to be an option to roll back to the previous version on the Betas tab in the Steam Stellaris properties.

I tried to load the saved game, but the problem is still there

• I started Stellaris using Steam.
• Then I went to "Multiplayer" and "Host Save Game"
• I left the server name as my user name and entered a password, then clicked "Host"
• I chose the save game "4 human players 11 empires" (attached) and then "Load Selected"
  • I'm not sure if it matters, but the screenshot is saved in the directory C:\Users\[my user name]\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\save games\mpubaricempire_-1994461313
• The "Select Empire" screen came up. I see ONLY the empires shown in the two screenshots (1 & 2, attached).
• I do NOT see the specific empire "Interstellar Haahn Republic" that belongs to human player #4. "Interstellar Haahn Republic" is not listed on the Select Empire screen and cannot be chosen, even though it exists in-game (screenshot 4, attached).

Since you cannot reproduce this, are you saying that when you follow the steps above, you can see and choose the "Interstellar Haahn Republic" empire in the "4 human players 11 empires" save game? (Can you share a screenshot showing how it appears to you? Are the other empires in the same order as my screenshots?)

In case it was something with my computer, I gave a copy of that same save file to human player #4 to attempt to load on his computer, and he encounters the same issue where he cannot find or choose his own empire, with screens identical to my own.

Very strange. I hope we can figure this out!

 

[NiedzwiedzzCyberLasu]

Hello!

As requested I'm sending over the screenshot of empire selection from the provided save.
Could you attach all log files created after loading the save?
The log file folder can usually be found at:
Windows: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\logs
Mac: /Users/USERNAME/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs
Linux: $HOME/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs

 

[LeiraHoward]

Thanks for the screenshot. At least I know we are looking at the same thing, but this is definitely a confusing issue. I definitely cannot see the other empire, but you definitely CAN, so there has to be a reason for this. (It also gives me hope that maybe we will be able to get back into this game and finish it, if we can figure out the problem.)

I loaded up Stellaris, opened the multiplayer game (loaded it as myself) then quit to desktop. I'm not sure if you needed me to do anything else to trigger log file creation.

I did the following:

• I started Stellaris using Steam.
• Then I went to "Multiplayer" and "Host Save Game"
• I left the server name as my user name and entered a password, then clicked "Host"
• I chose the save game "4 human players 11 empires" (attached) and then "Load Selected"
• I chose the Ubaric Empire (my own)
• After the game loaded, I quit to desktop.

Some of the log files were created on game start, others when I closed Stellaris. I attempted to attach all of them, but some could not upload because they appear to be empty, and the forum would not allow me to upload empty files.
The fles that were empty and are missing are:
ai.log
debug.log
info.log
memory.log
profiler.log
I did open them and confirmed that they (when viewed in Notepad) are empty. The other files which were created and actually contain data are below.

If there are any other steps needed to get better/more detailed logs, please let me know!

 

[NiedzwiedzzCyberLasu]

Hello!

Thank you for the logs! Can you please do a reinstall again, but this time with full cleansing (that means deleting all files related to the Stellaris after uninstall).

 

[The Founder]

Could you verify you are both using the same save locations?
I have seen issue/different behavior with the Cloud vs Local Storage in Paradox games.

Particulary with "Resume" on the launcher - reported a issue with that one about half a Year ago in CK3: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...names-in-cloud-and-local-save-folder.1436566/

 

[NiedzwiedzzCyberLasu]

Hello again!

We have managed to reproduce the issue on our end and have added it to our bug database.

 

[LeiraHoward]

I just saw the latest three messages. Since you have managed to reproduce the issue (hurray!), I am assuming that you no longer need me to do a clean reinstall of Stellaris. If that is incorrect, please let me know. (Would the clean reinstall resolve the issue?)

To answer your question on the save, all the files we were attempting to load were all located in the same Windows save games folder. When we attempted to have the 4th player load the game, we transferred the entire C:\Users\[my user name]\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\save games\mpubaricempire_-1994461313 folder (which included multiple saves and autosaves) to the same location on the other user's computer (obviously with the other person's user name). I checked my Steam Cloud save files and there are no files there from Stellaris.

Since you were able to reproduce the issue, is there any sort of workaround possible at this time so that we could be able to restart this game here? We haven't started another multiplayer game with the 4 of us since as we didn't want to run into the same issue, and are missing our family Stellaris fix!

I'm very comfortable and proficient with editing registry and configuration files if that sort of thing is needed to resolve on our end.

 

[LeiraHoward]

@Detective_Drone [Qloc] - I know you guys are super busy with all the other bug reports, but I was just wondering if there was any way for my family to be able to finish the broken save game that I sent you. Since you are able to load and see all the empires, it seems as though there ought to be a way for us to be able to do the same. I'm quite comfortable with editing configuration files or registry if something like that is needed.

Alternately, if there is no way to fix this, do you know enough about what causes the issue to give us some hints to prevent this from occurring again? It is frustrating to put hours into a game and not be able to complete it, so player 4 from our original game doesn't want to play Stellaris again until we are sure that it won't happen to him again. Is it something that we did that causes this issue? Thanks so much for any help/assistance on this!

 

[The Founder]

@Detective_Drone [Qloc] - I know you guys are super busy with all the other bug reports, but I was just wondering if there was any way for my family to be able to finish the broken save game that I sent you. Since you are able to load and see all the empires, it seems as though there ought to be a way for us to be able to do the same. I'm quite comfortable with editing configuration files or registry if something like that is needed.

Alternately, if there is no way to fix this, do you know enough about what causes the issue to give us some hints to prevent this from occurring again? It is frustrating to put hours into a game and not be able to complete it, so player 4 from our original game doesn't want to play Stellaris again until we are sure that it won't happen to him again. Is it something that we did that causes this issue? Thanks so much for any help/assistance on this!

Have you tried moving it into the other savegame location?

As the report of reproduction came just after I mentioned it might make a difference, it is a solid asumption it did make a difference.

 

[LeiraHoward]

Have you tried moving it into the other savegame location?

As the report of reproduction came just after I mentioned it might make a difference, it is a solid asumption it did make a difference.

To answer your question on the save, all the files we were attempting to load were all located in the same Windows save games folder. When we attempted to have the 4th player load the game, we transferred the entire C:\Users\[my user name]\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\save games\mpubaricempire_-1994461313 folder (which included multiple saves and autosaves) to the same location on the other user's computer (obviously with the other person's user name). I checked my Steam Cloud save files and there are no files there from Stellaris.

We never use the Steam Cloud for save games unless there is no other choice as it seems to be buggy in general.

Are you suggesting that I should somehow move the local save file to the cloud?