Stellaris Dev Diary #140 - 2.2.x post-launch patch v2

[BlackUmbrellas]

Agreed. The fact that they're working on DLC in the games current state shows their priorities are not on fixing the game. I'm not buying any more DLC for this game until they fix these crippling issues.

But I swear if actual fixes turn up in the next DLC I'm throwing my hat down.

They wont be in the DLC, they'll be in the larger free patch that goes with it.

 

[208]

I've red the statements, but at least for me, they're still not clearly enough formulated:
01. Do they already work on the next DLC ? ...
02. Right after this upcoming and big and "final" post-release-patch, do they work on an or even several other post-release-patche(s) (WITHOUT working on the next DLC) ? ...
03. Right after this upcoming and big and "final" post-release-patch, do they work on the next DLC ?

You know, the team is not a monolithic block of programmer-ness... they can be working on multiple things at once.

Some features take longer than others, and it's often less efficient to split up a feature among multiple developers instead of letting one person work on it for longer.

So, how about, someone is beginning on a large feature planned for the next DLC, while other team members continue to work on bug fixes?

If Dev A works 3 man-months on a feature while Dev B and Dev C each spend 3 man-months on bug-fixing, it's still 6 man-months of bug fixing, just as if all three devs spent 2 months each on bug fixing... except the feature that Dev A is working on needs 3 months' of development by a single person, and you'd delay the whole schedule by 2 weeks if all 3 devs worked on bug-fixing first and then you split the large feature up in 3 parts among the three devs.

 

[AlphaAsh]

I suspect the next DLC won't be as broken simply because, if the team is in any way sane, it will be focused on artwork and not on coding/scripting.

Par for the course. However, I'm not going to forget the technical debt and bad state of the game because of shinies. Not this time. New shinies can't hide that any longer.

If it does provide more person-hours for QA and tech debt elimination, great. If those hours go elsewhere, not great. And it's not hard to tell if my trust is misplaced really.

 

[HighKings_Ruin]

They wont be in the DLC, they'll be in the larger free patch that goes with it.

I don't actually expect that to happen. But with the state of the gaming industry you have to wonder if someone in PDX is going to try this.

 

[ius]

Please look at the outliner, and implement a sort of starred-mechanic like in CK2. My end-game empire overwhelms my outliner and I am losing overview instead.

 

[Birdos]

Seeing the direction you are taking at PDX, do not expect any revenue from me in 2019.

It is a shame, as I:R looked quite interesting. Although I might even dodge a bullet if it turns out to be as shallow as Stellaris was on release.

With kind regards,

a continuosly dissapointed customer.

 

[trajan]

You know, I would click "agree" on this very posting 10 times if the forum software would let me. If PDX does not lean towards a change in their general handling of this franchise any time soon, even the toughest fanboys will at some point start to throw stones. I dont think the new lead will have a positive relation with the fanbase, if he cant renege on his promise, that 2.2 would receive an extended bug fixing period. And boy is this overdue, this game needs something the like since more than 1.5 years back, at least.

I really hoped devs would prove me wrong not ordering a stellaris DLC (megacorp) for the first time. Until now, they havent. Bought motorsport manager for 1/3rd of the DLCs price, and you know what, its great fun.

I am the fanboyest of fanboys and the tone-deafness on display here from the company is astounding. This is not the Paradox I have known for nearly 20 years. But I guess that's what happens when you get big and go public. You forget what got you there. Now it's all about the quarterly report.

This attitude seems confined to just Stellaris for now. I hope it doesn't creep into the other titles.

You should be worried Paradox. This fanboy is losing faith. I'm sure I'm not the only one. You're wrong about one thing though VerKer: as a long-time lurker, I won't throw any stones, I'll just vote with my wallet.

 

[Ciderglove]

I get that your job is to now put out the dumpster fire that was caused by admitting that the "extended patch time" we were promised on 2.2 is already over while the AI still can't play the game, exterminators don't exterminate, planetary bombardment is still based on tiles, the economic balance is nonsensical and not well thought through, and the entire pop system, from growth, to migration, to factions, to employment, just flat out doesn't work on anything more than a surface level...

But sure, tell us what the next DLC is. I literally do messaging for a living, and my god do you guys need a professional PR and spin department.

You're like 1 level above, "Don't you people have phones?" this week.

Now, if *I* was running your PR:



Duuk's Marketing Class: 101

An excellent post, and one which any devs in this thread should take to heart. There is no need for these threads to turn into shitstorms every time. It's just that devs who post here frequently seem utterly tone deaf - even the Game Director, even though you'd think that emotional articulacy was one of the requisite skills for leadership.

 

[grandad1982]

I wasn't expecting 6 months, but a full 3 would have been nice. December obviously doesn't count because it was release, rushed panic, holiday. January was essentially 1/2 of a month due to the return from the break and planning phase. I was hoping to see until end-of-March minimum, mid-April ideal before even an announcement that we had reached end-of-cycle on Megacorp and the teasers started on the next content.

To admit we're 10 days out from end of cycle on 2.2 in mid-February is not great optics.

I suspect that many of us didn't even expect MC to drop till late jan or sometime in feb to begin with and even then I personally would have expected at least a month or more of patching afterwards.

 

[maxp779]

I had hoped the community was more mature than that. Wishful thinking on my part I suppose.

Because they disagree with something they're... immature?

They can have their own opinion and so can you. I don't see the problem with that.

 

[HighKings_Ruin]

Because they disagree with something they're... immature?

They can have their own opinion and so can you. I don't see the problem with that.

Look at the statement I was responding too. Please don't put words in my mouth.

 

[Iosue Yu]

Daniel made it clear that it's a bigger system that needs more attention and said it's a high priority for him. That said, the team won't hold work on everything else, while the sectors are being tackled, just to deliver a PR point. We have employees that want to continue work on other elements of the game in the meantime and they won't be benched to keep up appearances. It's important to everyone here to remain efficient, as, in the end, it's your money that funds this game's development, and we'd rather use it as well as we can.

And this statement has been made in parallel to triple Precincts still rampaging everyone's games, and a whole lot of other bugs looming on the horizons.

Just 1 component - the CPU / the computer player / the AI, whichever way you call it. Just this component -building weights. It has jumped from one extreme to another, always broken, 5 patches in.

Has there been once the CPU are playing the new systems correctly?

How is this, by all means, a sensible time you guys announce to move on?

 

[Duuk]

In this thread: Petition to Hire Duuk as a Consultant for Marketing for Stellaris

 

[HighKings_Ruin]

I have to question if Paradox is forcing the developers and the others working on Stellaris. Remember they legally aren't allowed to say if their superiors force a change in their plans, none are.

If that is happening they can't tell us or imply it, it would explain their strange behaviour.

 

[vicosurge]

Not sure if this has been brought before but I'm throwing this in anyway:

When you assign a fleet to patrol, which I do a lot lately, from time to time I will send it back to be upgraded and when this happens the patrol route is not restored, while this would be fine if it was only one or two patrols it gets annoying when you have twenty or so patrols (yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with it).

Would it be possible to save the patrol route so that when the fleet is finished upgrading it goes back to the same route it was previously assigned to?

 

[trajan]

Not sure if this has been brought before but I'm throwing this in anyway:

When you assign a fleet to patrol, which I do a lot lately, from time to time I will send it back to be upgraded and when this happens the patrol route is not restored, while this would be fine if it was only one or two patrols it gets annoying when you have twenty or so patrols (yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with it).

Would it be possible to save the patrol route so that when the fleet is finished upgrading it goes back to the same route it was previously assigned to?

I have done this. There is a key combination that inserts the current order at the top of the queue and it works with patrolling fleets. I think it's CTRL-SHIFT. So hold down CTRL-SHIFT then click the repair button and it will go back to patrolling after it's done repair/refit.

 

[Gaen]

To be fair, is there that much beyond the gist of the first paragraph? The rest showed UI changes and a mention of "new stuff we will be starting soon", which reinforces feelings about the first paragraph, no?

The part where it says the are also working on the AI witch seem to be what most people are upset about right now?

 

[vicosurge]

I have done this. There is a key combination that inserts the current order at the top of the queue and it works with patrolling fleets. I think it's CTRL-SHIFT. So hold down CTRL-SHIFT then click the repair button and it will go back to patrolling after it's done repair/refit.

Thank you! I will definitely have to check this out next time I'm playing although personally I think it would be better if it just returned on its own.

 

[Cocco81]

Sectors are a larger task that is a big too big to tackle right now, with a lot of other fixes being done, but I do want you to know I have sectors as one of my highest priorities going forwards. We will probably not be going back to manual sector management, but we will definitely be looking into how to make the automatic assignment better

At this point, with all the ongoing discussions, the players' feedback etc. a question is to be asked: is there any good reason NOT to revert to manual sectors?
- drawing sectors seems fit for a grand strategy game,
- gamey tactics (if any) can surely be tweaked with scaling soft penalties
- nobody would ever complain about sector bad shapes
- less coding for Pdox as they don't have to figure some way to avoid creating sectors without holes etc in any possible configuration

So if there is a reason it wpuld be nice to know, at least concerned players (not whiners) would either make helpful comments or no comment at all, i sstead of giving solutions to an already obsolete problem

 

[Jotoco]

I have done this. There is a key combination that inserts the current order at the top of the queue and it works with patrolling fleets. I think it's CTRL-SHIFT. So hold down CTRL-SHIFT then click the repair button and it will go back to patrolling after it's done repair/refit.

Not repair, though. There is a bug that when you queue repair, it touches the starbase and then goes to the next order without waiting for the repairs to finish.