[Dev Team] Astral Planes and Stellaris 3.10.0 "Pyxis" Released - checksum (462c)

[Ohirra]

I just wasted Unity on buying a leader because I clicked on an open council position and chose a leader with an ethic I wanted, but didn't notice that it listed ALL available leaders, even though the specific council position was only open to Scientist types.

I wont be making that mistake again, but I shouldn't have been able to make it in the first place.

 

[blahmaster6k]

It's a spiteful action which makes Stellaris look bad and is going to put people off picking the game up, all because you can't wait the week or so for an incremental patch which will surely address it.

It could have been managed as a comment or two on the subject adding your voice to the matter in the relevant threads here - that would at least have been constructive. Leaving a bad review simply seems vindictive, selfish, and petulant.

2/3 of all reviews for this DLC are negative. The complaints range from outliner being tedious to the point of being unusable, to the pricing being the same as a major expansion while being basically Ancient Relics 2: Electric Boogaloo, to leaders offering traits for the wrong classes entirely. The main complaint I see that is in almost every negative review is the pricing.

And inflation, while it has been high in the last couple of years, in my opinion shouldn't justify a doubling in price of a story pack. I know that for myself, even as someone who owns all DLC except Astral Planes and could afford to buy it, I will be waiting for a sale on this one because I don't feel like it is worth my money.

And for those who say how much more complex astral rifts are compared to archaeology sites, that's true - but from a mechanical and gameplay loop perspective they are still basically the same thing. Maybe all the extra art included in Astral Planes means they needed to charge more to pay the artists - but that's not something that a typical end user is going to see or think about, and art isn't gameplay-relevant so most people don't see it as a feature anyway.

Almost every aspect of Astral Planes is a near mirror copy of something from Ancient Relics.

In fact, Relic worlds are arguably a more impactful feature than anything in Astral Planes, as they act as free planets you can restore into Ecumenopolis without spending an ascension perk slot.

Astral Planes	Ancient Relics
Astral Rifts	Archaeology Sites
Astral Threads	Minor Artifacts
Astral Actions	Minor Artifact Actions
Riftworld Origin	On the Shoulders of Giants (actually in Federations, but Riftworld is practically a carbon copy of it but with an Astral Rift).
New Relics	New Relics
New Civics
New story event chain
	New Precursors
	Relic Worlds
$19.99	$9.99

Leaving a review, whether positive or negative, is one of the best ways to show a company whether you think they put out a good product or not, and negative reviews are one of the best ways to show a company when they make a mistake that they need to correct course and start delivering products that are worth the asking price.

Stellaris as a game still has overwhelmingly positive reviews, and it should! It's a fantastic game! One DLC having bad reviews isn't going to make people not pick up the game. But this particular DLC is seen by a lot of people as simply not worth it. If it were priced at $10 like Ancient Relics or even $15, I'm sure many more people would be inclined to give it positive reviews because the story content is apparently quite good (though I haven't seen it myself as I haven't purchased it).

 

[mrt1212]

Based on what I've seen I don't think I want to upgrade my game yet, or buy the dlc. Paradox seems to do this regularly, and it's a frustrating thing, they pump out an expensive DLC with a patch that changes basic components of the game, that kinda only sorta works, but more often than not just breaks or negatively alters game play (usually for a while but still), then you have to sit there and wait weeks for patches to fix whatever they changed, and those patches ruin whatever games you initially did with the initial purchase, and it finally gets about workable just in time for them to release a new patch that breaks everything again.... If I had any complaints about Paradox it's their infernal fiddling with stuff constantly and thus never giving anyone a properly completed product that feels like it completely works as intended. I realize that Stellaris is a large game, with lots of baggage and coding inertia behind it, but maybe these constant changes and fiddling that ultimately cause entire sections of the game to not work as intended should be considered when it comes to maybe starting a new sequel with everything we have now chucked in but all recoded so it all talks to each other like it's meant to instead of through what seems like a long chain of telephone through voice modulators. Then they can immediately start breaking Stellaris 2 with new DLCs and patches every 2-4 months for decades on end. It just feels like Paradox is whipping a dying horse with this stuff...

And I realize the profitability of the publishing schedule but increasingly, this seems to be a modality of devs not fully testing everything before rushing it to monthly-quarterly publication deadlines, on the theory of 'customers will understand we'll patch it in post'. No, I don't want to play the beta or gamma of a DLC, I want the DLC to be damn well smooth and polished with whatever patches being not basal fixes to game frustrating (if not breaking) bugs but iterative balance shifts or exploit fixes. And I realize this isn't just Paradox, this is a thing that's increasingly common across the games industry but maybe instead of having two-five major patch/DLC releases the Devs focused on one or two....and stopped trying to reinvent the wheel every 4-8 months...the game wouldn't be such a rats' nest of a mess.... Because even with the Custodians, I'm increasingly becoming of the opinion that Paradox's dev teams can't handle the schedule their forcing themselves into.

It's funny because I don't mind the constant refinement of the game system and things changing drastically in the game system between builds and DLC (The savegame breaking stinks but there is a small safety net there at least to finish out a game by reverting), like we'll determine whether it floats or sinks. But with this particular update in general - the ownership of dlc snafu and Outliner changes are getting more stick than anything else that are game related and it really does feel like a particular sitaution of, 'yeah, thanks for bringing the new whizbang baubles in but you stepped in two cowpies and dragged that in too and the stink is interfering with even realizing the baubles'.

Like, I'm not their boss or their shareholders, but 'try not to track in doodoo' should be posted on everyone's monitor at this point.

 

[Corpus Festerheart]

One bad feature does not make a bad game (or update, or DLC).

It objectively, could. One spoon of shit will spoil a barrel of wine. One bad mechanic can ruin entire game experience.

You're not judging it on the whole merits, you're just stomping your feet on the mountain you've made of the one particular molehill.

I do not need to judge hole game to have an opinion, all I need is to know that I am having a bad experience with the DLC. This is essentially the only thing you require as a consumer. Oh, and please, stop imagining hater raids and people with boiling rage, venting their hatered on a poor innocent game. 70% of reviews are negative. Are you suggesting 70% are review bombers? Trolls?

If we get to Christmas time or something like that and there's nothing addressing this, then sure, maybe you'd have a point. As is, though, we've barely had 24 hours since release.

You have magnificently low standarts and I must say such thinking is the reason why the worst Electronic Arts, Creative Assembly and Activision practices were endorsed so much.

Well, based on our comparative maturity levels, I'm going to guess 'older'...

I suggest looking for some books on basics of consumer and producer relationships and why negative reviews exist.

 

[TranscendentalDragon]

I do not need to judge hole game to have an opinion, all I need is to know that I am having a bad experience with the DLC.

you know that particular update has absolutely nothing to do with the DLC?

 

[Kamis51]

Less small dlc more big expansion packs once a year and more time for fixing bugs

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

Doing my part until outliner is fixed

And I clearlly stated the reason for it. New outliner made gaming experience EXTREMELY annoying for me. To the point where i will not launch the game until it will be fixed or reverted.

No, it is an action that will make one particular DLC look bad, because it is, you know, bad.

Then that review is demonstrably false, because the outliner change is not from the DLC - it is from the free patch 3.10.
The proper way of protesting a change in a free patch is to post a comment in its release thread.
Attacking the Astral Planes DLC over the change makes as little sense as attacking the Apocalypse DLC for it; the feature change is equally unrelated to both.

 

[mrt1212]

Then that review is demonstrably false, because the outliner change is not from the DLC - it is from the free patch 3.10.
The proper way of protesting a change in a free patch is to post a comment in the release thread of the free patch 3.10.
Attacking the Astral Planes DLC over it makes as little sense as attacking the Apocalypse DLC; the feature change is equally unrelated to both.

Careful, this might just result in a negative review for the base game...some 7 years onward now.

 

[goffy59]

Your part of.... what? Harming the game and the community for no good reason? Why are you proud of leaving a bad review?

 

[goffy59]

Game companies are not your friend. Stop simping..... If they make a bad product they should be treated accordingly. Don't cheerleader for a company that only cares about profit at the end of the day. This is capitalism. They care about profit, I care about entertainment; i am not entertained... so this company needs to do better next time. The game is still unplayable for me. Wasted my money on all the dlc I bought because they decided to break the game and make all my DLC inaccessible. I am a lot older so maybe that is why I don't partake into the fanboyism for companies that are for profit?

 

[Masked Ermine]

Careful, this might just result in a negative review for the base game...some 7 years onward now.

It is a very expensive story extension pack of Relics. Which is what this ostensibly is. It's Relics 2 astral threads bugaloo. I'm not sure it's worth the price it's costing, and yes, yes, wait till the inevitable sale...but if Paradox is happy with people buying it at only the sale price...then...that just tells me that the original price is just that much more over inflated....

 

[malakhglitch]

Is it me or do we have a lot of newcomers (or maybe former lurkers) on the forums since the last time I was active (before Paragons release)?

 

[CocoCincinnati]

Think of what could be accomplished if so much time wasn't spent trying to find new ways to keep "powerful" leaders out of the hands of players.

 

[mrt1212]

Think of what could be accomplished if so much time wasn't spent trying to find new ways to keep "powerful" leaders out of the hands of players.

Every menu would get more tabs?

 

[specifiedusername]

This is capitalism. They care about profit, I care about entertainment; i am not entertained...

Leaving a review is a valid feedback, but this statement is gross oversimplification, and unfairly dismisses a lot of people who put heart and soul in "entertaining you". While it is true that companies are guided by profits, game is developed by people who absolutely care about the game, about its quality, about its features.

 

[Corpus Festerheart]

Then that review is demonstrably false, because the outliner change is not from the DLC - it is from the free patch 3.10.
The proper way of protesting a change in a free patch is to post a comment in its release thread.
Attacking the Astral Planes DLC over the change makes as little sense as attacking the Apocalypse DLC for it; the feature change is equally unrelated to both.

It is not my duty to discover what employee exactly were responsible for ruining an outliner or what dev team made this deal-breaking change - I gave a negative review - let management sort out who were responsible. If I have defect in a car I provide my review for a car dealer or car model as a whole, not a factory or iron mine where basic materials were dug out\manufactured.

 

[Fulgrymm]

It is not my duty to discover what employee exactly were responsible for ruining an outliner or what dev team made this deal-breaking change - I gave a negative review - let management sort out who were responsible. If I have defect in a car I provide my review for a car dealer or car model as a whole, not a factory or iron mine where basic materials were dug out\manufactured.

Yep, because that's totally equivalent. lol

 

[Panzerslothen]

Game companies are not your friend. Stop simping..... If they make a bad product they should be treated accordingly. Don't cheerleader for a company that only cares about profit at the end of the day. This is capitalism. They care about profit, I care about entertainment; i am not entertained... so this company needs to do better next time. The game is still unplayable for me. Wasted my money on all the dlc I bought because they decided to break the game and make all my DLC inaccessible. I am a lot older so maybe that is why I don't partake into the fanboyism for companies that are for profit?

That's both harsh and wide of the mark. There is no simping. I criticise PDX enough; I just tend to be specific about it, and have good reasons for doing so when I do so. And I try to get that criticism right.

a company that only cares about profit at the end of the day.

A company can care about profit AND its products/customers... and to different degrees. Companies are not monoliths, machines, or hive minds. Do you think Eladrin and Alfray, for example, don't care about the game or the players? I think there's huge evidence that they do. The Development team aren't the money-men and the managers.

This is capitalism.

The mechanics of capitalism doesn't mean that customers can't be pants-on-head stupid.

i am not entertained... so this company needs to do better next time.

I don't even necessarily disagree with you in theory, although this comment does somewhat read like you're expecting them to read your mind

Wasted my money on all the dlc I bought because they decided to break the game and make all my DLC inaccessible.

What do you mean, make all your DLC inaccessible? The launch ownership bug only affected Astral Planes, not the other DLCs.
What do you mean, "they decided to break the game"? You surely don't think bugs are made deliberately, do you?
Anyway that sounds like a major bug - you should report it. That's the only way things are going to get fixed. Surely you realise though that it's a temporary problem, which will get patched? (And patched sooner, if you actually report it!)

If they make a bad product they should be treated accordingly.

I entirely agree. I've never said anything to the contrary. If there is 'bad product' in 3.10, it's the launch bugs - I don't think we've collectively had time to judge the entirety of Astral Threads yet, and certainly not with any meaningful separation from it and the rage at the launch bugs.

why I don't partake into the fanboyism for companies that are for profit?

Fan, not fanboy.

 

[Panzerslothen]

It is not my duty to discover what employee exactly were responsible for ruining an outliner or what dev team made this deal-breaking change - I gave a negative review - let management sort out who were responsible. If I have defect in a car I provide my review for a car dealer or car model as a whole, not a factory or iron mine where basic materials were dug out\manufactured.

So let's recap:

• You got mad with all of Astral Planes purely because of the change to the Outliner, and it has made the game LITTERALLY UNPLAYABLE for you.
• You channelled your spite and bitterness into a bad review, incorrectly blaming a DLC pack which you've not explored more than 50% of (at most).
• You were called out on this.
• It was then pointed out to you that the change wasn't even with the DLC, but with the free patch, meaning you've poured out toxicity into a review effectively unnecessarily.
• And now you're doubling-down on it all and digging your heels in?

Dang bro, that's pretty crazy. I bet you'll leave the review up even when the Devs fix the Outliner in an incremental patch, won't you?

 

[Seridor]

Request regarding UI tabs:

Allow each tab to be fully configurable, even allow to have shipyards in multiple tabs.
I'd set them to have a civilian and a military tab, starbases would be present on both.