Crashing causes and possible solutions

[artmalique]

Correct me if I am wrong, but here is what I think are the problems:

- Crashing is worse on the older consoles, especially Xbox One S
- The main cause of crashing is too many pops
- The second main cause of crashing it too many ships battling at the same time
- Crashing has gotten worse since the 3.4 patch (whether you bought Overlord or not)

And, correct me if I am wrong again, but here is what I think are the settings we should choose to reduce the risk:

- Small or medium galaxy size
- Minimum hyperlane density (0.5x)
- Low habitable worlds (0.25x or 0.5x)
- Low guaranteed habitable worlds (1)
- Low wormhole pairs (0.5x)
- No L gates
- Low logistic growth ceiling (the lower the better)
- High growth required scaling (the higher the better)

Does anyone have other problems and possible solutions to add to these lists?

There have been 2 hotfix attempts... I don't mind waiting a year for a fix (or fixes) that works. I just wish we knew for sure that this problem will be addressed and not ignored...

At the moment Stellaris Console Edition is a great game - but unplayable.

 

[MordridBlack]

low pre-ftl civs [these loosely count as empires with pops, plus they can advance into a proper empire] (0.25x or 0.5x)

minimalize ai empires [this includes fallen and marauder empires as well]


play something that is either genocidal, or...wait no, actually that's about it, there can't be as much lag if there are no ai empires to lag it, <insert firing my laser joke here>

 

[artmalique]

Yes, setting pre-FTLs to 0.25x or 0.5x may help. Miminal AI empires may also work... but then what is the point of even playing?

I have heard people suggest disabling Ironman mode (to prevent constant autosaving).

Right now I am willing to try anything just to be able to play the game.

 

[Briareus the Gardener]

It's not really a solution, but I think I've worked out some basics for keeping crashes to a minimum.

First, the full galaxy view is your enemy. If at all possible, only go into it while the game calendar is paused, and especially don't pull up extra menus over top of it while the game's calendar is in motion. Second, never put the calendar at max speed.

A lot of the blunt-instrument tricks for minimizing slowdown also help, such as keeping the camera fully zoomed and pointed at something that's fairly static (like the center of a black hole or the background stars.)

I also tried deleting all of the saved games except for the one I'm currently running, but I'm not sure if it helped very much.

 

[Rexxmen]

First, the full galaxy view is your enemy. If at all possible, only go into it while the game calendar is paused, and especially don't pull up extra menus over top of it while the game's calendar is in motion. Second, never put the calendar at max speed.

seems to be the opposite for me. Galaxy view is fine even when full speed, but entering system view? id say its about an 90% chance i crash after 2350 when entering any system

 

[Briareus the Gardener]

seems to be the opposite for me. Galaxy view is fine even when full speed, but entering system view? id say its about an 90% chance i crash after 2350 when entering any system

For me, that only became an issue with systems that had significant numbers of units in them - Tiyana Vek, for example.

Now that I've thought about it a bit... one event that made me bail out on my current run was that two NPC Empires declared war, and suddenly the game's speed went from "tolerable" to "molasses in winter". Spitballing, but if there was a war going on in your game when this happened, it might be that the game was already on 'high alert', so to speak, when it came to displaying the system view, because it's trying to keep some of the processes necessary to handle armadas entering and exiting the system on standby, even when there are no armadas nearby?

I don't know much about computers, so this might well be nonsense.

 

[questionable strategy]

To be honest if the game is going to continue to support last gen consoles they need to not make any more expansions and just focus on improving playability and fixing problems. Make the game run better on the xbox one and ps4. Players should not be forced to keep turning gameplay settings down in order to play and enjoy the game.

 

[Briareus the Gardener]

To be honest if the game is going to continue to support last gen consoles they need to not make any more expansions and just focus on improving playability and fixing problems. Make the game run better on the xbox one and ps4. Players should not be forced to keep turning gameplay settings down in order to play and enjoy the game.

I actually asked a friend of mine who works as a computer programmer about this; his explanation was that last-gen consoles tend to 'decay' because the team putting together system updates will usually standardize to the current-gen. As a result, the updates for last-gen consoles are these quick-and-dirty retrofits of the current-gen console's updates, and over time minor errors or oddities in each update will stack up and degrade the functionality of the older console.

What ticks me off is that these companies could absolutely hire dedicated coder teams for previous console generations - if the CEOs weren't always looking to up their bonuses as much as physically possible, and if the broader management hadn't internalized the Jack Welch paradigm where you need to increase profits every quarter until the Sun blows up or else you're a failure. Those two forces combine to starve the "making fun games" part of these companies of a lot of the metaphorical blood flow they need.

(See also: CGI in movies that came out last year being noticeably worse than CGI from movies that came out over a decade ago.)

 

[MordridBlack]

I actually asked a friend of mine who works as a computer programmer about this; his explanation was that last-gen consoles tend to 'decay' because the team putting together system updates will usually standardize to the current-gen. As a result, the updates for last-gen consoles are these quick-and-dirty retrofits of the current-gen console's updates, and over time minor errors or oddities in each update will stack up and degrade the functionality of the older console.

in this instance, that is wrong

the port was originally made around the older consoles and only got some optimization for the newer consoles


so, the newer consoles are just running a slightly tweaked version of the port that was designed for the Xbone and PS4

 

[questionable strategy]

I actually asked a friend of mine who works as a computer programmer about this; his explanation was that last-gen consoles tend to 'decay' because the team putting together system updates will usually standardize to the current-gen. As a result, the updates for last-gen consoles are these quick-and-dirty retrofits of the current-gen console's updates, and over time minor errors or oddities in each update will stack up and degrade the functionality of the older console.

What ticks me off is that these companies could absolutely hire dedicated coder teams for previous console generations - if the CEOs weren't always looking to up their bonuses as much as physically possible, and if the broader management hadn't internalized the Jack Welch paradigm where you need to increase profits every quarter until the Sun blows up or else you're a failure. Those two forces combine to starve the "making fun games" part of these companies of a lot of the metaphorical blood flow they need.

(See also: CGI in movies that came out last year being noticeably worse than CGI from movies that came out over a decade ago.)

It is sad because the game was ported for the Xbox one and ps4. Not every console player has can afford a new Xbox s/x or ps5 so to make it unplayable for those consoles that the game was ported for, is unacceptable.

Paradox and their third party developer should not release any further new expansions for the current Stellaris at least the console version. It is too bloated and these expansions have added too much for the older systems. They should instead focus on fixing bugs and improving playability for all consoles that run the current game.

If Paradox wants to release further content for the Xbox s/x and ps5 they should release a new game designed specifically for those consoles. It can be called Stellaris 2 or something.

 

[MordridBlack]

It is sad because the game was ported for the Xbox one and ps4. Not every console player has can afford a new Xbox s/x or ps5 so to make it unplayable for those consoles that the game was ported for, is unacceptable.

Paradox and their third party developer should not release any further new expansions for the current Stellaris at least the console version. It is too bloated and these expansions have added too much for the older systems. They should instead focus on fixing bugs and improving playability for all consoles that run the current game.

If Paradox wants to release further content for the Xbox s/x and ps5 they should release a new game designed specifically for those consoles. It can be called Stellaris 2 or something.

dude we're on Stellaris 3...2 would be a horrible backtrack [referring to the patch number]

they already have plans to release the next expansion pass and first dlc in it, if you're noticed there have been now 2 new dev diaries for console edition


and to release a new console edition around the new systems would take probably about 1-3 years [this time will vary depending on if they could use the existing framework as a basis or have to start from scratch]

 

[questionable strategy]

dude we're on Stellaris 3...2 would be a horrible backtrack [referring to the patch number]

they already have plans to release the next expansion pass and first dlc in it, if you're noticed there have been now 2 new dev diaries for console edition


and to release a new console edition around the new systems would take probably about 1-3 years [this time will vary depending on if they could use the existing framework as a basis or have to start from scratch]

I have a ps5 and the game runs well, I can run a large galaxy with 3 fallen empires and 9 regular empires. I can make the mid game longer if I want. But I remember what it was like with a ps4 where it struggled and bogged down with all the pops. I don’t think it is fair to ps4 or Xbox one players to say “sorry you have to keep turning down your settings” or worse “ you can’t play a game that was ported for your console anymore” because we want to keep milking dlc for the next gen.

Stellaris the base game and everything is old. We have seen core gameplay mechanics change several times with tile management. You mention it will take 1-3 years to develop a new Stellaris, this is what Paradox should do, they won’t but should. They should do this for the pc as well, could start fresh with a new Stellaris for the pc, and Xbox s/x, ps5.

 

[Provokor]

It is sad because the game was ported for the Xbox one and ps4. Not every console player has can afford a new Xbox s/x or ps5 so to make it unplayable for those consoles that the game was ported for, is unacceptable.

Paradox and their third party developer should not release any further new expansions for the current Stellaris at least the console version. It is too bloated and these expansions have added too much for the older systems. They should instead focus on fixing bugs and improving playability for all consoles that run the current game.

If Paradox wants to release further content for the Xbox s/x and ps5 they should release a new game designed specifically for those consoles. It can be called Stellaris 2 or something.

I wouldnt rush out to buy a PS5 for this game, i have a PS5 and i still have the same issues as what is outlined above. I havent posted in a few months, and i thought i would wait for a new patch. Logged in yesterday and crashed within 20 minutes (not wars) and thought i would come out here and see what is going on. Honesty, turning everything down isnt really a solution that works for me, i have moved on from Stellaris and there are lots of other games out there that you can play as intended. Paradox hasnt fixed the console game since the launch of the last DLC, we are not a priority and it is very disappointing.