[Fixed] Stellaris-Games from latest patch stuck on "Preparing Game"

[KurwaKnight]

Hi all!

I am playing Stellaris (all DLCs) on Windows 11 and Linux (Opensuse Tumbleweed). On both systems I cannot load (Ironman)-games created on the new patch (3.14) - Stellaris gets stuck on "Preparing Game". I can however load older saves and I can create and play new games. Both operating systems have the latest available drivers for my nvidia 4070 installed. I play on Steam and use no mods.

Another strange behaviour (also on both Windows 11 and Linux) since the last patch is, that the patchnotes always appear in the main menu on Startup, even if I click on "Don´t show again".

Does anybody else encounter this and has anyone solved this issue?

Thanks!

 

[prismaticmarcus]

You've verified both sets of files in Steam?

 

[KurwaKnight]

Hi prismaticmarcus, thanks for your answer!

Yes, i verified the files, but nothing changed. Another (maybe related?) thing that just occured: I cannot save anything since the latest patch. I thought it was only a load-issue, but actually when I start a new game (which I just did) and save it, I can load it from within the game. But as soon as I quit Stellaris the saves are gone and all I see are the saves from before the patch.

I have not re-installed Stellaris, the only change to the install was the patch...I´ ve never had any problems with any patch before, this is new to me.
I´ ll try uninstalling and re-installing Stellaris.

Have a nice day!

 

[prismaticmarcus]

If you can't get it to work make sure you post here.

 

[KurwaKnight]

Okay, I´m back It is really weird:

- on Windows, I seem to be able to play games and save them (Ironman also saves normally). BUT the Launcher reports that it is broken and cannot establish an internet connection.
- on Linux, the launcher is ok (no errors, it just updated) BUT the game itself does not really work. Ironman sometimes saves and sometimes does not (I find no pattern, for example after re-installing Stellaris I could start a Ironman-game on saturday. It saved, i played some time on sunday, but my progress that day did not get saved). Also the patchlog-message for 3.14 still pops up every time I start Stellaris on Linux. Stellaris also does not save my custom created empires and does not remember that i switched off the Tutorial.

All this behaviour is since patch 3.14. I never had any problems before that patch...

 

[Gnarledhotep]

I saw something similar with the launcher over the weekend - the launcher had only one populated window in the bottom (one of the Paradox "ads") instead of the usual 3. And the first time I pressed Play, nothing else happened for well over a minute. I assumed there was some sort of problem connecting to the Pdx servers to get the remaining ads.

Later this weekend, when trying to launch, it took seconds (more than 10) after I pressed Play for the game to start loading. The last time I launched it, yesterday evening, it was a noticeable delay, but not excessive.

I have not seen load/save issues. However, my son had an issue where he could not cancel a building he had started during a session late last week.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Moved to Tech Support

 

[AndrewT]

This reads like the game and/or launcher has a problem getting read/write access to the Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ folders.

What antivirus app do you use? You need to make sure all these apps are in its exceptions lists:

stellaris.exe and dowser.exe (in the Steam Stellaris folder)
C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2024.17/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

IF that doesn't help, Right click on Documents in the left column of File Explorer, just under This PC there. Go to properties, location. What does it say in there?

 

[KurwaKnight]

Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply! I have not tried it on Windows, but on Linux everything works normally again. I believe Steam installed a patch on the 10th that fixed it.