The recent release of the Stellaris DLC, Shadows of the Shroud, has stirred a wave of feedback on Steam, currently reflecting a mere 43% positive rating. Interestingly, the criticism does not stem from the expansion’s content itself, which has garnered praise for its factions and the handling of Psionic Ascension. Instead, players have expressed their frustration over performance issues, including bugs, desyncs, crashes, and overall instability. This situation is reminiscent of the launches of both Stellaris 4.0 and Biogenesis, casting a shadow over what is widely regarded as one of the premier 4X games available on PC.
Performance Challenges and Developer Insights
Game director Stephen ‘Eladrin’ Muray has addressed some of these challenges in the latest Stellaris developer diary. He acknowledged that the open beta for patch 4.1.4 uncovered critical issues, prompting the launch of a new open beta, 4.1.5, which aims to incorporate additional fixes. Muray emphasized that “performance remains the highest priority of the internal Stellaris team,” with a dedicated subteam from the developer’s ‘custodians’ focusing solely on diagnosing and resolving the current issues.
“It’s our goal to make steady progress on performance, but this is going to be a long haul and won’t be a ‘magic patch’ that fixes everything,” Muray stated. He elaborated on the team’s focus areas, which include the application of modifiers, fleet counts, user interface impacts, and economic balance. Upon reviewing bug reports, he noted an “unusually large number of ships in late-game saves,” attributing this to the enhanced economies introduced in version 4.0, which allow players to reach endgame ship counts significantly earlier than before.
Muray also pointed out that the AI rivals in version 4.0 are more adept at expanding their naval capacity, although they still lag behind players in terms of fleet size. Comparisons reveal that the performance of version 4.1 is “marginally better than 3.14 until a little bit after 2300,” at which point the two versions diverge sharply. To address this, the team is generating additional saves to pinpoint the root causes of these performance discrepancies. “Reducing the number of ships in the game through a combination of economic balancing and mechanical changes looks like it has some promise,” he noted, while also acknowledging the need for client-side improvements.
Quality Assurance and Ongoing Efforts
QA analyst ‘Gosia’ contributed to the discussion by affirming the team’s commitment to performance testing. “Do they even test it? Do they even care? Yes,” they asserted, explaining that Paradox employs a range of machines, from low-spec to high-spec, to monitor performance continuously. For those interested in a deeper exploration of the testing process, further details are available, though they may exceed the immediate concerns of the community.
As for the steps being taken to enhance performance, Muray revealed that the performance team is currently rewriting how modifiers are calculated. He described this as a “potentially dangerous change” that could yield positive, albeit hardware-dependent, impacts, particularly in the late game. He cautioned that the team is proceeding with caution due to the extensive influence modifiers have on gameplay.
On the subject of ship counts, Muray referenced a new Stellaris mod that increases ship cost and power tenfold to reduce the total number of vessels. “This is somewhat similar in nature to one of my internal design experiments,” he explained, noting that his variant draws inspiration from how Hearts of Iron approaches advanced vehicle design. This adjustment would introduce more powerful hulls with higher costs, upkeep, and naval capacity.
In terms of economic adjustments, Muray highlighted the need to analyze and mitigate non-linear growth in the post-4.0 economy. While the aim is to keep planet design and decision-making rewarding, certain elements have led to excessive positive feedback loops that exceed the desired growth curve. “Like the Technology open beta, we need to bring things back to a proper baseline,” he stated.
Lastly, Muray addressed concerns regarding multiplayer stability and desyncs, acknowledging the complexities involved in reproducing such issues with multiple players. He reassured the community that the team actively works to resolve desyncs with each version, although new ones frequently emerge. He encouraged players encountering issues to report them via the bug report forums, as this feedback is invaluable in the ongoing effort to enhance the gaming experience.
