In Stellaris’ latest developer diary, game director Henrik Fåhraeus says he anticipated criticism regarding the mid-game. Fåhraeus promises the developers will fix problems with the game through expansions and patches.
Stellaris was received very well by most members of the press, though the main point of criticism focused on the mid-game, specifically how bare it was compared to Paradox’s other games. “One area I was not at all surprised to get flak for is the lack of mid-game scripted content, however.”says Fåhraeus in the latest developer diary. “We simply took too long getting all the early and late game stuff in, and neglected a whole category of events called ‘colony events’, which were supposed to be the bread and butter of the mid-game for the Science Ships.”
The updates in May and June will feature bug fixes and free upgrades to the game only, taking place before the expansion cycle commences. The May update named ‘Clarke’ plans to address these issues:
“CLARKE” HIGHLIGHTS
• Fixes to the Ethic Divergence and Convergence issues. Currently, Pops tend to get more and more neutral (they lose Ethics, but rarely gain new ones.)
• The End of Combat Summary. This screen looks bad and also doesn’t tell you what you need to know in order to revise your ship designs, etc.
• Sector Management GUI: There are many issues with this, and we will try to get most of them fixed.
• Diplomacy GUI issues. This includes the Diplomatic Pop-Ups when other empires contact you, but also more and better looking Notifications, and more informative tooltips on wars, etc.
• AI improvements: Notably the Sector AI, but also plenty of other things. This kind of work is never “finished”…
• Myriads of bug fixes and smaller GUI improvements.
• Late game crises bugs. There were some nasty bugs in there, blocking certain subplots and various surprising developments.
• EDIT: Remaining Performance Issues. We know about them; they might even be hotfixed before Clarke.
• EDIT: Corvettes are too good.
‘Asiimov’, the June update, will contain a lot of the fixes to the mid-game. There are plans for new diplomatic actions and treaties, among other things. ”Another thing that struck me during our discussions is that the normal lack of access to the space of other empires makes the game feel more constricted than intended. It limits your options since you can’t really interact much with the galaxy beyond the borders of your empire, and you only tend to concern yourself with your direct neighbors. This is bad for your Science Ships too, of course, since they might not be able to finish some of the grander “quests”. Compare the situation with Europa Universalis, where you usually have access to the oceans and can thus reach most of the world, or Crusader Kings, where you can even move through neutral territory with your armies. We also intend to add as much mid-game scripted content as we can.”
It sounds like the team at Paradox are aware of any concerns players may have and they are working towards fixing them. We wouldn’t let these comments about the mid-game put you off experiencing the game for yourself. Check out our review, where we scored the game an excellent nine out of then.
