The truth about CTDs....

On my machine the current version is extremely stable.  I just went home for lunch and played for an hour without any problem.  If you are really seeing a consistent crash, you need to submit a crash report as opposed to complaining about it.

Are you running beta 1.09q?

I had regular CTD pre 1.08 - (and the first beta 1.09n) -however I have no stability issues at all with the later beta version - using 1.09q at the moment ahas been stable as a rock. 

Have you got software running on both computers that may be a contributing factor? e.g., AVG (sucks arse). 

I don't start getting crashes until about 2-3 hours into game play. (In 1.09q)

Sorry you are upset about the current state of things, but Stardock is actively working on improving it, and it has improved markedly every time a patch has come out.

You can either sit there and complain, wait for stability, ask for your money back, or play the game in its current state and give feedback on stability and balance to try make it a better game.

Please keep playing!  The more crashes the better.  Post your saved games and debug files, then Stardock can fix this piece of shiz so it won't crash anymore.

P.S.  I think 1.1 will be bug free.  no bugs.  none.  zero.

SD has been very upfront with apologies about the fact that we are really paying beta testers for Elemental. If you have a problem with that, ask for a refund. You are going to be indirectly compensated for being a paying beta tester with 2 free expansions which would normally cost you a minimum of ~$20-30US each. So, in effect, assuming down the road Elemental is a playable product, you'll have basically gotten the original for free. Any established customer knows SD's track record of industry leading post-release product support and is giving them the benefit of the doubt they have earned that when all is said and done Elemental will be what it was advertised to be and possibly even better.

 I too cannot really play at this point, not even to beta test, as on my high-end machine I get crashes after the first 30 turns or so performing almost any action in 1.09q.

But, that's just the state of affairs with PC gaming nowadays. No single player friendly PC game I have bought in the last 2-3 years that's worth replaying after the first month of mastering it has been very playable at the beginning. The difference with companies like Paradox Interactive, Matrix games and Stardock is, at the end of the day it will be playable, no matter how much time and money it takes. Be glad this isn't a company like Creative Assemblies that releases bug ridden crap, tosses out a half baked patch or two on their gold version and calls it a day.

I believe 1.1 will be stable, as long as everyone playing the BETA releases continues to post actual crash-dumps so Stardock can capture all of the bugs and squash them before release.  Please remember that the current releases are not meant to improve stability, per se, because they are beta releases.  If you want stable, play the pre-beta 1.09.

For my part, I'm waiting for 1.1 because I have limited gaming time, and I'd rather play a stable game.  Betas aren't usually fun, and much as I'd love to help out, I have some catching up to do in other games that I also enjoy.  Needless to say, the time will come when I'll be obsessed with playing Elemental, and I am thankful to everyone playing the beta releases so that my experience later will be better, and will happen sooner.

I played the latest beta of 1.1 today for 3 hours straight, not one crash, so yes I believe 1.1 will be as stable as any other PC Game out there. The first 1.1 beta was of course a lot less stable than previous releases because they'd added a multithreaded AI and multithreading always tends to add the potential for hard to fix and reproduce bugs.

Anyway I can honestly say each beta patch since has been more stable and the current one so far has been entirley stable for me.

anyway to bad you've lost interest but I'm not going to loose any sleep over it to be honest. For me every patch improves the game and while the first 1.1 beta caused a dip in stability it's markedly improved since then. Anyway have fun playing what ever you choose to play next.

Hope you are submitting those logs I have a pretty high spec machine and 1.09q is really stable for me, sounds like it might be something in your specific hardware/software build so I'm sure they'd find your logs particularly helpful.

truth is there is no such thing as a PC game that's 100% stable on all PCs that meet the theoretical requirement any more, games engines and video card drivers are for example both very big complex pieces of software and something can be perfectly stable on one combination of hardware and drivers and crash all the time on another.

 All they can do is keep bug hunting.

"I believe 1.1 will be stable, as long as everyone playing the BETA releases continues to post actual crash-dumps so Stardock can capture all of the bugs and squash them before release."

Beta version was released a few weeks ago. I thought I bought full version of game. Well I was lied like many other users. All versions of the game are not stable on my PCs...

"Please keep playing!  The more crashes the better.  Post your saved games and debug files, then Stardock can fix this piece of shiz so it won't crash anymore."

Are you kidding me? Am NOT a beta tester Am a customer so am not going to post anything. I did it few times and I do not see any improvment. Let Stardock do this. I paid them for this!

Don't you get it people!? Stardock has made you FREE beta testers since you bought the game. Even more. You paid them 50$ to became a beta tester! So how does it sound to you?

No game is perfect. 90% of games have patches. But this game is insane! Really. Stardock should have its place in Guinness Book for "The biggest lie in the video game history ever"

Am sorry but my frustration level reached its maximum! I gave stardock a lot of time. And for what! I will never ever buy any game that is made by stardock.

Maybe don't download a beta patch if you don't want to beta test? I mean, no one can force you to use youor brain but feel free too.  Christ try and learn to make sense a bit with what you post.

Alright guys, let's not flame each other.  It sucks that we're losing customers.  It sucks that there's bugs in the game we spent so much time, effort, ideas, dreams, etc.. on.  But all we can do is keep working to resolve the issues as we find the causes.  We do care that once loyal fans now question us.  We do care that we got tore up in reviews after coming off the high review average of the gal civ 2 games.  You know?  It sucks, but for those of you that can, hang in there.  Let us win you back.  And keep the bug reports coming.  This is your game as much as it is ours.  We want to all love it.

Do you actually buy PC games without doing any research at all? I'm not talking about trying a cracked version first or anything, I mean just reading up on what the game is like and the reviews for it.

Because even a modicum of research would tell you that the release of this game was a total flop, and that Stardock is in the process of revamping the game drastically, and going through a (volunteer) beta process right now. You'd also hear about the free expansions, as has been mentioned. They've been releasing patches every couple days lately (some back to back), and are responding to feedback very quickly (sometimes a same-day quickfix for a major issue created by a patch).

If all you want to do is complain and make noise, then troll away. If you are actually serious about this, you have two options: wait for the game to be improved, or ask for a refund.

Other than trying to get people riled up, I'm not sure what the point of your post here is. Were you actually expecting people who've stuck with the game so far are going to agree with you?

OK. Let me add my $.02. I have played the game from the released 1.00 version on through the rest. I often play 2-3 hours oer day and have started the game over 135 times since I bought it in August, on the day of release. My CTD levels have been on a par with most of the rest of the games I have owned and played over the last... wait... it's coming... 32 years!!!! I suspect my system is about as rock solid and stable as you get, even though I am running a Phenom II 965 BE, slightly overclocked, a Saphire 5770 ATI Video card, Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit, 8GB of ram, an SDD boot drive, the game is installed on a velociraptor HDD, and played in full screen on a 23" flat panel display. With the kind of setup I have I expect an occasional glitch. Those are sometimes caused by my antivirus (Avast!), sometimes a driver problem. I keep my drivers uptodate and keep my system tuned up at all times.

With all that as preamble, I suspect that some of the people most effected by the instability of W-WOM are running lower powered machines, have outdated drivers, run with too little memory, or have not done any system maintenance since they got their system. If a customer comes into the dealership, biotching about a poorly running car, it is more likely a function of deferred maintenance than poor design of the machine. Stardock has been very upfront in admitting to the release of a product before it was ready. I hope all of the biotchers take a moment ask themselves if they have always been letter perfect. I know a lot of people that work 40 minute hours and get paid an hours pay, hour after hour, day after day, and never feel the least bit of shame. Stardock has behaved very honorably through this entire episode. They deserve praise, not condemnation for their efforts.

I, for one, am sufficiently impressed by Stardock to show my support by giving Copies of Sins of a Solar Empire to three of my nephews for Christmas. If you are holding off your endosement of Stardock. that is certainly your right and I understand that. But I can;t endorse anyone who bad mouths Stardock after all they have done, and are doing to improve the difficult situation they created with the premature release of W-WOM.

My compliments to Stardock Staff and Fans. This is one standup company IMHO!