Why can't Stardock create a stable version of Elemental?

I've never seen a game so unstable/buggy, even after almost a half year of patches.

What's really going on, is the game engine so broken that Elemental will never work right?

Even with all the time and resources Stardock is putting into the project, Elemental is just slightly more stable than it was back in September.

Is there a date for a stable version of Elemental?

 

 

23,338 views 39 replies
Reply #1 Top

1.1 was pretty stable.  I didn't have any crashes, nor were there any major bugs that stopped a game for me.  I didn't notice as many OOM errors on the forum either for 1.1.

I do find the vanilla game somewhat empty - but the mod community fixed that with ACP, Weapon Mod, and Extended Factions.  Murteas Grimoire made the start game more magical by not requiring me to research to gain my first usable spells.

The most recent is a beta patch.  There is always going to be instability in betas.  1.2 will be the next stable release

Reply #2 Top

Beta version or not the game should be a lot more stable by now, there just isn't any reason to put out another untested/buggy version of it. I do hope 1.2 will be a stable version, I've not seen a version of the game yet that didn't crash, run out of memory or slowed to a crawl late game! That even doesn't include the ton of minor bugs or lack luster AI. I would like to try mods but, don't use any mods because the game is still unstable, nobody should be using mods for a beta version anyway.

 

 

 

Reply #3 Top

...

You don't really understand the purpose of a beta, do you? It's not just balance testing, you know?

Reply #4 Top

Are you using the beta release or still 1.1? Because 1.1 was very stable for me but the 1.19 (1.2 beta) is giving me performance issues and OOM's again.

Reply #5 Top

This is an experimental engine to be sure. I think the benefits of its potential outweigh the extended birthing pains. The whole multithread thing is a very good concept. Hope it catches on along with all other parts of Stardock's unique gaming pathos. 

I do understand your frustration though.  X|

Reply #6 Top

Quoting Tydorius, reply 4
Are you using the beta release or still 1.1? Because 1.1 was very stable for me but the 1.19 (1.2 beta) is giving me performance issues and OOM's again.
End of Tydorius's quote

 

This..

If your complaining about lack of stability in a beta patch.. thats going through open testing for stability then i'm really not sure what your beef is. Which looking at your post history seems to be your pattern.. complain about unstable beta patches when they are being tested for stability via an open beta...

Reply #7 Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 5
... Hope it catches on along with all other parts of Stardock's unique gaming pathos. ...
End of seanw3's quote

"gaming ethos" maybe? The big-name game shops are pathetic enough already, doubt Stardock could teach them much there... ;)

Reply #8 Top

Quoting pad152, reply 2
Beta version or not the game should be a lot more stable by now, there just isn't any reason to put out another untested/buggy version of it....

 
End of pad152's quote

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Beta

 

Beta versions are for testing. There's no requirement for them to be stable, and Impulse makes the beta optional, along with all updates.

If you're complaining about the game and turn around and say "There's no reason to put out another untested version of it" that's your problem right there. Untested - You test things through BETA. The most recent patch is a BETA. Meaning it's _being tested_. So if you're wanting improvement to the game then there is every reason to continue to release 'untested' 'buggy' versions. It's how they're working out the bugs.

I'm not trying to sound like an asshat here (As in, a donkey you wear on your head, not ass as in the derogatory violating forum rules phrase) but I think that checking out a lot of companies' software development cycles will reveal that most betas are inherently buggy because that is their purpose - To reveal bugs.

Many of the people following this game seem to have a background in modding, programming, database related work, whatever, so a lot of us understand the phases and are more understanding for it. This post doesn't do your cause any justice because it seems you're using the term beta without understanding what it implies, which to a lot of people on this forum makes you look like you don't know quite what's going on.

Like I said, not trying to be an asshat - I've put my foot in my mouth plenty of times (Tastes like corn chips and bad chinese food) so I'm posting this for your reference to help out.

 

 

 

Reply #9 Top

Version v1.11 is the current released version of the game and is very stable.

Reply #10 Top

As one of the hilariously entertaining graphical glitch sufferers, it's obvious what I'm getting myself into when I download a pre-release update...

Reply #11 Top

Pad never gets tired of these crap threads.

Reply #12 Top

I would like to try mods but, don't use any mods because the game is still unstable, nobody should be using mods for a beta version anyway.
End of quote

Ummm...Many of the current mods have been well tested in both the stable and beta versions of the game. As a Elemental modder, I think that fear of mods in the current game is a bit silly and that you are missing out on some really interesting expansions to the core game. Honestly, these types of statements hurt the community more than it promotes the developers to up their enthusiasm about the product. If you are having OOM errors and CTDs, then make an after action report and post a save game. Don't make broad comments about how no one should be using mods because you feel cheated or angry at a game.

Reply #13 Top


I've never seen a game so unstable/buggy, even after almost a half year of patches.

What's really going on, is the game engine so broken that Elemental will never work right?

Even with all the time and resources Stardock is putting into the project, Elemental is just slightly more stable than it was back in September.

Is there a date for a stable version of Elemental?

 

 

End of quote
Get some decent hardware and keep your drivers up to date? Other then the original release I have never had any problems with this game. I think its alot of users piece of shit computers causing them troubles. Not all users of course, but a lot of users.

 

Edit: One more thing pad. Why don't you post a dxdiag so we can see what you are working with. I have a theory that you fall under pos pc hardware.

Reply #14 Top

Quoting pad152, reply 2
Beta version or not the game should be a lot more stable by now, there just isn't any reason to put out another untested/buggy version of it. I do hope 1.2 will be a stable version, I've not seen a version of the game yet that didn't crash, run out of memory or slowed to a crawl late game! That even doesn't include the ton of minor bugs or lack luster AI. I would like to try mods but, don't use any mods because the game is still unstable, nobody should be using mods for a beta version anyway.
End of pad152's quote

1.1 is stable. Revert to 1.1, try the mods (they're awesome), and wait for 1.2. Playing the 1.19 beta and then bitching about the bugginess is asinine.

Reply #15 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 9
Version v1.11 is the current released version of the game and is very stable.
End of Frogboy's quote

 

Not in my experience.  I just updated to Win7 a couple weeks ago with all the latest drivers and I STILL get crashes.  I'm running 1.11.

Reply #16 Top

Quoting dragoaskani, reply 13

Other then the original release I have never had any problems with this game.
 
End of dragoaskani's quote

 

Not one problem since 1.00??   Okay...  miracles can happen, but a very unique combination of conditions would have to be met for the above statement to be even remotely possible (completely regardless of how godly one's rig may be):

- you've never played the game again until 1.09

- never played longer than two hours at a time

- never played on a huge map

- never tried alt+tab while in-game

 

If you've met all (or at least 3/4) of the above conditions, one could believe you.

 

 

...otherwise, you're full of sh*t.

Reply #17 Top

Quoting Victor5, reply 16


Not one problem since 1.00?  Okay... miracles can happen, but a very specific combination of conditions would have to be met for the above statement to be even remotely possible:

- if you've never played the game again until 1.09

- never played the game longer than two hours at a time

- never played on a huge map

- never tried alt+tab while in-game

If you've met all of the above conditions, I can believe you. 

 

Otherwise, you're full of sh*t.
End of Victor5's quote

 

Frogboy said several times that the original game came out because they weren't having these kind of severe errors in the testing. So even 1.0 was able to pass on some systems. Certainly, now that the numbers of active users has increased it seems like it's crashing more, but it's still a percentage.

 

It's just like the debates about computer companies. Dell is shot at a lot because of the massive amounts of complaints and problems reported. But that's because they may have 10,000 issues for every 500,000 systems they sell, whereas other companies may have 100 for every 1,000, and just sell a lesser amount. There's a higher percentage, but because there's fewer systems sold there's fewer complaints and they look like the better company.

 

Sure, 75% of people may have issues, but every patch that comes out there's a lot of people that say "I'm not crashing anymore" and a lot of people that say "I started crashing again". But there's others who either crash _every_ time and then start trolling the forums, and others who never crash and then become the anti-trolls.

 

1.11 was the first version that I actually enjoyed playing, but I like following the betas so I updated and now I'm having issues again. But it's a beta so I'm not worried.

Reply #18 Top

^ I'm sure some have had much better luck who haven't played extensively, especially earlier versions.  But I cannot take anyone seriously who boasts they haven't had ONE problem after the initial public release of this game (nothing against Stardock either; it's uncommon to truthfully claim this about any game of this complexity).

 

In other words, it's loosely claiming Elemental has been "bug-free" after 1.00.  That's just blatant trolling.

Reply #19 Top

Get some decent hardware and keep your drivers up to date? Other then the original release I have never had any problems with this game. I think its alot of users piece of shit computers causing them troubles. Not all users of course, but a lot of users.
End of quote

Yeah, sure, now it´s their fault.
Sure you´re somehow right, but that still doesn´t make it better for the people who have problems with playing EWOM.

Still I have to say that it may be worthwhile to check what other programms run in the background while playing EWOM.
I had "crashes" where the whole computer just instantly shut down, when I had music running in the background with Foobar 2000.
Without it I didn´t have that issue.

Reply #20 Top

Even with all the time and resources Stardock is putting into the project, Elemental is just slightly more stable than it was back in September.

Is there a date for a stable version of Elemental
End of quote

True if they weren't making major changes to memory management in new versions. I'm afraid when you start trying to improve memory management and as in the last patch multithreading support you open the door to introducing all sorts of crash bugs. Hence the beta of the last two patches, because they know this is a risk.

Anyway frankly if you don't like ustable software don't download anything labeled beta is a good rule of thumb and frankly I've played plenty of major titles from good software house that have ad crash bugs well after release some have never been fixed and that's on versions not labeled "Beta".

So to answer you questions the second one is a guess based on my programing and gaming experience;

1 - Beta prior to 1.1 was unstable because of major changes to multi-thread AI.

2 - Current beta has major changes to memory management designed to improve efficiency of memory use a(and this has led to a new OOM bug).

Reply #21 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 9
Version v1.11 is the current released version of the game and is very stable.
End of Frogboy's quote

Agreed, I've never had a crash from it.

The new beta is a little unstable because I suspect of the changes in memory management and a bug that's crept in there.

Reply #22 Top

Quoting Aerion, reply 15



Quoting Frogboy,
reply 9
Version v1.11 is the current released version of the game and is very stable.


 

Not in my experience.  I just updated to Win7 a couple weeks ago with all the latest drivers and I STILL get crashes.  I'm running 1.11.
End of Aerion's quote

Are you posting the debug.err files? I run windows 7 and 1.11 was 100% stable on my system.

Reply #23 Top

Quoting econundrum1, reply 22



Quoting Aerion Istari,
reply 15



Quoting Frogboy,
reply 9
Version v1.11 is the current released version of the game and is very stable.
Not in my experience.  I just updated to Win7 a couple weeks ago with all the latest drivers and I STILL get crashes.  I'm running 1.11.



Are you posting the debug.err files? I run windows 7 and 1.11 was 100% stable on my system.
End of econundrum1's quote

Same here. No problems with 1.11

Reply #24 Top

I also had no crashes at all in 1.11, but I respect and acknowledge that that may not be the case for everyone.

Reply #25 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 9
Version v1.11 is the current released version of the game and is very stable.
End of Frogboy's quote

 

Not for me I'm afraid.  Bought a new hi-end gaming computer last fall with Windows 7 and I'm playing on a large map with 3 AI opponents and I'm regularly getting OOM errors and the game is crashing every 30 minutes or so.  I am not running any other programs while playing EWOM.

This isn't happening with my other PC games.

Hoping this is fixed in 1.2 'cause I really want to like this game.  It is the first game I've ever pre-ordered.

I will post the debug.err files if that is helpful to Stardock.

Regards.