This is really depressing

[Minnzy]

I have an obscene amount of hours in Stellaris (Almost 3k), it's probably my most played game ever on steam but in recent times I haven't been able to play a game without constant crashes. Back in the day the occasional mod conflict would make it crash occasionally but now I can't even get past the first year without crashing.

I've followed EVERYTHING I've found online, deleting literally everything, reinstalling, updating drivers and I even have new hardware but it continues to happen constantly. Every time I see something new to try I unsub, delete all files and do a fresh install lately but it's always the same random crash. I've probably heard the games music more then I ever have before with how often I've reinstall hoping every time the issue would be fixed but even with new CPU, RAM, Mobo etc the game continues to hate me :(

The ONLY thing I can think of is my dated GPU which I sadly wasn't able to upgrade before losing my job but it's never had an issue before and Stellaris is the ONLY game that has issues so I'm just lost. What really sucks is I'm so damn excited for the next expansion (The swarm needs its meatships!) but it would be a massive waste of money given the game won't stay open for 5 minutes :(

Sorry for the random rant, a part of me is hoping someone links to something where Paradox is like "Oh btw there is this constant crash bug for some people we're aware of and will totally fix!" but given few people seem to be complaining on here it seems something is just horribly wrong with my luck.

[Anshin]

Same but Hoi4.

[Oakshadow]

The crashes are a software issue. And you're not alone. We were, for a time, playing Stellaris every tuesday multiplayer. However since the release of Grand Archive we could never get past mid-late game without the game totally crashing and desyncing constantly.

Game crashes typically only happen for one of a handful of reasons. First and most common is that there's an error in the code causing a function /asset to fail to load or infinitely loop.
Second the game attempts to call on system resources that aren't there or can't be found.
Third your hardware is failing (these only manifest as the game freezing up and hanging or the computer resetting itself without user input)

The last one probably isn't the case.... so that only leaves the first two.
The only reason to uninstall / delete all folders and reinstall is to clear mod files and settings that might be causing issues. Otherwise simply verifying file integrity should work fine.
(I'm going to assume you tested without mods before reintroducing them.)

If that's not doing it the next thing to look at is your system. Is your HDD / SDD in good working order? Not all drives are the same.. HDDs are really slow compared to SDDs. While M.2 drives are faster still. Does your Video card have more than 6 gigs of VRAM on it? Nvidia is notorious for skimping out on memory for their cards, even though most modern games require a minimum of 8 gigs.

Have you dusted out your machine recently? Is your power supply providing enough voltage to your components? Do any of the cables look like they might be in disrepair or kinked in a way that suggests the cabling inside could be damaged?

Are you having similar issues with other games crashing?
is your bios up to date?
Have you tried.... Linux? (j/k......mostly)

If everything above looks good.... than there really isn't much else you can do except wait for 4.0 to drop and hope it gets fixed. (which it might, they're doing a lot of back-end performance and stability work with 4.0) You can also try and troubleshoot the issue in game, keeping the saves and making note of exactly what happens just before the game goes down. If you can recreate the crash consistently enough to have a general idea of what's triggering it, you can send that information along to Paradox on their bug reporting forum. The more information you can provide them the more likely the crash will be fixed.

[Blind]

Probably the gpu if you feel you've ruled all else out. if its dirty you could try air dusting inside the fans to help it cool better. Also have you tried turning the graphics down and then playing? I assume you've updated drivers on it. Make sure that its happening in the vanilla game to rule out all mods and dlc. Good luck, I know how much it sucks. I had an old gpu that was fairly new and started bsoding randomly after like 15-20 minute sessions. New gpu solved the problem. Almost lost my mind trying everything else.

[chronoss2008]

Originally posted by Minnzy:

I have an obscene amount of hours in Stellaris (Almost 3k), it's probably my most played game ever on steam but in recent times I haven't been able to play a game without constant crashes. Back in the day the occasional mod conflict would make it crash occasionally but now I can't even get past the first year without crashing.

I've followed EVERYTHING I've found online, deleting literally everything, reinstalling, updating drivers and I even have new hardware but it continues to happen constantly. Every time I see something new to try I unsub, delete all files and do a fresh install lately but it's always the same random crash. I've probably heard the games music more then I ever have before with how often I've reinstall hoping every time the issue would be fixed but even with new CPU, RAM, Mobo etc the game continues to hate me :(

The ONLY thing I can think of is my dated GPU which I sadly wasn't able to upgrade before losing my job but it's never had an issue before and Stellaris is the ONLY game that has issues so I'm just lost. What really sucks is I'm so damn excited for the next expansion (The swarm needs its meatships!) but it would be a massive waste of money given the game won't stay open for 5 minutes :(

Sorry for the random rant, a part of me is hoping someone links to something where Paradox is like "Oh btw there is this constant crash bug for some people we're aware of and will totally fix!" but given few people seem to be complaining on here it seems something is just horribly wrong with my luck.

and im going to bet that all these dlc all the addons make it so hard to fix ♥♥♥♥ they do very little of it

instead of making a actual new game Stellaris 2 with a bunch of these dlc embedded
and maybe updates to an engine then sit back and as tarmack said in 2018 toss you bits cause its dirt cheap to do and rake in cash

why take a risk when you can sit here till the issues are so bad no one plays then make a new game....every 15 years

[Oakshadow]

Originally posted by chronoss2008:

and im going to bet that all these dlc all the addons make it so hard to fix ♥♥♥♥ they do very little of it

instead of making a actual new game Stellaris 2 with a bunch of these dlc embedded
and maybe updates to an engine then sit back and as tarmack said in 2018 toss you bits cause its dirt cheap to do and rake in cash

why take a risk when you can sit here till the issues are so bad no one plays then make a new game....every 15 years

^ This is not helpful to OP. Please don't hijack threads asking for help.

[Minnzy]

Originally posted by Oakshadow:

If everything above looks good.... than there really isn't much else you can do except wait for 4.0 to drop and hope it gets fixed. (which it might, they're doing a lot of back-end performance and stability work with 4.0) You can also try and troubleshoot the issue in game, keeping the saves and making note of exactly what happens just before the game goes down. If you can recreate the crash consistently enough to have a general idea of what's triggering it, you can send that information along to Paradox on their bug reporting forum. The more information you can provide them the more likely the crash will be fixed.

Seems waiting is the best I can do. No other game seems to have issues, my PC is quite clean since upgrading my parts late last year (The crashes predate the new hardware but the crashes are identical) and with new hardware came fresh installation of windows also and the reinstall have been on 3 different HDD's with the most recent being my old, non SSD just incase but before my ship had finished scanning the first system it crashed again.

My GPU is old, quite old and maybe the updates have just left it behind. running it was always fine before but maybe the new features just bring things the poor girl just can't do. Just wish I didn't lose my job because I'd love to be able to write that off as a possibility.

The modded game crashes were fine and obvious. The game would just die at the years end and no matter how many reloads it would always die at the same place which was fun because I enjoy finding the conflicts. This one is just so random with nothing that seems to connect it. If I load it up I can always get past when it crashes and sometimes even play for a bit, once in desperation I basically reloaded constantly and got to the mid game crisis but it just became too much of a bother even though I never really lost much progress. I want to get my mates back in to it but there is no way with all these issues.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Originally posted by Minnzy:

My GPU is old, quite old and maybe the updates have just left it behind. running it was always fine before but maybe the new features just bring things the poor girl just can't do. Just wish I didn't lose my job because I'd love to be able to write that off as a possibility.

Old drivers will cause a lot of instability in modern gaming. Could try looking at Windows' compatibility mode too. Or disabling some of the graphics options in Stellaris.

[Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG)]

I get frequent crashes as well. I have a higher end graphics card and drivers are up to date, so I don't think its a hardware issue. Especially if the game crashes in the early game as well as the late game.

I've had the problem since I tried playing again in November. I took a break thinking it would eventually be fixed but when I tried it recently, it still crashes.

[soontir fel]

This might be a stupid idea but didn't paradox make it so you can go to older versions? so if the current version is the problem cant you go back to the older ones? or is that not a thing and I am making that up.

[Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG)]

Originally posted by soontir fel:

This might be a stupid idea but didn't paradox make it so you can go to older versions? so if the current version is the problem cant you go back to the older ones? or is that not a thing and I am making that up.

That's a very helpful suggestion. Silly me selfishly demanding that their current game (the one being sold as a finished product) should be bug free.

[soontir fel]

Originally posted by Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG):

Originally posted by soontir fel:

This might be a stupid idea but didn't paradox make it so you can go to older versions? so if the current version is the problem cant you go back to the older ones? or is that not a thing and I am making that up.

That's a very helpful suggestion. Silly me selfishly demanding that their current game (the one being sold as a finished product) should be bug free.

obviously they should also fix it but it would temporarily solve the OPs problem which is that he wants to play stellaris but can't... no need to be salty about it.

[Forrosa Kalon]

Originally posted by chronoss2008:

Originally posted by Minnzy:

I have an obscene amount of hours in Stellaris (Almost 3k), it's probably my most played game ever on steam but in recent times I haven't been able to play a game without constant crashes. Back in the day the occasional mod conflict would make it crash occasionally but now I can't even get past the first year without crashing.

I've followed EVERYTHING I've found online, deleting literally everything, reinstalling, updating drivers and I even have new hardware but it continues to happen constantly. Every time I see something new to try I unsub, delete all files and do a fresh install lately but it's always the same random crash. I've probably heard the games music more then I ever have before with how often I've reinstall hoping every time the issue would be fixed but even with new CPU, RAM, Mobo etc the game continues to hate me :(

The ONLY thing I can think of is my dated GPU which I sadly wasn't able to upgrade before losing my job but it's never had an issue before and Stellaris is the ONLY game that has issues so I'm just lost. What really sucks is I'm so damn excited for the next expansion (The swarm needs its meatships!) but it would be a massive waste of money given the game won't stay open for 5 minutes :(

Sorry for the random rant, a part of me is hoping someone links to something where Paradox is like "Oh btw there is this constant crash bug for some people we're aware of and will totally fix!" but given few people seem to be complaining on here it seems something is just horribly wrong with my luck.

and im going to bet that all these dlc all the addons make it so hard to fix ♥♥♥♥ they do very little of it

instead of making a actual new game Stellaris 2 with a bunch of these dlc embedded
and maybe updates to an engine then sit back and as tarmack said in 2018 toss you bits cause its dirt cheap to do and rake in cash

why take a risk when you can sit here till the issues are so bad no one plays then make a new game....every 15 years

Not to continue this but stellaris 2 would be a cities skylines 2 situation and we dont want that.

As for the OP, if all else fails you could try Geforce now while you wait. I edited this after reading closer and wanted to say that stellaris is more cpu bound than gpu.

[Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG)]

Originally posted by soontir fel:

Originally posted by Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG):

That's a very helpful suggestion. Silly me selfishly demanding that their current game (the one being sold as a finished product) should be bug free.

obviously they should also fix it but it would temporarily solve the OPs problem which is that he wants to play stellaris but can't... no need to be salty about it.

I misread what you initially said as being hostile. Now I see you were being serious. I genuinely apologize for my poor reading comprehension.

You're right, that would temporarily solve the issue.

[HappySack]

Well this is a potential issue with a constantly updating game, if you aren't using irony mod manger to keep a stable copy of the game, nor if any of the usual fixes help then try copy and pasting a crash report to see if anyone can diagnose the problem though I have to note if the game is crashing at the same time every game then it might be an anti-virus or disk-writing issue.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Dark Emu (BELIEVER OF SKONG):

Originally posted by soontir fel:

This might be a stupid idea but didn't paradox make it so you can go to older versions? so if the current version is the problem cant you go back to the older ones? or is that not a thing and I am making that up.

That's a very helpful suggestion. Silly me selfishly demanding that their current game (the one being sold as a finished product) should be bug free.

"Bug free" does not exist in a modern software development environment. What you're "selfishly demanding" here may as well be considered flatly impossible.