Steam Message Board older than one year ago

Features Added
• After 5 years of war, technology has improved and Production Stations are now built into your ship.
• Camera control has been revamped and is much simpler and easier to control. Check the tutorials for more info.
• Wide-screen support has been added.
• You can now record games and play them back - there is a new Recordings menu to support this. Fast forward, rewind,pause and slow motion are all supported in recordings.
• The opening cinematics have been upgraded to 720p.
• Dedicated Servers no longer need to register with the web service in order to become official. All servers now earn stats and credits and experience points, even those with custom game types or mods.
• Maps no longer need to be approved in order to earn credits or exp. All custom maps can be used on all servers. The map registration program is closed.
• Objects that are being recycled have a much more visible effect. This new effect also uses up less Bandwidth and respects the 'high/low' detail SFX graphics setting.
• 'RestartMap' console command for admins or those with RCON to restart the level instead of always having to go to the next level. This could be useful for tournament type servers once all players are ready.
• Pressing your deploy button immediately after firing a deployable (shockwave for example) should now result in the deployable being correctly deployed even if your client doesn't yet have the projectile due to lag. This only occurs if its the only deployable in play (ie, it would have been activated next anyway).
• There is now a "Recycle Everything" command. Its CTRL recycle. (CTRL-R by default)
• AI bots will no longer ignore shockwaved incoming projectiles (such as reflected hyperbols) when deciding whether to defend themselves.
• AI bots now check that friendlies are not in the line of fire before firing each shot instead of only when initially selecting a target to fight with.
• The tutorials have been changed to reflect the change in game types.
• There is a new game type - Co-op mode! In co-op mode, humans are on one side versus AI Bots on the other. Credits and experience are earned for Co-op games, so it's a good way for new players to fight alongside pros instead of against them.
• The network code has been tightened in several ways - overall bandwidth usage is down, especially for cluster bombs and certain explosive effects.
• Rendering code is optimized in maps with many bonus zones.
• New 'FFWD' console command - for single player or botmatches only. Causes the game to run at 8x speed. Good for testing map objective scripts or watching bots fight.
• Bots now have full pathfinding ability. This only works on maps that have had AI pathfinding nodes authored for them. See the wiki on how to author the necessary stuff for your maps. Most official maps already have this pathfinding information, and its fairly quick to author for custom maps. Bots will still function without it.
• Maps do a more precise compilation of collision, so that they dont miss any edges.
• The game now correctly publishes server information to Steam (if that option is enabled), so that they show up in the steam servers list and can be joined on friends.
• The map editor now has a basic auto-complete connection assistant when authoring logic blocks, use the middle mouse button.
• The audio system has been rewritten to use OpenAL. This leads to lower cost audio with better-sounding doppler effects.
• The skirmish screen (bot-match) has been updated
• There are now indicators on the edge of the screen to indicate where enemies and friendlies are in relation to yourself.

Bugs Fixed
• The delay for people being removed from their team for idling has been fixed - it should no longer eject people before they have elected not to surface for a couple minutes (AFK detection, basically)
• EMP'd disruptors, attractors and repulsors no longer reveal stealth.
• Many through-wall shooting exploits have been fixed. This includes regular shooting while moving, as well as scatterpacks.
• A physics glitch being used to randomly teleport has been fixed.
• Walls now link up through force wall boundaries as appropriate
• Splash damage now passes through force wall boundaries as appropriate.
• Anti-Deploy point defense system no longer activates after player death.
• TCP Console port crash fixed
• Mining facility had a bug in the surface beacon logic
• Lives should no longer overflow in rare cases in deathmatch games
• Non-functional mute icons removed from end-game summary screen
• "Exploding" player ships no longer trigger radius sensors
• "Exploding" player ships no longer trigger capture of beacons.
• "Exploding" player ships no longer use Defense Form while exploding
• Servers which you CAN join are no longer highlighted red (even if they are above your skill range). This was causing people to assume it was impossible to join these servers, without trying.
• AI bots will no longer attempt to shockwave deployed hyperplasms away instead of more important immediate threats
• When manually compiling a map's collision via console, the program will no longer save and quit automatically when it reaches high confidence levels. This lets you compile it yourself if you have a very strange map layout.

Balance Changes
• Pulse Cannon beam attenuation added. Beam damage will diminish slightly the further the beam gets.
• Pulse Cannon ammo recharges at a slightly slower rate
• Repair Drone launch speed reduced
• Repair Drone now decays over time if not being used in the field
• Singularities will now consume disruptors more easily that enter their area
• Singularities will shrink if they are overlapping a ship
• Cluster Wedge build speed increased
• Cluster Wedge capacity decreased
• Cluster Wedge damage slightly decreased
• Upgraded Rocket capacity and damage increased
• Disruptor health increased

Ten Halloweens ago, the absurdly popular Natural Selection mod transformed Half-Life into a multiplayer shooter with real-time strategy. Today, its long-developed sequel is finally up for pre-order on Steam, attached with a very convenient 'October 2012' release window. Yup, we'll eat our pumpkin hat if Natural Selection 2 isn't out by October 31. Until then, the game remains in beta with over 40,000 active players according to developer Unknown Worlds.

Natural Selection 2 now offers a tactical team-based shooter in a proprietary engine, with one side the marines, the other the aliens. One member of each team plays the "Commander" role, overseeing the fight from above and influencing it through RTS features like defenses, buildings, and upgrades.

Pre-orders on Steam are being rewarded with Natural Selection 2's deluxe version. That includes the official soundtrack, a digital art book, and some in-game armor amongst other goodies, all for $24.95. Sadly, there's been an oversight regarding a pumpkin hat.

Update: Clarified release window and corrected engine information.

Ten Halloweens ago, the absurdly popular Natural Selection mod transformed Half-Life into a multiplayer shooter with real-time strategy. Today, its long-developed sequel is finally up for pre-order on Steam, attached with a very convenient 'October 2012' release window. Yup, we'll eat our pumpkin hat if Natural Selection 2 isn't out on October 31. Until then, the game remains in beta with over 40,000 active players according to developer Unknown Worlds.

Natural Selection 2 now transforms Half-Life 2 into a tactical team-based shooter, with one side the marines, the other the aliens. One member of each team plays the "Commander" role, overseeing the fight from above and influencing it through RTS features like defenses, buildings, and upgrades.

Pre-orders on Steam are being rewarded with Natural Selection 2's deluxe version. That includes the official soundtrack, a digital art book, and some in-game armor amongst other goodies, all for $24.95. Sadly, there's been an oversight regarding a pumpkin hat.

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Necrovision!

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

Pre-Purchase Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers now at 10% off and get Air Conflicts: Secret Wars included for free!

If you already own Air Conflicts: Secret Wars, enjoy 33% off the pre-purchase of Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers.

True heroes know no bounds!

Experience top combat action in this brand new arcade flight sim and become immersed in the exploits of famous aircraft carriers. Choose the side you want to play on: the US Navy or the Imperial Japanese Navy. Climb into the cockpit and re-live the most famous battles of the War in the Pacific. Equip your aircraft with realistic weapons, and take to the air with your squadron.

Get ready for breathtaking air battles over the Pacific!

Well, that was quick. Steam Greenlight launched last week, and a horde of jokers and spammers took that to mean “open the floodgates on vaporware and oh-so-original cracks about the fact that Half-Life 3′s not out yet.” But now, without missing a beat, Valve’s moved to put a stop to all the shenanigans. In short, submitting a game to Greenlight requires an initial $100 fee – with all of the proceeds going straight to the Child’s Play charity. So it’s about “cutting down the noise in the system,” not creating the most hilariously diabolical money-making scheme the gaming world’s ever seen. But will it work? And does it alienate the folks who need Greenlight the most? I discussed Valve’s rather sudden decision with a few especially smart (and attractive) developers to get a clearer view of the situation.

(more…)

It’s not exactly a secret that Steam has a fair bit of clunk in its trunk, but Valve – to its credit – is slowly taking steps to make its digital giant a wee bit gentler. First up, the community. Once a cluttered mess of clicks and disorganized, disjointed pages, it’s now evolved into a promising fusion of Facebook, Reddit, and the color gray. And now, with a brief beta out of the way, you can come on in, take off your gaming coat, and have a look around.

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To make it a little harder to submit jokey "Half-Life 3" games to Steam Greenlight, Valve has instituted a $100 fee for anyone hoping to submit their games for community approval and eventual Steam sale.

"The proceeds will be donated to Child's Play," Valve UI designer Alden Kroll notes in the announcement. "We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system."

Additionally, the browsing experience has been altered. "The next time you visit Steam Greenlight you'll be shown a smaller, manageable list of games that you haven't rated," Kroll said. "This view is a mix of popular games and new games to Greenlight." Both of these initiatives are an effort to manage the exploding population of games on the service, from different angles. Greenlight has received over 700 submissions since its launch on August 30.

#steam With over 700 games already submitted to Steam's new Greenlight service, it's getting hard keeping track of things. It's also getting tough having to sift through the joke submissions to find the actual games. More »

The first major update to Steam Greenlight has been released today, aiming to improve discoverability of games and reduce the amount of clutter. You can read about the update over on the Steam Greenlight blog.

Steam Greenlight was released on August 30, enlisting the community's help in picking some of the next games to be released on Steam. Developers post information, screenshots, and videos for their game and seek a critical mass of community support in order to get selected for distribution. Steam Greenlight also helps developers get feedback from potential customers and start creating an active community around their game as early in the development process as they like.

For more information, please visit www.steamcommunity.com/greenlight.

Pre-Purchase Natural Selection 2 now and get upgraded to the Digital Deluxe Edition for free!

The Digital Deluxe Edition includes:
- Natural Selection 2 soundtrack (almost 1 hour of music)
- Digital Art Book (40 pages)
- Exclusive Wallpapers and Avatars
- Exclusive in-game marine model

Natural Selection 2 is an immersive, multiplayer shooter that pits aliens against humans in a strategic and action-packed struggle for survival. It seamlessly combines shooter and RTS/strategy gameplay.

We are happy to provide a patch for the Hitman: Sniper Challenge. This patch addresses:

- Some users would not hear any audio during the introduction movie. This is fixed.
- Various performance improvements.
- Fixes to mouse precision.
- Fixes for issues with Texture Quality and Texture Filtering in the graphics options.
- Miscellaneous other small fixes.

We are still investigating an issue where some users are unable to connect to the Sniper Challenge leaderboards, and hope to have another patch out for this shortly.

We hope you will continue to enjoy Hitman: Sniper Challenge!

IO Interactive & Nixxes

If you're excited to get Black Ops 2 for your Windows XP PC, prepare for disappointment. The FAQ page for the game's PC specifications reveals it's the first Call of Duty to not support the aged operating system.

Black Ops 2 is by no means the first major PC game not to support XP. Sleeping Dogs, which was released last month, is a recent example of another game to spurn the OS. Most high-profile games, however, do still support Windows XP, mainly because a significant number of gamers still use it. Steam's August Hardware and Software Survey reveals 13% of its audience ran their games on Windows XP, although that's compared to the 71% who used Windows 7.

The Black Ops 2 news coincides with Windows 7 narrowly overtaking XP as the most used desktop OS, according to NetMarketShare (not forgetting, of course, the launch of Windows 8 next month). XP is just coming up to its 11th birthday, but the overall picture suggests the venerable OS may be on its last legs, at least when it comes to gaming.

Steam's massive Community update has finished its beta phase and entered the wide open world of public availability, Valve announced today. The only two things required to log into the system are a Steam account and the desire to interact with other living human beings, one of which is more easily acquired than the other.

The meat of the Steam Community is its Game Hubs, which serve as Reddit-ish collections of both official and user-generated videos, screenshots, workshop items, and news for specific games, with all content being up or down-voted by users. Steam Community also lets users create non-game-specific "Groups" and enhances profile functionality by grouping all the content you've created into one place.

Steam Workshop and Steam Greenlight have also been wrapped up into Steam Community, and the Friends tab has been expanded to show you what your Steam pals are doing in the Community. You can also give people nicknames now, so get out there and start renaming all your contacts "Butts MacKenzie."

New Community Open for Everyone

September 4, 2012--Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the public launch of the new Steam Community with features focused on finding and sharing the best community content.

The new Community can be found at http://www.steamcommunity.com.

An overview of the features can be found at www.steamcommunity.com/communitycontent.

Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC and Mac games with over 40 million accounts around the world and over 2,000 titles offered.

Shad'O is Now Available on Steam and 10% off.*

In this unique Tower Defense, you will travel through Williams mind in a colored and dreamlike universe, made of a mix of pieces of memories, emotions and feelings.

Will you be able to drive the fog of oblivion away and help the boy recover his memory?

Your many companions light will be your best ally in this world distorted by fear and mystery.

*Offer ends September 11th at 10AM Pacific Time.

#steam In theory, Steam Greenlight will let any aspiring game developer get their game onto PC gaming's hottest online marketplace as long as enough gamers vote for it. But that promise doesn't appear to apply to the makers of the erotic game Seduce Me. The game's listing was pulled from Steam's new Greenlight service last Thursday, the same day it was posted there. More »

Spirits is now available on Steam and is 10% off until September 11th at 10AM Pacific Time!

Spirits is a relaxing action-puzzle game with a dynamic wind and world environment. Autumn is quickly approaching, and the spirits of fallen leaves are setting out on their journey home. Guide them by changing how the wind blows or by rebuilding the ground. Each spirit can be sacrificed to perform one of four actions build a bridge of leaves, create a blowing cloud, dig tunnels, or block wind currents in an area. Use your actions wisely or you will run out of spirits. In each level it's up to you to find your own creative solution on how to get the spirits to the goal.

Save 50% on A Game of Thrones - Genesis and Game of Thrones, or 66% when you pick them both up in the Game of Thrones Bundle during this week's Midweek Madness*!

A Game of Thrones - Genesis:
Immerse yourself into the battles and intrigues between the Houses that shaped the Kingdom of Westeros. Live the origins of A Game of Thrones saga through more than 1000 years of history, by taking part in Westeros' founding events and largest battles. Use military force, economical war and political cunning to keep your place on the Iron Throne!

Game of Thrones:
Experience an amazing adventure in one of the most complete and fascinating universes in medieval-fantasy literature. Game of Thrones is a great Role Playing Game that puts you at the core of a thrilling plot, where your fate will be guided by vengeance, allegiance and honor.


*Offer ends Thursday at 4PM Pacific Time

Save 50% on Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP during this week's Midweek Madness*!

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is an exploratory action adventure with an emphasis on audiovisual style. Traverse a mythic little realm, use a sword to do battle & evoke sworcery to solve mystical musical mysteries. Co-operate with friends via Twitter, experience a videogame world that is affected by moon phases & help a wandering warrior monk complete her woeful errand.

*Offer ends Thursday at 4PM Pacific Time

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Hydrophobia: Prophecy!

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

#playthis I don't know if Oprah Winfrey plays video games. For all I know she plays Angry Birds while commuting from her estate in California to her apartment in Chicago. Facebook games, at least, seem to be on her radar. More »

#valve A recent job listing on Valve's website confirms what the Half-Life developer has been discussing for the past few months: they're making hardware. More »

General Fixes:

Fixed an issue with team chat where messages were being displayed to all players
Fixed a crash that would sometimes occur when units attempted to capture certain points
Fixed the bug where Alt+Tab or Alt+Enter would set all subsequent mouse clicks to a flare
Fixed an issue where the mouse wouldnt re-recognize the game screen after selecting items outside of it (especially, in multi monitor setups)
Fixed certain text overlap issues in different screens
Fixed a crash for humans where right clicking on a destroyed structure would cause the game to crash
Fixed multiple tabs remaining highlighted in the Help Screen after switching to other screens
Fixed an issue where the Engineer would auto-repair an un-constructed building only to where it had topped being constructed. Now the building must first finish construction before it can be repaired.
Help and Options screens tab buttons adjusted to be more precise
Added a feature where you can send a private chat message/whisper to a player in the lobby by right-cicking on their name
All team-mates will now receive a message when one ally donates resources to another
Creating Supply Depots and Spirit Catchers will not trigger the Population Maximized audio file
The Fog-of-War has been optimized
A game host can no longer change the Race, Player-color or Team of other players in the same game
Added a loading image when creating or joining a game
Added Zali unit avatars and added a few for the humans and other miscellaneous units that were missing animated avatars
Fixed an issue with the Harvester where it would loop between healing and harvesting
A few Icons that were showing up wrong have been changed/altered
Updated Building and Unit descriptions
Added Buff/Debuff duration to icon mouseovers


Design & Balance Changes:

Zali Ability Changes:
Removed Preservation Tier 2 Turret Health Increase and replaced it with an ability for the Spine called Chrono-Warp.
Removed Global Turret Detection from Silence Tier 2 and moved it to Preservation Tier 1. Replaced the missing Silence ability with Fly Trap.

Harvester:
Can now consume its drones (Savior and Knitter)
The Mesh Knitter Drone ability has been moved to Tier 2 in the same Path.
New Ability Chrono-Warp: Increases the speed of all nearby allies by 5 for 5 seconds.

Listener:
Increased the Damage of Eviscerate by 25

Striker:
Decreased the Splash increase of Explosive Vyl from 2 tiles to 1 tile

All Zali Turrets:
Decreased the LoS & Attack Range increase upgrade available in Silence at Tier 3 from +15 each to +6 each

Kobaloi Turret:
New Ability Fly Trap: Slow all nearby enemies by 3 for 5 seconds, when activated.

Zali Temples:
Fixed an issue where no Over-Time effects applied to the Shrines (at all levels). Corrosive effects now apply to them.

Merc:
Increased Battle Fervor's crit. chance increase from 35% to 40% for the duration of the ability

Medic:
Nanobot Repair heal amount increased from 50 over 5 seconds to 75 over 5 seconds

Seeker:
Increased Electrified Beams's slow amount from 1.5 to 2

Behemoth:
The Flamethrower upgrade now applies to all ground based units (including buildings). Added & adjusted its stacking in the case of multiple Flamethrowers being used.

Steam's Greenlight service allows anyone to upload a game idea for community vetting, no matter what stage of production it's in - including "not real." This is an issue Valve predicted, and it has started taking measures to ban games that are obviously fake, such as anything called "Half-Life 3," and those that are patently offensive, such as "Best WTC Plane Simulator."

The only way Greenlight will succeed in its intended purpose is if its users take it seriously, and unfortunately for Steam, "the users" are "the internet." We'll keep an eye on Greenlight's progress once the initial hubbub dies down.

This is why absolute freedom is a terrible idea, people. The rabble can't be trusted with such a liberated, unchecked service, and let's be honest, most of them need to be kept on a short government-dispersed leash. That in mind, check out our new game on Steam Greenlight, Freedom Sucks: Revenge of the Plutocrats.

Today's Deal: Save 66% off Half-Life 2!

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

Luxor: Amun Rising HD is now available on Steam and is 25% off until September 10th at 10AM Pacific Time! Enjoy another 25% off if you already own Luxor Amun Rising!

Glory and adventure await as you return to save Ancient Egypt from certain doom in Luxor: Amun Rising. As chains of colored spheres rapidly approach the gateway of the pyramids, its up to you to stop them with your magical winged-scarab shooter. Fire colored orbs to make matches of three or more and eliminate oncoming chains.

Today's Deal: Save 50% off ORION: Dino Beatdown!

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Waveform!

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

Today's Deal: Save 75% off 7 Wonders: Treasures of Seven!

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!