Steam Message Board older than one year ago

1.0.23069.1
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Critical fixes:
- Fix SK crash
- Fixed an Alien Habitation module slotting bug that prevented stations from being upgraded. (See known issues below.)

Other fixes:
- Addressed recent long turn times.
- AI now uses full command point limit when constructing fleets.
- Fixed beam vs planet lengths.
- Fixed bore ships firing node cannon when targets are out of range.
- Fixed stations spawning in center of planet during rebellion.
- Fixed VN discs not shooting.
- Fixed fleet interception teleport bug.
- Fixed ship acceleration modifications based on modules not being applied.

Other changes and additions:
- Added government effects when a system is opened or closed in a turn.
- Adjustments to colony and biome ships.

Known issues:
- Stations that cannot be upgraded in old save games will remain locked. Stations in new games will be fine.

#gateways Coming this week to Steam and Xbox Live Indie Games, Gateways is a 2D retro-style platformer that creator David Johnston describes as "like Portal, only better." Those are fighting words, Mr. Johnston. More »

Steam's Big Picture Mode, the new menu designed for use on TVs, will be available in beta today, as reported over the weekend. More information, including screenshots of the menu, was released today, including the above look at the on-screen keyboard.

The "lotus" style keyboard (as in the flower, not the software company) has users tilt an analog stick in one of eight directions to highlight a cluster of letters, then hit a colored button to specify the letter. It's a weird-looking solution to the problem of on-screen typing, but a Valve staffer told Kotaku that when people try it, ""they're almost instantly faster than [when using] QWERTY."

Big Picture also includes a web browser, which can be used simultaneously with a game through a multitasking feature. You can switch back and forth, Kotaku reports, without going back to your PC's desktop.

This isn't necessarily a first step toward the legendary "Steam Box" console. ""What we really want is to ship [Big Picture mode] and then learn," Big Picture Mode team leader Greg Coomer said. "So we want to find out what people value about that. How they make use of it. When they make use of it. Whether it's even a good idea for the broadest set of customers or not. And then decide what to do next."

#preview Today, Valve will launch the beta of Big Picture mode, a version of Steam designed for your television. That's right. The de facto central hub of PC gaming is now designed to run while you're lounging in your living room—and with a controller, no less. I've tried out Big Picture. It's sleek, intuitive, and groundbreaking in several ways. More »

Tendrils of Steam are preparing to spread throughout homes across the world. With all the talk and rumours of wearable computers, a Steam OS and anything with a ’3′ in the title, it’s been easy to forget about The Big Picture. With an interface designed for television screens, Big Picture will transfer the Steam library to your living room, “or anywhere there’s a big screen”, so you can finally play Left 4 Dead on that fifty inch Plasma screen in the bathroom while soaking in the tub. A New York Times feature on Valve drops the information that Big Picture will enter public beta today, although quite how and when specifically is not mentioned. I’m keen to test this out, even though my big screen isn’t all that much bigger than my small one.

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Today's Deal: Save 75% off Terraria!

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!

Last August, we found out that Steam's Big Picture interface would be moving into its beta phase "soon," but we never expected it would be, like, soon. It is Valve after all, and our cold, dark hearts weren't never figured that Big Picture's public beta would be happen in our lifetimes, let alone on Monday, September 10, like the New York Times says.

For those of you who haven't been following this song's bouncing ball, allow us to refresh your memory: Steam' Big Picture interface is a custom UI designed specifically to make Valve's all-encompassing digital storefront more user-friendly on televisions. It's being designed with controller-based navigation in mind and would represent Valve's first primordial step into the living room. Whether Monday's testing is truly public or invitation based like its Community beta remains to be seen.

#valve The New York Times has a great feature on Valve and some of the things they've been up to recently, including these crazy wearable goggles. More »

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Kohan Warchest

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 Train Simulator 2013 now and receive 10% off!

The best just got even better! RailSimulator.com pushes the boundaries of simulation once again with Train Simulator 2013, the latest addition to the multi-award winning series. Feel the power as you drive some of the worlds mightiest machines on railroads across the globe. Master these heavy duty trains as you complete missions and face fearsome challenges, build your career or simply drive for pleasure. Use the built-in tools to create new railroads, or add to your collection from our huge range of DLC locos and routes.

Pre-Purchase Secret Files 3 now and receive 10% off and a free copy of Lost Horizon!

The bestselling Secret Files franchise celebrates its return!

The dream couple Max and Nina have announced their forthcoming wedding...but at the beginning of Secret Files 3 the event suffers a catastrophe! Max is arrested by Berlins police force. The accusation: Terrorism.

Ninas biggest adventure yet awaits her in the franchises third game. Could it be possible that everything is connected to the happenings in Tunguska? Is humankind depending on her? Can she save Max or is fate more important than her happiness? Throughout the story players will experience a cinematic hunt crossing continents, with many riddles waiting to be solved.

The adventure is not limited to the present, there are also all kinds of puzzles to solve set in the past and in the future, and depending on the choices the player makes, alternative endings await them...

Now and then I think of buying games on PC,
like maybe something with some action or some stealth?
But how to know which game is right for me?
So many different gaming companies,
Been burned before and it's an ache I still remember.

You can get addicted to the purchase of games on Steam,
especially when there's a sale, always a sale.
So when I found Batman: Arkham City,
including every piece of DLC,
well I'll admit that I was glad it was 20 percent off.

But you didn't have to kill them both!
Shot them dead behind the theater and now I'm an orphan.
I've still got my butler though,
The Joker tries to kill me and it feels so rough.

No you didn't have to stoop so low,
try to poison all of Gotham just to find your answer.
But I guess I need that antidote,
now I've spent some money that I used to own.
On Batman: Arkham City
On Batman: Arkham City
On Batman: Arkham City
Now I've spent some money that I used to own.

To The Moon is now available on Steam and 20% off.*

Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts have peculiar jobs: They give people another chance to live, all the way from the very beginning... but only in their patients' heads.

Due to the severity of the operation, the new life becomes the last thing the patients remember before drawing their last breath. Thus, the operation is only done to people on their deathbeds, to fulfill what they wish they had done with their lives, but didnt.

This particular story follows their attempt to fulfill the dream of an elderly man, Johnny. With each step back in time, a new fragment of Johnny's past is revealed. As the two doctors piece together the puzzled events that spanned a life time, they seek to find out just why the frail old man chose his dying wish to be what it is.

And Johnny's last wish is, of course... to go to the moon.

*offer ends September 14th at 10AM Pacific Time.

They say the 25th anniversary is the silver anniversary, so we hope Sam and Max got each other something nice and shiny. The duo celebrates 25 years of existence today with a sale across a variety of platforms: Steam, Xbox Live, PSN and iOS.

On Xbox Live, full seasons of both Sam & Max: Beyond Time & Space and Sam & Max: Save the World have been discounted to 800 MS Points ($10) each, down from their usual $20 asking price. On Steam, the Sam & Max Complete pack - which includes the above two seasons and The Devil's Playhouse - has been knocked down to $14.99 for this weekend only. If you're looking to pick up an individual season, you can grab each for $11.49.

On PSN, The Devil's Playhouse and Beyond Time and Space seasons are being bundled for $20; each individual season has been discounted to $12.99 a piece, €12.99 in Europe. Finally, on the App Store, each individual episode from Beyond Time and Space is available for $.99 each.

#opinion Steam Greenlight, the voter-determined submission system created by Valve, isn't free anymore. The point was to decrease the number of illegitimate submissions, which was neccesary after the insane influx of games that Greenlight saw just days after release. Some weren't happy with Valve's decision, given that other methods could have solved the submission problem without requiring such a high fee. More »

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the Steam menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

- Fixed FRIENDS tab incorrectly showing in client
- Fixes for upcoming apps release

Following the divisive announcement of Steam Greenlight's $100 fee, Valve says the service will "continue to evolve" across the near future. Speaking to Gamasutra, Valve's UI designer Alden Kroll said users inundated his company with suggestions following Greenlight's launch last week, and that he and his colleagues aren't done tweaking with the service yet.

"We have a huge list of suggestions from customers and the lessons we've learned from shipping," Kroll revealed, "so Greenlight will definitely continue to evolve over the next weeks and months as we tune the system and add valuable features."

The debate over Steam Greenlight's merits and faults rages on, and in particular over the $100 barrier. This week we asked several indie developers what they thought about the service, including Minecraft's Markus 'Notch' Persson, Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen, and Analogue: A Hate Story's Christine Love.

Relive the excitement and action from the 2012 London Olympics! Today's Deal: Save 50% off London 2012!

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!

Steam Greenlight isn't for everybody. Literally - five days after pushing Greenlight live, Valve implemented a $100 barrier to entry in the hopes of eliminating the barrage of prank game ideas by people who don't "fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight."

Before the fee, it was difficult to know what Greenlight was going to mean for the indie community, since its "new toy" sheen hadn't yet dissipated. It's even more difficult to gauge what Steam itself wanted Greenlight to accomplish, with or without the fee.

In its launch announcement, Valve says Greenlight will serve "as a clearing house for game submissions" and "provides an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans." If that sounds a lot like Kickstarter, it's because it sounds a lot like Kickstarter. This isn't a bad thing; it equates Greenlight to something that has run the online course and has experienced public showdowns and successes, something known.

While a few developers benefit from the high-speed, viral-hinged community vetting of crowd-sourced creative sites, even more have failed. Still, sites such as Kickstarter truly can help raise awareness for a legitimate project, even if that interest doesn't transform into cash. In this sense, Greenlight has an advantage, in that it's not trying to raise money. It only wants attention.

Developers want their games to reach astronomical levels of awareness as well, and recently this translates into a fixation on one particular service for the success or failure of their projects - Kickstarter, and now, Greenlight. Hundreds of pitch emails switch from titles such as "Snappy the Turtle, a new indie adventure game" to "Kickstart Snappy the Turtle" or "Vote for Snappy the Turtle on Greenlight." This shifts the focus away from the game itself, in both the mind of the developer and the person receiving the emails.

Since most people receiving the emails are video games journalists and potential publishers or fans, it's safe to say they don't particularly care about Kickstarter or Greenlight - they care about the game. So should the developer, more than anything.

Those who have succeeded on the development side offer a unique perspective on Steam Greenlight. We asked a few what they think about the service, the $100 and its impact on indies: Adam Saltsman, Markus Persson, Edmund McMillen, Christine Love and a group discussion among Rami Ismail, Zach Gage, Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter. Their thoughts are below.

Pre-Purchase XCOM: Enemy Unkown now and help unlock special rewards. Possible rewards include the Elite Soldier pack, 3 Exclusive XCOM TF2 items, and Civilization V. Check out the store page for more details.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will place you in control of a secret paramilitary organization called XCOM. As the XCOM commander, you will defend against a terrifying global alien invasion by managing resources, advancing technologies, and overseeing combat strategies and individual unit tactics.

The original XCOM is widely regarded as one of the best games ever made and has now been re-imagined by the strategy experts at Firaxis Games. XCOM: Enemy Unknown will expand on that legacy with an entirely new invasion story, enemies and technologies to fight aliens and defend Earth.

You will control the fate of the human race through researching alien technologies, creating and managing a fully operational base, planning combat missions and controlling soldier movement in battle.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:


Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Performance improvements
  

Team Fortress 2

• Added the Fall 2012 crate key to the Mann Co. store
  
• Fixed The Escape Plan not using the same taunt as The Equalizer
  
• Community mapping request:
  • Added Parentname to the attributes for func_flagdetectionzone

Football Manager 2013 is now available for Pre-Purchase on Steam!

Football Manager is the best-selling, most realistic football management series ever made.

For any fan who has ever dreamed of making the big decisions, both on and off the field, this year's version allows you to take control of any club in more than 50 nations across the world and includes all of Europes biggest leagues as well as database of over 500,000 real-world players and staff.

As well as some landmark new features in the Career Mode, there are now new ways to enjoy your Football Manager experience.

Source Filmmaker version 0.9.5.14 has been released. This update will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

• Improved stereoscopic export
• Various crash fixes
• Improved default animationset control groupings

Race Room Racing Experience is Now Available on Steam and Free To Play!

RaceRoom Racing Experience™ is a Free2Race™ game featuring a community portal and an online store integrated into one - making it More Than a Game™. In store are official racetracks and racecars, new but also classic game modes and features. RaceRoom Racing Experience™ is powered by SimBins latest physics evolution, ImmersiDrive™ and is set to deliver the best racing experience in SimBin history.

Changelog 1.006

New features:
- Added Litovskiy Ulanskiy Polk, Lithuanian Lancer Regiment, to Russia.
- Added new swords for British Musicians and 95th Rifles, Austrian Infantry and Jägers.
- Added new wall scene props for mappers - in desert and wood styles.
- Added more destruction stages for some walls (that are commonly used in custom siege maps) and improved their textures.
- Added new French Officers pants.
- Pioneer earthworks can now be removed by using the shovel in alternate mode (accessible by press X).
- Added the top ten community maps from the mapping contest.
- Released full source code for modders.

General Changes
- Remade all equipment for Russia: Cartridge bags, belts, etc.
- Remade Austrian battle flags.
- Players are now forced to walk when surrendering.
- Improved textures of British and Austrian saddles.

Balance changes
- Reduced the length of the bayonet slightly.
- Increased the length of all cavalry swords.
- Made the readying animation for the upper stab slower.
- Upper stab chamber attacks are now not blockable anymore just like the lower stab.
- People getting bumped by a horse now stay on the ground a bit longer before getting up.
- Removed the damage a rider would receive when his horse dies.
- Horses dont rear up anymore when hit by a bayonet to their front.
- Reduced the amount of bullets and damage of the Musketoon.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to spawn objects on the map.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to spawn with multiple firearms.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to spawn naked.
- Fixed a bug that made upper stabs unblockable when in crouch-mode
- Fixed a bug that when a rocket launcher is picked up whilst someone is using it the player using it would get stuck.
- Fixed small historical errors on Russian uniforms.
- Fixed the mirrored banners above players.
- Fixed stones not spawning near the walls that got destroyed.
- Fixed some upside down texture errors on roofs.
- Fixed some cases where you would not be able to spawn explosion crates.
- Removed riding skill from pioneers.
- Fixed several specular and normal map issues.

Rev: 58381
Level Flow:
- Level 3: Push strength increased slightly on underground upward-facing vent
- Level 4: Horizontal-moving Telekinesis platform above BBQ replaced with pair of static platforms
- Level 8: Mid-level booster-arrow puzzle adjusted
- Level 13: First spinning-Telekinesis obstacle puzzle replaced with pathing fireballs
- Level 15: Opening C-shaped elevator sequence replaced with Magnetic pipe repel point
- Level 16: Opening double-elevator sequence replaced with booster arrow array & magnetic ball
- Level 19: Mid-level double-elevator sequence & TK-platforms in following collection room replaced with booster arrow arrays & Magnetic ball

Tooltips:
- Level 1: Jump & Slam tooltips updated to mention alternate mouse-based control options in addition to primary controls
- Level 3: Extra tooltip added to encourage player to use mouse-based Jump & Slam control alternates in areas where Telekinesis usage is needed
- Level 3: Rocket Mode tooltips updated to mention alternate mouse-based control options in addition to primary controls
- Level 5: Magnetic Repel tooltips updated to mention alternate left-mouse repel option in addition to primary repel controls

Controls Screen:
- Updated "Keyboard Controls" screen to show Rocket Boost left-mouse alternate control option
- Updated "Gamepad Controls" screen to show all mouse-based control options (Slam, Rocket, Rocket Boost alt options now listed)

Manual:
- PDF manual in game's root folder updated to include "dedicated mouse recommended" note, more complete control listings, and "Advanced Control Tips" page

Act now and save 75% on Trine & Trine 2 during the Weekend Deal!

Check out this best-selling, side-scrolling game of action, puzzles and platforming where you play as one of Three Heroes who make their way through dangers untold in a fantastical fairytale world.

Plus, the new Trine 2: Goblin Menace DLC has 6 new skills, 6 new levels, a bunch of updates and is Now Available! Save 15% until September 20th!

Weekend Deal offer ends Monday at 10am Pacific Time.

Act now and save 75% on the Crysis Franchise during the Weekend Deal!

Aliens are decimating New York City, only you have the technology to survive. Adapt in real time using the unique Nanosuit 2 Stealth, Armor and Power abilities, then tackle the alien menace in ways a regular soldier could only dream of. Crysis 2 redefines the visual benchmark for console and PC platforms in the urban jungle of NYC. Be The Weapon.

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Ship Simulator Extremes!

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!

Update ver 1.01 for Dynasty Warriors 7 with Xtreme Legends (Chinese version) has been released.
Your game will automatically be updated when you restart and are connected to Steam.

The update fixes the following issue:
- Problems of the game not running properly when running Steam Client Application ver. 1950 or later on Windows XP.

Your save data can still be used following the update.

* In order to update the program, you will need to make sure that your game is set up in Steam to receive the latest updates. If the update does not automatically take place, please go to the Property then Update tab in the games Steam page.