Steam Message Board older than one year ago

Stardock Entertainment and Ironclad Games are pleased to inform xenos-loving galactic conquerors that the Vasari Empire arrives in Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion today with the release of Beta 3 for all pre-order customers.

NOTE: BETA 3 IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH PRIOR SAVE GAMES OR REPLAYS.

Changes From Beta 2c:

[ Graphics ]

• Further refined shield effects.
• Increased large debris sizes.
• Fixed some incorrect shield meshes.

[ Gameplay ]

• The Vasari Loyalists and Rebel factions are now available for play!
• All races Scout frigates should now be able to properly detect mines again. This ability has been made passive.
• Flagship's no longer have a role type.
• Flagship's now count as Battleships in terms of stats.
• Fixed bug that would improperly boot host and players from a Friends Only ICO game.
• Fixed bug that was causing abilities that target strike craft to fail.
• Added missing string for ally titan lost.
• Fixed bug were Research and Occupation victories would not cause a loss for opponents.
• Added Titans to new Titan statcount type.
• Fixed a possible false positive save state mismatch bug (multiplayer desyncs).
• Fixed bug with HyperspaceAntimatterCostAdjustment - was being calculated incorrectly.
• Fixed desync bug in multiplayer.
• TEC

• Removed improper constraint on Corsev's Boarding Party ability that prevented it from converting in non-Friendly gravity wells.
• TEC Loyalists

• Furious Defense ability hull damage autocast levels adjusted per updated HP stats.

Advent

• Fixed bug with Cultural Integrity Envoy ability that prevented it from working.
• Fixed bug with Cultural Assistance Envoy ability that was causing it to increase, rather than decrease, planet upgrade build times.
• Advent Loyalists

• Unity Mass will no longer be buffed by illusion ships.
• Subjugating Assault ability will now properly toggle off.

Advent Rebels

• Strength of the Fallen will no longer be buffed by illusion ships.
• Unyielding Will duration increased from 60/60 to 120/240.

[ Sound ]

• Fixed missing capital planet lost voiceovers.
• Fixed enemy research victory 50% complete voiceover.

[ Modding ]

• Various Galaxy Forge bug fixes.

Save 50% on Dear Esther during this week's Midweek Madness!

A deserted island…a lost man…memories of a fatal crash…a book written by a dying explorer.

Save 75% on Plants vs. Zombies during this week's Midweek Madness!

Zombies are invading your home, and the only defense is your arsenal of plants! Armed with an alien nursery-worth of zombie-zapping plants like peashooters and cherry bombs, you'll need to think fast and plant faster to stop dozens of types of zombies dead in their tracks.

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Mini Ninjas!

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.

The Jagged Alliance: Back in Action - Shades of Red DLC is Now Available on Steam!

The threat of a nuclear disaster has never been greater! The nefarious terrorist Ante Silevic has captured an atomic weapon and plans to attack a meeting of the world leaders in Eastern Europe. Three hardened mercenaries are our only hope to save the world from total chaos. Ivan Dolvic, Kyle 'Shadow' Simmons and Cynthia 'Fox' Guzzman must infiltrate the enemy base deep in the woods and put a stop to his activities. But in an unfortunate turn of events, Fox is captured by Silevics henchmen before the mission even starts. Can you manage to free Fox, complete the mission and save the world?

The Paris expansion for Cities in Motion is now available on Steam for both Mac and PC!

Welcome to Paris, the City of Lights! With its many iconic landmarks, cultural centers and Old Europe architecture, Paris draws more visitors than any other city in the world. Paris many narrow streets and unique topography will put your urban-planning skills to test!

May the fourteenth be with you: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast are each available on Mac and are 25 percent off on Steam today, in celebration of "May the 10 days after May the fourth be with you" day or something. Each title costs $7.50 with the sale, which ends May 21 at 10 a.m. PST.

Both games first dropped in 2003 but they hold up pretty well nine years on, especially at less than $10 -- at least they've aged better than we imagine The Old Republic will have by 2020.

#steam Unlocks aside, Valve's Steam service works pretty damn well. One thing it's always been a little lacking in, though, has been its appearance. The latest redesign helped, but it's still a little cluttered, a little messy. More »

Patch Notes:
- The automatic screen mode detection has been removed, since on some graphics cards it caused problems.

(Build 154993)
- Chainsaw weapon is now properly removed from 3rd person player model upon death.
- Fixed visual stutter of FOV during serious speed power if using custom FOV.
- Player FOV override no longer has any effect in third person view mode.
- Added slider for FOV adjustment to graphics options menu.
- Using third person view mode is no longer reported as cheating in versus game modes.
- Added checkbox for preferred player view mode (first / third person), which determines view mode at the start of a game session.
- Deathmatch game mode now supports infinite frags limit.
- Death and chat lines now last half as long.
- Created Yellow Yarek player model.
- Player death camera will be in third person in versus modes (but not those which include enemies, like beast hunt).
- Fixed bug which caused deaths not to be correctly considered when forming sorted score list.
- When player gets killed by environment damage (something other than player), it will lose frags.
- Colt weapon no longer uses reload in deathmatch and other versus modes.
- Fixed an issue causing sniper item spawns to overlap during last man/team standing rounds.
- Made player footstep heard farther in versus. Made them silent when crouching.
- Fixed an issue causing missing 3rd person weapons and wrong spine animation in case multiplayer model is changed from non-default back to default during gameplay.
- Fixed an issue preventing player from entering swimming mode in some cases.
- Fixed serious damage item not being visible when dropped by player.
- Fixed player falling through floor when crouching after long fall on remote machine under low FPS.
- Player FOV override cvar is not disabled in versus multiplayer mode any more.
- Kleer Kenny now has destruction sound.

Today's Deal: Save 75% off Lucid!

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.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is now available on Mac and 25% off!* Buy it once. Play it on both Mac & PC!

Choose Your Path.

It is four thousand years before the Galactic Empire and hundreds of Jedi Knights have fallen in battle against the ruthless Sith. You are the last hope of the Jedi Order. Can you master the awesome power of the Force on your quest to save the Republic? Or will you fall to the lure of the dark side? Hero or villain, saviour or conqueror... you alone will determine the destiny of the entire galaxy!

*Offer end May 21st at 10AM PST.

Star Wars - Jedi Knight ll: Jedi Outcast is now available on Mac and 25% off!* Buy it once. Play it on both Mac & PC!

The Legacy of Star Wars Dark Forces™ and Star Wars Jedi Knight lives on in the intense first-person action of Jedi Outcast.

*Offer end May 21st at 10AM PST.

The Silent Running Package, E.V.E. Package and Nordamark Line Package are Now Available on Steam and include new ornamentals, a submarine and skins for Anno 2070™!

Save when you pick up all 3 new DLCs in the Anno 2070™ - The Nordamark Complete Package!

r21149b
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Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a Suul'ka repair crash.

Other fixes:
+ Restored sound.
+ The add to invoice button now correctly accumulates favorite invoice ships.
+ Stations no longer cause combat rounds versus gate ships.
+ Fixed some pathological combat AI issues that were preventing it
from attacking certain features such as deployted gates.
+ Fixed new Zuul AI slow-boating.
+ Fixed tech tree issue involving Plasma Focusing.

Additions:
+ Added 3-second combat ending warning.
+ Fleets with damaged ships now display red in lists.

#gamestop As Kotaku reported last week, GameStop will indeed be selling Steam codes, the retailer said in a press release today. More »

Just a quickie – the first three chapters of the extremely good cardboard-and-clay The Dream Machine are now up on Steam. You can still buy them directly from developers Cockroach if you’d prefer, and those who already did will receive a complementary Steam key. Steam has the first two chapters (bearing in mind that the first chapter is available for free) for £3.19, and the third chapter for the same, this week, with all five (the final two are as yet unreleased, but will hopefully appear later this year) for £9.59 or your provincial equivalent. There’s a trailer to commemorate this below.

(more…)

It looks like Steam vouchers are definitely headed to GameStop. Images sent to Joystiq by an anonymous tipster reveal an in-store display for Steam Wallet voucher cards in both $20 and $50 amounts. This bolsters the image that made the rounds last week, providing further evidence that the cards will indeed be going on sale at GameStops very soon.

The upshot of all this, of course, is that GameStop will be selling gift cards for one of its major competitors, which is especially intriguing as the company has been working to build its own digital distribution platform for several years. We've contacted GameStop and will provide updates as this story develops.

#gamestop The pictures looked good, but we couldn't get confirmation back when Luke broke the news a week ago that GameStop would begin selling Steam cash vouchers. Well, a second tipster's sent us another couple of pictures of the cards and their display, basically confirming that the games retailer will start selling them. More »

Today's Deal: Save 80% off Commandos Collection!

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 66% off Steel Storm: Burning Retribution!

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.

This weekend, following the official announcement of the sequel, the Company of Heroes franchise is 80 percent off on Steam. The original game, which helped breathe new life into a tired genre and setting, is a mere $2. Two bucks! Two smackers! Dos dollars!

Got a little buffer in the budget to spend more? Well, the Opposing Fronts expansion can be bundled with the original game for $6, with the Tales of Valor expansion added for a total of $10. The deal lasts until May 14 and you don't want to miss out on these 1940s prices for video games. Don't think about that previous line too long.

The Dream Machine is Now Available on Steam and 20% off until 10AM PST Friday, May 18th.

The Dream Machine is a 5 part award-winning point and click adventure series made out of clay and cardboard. Play as Victor Neff, the husband in a young couple who've just moved into a new apartment. While trying to get settled in you discover that all is not as it seems in the quiet, unassuming apartment building...

Try Chapters 1 and 2 for the price of a single chapter or get The Entire Series at an extra low price.

Release notes for 5/11 Beta 14

Gameplay
• Tweaks to the recoil model based on player feedback.
• Decreased the throw velocity for Incendiary and Molotov grenades. They can no longer be thrown far enough to block terrorists from leaving spawn in Inferno.
• Removed the ability to exploit the radar data.
• The aiming precision now changes back to the standing accuracy state immediately after the crouch button is released as opposed to waiting until you get to a full stand.
• Movement speed when entering a crouched state will no longer instantly switch to crouched speed. This should improve crouch jumping.
• Added the option to have the very first round in a match have a "warmup period". This gives late joiners the chance to start at the same time as everyone else.
• Players who join late into an Arms Race match get the same weapon given to them as the player with the current lowest level in the game.
• Changed the default player models to st6 and phoenix; this addresses the issues with error geometry being shown on player created maps.

UI
• Update to Match Setup screen selecting the GO button instead of the map image will now launch the game.
• All offline modes now allow the player to select a bot difficulty.
• Server Browser can now be accessed via the Community Servers menu option.
• The Screen Resize screen in Advanced Video options has been updated.
• Fixed a scaling problem with weapon comparison bars in the Buy Menu. Weapon properties now display with the full range of the bar.
• The position of the Mini-Scoreboard has been adjusted.

Characters
• Added GSG9 and Balkan character models. You can see these news skins in cs_office, de_nuke, de_train, ar_baggage, and de_shorttrain.

• Dedicated Servers
- sv_allow_lobby_connect_only is off by default.
- mapcycledisabled is off by default.
- Fixed sv_password.
- Added Tags column to Favorites tab of server browser.
- sv_search_key tag is only added to matchmaking servers to remove clutter from server browser.
- "Status" will now report whether ds is official or community.

Maps
• Shoots
- Adjusted geometry to reduce areas where players and bots can get stuck or stand in inappropriate areas.
• Dust
- Fixed some interpenetrating prop models.
• Train and Shorttrain
- Clip brush pass.
- Removed a number of physics props.
- Turned a number of phys props to static props.
- Fixed bad fade distances on a number of static props.
- Certain static props no longer us physbox.
- Removed bar structure.
- Adjusted tonemap settings.
• Aztec
- Tweaked some fade distances to fix objects popping into view.
- Added vphys clip to a gap where the bomb could get stuck.
• Bank
- Set the "sweet relief" doors to not be breakable.
- Removed all physics props.
- Turned a number of props to static.
- Fixed a number of floating props.
- Rotated spawn instances so they're facing the correct way.
- Fixed a number of bad fades in static props.
• Nuke
- Fixed a stray triangle in a destroyed door prop.
- Fixed odd looking nuclear waste barrels near bomb site B.
- Fixed the resolution of the ground texture near T spawn.
• Sugarcane
- Fixed some bad materials in the warehouse.
- Improved the fade distance on a number of props.
- Fixed sky brushes that were making geometry in the sky pop in and out.
- Made miscellaneous lighting tweaks in dark areas.
- Added light fixture to stairwell so players can't hide in the dark.
- Moved a large light fixture that was under the bombsite to ease movement.

Audio
• Update the M4A4 sound.

Bug Fixes
• Arms Race now updates a bot's difficulty on bot respawn.
• A fix has been made to Casual mode where a match tie caused players to spawn into a new round momentarily before the scoreboard is shown.
• Fixed a bug in the player id delay and re-enabled it.
• Connecting to a dedicated server should no longer show or hide loading screens in weird orders or return the player to the Main Menu screen temporarily.
• The loading screen Continue button should no longer display after an aborted or failed loading occurs.
• Fixed Main menu intro music persisting into games.
• The ESC key now closes the Continue loading screen.
• Fixed a bug in the death notifications where a player's name displayed in the wrong team color if they did damage to a teammate and then that person was killed by an enemy.
• Fix for enemy radar icons disappearing after a map change.

Misc
• Added support for ATI X1000-series GPU

Offspring Fling! is Now Available on Steam and 20% off!*

Offspring Fling! is a game about a poor forest creature that has misplaced all of her children. She'll have to fight her way through over 100 levels of action puzzle platforming to get them all back home. There's danger around every corner, but she won't rest until her family is safe again.

Today's Deal: Save 50% off Mutant Storm: Reloaded!

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.

Join the Midnight Club 2 Club! That's the organization we just invented whose sole membership requirement is ownership of Midnight Club 2. It's exceptionally easy to join right now, as Rockstar is handing out free copies to anyone who joins the Rockstar Community on Steam. Hey, that's two clubs you'd be part of, one of which is even real!

Your account must have at least one purchase or gift in it - basically, proof that you're a real person who really plays games. And you can't already have Midnight Club 2. Double-dipping is not allowed in the MC2C. You should probably make sure you have a Windows PC capable of running the game, too.

[Thanks, Jesse C.]

r21135b
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Critical Fixes:
+ Fixed an end of combat crash related to retreating.
+ Fixed a couple crashes related to diplomatic actions with
independent factions.
+ Fixed remaining known multiplayer sync crashes.
+ Fixed a crash caused by the target of a boarding pod being destroyed.
+ Fixed a crash in the battle rider manager.
+ Fixed a crash caused by network clients finishing combat prior to the host.
+ Fixed a crash that could occur when calculating rebel AI economic ratings.
+ Fixed a crash caused by submitting a treaty with an independent
faction without first selecting the type.


Other Fixes:
+ Fixed spectre camouflage.
+ Strategic turn timer is now displayed in games that use it.
+ Fixed an issue where players were not being assigned the correct
initial star systems.
+ Fixed the UI issue that was preventing players from moving ships in
combat in some cases.
+ Gate labs now apply a bonus only to drive research.
+ Independent colonies no longer form on barren planetoids nor gas giants.
+ Fixed an issue that was preventing minelayers from functioning in combat.
+ Improved framerate in combat when many ships are selected.
+ Fixed some issues with the grav cannon.
+ Colony information panels were tweaked to display in owner colors.
+ Trade stimulus no longer provides more freighters than are needed.
+ Encounters involving non-aggression parties no longer induce morale penalties.
+ Fixed known AI issues with slaver encounters.
+ Fixed a bug that was assigning unwanted modules to stations and ships.
+ Fixed known issues that were preventing players from upgrading stations.
+ Addressed VN-related framerate issues.
+ Retreating ships no longer get pulled back into combat at the same location.
+ Fixed an issue - fleets will now maintain their positions for
multiple rounds of combat.
+ Initial station weapons are now longer range.
+ Fixed an issue where station upgrades were not updating station structure.
+ Fixed an issue where players were spawning too close to the star
during random encounters.
+ The Morrigi Relic encounter no longer holds players in combat after
the relics are destroyed.
+ Fixed an issue where the research screen was not correctly
displaying module bonuses.
+ Fixed main menu sound playing in games when the sound enabled
options are turned on and off.
+ Removed the unwanted vertical scrollbar from the avatar and badge
selection strips.
+ Fixed some issues with AI ship design and related weapon selection.
+ Active invoices are now properly discarded when leaving the build screen.
+ Made changes to fleet interception logic to address a pathological
case that was causing Hiver intercepts to fail when they should not.
+ Fixed some Hiver Gate fleet loopholes.
+ Fixed an issue that was allowing speech events to play while disabled.
+ Fixed various text string errors.


Additions:
+ Added curvature Compensation bonus for Liir.
+ Added phase dislocation tech bonus.
+ Added colony support trips configuration.
+ Support missions now default to the maximum possible trips.
+ Added station retrofitting.
+ Added click-to-focus for items in the fleet summary.
+ Support event dialogs now identify the supporting fleet.
+ Empire summary values now display in red and green to reflect change
since the previous turn.
+ Asteroid monitors are now available as player buildable defenses.
+ Protectorate ship section effects.
+ The defense manager now displays incoming fleet vectors for pending
encounters.
+ Zuul missions will now prompt for the automatic inclusion of a bore
ship when necessary, instead of assuming that one is needed.

#thedreammachine The Dream Machine, one of the most interesting PC adventure games of the last few years, is out today on Steam. It'll be cheap. You should definitely get it. Unless you already got it, in which case, you'll get Steam keys for free. [The Dream Machine] More »

Gamestop will reportedly begin selling Steam gift cards next week, according to a Kotaku source. Sweetening the legitimacy of this bizarre reality, the source also snapped a photo of the packaging (pictured). The cards will allegedly go on sale starting May 15.

Valve has yet to respond to our query on the subject. Gamestop tells us: "As a rule, the company does not comment on rumor and speculation."

Although this may all seem counter-intuitive (and it is when you think about Gamestop's Impulse digital distribution system), it's more like an agreement between frenemies. Valve can make money off people who don't use credit cards or other digital purchasing options, while Gamestop keeps making crazy amounts of cash off digital products in stores.