Jan 24, 2013

Dota 2 - Valve

- Added Troll Warlord!
- Added All Random to matchmaking!
- Added tournament calendar view to the Watch tab!

GAMEPLAY
- The pathfinder now ignores obstructions that are due to units that are not visible to the pathing unit.
- Crystal Maiden: Fixed Freezing Field channeling ending if you get purged.
- Dazzle: Fixed Poison Touch slow and stun applying if BKB was used after it had been applied
- Drow: Fixed Drow Illusions carrying the double bonus from Marksmanship
- Keeper of the Light: Fixed Chakra being castable on magic immune allies.
- Keeper of the Light: Fixed Manta dispelling Mana Leak.
- Lifestealer: Fixed Rage not removing certain buffs that BKB does (Empower, Haste, etc).
- Medusa: Fixed Mana Shield happening after Stout/Vanguard damage block rather than before.
- Meepo: Fixed Poof considering dead illusions as valid destinations.
- Morphling: Fixed Replicate dying if Morphling dies with Aegis.
- Timbersaw: Fixed Whirling Death sometimes taking too long to cast when used with Timber Chain.
- Timbersaw: Fixed Chakram cast time behavior
- Visage: Fixed Attack and Defense type on level 3 Familiars
- Warlock: Fixed Aghanim Warlock Golems not doing enough damage
- Fixed MKB dealing bonus damage to towers.
- Fixed ground courier being able to block lanes and surround Roshan.
- Fixed being able to lifesteal more life than the target has.
- Fixed Diffusal Blade cooldown being 12 seconds instead of 8

UI
- Added Practice vs Bots option in the Play menu.
- Added a privacy setting in the UI so that players can specify whether they want to allow external 3rd party websites to be able to access their match history (defaulted to private).
- Least Played mode now eliminates each players' top 40 played heroes, up from 20.
- Added completion cost to shop item tooltips, displayed if the player has one or more components.
- Added tooltips to the shop category buttons.
- Fixed the Repick option disappearing too soon
- Fixed bug where buffs would sometimes display an incorrect duration sweep.
- Bringing up the combat log will now hide the killcam.
- Fixed bug where sometimes spectators would, when inspecting a player, not see thier cosmetic items.
- Fixed bug where Dota 2 would not track changes in the Windows default audio device.
- When spectating a game in directed, hero chase, or player view, the mouse will no longer be locked to the window

STORE
- Added new item sets for Lone Druid and Necrolyte.

BOTS
- Added Necrolyte bot.
- Added Witch Doctor bot.
- Sven will no longer War Cry when doing a casual retreat.
- Fixed Viper bot not harassing with his unique attack modifier.
- Fixed bug in Sandstorm avoidance that always made bots maximalliy avoid it.
- Adjusted the values so that bots are more willing to tanking creeps at high health/tankability ratings.
- Bots now take into account cleaving when determining what neutral camps they're willing to farm.
- Death Prophet bot will now use Carrion Swarm more when laning.
- Fixed bug that would cause bots to fountain-dive sometimes.

WORKSHOP
- Added a "Show Low-Res Model" checkbox that toggles between showing the low & high resolution LODs for imported models when in Loadout camera view.
- Now automatically switches to showing low-res models in the Day/Night camera views, and high-res models in the Portrait camera view (since that's how they're used by the game)
- Fixed "Other" submission type displaying a "failed to find content file" when submitting.
- Fixed Preview not resetting background properly when moving from Portrait to Day/Night view.
- Fixed Preview losing hero rotation when going to and from Portrait view.
- Fixed a case where the Add Wearable slot buttons didn't work for some slots on some heroes (like Sven)

Jan 24, 2013

Turn Left 4 Dead 2′s Tank into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

Left 4 Dead 2

As if slaying your way across a zombie-infested wasteland as a pack of gun-toting raptors wasn't awesome enough, modder Lurch of the L4DMaps community offers the Stay Puft mod which replaces Left 4 Dead 2's burly Tank with the soft and tasty juggernaut from Ghostbusters.

It's a pretty basic mod—a simple reskin of the Tank is all you'll get for less than a megabyte's download. Some default animations don't exactly translate well in those rolls of sugary goodness, as the model's arms stick out awkwardly and ragdoll effects are anything but smooth. Rock tosses are subsequently hilarious-looking. (You'll see what I mean in the short video I recorded above.) Still, making the conscious decision to shoot at and be chased by a grunting behemoth of marshmallow should count for something.

You can pick up Puft at L4DMaps' website. Be sure to also check out Left 4 Dead 2's freshly launched Steam Workshop listing for more mods.

Jan 23, 2013

They’re Changing!

Left 4 Dead 2 - Chet

<center><img src='http://media.steampowered.com/steam/news/9803/skyboxes.jpg?t=1358969872'></center>
Thanks to <a href='http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=550'>the Workshop</a>, Left 4 Dead 2 continues to change.

Mod authors continue to add content to the Workshop, so keep coming back and checking to see what’s new. You can download the Workshop items automatically by clicking subscribe. This will also keep that item automatically up to date!

If you don’t see the add-on choice on the main menu – remove any hud or UI addons you are currently running; they may not have changed for the new layout. If you are downloading a campaign, make sure to check to see if it is in a collection which requires you to download all the elements in that collection. A good example is for Warcelona you need to go to <a href='http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121787087'>this page</a> and download all three parts.

We have currently removed all community created campaigns from our official servers as the authors move them to the Workshop. We will be restoring them with the new versions and featuring new Campaigns starting next week. We have the first few lined up and then will begin taking suggestions from the community.

Remember, you can also rate items in the Workshop and join us in <a href='http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/?appid=550'>discussing the Workshop</a> and letting us know what you would like to see.

Based on feedback from community, we have increased Mod Author’s cloud storage in the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring tools to 2gb! A quick tip – if you are creating character packs, make sure to offer the individual characters as well so players can mix the packs together. <A href='http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121286119'>Formal Coach</a> needs to hang with some <A href='http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121288011'>Velociraptors</a>.

Lastly and most importantly, today we are updating the Mac client for L4D2 to resolve issues Mac players are seeing with the Workshop. If you are on a Mac, it’s time to join in the fun and start grabbing some great skins, campaigns, and more.

The Screenshot for this post is from the amazing <a href='http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121090376'>Informal Skyboxes</a> by <A href='http://steamcommunity.com/id/Descarado/myworkshopfiles/?550'>Descarado</a>

Jan 23, 2013

They’re Changing!

Left 4 Dead 2 - Chet

</center>
Thanks to the Workshop, Left 4 Dead 2 continues to change.

Mod authors continue to add content to the Workshop, so keep coming back and checking to see what’s new. You can download the Workshop items automatically by clicking subscribe. This will also keep that item automatically up to date!

If you don’t see the add-on choice on the main menu – remove any hud or UI addons you are currently running; they may not have changed for the new layout. If you are downloading a campaign, make sure to check to see if it is in a collection which requires you to download all the elements in that collection. A good example is for Warcelona you need to go to this page and download all three parts.

We have currently removed all community created campaigns from our official servers as the authors move them to the Workshop. We will be restoring them with the new versions and featuring new Campaigns starting next week. We have the first few lined up and then will begin taking suggestions from the community.

Remember, you can also rate items in the Workshop and join us in discussing the Workshop and letting us know what you would like to see.

Based on feedback from community, we have increased Mod Author’s cloud storage in the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring tools to 2gb! A quick tip – if you are creating character packs, make sure to offer the individual characters as well so players can mix the packs together. Formal Coach needs to hang with some Velociraptors.

Lastly and most importantly, today we are updating the Mac client for L4D2 to resolve issues Mac players are seeing with the Workshop. If you are on a Mac, it’s time to join in the fun and start grabbing some great skins, campaigns, and more.

The Screenshot for this post is from the amazing Informal Skyboxes by Descarado

Jan 23, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Update Released

Counter-Strike 2 - Valve

Release notes for 1/23/12

[ MAJOR CHANGES ]
- A new game mode has been added to matchmaking and offline play: Deathmatch.
- Weapon balance and recoil were adjusted with pro community input ( Thanks to J3Di, NiP, VeryGames, ESC, 4NOT, mTw, and FM TOXiC )
- In addition to global changes that affect all weapons, specific adjustments have been made to: rifles, pistols, and the P90.
- Weapon purchasing changes:
- The AWP's kill reward was increased from $50 to $100.
- The Glock is now a Terrorist only weapon.
- The FiveseveN is now a CT only weapon.
- The Terrorists' molotov price has been reduced to $500. The CT's incendiary grenade remains $850.
- Note that the pistol arrangement has changed in the buymenu.

- The messaging system has been converted to protobuf.
- Demos recorded with previous versions of CS:GO will not be compatible as of this update. In order to view old demos, set your 'beta' to 'demo_viewer' in the CS:GO betas property panel, in Steam. Don't forget to set it back to 'NONE' when you want to play online again.
- If you are running SourceMod on your server, you will need to update to the latest version. For details, see: http://www.sourcemod.net/index.php

[ MINOR CHANGES ]
- Added some performance improvements for low-end clients.
- Fixed some fence materials that were allowing players to see through smoke grenades.
- GOTV spectator UI will now correctly show kevlar and helmet information for players.
- Avatars will now correctly load for all players when connected to a GOTV server or when watching a demo.
- Added support to notify players during servers maintenance downtime.
- Fixed a dedicated server exploit where community dedicated servers could masquerade as official and get players searching for official game modes connected to them (saigns.de)
- Fixed a rare problem when clients matchmaking for Classic Competitive game could be stuck on green Accept screen
- Fixed a rare problem when clients could connect to a Classic Competitive game and then later be disconnected for failing to accept the match.
- Improved algorithm pinging whitelisted dedicated servers when searching for Classic Competitive games, pinging less addresses fixes occasional problems for some customers where address translation tables on their routers would fill up and their routers would fail to route required packets to display the green Accept screen.
- Added support for mm_dedicated_search_maxping to restrict client's ping when matchmaking for Classic Competitive games. ( Matchmaking algorithm will still be prioritizing best servers to minimize ping of all party members. )
- Fixed a rare server crash when bots attempted to shoot the bomb defuser.
- Fixed a client crash when downloading a lot of custom assets from community servers.

[ NOTES TO MAPMAKERS ]
- DEATHMATCH:
- Deathmatch uses the nav mesh to create spawn points. Make sure that your nav is contained within the bounds of your map to ensure that players aren't spawned outside of it. Use map_showspawnpoints to see where spawn points were generated.
- If you want to use mapper-placed spawnpoints instead of the randomly generated ones, place an info_map_parameters in your map and set usenormalspawnsfordm ("Use Normal Spawns in Deathmatch?) to true.
- WORKSHOP:
- We're launching the private beta for workshop maps. If you're a map maker, mail csgo_sdk@list.valvesoftware.com with the subject "Map Workshop Beta" and your steam id in the content, with a link to maps shipped ( or maps in progress ) suitable for the Workshop.

- Please use the CSGO SDK list for discussions about Deathmatch and Workshop.

Thanks.

Jan 23, 2013

Portal 2: amazing Source Filmmaker short shows a musical turret takeover

Portal 2

If you hadn't previously heard of Zachariah Scott, then you've got a fun (and entirely unproductive) afternoon ahead of you. The Bioware cinematic designer has been doing some amazing things with Valve's Source Filmmaker in his spare time. But with this Portal 2 short, The Turret Anthem, he's possibly outdone himself.

The video features music by Lars Erik Fjøsne. Of the project, Scott says, "This video was shot on black void, using a rebuild version of glados' chamber that I put together by hand. Fun story about this video, I've been trying to make it for about 6 months, it's a super late Turret Week video. I kept overthinking it, and had much of the principal synchronization done but couldnt' figure out how I wanted to shoot it, well I sat down this weekend and knocked it out in two days, and I'm pretty sure nobody will have any problem with the results." Too right.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Jan 22, 2013

Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod soups up the sparkle, adds graphical gloss

Half-Life 2

The sky churns with deadly energy. Looming above, the stricken Citadel claws into the heavens, its tip crackling with transdimensional discharges. The stage is set. Lights, camera—wait, hold everything. I almost forgot to switch on the Cinematic Mod which adds a bevy of high-quality textures, shadows, and a film-style lighting filter to the works. There we go. Now I'm Director Freeman.

The Cinematic Mod has been around since 2005, but updates continue rolling out regularly, with the most recent 12.1 patch releasing last month. Installing the meaty 30GB(!) mod results in a slew of immediately visible differences: high-resolution skins for everything (yes, everything, including character models for Alyx Vance, Barney, and others), dynamic shadows, and flared lighting seemingly ripped straight from a Mass Effect nightclub. The potpourri of post-production punch "gives the HL2 trilogy a more stressed, darker, and uncomfortable look," according to the mod's website.

It's essentially Half-Life 2's version of the popular ENBSeries add-ons, and the Cinematic Mod needs some hefty hardware. You'll want at least a quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM for the suite of color adjustments and shader smoothing. The upside? You'll get to find out what really lurks within the GMan's pockmarks. Head over to the mod's website for more info.