* Wraith King has risen
* Fixed Recruits sorting in the wrong direction
* Fixed Captain crowns showing on all players when spectating CM games

* Added matchmaking preference to use themed or classic map
* Ranked matchmaking will always use the classic map. (This is to minimize fragmentation of the matchmaking pool)
* Tuned quality thresholds in ranked matchmaking to wait longer and require a higher quality match
* Private lobbies will use classic map if tournament version is selected in lobby settings
* Fixed bug causing full parties of 5 players to wait needlessly when searching for Wraith-Night or Coop Bot matches


Frostivus:
* Rebalanced both Shadow Fragments and Shining Fragments rewards
* Fixed towers sometimes becoming invulnerable
* Fixed CM hero selection being limited after a Frostivus game
* Fixed buy back cost not being reset on new game with increased difficulty
* After defeating Wraith King end panel now correctly shows up and shows fragment rewards and allows voting
* Added conversion of Shining Fragments to Shadow Fragments

Release Notes for 12/12/2013

[UI]
- To improve chat readability, chat text colors have been updated to make the team, location and "say" text all use unique colors.

[COMMUNITY]
- Fixed exploits where custom maps could run non-whitelisted server commands.
- Added functions for VScript to ask gamerules what game mode and type the current match is set to.

[MISC]
- Fixed an exploit where player's could print chat text on behalf of the console.
- Fixed grenades making continuous noise when thrown into narrow spaces.

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition has just released a new level editor and integration with Steam Workshop to allow players to easily create and share player-made maps. The community has already been busy helping test the new integration, and there are over 60 new maps already available in the Duke Nukem Workshop.

To celebrate, Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition is on salve this week for 75% off when you buy it before December 16th.

GAMEPLAY

- Skeleton King: Removed for pressing ceremonial reasons

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added Crate #75, Crate #76, and Crate #77 to the drop list
  
• Removed Crate #57, Crate #59 and Crate #71 from the drop list
  
• Added new Strange parts that can be applied to Strange cosmetic items
  
• Fixed a client crash related to the Mann vs. Machine mission victory panel
  
• Fixed players being able to level-up some Strange items when playing on servers with only bots
  
• Fixed some cases where Halloween spell effects on items would not appear when they were supposed to
  
• Fixed robot Engineer head not looking correct for the Botkiller Sniper Rifle Mk.II
  
• Fixed killstreak notices being stuck on the screen when the map is changing levels
  
• Fixed Team Shine killstreak sheen effect not displaying properly for the Blue team
  
• Updated several backpack images to fix issues caused by mat_picmip
  
• Updated Killstreak Kits to work on Festive and Botkiller variants of target weapons
  
• Updated pl_upward
  
  
  • Fixed players getting stuck in the initial Red spawn room after control point 2 is capped
    
  • Improved bot navigation
• Updated cp_gorge
  • Improved bot navigation
• Updated Mann vs. Machine
  • Fixed players who join in the middle of a mission not receiving the Upgrade Refund credit if it has been earned by the team
    
  • Fixed Romevision hats conflicting with gatebot hats in Mannhattan
    
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed purchasing upgrades for weapons other than what they were intended for
    
  • Updated mvm_rottenburg
    • Fixed a bug where the bomb could get stuck out of reach in the corner near the cap
      
    • Fixed a bug where bots could be instantly killed by being pushed into the tank tunnel once opened
      
    • Fixed a bug where money could get stuck in the tank barricade when it was rebuilt, preventing collection
  • Updated mvm_mannhattan
    • Rebalanced Empire Escalation
      
    • Fixed credits not always being collected when they fall into the grinder
      
    • Fixed a bug that allowed the gates to be captured out of order
      
    • Fixed a lighting bug related to lower graphics settings that cause the map to be too dark

• Fixed a bug that caused some gem names and stat values to get truncated in the tooltip.
• Recipe costs have been reduced. This change will affect newly dropped recipes.
• Items with gems that convey the Inscribed, Autographed, and Ascendant qualities will now appear consistently. If the gemmed item already had a special quality (like Genuine) then that special quality will take precedence over the gem quality.
• Several issues with crafting have been fixed:
o A bug that made it appear that items were 'eaten' by crafting has been fixed. No items were actually eaten (they are still in your inventory). For example, a recipe that took 5 inputs would sometimes only consume 4 of the inputs and remain incomplete. The 5th item was never consumed even though it appeared to be by the UI. Recipes will now consume the correct number of items.
o A bug has been fixed that made the display of some recipes show the wrong type of items already fulfilled (i.e.: 4 of the same thing when actually 4 different items were fulfilled).
o The server is notified of a crafting attempt earlier in the crafting process so that crafting results will appear earlier.
o The crafting completed animation now also plays for partial crafts. A dialog will appear during a partial craft indicating the recipe is not complete and needs more components to be finalized.
• The tradability policy for socketed gems and crafted items has changed:
o Gems extracted from an item that is "tradable after date" now become tradable after the same date.
o Gems extracted from an item that can never be traded no longer inherit that restriction. You can safely add gems to a permanently untradable item without the gems becoming permanently untradable.
o Gems that are not tradable (like Ascendant gems) will make the item they are added to untradable, but only while those gems are socketed. Extracting the gems will remove the trade restriction from the item they are added to.
o If one or more crafted inputs are "tradable after date" then the recipe and output will become "tradable after date" with the latest date of the inputs.
o If one or more crafted inputs are permanently untradable then the recipe and output will become permanently untradable.
o All previously crafted items have been grandfathered into these new rules and have been made tradable.

An update has been released for Left 4 Dead 2 Beta.

- Fixed memory usage pattern that could cause some users to run out of memory when opening the Addons screen.
- Removed SSE2 requirement that was added during the Linux port.
- Fixed plugin handler reporting all commands as coming from the server, even when they came from the client.

Client update for 12/4/2013

[MISC]
- Fixed a problem with stickers on ATI GPUs.
- Fixed tooltip positioning for items at the edge of the screen.
- Fixed a rare case where clients could get stuck in the competitive search queue when Steam servers were experiencing heavy load.

DIRETIDE
- Wave of Force damage is no longer reflectable

WORKSHOP
- Enabled Luna on the workshop with new model and texture files
- Updated workshop model and texture files (including fbx) for Lion, Axe, Omniknight, Nature's Prophet, Juggernaut, Naga Siren, Ogre Magi, Tidehunter, and Ursa.
- Enabled alpha test for Earthshaker materials

UI
- Improved Chinese IME support.

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Fixed missing backpack material for the Australium Force-a-Nature
  
• Fixed the Killstreak counts for the Mantreads, Chargin' Targe, and Splendid Screen
  
• Fixed the Killstreak sheen effect not working on the Mantreads
  
• Fixed the Ping column in the Scoreboard getting clipped in 4:3 resolutions
  
• Fixed the Mann vs. Machine return-to-lobby timer not updating properly after a mission has been completed
  
• Updated the Killstreak Fabricator's description to include the sheen and the Killstreaker effect for its output