May 5, 2011

Counter-Strike: Source - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

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

Fixed an OpenGL crash for Mac players
Fixed several crashes related to Alt-Tab in fullscreen mode on Windows
Fixed client crash caused by invalid mesh
Updated shared interfaces to support the new Replay feature in TF2

Counter-Strike: Source

Updated the localization files

Team Fortress 2

Added the Replay feature: http://www.teamfortress.com/replayupdate
- Known issue with Mac replay rendering being blurry will be fixed in the next update
Launched the First Annual Saxxy Awards: http://www.teamfortress.com/saxxyawards
Added 8 new Replay achievements
Added 10 new hats
Added The Director's Vision, an item that provides you with a new taunt
Fixed a problem with certain equippable items rendering incorrectly on the loadout screen
Fixed a problem causing the Mann Co. store previews to render incorrectly
Crafted items will now remember/display who crafted them
Added a reward for the early crafters of new items
Added a new style to the Aperture Labs Hard Hat
Added a new style to the Blighted Beak
Fixed bugs with the refurbish items interface so that some properties will no longer be un-removable under certain circumstances
Fixed the briefcase not being drawn on players when it's being carried in CTF maps
Fixed the Gloves of Running Urgently not using the correct skin in the character loadout screen
Fixed the Kritzkrieg not drawing the correct model in the character loadout screen
Fixed the Horseless Headless Horsemann displaying the burning material in DirectX8
Fixed the Aperture Labs Hard Hat displaying the burning material in DirectX8
Fixed removing the burning/jarated conditions on players who are being critboosted by a Medic using the Kritzkrieg
Added Mad Milk to the conditions that are cleared when players are made invulnerable by a Medic with an ÜberCharge
For web developers: added tool and capability information to the IEconItems_440/GetSchema Web API

Apr 20, 2011

Ever Wonder Who The Guy At The Beginning Of Every Valve Game Is?

Half-Life

A Reddit user by the name of vism did, so they emailed Valve boss Gabe Newell. And actually got a response, if not from the big man himself.

The man in question, who is displayed during the opening credits of Valve games (and can be seen in the clip above), sadly remains a mystery, but the story of how he (and the other "intro guy", with a Valve stuck in his eye) got the gig opening some of the greatest video games ever made is still an interesting one.

Valve veteran Ray Ueno explains:

I worked with Gabe and team to develop the "guy in the logo" back when we first named the company, Valve (circa 1995/6), and needed to develop the visual brand vocabulary to go along with it.

Interesting that you should ask about the bald guy. Back then, the casting agencies we were using to find models only had "supermodel"-type talent. We kept requesting "heavy-set", "normal" models, and they kept sending us "beautiful", "thin", "perfect" headshots to review.

So, we finally asked them to just go out on the street and pull "everyday Joes" who were more "interesting", "common", and for the bald guy, "kinda big, heavy-set, and bald".

They went out to the streets of Seattle's Broadway district, took tons of polaroids of the types of folks we were looking for, and brought the shots back to us. We selected the bald guy from the batches of "off-the-street" polaroids-he was literally pulled out of a coffee shop or book store!

A few days later, we brought him into studio and shot the image you now see at the beginning of our games. We also shot a 2nd image of a different guy with a valve in his eye using the same process (you might remember him as well-attached below). The two comprised the "Open your mind. Open your eyes." concept for our initial brand, respectively.

It's been very long since we did that work, so we don't know who the models were. And the fact that they weren't professional models, would make it very difficult to find them-if not impossible for the bald guy (not facing camera).

If by some freak occurrence either of the gentlemen in question (or any of their friends or relatives) are reading this, get in touch! It'd be great to put a name to a face. And see what you look like without large metal valves sticking out of your head.

The guy in the Valve splash screen [Reddit]

Apr 14, 2011

Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released

Counter-Strike: Source - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, 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 (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

Fixed a packet injection exploit in the client/server streams
Fixed UDP logging exploit
- Added a new server convar "sv_logsecret" which emits a new S2A_LOGSTRING2 UDP packet to any UDP log targets with the secret value pre-pended

Team Fortress 2

Added new map Koth_Badlands
Updated CP_Well
- Spawn room by second cap for each time is now a one-way door
Updated Training
- Added 3 new training courses for the Demoman, Engineer, and Spy
- Added the Ready for Duty achievement for completing all of the training courses
Added a new system to associate dedicated servers with Steam accounts
- Use the ConCommand "cl_gameserver_create_identity" in the Team Fortress 2 client console to create a server account using the currently logged in Steam account. This will generate values for "tf_server_identity_account_id" and "tf_server_identity_token"
- Put the values for "tf_server_identity_account_id" and "tf_server_identity_token" into your server.cfg
- Use the ConCommand "cl_gameserver_list" in the Team Fortress 2 client console to list all of the game server accounts owned by the currently logged in Steam account
Added a new system for coaching players
Added a new vote system
- Server convars to control the vote system
  - sv_allow_votes : Allow voting?
  - sv_vote_failure_timer : A vote that fails cannot be voted on again during this period.
  - sv_vote_allow_specators : Allow spectators to vote?
  - sv_vote_issue_changelevel_allowed : Allow votes to change levels?
  - sv_vote_issue_kick_allowed : Allow votes to kick players from the server?
  - sv_vote_issue_nextlevel_allowed : Allow votes to set the next level?
  - sv_vote_issue_nextlevel_allowextend : Allow votes to extend the current map?
  - sv_vote_issue_restart_game_allowed : Allow votes to restart the game?
  - sv_vote_issue_scramble_teams_allowed : Allow votes to scramble the teams?
  - sv_vote_issue_nextlevel_choicesmode : Present players with a list of maps with the lowest playtimes to choose from?
  - sv_vote_kick_ban_duration : How long should a kick vote ban someone from the server? (in minutes)
dynamic model loading to improve performance
Combat Text changes
- Added a new convar "hud_combattext_healing" to display the amount of healing done per second
- Added bonus points to the items displayed using Combat Text
- Starting position of values is now affected by range to target, making it easier to see numbers when next to targets
Updated voice to use the Steam voice codec to improve quality
- Servers can toggle between the old codec and the new codec with the convar "sv_use_steam_voice", which defaults to 1.
Fixed not being able to see the correct colors for painted hats when running with DX8
Fixed not being able to see the | character in custom names and descriptions
Fixed a couple cases where custom sprays would not import correctly
Duel changes
- The duel dialog has been extended to include class-specific duels in addition to the default duels
- Duel badges now only show the number of wins a player has
Added Payload maps to Offline Practice
Fixed taunt kills made with a Katana not counting towards honorbound kills
Fixed a bug where killing a Katana wielder with a Katana was incorrectly causing an increased crit chance
Fixed infinite noisemakers exploit where noisemakers could continue to be used after their charges had run out
Improved the Medic overheal effect so it's more noticeable
Fixed func_build entities to respect the team value and prevent the associated team from building in the area
Items changes:
- Added new "Sort by Rarity" option for sorting backpack items
- Improved the backpack sorting algorithms
- Added "styles" for the Ghastlier Gibus, Scotsman's Stove Pipe, Treasure Hat, Hat of Undeniable Wealth And Respect, and the Googly Gazer
- Added paint preview to the preview section when shopping for hats
- Updated the Googly Gazer to be paintable
- Added new paint styles to the Pyromancer's Mask
- Items in the action slot won't be swapped until returning to a supply cabinet
- Replaced the no-crit attribute with -25% damage on the following:
  - The Eyelander, The Gunslinger, The Southern Hospitality, The Powerjack (also added +20% melee vulnerability)
  - The Horseless Headless Horseman's Headtaker, The Ullapool Caber, The Claidheamohmor
- Dalokohs Bar
  - Removed item cool down meter and ammo count when using the Dalokohs Bar
- Fists of Steel
  - Increase deploy times 20%
  - Ranged damage reduced 40% (down from 60%)
- Loch-n-Load
  - Damage increased by 10%
- Equalizer
  - Tuned high-end damage range so it's no longer possible to one-shot certain classes
  - Suppress the medic call effect while active
- Battalion’s Backup
  - Reduced rage generation rate by 50%
- Concheror
  - Damage-to-health conversion increased to 35% (from 20%)
- Mad Milk
  - Heal 60% of damage done (down from 75%)
- Sun-on-a-Stick
  - Base damage lowered slightly but guarantees crits against burning players instead of mini-crits
- Fan O’ War
  - Marking someone for death now lasts 15 seconds (from 10 seconds)
- Flaregun
  - Flares always crit burning targets, regardless of range
- Backburner
  - Removed the restriction on airblast
  - Ammo cost increased 150% (4 blasts at full ammo)
  - Damage bonus reduced to 10% (from 15%)
- Sydney Sleeper:
  - Charge rate increased 25%
Bot changes:
- Added Spy TFBots. Spy bots have basic cloaking, diguising, sapping, and backstabbing behaviors now, and are ready to join the fight
- TFBots understand the basics of the Payload scenario now, and will push the cart on offense, and try to stop the cart on defense
- Added navigation meshes for pl_goldrush, pl_badwater, pl_upward, pl_thundermountain, and pl_hoodoo_final
- Improved TFBot reactions to cloaked and/or disguised enemy Spies
- Improved Demoman bot behaviors for planting sticky bomb traps
- Demoman bots will now try to move to a safe spot and lob stickybombs onto enemy sentry nests to destroy them
- Soldier bots switch to their shotgun after emptying their rocket launcher at close/medium range
- TFBots will no longer hide from sapped or carried sentryguns
- Engineer bots are better at moving their sentry gun nest as the scenario changes
- Improved Sniper bot algorithm for finding good sniping spots for both Capture Point and Payload scenarios
- Sniper bots will take opportunistic shots at targets while they move to their desired sniping spot
- Fixed bug where Sniper bots would sometimes stand around in their spawn room doing nothing.
- Improved TFBot ability to find a safe vantage spot to attack enemy sentry guns
- TFBots will no longer try to use a teleporter entrance they can't actually reach
- Added tf_bot_melee_only cvar. If set to 1, all TFBots will be restricted to only using their melee weapon

Read more about the update here: http://www.teamfortress.com/hatless

Apr 13, 2011

Valve's Half-Life dev hampered by Steam?

Half-Life 2

Steam today represents a billion-dollar operation staffed by hundreds. But has the platform's meteoric rise restricted Valve's capacity to actually create games?

We haven't had a proper Valve-bred IP since The Orange Box games Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 arrived more than three years ago.

Brad Wardell - leader of Stardock, the company behind Steam rival Impulse - drew on personal experience to argue that yes, Steam's success has "definitely had an effect" on Valve as a game maker.

"Even though Valve is in Seattle, where you can get developers everywhere, [Steam's] had an effect on their own development schedule. There's not been a new Half-Life in a long time; a lot of people have complained about that," Wardell explained to IndustryGamers.

"[Valve has] had their own challenges getting new titles out the door, and a big part of that I'm sure is the same problems we've had. When one of your groups is so ridiculously profitable, every business instinct you have is to throw all your best people at it, because that's what's making the money. That's just sound business. At the end of the day, again you have decide if that's what you want to do.

"Steam and Valve - of the companies out there I would say we're the most similar. Obviously they're bigger and far more successful than our games unit is, but culturally they're pretty similar. If you were to look at a time-line of games developed in-house by Valve not developed externally and then acquired and you look at before Steam and after Steam, it's definitely had an effect," he added.

"I don't argue that that's a good thing or bad thing, but I do know the effect that's had on us, where I've had to put some of my top developers over the years onto Impulse to make sure it was getting better and better."

Since the 2007 release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2, Valve has launched Portal, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2 and Alien Swarm. Portal 2 is imminent and DOTA2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) has been announced with a tentative 2011 date.

Look at those games again:

Portal was created by a group of students Valve went on to hire.
Left 4 Dead was created by a developer Valve went on to hire.
Alien Swarm was developed by a mod team Valve went on to hire.
DOTA2 (Defense of the Ancients) is being created by a modder Valve has hired.

What happened to Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Valve? And more importantly, is there a Half-Life 3? There are few announcement platforms on the scale E3 this summer. Is it Valve's turn this year? Maybe, just maybe.

Video: Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - the last Valve thoroughbred.

Apr 8, 2011

Where Does Portal 2's Co-Op Campaign Fit Into the Half-Life Universe?

Half-Life

From an interview with Valve Software's Chet Faliszek from Beefjack.com:

With regards to the co-op campaign, how does it fit in the Portal universe?

Chet Faliszek: It has its own separate story, with its own characters, and takes place after the single-player game. GLaDOS has a little thing for you to do, and I'll say no more to avoid spoilers! The story in co-op really has to step back a little bit because you need room for people to breathe and talk. They have their own story that's competing against it, you know? They won't go: "Remember when I was playing P-Body and you were Atlas and I pulled the light-bridge out from underneath you?" They're going to say: "Hey, remember when I pulled the light-bridge out from underneath you, and you fell off into the goo?" There's more of a personal story that comes from that.

Of course, no one's quite sure how the overall Portal 2 story will be woven into Half-Life, but there is some speculation (among a few random gamers that I've talked to) that part of the reason we haven't heard anything about Half-Life 3 at all is because events in Portal 2 will heavily affect the Half-Life universe. I'm starting to get a totally speculative hunch that we'll be hearing about Half-Life 3 soon after Portal 2 is on shelves. (Wishful thinking?)