Dec 1, 2011

Dota 2 - Valve

Updates to Dota 2 have been released.

HEROES

Added Lifestealer!
Alchemist: Fixed Chemical Rage not changing his base mana regeneration.
Alchemist: Fixed Goblin's Greed working on buildings.
Alchemist: Fixed various delays on his spells.
Axe: Fixed Berserker's Call to properly force affected invisible enemies to attack.
Batrider: Fixed level 4 Sticky Napalm making turn rate faster rather than slower.
Badrider: Fixed Flamebreak being able to knock Roshan out of his area.
Beastmaster: Fixed base damage.
Beastmaster: Fixed Wild Axes potentially getting stuck in the world.
Bloodseeker: Fixed Thirst working on illusions.
Bloodseeker: Fixed a bug with Rupture against magic immune enemies.
Bloodseeker: Fixed Rupture hurting you while you are cycloned.
Chen: Fixed Holy Persuation allowing Wildkin's channeled Torando to go uninterrupted.
Dark Seer: Fixed being able to Surge magic immune allies.
Doom: Fixed neutral critical strike ability from affecting wards.
Jakiro: Fixed Liquid Fire working with Illusions.
Leshrac: Fixed Pulse Nova not toggling off when you run out of mana
Necrolyte: Fixed Heartstopper Aura damaging wards.
Puck: Fixed a bug with Phase Shift that could let you use it an infinite number of times.
Puck: Fixed endless Phase Shift during Chronosphere.
Pudge: Fixed Rot doing continuing to do damage after you die.
Warlock: Fixed Golem's Immolation not doing any damage.
Windrunner: Fixed Powershot killing Couriers.
Enabled Alchemist in Captain's Mode.

GAMEPLAY

Fixed Manta Style images not carrying over Chemical Rage buff.
Fixed Repel/Purge stopping Battery Assault.
Fixed Repel/Purge removing Ghost Ship allied buff.
Fixed Repel/Purge removing various consumable buffs.
Fixed invisibility state on minimap toggling off if you walked near an enemy sentry ward (or other source of true sight).
Fixed Ethereal Blade and Ghost Scepter not sharing cooldown.
Fixed teleport scroll not dispelling item ethereal buffs.
Fixed evasion not being disabled properly under Doom/Chronosphere.
Fixed minimum damage check on Mjollnir's Static.
Illusions now copy the toggled state of inventory items on spawn (Armlet, Radiance, Basilius, etc.)
Fixed the following auras' interactions with Siege units: Necronomicon, Assault, Mekansm, Vladmir.
Fixed Mekansm not healing Siege units.
Fixed collision size on Nether Ward being too big.
Fixed Roshan bashing wards.

INTERFACE

Fixed the -wtf cheat command not working.
Fixed spawncreeps to not spawn more creeps if there are already more than 75 creeps alive on the map.
Hooked up item aliases in shop search! You can enter 'bkb' for Black King Bar, 'gg' for branch, and much, much more.
Hero Picker: Added skill icons to the hero summary page.
Hero Picker: Moved lore to its own tab.
Added hero picker to the Learn tab.
Fixed bug where some long tooltips were getting truncated.
Item tooltips in the game end screen now show the item level.
Spectator items panel now shows item level.
Player names and colors are now filled in before the player selects a hero. Previously the row would be blank until a hero was chosen.
Fixed crash when clicking on an empty slot in the top bar.
Fixed a crash when clicking in the minimap area before the map has loaded.
Fixed hang on exit.
Removed the timer between clicks to self-cast abilities and items that are able to quick-cast.
Adjusted default hotkeys (please note that hotkeys will be influx for a while, so you may need to rebind them from time to time).
Fixed default camera settings to not glide/skate.
Party display now shows the number of pending invites.
Added page showing your win and loss counts with each hero.
The chat channel list is now sorted.
Increased number of users per regional chat channel.
Your Friends list shows when a friend is finding a match.
Fixed some legacy key issues.

MATCHMAKING

Players that have been waiting a long time get some priority when finding a match.
Players in the low priority pool try to match players that are closer to their actual rating.

VISUALS

Fixed Sven's Storm Bolt coming from the wrong hand.
Fixed stunning knock back modifiers not having a stunned effect.
Fixed Windrunner not playing her Focus Fire run animation.

DOTA 2 BOTS

Added new client-bot-debugging command: dota_bot_dump_state. With no parameter, it will dump the general state of all bots. With a (partial) name of a hero supplied, it will dump more detailed information about the state of that specific hero's bot.
Enabled a small action delay to better mimic human reaction time.
Bots will now save for and use Buyback.
Bots should no longer focus too much on wards, and will no longer try to use abilities on them.
Added a per-hero aggression factor, which hopefully will help keep poor Crystal Maiden alive a bit more.
Improved Vengeful Spirit bot's Nether Swap usage - she should be better about swapping heroes that are getting away.
Fixed case where bots would use TP scrolls to port short distances when retreating.
Bots will no longer use a TP scroll or Travel Boots when nearby enemies have stuns available.
A number of bots will now harass with long-range stuns/abilities when defending a tower and waiting for allies to arrive.
When chasing an enemy that blinks away, bots will no longer have perfect knowledge of where they blinked.
Fixed case where bots were failing to path back into their fountain (specifically when trying to pull creeps into the fountain).
Bots will now try to kill enemy couriers.
Fixed bug where bots were not trying to avoid linear projectiles like Mirana's Arrow and Pudge's Hook.
Fixed case where a bot with a full inventory (and not willing to drop anything) would get deemed the best bot to pick up an item, causing no one to pick it up.
Bots now know if they have mini-stuns on their attacks, and are more likely to attack enemies who are channeling.
Bots will no longer buy dust/gem in response to an enemy having an invisibility rune.
Bots now take avoidance into account when destroying items the enemy team has dropped, so they should no longer dive for them.
Bots should now avoid standing in Sand King's Sandstorm.
Earthshaker bot should be better at fissuring fleeing enemies.
Fixed case where a bot could get stuck trying to purchase an item at the side shop that's also available at the secret shop.
Fixed bots standing in a healing aura when high health rather then retreating to retrieve their items.
Made carries better able to interrupt their farming to retrieve items from their stash or the secret shop.
Made bots better about doing Roshan if a human pings him.

Dec 1, 2011

Dungeon Defenders Updated

Dungeon Defenders - Valve

7.12 Update Notes
Additions
* PvE: Added new 8-player "Über Monster Fest!" challenge mission as part of the 'New Heroes Pack'
* All: Players can now to create their own "Hero Shop" with Items they own, set prices on those Items, and then specifically list their game as an "AFK Shop" game. Added button to view the available DefendersStore.com Items along with the active "AFK Shops".
* All: Added a "Add to DefendersStore.com" button to the Item Box and Hero Shop, which enables you to post/updates your items to DefendersStore.com directly from within the game! Also the Items automatically remove themselves from DefendersStore.com when they get sold from your shop!

Changes
* All: You can now hold "Alt" and click on another Hero Icon in the Hero Selection or Swapping UI to swap those two hero positions, so you can more easily organize your heroes into sets.
* All: Score indicator collapses the same-type labels onto each other, so if you kill 100 goblins before the score indicator has caught up, you get a "Killed 100 +100" message rather than 100 goblin kill messages. This makes the score indicator much more useful and timely.
* All: Every slower swinging melee weapon now deals proportionally more damage! (as listed on their Damage Stat too). Is retroactive.
* All: Raised Mana Bank non-shop earnings Cap to 100,000,000
* PvE: Adept "Instant Upgrade" can now also be used in the Build Phase, useful for time-limited missions, and reduced the cost of "Purity Bomb" to 200 Mana. Also, Instant-Upgrade can be used beyond Upgrade Level 5 to do an Instant Repair, at a high cost of Mana.
* PvE: Dark Elf Warrior Damage to Towers reduced by 50%, and their Targeting Desirability to Towers reduced by 40%.
* All: Monk Weapons retroactively buffed 33% Melee Damage, Monk Ranged Damage Exponential Ramp nerfed 20%, Monk Hero Boost upkeep cost increased 20%.
* All: Redesigned the Adept animations.
* All: Upgrading Projectile Speed now has a minimal impact on resale value.
* All: All Chicken Pets standardized to 80 Upgrade Levels.
* All: Countess "Joust" damage scales better (increased damage stat ramp by 20%), and "Joust" now does scaled Weapon Elemental Damage as well. Countess "Call To Arms" radius raised and ally damage buff ramp increased 15%
* All: Definitive Chicken-Pet 33% damage buff.

Fixes
* All: Fixed bug where you could get someone else's Tavern dropped items in YOUR Tavern.
* All: Keyboard-lockout after naming your game when using a Gamepad is fixed
* All: Likely fix for weapon-not-appearing-on-character issue under lossy-network conditions
* All: Another Countess "Joust" client issue fixed,
* DDDK: Total Conversions can now use custom Materials.

Dec 1, 2011

Terraria Updated

Terraria - Valve

NPC’s
- There are thirty-six new monsters!
- The underworld has a new master, the Wall of Flesh. Defeating him will unlock new challenges for your world.
- There are three harder versions of the older bosses.
- There are now three new friendly NPC’s that can be rescued after specific conditions are met.
- The Dryad will now tell you the percentage of Corruption vs. Hallow in the world.
- Made several small changes to allow for better underground cities:
- New NPCs will spawn in their homes underground, instead of on the surface.
- Worms will no longer spawn when near a friendly NPC.
- Underground towns will now reduce, and eventually stop, enemy spawning.

Items
- Added thirty-nine statues that are scattered around the world. Some of them do special things when activated with mechanics!
- Star Cannon : Shoots faster.
- Sandgun : Sand shot from it does more damage, and it shoots faster.
- Blowpipe : Now listed as ranged.
- Goblins no longer drop rocket boots during an invasion. Instead they are sold by a new NPC that can be rescued underground after the player has defeated the Goblin Army.
- Boomerang type weapons are listed as melee.
- Added four new armor sets. Each set has different helms that give bonuses to melee, ranged, or magic, respectively.
- There are twenty-one new accessories.
- Weapons and accessories can now have random conditions that modify their stats. These conditions can be changed for a price by visiting a new NPC.
- The crafting requirements for Molten and Jungle gear have been reduced.
- Some accessories can now be combined at a Tinkerer’s Workshop.
- Colored Torches can now be crafted out of Gems and Torches.
- Added Mannequins that are crafted out of wood. Place armor on them for decoration/storage.
- Added the Wrench to place wires.
- Added Wire Cutters to remove wires.
- Added Pressure Plates, Switches, and Timers to activate devices.
- Added Music Boxes that record and play in-game music.
- Added Pumps to transport liquids.
- Added loads of other new items and weapons waiting to be found!
- Putting the Guide Voodoo Doll in lava is now a bad idea...or is it?

Lighting / Display
- Terraria now has smooth, colored lighting! You can toggle between the four lighting modes: Color, White, Retro, and Trippy in the Options Menu or by pressing F7.
- Made several lighting and display optimizations to increase game performance.
- Added automatic graphic quality adjustment based on the game’s frame rate. This setting can be toggled in the Options Menu.

Multiplayer
- Fixed a problem with item syncing for newly connected players.
- Fixed a bug that caused graphical issues for player’s using automatic weapons.
- Added a limit to how often the server can broadcast NPC update packets. This prevents NPC’s from trying to update every cycle which would cause massive amounts of lag.
- Reduced the amount of data needed to transmit tiles down to 25%.
- The server now only broadcasts tile data to the players who need it.
- The server now withholds some NPC, player, and projectile packets based on player distance from them.
- Fixed a bug where water is consumed when a player cures Corruption with Purification Powder while standing in water.

World
- Above ground tunnels may now be created during world gen.
- Smashing Demon Altars with a special item will cause new ore to appear around the world.
- Defeating the hell boss will now increase the difficulty of the world. Harder monsters will spawn, and the Corruption’s rate of spread will be greatly increased.
- Defeating the hell boss will allow the Corruption to spread underground, over sand, stone, and Sunflowers, and through Jungles, destroying them if you let it!
- There is a new biome, The Hallow, that will be created when the hell boss is defeated.
- Removed obsolete lighting code, reducing both RAM usage and world save file sizes.
- Added several small features to world gen.
- Tweaked the way and amount of Underground Mushroom biome spawn.
- Demon Torches now appear in shelters generated in the underworld.
- Underground cabins may randomly spawn around chests.
- Different styles of wall can now be placed next to one another without showing the background between them, allowing for more creative building.
- When nearing the top of the world, the player will now leave the atmosphere and be less affected by gravity.
- There are now three types of traps that are generated underground. Watch your step!
- Cacti no longer damage players.

Game Interface
- Items being held by the mouse will now be used by left clicking. This allows the player to place objects without putting them on the hotbar. Right clicking will now drop the item.
- Placing objects on grass will now destroy the grass.
- The crafting menu now scales to fit the size of the screen.
- When the inventory is open, the number of the selected item in the hotbar will appear in green.
- There is a new NPC housing interface that can be used to assign living areas to NPC’s. This interface will also tell you if a room is missing any requirements.

Misc
- There is a new music track for The Hallow biome.
- Underground Corruption has its own music track.
- Underground Hallow has its own music track.
- There are two new boss music tracks.
- Greatly reduced world save file sizes.
- Decreased tile frame detection time by 15%.
- Your trash can is now emptied when you die.
- Added an auto select hotkey that will pick a tool from the player’s inventory based on what their mouse is hovering over. This defaults to Left Shift.
- All players will now leave behind tombstones when killed.
- There is now a random option in the player creation menu.
- Female players now have separate armor graphics.
- Added a new mechanical system! Holding a mechanical item will display the wire grid to create interesting new devices.
- There are new overworld backgrounds for each biome!

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that would cause the server to think a player is dead if he/she reaches 1 HP without dying.
- Fixed a bug that wouldn’t allow players to craft from the ammo slot.
- Fixed a bug that would crash the game when player tried to draw water outside the bounds of the world.
- Fixed a bug that would cause mana regen to ignore stat bonuses given by armor or accessories
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the game to crash when growing Underground Jungle grass.
- Wooden Platforms no longer attach to non-solid objects.
- Placing and removing items during the placing animation will no longer destroy the item when it is collected.
- Fixed a bug that would cause graphical abnormalities when the lighting changes dramatically.
- The FPS display (F10) shows the correct number.
- Fixed a bug that swapped the lighting of players pants and head armor.
- Fixed a problem that would cause water to settle in strange positions.
- Fixed a problem that caused objects with transparency to appear darker than they should.

Dec 1, 2011

Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter Update Released

Sword of the Stars II: Enhanced Edition - Valve

r18221b
------

*** This update hasn't been tested extensively on old save games. ***

Critical Fixes:
+ Improved turn times, especially for games with a large number of systems or players.
+ Fixed an issue in combat that was preventing players or AI from issuing waypoints for ships.
+ Fixed a crash the could occur when issuing orders to a ship with no crew.
+ Fixed a crash when entering combat with a beam-equipped planet.
+ Fixed an rare crash when entering combat that could be caused by destroyed turrets.
+ Fixed a combat AI crash related to ship formations.
+ Fixed a potential lock-up at the end of combat.
+ Initial pass at Diplomacy mechanics and interface.
+ Treaty and Declare War options are now available in the diplomacy screen.

Other Fixes:
+ Fixed minor issues with the players list in the lobby.
+ Fixed a server browser issue where more players than the max allowable would be displayed for a game.
+ Fixed known issues with combat AI not detecting enemy ships.
+ Fixed known issues where AI controlled ships could get stuck navigating around planets.
+ Fixed an issue where AI ships could fly into planets when performing fly-by maneuvers.
+ Combat AI will now attempt to lead targets when in pursuit instead of lagging behind.
+ Fixed minor issues with the Von Neumann Collector AI.
+ Fixed an issue that was preventing combat AI from listening to defense objectives.
+ Fixed a minor issue with Protean AI that would cause Proteans to venture too far from their planets in pursuit of targets.
+ Protean AI will now engage multiple targets.
+ Scattered AI task groups will now attempt to regroup when they get too scattered.
+ Civilian ships will now attempt to evade enemies unless they are the only ships left in combat.
+ Randomized AI patrol directions.
+ Fixed intermittent bug where ships in weapon test would not fire after a round of multiplayer combat.
+ Fixed an issue where a ship coming into combat with a dead module or turret would still get benefits of that module or turret.
+ Fixed a number of turret errors (placed inside ship, placed backwards, etc.)
+ Fixed Torpedo and Barrage ship sections to remove possibility of accidental torpedo imapacts when firing.
+ Fixed an issue where destroyed ship sections were coming into combat with modules and weapons.
+ Fixed the issue where unlocked Steam achievements were not being published. The game will post all currently unlocked achievements the first a players starts it after the update.
+ Fixed the issue where the steam overlay was not available in many cases.
+ Ships now drop out of overthrust when they reach their destination.
+ Ships awaiting docking of riders will now slow to 50% speed during the process.
+ Overthrust now prevents the launching of riders, and ships now recall riders before going in to overthrust.
+ Fixed a number of log file spam issues.
+ The System Killer will no longer run into stations.
+ Fixed bug where design name would be different than default if no name was entered.
+ Restricted prototypes to their own build orders.
+ Changed design display style and added delete buttons to items.
+ Made fleet summary button disable on end turn.
+ Added fleet summary dialog.
+ Added skills to initial admirals.
+ Added tooltips to admiral traits in admiral manager.
+ Removed preferred fleet icon from various places where it should not show up.
+ Ship prototypes are now class-specific.
+ Constrained drone turret arcs.
+ Ballistic weapons now only collide with deflectors and graviton shields.
+ Energy weapons now only collide with disruptor and meson shields.
+ Increased costs of technologies by about 20-30% in general.
+ Many minor tweaks to weapons.
+ Various minor weapon and ship section art fixes.
+ A loading screen is thrown up when transitioning back to the main menu.
+ Drone designs no longer get random faction names.
+ Fixed build order removal.
+ Locust menaces are now implemented.
+ Fixed an issue where muzzle node scaling was doing odd things to weapon effects.
+ Fixed an issue where some beams were firing backwards due to negative scaling factors.
+ Fixed an issue where idle animations were not playing in the weapon test screen.
+ Fixed an issue where ricochects were no longer occurring.
+ Fixed missing module icona and descriptions.
+ Added module information display classes
+ Fixed bug in battle manager when entering with both your own and enemy colonies in the system
+ Added module information display to build screen
+ Introduced new color scheme for build items.
+ Fixed a bug where players from previous games could show up in the diplomacy screen for subsequent games.

Other Changes:
+ By popular request, a SotS1 Human avatar makes it's return.
+ Added turret viewing filters to the design screen.
+ Rotation of the ship in the design screen is now constrained to a single axis.
+ Added more obvious differentiation between prototyped and non prototyped designs.
+ Added color coding to admiral trait display in admiral manager.
+ Diamond icons now show up for ships at a distance in combat.
+ It is now possible to configure options for ship sections in the design screen.
+ Weapons can now be configured on ships in the design screen by clicking points on the ship model as well as the icon itself.
+ Added tutorial pop-up for Diplomacy screen.
+ It is now possible to scrap ships by clicking the trash can icons.
+ Selected design weapons are now displayed in the build screen.
+ Improved module selection in the design screen.
+ Added new star map: Jax.

Key known issues:
- Default options are not being enforced in the design screen.
- Scrapping ships does not yet yield bonuses.
- AI is not assigning design options correctly.
- When playing in single-player mode with the end turn delay, UI elements do not get locked out between turns.
- The game is not allowing alien habitation modules to be constructed even after encountering other players.