Jul 24, 2013

Kerbal Space Program - Valve

Kerbal Space Program Launches Latest Update

Squad released update 0.21 to its popular space agency simulation, Kerbal Space Program, on Steam for PC and Mac

Kerbal Space Program released it’s 0.21 update for players to install and new gamers to enjoy via Steam or on its website for PC and Mac. The multi-genre game offers players the chance to run their own space agency, build and launch rockets, satellites and spacecraft into outer space. Kerbal Space Program is currently under development by Squad and available through an early access program that offers players the opportunity to immerse themselves in the game’s vast spaceship and rocket building experience before it is complete.

This latest update to KSP is the first of several to focus primarily on the game’s Career Mode. This mode will add more structure over the existing sandbox, ultimately adding the game on top of the simulation. This will offer players the chance to hire their own astronauts, build rockets under a budget and take on contracts to earn money and build their reputation. This first update, welcomes crew management into the game, so players can select their crews before a mission, and hire new astronauts through the new Astronaut Complex facility at the space center. Squad also created this animated trailer in support of this major update to KSP.

The space center itself has been completely redone for this update. The new scene features new building models, and scenery matching the in-flight world. Squad completely overhauled the interior spaces for both the Vehicle Assembly and Space Plane Hangar buildings, complete with animated vehicles and equipment.

“This update is a very important step forward for us in many ways,” lead developer Felipe Falanghe said. “Career Mode won’t be finished in one update but we hope our players will see the direction we’re going with it and enjoy the process. We’re very excited about finally being able to take significant steps towards this part of the game, which so far has been the most underdeveloped part of the project. It’s very satisfying to finally see it start to take shape and can’t wait to see how our players interact with these new features.”

Updates to KSP include:
• Crew Management: Select your Kerbal astronauts from a list of applicants, and track the status of the ones you have in the new Astronaut Complex Facility. Also, pick and choose the crew for new missions before launch with the new crew assignment panels.
• Updated Construction Facility Scenes: Admire the view with completely rehauled and updated Vehicle Assembly and Space Planes Hangar buildings
• New Flight Control System: Re-built from scratch, the new Stability Augmentation System (or more popularly known as Sickness Avoidance Solution) should be a drastic improvement for new and old players
• Terrain Additions: Many planets and moons around the Kerbal Solar System have been updated to feature beautiful new landscapes, featuring procedurally-generated craters and little hills and valleys, which are even more fun to land (or crash) on than before

Jul 23, 2013

Euro Truck Simulator 2 Updated

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Valve

VEHICLES
*All new truck Iveco Stralis Hi-Way with tuning upgrades
*Volvo: Fixed position of lights on the front grill, animations fixes, dashboard fixes, added oil indicator
*DAF: fixed speed gauge display in UK trucks, fixed exhaust
*Majestic: Fixed disappearing of the doorsteps
*Renault: Fixed blinkers
*Man: Fixed material issues
*Fixed wrong lod on flat bed trailer
*Overweight trailer: Fixed position of wheel and mudguards
*Cistern trailer: Fixed position of wheel and mudguards
*Log trailer: Added front white lights
*Fix shadow casters for some upgrades
*AI cars: the lamps are visible from greater distance at night
*Fixed shader issues with auxilary lights for all trucks

SIMULATION
*Reworked force feedback feature
*Engine torque simulation improvements. Idle throttle and clutch changes.
*Many new physical properties added to the simulation model. All dashboard gauges are simulation based now
*There is config variable in console "g_pedal_clutch_range", that can tweak clutch pedal active area length. Range is 0.1 to 1.0 (default value is 1.0)
*Fuel consumption during engine idle fixed

GAMEPLAY
*Redesigned Job Market's job listing to be able scroll through all jobs
*The speed limiter can be now disabled in Options screen.
*Added Advisor warning messages related to retarder, parking brake and air pressure warnings are not shown when gear is set to neutral.
*Added new optional control scheme where steering, accelerator and brakes can all be controlled by mouse
*Ferry route length displayed in the job selection.
*Loan installments are properly rounded up and displayed, improved timing of loan payments
*Upgrade shop does not automatically discard everything with change of cabin/chassis. Only non-compatible accessories are removed
*There is config variable in console "g_income_factor", that can lower job income of you and your drivers for more challenge. Range is 0.0 to 1.0 (default value is 1.0)
*World map can be closed by same key that opens it (default key M)

MAP
*Fixed navigation lines on UK variant roundabout
*Hundreds map fixes, tweaking and prettyfications
*A2 highway completed (as in real life 2 lane highway) including tollgates
*New road leading south from Szczecin in Poland
*Fix - added some no-weather areas placed under some bridges to avoid rain appearing there
*Wrongly set border between France and Belgium fixed
*Grass, terrains and rocks intersecting walls of some tunnels fixed
*Tons of other minor map fixes

MODELS
*Prefabs tweaking (improved AI flow somewhat, major AI rewrite is coming later)
*Less steep quarry prefab to lessen weaker engine trucks having problems when going uphill
*New small tollgates in Poland on A2 road
*Fixed animations of various pedestrians

CODE
*Asynchronous loading smoothes speed of resource loading resources, reducing overall lag and "spikes" for more even framerate
*Added SDK for telemetry output, pilot testing with kind help of www.fanaleds.de
*It is possible to skip the intro animation using a -nointro parameter
*Fixed garage name in player truck relocation UI
*Rain probability in both corner values ensures infinite weather duration
*Weather can change after time fast forward
*The save slot selection is shown after profile selection if there was problem with automatic load
*There is config variable in console "s_rumble_enabled", that can enable/disable sound of rumble stripes on the roads
*Increased range of non-linerity slider in controller option screen
*Fix potential crash related to recent Nvidia Optimus drivers changes
*Added more job-start autosaves
*Improved robustness to mod removals
*Improved behavior of input wizard
*Improved efficiency of memory pool usage
*Renamed game.log and game.crash files to game.log.txt and game.crash.txt
*Improved behavior of non-widescreen resolutions while driving
*Experimental support for triple-monitors. Controlled by r_multimon_mode cvar (0-disabled, 1-wide fov with ui on central monitor, 2 - three separate views). In the three-view mode it is possible to compensate for bezels using r_multimon_border_fov_* cvars
*The game will reset jobs whenever it detects certain changes in data
*Added Georgian language to the game

SOUND
*Money sound played only on important events
*Air brake sound fixed

STEAM
*Game will pause when Steam overlay appears
*Steam notifications are positioned on the opposite side of the screen than Route Advisor

MODDING
*New sector based map format which supports simultaneous modifications by more than one user and local extensions as long they operate in separate sectors.
*Many definition lists (e.g. types of AI trucks) can be now simultaneously extended by more than one mod.
*As result of multiple changes it is now possible to have more than one reverse speed in modded trucks.

Jul 23, 2013

Eador: Masters of The Broken World - Update

Eador. Masters of the Broken World - Valve

Patch 1.1.3 notes (July 23)

Improvements:
— New interface element: if during the current turn player constructs a building, hires a guard or performs a ritual, an additional icon for his action will be displayed on respective interface buttons.
— Added new skills:
    o Petrification Immunity — available for Gargoyle, Ghost and Golem from the start; can be acquired by Gnome.
    o Entanglement Immunity — available for Ghost, Dragon and Phoenix from the start; can be acquired by Halfling.
    o Aura of Healing — used to replenish a few HP for friendly units in nearby hexes. Available for Paladin from the start. Can be acquired by Unicorn, Dryad and Treant.
— Improved process of receiving quests from Crystals, they are more randomized now.
— Improved process of hiring guards to enemy’s base province in the campaign. Their power is now scaled to your progress.
— Almost all ‘Close’ buttons now have the same look.
— Added tooltip for ‘Close’ button in all windows that can be opened on the strategic map through hero's circular menu.
— Unit information’s window has been reworked.
— Added option to create private games and choose which player to fight with in multiplayer.
— Reduced game difficulty for the first three difficulty levels.
— Increased initial income for the first three difficulty levels.
— Added tooltip for battle result chances on the third difficulty level.
— During a siege of an outpost or a fort there is now a wooden wall and palisade on the tactical map.

Fixed:
— Province information in dead and desert lands now doesn’t show an icon of a race that possesses the province.
— A bug that caused hero’s army to lose a unit without reason after the death of an enemy unit under effect of ‘Enslaved’ spell.
— A bug that caused hero to become a Slug, Ogre or any other unit after using ‘Enslaved’ spell.
— AI’s ability to hire guards in a besieged province.
— Missing tooltip for the first building in a queue in the planned constructions’ window.
— Buildings tooltip’s displaying already constructed buildings on the astral map.
— ‘Resurrection’ spell not working if a unit that can use it is killed last in a battle.
— A bug that caused the fight to end with a draw if a hero died last and in the Dragon Form, leaving the hero itself alive.
— A bug that let a hero use the ‘Double Shot’ skill, come close to enemy and shoot dealing double damage. Now heroes can shoot only if they didn’t make a move during their turn. If a move is made the skill is deactivated.
— A bug that caused the game to start a tactical battle with ‘auto-battle - always’ setting turned on.
— Incorrect priorities for Healer AI’s behavior.
— Buildings that give access to pact with guard could show incorrect number of the pacts.
— Units with an all-round attack could counter-attack using this ability. Now all activated unit abilities will be nullified when a turn ends.
— AI getting fewer buildings in the Astral thus falling behind in development on the later stages of the campaign.
— Heroes could get an increase in two basic characteristics instead of one during province exploration.
— A hero under effect of Dragon Form and Polymorph spells didn’t have access to his spellbook.
— Players could make a bet on the arena even with no gold left.
— Game freeze caused by an enemy attacking player’s hero that’s besieging a province.
— A bug that caused inability to refuse from a quest given to a hero.
— A bug that caused allied Masters to send peace offers after every turn.
— A bug that let player end diplomatic relations and then send diplomatic offer to Masters in the same turn.
— AI sometimes missing units taken to the army from the garrison.
— Unavailable ‘Library’ button in a situation when two heroes are exchanging items in a province with Library.
— Inability to look at the detailed item’s information in a neutral shop and its incorrect price in the tooltip.
— Bugs that caused generation of ‘square’ lakes on the tactical map.
— Incorrect display of income change in the dialog window for ‘Dionium burning’ event.
— A bug that caused the army to consist of trolls instead of skeletons in the event ‘The dead have risen from their graves…’
— A bug that let player equip Healer’s Staff together with normal ranged weapon thus increasing all weapon’s characteristics.
— A bug that caused generation of multiple resources in some provinces.
— A bug that let player equip a two-handled weapon and a shield during a fight.
— Icon for the merchant district’s building in the city screen.
— AI attacking player’s capital without siege.
— Incorrect difficulty modifier’s calculation for gold and gems received after a fight.
— A bug that let AI summon skeletons and zombies in dead land provinces during auto-battle.
— Color palette for resources area on the bottom panel of the strategic map.
— Visual errors of the standard tooltip’s display.
— AI sometimes buying the same primitive items.
— AI constructing buildings in a province that improve the ones it already has.
— Bonuses for mixed skill sets of Commander not working properly (fixed once and for all).
— Tooltip for the building queue in the tutorial.
— AI’s ability so send a player a message when it had already received one from him (exception for war declarations).
— ‘Rain of Brimstone’ ritual not being effective against garrisons.
— ‘Deadly Terror’ ritual not working properly.
— ‘Polymorph’ spell bug that happened when the spell was used on the last enemy unit. The unit didn’t die in the end and his army remained on the strategic map.
— Display of buildings received upon victory on your own shard after other Master’s attack.
— Damage amount dealt by ‘Mass Suicide’ spell.
— Finding empty caches.
— A few bugs with medals received by units in battles.
— Display bug of ‘You have no access to this resource’ tooltip.
— Sometimes missing dialog for attack on a neutral province.
— Hills sometimes looking like plain terrain on the tactical map.
— ‘Start battle’ button not working during troop deployment on the arena.
— A bug in the tooltip for a unit’s medal on the tactical map.
— Game freeze caused by attack on the brigands’ province.
— Inability to siege an enemy capital if it's under effect of ‘Deadly Terror’ ritual.
— A few animation bugs of damage numbers on the tactical map.
— Text scaling in the item information’s window.
— Ability to buy the same item multiple times having only enough gold for one such item.
— Mouse scroll for chat and player list in multiplayer.
— Incorrect processing of Escape button when closing a confirmation window.

Jul 22, 2013

Edge of Space Product Update

Edge of Space - Valve

0.1.49E Hot Fixes: Getting back into the swing
This patch is doing some balance rounding and minor updates. We are trying to get back into our normal patch schedule after all the migration.

- Swarm Crabs health reduced damage increased
- Ice Crabs implemented
- Leaper implemented and Area Of Effect on land impact
- New Jelly types introduced and rebalanced
- Exposure math has been updated, as you go deeper the general threat of exposure will get higher. This is not to be confused with the rank, but the penalty for getting exposed lower increases as you go deeper.
- Deployed some of the natural spawning creatures in comet biome
- Willerworm and Vinebeetle have been given unique reactions to situations
- Plasma tree rebalanced. Lowered life, increased damage and speed of plasma balls
- Hunter Decimators now can detect the ceiling and if too close will change to firing from the bottom
- Hunter Seekers and Decimators have had health reduced but damage increased
- Armors have had a full rebalanced pass to make them scale more evenly
- Armor exposure ranks have been adjusted to be more inline with their original intent
- Outlander armor has been given a significant increase in stats and viability
- Sound updates across the board
- Adjusted gun procedural component values to allow more granularity within the craft chance
- Rocket Penguin and Mortar Penguin packs now roam the comet biome
- Rocket and Mortar Penguins also have a chance to drop Nano gear schematics
- Adjusted resource values for biomass to make it disperse more evenly
- Adjusted schematic costs across the board
- Updated how armor positioning works and fixed visual issues with Outlander
- Updating functionality for interfaces
- Updated some depth values to keep the starting pod in a safe area

Fixes:
- Chest duplication bug
- Hunter Seeker no longer only has 1hp
- Warning light schematic now works as intended
- Structure titanium's item name has been corrected
- Updated Accessories to insure syncing of animations
- Laser Shark now only chews through blocks in the world it located in

Jul 22, 2013

Aliens: Colonial Marines Update Released

Aliens: Colonial Marines Collection - Valve

General
• Adjusted melee encounter animations
• Various AI Improvements
   o Adjusted Xeno behavior to only allow for tail attacks when they’re on ceilings
   o Fixed an issue that could cause Xenos to walk upright on ceilings
   o Adjusted Lurker AI to retreat a bit after a close encounter
   o Fixed a bug where AI marines would occasionally default pose if incapacitated from a melee encounter
   o Fixed a bug where AI would still be targetable by Xenos while incapacitated
• Changed the close encounter lighting to fade out instead of abruptly turning off
• Addressed an issue where player weapons would possibly continue to fire during melee encounters
• Adjusted the dissolve effect for Xeno head pieces and particles in Bug Hunt and multiplayer
• Adjusted the attack angle for the Xeno tail stab to prevent stretching
• Addressed an issue where Xeno gore effects would occasionally play twice
• Addressed an issue with the ‘Eat This!’ achievement from not being unlocked when using the double-barreled flush gun
• Addressed a rare crash bug when using interactive objects
• Addressed an issue where the motion tracker ping would play when you didn’t have a motion tracker available
• Addressed an issue where some particles would not appear when the World Detail slider was set to the minimum. NOTE: This may require some users to re-configure the World Detail slider (under Settings -> Video ) to ensure the setting is applied properly.

Campaign
• Adjusted “Recruit” difficulty to be easier. (Other difficulty options have not changed)

Versus
• Adjusted a broken Extermination Point in Excavation
• Addressed an issue in Extermination where the last two Extermination Points used would sometimes immediately reactivate
• Addressed an issue that wouldn’t let you select spectator cameras when joining games in progress