Oct 2, 2020

Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve

An update has been released for Left 4 Dead 2.

- Fixed "New Haircut" achievement to not allow club-type melee weapons.
- Additional prevention of getting disconnected when spamming the scroll wheel.
- In Survival mode, if a special infected reports as stuck for more than two minutes it will suicide.
- Compiled captions and subtitles from dlc1.
- Fixed a couple instances where tank could spawn outside the warp check zone (but was intended to be warped)
- Added nav in ground in outer areas so that throwing a bile out there doesn't cause infected to just stand around.
- Blood Harvest 2 Warehouse Survival: shortened a nav blocker next to some stairs.
- Check for Realism in addition to Coop base mode for all exploit fixes to prevent some shortcut fixes from spawning in Realism Coop.
- Moved 64 exploit blocks to Versus-only, most notably Dark Carnival 3 Coaster, Parish 5 Bridge and Dead Air 2 Crane.

Rocket Dude:
- removed PlayerUnderWater()
- added Speedrunner stats ( local use only )
- improved script performance
- fixed script enabling glows for projectiles on multiple ticks
- removed obsolete code precaching an early dev model

Tank Run:
- During the finale, the double-Tank spawns are now set to 40 seconds instead of the normal 20 second timer.

Versus:
- Increased max ghost spawn timers to 24 seconds.
- Fixed witches time to kill on incapacitated survivors being faster than intended - it should now take the same time as pre-update.

Survival:
- Cane Field: Moved the ammo pile on the roof slightly.
- Float: Removed the ammo pile inside the house at the bottom of the stairs.
- Generator Room: Fixed ZombieDiscardRange not working properly.
- Crash Course Bridge: Marked nav areas behind a fence as NO MOBS.
- Gun Store: Clipped exploit area above barricades where infected wouldn't path to the Survivors.
- Cold Stream Junkyard: Removed alarmed car that's out-of-map.
- Terminal: Fixed ZombieSpawnRange not working properly.
- Waterfront: Blocked additional nav areas in an alley to prevent the Tank from getting stuck.

Versus Survival:
- The train door will now automatically open when the countdown timer reaches 0 on Train Car.

c1m1:
- Fixed issue where survivor bots refused to path through the kitchen fire area.
c1m3:
- Moved an exposed stairwell hurt trigger down inside a vending machine to stop it from killing players.
c2m2:
- Fixed a forklift being breakable by survivors
c3m3:
- Slightly adjusted an infected ladder to improve usability
c4m1 + c4m4:
- Blocked survivor access to a rooftop next to the playground commonly used to grief
- Added a ladder from map 2/3 for consistency between maps and to help players who fall off the safe room roof
c5m2:
- Added an infected ladder to get out of a stuck spot
- Added a hittable dumpster behind the bathrooms in the park
- Replaced a prop ladder on top of the bus station with an infected ladder
c5m3:
- Replaced a prop ladder with an infected ladder (behind the fence immediately after survivors drop towards the cemetery)
- Added an extra ladder to the above mentioned fence
c7m1:
- Fixed grenade launcher spawns having an incorrect count.
c8m1:
- Added a clip to prevent players movement being obstructed by a ladder near the car alarm
c11m1:
- Added wrong way signs above the greenhouse safe room
Last Stand:
- Fixed rescue closet spawns in the Junkyard so Survivors don't get stuck in the floor or wall.

Oct 1, 2020

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Team Fortress 2 - Valve

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:

Scream Fortress XII has arrived!

Featuring 4 new community maps: Megalo, Bloodwater, Hassle Castle, and Moldergrove
Added the Wicked Windfall Case
- Contains 22 new community-created cosmetic items that make up the Wicked Windfall Collection
- Has a chance to give one of 6 new community-created Halloween-restricted items as a bonus item
- Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
Added 19 new community-created Unusual effects
- 8 new effects for Unusual hats
- 11 new effects for Unusual taunts
Added the Scream Fortress XII War Paint Case
- Contains 15 new community-created War Paints that make-up the Scream Fortress XII War Paint Collection
- Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
All players who launch the game will receive a Soul Gargoyle if they don't already have one
- Grants access to Merasmissions and Halloween item transmutations
- Tracks Merasmissions completed and souls collected
All Halloween Contracts have been reset, allowing them to be completed again
Added new Contracts for this year's featured community maps
Completing a Halloween Contract will give players a classic Halloween item and the chance for a Wicked Windfall Case or Scream Fortress XII War Paint Case
Continue last year's event by collecting the souls of dead players for your Soul Gargoyle by killing enemies, doing map objectives, or collecting the Soul Gargoyles that spawn in the maps
All cosmetic and taunt Cases will grant Halloween 2020 Unusual effects instead of their normal Unusual effects during the event. This does not include Crates.
Join Halloween matches by using the Special Events category in Casual
Scream Fortress XII runs through November 7th, 2020

General

Added support for Steam Text Filtering for persona names and chat. This is enabled by default.
- You can update your settings in the Adv. Options dialog
- You can also update your settings by opting into the Steam Lab
Updated The Cuban Bristle Crisis to add the smoke effect
Updated/Added some tournament medals
Updated the localization files

Mannpower Update

Map Changes
- ctf_hellfire and ctf_gorge
  - Flag return time increased from 15 to 30 seconds
- ctf_thundermountain
  - Flag return time increased from 15 to 30 seconds
  - Removed a fence top ledge that snipers could exploit
Gameplay Changes
- Flag carrier grapple movement speed reduced
  - Scout with no powerup or with Agility powerup – reduced to 0.8x regular grapple movement speed (down from regular grapple movement speed in previous version)
  - Scout with any other powerup - 0.65x normal grapple movement speed (no change from previous version)
  - Any other class without a powerup or with Agility powerup - reduced to 0.65x normal grapple movement speed (down from 0.8x in previous version)
  - Any other class with a powerup - reduced to 0.5x normal grapple movement speed (down from 0.65x in previous version)
- Critical hit damage rules changed
  - Weapons that score critical hit boosts on airborne targets will no longer do so in Mannpower since being airborne is a far more important and commonly utilized movement style than in the base game
  - Melee weapons that score mini-crit damage no longer have their base Mannpower 1.3x damage boost
- Medic
  - Free ride removed. Previously when healing a target, you’d be pulled along with them when they moved by grappling hook.
  - Reduced heal rate and ubercharge build rate when carrying a powerup or healing someone with a powerup
    - Medics carrying Haste or Agility are exempt from medic powerup checks
    - If medic has no powerup and target has no powerup – regular heal and uber build rate
    - If only one of the medic and the target has a powerup - half heal and uber build rate
    - If both medic and target have powerups - quarter heal and uber build rate
  - Removed overheal from targets carrying powerups
- Heavy
  - Removed the jump up boost when grappling. You can still jump to disconnect the hook, but the Heavy no longer gets the height boost when doing so.
- Soldier
  - Battalion’s Backup rage build rate reduced by 2.5x to counter the additional benefits of an extra 20hp and critical hit immunity when compared to the Buff Banner
- Engineer
  - Carried buildings will now deploy instantly
- Scout
  - Removed falling damage
- Spy
  - Backstabs disallowed if you’re connected to an enemy by the grappling hook. This applies if you’re hooked into someone or if they’re hooked into you.
  - Knife deploy time is no longer instant when switching between weapons, even when carrying Agility
  - Conniver’s Kunai no longer considers the victim’s powerup boosted health when taking damage dealt as health
- Haste buffs
  - Reload speed increased from 2x normal to 4x normal
  - Pyro flare gun re-fire rate increased from 2x normal to 5x normal
- Vampire changes
  - Fixed a bug where the Vampire carrier wouldn’t receive health from damage dealt by an explosion that also caused self-damage
  - Increased blast weapon clip size 1.5x
- Resistance changes
  - Vampire no longer gets a 25% boost to their health received on melee attacks against a player carrying resistance
- Fixed bug where grapple would auto disconnect after a couple of seconds if the hook embedded in geometry behind clip volumes
Game Balance Changes
- When the game detects a skill imbalance between teams, select players will be moved between teams to address the imbalance
- If a player is dominating the game for long enough (kills count is very high relative to the rest of the players in the game), they’ll enter a dominant state for a period of time. This state has these effects:
  - Marked for Death
  - Powerup modifications
    - Reflect – maximum health reduced 400 to 320. Reflect damage reduced from 80% to 50%
    - Vampire – damage resistance removed. No blast weapon clip size increase
    - Strength – game multiplier reduced from 2x to 1.4x
    - Regeneration – health regenerates at 70% of the regular rate
    - Haste – weapon firing rate increase reduced from 2x to 1.5x.Weapon reload speed increase reduced from 4x to 2x
    - Knockout – melee damage increase reduced from 1.9x to 1.4x
    - King – max health increase reduced from 100 to 20
    - Plague – damage resistance to infected players reduced from 50% to 20%
    - Precision
      - Sniper rifle - Scope speed increase reduced from 2x from 1.5x. Shot charge speed increase reduced from 3x to 2x. Damage bonus reduced from 2x to1.5x
      - Blast weapons - Regular blast radius falloff. No clip size increase
    - Resistance – damage resistance reduced from 50% to 35%
  - Server variables associated with this feature:
    - tf_powerup_mode_dominant_multiplier – the multiple over the server median that a player’s kill count needs to be in order to be determined dominant
    - tf_powerup_mode_killcount_timer_length – the time interval to wait between tests for dominant players

Sep 30, 2020

Steam Digital Tabletop Fest Debuts Oct 21

Steam News - Alden

The first ever Steam Digital Tabletop Fest, celebrating games that cross between physical and digital, will make its debut October 21st thru 26th. Produced in collaboration with Auroch Digital, the event will feature virtual let’s plays, panels, talks and more streaming activities that explore the fusion between physical and digital games with legendary designers, upcoming studios, and you.

Working with Valve, indie studio Auroch Digital is helping curate the program of events and line up speakers such Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu RPG, Quake, Cthulhu Wars and more!), Steve Jackson (Munchkin, Ogre, Car Wars and many more), Ian Livingstone (Co-founder of Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy, Chairman Sumo Group plc), Elizabeth Hargrave (creator of the hit game Wingspan) and author and New Yorker writer Simon Parkin talks about how a board game helped the allies win WW2, among other topics.

Here’s a look at just some of the other wide-ranging activities happening during the event:

Plague Inc: Evolved - Where James Vaughan, game designer of the digital and physical version plays the digital game's boardgame scenario while discussing the design of both versions.
Othercide - The tactical-RPG blending strong art style, unique lore and challenging tactical gameplay, presented by its Art Director and Lead Game Designer.
Gloomhaven - llivestream, featuring the developers, will discuss the upcoming content for the next major update of Gloomhaven’s Early Access on Steam.
Virtual panel on games about Mars - Where game creators will be joined by actual space agency staff and scientists to ask what games get right and wrong about Mars.
Virtual panel on Cthulhu games - Where some of the most notable Cthulhu-themed designers from digital and physical ask about the cultural impact of such titles and more.

Join in during the live broadcasts to chat to the devs about the topics of conversations and their games, or catch them via VOD if you can’t make the live steam. More panels and talks will be announced as the event gets closer.

The Steam Digital Tabletop Fest features games that run across the lines between digital and physical games; this can be a digital port of a physical game, a game which has produced a physical version from the digital one, a game that simulates the physical play experience, or a digital game whose aesthetics are inspired by tabletop games.

To learn more and to sign up to be reminded when the event begins on October 21st at 10am Pacific time, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tabletopfest

Sep 28, 2020

Left 4 Dead 2 - Update

Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve

An update has been released for Left 4 Dead 2.

- Reoriented some of the new HUD images
- Updated several nav meshes based on feedback
- Fixed a bug where a door model was lacking prop data
- Fixed spontaneous muzzle flashes on certain rifles when playing online
- Adjusted knife's attack delay
- Fixed c10m3 versus survival tank spawn issue
- Fixed stuck spots on a few survival maps
- Various other fixes to the nav mesh from feedback
- Fixed a typo in one of the new shotgun sounds
- Fixed material sorting issues with skin mods on Molotov world model

Achievements:
- Only award "Fat Ninja" for a direct vomit attack, not a boomer explosion.
- Fixed "Golden Freeman" not awarding pickups on dedicated servers.
- Award survival medals to the entire team, including dead players.
- Fixed "The Big Ten" and "Supreme Survivalist" not unlocking on dedicated servers.
- Only award "The Last Frontier" on the Last Stand campaign.
- Don't award Survival achievements in Versus Survival and vice-versa

Survival:
- Waterfront - Removed cars outside the playable area to prevent infected from getting stuck.
- Generator Room - Increased ZombieDiscardRange.
- Church - Removed Laser Sights.
- Streets - Swapped the Military Sniper and the Ammo Pile spawns around.
- Warehouse - Removed mortar bags from under some stairs.
- Cold Stream Junkyard - Removed Laser Sights.

Versus Survival:
- Made it so the plane crash will trigger if the countdown timer reaches 0 on Runway.
- The Save 4 Less store door will now open when the timer reaches 0 on Gun Store.
- The alarmed door will now open when the timer reaches 0 on Warehouse.

Tank Run:
- Updated finales so rescue timer won't appear in Scavenge finales (you need to collect all the gas cans).
- Fixed The Sacrifice finale not working properly.
- Two Tanks will now spawn at once during the non-Scavenge finales.

Sep 24, 2020

Top Releases of August 2020

Steam News - AndrewL

Returning to our monthly Top Release series, we're excited to unveil Steam's Top Releases for the month of August. Many games made their debuts, but this list highlights the 20 that rose to the top of the charts. Like with previous months, we establish the Top 20 by looking at revenue generated during the two weeks following each game's release. We are also highlighting the top 5 free-to-play games, established by the total number of unique players they acquired during launch.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

As we watch the Top Release lists fill out over the course of each month, it's always a fun surprise to see the different types of games players are enjoying. August saw that variety on a unique level, with an entire spectrum of transportation options finding success. Whether taking to the skies with Microsoft Flight Simulator, exploring rail networks around the world with Train Sim World® 2, getting into the driver seat with Project CARS 3, or ferrying across mystical seas in Spiritfarer®, August brought an unbelievable variety of vehicles. As the months roll on, we'll have to keep an eye on what new conveyance options become available on Steam.

Remote Play

We were struck by how many of August's Top Releases offer some level of Remote Play integration. The feature, which is available for about half of August's releases, allows games to be launched from a PC and then streamed and played on a number of supported devices. It's not uncommon these days for players to have several different portable tech devices, so it makes sense for developers to give players the freedom to enjoy their games from whatever device is appropriate for the moment. For some players, this means looting aliens in Risk of Rain 2 with a swipe on the tablet. For others, a phone might be the preferred device for knocking out friends in Fall Guys. If you enjoy the convenience of playing from a phone, the uniqueness of interacting with a tablet, or the comfort of sitting in front of the TV, be sure to check the Remote Play Hub, where you'll find thousands of games supporting Steam Remote Play.

Three of the games on August's list go a step further by offering Remote Play Together support. With this feature, Remote Play technology allows friends to connect to each other's sessions as if they were sitting in the same room. If you or a friend just purchased this month's hits, Captain Tsubasa, PGA TOUR 2K21, or Spiritfarer®, make sure to join a session and experience the timeless thrill of sitting together (virtually) to play some local multiplayer.

New to Steam