Community MetaSteam | June 2019 - Microsoft does what Epican't

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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,870
15,903
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I meant a monthly or weekly "meet", during the weekends, where we could try out games we probably are yet to play with other fellow Meta members.

It's frequently hard to find a decent group of people to try out multiplayer games, without having screaming whinny kids insulting you for whatever reason.
It would be great to have a beginner friendly group of people to occasionally play games with.

We could, for example, vote for a game to try out (or two; I mean, we could possibly split things between a couple of groups, with two different games, to offer an option), and play online.

Just an idea. The format, and games to try would be up to the community.
That’s something I suggested in the old place. Not the new old one, the old one one. Man, there are so many old places now :drinking-blob:
But that unfortunately didn’t really interest people at the time.

But that will always be something I have trouble coping with: we talk together all the time, we logically and hopefully like each other or at least a good amount of people here... but goddd forbid we play something together !

I understand that this is not so simple, there is the time zone issue, the internet speed for some too, and games must be bought too, money you vicious mistress. And let’s not avoid the elephant in the room, gamers are not the most social species.
Nonetheless, you have my sword.
 

Guilty of Being

META MAN
Dec 5, 2018
1,607
3,971
113
Texas
That’s something I suggested in the old place. Not the new old one, the old one one. Man, there are so many old places now :drinking-blob:
But that unfortunately didn’t really interest people at the time.

But that will always be something I have trouble coping with: we talk together all the time, we logically and hopefully like each other or at least a good amount of people here... but goddd forbid we play something together !

I understand that this is not so simple, there is the time zone issue, the internet speed for some too, and games must be bought too, money you vicious mistress. And let’s not avoid the elephant in the room, gamers are not the most social species.
Nonetheless, you have my sword.
I've noticed in the evenings, I'm fairly lonely here. I'm Central Time in the USA.
 

Deleted member 113

Guest
That’s something I suggested in the old place. Not the new old one, the old one one. Man, there are so many old places now :drinking-blob:
But that unfortunately didn’t really interest people at the time.

But that will always be something I have trouble coping with: we talk together all the time, we logically and hopefully like each other or at least a good amount of people here... but goddd forbid we play something together !

I understand that this is not so simple, there is the time zone issue, the internet speed for some too, and games must be bought too, money you vicious mistress. And let’s not avoid the elephant in the room, gamers are not the most social species.
Nonetheless, you have my sword.
Yeah, I'm really hoping we can do something soon(ish).

When I played a certain Unreal Tournament 2014 mod, we had these scheduled sessions, and they were a lot of fun.
It was always hard to find people playing mods for most games, but for that one (Jailbreak), since we did scheduled sessions, we always had people to play matches, and have some fun.
And, since it was pretty much the members of a community attending, we started to know each other, and it was a very positive, stress free environment.
Win or lose, people would attend just to play some matches. Some would stay for hours, others for 30-60 minutes, but we always had people.

It's hard to get people together very frequently, but once or twice a month (for example), I think it can be done.
We can vote for games to play each week. We can consider creating a server for an older game that everyone, or close to it, may have (like Killing Floor, or whatever), and play on weekends. And more.
There's plenty of things we can do.

I'm not currently on any Discord.
I know I'm an old fart, but Discord confuses the hell out of me.
It moves too fast, there's text everywhere, and I can never find anything. :p
 

Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
1,313
93
I'm not sure. I just like all the info and the ease of doing things.
This was the thread I remembered:
WARNING: Trusted Steam Inventory Helper now requesting dangerous permissions

Bottom line is: they are monitoring what sites you visit and may be sending a lot of your online activity to their own server. I couldn't figure out when they do it, yet, but it seems to be for promotional stuff. More importantly, in the future, even if what they do now is legit, you will not be informed about any changes to their permissions, because it basically already has every permission it can get in that regard. Therefore I strongly suggest uninstalling and reporting this extension.
I couldn't find anything suggesting that this tracking has been removed and I couldn't be arsed to read through the source code myself.

ETA: But it still requests the same extensive set of permissions, which is to say access to every website you visit instead of just steampowered.com.
 

Arsene

On a break
Apr 17, 2019
3,280
8,305
113
Canada
I'm down with the idea too. God I miss central time, I moved from the Destin area to Tampa a year ago and Eastern time sucks. This is a stupid question, but does MC have a Discord? If so we can figure out what games and when on there.
Don't think so. Pretty sure a lot of people here use the PCEra discord though.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,300
12,269
113
Masquerada continues to be a very pretty game with an amazingly detailed world and history, good characters and interesting story.

The downside is that the massive amounts of lore it dishes out via its Codex-equivalent, definitely messes up the pacing of the main story.
I dunno, I wish they'd integrated this a bit more organically into the world.
 

Alexandros

MetaMember
Nov 4, 2018
2,823
12,150
113
How is it? As its own thing and compared to Xcom. Mission design, balancing, „feeling“, units, etc.
All this and how does the "conspiracy board" - stuff work?
The game shares XCom's overall structure (base of operations, squad-based tactical battles). Missions pop up around the globe, some are connected to the main campaign and others are randomly generated. The main difference between Xcom and Phantom Doctrine is that in PD fighting with the enemy in a direct assault is very much an undesirable outcome.

You are supposed to infiltrate, achieve your objectives quietly and exit without triggering any alarms or making your presence known to the enemy. In that sense its tactical layer has more in common with Invisible Inc than XCom. In most missiions combat is the last resort because you can't actually clear the map of enemy units, reinforcements will keep coming every few turns until you make it to the extraction point or die. I can't stress this enough: With the exception of scripted missions where combat is inevitable, if you find yourself in an open firefight with the enemy it means that you did a sloppy job and you should start moving towards the extraction point before you are overwhelmed.

Back when I played the game (at launch) there was an issue with disguises being overpowered. Basically at some point one of the perks you can unlock for your agents is the ability to use a disguise, Agent 47-style, which trivialized many missions since you become practically invisible to most enemy units. I have to say though, infiltrating an enemy outpost, killing the target or achieving the objective and leaving with no alarms raised was pretty satisfying.

The investigation layer with the conspiracy board is a fun idea that is too shallow to achieve its potential. You can find documents in missions that you can examine for codewords of places, people and organizations. You then connect documents that contain the same codewords on the board in order to find out the true names, places and organizations and advance the plot. Sadly it all happens automatically and you don't actually investigate yourself. New documents get pinned on the board and you try to join them together with string in what is very much a trial-and-error procedure of clicking on everything on screen until you get a match.

That said, the game nails the cold war atmosphere and many of its missions can be pretty fun once you get a hang of things. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit, but only after I made my peace with the fact that it shouldn't be played as XCom and that some of its features lacked the proper depth.
 

prudis

anime occult member
Sep 19, 2018
10,310
26,961
113
The Kingdom of Beer and Porn
twitter.com
An updated look at our progress on KeyWe! During the Summer chapter of the game, Jeff & Debra are learning the ropes of the relay station, getting some postal shifts under their belts, and surviving the torrential monsoons that Summer brings. KeyWe is being developed by Stonewheat & Sons for PC, Mac, and (we really, really hope!) XBoxOne, PS4, and Switch.


The game Fort Boyard will be available as a digital standard edition, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC/Mac June 27th, 2019.


This is a game created using Pixel Game Maker MV, made especially for all the old school, classic 2D action game fans out there. From 8bits Fanatics, the creator of the fatally difficult action title 1001 Spikes, comes a true 2D dark fantasy-action game full of swords and magic.

Coming June 21st




this one released from Early Access recently


The Grand Heist TRAILER



 

Deleted member 113

Guest
I'm really liking the look of the game I mentioned above (Chook & Sosig: Walk the Plank).






---

I bought a copy myself (my refund for my pre-order of Rune: Ragnarok came at a great time :grimacing-face:).

Apparently, the developer released a few other smaller, free games in the past featuring these characters.
If anyone wants to check them out, you can find them in her itch.io page:

 

Guilty of Being

META MAN
Dec 5, 2018
1,607
3,971
113
Texas
This was the thread I remembered:
WARNING: Trusted Steam Inventory Helper now requesting dangerous permissions



I couldn't find anything suggesting that this tracking has been removed and I couldn't be arsed to read through the source code myself.

ETA: But it still requests the same extensive set of permissions, which is to say access to every website you visit instead of just steampowered.com.
Thank you for letting me now. I got rid of it.
Masquerada continues to be a very pretty game with an amazingly detailed world and history, good characters and interesting story.

The downside is that the massive amounts of lore it dishes out via its Codex-equivalent, definitely messes up the pacing of the main story.
I dunno, I wish they'd integrated this a bit more organically into the world.
That looks so beautiful.
 

kio

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
1,606
5,147
113
Masquerada continues to be a very pretty game with an amazingly detailed world and history, good characters and interesting story.

The downside is that the massive amounts of lore it dishes out via its Codex-equivalent, definitely messes up the pacing of the main story.
I dunno, I wish they'd integrated this a bit more organically into the world.
I finished that game this past weekend. Definitely something worth playing but not for the gameplay or any mechanics but purely for the story. It's in fact a shame that such a great story, world and lore is attached to such a 'meh' game. Nothing really seems to work as it should, the tactical battles are a mess and boil down to spamming AoE spells, the RPG mechanics are basic with no depth and no visible impact on the gameplay and the masquerine spells, which should be an ultimate ability of great power, are worthless.
I hope these guys have another chance at a 2nd game because this setting and world is too good to abandon. They just need to find the right play mechanics to attach it to (maybe something turn-based like Darkest Dungeon).
 

RionaaM

Vogon Poetry Appreciator
Sep 6, 2018
887
2,187
93
That’s something I suggested in the old place. Not the new old one, the old one one. Man, there are so many old places now :drinking-blob:
But that unfortunately didn’t really interest people at the time.

But that will always be something I have trouble coping with: we talk together all the time, we logically and hopefully like each other or at least a good amount of people here... but goddd forbid we play something together !

I understand that this is not so simple, there is the time zone issue, the internet speed for some too, and games must be bought too, money you vicious mistress. And let’s not avoid the elephant in the room, gamers are not the most social species.
Nonetheless, you have my sword.
I only play single player stuff. It's very rare to find me playing something online, and that's only with friends. But yeah, this could be nice! Especially now that I'm gonna live on my own next month, I'll need all the socializing I can get.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,300
12,269
113
I finished that game this past weekend. Definitely something worth playing but not for the gameplay or any mechanics but purely for the story. It's in fact a shame that such a great story, world and lore is attached to such a 'meh' game. Nothing really seems to work as it should, the tactical battles are a mess and boil down to spamming AoE spells, the RPG mechanics are basic with no depth and no visible impact on the gameplay and the masquerine spells, which should be an ultimate ability of great power, are worthless.
I hope these guys have another chance at a 2nd game because this setting and world is too good to abandon. They just need to find the right play mechanics to attach it to (maybe something turn-based like Darkest Dungeon).
Yeah, that's pretty much my experience so far. I tolerate the gameplay, but it's really the world and story that interest me.
 

Guilty of Being

META MAN
Dec 5, 2018
1,607
3,971
113
Texas
I forgot they pulled that permission shit, I use Steam Economy Enhancer.
I’ll check that out.
PC Era Discord has benefit of being separate from console-centric users and moderation, the two reasons why I - and I suspect some others - jumped ship to MC to begin with.
I used to stick to the PC Era thread, but found I would rather just enjoy my time over here. I wish some more would make the jump.
 

FunnyJay

Powered by the Cloud
Apr 6, 2019
1,499
3,900
113
Sweden
The game shares XCom's overall structure (base of operations, squad-based tactical battles). Missions pop up around the globe, some are connected to the main campaign and others are randomly generated. The main difference between Xcom and Phantom Doctrine is that in PD fighting with the enemy in a direct assault is very much an undesirable outcome.

You are supposed to infiltrate, achieve your objectives quietly and exit without triggering any alarms or making your presence known to the enemy. In that sense its tactical layer has more in common with Invisible Inc than XCom. In most missiions combat is the last resort because you can't actually clear the map of enemy units, reinforcements will keep coming every few turns until you make it to the extraction point or die. I can't stress this enough: With the exception of scripted missions where combat is inevitable, if you find yourself in an open firefight with the enemy it means that you did a sloppy job and you should start moving towards the extraction point before you are overwhelmed.

Back when I played the game (at launch) there was an issue with disguises being overpowered. Basically at some point one of the perks you can unlock for your agents is the ability to use a disguise, Agent 47-style, which trivialized many missions since you become practically invisible to most enemy units. I have to say though, infiltrating an enemy outpost, killing the target or achieving the objective and leaving with no alarms raised was pretty satisfying.

The investigation layer with the conspiracy board is a fun idea that is too shallow to achieve its potential. You can find documents in missions that you can examine for codewords of places, people and organizations. You then connect documents that contain the same codewords on the board in order to find out the true names, places and organizations and advance the plot. Sadly it all happens automatically and you don't actually investigate yourself. New documents get pinned on the board and you try to join them together with string in what is very much a trial-and-error procedure of clicking on everything on screen until you get a match.

That said, the game nails the cold war atmosphere and many of its missions can be pretty fun once you get a hang of things. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit, but only after I made my peace with the fact that it shouldn't be played as XCom and that some of its features lacked the proper depth.
Cheers for the write-up!
 

BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
995
2,665
93
The game shares XCom's overall structure (base of operations, squad-based tactical battles). Missions pop up around the globe, some are connected to the main campaign and others are randomly generated. The main difference between Xcom and Phantom Doctrine is that in PD fighting with the enemy in a direct assault is very much an undesirable outcome.

You are supposed to infiltrate, achieve your objectives quietly and exit without triggering any alarms or making your presence known to the enemy. In that sense its tactical layer has more in common with Invisible Inc than XCom. In most missiions combat is the last resort because you can't actually clear the map of enemy units, reinforcements will keep coming every few turns until you make it to the extraction point or die. I can't stress this enough: With the exception of scripted missions where combat is inevitable, if you find yourself in an open firefight with the enemy it means that you did a sloppy job and you should start moving towards the extraction point before you are overwhelmed.

Back when I played the game (at launch) there was an issue with disguises being overpowered. Basically at some point one of the perks you can unlock for your agents is the ability to use a disguise, Agent 47-style, which trivialized many missions since you become practically invisible to most enemy units. I have to say though, infiltrating an enemy outpost, killing the target or achieving the objective and leaving with no alarms raised was pretty satisfying.

The investigation layer with the conspiracy board is a fun idea that is too shallow to achieve its potential. You can find documents in missions that you can examine for codewords of places, people and organizations. You then connect documents that contain the same codewords on the board in order to find out the true names, places and organizations and advance the plot. Sadly it all happens automatically and you don't actually investigate yourself. New documents get pinned on the board and you try to join them together with string in what is very much a trial-and-error procedure of clicking on everything on screen until you get a match.

That said, the game nails the cold war atmosphere and many of its missions can be pretty fun once you get a hang of things. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit, but only after I made my peace with the fact that it shouldn't be played as XCom and that some of its features lacked the proper depth.
Thanks for the write-up! Will probably hold off for now.
 
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Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,699
2,933
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I'd be up for playing games together :cat-heart-blob:
I'm sure that there's a bunch of things that could be played by anyone too.

And Bloodstained being the worldwide top seller is absolutely crazy. It's not small games that it's pushing around.
I wonder how things would have gone if Igavanias had chosen another way than handhelds back then...
 

MonthOLDpickle

我會打敗你!!
Oct 31, 2018
1,709
2,076
113
Taiwan
Is that the Forsaken bundle (i.e. Complete Collection)? If so, that also includes all Year 1 content, which is the part that will go F2P. It'd give you a head start for when it hits Steam, but you might be overpaying a tad. I wouldn't be surprised if the price of the Forsaken expansion + Annual Pass Year 2 will be cheaper than that. Shadowkeep + Annual Pass for Year 3 is now 35 USD/EUR after all. Neither the Shadowkeep pre-order or F2P version include the Forsaken expansion, to my knowledge.

It's a good deal with a whole lot of game, but, like Ryna said, perhaps it's better to give the base game a shot before going in whole hog.
So be better to play and then buy w/e package is on steam?
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,524
5,570
113
Toronto
The game shares XCom's overall structure (base of operations, squad-based tactical battles). Missions pop up around the globe, some are connected to the main campaign and others are randomly generated. The main difference between Xcom and Phantom Doctrine is that in PD fighting with the enemy in a direct assault is very much an undesirable outcome.

You are supposed to infiltrate, achieve your objectives quietly and exit without triggering any alarms or making your presence known to the enemy. In that sense its tactical layer has more in common with Invisible Inc than XCom. In most missiions combat is the last resort because you can't actually clear the map of enemy units, reinforcements will keep coming every few turns until you make it to the extraction point or die. I can't stress this enough: With the exception of scripted missions where combat is inevitable, if you find yourself in an open firefight with the enemy it means that you did a sloppy job and you should start moving towards the extraction point before you are overwhelmed.

Back when I played the game (at launch) there was an issue with disguises being overpowered. Basically at some point one of the perks you can unlock for your agents is the ability to use a disguise, Agent 47-style, which trivialized many missions since you become practically invisible to most enemy units. I have to say though, infiltrating an enemy outpost, killing the target or achieving the objective and leaving with no alarms raised was pretty satisfying.

The investigation layer with the conspiracy board is a fun idea that is too shallow to achieve its potential. You can find documents in missions that you can examine for codewords of places, people and organizations. You then connect documents that contain the same codewords on the board in order to find out the true names, places and organizations and advance the plot. Sadly it all happens automatically and you don't actually investigate yourself. New documents get pinned on the board and you try to join them together with string in what is very much a trial-and-error procedure of clicking on everything on screen until you get a match.

That said, the game nails the cold war atmosphere and many of its missions can be pretty fun once you get a hang of things. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit, but only after I made my peace with the fact that it shouldn't be played as XCom and that some of its features lacked the proper depth.
Didnt the devs close up shop after launch or was that another game of similar xcom style?
 

Deleted member 113

Guest
Didnt the devs close up shop after launch or was that another game of similar xcom style?
It wasn't after launch, they still patched the game a bit, and released added content, but earlier this year, indeed they closed doors. Management problems.
Most of the team remain together, and funded a new company, Artificer.

---

I have a question regarding Steam cards, and booster packs.

When a game is removed, and its cards can no longer be sold, you can still get cards by crafting boosters.
But, is there any chance one of the cards doesn't drop for any reason?

Since I had plenty of gems, I decided to try and craft a badge for TRANSFORMERS: Devastation, a game I really enjoyed, that sadly is no longer sold.
I have crafted 12 TRANSFORMERS: Devastation booster packs, and while I already have 10 copies of some cards, I still haven't receive a single one for one of the cards. :(
I'm now wondering if that card simply won't drop. :rolleyes:

And, is there any place where I can quickly get rid of these cards I won't need (without turning them into gems), considering I can't sell them, only trade them?

thanks :)
 
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gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,524
5,570
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Toronto
It wasn't after launch, they still patched the game a bit, and released added content, but earlier this year, indeed they closed doors. Management problems.
Most of the team remain together, and funded a new company, Artificer.
Thought so, has Artificer taken up the game at all, or is it basically dead in terms of support?
 

Spookyfriend

Junior Member
Jan 27, 2019
124
353
63
I have a question regarding Steam cards, and booster packs.

When a game is removed, and its cards can no longer be sold, you can still get cards by crafting boosters.
But, is there any chance one of the cards doesn't drop for any reason?

Since I had plenty of gems, I decided to try and craft a badge for TRANSFORMERS: Devastation, a game I really enjoyed, that sadly is no longer sold.
I have crafted 12 TRANSFORMERS: Devastation booster packs, and while I already have 10 copies of some cards, I still haven't receive a single one for one of the cards. :(
I'm now wondering if that card simply won't drop. :rolleyes:

And, is there any place where I can quickly get rid of these cards I won't need (without turning them into gems), considering I can't sell them, only trade them?

thanks :)
use Steamtrade Matcher to trade your duplicate steam card with other user
https://www.steamtradematcher.com

You can easily create an account using your SteamID

If trading with other people,best would be to sent a trade request to those people labeled as Trade Bot as trade will be immediate if the account is online
 

Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
1,001
2,110
113
Anyone have any recommendation for fun games that might encourage afk'ing / multitasking somewhat? I don't really want to get into another MMO but that's the only genre I can remember playing where you had legitimate incentives to just sit idle in game waiting for a spawn or whatever while you did something IRL.
 
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