LinuxGameCast Weekly 293: Horror Picture Show

VALVE opens the network! Rocket League bans chat, NVIDIA fixes a driver and Humble counts to 19. Then STRAFE: Millennium Edition faces the CHAIRQASITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

Special tanks:
Strider (CAGE from our Wishzone)

Subscribe:

Listen:

Download:

Subscribe Spotify | Pandora | TuneIn | RSS | More

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

Checkmate
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/1660013740970189607

I’m still a little shocked (not really) they had the chutzpah to roll this out in the first place.
Finally. My eyes can stop bleeding now
Can we get a zoom for text?

CPU:GO
https://www.pcgamer.com/vacnet-csgo/

Those resources seem about right.
Plus if the AI ID’s cheaters at a higher accuracy than hugh-mons so it seems like a good investment.
It’s kind of daunting if you’re a game developer hoping to implement something similar though
They also added a 7-day waiting period on trading skins.
Deep learning to try and better cheat detection.

Gmoney
https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/266323-steam-earned-estimated-4-3b-2017-benefits-flow-handful-titles

Of the 21,000+ games available on Steam, fully half of the company’s revenue was delivered by the Top 100 titles.
- So people tend to buy good / popular titles, got it.
The real story here is that VALVe gets a cut of everything from PUBG to (insert shovelware here)
AND they get that sweet sweet Steam Direct application $$$.
$4.3B not counting DLC.
I want some competition, though.
And no, GOG isn’t competition. Especially not on Linux!

Networking
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/GameNetworkingSockets#coming-soon

This is great.
And it’s also great to see some more stuff for the very few developers currently developing on Linux.
This is also useful for importing steam style socket management in non steam environments.
The intent is that you can use this or steamworks and have predictable behavior across platform branches

Hollow blood
http://steamcommunity.com/app/367520/discussions/0/1698294337775233962/

Map markers and a new BOSS are the highlights for me.
Wow, I forgot how unforgivingly hard this game is i fuc*ing love it.

Quality Rockets
https://www.rocketleague.com/news/tournaments-update-connection-quality-indicators/

I have seen some type of connection indicator show up once before.
Letting you know about 50% of the shit you can try to fix on your end

Rocket fee-fees
https://www.pcgamer.com/rocket-league-is-getting-chat-bans-in-next-months-tournaments-update/

So if you’re reported, you can still use throttled quick chat
People get really mad about this stuff, but honestly it’s necessary if you’re trying to maintain a growable and sustainable community around your game
I can’t help but feel like this is taking a step back.
I guess banning people outright, even if just for 24hours, was hurting the revenue.
The less people are allowed to play, the less inclined they’ll be to pay to open the loot boxes.

The Transport Renaissance
http://steamcommunity.com/games/433530/announcements/detail/1646503667593259400

You now have an “Online Single Player” mode, if you don’t want to play with others, and you won’t need to create a password protected lobby to keep others out.
Transport choppas can now drop ammo and health in addition to troops

Akiragummy Nighfall
http://store.steampowered.com/app/771720/Aragami_Nightfall/

4 new chapters, 2 new characters and 3 new fancy jutsus for you to play out your Naruto fantasies
Might actually be decent for a stream.

Szechuan Sauce
http://store.steampowered.com/app/634070/Murnatan/

NS2 knockoff.
Don’t work.

Simultaneous turn based combat
http://store.steampowered.com/app/449070/YEARN_Tyrants_Conquest/.

Warlock of Firetop mountain had a similar conceit.
Everyone submits their moves at the same time and it resolves in initiative order.
It can go a couple ways though. You gotta get really good at prediction and baiting or else you’re going to get frustrated real fast.

STRAFE: Millennium Edition
http://store.steampowered.com/app/442780/STRAFE_Millennium_Edition/

Problems, it has them.
More on that @ 11.
I’ve been looking forward to this Unity game which took the devs almost a year to release on Linux.
Vr is coming spoon. Wonder if it’ll work on Linux

while True: learn()
http://store.steampowered.com/app/619150/while_True_learn/

Learn machine learning and feed your cat!
Wouldn’t necessarily call it a game, more a recruitment tool for this team’s future plans.
Oh look, an educational game that might teach you something!

News:

Ubuntu can has?
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/132530/en-us

They install and make /w the working \:D/… kinda
Still have a blank login screen on the XFCE4.
Does not sort the Chrome herky-jerk.
It’s on the PPA now.
It does fix the black tearing introduced with the 390 series.
Finally bit the bullet and shotgunned the 3.15 kernel and these boys. So far no problems
- 3.15? Hipster.
  - Hey man, you.miss the artifacts and flaws with these newer kernels

Meh 19
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/humble-indie-bundle-19

A bit grr on this one.
Super Hawt is $14 and Keep Talking does not come with keys?
- You choose Steam or Oculus.
Might as well get Superhot, this time around.
And then kick myself when it goes on sale for like £4.

Croteam Incubator
http://www.croteam.com/croteam-incubator-now-officially-thing/

This is a neat little way to give back to developers. Create a place where they can work on funded passion projects with some backing
Colocating six different “studios” is also an interesting move, because it fosters an environment that encourages collaboration
- Ultimately this is a good thing because if one group of Devs are able to solve a common problem, that solution can better propagated
And being Croteam there is a good chance anything coming out of this will cross-platform.
Anything that’ll bring moar Linux games is fine by me!

GDCDOT
https://godotengine.org/article/godot-doing-well-gdc-2018

3 years in and Godot is going strong
The gambling industry seems to love them, which could open up a new (albeit super shady) revenue stream
The open source nature of the engine is what appears to be drawing people in. Hopefully they’ll not make the mistake the industry made with OpenSSL and actually fund the fucker
- Which you can do too!
Using the thing because it’s open source, easy to use and flexible.
How the smaller indie devs haven’t caught on, I don’t know.

Flatpak of Exile
https://ramsdenj.com/2018/03/26/packaging-pathofexile-with-flatpak.html

Also known by its alternate title: “How to Virtual Programming better than Virtual Programming”
Path of Exile was always easy enough to get running in WINE.
This removes the annoying part of setting up a prefix and downloading the client.
I wouldn’t mind having a page dedicated to these WINE “bottles” on Flathub.

Pillars Taking an Eternity
http://store.steampowered.com/news/externalpost/eurogamer/2363699913389173112

Woo Game delays.
Still gotta beat the first one

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: STRAFE: Millennium Edition
Webzone: STRAFE_Millennium_Edition
Devel: Pixel Titans
Engine: Unity
Price: £11.39 / US$14.99 / CA$17.49

Wazzat: STRAFE® is a roguelike first-person shooter that generates unique, full levels every time you play. Hand-crafted rooms are randomly linked together and filled with a fresh buffet of hungry enemies, so every run provides a new bloody challenge as you seamlessly slaughter your way through 4 diverse locations in unknown deep space.

Mandatory Disclosure: Devs sent us keys

Makes with the working

Venn-

You can have any resolution you want long as it’s 3840×2160 fullscreen.
You can try to override this but no joy will be had.
They fixed this with patch, this afternoon.
120 @1080
90/100 @ 2160
Seeing about 12/20 % usage across 16 threads.

Jordan-

I still get the herky jerk after the patch

Pedro-

Segfaults on exit
Infinite loading screen if you save the game during a run.
Can’t progress past level 2-1.
There’s a memory leak, or the game is just fucked.
85MB patch this morning fixed most of the issues.
Still segfaults when you exit.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

Venn-

QuakeGL and Quake 2 had a babby.
Then the resulting offspring was fused /w Minecraft.
Ever want to play Quake /w e DOOM colour palette?
Blocks all up in yo face-organ.
Can’t tell if going for aesthetic or programmer art.
Music doesn’t completely suck but sound effect leave plenty to be desired.

Jordan-

Honestly, I was having enough fun with the game that I didn’t really notice the graphics
I guess that’s a testament to their quality. They get out of the way and clearly denote enemies
The sound design is pretty decent too.
The music doesn’t really do it for me though

Pedro-

There are two sticking points keeping me from giving 4 chairs.
- The minecraft look to your weapons and the environments
- And the abrupt cuts in the music.
Good music melds into the game to improve the experience.
And while the music is playing, it accomplishes this.
It’s when it simply cuts out that it breaks my immersion.
And seeing as I can still get immersed in STRAFE, even with the blocky graphics, the music cut off is the thing making me ding it a chair.

Total-

Control

Venn-

WASD + gerbil =’s logical.
Reasonable crisp considering it’s a Unity joint.
I’m dinging you a Chair for that dog shite configuration menu.

Jordan-

Controls are pretty tight. No complaints there

Pedro-

Check it out! Separate mouse sensitivity sliders which actually work!
You can also rebind all the keys!
Why am I so happy about what is, for all intents and purposes, basic functionality?
Well, because you don’t see that a whole lot, nowadays.

Total-

FUN

Venn-

Rougle like.
So I am dead and why exactly do I want to continue playing?
Reloads take to long.
Enemy placement is slapdash.
AI is Quake 1 + short bus if I’m being kind.
Seriously, it’s like Serious sam wave/wave AI.
Jordan is right, it’s not a bad little shooter.

Jordan-

It’s not a bad little shooter.
The roguelike elements keep things interesting as sometimes you catch a lucky break and sometimes you just get shreked
Like Pedro said, the weapons you find basically have no ammunition, and you can’t buy more for them either
Fortunately, you usually have a couple of options to upgrade your main gun
Still not sure what the starting bazooka is. For though

Pedro-

I like roguelikes!
And this is basically Quake, The Roguelike in retro-ish first person.
I’m not a fan of the blockiness, which after 9 years since Minecraft’s first public release still seems to plague the indie scene.
But most of the enemies seem to escape the cubification of graphics.
And this is a very fun game!
You need to be aware of how much ammo you’re using with your main gun, lest fistycuffs become your only alternative.
There’s plenty of pick up weapons but their ammo count is so low, you never really get spoiled for choice.
Barring those abrupt cuts, the music tells you exactly what kind of game you’re playing.

Total-

Final –

Hate Mail:

Ray
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?nN1nojK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidirectional_scattering_distribution_function