The Steam Thread

[BYU 14]

Gawd, I already have too many games I can't make time to play. Dead State, WMMA 4, Wasteland 2 still need my attention, then there is Dragon Age: Inquisition on the PS4. I need more hours and less work.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Sadly, I no longer fear these. There is just... nothing left for me to buy really. I may pick up one or two things on a whim, but I pretty much have more than I need.

I hope I am proven wrong.

I have way too many games to play right now and I still might pick up Shovel Knight if it goes on sale and finally grab Endless Legend.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by mckerney

I have way too many games to play right now and I still might pick up Shovel Knight if it goes on sale and finally grab Endless Legend.

I have had Endless Legend setting in my library for a few months now unplayed... I still haven't finished Wasteland 2. I've just done the first mission of Dead State. I've only completed the prologue of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Beyond that there are still so many games I have but have never played. So many.

[Thomkal]

so I don't think I'm understanding how to get gems. I follow the instructions to get to my badges and such that are eligible to trade in for Gems, click on a badge, and I do not see a redeem for gems button anywhere, only the sell button. What am I missing here?

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

so I don't think I'm understanding how to get gems. I follow the instructions to get to my badges and such that are eligible to trade in for Gems, click on a badge, and I do not see a redeem for gems button anywhere, only the sell button. What am I missing here?

I think I saw there was an issue with the gems and Steam was temporarily putting the auctions on hold so maybe it's because of that?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

I think I saw there was an issue with the gems and Steam was temporarily putting the auctions on hold so maybe it's because of that?

ah that would explain it, thanks

[Draft Dodger]

here's an article on it
Steam’s first “Holiday Auction” halted after dupe bug ruins market [Updated] | Ars Technica

[PilotMan]

Funny, but not surprising given the issues with the teams and daily challenges last year.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

here's an article on it
Steam’s first “Holiday Auction” halted after dupe bug ruins market [Updated] | Ars Technica

You just know that there's going to be someone who used this exploit with their main account and then will complain when they lose access to their entire game library because their account gets banned.

[EagleFan]

Doing one more give-away before Christmas. Ends later this week.

Steam Gifts

Just Cause Collection

[Blackadar]

Ok, with the Steam Sale approaching, I wanted to make some recommendations. I hope a few other people do this so people can pick up good games for cheap. I'm sticking with more modern games - released in the last two years - that will likely be on sale and should be a lot of fun. Again, hopefully others will also pick their top 5 and we can have a pretty good list going.

Blackadar's Five Games to Buy During the Steam Sale

Endless Legend - One of the best, if not THE best, 4x game in the last few years. I can't pimp this game enough. It has the right pace, each faction really takes a different strategy to win, there's some cool innovations in the genre while leaving some tried-and-true stuff in there and so on.

Banished - A relaxing city-builder. More of a software toy than just a game, I have over 100 hours played in Banished with great fun and relaxation. There are a number of mods out there now that add to the base game too, so the supply chains can get more complex. This isn't a hard game and it's not an exciting one either. But what it does, it does very well.

Craft the World - this just came out of Early Access. It's a combination of Terraria, Gnomoria and Dungeon Keeper. It's not as complex as any of those, but it's quite the fun game and comes in a colorful and fun wrapper.

Divinity: Original Sin - Not the best game in terms of RPG story (and the first few hours the game is slow) and the puzzles can be quite non-intuitive, D:OS has probably the best turn based combat in any RPG ever. What fun it is to use with the spells, environment and exploding barrels.

The Wolf Among Us - The Big Bad Wolf set in an 80s murder mystery with other fairy tale creatures hiding in plain sight? Sounds weird, but is a great Telltale experience. If you like these types of games, you could buy the latest Telltale Game of Thrones story for full price and have to wait on the other 5 chapters. Or you could buy this cheap and enjoy the entire story now.

[Peregrine]

Good choices Blackadar - I don't have D:OS (yet) but loved EL, Banished, and Wolf this year.

[Dutch]

Eventually I'll play Endless Legend. I really loved Banished. I started off loving Divinity but ultimately got frustrated with it once it seemed to get too tough for my characters. I really needed more time to figure out tactics though, I'm sure.

[mckerney]

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p...gus_storefront

Wolf Among Us is currently $6.24 on the Humble Store, price good for next 24 hours.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Ok, with the Steam Sale approaching, I wanted to make some recommendations. I hope a few other people do this so people can pick up good games for cheap. I'm sticking with more modern games - released in the last two years - that will likely be on sale and should be a lot of fun. Again, hopefully others will also pick their top 5 and we can have a pretty good list going.

Blackadar's Five Games to Buy During the Steam Sale

Endless Legend - One of the best, if not THE best, 4x game in the last few years. I can't pimp this game enough. It has the right pace, each faction really takes a different strategy to win, there's some cool innovations in the genre while leaving some tried-and-true stuff in there and so on.

Banished - A relaxing city-builder. More of a software toy than just a game, I have over 100 hours played in Banished with great fun and relaxation. There are a number of mods out there now that add to the base game too, so the supply chains can get more complex. This isn't a hard game and it's not an exciting one either. But what it does, it does very well.

Craft the World - this just came out of Early Access. It's a combination of Terraria, Gnomoria and Dungeon Keeper. It's not as complex as any of those, but it's quite the fun game and comes in a colorful and fun wrapper.

Divinity: Original Sin - Not the best game in terms of RPG story (and the first few hours the game is slow) and the puzzles can be quite non-intuitive, D:OS has probably the best turn based combat in any RPG ever. What fun it is to use with the spells, environment and exploding barrels.

The Wolf Among Us - The Big Bad Wolf set in an 80s murder mystery with other fairy tale creatures hiding in plain sight? Sounds weird, but is a great Telltale experience. If you like these types of games, you could buy the latest Telltale Game of Thrones story for full price and have to wait on the other 5 chapters. Or you could buy this cheap and enjoy the entire story now.

So this is exactly the kind of stuff I've been looking for to add to the Curator page in our Steam group. I've been looking for people who can add to our list. So far it's just been eaglefan and I. Do you mind if I add these as well?

If anyone would like to add some recommendations for our curator over on Steam you can add it to the pinned post there or just pm it to me. The only thing is that it's limited to about 140 chars. So keep that in mind.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

So this is exactly the kind of stuff I've been looking for to add to the Curator page in our Steam group. I've been looking for people who can add to our list. So far it's just been eaglefan and I. Do you mind if I add these as well?

If anyone would like to add some recommendations for our curator over on Steam you can add it to the pinned post there or just pm it to me. The only thing is that it's limited to about 140 chars. So keep that in mind.

I'll add some recommendations. I think I should be in the Steam group.

[Draft Dodger]

thanks Blackie. Endless Legend and Craft the World are now on my radar big time. Wolf Among Us is already on my list and I was planning to pick that up anyway. Divinity seems cool as well.

Banished I own. I want to like it, but I tired of it rather quickly. Its sooo slow and I would have liked to see new building types unlock over time.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Ok, with the Steam Sale approaching, I wanted to make some recommendations. I hope a few other people do this so people can pick up good games for cheap. I'm sticking with more modern games - released in the last two years - that will likely be on sale and should be a lot of fun. Again, hopefully others will also pick their top 5 and we can have a pretty good list going.

Blackadar's Five Games to Buy During the Steam Sale

Endless Legend - One of the best, if not THE best, 4x game in the last few years. I can't pimp this game enough. It has the right pace, each faction really takes a different strategy to win, there's some cool innovations in the genre while leaving some tried-and-true stuff in there and so on.

Banished - A relaxing city-builder. More of a software toy than just a game, I have over 100 hours played in Banished with great fun and relaxation. There are a number of mods out there now that add to the base game too, so the supply chains can get more complex. This isn't a hard game and it's not an exciting one either. But what it does, it does very well.

Craft the World - this just came out of Early Access. It's a combination of Terraria, Gnomoria and Dungeon Keeper. It's not as complex as any of those, but it's quite the fun game and comes in a colorful and fun wrapper.

Divinity: Original Sin - Not the best game in terms of RPG story (and the first few hours the game is slow) and the puzzles can be quite non-intuitive, D:OS has probably the best turn based combat in any RPG ever. What fun it is to use with the spells, environment and exploding barrels.

The Wolf Among Us - The Big Bad Wolf set in an 80s murder mystery with other fairy tale creatures hiding in plain sight? Sounds weird, but is a great Telltale experience. If you like these types of games, you could buy the latest Telltale Game of Thrones story for full price and have to wait on the other 5 chapters. Or you could buy this cheap and enjoy the entire story now.

I have all of these except for "Craft The World." I'll keep my eye out for that one.

Of all of these, Divinity is the only one I've actually played. Me and a friend of mine have been playing it co-op online since August or so. We have a ton of fun playing it.

I have the last two weeks of December off, so I plan to properly get involved with Endless Legend at some point during that time.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

So this is exactly the kind of stuff I've been looking for to add to the Curator page in our Steam group. I've been looking for people who can add to our list. So far it's just been eaglefan and I. Do you mind if I add these as well?

If anyone would like to add some recommendations for our curator over on Steam you can add it to the pinned post there or just pm it to me. The only thing is that it's limited to about 140 chars. So keep that in mind.

Go right ahead.

[EagleFan]

This auction is complete BS. Can't believe some of the bids out there. Based on gems going at about 0.75 per 1000 gems:

Holiday Profile: 1.2 Million gem bid - amounts to a $900 bid for a freaking profile

Counter Strike Global offensive - a 14.99 game is going for what amounts to $167 in gems

This War of Mine - a 19.99 game that you know will probably be a 9.99 game during the upcoming sale is going for over $50 in gems

Are people that stupid?

I have turned in some crap that I won't ever use into gems just to turn them into card packs (unless I see something that I want for a small enough bid. Then I will auction off the cards just as the holiday sale starts (that is when cards seem to fetch the best price). That should put about $20 in my account that I can use during the sale.

[Fidatelo]

I turned a bunch of emoticons and backgrounds into 1500 gems, then placed a bid on a game with all of them just to get the level 2 auction badge or whatever. I won't win anything but I don't care. At the end when they come back to me I'll turn them into packs of cards or whatever.

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by mckerney

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p...gus_storefront

Wolf Among Us is currently $6.24 on the Humble Store, price good for next 24 hours.

Thanks and Thanks Blackadar for the recommendation. Just picked it up and got Xenonauts while I was there. It was 50% off and I've wanted it for a long time. I didn't think it was going to be much lower than that.

[cschex]

Wolf Among Us is Telltale's best to date, IMO. I hope they come back to the Fables universe at some point in the future, though if GoT takes off they might not have the time

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

This auction is complete BS. Can't believe some of the bids out there.

Are people that stupid?

Yes, some are, but as the sale goes into day two, a lot of those dumb bids are going to get eaten up and the true deals will rise. As I type here, I sit with 9200 gems divided up between 4 games with a combined list price of $150, and I'm sitting at #7, 8, 40, and 42 in the bidding with 86 copies left of each to give.

Even if I spend another $5-10 to craft enough badges and vendor the emoticons to garner another 4000 gems to pump into those last two auctions, I've got a decent shot at spending a total of $13 cash to get four games on my wishlist that will drop to no less than an aggregate $60+ in the holiday sale

Well, $13 plus the amount of dosh I had to drop to crowd my inventory with over 300 items, anyway.

[Matthean]

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p...aga_storefront

The Banner Saga
$4.99

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

Yes, some are, but as the sale goes into day two, a lot of those dumb bids are going to get eaten up and the true deals will rise. As I type here, I sit with 9200 gems divided up between 4 games with a combined list price of $150, and I'm sitting at #7, 8, 40, and 42 in the bidding with 86 copies left of each to give.

Even if I spend another $5-10 to craft enough badges and vendor the emoticons to garner another 4000 gems to pump into those last two auctions, I've got a decent shot at spending a total of $13 cash to get four games on my wishlist that will drop to no less than an aggregate $60+ in the holiday sale

Well, $13 plus the amount of dosh I had to drop to crowd my inventory with over 300 items, anyway.

Have done the same, weeded it out to the deals now that the first mass round of bidding is over.

[Groundhog]

Door Kickers is a pretty fun little 2D Rainbow Six/SWAT 4-esque strategy game.

[HarryLime]

Created a give away for FOFCers.

Steam Gifts

more to come in lead up to xmas!

[Schmidty]

I am so confused by all of this. What are gems? What are giveaways? What are cardpacks?

I have 291P whatever that means. I also entered into 2 giveaways, but don't know how to win, or whatever.

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by Matthean

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p...aga_storefront

The Banner Saga
$4.99

Thanks for the alert, been wanting to pick that up.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I am so confused by all of this. What are gems? What are giveaways? What are cardpacks?

I have 291P whatever that means. I also entered into 2 giveaways, but don't know how to win, or whatever.

Hey Schmidty, the gems are for the Steam promo that is running right now. You can buy gems on the marketplace or you can trade in your cards or other things in your inventory for gems. Then you use the gems to bid auction style for a games giveaway that Steam is running right now. The auctions will run for the next couple of days until the winter sale starts on the 18th.

The other site, Steamgifts. Is a 3rd party app that allows people to simply giveaway extra copies of games that they have in their inventories. Users that are posting here are giving away gifts that are limited to members of our group. The 291p that you were referring to is the way that the site limits people from being able to enter every single giveaway. All the giveaways there are simply random drawings.

The two are not related.

[lighthousekeeper]

OOTP15 is up for bid around 3600 gems, which if my steam market math is accurate equates to around $4.50.

(assuming 8 gems = 1 cent)

Franchise Hockey 2014 is 1300 gems (~ $1.60)

[lighthousekeeper]

Anyone tried playing NEO Scavanger? Game looks interesting.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

Anyone tried playing NEO Scavanger? Game looks interesting.

I played an early version of it. It had promise but was extremely punishing - I never made it longer than a few hours. I still have it on my Wish List, but it's not a high priority for me because it kind of felt futile and contrived. Seriously, in a world that has few people left in it, how hard would it be to find at least some clothing?!? Plus, Roguelikes aren't generally my thing.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

OOTP15 is up for bid around 3600 gems, which if my steam market math is accurate equates to around $4.50.

(assuming 8 gems = 1 cent)

Franchise Hockey 2014 is 1300 gems (~ $1.60)

The reviews for Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 keep me from picking it up, also FHM 2015 is in the works. I did pick up a copy of Total Pro Golf 3 for 1000 gems, since I did have some fun with the original version.

My auction games won:
Total Pro Golf 3
Dominions 3
Spice Road
Paper Dungeons
Steam Squad

And as an added bonus, I got rid of around 600 cards just sitting in my inventory.

[EagleFan]

Have learned the auction strategy and getting some good deals:

Evil Genius
App Game Kit 2 ($100 software that I got for about $20 worth of gems; most were from converting items that I has sitting around but bought a couple sacks to get me over the top so it probably cost me about $12).

Have some bids on 4 others, leading two and waiting to see what happens with the others.

[EagleFan]

Have now picked up 6 total items, valued at about $250 for $25 out of pocket (still more gems left so that $25 won't go up but should be able to get 2 or 3 more games if I play it right).

[EagleFan]

Looks like there may be some Steam issues. Briefly lost connection and when it came back my bids were gone and the gems that I used for them are gone. Can't even sign into their support page, just hangs.

Hopefully it was just a glitch and the bids are still out there (will know in about 10 minutes).

[EagleFan]

Does anyone know who markgenova is on Steam? He won my last giveaway and I emailed it to him but it hasn't been redeemed yet. Can't find him on Steam to send direct.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Have learned the auction strategy and getting some good deals:

So what's the auction strategy? I have put next to no time in this. I've just been busy off my ass with the Mrs. breaking her foot.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

So what's the auction strategy? I have put next to no time in this. I've just been busy off my ass with the Mrs. breaking her foot.

Stay away from prime time, bid late in the 45 minute slot, they now have a search by lowest to highest bid, page through there and you will find some deals. Seems like people don't want to page too far (the first few pages can be crap) and you will still be at bids under 2000 when you get about 20+ pages in.

I now have picked up 10 items valued at over $300 total and have spent only $25 out of pocket to pick up a few more gems (turned most of the crap that I had from previous events into gems and had quite a few at that point).

Still no clue why people are bidding so high for a profile that is only valid until the middle of next month (based on the current price of gems the highest bid is about $500, that is still insane).

Biggest win was the development software that I wanted, $100 software for $12 out of pocket. Though the other $13 got me about $250 total but the development software was what I really wanted the most.

[Lonnie]

It seems best to auction off your cards for .10 or whatever they are going for then buy the gems in sacks of 1000 for around $1.20. So 12 average cards gets you around 1000 gems or about 83 gems a card. Some of the better cards go for more.

I auctioned off some TF2 stuff I had for .40+ each. I don't even play TF2 that much so it was just extra stuff laying around for me.

Then I loaded some card generating games that I haven't played starting with the small ones to earn more cards. You can just leave it at the menu for 40 minutes or so and get the free cards. I did it while working today. Sell off those cards... more gems.

After collecting a bunch of gems target something that you want that is close and hope the bidding falls in line with your gem sack. Good Luck.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Lonnie

It seems best to auction off your cards for .10 or whatever they are going for then buy the gems in sacks of 1000 for around $1.20. So 12 average cards gets you around 1000 gems or about 83 gems a card. Some of the better cards go for more.

I auctioned off some TF2 stuff I had for .40+ each. I don't even play TF2 that much so it was just extra stuff laying around for me.

Then I loaded some card generating games that I haven't played starting with the small ones to earn more cards. You can just leave it at the menu for 40 minutes or so and get the free cards. I did it while working today. Sell off those cards... more gems.

After collecting a bunch of gems target something that you want that is close and hope the bidding falls in line with your gem sack. Good Luck.

Yes and yes. Don't turn cards into gems, you can get more out of selling and then buying sacks.

Been just starting games while doing work just to get the remaining drops.

[Blackadar]

It's not on Steam, but since this is really a PC gaming thread I thought I'd post this here.

Has anyone else played the alpha indie game Factorio (www.factorio.com)? Holy shit what an interesting, if mindbending, game. In short, you're on an alien world and you build automated factory lines to produce items to achieve goals. It doesn't sound fun, but it is and it's very involved. Even a moderately simple good like, say, an inserter, is pretty complicated.

To create one, you need one iron plate, one gear wheel and one circuit board.

The plate comes from smelting iron ore. Easy.

The gear wheel comes from a plate. So now you take the iron ore, smelt it, divert half of the plates that result from that into a manufacturing machine that then makes a gear wheel.

The circuit comes from copper wire and an iron plate. So now you're taking those iron plates that you created in step 1 and used in step 2 and you're also diverting some to step 3. Along with mining and then smelting copper into copper plates, then using yet another manufacturing center to make the copper wire.

Then you have to join these goods together to make your inserter.

Except you're not doing this by hand. You're setting up automated production lines to do this, complete with conveyor belts, interters, steam engines, etc. You can get to the point - fairly early in this process - where you're actually building a production line to make cars.

This group is more cerebral than most, so for those who haven't heard of it go check it out at the link above. There's a demo there and most of those who play that will probably be hooked and cussing me out in a matter of hours for bringing up yet another great game.

[Lonnie]

I watched Quill18's let's play and that looks deep if you want to get far. I don't know if I want to take that on during the busy season, but will probably try it out early next year.

[Abe Sargent]

I just tried out the gems and picked up four games in my wishlist, with a total value of $45, for $10 of gems and I still have three bids out for other games. That's worth it

[Abe Sargent]

Just won two more games. Have 1951 gems on one more currently bid.

[Ramzavail]

I wish I could figure it out - but I'm thinking I might buy some sacks and see what I can get off my wishlist.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Blackadar's Five Games to Buy During the Steam Sale

Endless Legend - One of the best, if not THE best, 4x game in the last few years. I can't pimp this game enough. It has the right pace, each faction really takes a different strategy to win, there's some cool innovations in the genre while leaving some tried-and-true stuff in there and so on.

Well Steam has this for 50% off already.

[PilotMan]

I got DDSPB 4 for about $3.20 with my gems today. Score.