The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Infinitron]

It still has the list on the left, though. I'm not sure what MHC is so upset about, especially since we don't know how it'll look once a game is selected.

 

[Country_Gravy]

The Steam image seems to be showing a Library screen in which no particular game is selected, which is a state that doesn't exist in the current version.

Well, the inspiration seems to be this current state:

Which is the worst of the three.

Should have had a game called Jack Shit.

 

[Dexter]

The new design officially revealed:

I'll be fabulously optimistic and say that it'll probably overall be an improvement over the current "Library" section, but then I've had a problem with the current Library section for a long while. With 1000+ titles it's basically unbrowsable and you have to create your own categories and collapse major ones like "Games" for it to be barely usable. Mostly if you're looking for a specific title under that many, the "Search" field would be useful. I already see a few things here that would seem useful, most of all the "Recent Games" bit, since often you just want to start up the last few games you've been playing again, and right now you have to go a-browsing for it. As it stands I actually use two categories, "Games to Play" and "Playing Now" or something for it to be somewhat useable and sortable.

It still has the list on the left, though. I'm not sure what MHC is so upset about, especially since we don't know how it'll look once a game is selected.

These other screens seem to indicate exactly that, for instance for "Counter Strike: Global Offensive", "Don't Starve Together" and "Slay The Spire":

I'm not sure I see this particular Screen design as a positive change. As it is now you see the title at the top, followed by your Playtime/Last Played/Muh Achievements featured prominently and a Recent News and Screenshots section:

I don't think I see their redesign as an improvement, it looks too cluttered with too much information. I'd bet most players couldn't give less of a shit about "Recent Events" for any particular game, nor particularly about the Recent "Activity" of their friends list, and I don't think bombarding people with "Workshop" and "Trading Card" items on this page is an improvement in any way. For some reason they seem to have also made Playtime and Muh Achievements less prominent than before.

This on the other hand looks like a positive change again, so far you had to use External Tools to be able to browse your own Library by Tags: https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/

For instance say you're looking for a "Point & Click" Adventure or you're looking for a "Co-op" game to play with a friend, you had to either pre-sort your game Library into categories like "CoOp", "Multiplayer" or similar or you had to use above tools or External sites: https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php

That they already declared a base category called "VR", where they automatically added all VR-enabled titles was already a big improvement, I hope you can create entire categories from said Search results, so you can compose various more easily sortable Categories like "Adventures" (for "Point & Click" tag) or "RPGs" or "Turn-based" and similar.

Something else that should be much easier than it actually is, is browsing a list of all recently Played and/or Bought games, like a timeline to see what you've played last few months or year or to remember what you recently bought.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Do you have to create your own tags and tag every game in library? No fucking way I will trust it again, last time I put all my games in specific categories and one day they disappeared.

 

[Dexter]

Do you have to create your own tags and tag every game in library? No fucking way I will trust it again, last time I put all my games in specific categories and one day they disappeared.

Tags are Steam-wide, you see em on every Store page and can browse by them.
For instance:
https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Turn-Based/
https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Point+&+Click

The new system seems to allow sorting the Library by genres and Tags.

Categories you create in your Library are not and should be saved for you personally.

 

[Turjan]

I already see a few things here that would seem useful, most of all the "Recent Games" bit, since often you just want to start up the last few games you've been playing again, and right now you have to go a-browsing for it.

I currently use the "Favorites" function for that purpose.

 

[Latelistener]

I wonder why games icons at the bottom have a very weird proportion. They are too stretched even for a box art.

 

[unfairlight]

OH NO NO NO
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHA HA HA HA HA
LOOK AT THE TOP OF HIS HEAD

 

[unfairlight]

This looks like a fucking DISASTER. Holy shit.

 

[LESS T_T]

I wonder why games icons at the bottom have a very weird proportion. They are too stretched even for a box art.

It's 16:9 for some reason.

 

[passerby]

Do you have to create your own tags and tag every game in library? No fucking way I will trust it again, last time I put all my games in specific categories and one day they disappeared.

Do you know you can hold ctrl to select multiple titles to assign them category at once ? Once I realised this, I divided 500+ games library between around 20 categories in 15 minutes. I've done it 4 years ago and never lost them.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Do you have to create your own tags and tag every game in library? No fucking way I will trust it again, last time I put all my games in specific categories and one day they disappeared.

Do you know you can hold ctrl to select multiple titles to assign them category at once ? Once I realised this, I divided 500+ games library between around 20 categories in 15 minutes. I've done it 4 years ago and never lost them.

Didn't know that, but still I got a lot of bundle trash that I had to check what genre is to assign it category and that took way to much time for doing it again. What I would love to have is automatic creation of categories that match the store page tags.

 

[passerby]

Create BUNDLETRASH category.

 

[Turjan]

What I would love to have is automatic creation of categories that match the store page tags.

Doesn't everything end up in "RPG" then? Or what is the newest tag fad?

 

[Villagkouras]

Didn't know that, but still I got a lot of bundle trash that I had to check what genre is to assign it category and that took way to much time for doing it again. What I would love to have is automatic creation of categories that match the store page tags.

Just download Depressurizer from Github, it does exactly this.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Didn't know that, but still I got a lot of bundle trash that I had to check what genre is to assign it category and that took way to much time for doing it again. What I would love to have is automatic creation of categories that match the store page tags.

Just download Depressurizer from Github, it does exactly this.

Good to know, but will wait for the new UI as it will probably break everything.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah I used to categorize my games with that, but it's not really worth the effort tbh. Just use the search to find what you need.

 

[LESS T_T]

Since most of western AAA games are gone, Steam's big hits are all about Japan: https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/22/...ice-had-the-best-steam-launch-of-2019-so-far/

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had the best Steam launch of 2019 (so far)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a tough game, but that’s not scaring away players on Steam. The latest release from developer From Software launched today, and it has shot up the charts on Valve’s PC-gaming store. Based on peak concurrent players, it had the best launch on Steam so far this year.

Sekiro peaked at 108,000 simultaneous players earlier today. That is the most concurrent players for any game that has come out on Steam since the beginning of 2019. That puts it ahead of Devil May Cry 5, which had 89,000 people on at the same time on its launch day. It is also ahead of Resident Evil 2, which had a launch-day peak of 74,000 players.


It’s worth noting that all of the biggest new releases on Steam so far are from Japanese developers. Many Western studios have launched large games since January 1, but releases like Metro: Exodus, Anthem, and The Division 2 are only available on other stores like EA’s Origin or Epic Games Store.

Steam’s huge audience for Japanese games
But Sekiro isn’t just a success relative to other 2019 Steam releases. It is actually the third-best launch for any Japanese game on Steam ever. That puts it ahead of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which had 91,000 concurrents.

Sekiro is behind only Monster Hunter: World and Dark Souls 3.

When Monster Hunter: World launched on Steam in August, it set a record as the best Japanese launch ever on Steam. It did that by reaching a massive 207,000 concurrent players. That also made it the top Steam release for all of 2018.

Dark Souls 3, of course, is another From Software game. It had 129,000 simultaneous players on its launch day.

But Sekiro’s success comes without the Dark Souls brand recognition. And it is a departure from Souls games in a number of other ways. In the end, Sekiro hasn’t popped quite as high as its predecessor. But so many people on Steam love Japanese games, and they showed up to support this release.

Now From and Capcom are the best friends of Valve. (Until Epic throws tens of millions in their way, of course. Wait for Dragon's Dogma 2 on Epic Store!)

 

[passerby]

Just download Depressurizer from Github, it does exactly this.

In the time it'll take to download, install, link to steam, experiment with different sorters, you cold make it manually for much better results.
I wasted time with it at some point, only to make it manually in the end, becuase I was not satisfied with the results.

Spoiler

 

[Villagkouras]

If only Steam could understand the complex nature of subcategories.

 

[passerby]

True, but on the other hand it's the only store that have categories at all.

I dread the day when some update will take them away completeley, or replace with autosorting by tags and other crap.

 

[Infinitron]

Tired: Oblivion Soil Erosion

Wired: Half-Life Moss Growth

 

[Dexter]

Tired: Oblivion Soil Erosion

Wired: Half-Life Moss Growth

I think Natural Selection 2 actually did something like this:

 

[Alienman]

I have a rather specific problem with Steam and hoping someone can help me. I have been trying to add Albion(GoG version) as a non-steam game for the screenshot function, but for some reason it craps out every time I change target under priorities.

This is the target:

D:\Games\Albion\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe -conf "..\dosbox_albion.conf" -conf "..\dosbox_albion_single.conf" -noconsole -c exit

It's directly copied from the shortcut on the desktop, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here? I added Lands of Lore 1(GoG version) this way and that works. Help!

 

[Don Peste]

No idea. What if you add that to a .bat and try to run it?