According to steamstat.us the web API, the store, the steam community and client managers are all down right now. Steamstat is a third party unofficial "official" method for checking server status used by the the Steam Status (@SteamStatus) twitter account.

They have been down for a while and since it's two days before Christmas they might not come back soon.

I wanna get into Elite Dangerous.

Players aren't allowed to post on the ED steam forums so I have to come here.

My issue is with the galaxy map. I've done all the training missions and watched the videos, but I'm having an issue with a more advanced function of the map particularly when it comes to sourcing a commodity for a station.

So I have to go out and find a cheap commodity for a station.

I switch from realistic to map view and apply all the necessary filters to see the trade routes for the desired commodity. Where I'm having a problem is the mission description says to use trade routes to find the cheapest price and I can't seem to use the map to find a station within a system at the lowest price.

Someone on another forum said something about a "galactic average", but I haven't seen any such filter / column on the map yet.

Can someone help me out?

I haven't quite figured out the counter system in this game yet. Usually in similar games when trying to counter the prompt circle will decrease to a certain point and the button icon will change color to indicate the appropriate time to hit the button.

As far as I have noticed the icon doesn't change color and I can't seem to figure out the timing. If someone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks PredatorRules & SerOlmy, I'm going to check out Soma and Tesla Effect. I'm also going to look into Ether One.

If anyone can think of anything else which might be good please let me know.

I enjoy a variety of genres, but occasionally I enjoy a good casual first person adventure game.

Recently I played The Uncertain Episode 1 and I really enjoyed that one. It was a third person adventure game which went into first person during puzzle mode.

What I liked about The Uncertain is the character animations actually performing the actions - you see the character inserting the batteries into a radio and then tuning the dial. I like these type of adventure games because I feel they are more immersive than point and click since I feel like I am the character.

I've already checked out Firewatch, another solid indie title, and I'm about to try out Virginia. I'm just wondering if someone has any recommendations for games like these.

The Link State Power Management is a windows power saving feature where the OS tries to detect when the GPU is idle and downclock it to save power. However, it's a pretty buggy power management code which does not always work and it can trigger an idle state even when the graphics cards is being used.

Let me see if I can dissect this into a way which makes sense so you know what all of this means:

PCI-Express controller version --->[PCI-E 3.0], [x16] <--- max PCI-E link width supported by motherboard, [@ x16]<--- current link width between GPU and motherboard, [1.1 - 3.0]<--- current PCI-E speed for the GPU.

When the GPU is idle it will be "3.0 x16 @ x16 1.1" and when the card starts to render something it will jump up to "3.0 x16 @ x16 3.0" so all is well. As long as it remains 3.0 x16 @ x16 then you're good.

The 1.1 jumping up to 3.0 is simply the graphics card's internal power saving feature turning off when the card is under load. This is normal.

You only want to be concerned with the second x16immediately following the "@" symbol. If this number fluctuates to lets say @ x8 or @ x4 or even @ x1 then you have a problem.

Here is the troubleshooting steps I would take to identify the nature of your problem:

**[1] Swap graphics cards in the PCI-e slot. If you have a secondary graphics card - a backup - somewhere in your house then uninstall the one currently in your system and delete all driver software for that device- use latest version of Display Driver Uninstaller. Then install the other graphics card into the PCI-e slot and install the latest drivers for that card. Try to game and see if it locks up while using a different GPU. This will help determine if the GPU is the cause or not for the problem.

**[2] Uninstall and remove graphics card to boot using motherboard's integrated video. Uninstall your graphics card and if your motherboard has an integrated video controller boot the system using it. Now try to game using the onboard video and see if the problem persists. If it does then your motherboard is bad and would be the cause of your problems.

[3] Ensure you are running the latest BIOS version for your motherboard. If not it's time to flash it.

[4] Remove any custom user settings in BIOS. Have you overclocked anything? If so then it's time to undo those changes. Upon startup go into your BIOS and load optimized defaults.

[5] Uninstall graphics driver and do a clean driver reinstallation. I talked about this in an earlier post - again use latest version of DDU.

[6] Get a temp reading during gaming. Find a good temp monitoring / reporting app that can record temps in a log file before a system failure. I can't think of one offhand, but they are out there. Run the app to monitor and record temps while gaming then when the problem happens go back to the log file the app created before the system lockup / crash. Look at temps for both your GPU and CPU since it may not be your graphics card overheating.

**Optional steps. Only do these if you have the means to accomplish them.

From everything you have told me the impression I'm getting is your problem is boiling down into one of three scenarios:

[1] Your system is overheating.

[2] Your motherboard is on its last leg.

[3] Your GPU is failing.

Now it's up to you to do extensive troubleshooting to isolate which is the cause.

Did it happen during gaming or a different operation on your machine? Your answer will help.

You said something about you hadn't actualized your sound card which I didn't fully understand, but it help me think of a few investigative steps. What is troubleshooting after all other than a critical analysis in trying to recreate the problem so you will hopefully understand it and then stop it from happening.

Anyway, start off by going to device manager and look in Sound, video and game controllers. How many sound devices do you have listed? As an example I have two, but I only use the Realtek HD audio device. Figure out which audio device your system is using for sound since multiple audio devices will all try to operate in the same location on the audio bus creating a driver conflict. If there is more than one entry for audio devices disable all the ones you see listed which the system isn't actively using for sound.

Next go into your OS advanced power options. In Win10 I'm talking about right clicking on the windows button --->Power Options ---> Change Plan Settings ---> Change advanced power settings. In the new dialogue box scroll down to the PCI Express entry and expand it to reveal Link State Power Management. Toggle this setting to off.

Finally, this next little bit will really help in determining what is going on with your machine. I'm going to use my own situation with this particular issue as an analogical reference.

In a situation like this many scenarios can be happening so all you can do is isolate the symptoms to reverse engineer the problem. In my situation I had to figure out if it was my motherboard, my GPU or if my system was overheating. I knew it was one of the three, but I had to narrow my focus on one possible cause so I had to think outside of the box.

I downloaded and installed the latest version of GPU-Z. In that program there is a section which tells you which PCI-e controller your motherboard has, the maximum link width for the bus and the link width speed your card is currently running. As an example mine is: PCI-e 3.0 x16 @ x16.

As I was troubleshooting the card I was using GPU-Z extensively and at some point I inadvertently down at the PCI-e controller section to notice something wasn't right - the graphics card wasn't running at full speed so the program was reporting to me PCI-e 3.0 x16 @ x8. Normally, this wouldn't be too suspicious except as time went on I began to notice a fluctuating link width for my PCI-e lane. There would be times when the lane was running PCI-e 3.0 x16 @ x4 and even dropped as low as @ x1.

The speed for the PCI-e lane's link width can only be determined by the motherboard which means the processor, the graphics card nor the driver cannot be responsible for an inconsistent PCI-e bus speed. This is when I knew that in my specific situation the culprit for me was a crappy Gigabyte motherboard.

The point is and the reason I brought all of this up is because when trying to figure out a layer cake you need to be thorough and be ready to spend a lot of time cross checking against numerous possibilities. Also, using Event Viewer in accordance with your other efforts - as a cross reference - like PowerstrokeGT pointed out is a very good idea.

@ProtossRushX - that actually sounds like an issue with your power supply more than anything.

I used to have the same problem and after consulting a lot of forums I was able to find the most common causes for this problem.

They are:

[1] Overheating - Either your CPU or your GPU could be overheating. Remember windows temperature monitoring and reporting applications are not exact and can be off in their diagnostics. It's always best to check the the temps in the BIOS after a system failure or on startup and when checking temps during gaming be sure to apply a +/- 10% margin of error for the reported temps. You might want to create a custom fan profile to crank up your chassis and CPU fans during gaming since the system is not properly dissipating the heat buildup inside of the case. If you have air cooling you might also want to consider going liquid.

[2] Motherboard is bad - not all motherboards, including high end ones, are created equal. The VRMs on your board could be bad or poorly designed. When I was having the exact same problem as you I had an allegedly high end Gigabyte motherboard for eight core processors with 6+2 VRM. I replaced that POS with an Asus board and my particular issue with this same problem went away.

[3] GPU is malfunctioning - sometimes when GPUs are on their way out the door the issue you are experiencing can be a telltale sign it's time to have the graphics card serviced by the manufacturer or replaced. If during normal operation the system is fine and this issue only occurs during gaming then that is pointing a big finger to the GPU as being the culprit. You can benchmark and stress test the GPU, but this kind of testing only pushes the GPU in short iterations (3DMark 11 is only 30 second tests) so they might not be able to recreate the issue.

[4] Graphics Driver Installation is corrupt - It may not always be the GPU and a lot of people have corrected this problem by doing a driver clean reinstallation - that means uninstalling the current driver, deleting the software for the card, running Display Driver Uninstaller and then reinstalling the driver. It could also be the driver package you are running isn't stable so you might need to revert to a previous release or opt for the latest beta driver available.

I'm pretty sure your issue is falling into one of these categories.

...Until Dawn. I'm seeking a choice driven action adventure game - which can be survival horror or another genre - that executes how Until Dawn does in terms of gameplay mechanics. From what I have seen I enjoy how Until Dawn handles its investigations making you feel like you are involved with an interactive filmic piece.

I have gone on the net researching similar games and most of the titles recommended as being relevant to what I want may be similar in art style, plot elements or thematic subtext, but are quite distinctly opposite of what I'm looking for in how they play.

So far the closest things I have found would be telltale games and the likes of D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, but those are more adventure than what I want. I really dislike the cell shaded art style as well.

Also, first person run and hide simulators like Amnesia or Outlast do not appeal to me.

I know a lot of people dislike these "similar to" style of threads, but I would genuinely appreciate the help.

I've played both Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy and Deadly Premonition, but I want something more modern which is on the PC. I understand I may be looking for something which does not exist, but if someone has come across a title which would fit the bill then please let me know.