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Kernel Monsoon
Jul 18, 2006


:siren: Play on NS2GOONS! http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ns2goons :siren:




What is Natural Selection 2?

Natural Selection 2 is an award winning multiplayer RTS FPS hybrid, and the commercial sequel to arguably one of the best Half-Life 1 mods of all time. The founders of Natural Selection have since formed their own company called "Unknown Worlds Entertainment". Natural Selection 2 is not using the source engine, and instead runs on UWE's very own properiety engine known as Spark.

The game lets you select from two teams, either Alien (Kharaa) or Human (Marines). These are two unique sides, and both will offer a different gameplay experience over the other. Marines mostly rely on long to mid range weaponry and technology, and aliens favouring close range melee styled attacks.

What makes it so special?

The majority of players in a round will play the game from a traditional first person shooter perspective. However at the start of each round, one player from each team can designate themselves to become the commander, and for them the game shifts from the FPS perspective to a traditional Real-time Strategy view of the map from above. As in all RTS games, as the commander it is your role to lead your team to victory, only your grunts aren't mindless npc drones. They are real players!

To keep them happy and/or busy, you can give orders and waypoints to the players on your team, build structures, collect resources and research upgrades. Marines can buy weapons at an Armory, or build sentry turrets and siege cannons to assault the enemy. Aliens build upgrade chambers, evolve special abilities and plant traps.

Both teams start at the lowest end of their tech tree, Aliens begin with one Hive (how they spawn) and Marines begin with one Commander station and a spawn (infantry) portal. The teams have to gain resources and tech points to further their advantage over the other and unlock upgrades (from damage point/armor upgrades to actual skill/weapon/armor unlocks).

Win conditions: If the marines do not have any infantry portals and are all dead, or all the alien hives are dead and so are the aliens; the game is over. Both teams must fight over resources and tech nodes in order to get the upper hand.

Marines:

The marine team is pretty straight-forward. One player will oversee the team from his command chair, researching tech and handing out waypoints. The rest of the marines will follow his orders and capture territory on the map. Use your guns to shoot the aliens, watch each others backs and keep expanding. Your commander can research and upgrade your tech, helping you to achieve all these goals and ensure victory. Tier 2 tech allows you to blast your way across the map with shotguns and grenade launchers. Tier 3 tech? Exosuits, flamethrowers and Jetpacks. That's right, EXOSUITS!





Kharaa:

The Alien team kicks rear end. You have 5 classes, Skulk, Gorge, Lerk, Fade and Onos.

The Skulk is the pure offensive base type, you start as a Skulk, you have the ability to be obnoxiously fast, leap dramatic distances, climb walls and ceiling, mark enemy players with a tracking 'parasite' that shows your team where the victim is at all times. You will be jumping around and turning corners at breakneck speeds all while biting people's ankles like an obnoxiously huge dog on amphetamines.

The Gorge is the support class, and takes more of a back role in NS2 than in the original game. In NS1 he could drop buildings, resource nodes, and tech nodes. Currently in NS2, he is only able to place hydras (which fire spikes at marines on sight). He can heal other alien players.
Gorge Hydra video

The Lerk fills the gap between the Skulk and the Gorge, you can fly around, poison biting enemy marines, shoot clouds of umbra to shield your team from enemy fire, or poisonous spore clouds that damage marines over time. You will spend your time as a lerk defensively and offensively sporing and shooting spikes from vents while your team dies.
Lerk Reveal video

The Fade is a purely offensive mid/late game Alien type who is bipedal and human like in some ways, you have the ability to 'blink' which instantly teleports you in the direction you are looking, you have a regenerative ability that you can quickly make up lost health and armor with, and you can shoot medium damage acid water balloons from a shoulder mounted biological rocket launcher of sorts (likely will not be in NS2).
Fade Reveal video

The Onos is your ace in the hole, your killing machine. The Onos is a late game class. It has tons of health, a 'stun' ability where upon he stomps the ground, the ability to gore Marines or simply charge through them. It can also break through welded doors. Did I mention it's huge?




The Commander



The Commander takes on an RTS view of the battlefield and must coordinate the team, drop medpacks/ammo, and further research upgrades while also being able to place structures. The Commander can place an array of structures, which must be completed by either normal players on the ground or A.I. builder bots before they can function. The alien commander works in a similar way, but no manual building is required for structures.

What else is interesting about this game?

- Two Asymmetrical sides
- Dynamic Infestation (Think alien creep) that dynamically grows across the map when aliens take territory.
- Power Grid system. Marines need to keep power going to run their structures, but aliens can destroy the power to any room, giving them an advantage in the darkness.


This game looks HARRRDDD. There's a tutorial right?

The game comes with rookie mode and some tutorial videos, ingame tips etc. All toggled so you can turn them on/off at will.

If you have three hours to kill, here's a more detailed look into the game mechanics: http://www.twitch.tv/garfu/b/337623861

The launch trailer



That was awesome, where can I hang out with goons and talk about NS2?

Come join us in #ns2goons on irc.synirc.net ! Or join us on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ns2goons

Look for NS2goons in the server browser (Non Modded).

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Apr 5, 2013

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qwertyasdf
Nov 11, 2003

I played this a year and a half ago in beta, and apparently since then it has turned into a good game. I can't wait.

WetSpink
Jun 13, 2010
Apparently we are currently waiting for a steam refresh to push the content to steam to be able to download said content.

e: nm

Garfu
Mar 6, 2008

Much like buttholes, families are meant to be tight.
WOOOOOOOOOOOO this is pretty epic.

If you'd like to put my stream in the OP, it has some high level play as well as some competitive play in it for new people that are interested in the game.

http://twitch.tv/garfu

Raneman
Dec 24, 2010

by T. Finninho
Pro tip: You can still damage blinking fades, don't be like a bad pubbie. Never stop filling fades full of lead, even if they are teleporting.

VarXX
Oct 31, 2009
We did it guys! :toot:

7c Nickel
Apr 27, 2008
Hell yes.

Malcolm
May 11, 2008
drat this looks awesome, most RTS/FPS hybrid games never seem to hit it big, so here's hoping this is popular enough to keep going strong after a year.

quaunaut
Sep 15, 2007

WHOOSH
Natural Selection 3 confirmed on stream, Spring 2013.

Lucky Samurai
Oct 4, 2011

Being jaded about something is so cool. You're just as useless as everybody else, but you get to be irritating and bitter about it.
Does someone have a mumble or Steam group where we can party?

uPen
Jan 25, 2010

Zu Rodina!

This trailer has a distinct lack of punching aliens in the face but still manages to be very good, impressive.

VarXX
Oct 31, 2009
I figured now is a good time to mention that the old IRC channel is still up, there's a few people in here right now so if goons want to get games going or something feel free to hop into #ns2goons on SynIRC

GoldenNugget
Mar 27, 2008
:dukedog:
I remember the alpha where you walk around and shoot physics enabled cutouts. It's amazing how far it's come since then.

DelphiAegis
Jun 21, 2010
Dear god, has it been 10 years?

I sat and watched the last few minutes of the livestream they put up with the launch trailer and as soon as I heard the old "OUR HIVE IS UNDER ATTACK!" sound, so many memories came flooding back.

I remember the giant shift to steam, way back in the day. Seems fitting that it releases on steam now. :D

Captain Beans
Aug 5, 2004

Whar be the beans?
Hair Elf
Can't believe this is actually coming out, pretty excited to see it all come together.

They have changed so much since I stop actively following the game. What kind of effect on gameplay do the powernodes have now?

MMF Freeway
Sep 15, 2010

Later!

Addict posted:

I played this a year and a half ago in beta, and apparently since then it has turned into a good game. I can't wait.

Is this true? Checked in about a year ago and everyone was still complaining that it was a mess.

SpazmasterX
Jul 13, 2006

Wrong about everything XIV related
~fartz~
Is there a gamepad option?

GoldenNugget
Mar 27, 2008
:dukedog:

Captain Beans posted:

Can't believe this is actually coming out, pretty excited to see it all come together.

They have changed so much since I stop actively following the game. What kind of effect on gameplay do the powernodes have now?

if you knock out a powernode, everything in that room does not function. So if you knock out the base powernode, infantry portals don't work and marines are hosed unless they can clear and repair the powernode quickly.

walph
Dec 3, 2011
How is the hitreg and the rest of the engine?

Dred_furst
Nov 19, 2007

"Hey look, I'm flying a giant dong"
Pretty great, its a lot better than the early early versions.

Aliens won the first game,

Sendo
Jul 26, 2011

voltron lion force posted:

Is this true? Checked in about a year ago and everyone was still complaining that it was a mess.

It's almost like a completely different game compared to then.

Dred_furst
Nov 19, 2007

"Hey look, I'm flying a giant dong"
I was playing on a US server with 200 ping and it was more than playable, had better performance than a lot of other games at 200 ping.

Incredulous Dylan
Oct 22, 2004

Fun Shoe
Oh man, there are SO MANY SERVERS. SO MANY. I went from having two to three servers with people and decent performance to SO MANY SERVERS. Hugh getting drunk live and playing, hah.

v Now you are able to build physical obstacles - clogs - that will halt marine progress at chokepoints. You also get to build hydras, sort of mini versions of the offense tower you remember. No web, but there are still structures that will cloak surrounding players and buildings! You run around and heal and quicken structure maturity through your healspray. A bit more combat focused in this game but everyone still has to chase down and kill the gorge to truly stop an offensive push into their area!

Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 31, 2012

WD40
Nov 25, 2005

I used to play the original on the skulkrush servers, but stopped after they introduced that lovely new mode. How does this compare to the original?

It wasn't the most glamorous way of playing, but I used to like playing as a gorge, making huge piles of those spike things cloaked with sens towers, with web all in front of them, usually outside the marine base. If you could get a big enough pile it would seriously piss off the marine team. Will I still be able to do this?

Rookersh
Aug 19, 2010
Marines are so much goddamn fun.

Going from a bunch of guys with pistols and assault rifles vs waves of little dudes/guys who attack from the shadows, to eventually going into the super infested hive areas with an exoskeleton a flamethrower and a prayer is amazing.

Skyl3lazer
Aug 27, 2007

[Dooting Stealthily]



This is a pretty awesome game. I should mention the OP is missing the new marine exoskeleton thing, and still mentions the lerk's ranged thing that doesnt exist

Justin Credible
Aug 27, 2003

happy cat


Downloads have slowed down horribly/stopped across the board as of now, Valve's servers are dying.

MMF Freeway
Sep 15, 2010

Later!

Sendo posted:

It's almost like a completely different game compared to then.

Welp guess I won't be playing Chivalry much longer.

Incredulous Dylan
Oct 22, 2004

Fun Shoe
I wonder if that is why I've been unable to connect to any of the servers I am seeing :(. I was able to join a modded PPP server but that's it.

edit: So right now the only way for me to join a server is to join someone on my friends list who is already in game. Weird!

Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Oct 31, 2012

Unsmart
Oct 6, 2006

Justin Credible posted:

Downloads have slowed down horribly/stopped across the board as of now, Valve's servers are dying.

3.0 mb/s still. I've had to pause/resume it twice though after it decided to just stop. But I started late obviously or I'd be done by now!

Vertigus
Jan 8, 2011

Am I missing a brightness slider in the video options or something? The game's all washed out and I need to turn it down.

afkmacro
Mar 29, 2009



Megaflare posted:

3.0 mb/s still. I've had to pause/resume it twice though after it decided to just stop. But I started late obviously or I'd be done by now!

Same here, had to pause/resume to get decent speeds. Quick Join in the server browser doesn't appear to be working.

Throckwoddle
Jan 3, 2012

You wanna dance?
Is there an option to switch between the green Deluxe armor and the standard visor? I just got a slider to switch armor types but the only option I have is "Green".

Phoix
Jul 20, 2006




As a new player the game feels kind of impenetrable. Every rookie server I join it's one team entirely made up of rookies while the other team steamrolls.

Krenzo
Nov 10, 2004
Is anyone else finding servers crashing after a few minutes of playing? I can't play for more than 3 minutes before the server dies. This has been on official servers. I reconnect to see if it was just me, but the server is empty when I rejoin.

Edit: Others are confirming that servers are crashing frequently for them too.

Krenzo fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Oct 31, 2012

John Capslocke
Jun 5, 2007

Throckwoddle posted:

Is there an option to switch between the green Deluxe armor and the standard visor? I just got a slider to switch armor types but the only option I have is "Green".

https://twitter.com/NS2/status/263438928701423616

quote:

Hey guys - the Deluxe Content will be going out tomorrow. It's ready but it's a little scary to release at this very moment (new build).


I was going to setup a goon server since I have a powerful dedi collecting dust but, no native linux support, with retarded wine setup, so no go.

JollyPubJerk
Nov 10, 2009

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
So I have 3 marine skins where did I get these all from? All I remember is I gave these guys 40 bucks 2 years ago and all I got was a picture of them holding my money like they stole it.

If any Dota2 players have items they'd want to trade for a copy of this awesome game you can shoot me a PM.

Kernel Monsoon
Jul 18, 2006

JollyPubJerk posted:

So I have 3 marine skins where did I get these all from? All I remember is I gave these guys 40 bucks 2 years ago and all I got was a picture of them holding my money like they stole it.

If any Dota2 players have items they'd want to trade for a copy of this awesome game you can shoot me a PM.

You get everything precisely because you pre-ordered 2 years ago. :smugdog:

Tombot
Oct 21, 2008
The game crashes during the loading of a map rendering it unplayable. Oh well :(.

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I AM CARVALLO
Apr 19, 2007

Head Kicker GOTY

Krenzo posted:

Is anyone else finding servers crashing after a few minutes of playing? I can't play for more than 3 minutes before the server dies. This has been on official servers. I reconnect to see if it was just me, but the server is empty when I rejoin.

This is happening to me too. I did manage to kill one alien before I was disconnected

:gbsmith:

https://twitter.com/NS2/status/263444883640025088

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