Natural Selection 2: Release Thread!

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Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

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

# ¿ Oct 31, 2012 01:04

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 01:49

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:

# ¿ Oct 31, 2012 01:57

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

assfro posted:

really pumped about this game, fun memories of playing the original.

However, 0 servers load up for me. That is to say, no matter how I tweak the search, NOTHING shows up in the server list. Trying to "quick play" will just leave the system idling. I gave up and canceled the search after about 7 minutes of no hits.

Running an exploratory game, just to get an eye for the map, graphics, controls, etc., got me to some pre-caching screen at which point the game blackscreened and I had to Force quit the game.

I have seen a lot of talk about issue #2, but does anyone know what is up with issue #1?

Also, seconding some earlier comments that its a sad state of affairs that this sort of thing is what should be expected on Launch day.

Steam went down briefly, and took the servers down with it.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2012 19:43

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

By the way, come join us in #ns2goons on irc.synirc.net !

# ¿ Nov 1, 2012 00:47

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

It'd be pretty amusing (terrible) to have iron-sights in a game where everything runs at you super fast.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2012 12:16

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Okay I'm drawing the line on the skill based movement controversy as its the quickest way to run a thread into the ground. Shut up or take it to the official forums (where it'll get locked because its played out and tedious as gently caress).

# ¿ Nov 1, 2012 23:05

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

No such thing as skill based movement in NS2, guys :downs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KNLHGSzXySU

# ¿ Nov 3, 2012 14:58

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

colonp posted:

It was you and the OP who brought it up again. I agree, you're both loving stupid.

of this thread with this bullshit. I posted the video because it was interesting and I hadn't seen that used before. I wasn't posting loving walls of text about a mechanic that isn't even in the game.

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Nov 3, 2012

# ¿ Nov 3, 2012 22:47

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

This guy is clueless.

http://uk.gamespot.com/natural-selection-2/reviews/natural-selection-2-review-6399575/

# ¿ Nov 7, 2012 23:09

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

turn off the ATI Catalyst Control Center poo poo and you'll get your textures back. It's the Anti-Aliasing setting I think?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2012 03:55

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

I didn't realise metacritic was so worthless that its scores don't even reflect reviews :v:

http://t.co/8tYbMGtU

# ¿ Nov 15, 2012 16:39

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

the Gaffe posted:

This seems like a good reason to me, despite the very provocative article title.

Not really when third parties are hurt by the negligence of publications by gamespot. The original review was as lazy as they come and full of factual errors. Shame really!

# ¿ Nov 15, 2012 17:20

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

I've also got a free copy to hand out, but I want to know you really really want it before i hand it out. The last two goons I gave keys to have played maybe a few hours between them, which is pretty irritating.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2012 12:10

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

This is amazing :monocle:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=120855757

# ¿ Jan 18, 2013 20:51

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

xzzy posted:

You can see babblers briefly in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L91TqrdE4fI

At 2:45, they look like little turtles.

Also loving finally they implemented proper decals :allears:

Bullets bouncing off walls and making absolutely no marks annoyed me to no end. This will also be good for hit registration with the blood decals going.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2013 19:35

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

New Destructoid article has a write-up about the new update. Shows off some new shots of ns2_descent, the gorge tunnels and the railgun.

http://www.destructoid.com/the-first-dlc-for-natural-selection-ii-is-gorgeous-245927.phtml

quote:

[The Gorge's] major new ability is that it can create underground tunnels when placed on infested areas. This fan-demanded feature now gives the alien side something akin to the phase gates that the human teams can build and use to teleport around.

quote:

The other main new feature for the Gorge is the Babblers ability. Babblers are these little minions that the Gorge can summon and were a feature in the original Natural Selection that have been revived for the DLC. After Babblers are spawned by the Gorge, players can order them around similarly to the Antlions from Half-Life 2. You can have up to nine of the little guys around at a time, and they can either attack players and structures, or you can place them on other aliens as an extra layer of shielding.

quote:

[The Exo] unit is getting a new weapon in the form of a rail gun. You can simply shoot off small bolts, and holding the trigger for a charge will obliterate smaller enemies. Like, literally. Unknown Worlds has added a new disintegration effect and you'll see enemies like the Gorge just explode like a watermelon getting hit with a hammer.

Just a note that the bit about the onos and exos being able to enter gorge tunnels is incorrect...

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 19, 2013

# ¿ Feb 19, 2013 20:10

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Xenoborg posted:

I'm looking for a way out of game to bring up the server browser or server information page without going through the friends list.

Not sure about the steam browser but there's a web based version that lists all the Ns2 servers.

http://hypernovadesign.co.uk/nanogrid/

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Feb 24, 2013

# ¿ Feb 24, 2013 09:22

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Limastock posted:

Excited! How many new maps will we be getting?

Seems like there is alot of bugs revolving around getting upgrades while players are already in those lifeforms. Being gorge and begging for bile bomb only to not be able to use it until you die and go gorge again sucks. Same with spore.

Just the one map for this update, but as it's got an entirely new art set it's at least a refreshing change from grime soaked rusted hallways. Its certainly the best looking map UWE have created so far.

The update also has hundreds of bug fixes so that commentator can gently caress right off. Its a free content patch not some nickle and dime DLC.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2013 15:55

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Updated op a bit.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 12:26

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

wolfman101 posted:

Also, I just wanted to say I am excited for this patch. I actually think the rail gun is a great idea. Hopefully it will be able to one shot gorges.

Something that hasn't been really highlighted is that the railgun can shoot through and kill multiple targets at once, even through your own team-mates (but no harm will come to them). I don't think any other weapon has this function at the moment.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 00:23

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

poo poo is out!

quote:

Added

Railgun Exosuit now available at Prototype Lab. Explodes things.
Gorges may now spawn Babbler eggs, which hatch into Babblers!
Gorges may now create Gorge Tunnels
Bait Balls � Direct babblers by flinging it at enemies of friendlies
New map: Descent
New contextual help system, �TipVids.�
Insight Spectator System Mk 2 � Redesign and interface overhaul.
First Person Spectating
Damage decals
Reflections
Refraction effects
New alien cloaking effects
New main menu background scene

Change

Disabled wall walking on Command Stations.
Added one second cool-down between Gorge structure drops
Claw damage increased to 75.
Claw range increased by 10%
Rifles will now get destroyed when purchasing a new weapon at the armory to prevent a pile of Weapons in big games (manually dropping or picking weapons up is unchanged)
Removed foresight from Alien Commander.
Increased frequency of alert message when a base power node is under attack.
Whips no longer hit multiple targets with their melee attack.
Doors are no longer usable.
Removed exo backwards speed scalar.
Updated personal resource icon in Alien buy menu.
Reduced phase gate rate from 0.5 to 0.2 seconds.
Exosuit movement speed depends now on weapons weight (minigun heaviest, railgun lightest)
Slightly increased Axe range to prevent situations where you could not hit an enemy below you even when crouching.
Skulk movement adjustments � Movement code now makes them slightly less erratic when dancing in your sights.
Cloaking system is now analog rather than binary � Allows for more nuanced use of cloaking trait
Decreased the amount of time it takes for the game to start once both teams have a Commander.
Doubled the rate that the �Game will not start until both teams have a Commander� banner message appears on the screen.
Enemy players are now damaged while near the enemy Command Structure before the game starts.
Bile bomb can now destroy dropped weapons.

Editor

Added the ability for death triggers to do damage over time instead of instantly killing the entity.
Max distance that initial Cyst spawn points can be from the Hive increased by 50%
Changed the texture list in the Editor to �and� all of the search terms together by default (old �or� behavior can be reproduced by using ? in front of a search term)
Changed the texture list box to allow selection of materials in any directory (not just the materials directory)

Feature

Added �-logdir <path>� command line option to let server admins override the location of log.txt.
Added pagination to the mod browser in the dedicated server web admin.
Added search capability to the mod page of the dedicated server web admin.
Added resource graph in Insight (Press Q)
Added commander research bars in Insight, replaces monolithic research block
Added player energy/ammunition indicators in Insight

Fix

Fixed bug causing Skulk hitbox and worldmodel to be misaligned on some vertical surfaces (Makes the buggers easier to hit).
Fixed bug where emissive only surfaces would not be properly bloomed (caused cloaked Alien structures to be somewhat visible)
Fixed issue where enabling double or triple buffering while in fullscreen windowed mode would cause the display to not update
Fixed swipe not triggering effects / draining energy when quickly tapping primary attack button.
Fixed script error when firing a Rifle that had been previously fired and dropped on the ground.
Fixed holo Marine model being visible for a few frames for the already respawned Marine.
The unban button now works in the server web interface.
Fixed health bars showing up in ready room.
Fixed bug where caps lock couldn�t be bound in the input settings.
Fixed bug where tapping primary attack key with Skulk bite selected wont deduct energy / trigger sound.
Fixed clogs appearing for one frame at world origin.
Fixed bug where Marine Commander could select cloaked Alien units.
Fixed bug where the �retry� console command would not attempt to reconnect to the last server joined using the �connect� console command.
Fixed health/armor not being properly predicted for growing Alien structures.
Fixed bug where tech point remains smashed after the Hive got replaced by a Command Station.
Fixed camera hitch when crouch jumping as Onos.
Fixed sentry battery destruction effects.
Fixed unsocketed power nodes not considering LOS properly.
Fixed bug where units recloak when Marine who touched them is still in close proximity.
Text chat now displays above the �Fade to black� death screen.
Fixed Alien structures playing metallic sound when attacked by Skulks.
Ghost structures disappear now immediately when killed.
Commander no longer triggers a ping during entering a chat message.
Fixed Aliens losing abilities when a Hive gets destroyed and they evolve an upgrade without changing life form.
Fixed issue where chat text would sometimes be displayed escaped in the web server admin console.
Players can now damage each other after the round ends.
Changed behavior of Gorge build menu: You no longer need to re-select things to build more of them.
Fixed bug where hitting alt-enter would not cause the options menu to be updated based on the current windowed/fullscreen status.
Fixed bug where the microphone would be stuck on if the server changed maps while a player was recording.
Fixed infestation decal not showing up for Hydras.
Fixed bilebomb effect not showing up on MAC model.
When a team surrenders, everyone will be notified.
Fixed prediction error when jumping in rapid succession.
Fixed clogs blocking phase gates.
Fixed bug where Aliens could barely see cloaked units when dark vision is enabled.
Fixed welder ignoring the deploy animation.
Fixed bug where Commanders could drop structures when help mode is enabled.
Fixed Marine structures showing Alien blood when hit by flame throwers.
Fixed adrenaline / camouflage banner not being displayed.
All team members will be notified when someone votes to concede or to eject the Commander.
Robotics Factory can�t cancel research.
Fixed bug which gave Aliens abilities which are not researched.
Fixed Editor bug that would occasionally cause a vertex to be created a large distance away from its intended location.
Fixed issue where a change to a shader template file would not necessarily trigger shaders to be rebuilt.
Fixed hitch when first encountering Infestation after the shaders have been updated.
Fixed issue where dynamic props wouldn�t be animated on the dedicated server due to missing animation graphs.
Spectator Mouse Hover no longer misses.
Recycled/Refunded structures are no longer added to total team resource gathered.
Fixed exploit in server web admin (Thanks confused!)
Fixed issue where mods that specified a specific version build was required would not mount the file system in the proper order.
Fixed bug causing pre-placed Cysts to sometimes die at the start of the round.
Fixed bug where HTTP requests did not follow 301 redirects (fixes the mods list in the web admin)
Fixed bug where Aliens were able to evolve both upgrades from one Hive type.
Fixed exploit where selecting multiple shifts allowed it to bypass the global cool down for hatch ability.

Improvement

Exos display now the thruster duration / cooldown in their HUD.
Added smoke effect for Spike attacks.
Added missing minimap icons for shift, shell, spur, veil.
Insight text now much more legible

Optimization

Reduced the number of bits used for network fields.
Optimized determination of whether or not Orders should be relevant to a client (improves server performance)
Optimized querying the world for entities.
Infestation blob coordinates are now saved after being generated once (Thanks Mats!)
Sped up the compiling shaders process.
Reduced memory usage by compressing animations � also reduces load times.
Tweaked texture streaming � reduces load times.

Docking

Cafe is now now a random marine spawn again
Lockers is now a random spawn for both aliens and marines
Redesigned how Cafe connects to Bar
Redesigned Central Access so it now connects to cafe
Redesigned Back Alley
Moved Bar further west to prevent sieging of Lockers
Moved Cafe RT to the lower level to prevent LOS issues
Some changes to courtyard to fit the Central Access changes
Some cosmetic changes to Ball Court
Some cosmetic changes to Bar
Reflection Probes added

Refinery

Made Smelting a marine spawn.
Removed route from Smelting to Conduit.
Added new route from Smelting to Routing.
Bug fixes including building placement and power grid issues.

Summit

Improved Atrium RT location (less claustrophobic)
Added more cover and flanking options for aliens in Flight Control
Added missing lights in Crevice vent

SDK

Moved all processing of input into script.
Fixed visualization of the emissive map in the Viewer.
Added the ability to make an external cinematic loop in the Cinematic Editor.
Improved error reporting when a material as assigned in a model with an absolute path.
Increased the timeout for HTTP requests.
Fixed issue where defining a class on the server but not on the client would cause crashes and other bugs.
Added the ability to materials layered on models to inherit parameter values from the underlying material.
Fixed bug where the Ok/Cancel buttons in �Create Mod� window of Launch Pad would not be visible if the Window�s font size was set to large.
Added animatable shader parameters for objects in the Cinematic Editor.
Added support for vertex colors in .model files.
Fixed bug where specifying a float2, float3 or float4 value for a surface shader input would corrupt the value.
Added the ability specify float2, float3 and float4 parameters in a .material file.
Added support for optional commas in SJSON files.
Added �LocalPlayerChanged� engine event when the local player on the Client changes.
Added ServerClient:GetSpectatingPlayer() and ServerClient:GetPlayer() methods.
Added Client.VoiceRecordStart and Client.VoiceRecordStop functions.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 00:56

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

TheSpiritFox posted:

Anyone else having weird texture issues? When I load into a map certain things have no texture like infestation and the actual map. It takes anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes and then everything starts working normally, no idea whats causing it.

Do you have texture streaming on? when I join the ready room textures will be blurry for a few seconds as they are 'loaded in' so try turning it off and see if that changes things.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 12:32

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Its not one stolen card, it's cards as in multiple..Where are you getting that from? You wouldn't be able to spend that much on a single card at once without it raising a giant red flag.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2013 23:19

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

TheSpiritFox posted:

I'm not saying you're wrong I'm just showing you where I got that from. They didn't say owners of cards they said owner of the stolen card. They said singular so I assumed it was just one card (and yeah I would have thought that would raise massive red flags).

The PC gamer article makes it sounds like it was one card and the UWE post says credit cards in one place but continues with the singular "the owner of the card disputed the charge and we lost the sale" all singular.

I don't know nowhere did I see it directly state multiple stolen cards, or just one card, I just went with all the singular I saw and I guess overlooked the one instance where there was no plural agreement.

You lack basic reading comprehension :v:

When they say the owner of the card disputed the charge they are talking from the perspective of the card owners on an individual level.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2013 07:23

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Free weekend and 50% off during PAX. 21st - 24th March!

It'd be nice if someone could update the thread title as I'm sure loads of people would otherwise miss out on this entirely!

http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/natural-selection-2-free-weekend/

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 16:26

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Limastock posted:

Yeah its modded. it has an unstuck script and some admin tools.

This would've been good to know right off the bat. I was wondering why i could never find it.

Also just joined a server. Now is a good time to get some practice in because everyone appears to be terrible :stare:

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Mar 23, 2013

# ¿ Mar 23, 2013 16:38

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Divine Disclaimer posted:

The only reason more people don't play this game is that it doesn't run well on reasonably-specced computers.

I feel like I've been saying this since the alpha (because i have) but performance is still improving and will get better.

The problem is big noticeable results take a long time to achieve. The low hanging fruit is gone and now to get performance boosts you have to start digging. The LUA code (which is what basically the whole game is written in) isnt as fast as it could be, and a lot of the bottleneck stuff is in the cpu end.. But there's some good progress being made internally that I'm hoping will give a big boost.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 03:45

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Genderfluid posted:

Just downloaded this for the free weekend, anything i should know before trying it out?

C brings up the map. Use it as much as possible to see where you are, where your team is, and what's currently flashing red from being attacked.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 03:57

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

NS2 stats draws from such a small pool that the results are usually irrelevant anyway, In comparison to the stats tracking UWE does across all games played.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2013 16:54

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Cowcatcher posted:

Where are all the NS2Goons at?

I updated the OP with some more links to NS2Goons. Hopefully people will see it!

# ¿ Apr 5, 2013 02:34

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

A state of the game update blog was posted on the official site, as the game approaches six months post launch. As well as a whole bunch of stats that i'm not going to post here, it has quite a few interesting announcements regarding upcoming features:

quote:

Work on new content for Natural Selection 2 continues unabated. The biggest, juiciest piece of coming content is Biodome.. This map is a huge departure from previous art-styles, featuring greenery and environments unlike anything NS has ever seen.

quote:

Apart from Biodome, there are some other cool pieces of kit in development. We�re keeping them under-wraps for now, but suffice to say they will arrive with a� bang. We are currently targeting August/September as a likely release time-frame for all these goodies!

Slightly unsubtle there :P

quote:

Steve in particular has been working closely with mappers to improve the tools and workflow of the Spark Editor. Meanwhile. Max has been improving Spark at the lowest levels: He is working to get it running on OpenGL as well as Direct3D11. This effort is quite involved and time consuming, but an important one for the long term growth of games on Spark. Both OpenGL and Direct3D11 offer improvements over Direct3D9 (Spark�s current implementation) that will benefit Natural Selection 2 players. Such work also ties in to ongoing development of a Linux server for NS2, on which progress is now far advanced.

So upcoming Directx11 compatibility, and setting the framework for a possible linux/mac port in future. Great stuff!

# ¿ Apr 26, 2013 13:52

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

chocolateTHUNDER posted:

Gotta listen to those ***pro*** players though you know the ones that don't even make up 1/3 of the playerbase.

UWE wants this to be a competitive game so hard, regardless of how obtainable that goal is at this point, they think this will somehow increase the games longetivity. Naturally this only gets more frustrating as the playerbase continues to decline.

But hey, when the last pubbie leaves the server at least you'll have bot support to keep you company!
:negative:

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 02:46 on May 23, 2013

# ¿ May 23, 2013 02:41

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

octoroon posted:

So they finally integrated LuaJIT into NS2, like they've been talking about since the dawn of time. I wonder if this is going to be as big of a deal as they've played it up to be.

Its been in progress for quite some time. I tested it out recently and did get a performance boost. Of course with a lot of these things the boost is going to differ from person to person, depending on their hardware, but profiling shows the gains can be pretty significant.

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Jun 6, 2013

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 21:18

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Harry Joe posted:

This game is just brutal as gently caress for new players, without even thinking about the actual playerbase and their attitudes, everyone I know who I tried to get to play this quit within a couple days to a few weeks at most because no matter what they played as they were getting completely annihilated time after time after time and there was just absolutely no fun to be had for them.

Friends who preferred aliens would get to evolve into higher lifeforms maybe twice per match, barely even getting to use those lifeforms because the first shotgunner they ran into would kill em, forcing them back into being a terrible skulk that can't have any fun at all against decent human players and can't survive long enough to even realize what they might be doing wrong or how to get better.

The guy who preferred humans lasted a while longer because being a basic rifleman is much more effective then trying to be a good skulk against the current crop of players who can pistol kill you from across the room but he still found it to be utterly devoid of fun and turned into a combat mode player for a little while until he stopped playing completely.

The game is fun for people who can sink 20+ hours into it while getting completely destroyed so they can learn to be at least slightly effective but the vast majority of players won't spent that much time getting their asses kicked just so that they can learn the basic effective strategies. The learning curve is too steep for a game with such a high skill ceiling, unless a new player gets lucky, they will barely even be able to kill anyone at all and they sure won't know what they did wrong or how to do better when they get gorge sniped then made fun of by half the server.

This is a problem obviously, and it's not limited to public play either. Something I noticed when I jumped into a playtest after not being available for a few weeks/maybe a month or two was that a lot of them were at this level, simply because they had tons of free time and were playing the game constantly. Getting destroyed in less than a second by a lerk that can turn on a dime and poison bite you in rapid succession is not how most people can play that class, and I would hope they aren't balancing around these high level players (they are).

I handed in my tester badge after being with the game since NS2 was a prototype on the source engine, as I don't feel like I can contribute anything or keep track with the constant changes to the core principles of the game. Everything they are doing has good intentions but I'm not sure what they can do to keep people that don't play competitively interested, or if that is even a priority to them.

Kernel Monsoon fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Jun 14, 2013

# ¿ Jun 14, 2013 17:55

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

"Armouries no longer heal armour" is enough to negate a lot of the positive changes to Marines. It was tried before and made playing a marine painfully boring because you either died instantly (from having little to no armour after taking a hit earlier) or were constantly having to weld each other in a big welding circle jerk. No idea why its back.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2013 11:21

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Kerpal posted:

I noticed the same thing on an i7 3770k, 660 GTX ti, 8gb RAM. Or at least the performance increase is subtle for me.

Obviously you're not going to see a big improvement to performance when you already have a killer rig. People that were previously bottle-necked by their CPU or GPU would see the biggest jump.

quote:

Yep. The thing they have to tackle now is the map load time. That thing is brutal.

The initial load is so bad it makes me want to lose the will to live. I think it's literally 5 minutes long on my rig? You can tell they just made the game front load everything possible to stop the on-the-fly hitching problems. Granted after that the loads are a lot quicker but talk about a bad first impression.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 00:45

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

There was a lot of reinventing the wheel early on, mostly for the sake of not wanting to cover the same ground with NS1. I remember some of the earlier builds, marines were completely incapable of building structures. It was an intentional gameplay decision and it felt like the devs didn't understand why people enjoyed the first game.

I agree that the Alien Commander is one of the bigger culprits of this, it was a pretty unnecessary addition that wasn't any good for the majority of development, and even now it's not particularly engaging. Unlike the Marine Commander being vital to the success of your team, you can hop in and research a few things and then jump back out. I have the suspicion it was only added to balance out the generally asymmetrical gameplay of both teams.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 10:15

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Female marine is on the way at last:

No boob armour or embarassing bikini armour.

It's nice that there are special edition versions of her too.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 20:11

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Yeah, wait till Friday. There's going to be a bunch more content coming.

Always frustrating when they don't post patch notes, here's an unofficial list compiled by comparing the Lua files:

quote:

#General

Meta
- Tutorial added to main menu.
- Added ELO-ish player skill ranking system.
- Server Browser can be filtered and sorted by skill level.

Gameplay
- Shock waves now seem to propagate from the center over time, rather than instantly inflicting damage in the maximum radius. (Stomp, Grenade Launchers, etc.)
- Commanders starts with 0 pres and gains no pres for 1 minute after leaving the CC/Hive.

#Marines

General
- new default crosshairs (mostly the same as before, but with a bright pixel-wide dot in the center now)

Observatory
- emits a sonar sound in regular intervals, making it easier for aliens to determine its location

Shotgun
- slightly more accurate
- clip size down to 6 (was 8)

Grenades
- Cluster Grenade creates multiple small explosions in an area for HP damage
- Gas Greande damages alien armor in an area and stays for a moment
- Pulse Grenade electrifies aliens (attack speed down to 80% for 5 seconds, energy regen down to 70%)
- cost 10 to research, take 45 seconds
- cost 3 pres each, gives 2 grenades, can only carry one grenade type at a time

HMG // not included yet, but in the code
- costs 30 to research, takes 60 seconds
- weighs 0.25 (normal rifle is 0.13)
- deals 10 damage like normal rifle, but of damage type 'puncture' (50% more damage against players)
- has 75 ammo clip

Flamethrower
- damage down to 15 (was 19)
- deals 3 energy damage
- weighs 0.14 (was 0.12)

Exos
- can be exited at any time now
- can be beaconed
- are purchased as single-armed version at Protolab for 40 res each
- can buy their second weapon from the Protolab for another 20 res (also Dual Railgun!)
- Dual Minigun and Railgun cost 30 res to research each
- Dual-Miniguns overheat slower than single version (?)
- Firing Miniguns slows Exo down to 60% of normal speed
- Firing Railgun slows Exo down to 80% of normal speed
- Railgun autofires after 2.2 seconds (was 3) and needs to be charged for a minimum of 1.4 seconds
- Railgun damage down to 30 - 130 (was 50 - 150)
- Railgun weighs 0.8 (was 0.5)

MACs
- Armor down to 50 (was 150)
- seems to heal armor a lot faster (?)

Cat Packs
- take 45 seconds to research
- cost 3 to drop
- increase move speed by 25%
- increase weapon (reload?) speed by 50%
- last 12 seconds

#Aliens

General
- Carapace reduces regeneration capabilities by 10% per level
- chambers move faster now (1.5, was 0.5)
- being on fire no longer reduces energy regeneration (was down to 60%)
- Alien Vision got replaced by Dark Vision and Hive Sight. All important things are outlined by default now and the Dark Vision is only supposed to be used in dark rooms (it actually blinds you if you look at bright lights with it, like a nightvision device)

Nutrient Mist
- has a sound effect now when being cast

Contamination
- Contamination ability added to khammander (Biomass 9)
- temporarily creates a patch of infestation anywhere on the map
- 5 res per use, 5 seconds cooldown
- infestation is spread from a structure with 1000 HP that is spawned in

Lifeform Eggs
- Gorge & Lerk Egg requires Biomass 2
- Fade & Onos Egg requires Biomass 9
- Gorge Egg costs 15 now (was 10)
- Lerk Egg costs 30 now (was 40)
- all (?) eggs take 45 seconds to gestate now (was different for each egg, maximum was 30 seconds on Onos egg)

Drifter
- supply cost up to 10 (was 5)
- cost 5 res, can be hatched anywhere on the map, take 7 seconds to hatch
- Drifter clouds of the same type don't stack anymore (the old cloud is instantly removed when a new is spawned)
- Hallucination no longer creates hallucinations of dead aliens
- Mucous Membrane stays only 2.5 seconds now (was 10). Regenerates half of a unit's maximum armor, clamped to a minimum of now 3 (was 1) and a maximum of 40
- Storm cloud lifetime down to 3 seconds (was 6)

Cysts
- fixed bug causing the closest cyst to be used as anchor, even if it was unconnected.

Hive
- can research Gorge Tunnels (1)
- can research "Gorge Evolutions" to gain access to Babbler (1), Bile Bomb (3) and Web (5) research

Shift
- can research "Lerk Evolutions" to gain access to Umbra (4) and Spore (6) research
- supply cost down to 5 (was 10)

Shade
- can research "Fade Evolutions" to gain access to Shadow Step (2), Vortex (5) and Stab (8) research
- Ink cooldown increased to 16 seconds (was 12.8)
- supply cost down to 5 (was 10)

Crag
- can research "Onos Evolutions" to gain access to Charge (2), Bone Shield (5) and Stomp (9) research
- supply cost down to 5 (was 15)

Whip
- can research "Skulk Evolutions" to gain access to Leap (4) and Xenocide (7) research
- Leap research time up to 40 seconds (was 30)
- Bombard damage down to 400 (was 600)
- build time up to 20 (was 15)
- supply cost down to 5 (was 10)

Skulk
- gains less HP per Biomass (3 now, was 4)
- Parasite lasts 44 seconds (was 24)
- is now faintly gnarling in regular intervals when idle, which can be heard by marines

Gorge
- costs 8 pres now
- added ability to drop Webs between two surfaces, which hold marines in place for a moment. Webs (50 HP) can't be destroyed by bullets, but by flames and grenades
- Babblers need to be researched now (Biomass 1)
- Babbler health down to 10 HP, 0 Armor (was 30 HP, 5 Armor)

Lerk
- Bite range increased to 1.5 (was 1.4)
- Umbra now protects against Railgun shots (damage down to 68%)

Fade
- Blink adds more force (1.0 instead of 0.5) upon use.
- Blink start energy cost increased to 14 (was 13)
- Celerity has less impact when using Blink
- Vortex changed completely. ("Ethereal Gate", Biomass 5)
- Stab added as researchable ability. (Biomass 8)
- Stab deals 160 normal damage and costs 30 energy to use
- Swipe damage down to 37.5 (was 50)
- Swipe energy cost up to 8 (was 7)
- gains less HP per Biomass (5 now, was 10)
- Carapace gives 120 Armor now (was 100)

Onos
- Charge needs to be researched now (Biomass 2)
- fixed bug allowing to use BoneShield right after Stomp or Gore
- Stomp range down to 2 (was 5), though I might read this wrong since it's a shock wave now.
- Stomp deals 40 structural damage (double damage against structures) now
- gains less HP per Biomass (25 now, was 50)
- Carapace gives 650 Armor now (was 560)

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 10:25

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 01:49

Kernel Monsoon: Jul 18, 2006

Limastock posted:

Wow, where does he get off? I like the part where he says this threatens their ability to continue supporting ns2. Ridiculous.

I don't agree that he should have gone over there huffing and puffing, but it's up to UWE to decide whether or not a leak hurts them, not people spreading the leak against their wishes.
AusNS2 basically ripped him a new rear end in a top hat in that thread, and if they thought they were being excluded before - they certainly did themselves no favours whatsoever.

Also, 253 (Reinforced) is out early! for some reason! the new biodome map is beautiful.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2013 10:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Natural Selection 2: Release Thread!

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