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10 years since its official release and over 117 updates later, active development of Natural Selection 2 has ended. Our team and this community have provided many years of passion and support for this game. Over the years we had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with so many of you whether at an expo, live tournament, Discord or playing on a server. We thank you for your support and commitment to NS2 and know that this game would not have been the same without you. Now its time to look to the future and continue on to other projects within the company. While we wont be actively working on NS2, we will still continue to host matched play servers so that community members will be able to play games on-demand with other players or bots. Although this isnt goodbye, we still would like to say a very heartfelt thank you to you, our community and to all of those that worked with us on Natural Selection 2 over the years. Much love and appreciation, The UWE NS2 Team
Greetings! We just deployed a hotfix to the game that resolves several issues with skill values not updating in certain cases. Your game version number will increase to reflect 344 after you receive the update from Steam. Please allow time for the server operators to update their servers to the latest version as well. Thanks to everyone for providing the useful data that led to these fixes! Changelog
Matched Play v1.0 is officially released! We have made several changes and fixes to the system over the last few months, but our official release includes improved regional servers with more dedicated power for a better performing experience. Our programmers have been hard at work behind the scenes working on new and improved bots. Bots have been reworked from the ground up to provide a much more intuitive and similar gameplay mechanics of a real player. All life forms and commanders have had changes and improvements added so that you can play a game by yourself or with a small group of friends and not need to wait or fill a lobby. All of the official maps have been updated in one form or another to add better bot functionality and additional player gameplay experiences. We would also like to thank psyk for all of their hard work to bring us our newest official map AYUMI. Inspired by the NS1 map of the same name, this five techpoint map feels like a blend of Jambi and Tram and is sure to lead to some fun and exciting rounds. Changelog Optimizations
Changelog Tweaks / Improvements
Update 341 is now available on steam and includes multiple updates to maps and a bunch of bug fixes and tweaks to both the game and matched play. There are also additional updates to the balance which you can find in the in-game menu. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2. Changelog Tweaks / Improvements
This set of changes is targeted at refining some aspects of game pacing, making some quality of life improvements, and adds some new Matched Play exclusive changes that will only be employed when playing the Matched Play game mode. One of the key changes that will apply to both player counts is the reduction of p-res per tick. Now that servers have been playing with 10 versus 10 for some time, and with the introduction of Matched Play 6 versus 6, we felt this was the right time to re-introduce this p-res rate which will make lifeforms and weapons alike slightly more precious. Changelog Gameplay General:
A precious but lost TSF resource once again comes into play, returning to TANITH! We are thrilled and excited to release this updated vision of the classic map from Natural Selection. Special thanks to Zavaro and the mapping team on this awesome addition to the map pool.
With the release of TANITH we are also providing the next phase of the Match Play, Beta v2, in which we have made some bug fixes and added the ability to invite steam friends to the lobby you are in. A new Matched Play progression system has been added, allowing you to unlock all sorts of assets and customization to your Marine and Alien. We are still actively working on Private Lobbies and Group Queuing, which we know are our biggest requests for Matched Play. There is also a list of quality of life changes we hope to have in our 1.0 release of Match Played (planned release in early 2022).
This update includes changes to our MOD system as we move to supporting Steam UGC. Optimizations and bug fixes abound through the change log, so be sure to read all the way through.
Lastly, we will be releasing a new flurry of balance changes next week separate from the patch via our extension mod. Stay tuned in our Discord server for more details!
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
From all of us at Unknown Worlds, Merry Gorgemas and Happy Holidays!
Changelog
Optimizations
Update 338 includes fixes found with the initial release of MATCHED PLAY (read more here). MATCHED PLAY lobbies are once again active and ready for use. Some additional regions have been added/removed based on performance feedback. Your continued use and feedback on the system while in BETA will help us refine features while we move towards delivering the 1.0 version soon.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Changelog
Fixes
The Development team never stops and although at times some updates dont seem as full of changes, there is always behind the scenes efforts being made. One of those biggest efforts over the last year has been our new Matched Play system, code named Thunderdome. Update 337 is our big unveiling to the general public of the new Matched Play BETA and a flurry of other changes and updates throughout the game.
Matched Play in its current state will allow 12 players to be matched by region and skill levels to the best of HIVEs ability. You then play two rounds on an officially hosted server. The intent of this system is to create a better experience for players looking to get in and play as soon as possible and not wait on servers in spectator mode for a slot that may or may not open. There are still more planned features for the official 1.0 release of Matched Play and you can read more about the system here.
Update 337 also includes an updated version of one of our earliest maps MINESHAFT. Kash and Maptesting Group have been hard at work getting this update ready and we hope you enjoy the new gameplay brought on by the changes. Many other maps have gotten updates as well and as always a special thanks to each of the Map Leads on those respective maps as listed in the log below.
A new Armory UI has been added to the game that more reflects the visuals and information we wanted to share and felt was better for players to understand equipment effectiveness and uses. An updated implementation for the graphics option Ambient Occlusion has also been added that should help with input lag and large fps drops, it also looks much better which is a major plus too!
As always, there are many other tweaks and improvements listed below. We look forward to your continued feedback and support.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Changelog
Gameplay
Our friends at the Natural Selection League are hosting a one-weekend, no holds barred clash of some of the best players and teams in this Open Tournament!
Its hard to believe that another year is coming to a close. Sneaky Saint Gorgie is up to their old tricks and while some Marines have been getting some nasty yucky and gooey clogs in their stockings, that silly Saint Gorgie also seems to be dropping off lots of goodies too! Weve expanded our available skins, and a whole new list of items have been added to your customize menu for you to further put your style on display. Some of our previous packs or individual skins have been expanded to cover more items and there are also a handful of all new individual weapons skins to check out. If you owned a now expanded DLC pack previously, then you get the added skins to that pack free of charge. This is our thank you to you for your continued support of our team and development of Natural Selection 2. If you dont already own some of those packs or individual skins, some DLC packs will be on-sale starting December 22 on our steam store.
Update 336 also includes the merger of the NS2+ mod features directly into the released game, under a newly titled Advanced options menu. Many of the original maps have also gone through some changes, including some major changes to Docking and Refinery. As always, we hope that you will look through the list of other changes and bug fixes that went into this update. So many people have been involved in this project over the years, and the lasting impacts continue to show through.
As we move forward to 2021, the Development Team is looking forward to the alpha release of our match-making system code named: Thunderdome. We hope that this new system will allow players all over the world to have quick and stable access to play a round of NS2 and create a way for more games to happen. We are also in the late stages of developing backend support to move our NS2 Steam Workshop to support UGC. We are as always excited to bring you new options and features to NS2, and thank you for all your support and feedback over the years.
Merry Gorgemas from all of us at UWE and the Community Development Team!
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
October is always an exciting time of year for our Natural Selection Development Team, and this year is no exception. 18 years ago a totally unique and amazing new mod for half-life hit the interwebs and for many us, changed our lives. Fast forward to today, and its sequel Natural Selection 2 is celebrating eight years since release. Our Team and dedicated community continue to get games active and going 24hrs a day around the world and today is our next step in supporting all of you into the future. Update 335 is the official release of Hive Skill 3.0 (see our previous blog detailing the changes), our latest update to the backend skill tracking and sorting system for NS2. Hive Skill 3.0 for the first time introduces per team skill tracking including commander roles too. Our hope is to help better sort teams for more even rounds and enjoyable gameplay, but we want to make sure you know that this wont happen instantly. The update to the backend code is being merged with current data and will take many new rounds to begin to fully flesh out its adjustments, but in general our new algorithm seems to be doing better from the start. And just to be clear, no existing skill data/rank is lost in the update. An absolutely huge thank you to CDT Member Moultano for all his math wizardry.
Under the hood we have some bug fixes and enhancements to various maps and cinematics to entice you with some fun new gameplay. You can read all about those and other changes with this update in the changelog below.
Happy Natural Selection Anniversary Week!
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Eclipse Tower is stained with the blood of Kharaa and Marine soldiers. The battle was brought home in the name of scientific research, deemed necessary to protect our future. We thought the battle was over and all were safe, but we were wrong
The Kharaa have escaped to the streets below Eclipse Tower and are already advancing throughout the district. Reinforcements have been called in as the streets, markets and clubs are evacuated. The war for our human existence rages on. We have to hurry to eliminate the threat; theyve reached the Metro lines and can quickly spread out across the entire city.
As the fights continue into the tunnels of the Metro, shimmers of blue and white appear in the darkness. A faint shriek can be heard in the distance, it seems familiar but all the same different. What new terror Lerks in the darkness?
The team is excited to bring you our most ambitious map to date, METRO. This new and unique map truly brings us to the Human world and leaves behind the remote facilities of distant meteors and other planets. We owe a huge thank you to the many map testers and a very dedicated group of Community Developers including; Kash, Mephilles, pSyK, Shrimm, Loki, Zavaro, Paul Wolfe, Runestorm, Vlaad and Master G. Theyve all worked hard over the last few months (if not more) to take the inspiration from community map Jambi and re envision a whole new look and style for the NS2 universe. Be sure to enable the reflections graphics option in game to really see the map at its best.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
[previewyoutube=xDLK-mfZfPg;full][/previewyoutube]
Check out the new map METRO, coming soon in update 333 in a casted 6v6 brawl! METRO features a never before seen new cityscape aesthetic and awesome new art!
Watch the Stream VoD here on twitch!
Greetings Citizens!
While its been a while since the B.M.A.C. production came online through the Trans-Gov Federation, weve been in the background quietly tinkering away on deep system improvements within the mainframe while aboard this station. We recognize the Kharaa threat is an ever present and increasing one, and because of that the Federation wants you to know that your well being is important to them.
As such weve made things go faster. Weve oiled up some rusty parts. And weve reprogrammed the nanites to not be so painful upon injection. We think weve made good progress and are excited to show you some of our work by getting it into your hands for assessment double time. Just be sure you dont forget to fill out the p3.1415 forms in the Discord server to let us know how satisfactory your experience was.
Contained within TSF-Software-Patch.332 is a host of improvements to both performance and stability, as well as some new customization options for the Elite B.M.A.C. package, and entirely rewritten AI behavior. Theres also balance changes and visual changes. The list is long but fear not, if you do not read the entirety of the log the fine is only 500,000 credits per section 10.2009 of the Articles of Citizenship.
We still have some exciting and very large features to add in the next software update that will arrive soon, such as matchmaking and a new city to defend, Metro. But these tasks are so large that the Federation has brought another member aboard our team to help: Salads. Please welcome him with the traditional and formal greeting per regulations. Hell be in the back of the station, behind the terminals that say High Voltage.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
This is Command Station Alpha, over and out.
Changelog
Gameplay
The long list of balance and gameplay changes can be found here in a separate blog
Optimizations
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Here is a snippet of what's in store for Patch 332, which is coming soon! This changelog contains the Balance Patch Notes, there is much more in the full changelog which will be released when the build goes live.
Hello Everyone!
There hasn't been a game update in the last months as we have been busy working on some larger features. To keep you all in the loop here is a short summary of what we are working on. And what you can expect from the next game update.
This latest update brings something new and special to the game. Introducing the B.M.A.C, two exciting new robotic models joining the Marine forces.
The Bipedal-Mobile-Automated-Custodian and Bipedal-Mobile-Automated-Countermeasure are here to help and serve your needs. Play as one of these new marine models with up to 10 different variants for you to choose from. The B.M.A.C. also includes two brand new voices with all new taunts and requests. Community Development Team members Vlaad and Sweets worked very hard with our team over the last couple months developing the models and sounds respectively, and a HUGE shout out to Rune for all the trailer help and going beyond the extra mile. Weve had so much fun building these into the game and hope that youll enjoy them too.
[previewyoutube=9S7QdjdnxWA;full][/previewyoutube]
The rest of the patch has some nice new UI updates and other tweaks. We arent stopping here and have some very exciting things to come with our December update, so stay tuned!
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Thank you for all the feedback on Update 329. This hotfix should serve to improve your experience. A note to our Linux users; Although we no longer directly support a Linux client, please be aware that NS2 does run when using Proton. If you are unable to start NS2 via Proton (right click at Library entry -> Properties -> check Force the use of a specific steam play compatibility tool -> select latest version of proton) please confirm that your system is compatible to dxvk (seehttps://github.com/lutris/lutris/wiki/How-to:-DXVK ). Tweaks / Improvements
Welcome back to Colony Zero, the forgotten mining facility on the moon Freya IV. Greed and a continued push for dominance brought the TSF to this moon, but what they found while mining deep was something they felt was far more valuable than ore or minerals; little did they know it would start a pandemic reaching across the entire galaxy.
Our newest official map, ORIGIN, a remake of the NS1 map, holds the answers to the Origins of Kharaa and is now available to play. You can earn the special Abyss Gorge skin after playing five rounds, but hurry as this skin is only available for a limited time! Thank you to pSyk for all his hard work on re-creating this classic map and to our map testing crew for all of their time reviewing and assisting on the map.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC7q_eterMY
Update 329 also brings another set of balance changes aimed at creating more variation of play and strategy. A new menu system has been designed and built for a better player customizing experience and allows for easier implementation of future features to come. We have officially moved to DirectX 11 and added support for Temporal Anti-Aliasing, both of which can help produce better quality of play and visual upgrades to your game. Additional changes to other official maps have also been added to support better gameplay and help new players learn the maps.
A reminder that with the release of 329 we have officially dropped support for the Linux client of NS2. We will continue to support and update the Linux Dedicated Server. For those using the Linux client, you can still play NS2 via the Steam Play compatibility tools (Proton). Proton is still in Beta and being actively developed so there may be some features or functions that do not work. We have confirmed that playing the game while connecting to a dedicated server does work and in some cases the performance is much improved from the Linux client.
Check out the full changelog on the blog to see all the goodies contained within.
Follow the NS2 Development Roadmap to see our plans for future updates.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Our friends at the Natural Selection League are hosting a one-weekend, no holds barred clash of some of the best players and teams in this Open Tournament!
Our friends at the Natural Selection League are hosting a one-weekend, no holds barred clash of some of the best players and teams in this Open Tournament!
Saturday and Sunday (the 29th and 30th) at 09:00 PDT / 12:00 EDT / 16:00 GMT / 18:00 CEST
Update 328 includes an upgrade to Visual Studio 2017 runtime, continued balance tweaks in response to the last update, updates to DirectX 11 (getting us closer to ditching DirectX 9 altogether) and numerous fixes and optimizations throughout the game. We are making great strides in achieving our goal on the roadmap and 329 is looking to be another great update, so stay tuned for public tests in advance of release. Lastly we want to thank all of you that have been purchasing DLC and all the newcomers that have been buying the game over the last few months. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
Note to all Windows users: You will need to ensure the 2017 Visual C++ redistributes are installed on your system! Otherwise the game wont start after the update. Steam should take care of this during the update process but is known to fail sometimes.
Changelog
Gameplay
Merged balance changes we released live 3 weeks ago via our extensions mod
Unknown Worlds would like to invite you to watch or sign up to play the NEWCOMER TOURNAMENT, an event hosted by our friends at Natural Selection League.
What has build 327 Unearthed? A lot actually! This new update to NS2 includes a new map, changes to existing maps, new skins, new models, new sounds and new gameplay and balance changes. All told the changelog for build 327 came to be 10+ pages once we included everything. There is so much in this update to sink your teeth into, read ahead for all the details or just jump in game and figure out all the changes in battle. People playing on the new map Unearthed will receive a new alien commander skin and if you like that you might also check out our Catalyst DLC Pack, which has many other skins and now includes a new Sandstorm skin for the updated machine gun model. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2. Click here to see the full changelog and all the goodies contained within. Follow the NS2 Development Roadmap to see our plans for future updates.
Update 326 includes crash fixes, changes to quickplay, spectate updates, bug fixes, and new cosmetics to the Catalyst Pack. In honor of Gorgemas, everyone who has purchased the Catalyst Pack DLC will receive new gorge toxin skins for all the gorge structures. If you dont own the Catalyst Pack, you can still purchase it and unlock all the DLC skin packs included. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
From all of us at Unknown Worlds, we wish you the happiest of holidays and Merry Gorgemas!
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
Follow theNS2 development roadmapto see our plans for future updates.
Changelog
Tweaks / Improvements
This Steam Community group has been neglected. For eight years, we forgot it existed. Before this post, the last update was from Flayra in January 2010, offering Natural Selection 2 pre-orders! It's time to bring it back to life.
Back in 2010, Subnautica wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye. NS2 hadn't topped Steam on Halloween. People were using iPhone 3's. Windows 7 was only a few months old. This is a vintage Steam Community, and resurrecting it is an opportunity for reflection.
Since 2010, Unknown Worlds has been through a lot. We've navigated near-death financial valleys to the heady heights of #1 top-seller on Steam. Our team size has grown from around 10 to around 40. We've gotten a little older, a little wiser, and formed firm friendships as a team.
Through it all, the consistent force behind our survival and success has been you. You've hurled feedback on Twitter, debated design on Discord, reviewed roadmaps on Trello, shared trailers on YouTube, endured horrific Early Access bugs, delayed updates, awful frame rates, and so much more.
Your engagement with the development process is the critical secret sauce. Without all of you, our games would probably suck.
To everyone that has followed us since 2010, and before, and to everyone that is with us now, and to those thinking of joining us in future, thank you. We're pumped to keep making great games with you.
- Unknown Worlds
Update 325 includes balance adjustments, map refinements, bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, and new cosmetics to the Catalyst Pack. A long time veteran of NS2 development has rejoined the team, Fsfod is back and putting all his focus on improving and stabilizing LuaJIT. Fsfod was the original developer that implemented LuaJIT support for NS2. His efforts will ultimately yield a faster and more stable game.
The Machine Gun is getting some needed love this update. The Commander is no longer required to research it separately after upgrading to an Advanced Armory and we have lowered the cost of the Commander weapon drop as well. Additionally, with a lower overall weight and slight increase to the base damage, this is starting to feel like a better weapon choice to have in a group of Marines later in the round.
Sound is a critical component of NS2 gameplay. Hearing the clatter of claws on metal can mean the difference between life and death. Our resident audiophileSweetshas prepared an overhaul of audio cues, from footstep distances to Gorge Tunnel sounds over the last few patches and now has taken a peck at the Lerk glide and ambient sounds for additional player tracking.
Last update we introduced theCatalyst Pack, new Sandstorm skins for all Marine equipment, and Toxin skins for all Alien lifeforms. This update we are adding to that DLC, Catalyst now gives the Command Station and Hive the cosmetic DLC love theyve always deserved. This update also includes cosmetic options for Alien Eggs and Harvesters as well as Marine Extractors.
*Proceeds from the sale of all NS2 DLC items, including this new Catalyst Pack, go towards funding the on-going and long-term development of NS2.
Since this is Halloween, we have added our first ever animated shoulder badge. This spooky new babbler badge will unlock after completing just five rounds of play that are at least five minutes long.
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
Follow theNS2 development roadmapto see our plans for future updates.
Changelog
Gameplay
Update 324 is the start of something exciting! It’s the catalyst to our new development cycle! Over the last few years we have made changes and fixes to further develop NS2 with the emphasis on helping to stabilize the gameplay and create the best experience possible for every player. Today we start the sale of our limited time DLC the Catalyst Pack! This premium DLC offers the single largest skin pack we have ever released and it also includes future custom skins and items as a thank you for purchasing the DLC now. Sales of this DLC directly affect the budget for our development team and will help us to continue to bring you more exciting updates to the game. See more at naturalselection2.com/catalyst, but hurry because this DLC will only be available for a short time and then it will be locked away in the UWE vault forever!
We have spent the last few months working behind the scenes to develop a Roadmap for our vision of NS2 2.0. This isn’t a new game, but what we feel is the ultimate version of NS2. Once our objectives on the roadmap have been completed, we will work with our partners to do a large marketing push and even test some free to play options to get NS2 in the hands of those who haven’t had the opportunity to play.
While our focus is shifting towards new and exciting changes, we will still continue to fight for more performance both server-side and client-side. We are fortunate to have so many community contributors who are helping on both fronts. We’re excited and passionate about supporting their efforts and we can’t wait to see their work included with a future release.
With our push to both increase development productivity and shorten the time we can release this roadmap to you, we have hired an additional programmer. Not a stranger to NS2, please welcome Brian “Samoose” to the team! Over the years Samoose has been a big part of work done with our old customize menu and he has done lots of tinkering around the entire game. With his addition to the team, we hope to accomplish a lot of our tasks in a shorter amount of time.
We thank you for your continued support
See you on the battlefield!
Changelog
Gameplay
There are pros and cons to having a longer patch cycle. In this case, our reason for delay was out of our control. However this ended up allowing for a lot more of our work to be brought into the update. Update 323, as you will see in the changelog below, is probably one of the more impactful updates that we have done in some time. Beyond adding some new cosmetics and our new Shadow Onos model, there are some big changes to gameplay that have shown to not only adjust a lot of the existing strategy, but force you to think and apply all-new ones as well. We hope that these changes will inspire new gameplay and lifeform usage in the foreseeable future.
Summer is now afoot and as a special treat Rantology has added some new flair for your shoulder armor. It’s only available through July 16, 2018.
We teased at what was moving in the shadows just a couple weeks ago and now we are ready to unveil the Shadow Onos. An entirely new model created just for this skin, this completes the entire range of the shadow aliens. Since this is the final piece of the shadow skin collection, we have decided to give away the Onos skin to anyone that was a Reinforced Shadow Tier contributor, or purchased the Shadow Pack DLC. For those of you that don't receive the Shadow Onos from a prior purchase can buy it HERE. *please note that this item is not tradable
Our Forge skins have been very popular amongst the community, you could say they’ve been red hot. They are one of our favorite skins in the game but we felt that the pack just wasn’t complete enough. So as a gift from us to you, please enjoy the addition of Shotgun and Flamethrower Forge skins. Anyone that already owns the Forge DLC will be granted the new items for free in the customize menu. If you don't already own this awesome DLC, you can buy it HERE.
We know everyone here likes to show off their bling, whether it be a badge, armor or some other in-game cosmetic. So we’ve added player skill tiers and fancy new icons to help differentiate between the tiers while in game. Of course, the main purpose of this feature is really more towards helping to balance teams based on skill and their relative groups.
There is much to digest in the changelog below. We hope you have fun playing around with the changes, new skins and Shadow Onos model. As always, there is more to come in the future! Good hunting.
Changelog
Gameplay
You’re probably already thinking to yourself, “where is the update or patch number for the blog?” There isn’t one, that’s right we are not releasing an update today and we are truly bummed about that.
About three weeks ago our physical server that builds and maintains all of our patches began having issues. We quickly realized that this was a hardware issue and not something we could quickly remedy, so we took the time and moved all of our needs to the elusive cloud. While this has delayed both testing and some development, we are back on track and have some great things to show you in the next patch.
We expect the upcoming patch to be released in the next couple of weeks, but while you wait, we have left a teaser above for something we have long waited for and is finally ready to step out from the shadows.
Update 322 is now live on Steam! This update is primarily a maintenance patch. Over the last few months lots of new systems and features have been introduced to the game and with those additions have come some small issues and strange new bugs. Hopefully this update will address those reported issues and get us back on solid ground. The dev team continues its work on the UGC conversion from Steam Workshop which is slated for 323. Always more to come, including something very special that could come with 323 as well, so stay tuned!
Changelog
Gameplay
Happy New Year! It has already been an exciting start to 2018 for UWE and we look forward to bringing you more exciting and interesting game experiences. The core of NS2’s development has always been the community. So many people from around the world dedicating time, opinions and skills to help make this game what it is today. Five years in and we are still working with dedicated members, new and old, to make the game better and more enjoyable.
Today we release Update 321, bringing you some of the first new gameplay features to come in 2018. First we wanted to look at some of the alien features that haven’t felt complete. Onos Stampede is a great way to really immerse yourself into the large beast and finally feel like an alien gorilla on the warpath, using your body to buck and shove almost anything out of your way using the existing Charge ability. Special thank you to Steelcap for all the hard work and many revisions to get this into the game.
Next, Babblers also see some love with the addition of the Babbler Mine. No longer sitting on the sidelines of an attack, the babblers can stay in an egg and placed like a proximity mine to hatch on unsuspecting marines and harass with more aggression than ever before. Special thank you also to Katzenfleisch for all the hard work and many revisions to get this into the game.
Finally, this update includes a nod to our co-workers on the Subnautica team. With the release of Subnautica and it taking part within the same universe of NS2 we found it only fitting to throw some in-game love their way. Rantology has worked up a couple cool new shoulder patches and they are free to everyone!
There is more to this update below in the changelog so take a look and then get in there to play with the new stuff. Big shoutout to our Playtesters for all the extra PT time this update, you always make the difference. Enjoy!
Changelog
Gameplay
"Twas the night before Gorgemas
when all through the base,
Not a creature was stirring
not even a MAC;
The Hydras were placed
by the Command Station with care,
In hopes that Saint Gorgie, soon would be there..."
Tis the season of gift giving and holiday cheer, so with that in mind we bring you Update 320. We’ve got some balance tweaks, visual improvements, and stability fixes for you this season. A huge thanks to Katzenfleisch for his many contributions this patch!
We’d like the take a moment and address some of the mod/client/server issues that started this week. Earlier this week Valve pushed out an update on the way clients access and use the version of workshop NS2 utilizes. As a result NS2 clients and servers can no longer access the workshop content. Thanks to some coding magic by Ghoul and McGlaspie, we have a temporary fix that will be released with Update 320, please be aware that some users may experience slightly longer load times as a result of this workaround (the more mods the longer it will take). We want to stress that this is a temporary fix and that server operators have been encouraged to setup mod backup servers to help keep games going if we continue to run into issues.
Our team is in communication with Valve and working to find a long term solution to the issue and we will be posting more in the next couple weeks as we figure out just what that permanent fix is going to be.
We hope you enjoy your holidays and stay tuned for more to come.
Merry Gorgemas!
Changelog
Gameplay
Happy 5th Anniversary to NS2! Five years ago… Wow saying that makes me sit back in my chair a moment. It’s crazy to think that much time has passed, it seems like only yesterday we launched. So much happened to make the game become a reality even before release on Steam and even more has happened since.
We wanted to do something special for the Anniversary patch beyond just celebrating and we think we have done just that for Update 319. To say this update includes a lot of under the hood work would be an understatement. In fact, Update 319 includes changes to over 80,000 lines of code. Ghoul has been working for some time on making as much of the game code able to use LuaJIT as possible. Taking advantage of this function allows for the code to run faster and create a smoother experience for the user. These changes will not necessarily add additional FPS, what it does do is help diminish the disparity between what your FPS shows and how it feels.
Additionally, Update 319 includes some changes to two of our official maps. Summit has had some changes made throughout the map to give additional coverage areas and allow for more interesting engagements between Marines and Aliens. A lot of you may already be familiar with these changes, they are part of PsYk’s Summit_andabove mod. Seeing how the map was playing on public servers and testing it ourselves, we really enjoyed the changes and decided to merge them into the game. PsYk has also provided us with an update to Derelict. This update is mainly a performance pass throughout the map, fixing some long sight-line issues and changing a lot of lighting throughout the map. We hope that all of you will enjoy these changes as much as we do.
As previously stated in our last blog post, Update 319 marks the “End of Support” for our 32-bit client and server. While we are sad to do this, we are also thrilled to now be on 64-bit. Upgrades like this will allow us to continue more advanced updates to the game and content within the game moving forward. In fact, some of that new content is available now on STEAM!
Clutch your weapon tight for warmth, the Nocturne skins will chill your enemies to the bone!
Click here to view on Steam!
(Thanks to Ieptbarakat for the name, Nocturne!)
..but it doesn’t end there!
Forge your destiny! Show the enemy that fire cleans filth with the Forge Skin pack.
Click here to view on Steam!
Finally, we have felt for some time that the flamethrower still just didn’t feel right. An expensive upgrade weapon that just doesn’t seem to have much effect on anything, in essence it just didn’t feel like a flamethrower. The changes included in this update definitely make it a more viable weapon choice for groups on assault and we look forward to seeing how the community uses them.
From everyone at Unknown Worlds, thank you for a great five years! Now, go and dominate the other team while we get back to work ;)
Update 319 Changelog
Gameplay
Release the KRAKEN! Wait?!?! Wrong mythology reference, this is NS2, not Clash of the Titans.
After months of back end work, we are pleased to be releasing the NS2 64-bit Beta to the public. Those of you already using a 64-bit Operating System will automatically start the application in 64-bit. If you are currently running a version of Windows or Linux in 32-bit, you can still launch the game but you will be notified of our impending end of support for all 32-bit users. Once support has ended for 32-bit you will no longer be able to launch NS2 unless you upgrade your Operating System to a 64-bit version. We have been working on and communicating this impending change to players over the last year, and hope that those of you that are not using a 64-bit OS recognize that as an actively developed game, we strive to keep building and improving NS2. Supporting all of this on a system that can barely manage 3.5GB of system memory sadly is just no longer feasible.
A note to our non QWERTY keyboard layout users: We’ve fixed a bug regarding keyboard layouts not being detected correctly, now your keyboard will work as intended but this means you’ll need to go and fix some of your key binds in the menu. (Such as the Console key)
Next up, NS2 celebrates it’s fifth anniversary! We have some cool things in the pipeline, there is still much more to come.
Changelog
Tweaks / Improvements
Skulks, Specs and Whips OH MY! Update 317 is now available to the public and there is plenty to sink your teeth into.
First off, we’ve added a new training module called ‘Skulk Challenge’. This will help you learn to hone your skulk wall jumping abilities, while also giving you an opportunity to reach a global rank and earn badges. Another cool feature, you can download other players ghosts and race them too! You be surprised how addicting this challenge is and how much you can learn by watching others.
Next, we come to an entire reworking of Spectator Slots. No more will you be confused in the server browser by how many playable slots are actually available, or see 25/24 slots in use and wonder, “what the heck?.” The other major benefit is that server operators can now run a full 24 player server and spectators will not use playable slots but up to 24 of their own! You can read more about this feature and how the rest of the system works in the changelog below.
Lastly, we as developers can only do so much with the time that we have and NS2 has always prospered from the incredible contribution of the many community developers out there. This update include some awesome fixes to both Whips (thank you, Katzenfleisch) and MACs (thank you, Twiliteblue). Along with these awesome contributors are also our playtesters and other community players who have done an outstanding job. This update has been working hard to get out to the public for nearly a month and a lot of testing and time went into getting it ready, so thank you again to our playtest team and to the community players that showed up for our public playtests as well.
Looking forward, 64-bit is finally going into beta and will be released shortly as a smaller update. Players and servers alike will be able to run the upgraded platform and help us make sure it is finally ready for full release in the coming months. What does this mean for players using 32-bit Operating Systems? Well, it means you won’t be able to play the game without an upgrade. Luckily of all our monthly unique players this is far less than 1% of you, but we care about all our players nonetheless. So let this serve as official warning of the end of 32-bit support. Within the next 30 days or more NS2 will move to a 64-bit only environment on both servers and clients. In general there are many benefits across the board for NS2 to go 64-bit only but as a system owner, you too can open up some serious local benefits to both your system and performance by biting the bullet and finally upgrading too!
Until the next update, skulk forward and let those bullets fly. Oh and watch out for whips, no seriously, watch out!
CHANGELOG
GAMEPLAY
Happy Summer everyone! We are back with another update and this time our focus was based on the theme of Fix and Polish. There are plenty of changes throughout the log below to sink your teeth into, so I won’t go into detail and let it speak for itself. Enjoy!
Update 316 Changelog
Gameplay
Summer is finally upon us and with that the forthcoming mighty Steam Sale. Sales usually bring in a lot of new faces to the game and over the years, we have worked hard to make changes that help those new to NS to learn and enjoy the game as all of us do. Please welcome these new players as they become familiar with the game.
With Update 315 we have consolidated the PLAY menu, updated the server browser and added new help screens for players. While in game you can now bring up an overlay that explains your individual player or lifeform controls all based on your key binds. We hope that this feature will help to better explain abilities and even upgrades to new players.
Alien egg spawning has been adjusted to scale with players which should lead to better spawning and encourage alien hive expansion too! Some additional improvements were made to gorge tunnels to allow for quicker and easier placement. See more about the gameplay changes in the changelog below.
We are also aware of some stability issues that players were experiencing in the previous update. We have worked to resolve those with this release and hope that this provides a better experience for those of you dealing with this problem.
Update 315 Changelog
Gameplay
Due to recent Kharaa invasions, we are in need of reinforcements on the frontlines of testing! Enlist HERE to join the Natural Selection 2 Playtest Team to ensure smooth battlefield updates can occur for the rest of your fellow brothers and sisters. Keep in mind that we only need the most dedicated of enlistees to jump aboard this mission, with availabilities to strenuously test and provide thorough reports. If you think you can take up this honorable task, you’ll be awarded with a designated badge that demonstrates your commitment to the TSF.
This is an short update for last month post about the ENSL.org Season 11.
The sign ups for the 11th Season of the ENSL will close today. So this is your last chance to sign up.
The season will start at the 22nd of March. It will take 2 to 3 months with around 1 match per week. Matches will be schedule by the teams through the match pages.
Each Team needs at least 6 players on their roster until the 17th March to participate in the 11th Season of the ENSL.
Also each player has to make sure they only signed up with one team for the season. Otherwise the ensl.org admins will remove them from all teams except the highest seeded one.
The final teams seeding will get published on the 17-18th March via a forum post at ensl.org .
Since the holidays we’ve seen an influx of both new and old players coming back to NS2. We continue to receive lot of positive feedback to many of the changes we’ve made over the last year. With this update we’re focused on some maintenance but also continuing to improve smaller features in the game to enhance the player experience.
Beyond update 314 we’re looking at ways to help players quickly find and play games. We’ve noticed more and more people at peak times around the globe are idling in the server browser, trying to join the populated servers. This long wait can cause them to quit; an improvement is clearly needed. To that end, we’ve been working on ideas on how to better seed servers with these idling players and have been making good progress on a potential match-making system. Keep your eyes peeled for more info on that soon!
Lastly, I am happy to announce that we will begin public testing of our 64-bit server sometime in the next week. Our amazing community of server operators seem to be very excited to get their hands on this BETA server and we are just as thrilled. We hope that the 64-bit client beta will be coming to you all soon as well. The move to 64-bit will open up a lot more opportunities to our development team, such as better utilization of more modern hardware and adding more content to the game. Sadly, we’ve reached the limits of what 32-bit allows the game to do. Many other games are facing the same transition; you may have noticed similar announcements from other studios recently on this topic as well.
We’re always looking for ways to build our community of players, modders, operators and playtesters. Without you, we wouldn’t be here. We have the excitement and desire to keep moving forward and hope that you will join us in the journey!
Gameplay
After the newcomer tournament and the upcoming season of the competitive league we are happy to announce the Mod Madness tournament! This tournament is dedicated to those who are looking for a little less competitive but fun evening event.
What is it and what can I win?
The Mod Madness tournament is a unique event for all players to try out the amazing custom game modes that have been created for Natural Selection 2. All game modes (except NS2:Combat) can be found in the NS2 Steam Workshop or under the Arcade tab in the server browser.
Every participant will get a brand new in-game badge! Furthermore the tournament winner will receive a gold version while the second and third will receive a silver one.
In addition anybody who has to play a Combat match will receive a free copy of it! http://store.steampowered.com/app/310110/
The tournament will take place at the 4 March 2017 from 19 CET / 13 EST till 23-24 CET /15-16 EST
Till when can I/we sign up?
Sign ups for the tournament will end on the 2 March 2017 on 22:00 CET
Who can sign up?
Everybody! You only need a copy of NS2 and good sense of humor. Most likely nobody has played every game mode of this tournament before! You can sign up as a team of 8 or as an individual.
Where do I sign up?
You can sign up at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclrRoWlI-AwjVXosSWZztrA1DKhm4f3hbq1dtZcoYEyBoPBg/viewform
Feel free to introduce yourself to the other players on the forum: https://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/147888/march-mod-madness-tournament-signups
Do I need a team?
Nope! You will be assign to one before the tournament starts.
How will the tournament be structured?
First you will play a match of NS2Large (16 vs 16) where two teams group up for each side. Afterwards the winning teams will choose which tournament division (set of game modes) they want to play in. The losing teams will be randomly assigned in the remaining positions in the division.
The division matches will be run as double elimination:
When a team loses a match, they switch divisions. Losing another match eliminates them from the tournament. So each team will participate at least in the 16vs16 match and 2 more matches after that.
Each match will be a best of 3. Before each match a random team will select the map to play at, and the other team chooses which side they want to start with.
First of all we would like to thank everybody who took part at last week's Newcomer Tournament. We hope both participants and spectators enjoyed it as much as we did.
In addition a special thanks goes out to Ixian, Luchs and Hoeloe who casted this event and every ensl.org referee and admin. Because without them this tournament would never have happened.
In case you participated your badge is now available in your steam inventory. You can enable it in-game via the Customize Player menu. Should somebody miss their badge please leave a comment below.
For all of those who are now fired up for some more competitive Natural Selection 2 action we have good news:
You can now sign up for Season 11!
To see which teams have signed up for Season 11:
http://www.ensl.org/contests/357
How to create a team/join a contest:
http://www.ensl.org/topics/1773
How to find a Team:
http://www.ensl.org/topics/1774
Pros of signing up for Season 11:
What is the Newcomer Tournament 2017 and what can I/we win ?
The ENSL.org Newcomer Tournament is an opportunity for all the players (rookie or veteran) to test their skill in a competitive environment balanced for 6vs6.
You can find a rundown of the differences between the normal and competitive balance (Comp Mod) at http://www.ensl.org/articles/998
Every participant receives as special treat a brand new in-game badge. The teams making it first and second receive a golden and silver badge everybody else that shows up and plays a Match gets a blue one:
Newcomer tournament will happen:
4 February 2017 start 19 CET / 13 EST till 23-24 CET /15-16 EST
5 February 2017 start 19 CET / 13 EST till 23-24 CET /15-16 EST
On the maps: Tram, Veil, Summit, Biodome, Descent
We will use Teamspeak 3 for communication.
Please show up for the tournament on 4 February at 18:30 CET/12:30PM EST.
on the ENSL TS3 Server:
IP: ensl.org
Channel: Newcomer Tournament early 2017 ReadyRoom
You can download Teamspeak 3 at https://www.teamspeak.com/teamspeak3 . Please make sure you have it set up before the tournament starts.
Till when can I/we Sign up?:
Sign ups for the Tournament will end on the 2 February 2017 on 22:00 CET
Who can sign up?:
Anybody who hasn’t participated in any season of Natural Selection 2 tournaments of the NSL or AusNSL can sign up as regular player.
Everybody else is free to sign up as coach or commander. You may be able to play as regular player in case you haven’t played a full season yet.
Where do I Join Up?
A happy new year to all of you out there! I’ll bet some of you thought we hit the snooze button around the holidays and never woke up, but no! We’ve been tinkering in the shadows and working on some fun new stuff to show you.
First off, we’re finally finishing up on our changes to NS2 training and bringing you the new Alien Commander tutorial. As per usual, BeigeAlert has put a lot of love and once again, yes, even an easter egg into this new training scenario. Special shout out to all our contributors in tutorial-committee for their input and advice. We decided to also make some slight changes to a couple gameplay features to continue and round out some of our changes made during the last year.
The patch is filled with lots of little bug fixes and updated features such as; a new updated machine gun texture, a refactored badge system allowing us to have better and quicker control over distribution of badges and some improvements to cyst placement.
Lastly, and to the future… I am happy to announce that while work is still being done to test stability, NS2 is now being beta tested in 64-bit! FSFOD and others on the team have been hard at work upgrading lots of code and plugins to allow this to happen and so far our testing is proving great. Why do I mention this now? Well, with the update we will be able to open up a variety of new features and abilities within the game and engine that were a bottleneck in 32-bit, memory consumption being primary concern.
Also we will be working reaching out to some of our community server ops to help us run public tests on the 64-bit platform to see what gains or stability or problems arise. So look for more information about 64-bit in future updates.
We at Unknown Worlds would like to thank the community for its continued passion and dedication to NS2!
-Dillon “WasabiOne”
Gameplay
The Halloween event and free weekend went great, but it was not without its issues. Luckily we were able to resolve the issues without needing to do a steam update by using our extension system (these are the Lambda, Delta, and Omega extensions you see when you join a server). We try to limit our use of the extension system to avoid conflicting with mods, and that is the main reason we are patching this week, and why it is a light one. With this maintenance patch we are integrating those fixes into the main game, clearing out the extensions, and attempting to deploying the badge customization UI for the second time. We also realized that not enough people knew about the new shoulder patch that was able to be earned during the Halloween weekend by playing Infested, so we’ve decided to remove the time lock on it, and allow it to be earned at any time through games of Infested.
There are plenty of other exciting features coming down the pipeline, but they are not quite ready.
Our NS2 Roadmap is continuing to be updated as we have been working on our long term goals. https://trello.com/b/njrpasjl/ns2-roadmap
Gameplay
Natural Selection 2 is free to play on Steam all weekend! This Halloween, NS2 celebrates its fourth birthday, and NS1 its 14th!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/4920/
Come and see what this Alien vs Marine shooter / strategy hybrid is all about. We've got new-player-friendly servers springing up all over the world, so don't be shy, come and get bitten by a Skulk!
NS2 has continued to receive constant updates over the past four years, with Update 311 being released earlier today. Even if you've played NS2 before, chances are there are lots of new features and improvements to explore.
- Unknown Worlds ːmacː ːwelderː
It’s crazy to think it has been four years since NS2 was launched and even more so to think that many of us were playing Natural Selection 14 years ago. Things have come a long way since then and to allude to the perfect pun, they continue to evolve.
We decided to run a free weekend starting today at 10 am PT to invite every player out there to celebrate this anniversarywith us!
Furthermore we wanted to do something special for you ... So say hello to The Infested - an entirely new game-mode which we will be releasing on the Steam Workshop this Friday (October 28th)!
You have been dispatched to deal with a dangerous pathogen which has been detected within a remote TSF outpost. Race to repair the air filtration system before the pathogen corrodes it too severely and the air becomes overwhelmed by infectious spores. But watch out, one of your teammates has already been infected!
Work is also continuing on our conversion to 64-bit, FSFOD is hard at work chipping away at the pieces of this large puzzle and we get closer everyday to unlocking more potential for the future of Natural Selection. Signs of life are appearing, so stay tuned ‘cause there is plenty more to come over the next few months! We can’t wait for you to see what’s in store for NS2.
Additionally this patch includes some spooky/fun enhancements to the official maps and yes, you can throw candy in the ready room again!
Happy Anniversary and Happy Halloween!
Update 311 Changelog
Gameplay
Today we have a treat for you. New first person animations have arrived for all the core pieces of a Marine's basic kit: Rifle, Pistol, and Axe! Every single animation has been rebuilt completely from scratch and ran through a new modernized pipeline to improve the weight and feel of the weapon handling and movement in NS2. In addition, while updating the animations, we have also fixed many issues in the animation graphs that control which animations play and how they blend together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pz-u5wgXM
For many, playing the game with new animations may feel like a bit of a shock considering we've all been used to the same animations for upwards of five years; but give it a chance and I think you'll come to love them.
In addition to new animations, we also are switching the game over to Hive 2. This is no miracle fix for team stacking issues, but it does give us a lot more control over the system and ability to fix issues as they come up. There are many technical improvements to the new system, some of which you can read about here.
Although Hive 2 is not going to fix team balancing, it does bring with it some significant improvements to the underlying skill learning algorithm. Moultano has provided a great description of how this works, and an image showing the difference between how the two algorithms might perform when trying to discover a player's underlying skill value.
Moultano's Sage Words: “Imagine a mountain covered in fog…”
Notice how the Hive 2 value gets closer to the target value much faster (with many less games played) than if the same set of games is recorded by Hive 1.
This week we are also working on putting together a 64 bit beta build, which you will be able to opt in to and play with on build 310 servers so that you can help test the stability and performance of the 64 bit version of NS2 in actual games. Come join us in Discord for more details. The more people that help us test it, the better we will be able to make it.
Update 310 Changelog
Gameplay
As we announced in last week’s Changelog, we’re releasing a patch this week! This patch contains all the tweaks and updates we held back from build 308, in favor of having more time to solely focus on the issues that came up after the LUAJit update.
Included in this update is the brand new Marine Commander tutorial. This will teach potential new commanders the basics of commanding and the marine tech tree. So if you wanted to get a basic understanding of commanding without being in a live game, there is now a way to do so.
But that’s not all! Thanks to the tremendous work of Trevor, with the help of a group of volunteers from the community, the new tutorial is packed with more easter eggs and secrets to discover. So even as a veteran commander it’s worth giving it a shot, if only just to unlock the new achievements!
We’ve been listening a lot to the community’s feedback about the current balance situation and the performance issues that have been showing up since the last few builds. With this build we started including changes which are trying to resolve some of those issues that were brought up. More improvements will follow in the future.
Meanwhile the team is still working on items from our roadmap that remi posted two weeks ago.
There is much more to come for NS2 on the horizon, so stay tuned and happy hunting!
Update 309 Changelog
Gameplay
We'd like to take a moment and shine a light on our partners over at the Natural Selection League. Sign-ups are under way for season 10 of great competitive NS2 action and we couldn't be more excited! Below is all the information and links you might need to get involved with the next season, so gather your friends, create a team and get in on the action!
A few weeks back Remi wrote up a blog called “Enter the Roadmap” and today we take the first step down that road with the release of Build 308. One of our biggest hopes is to finally take NS2 to 64bit but there are many hurdles along the way, a big one being LuaJIT. FSFOD and the other programmers have been hard at work on an upgrade to the newest version of LuaJIT and testing, testing and more testing. The upgraded JIT allows for more of the overall NS2 code to be jitted, and additional trace stitching which provides more opportunity for improving existing performance logging.
This update was delayed for further testing a couple weeks ago, but thanks to a few community server ops, playtesters and public players we have spent a lot of time this week finally ironing out the last of the major issues. However, an upgrade to a core system such as this is likely to have some sneaky bugs appear and we hope that you can get in touch with us on Discord or through tech support in the forums to help solve those issues.
CHANGELOG
Tweaks / Improvements
Progress! These last couple weeks we have been working towards some of our larger goals for the game. We have had multiple public and private test sessions with the upgraded Luajit changes and it is very close to public release. Dependency on Awesomium has been removed and should help with stability and memory leaks. HIVE 2.0 will be launching in parallel to the existing HIVE sometime over the next week using extensions. This will allow us to test our new system in the public and see how well the algorithms and data collection are working and allow us to make some final tweaks before removing the old version entirely (more detail on this in a separate blog post soon).
Looking to make some changes, update 307 includes a new version of Summit with contributions from Wob and Loki. We have been playing it over the last couple weeks and are excited to see how the public adapts to the new changes. There have been continued debates in multiple Discord channels over balance and a wide range of other subjects lately. These discussions have been very helpful and have lead to some inspired changes that you will see in the log below, so keep em going.
Keep an eye out for a new blog post next week showing our evolving Roadmap for the future of NS2 and some of the exciting updates that we hope to be bringing in the near future.
Skulk on and be happy!
Update 307 Changelog
Tweaks / Improvements
Our latest build continues on the path of refinement and stability, and although small there are some nice changes in this patch. Those of you with antivirus woes when opening NS2 should no longer have an issue as all our windows binaries are digitally signed and secure. As stated in the blog post earlier this week, we increased the size of the melee attack on both the skulk and fade and this change is no longer an extension but part of the vanilla code. We have also decided to slightly bump up skulk HP requiring an additional 2 bullets to make contact.
Behind the scenes we are continuing our work on HIVE 2, which is coming along nicely and should see the public soon! Meanwhile FSFOD has not wasted any time on his upgrade of LUAJit and we will be beta testing those changes starting next week. We are very excited to get some of these new features out into the public, but for now, enjoy the update!
Update 306 Details:
Tweaks / Improvements
It’s been two weeks since our last update, be honest you missed us! Moving to this model has allowed for us to make some much needed changes to our way of implementing and testing changes to the game. This update may seem light, but it has some good fixes and more enhancements to our server browser including a friends filter. This filter will allow you see what servers your steam friends are playing on and get you connected to them.
One of the new additions I mentioned above is “Playtest with the Dev’s,” a weekly opportunity to jump into the beta of next update and play a series of games and give your feedback on the upcoming changes. We strive to make changes that have a positive impact on the community and next to our discord or forums this is a nice direct interface for the players and devs to communicate.
Our newly implemented feedback system has given us some nice results over the last couple weeks. The most selected option for lower rated rounds was “Uneven Teams” and for newer players was “Inexperienced Commander.” To attack these issues we have begun work on a set of new features, the first being a long needed update of our backend Player Skill tracking system HIVE. Hive 2.0 will go a long way towards helping us resolve some old internal bugs, and add some much needed speed to the communication between servers and the database. The second feature is our continued expansion on the tutorials available to players. A new Commander Tutorial is being drafted and developed to give players a better grasp on commanding a team for both Aliens and Marines.
These two features are only the beginning of our Phase 3 plans. We will be starting a new series of QA videos on our YouTube channel to better explain and show off upcoming development on NS2. There will be another blog post next week going into more details on how you can submit questions and feedback for us to talk about in our series.
See the full changelog below and happy hunting!
UPDATE 305 CHANGELOG
Tweaks / Improvements
With the summer sale now in full swing, we decided to take a lighter approach to the update this week. Minor tweaks and improvements over last week’s patch should address some of the feedback we heard. Moving forward, we are adjusting our patch cycle to be bi-weekly. This allows us to start tackling some larger features and helps with our testing schedule.
As many of you know and for those of you that don’t, each update to NS2 comes with not just hours of development time but lots of bug and gameplay testing. Our playtesters are community volunteers and give many hours each week so that you can enjoy the fruits of our labors. Our EU Playtest Lead Asraniel has been around since the beginning of time and given so many hours that I couldn’t even begin to list all the many influences and tasks he has helped address. Asraniel is taking a step back to focus on his next step in the world and we wish him nothing but the best in his endeavors. He has left his mark on not just this game but our community as a whole, thank you and good luck!
Update Notes
Tweaks / Improvements
Happy Summer Marines! We are ushering in the sunshine with update 303. This is a lighter patch focused on some bug fixes and a couple tweaks and additions to the game. With this update we are introducing a new post-round feedback system, this will help provide us with more details about your games and comparing round data to support future changes.
The last six months has seen a lot of changes and experimentation to the game and we aren’t done yet. We are working on developing plans over the next week to continue to build on the new foundation that we’ve created over these last few months. Be on the lookout for some exciting new opportunities and changes to come.
As always, thank you for being part of our community and your continued support of our team.
UPDATE 303 DETAILS
Tweaks / Improvements
The ENSL.org Newcomers Tourney is starting right now!
Join up the Teamspeak 3 server now!
Teamspeak 3 Server Details:
Address: ensl.org
Teamspeak is avaible for free here
This week is all about fixes and fun! As you will see in the changelog below we have made many adjustments to all of the maps including our newest awesome addition Caged. After the re-introduction of projectile spores last week, we decided to continue and tweak values and it shows progress but will probably still need some adjusting. Flamethrowers also are seeing some love as before they were just heavy lighting effects, now they do some damage.
New this week is the addition of a new pre-game mode called Warm-up. Our testing has shown that players generally avoid seeding servers, but with Warm-Up players can play a simple format of the game with all the tech unlocked and no resources required. As soon as there are 12 or more players, or two Commanders, the game will flip into regular NS2. This mode will no doubt go through some additional changes, however we’ve seen many positives to it even now.
Additionally, we have decided to extend the ABYSS unlock achievement until 10AM PST on Monday, June 13th. For those of you of unfamiliar with this, players that complete 2hrs of gameplay on the new map Caged will unlock the ABYSS skulk skin.
So get in the game and earn one today!
UPDATE LOG
Tweaks / Improvements
Want to get a look at the upcoming build? Or just want to kill a developer to get your QA achievement? Then switch to the beta branch and join us at "The Thirsty Onos #Playtest". Instructions how to switch to the public beta can be found here
Calling all rookies and veterans! Further your knowledge of Natural Selection and gain a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie by joining the newcomer draft tournament! New to competitive? Play on a team, get coached, make risky plays! Veteran player? Profess your love for smashing in your opponent’s teeth by teaching players how to ‘git gud.’
The NSL is hosting a brand new Newcomer's Draft tournament! Read more about it by clicking the link. This is a great opportunity for new players and veterans alike to come together and share knowledge, come up with sneaky gorge tunnel strats, exo rush your way to victory, but most importantly have fun! The tournament begins on June 18th at 12pm EST/ 6pm CEST. Anyone of any skill level is encouraged to sign up.
--->You can sign up here!<---
The winners of the tournament will receive Gorge Plushies.
If you’re itching to play immediately, feel free to sign up for a website account and join the infamous Gather system! Don’t be daunted if it appears empty, players might be watching but not committing to playing just yet.
After the successful construction of a new mining station on asteroid codename: Kodiak, the crew of the Industrial Construction Vessel “Caged” sent out a distress signal. ALTERRA Corp quickly dispatched a private military unit to investigate the source of the distress, what they found was an empty vessel and no signs of human life…
Welcome to Caged, the newest official map in the NS2 universe. A throwback to the original NS1 Map by Nelson ‘manah’ Ferryman, Flaterectomy and other community contributors and testers have worked to honor the original but also offer a new take for the current state of play. Caged offers players a fun four techpoint map with plenty of res and unique rooms and corridors for epic combat engagements.
What would a new map be without some other goodies? As a special treat, players who play on caged for two hours or more within the first week of release will unlock a new skulk skin. This can only be earned until June 10, 2016. After this date you will only be able to trade or buy it from players that earned it in the community marketplace. Get it FREE while you can!
Travel deep into the heart of Caged and see what skulks in the cold darkness. With its piercing blue eyes and ravaging look, this Skulk is sure to make many a marine wary of the fight ahead.
Update 301 sees continued tweaks to the new features we’ve added over the last few weeks and also sees a newer variant of Alien Vision and Spores! With the help of Ironhorse we have gone over a lot of the effects and cinematics and made them friendlier to engagements and less screen clutter. See more in the update log below.
These last few weeks of development have been very interesting with new features and balance tweaks and we have appreciated all the feedback. Thank you again to our Playtesters and Leads for helping us get through the faster rate of updates to the game. Also a big thanks to those of you in the public that have been coming and playing the public beta with us, it has been a huge help. We have seen a recent influx of new players to the community and we hope we can only continue to grow these numbers in the future, but this also happens with your help in supporting and helping the new players feel encouraged. Thank you to those of you taking the time to teach and show new players why we love this game so much!
UPDATE LOG
Tweaks / Improvements
Greetings!
Squad 5 badges are handed out by the Natural Selection 2 community and us developers to show our eternal gratitude to those who helped growing NS2 and its community.
Anybody who makes a sustained, positive, and reasonable effort to support NS2 and / or the vibrancy of its community may be awarded with a blue icon.
Silver and Gold are 'big deals' and are only awarded extremely sparingly for outstanding efforts.
Thank you all for your contributions even if you haven’t made it into Squad 5 yet, and thank you to those who took the time to nominate them.
Note that the only way a community member can be considered for Squad 5 is if YOU nominate them here!
Be sure to congratulate these community members, in game or in these forums, they deserve it.
Squad 5 Gold
@Person8880 - For his “Shine” modification and the outstanding support of the server operator and modding community in the last 3 years.
Squad 5 Silver
@Zavaro - Being a PT Lead, MT Lead and now the ENSL Admin. All of these take a phenomenal amount of time and effort, and absolutely deserves our thanks and gratitude
Squad 5 Blue
@Well - For all his work to get Natural Selection 2 speaking Russian. It's a difficult task to translate that much, but it's a worthy endeavor as it brings more players into our community. We appreciate everything you've done.
@Brute - For his “Wonitor” modification. Everybody always like to have fancy graphs about the in-game stats of a server.
@Scatter - For his various mods e.g. “NS2:Assault”, “NS2:Overhaul” and “Modular Exo”. Furthermore, he was always a driving force in ensuring the Australian NS2 Community stayed healthy and strong
@Oozle For being another force inside the Australian NS2 Community. Without him hosting NS2 servers for years Down Under we would have never known how passionate the Australian folks can be about Natural Selection.
Your badges will be ready to claim for use in game by visiting http://hive.naturalselection2.com/ and clicking redeem badges after you've logged in.
Thanks everyone, and congrats!!
Some of the DEV team is currently on DiamondGamers Dallas 2. Join up and hunt them down!
“THIS IS ALTERRA!” First off, how amazing is it that we are at Update 300? The blood sweat and tears that have been poured into this game by so many people over the last few years is nothing short of awesome. Now we look forward to what’s to come.
This update sees us making continued improvements to the server browser and an additional notification for news or updates on first open. After playing many games, reading and discussing feedback with players we’ve made some additional tweaks to newly introduced abilities and weapons. Aliens now have a new ability in Focus, so play around and see what you think. Also on the map front Derelict has seen some performance improvements, thanks Loki!
We would like to introduce the newest skin to the marine arsenal, Skull ‘n’ Crossfire. This black beauty is almost splattered with the blood of its enemies and is enshrined with the skull of the fallen to taunt those foes that dare face it next! Check it out now in the ITEM STORE.
NS2 is currently running a 50% off sale through May 30th, we hope to see some new players on the battlefield. Your help to encourage and inspire teamwork will go a long way to retaining them for the long haul. Thanks for playing NS2!
Tweaks / Improvements
This week we have brought you a whole bunch of new alien toys including a new ability for the Shade hive which saps health, a new Crag hive ability which allows players to do extra damage to armor, and a totally revamped bone shield for the Onos!
Aliens didn’t get all the love, though. Marines have also received some new toys and changes to their existing tech. A preliminary version of the Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) has been added. This is a gun that was loved in NS1 and one which many of us have always wanted to see make a return in NS2. The HMG was pioneered successfully in Comp Mod, and now it has made its way into the main game.
We’ve also heard your cries and beacons, and recognize that Contamination tended to be very frustrating for Marines. We’ve made some changes to how it works to give Marine players more time to react to it. It will now do its damage over time rather than immediately when the ability is activated.
All of these gameplay changes are sure to shake up the meta, but that’s not all we’ve been doing. We’ve also been making general improvements to the game, including integrating many features from NS2+ as the defaults that new players will see when they play on any server.
We are excited to see how these changes are received and we want to hear from you, especially about how the new abilities and weapons impact the balance of the game and your own experiences. Please come join us at our Discord server or discuss it in our forums. Although we will be playing games as well, if you think something is completely overpowered, we want to know.
Tweaks / Improvements
After the response and tracking of a lot of the changes we introduced last week we decided to continue with another update of shakeups. There are some minor adjustments to a few items from the patch after more feedback. Also new this week is a revamped server browser! We have been hard at work to create a better way to filter and sort the list and even provide more information to the user before choosing what server to connect too. Our week to week experiments and changes have been very interesting to watch and see what works and what doesn’t and we aren’t done just yet! Over the next couple weeks there are plans for some additional UI changes, maybe a new weapon? A new map? Additional weapon skins? And if we sell more shadow fades then maybe that Onos will appear (hint: go buy more shadow fades).
Special shout out and thank you to xDragon for allowing us to use his code.
Until next week, happy hunting!
UPDATE NOTES
Tweaks / Improvements
The Shadow Fade is now available in the NS2 Item Store!
The room was eerily silent, even the normal white noise of the industrial facility seemed to vanish. I proceeded forward as ordered but something felt uneasy and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand up. I continue to tell myself that I am a trained soldier and that I’ve encountered enough alien scum that nothing should surprise me, but still the unease raced across my body and the fear set in even more than before.
Suddenly I hear an all too familiar sound, one that can only be described as vacuumous vortex that death so quickly follows. I stand at the ready, shotgun in hand as I prepare for the Fade that I know is quickly approaching. The sweat rolls over my brow and begins to drip over my eye… I blink and in that instant I feel the presence of the beast in front of me. As my eyes open what stands before me is the creature I know but something is different, this fade evolved, more sinister and more deadly. He quickly swipes at my head and sway to the left to avoid his bony blade like arms. I swing my shotgun back around and fire, but I seem to miss as the fade quickly moves and disappears into the shadows of the room.
I begin to trace the room looking for the beast and fire I hope will be the fatal blow. I approach the darkness slowly in anticipation of an attack and in the black I can just make out the two blood thirsty eyes of the fade. I fire my shotgun and the blood from the beast paints the floor below me, but then it lunges forward both weapon-like arms at the ready to stab me, I try to fire again but feel the bone rip through the skin on my shoulder. My body falls to floor like a rock as the blood flows from my wound like a creek after the storm. As my vision begins to blur and I can feel the life leaving my body, I hear the fade chuckle and watch it drift back into the shadows…
Update 297 is packed full of exciting new changes to existing weapons. We have been looking and talking about ways to shake things up, and our first thoughts were adjust the items that aren’t that fun or aren’t used that much now. There is obviously more than what you see below, but with our weekly release window we can only test so much at a time. If you hadn’t got the hint from above the Shadow Fade is now available in game. If you purchased the Shadow Tier as part of the Reinforced program you will get the fade free of charge when you launch the game. For those of you that didn’t, you can purchase it in the Item Store. If the fade is successful we will quickly be working to introduce the final member of the shadow lifeforms, the Onos. Expect more changes and exciting new thoughts and ideas over the coming weeks and spread the word to your friends that now is the best time to be playing NS2 and it’s only going to get better!
Wake up Marine! Time to get into action and learn your objectives. Trevor and many team and community members have been hard at work on our tutorial system and it’s time to release it into the wild. This new tutorial offers a better way of progression through the basics of NS2 for both marines and aliens and also helps new players understand the many complexities that the game offers. We couldn’t be more excited to see how this turns out and we’ve even hidden some fun Easter eggs throughout both tutorials, see if you can find them all :)
There is still more to come and next week we look at our continued efforts to spice things up a bit, so stay tuned
Keeping in tune with our weekly releases is key to our continued work on NS2. What’s great about this schedule is that we can make tweaks and improvements across all aspects of the game, get real world feedback on gameplay and then just a few days later release more fine tuning and even more changes. Throughout these last few months, some of our experiments and changes have worked out better than we’d ever thought…and sometimes they don’t. However, what’s true is that we continue to push forward and try new exciting things.
Update 295 begins our movement towards a continued shakeup from the norm of NS2 gameplay. We are always looking for ways to simplify and also spice up gameplay throughout the game. Another great improvement comes from our good friend Matso in the way of some additional network updates that will hopefully improve the experience for those of you having redplug issues.
Lastly, thank you again to our awesome community. We recently re-launched the NS2 Translation site and have already gotten a lot of great submissions from people from all over the world. You can help the cause by visiting translate.naturalselection2.com! Our community is so rich with talent and it does not go unnoticed. We have some exciting things to come over the next few weeks and can’t wait for you to get your hands onto it, plus remember you can access the beta branch any time you want to see what’s going on behind the scenes of the next update.
UPDATE NOTES
Tweaks / Improvements
Ragdolls will dissolve faster and be colorized faster to give more feedback that they are dead already and you can stop shooting
Hitsounds will be enabled by default for new players so marines get better feedback when shooting aliens
New item pop-ups will no longer show for duplicates
Updated the in-game fonts to better support Latin Extended A chars (Thanks navazka)
NS2 now remembers the last selected server browser tab and will reselect it as soon as the server list has been fetched.
Gamemode server browser tabs now display the amount of players of the given mode.
Removed unique popup warning about gameplay issues on large servers
Warning popup for operating outside recommended settings changed
Will show if server exceeds 24 player slots as well as if network settings have been changed from default
Warning message will not show for servers you have favorited
“Never Show Again” option removed for rookies
Your nickname in NS2 will now automatically update with changes to your Steam name (this can be disabled from the options menu, under General -> Keep Same As Steam)
When failing to connect to a server due to reserved slots or because of having been banned, you will now be told so more explicitly
Added disconnect reasons for wrong build numbers, to make patch day less confusing for players
Default server moverate reduced from 30 to 26. This restores it to approximately what it was prior to build 279, and should help server performance
Servers will report now the sum of the median and standard deviation of all player skill rating as average player skill. This should make the skill row of the server browser more reliable.
Removed over 200 no longer used game strings to help our community translators. Feel free to help us localizing the game at http://translate.naturalselection2.com/
Fixes
Fixed issue where moverate was being improperly calculated, potentially causing a client to send an excessive number of moves after returning from being alt+tabbed, or if their framerate stuttered (Thanks Matso!)
Rookie only server alert message will now be hidden forever when you tell it to be so
Fixed weird behavior with popups when trying to join servers with reserved slots where the same popup would appear more than once
SDK
Raised engine hard limit for max players to 99. It is still recommended to stay under 24
Servers can now supply a refuse reason in the CheckConnectionAllowed callback
Natural Selection 2 has been receiving an update almost every single week. But you would not know it from looking at out Steam news, because we have been forgetting to post it (Sorry...)! Here is a summary of what's changed in the last four updates, since we last posted to Steam.
Update 294 - April 12th
Tweaks / Improvements
Hi everyone! A new Natural Selection 2 update has been released on Steam. This is a small update, and contains some tweaks to the tutorial and some great community contributed bug fixes.
Before I get to the changelog, this is an opportune moment to share some other good news. For the past three months, UWE has been running an experimental project with a paid, in-house NS2 development team.
Last week Amanda, Brock, Dillon, Scott, Sebastian, Skyler and Trevor gathered and presented the results of their efforts. Those results were very positive. UWE has decided to proceed with an extension of the project for another three months.
Back on topic, here's what changed in Update 290:
Hi everyone!
It seems like only yesterday that we released update 288, wait a minute?!? It was :) (almost). Hot off the heels of one update comes yet another. This time there is even more under the hood adjustments and tools for us to make the deployment of new features easier. The team has been discussing and debating many suggestions by the community on ways to adjust lifeforms and new player traps. We will continue to discuss and evaluate these over the next couple weeks. For now there are some minor adjustments you will see listed in the changelog, plus a handful of fixes and map repairs. See you all on the servers!
CHANGELOG
Tweaks / Improvements
Added the ability for UWE to apply hotfixes to the main menu without releasing a full steam patch
Added the ability to spotlight mods in the main menu
Removed excessive padding from the rookie-nag popup and removed the “Remind Me Later” option
Discord button will now drop people in #general, to get them talking
Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”
Added quick-link to Community Market in Customize screen
Revamped the scoring numbers:
Each entity gives now about half of its resource costs as points
Primary game objectives like Command-, Resource Structure and Power Nodes give a bonus of 10 points
Secondary game objectives like Gorge Tunnels, Observatories, Phase Gates, Infantry Portal and Alien Upgrade Structures give a bonus of 5 points.
Player give a bonus of half the points they have collected in their current life.
Fixes
Play Now window now only reports having found servers that it will actually try to join
Sped up initial welder animation after purchasing at an armory
Welder will no longer play its initial animation if you picked it up off the ground
Fixed initial welder animation playing multiple times if you switched weapons before it finished
Reaper Gorge now works with the correct item (it was unlocking with the Reaper Skulk before)
Maps
Awesome QoL changes, brought to you by Zavaro (send him thank you cookies)!
ns2_docking
Retooled CollisionGeometry in Courtyard to better accurately portray props
ns2_veil
Corrected minimap names from appearing in less than ideal locations
Changed collidable wires in Topographical to non-collidable for consistency
Fixed an issue with Skylights location bleeding into Command
Removed tiny duplicated orphaned Cargo forcefield face
Added new shader-based proximity material to Cargo forcefield, making it more forcefield-y. Shiny
ns2_descent
Added new shader-based proximity material to Shuttle Bay forcefield, making it more forcefield-y. Also shiny
Added prop lights to better differentiate room from external area beyond forcefield
ns2_tram
Fixed missing faces in Ore Processing allowing players to see through the floor
ns2_derelict
Fixed a few missing faces in Turbines from previous build (Whoops!)
I will let the changelog speak for itself on this gigantic patch
Hi everyone!
Continuing our theme of the week, Patch 287 adds some additional support to help new players learn about the game before joining the ranks. We are now able to guide new players through an on-screen checklist, to help them learn all the basics of the game. If they complete these tasks they are rewarded a new shoulder patch (‘Eat your Greens’). The other benefit in having this system hooked up is that we now have Steam Achievements for the rest of the players out there! So prepare yourself and see how many achievements you can collect, we will continue to add more over time and are open to suggestions on fun/harder ones to achieve too.
Next up we are working to implement some of the ideas and requests from the ‘Simplifying NS2 thread’ and document. Our continued efforts with the help of the community’s feedback should help both retain more players and allow current players to effect change. That’s a big positive for everyone. Check out the changelog below and stay tuned for what comes next!
CHANGELOG
Tweaks / Improvements
Added 48 new Achievements for you to collect
Added 5 tasks specially for new players and a new shoulder patch as reward for completing them (shown on the main menu)
Tip videos will no longer play while connected to a dedicated server, so new players can focus on the game. They are still accessible from the Training menu
Changed Trello button on main menu to link to our NS2 Discord chatroom instead (come say Hi!)
Use an achievement to track if the tutorial was completed instead of a config option.
Tutorial improvements are now for everyone (no more A/B comparison)
Added more granular analytics to the Tutorial, to find out where people are getting stuck
If you have a welder, you will build with the welder instead of the build-tool.
Fixes
Fixed issue with repairing destroyed power nodes where it would not bring out your build tool or welder
Fixed Linux clients getting a black screen on startup due to awesomium being less than awesome
Restored the old behavior of the rookie only server browser filter: It shows rookie only servers when ticked otherwise not.
The annotate command has been fixed (Thanks Salads!)
SDK / Editor
Added a Server.IsDedicated() script function to distinguish between local hosted (listen servers) and remote hosted (dedicated servers) from lua script
Fixed crash in Editor that could occur with the Trim Tool.
Maps
ns2_docking
Fixed structures being un-powered in Terminal if placed in the upper-left corner of the room.
ns2_derelict
Fixed CommanderInvisible faces, cinematics, and props throughout the map
Fixed some odd faces clipping through areas where they shouldn’t
Fixed several holes in south-western portion of the map
Fixed some excluded OcclusionGeometry faces
Made vents more visible (and connected) on the map overlay by adding several missing props and faces to CommanderInvisibleVents
Fixed an issue causing Seasonal (and secret room) props to be visible on map overlay
Added addition line of sight block in the form of derelict_vines_2b in Turbines for balance
Decreased size of central tree in Turbines for sanity and balance
Pipe props moved in Alley for blocking line of sight for balance
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