“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

• Main Menu:
  • Added a new changelog pop up:
    • Will show up after the client has been updated
    • Shows latest changelog
    • Allows you to give feedback on the changes
  • Tweaked the right side of the main menu slightly
  • Replaced the reload, favorite and history icons in the Server Browser to look better.
• Marines:
  • Rifle
    • Added the new fancy Skull ‘n’ Crossfire skin. http://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/4920/detail/801/
  • HMG
    • Thanks for all your feedback on the HMG!
    • Added new sounds
    • Fixed the model textures
    • Renamed it to Machine Gun (MG) because it’s not really a HMG
    • Deals 6 damage to structures, 12 to players
    • Spread is 4.5 degrees
    • Weights twice as much as the rifle
    • Magazine size is 100
    • Has maximum 5 magazines
    • Reload takes about 4.2 seconds
  • Mines
    • Increased cost to 10 pres (was 8)
    • Lowered armor to 5 (was 10)
  • Flamethrower
    • Decreased cost to 10 pres
  • Power nodes will no longer show enemies on the map unless it is under attack
• Aliens:
  • Shade Hive - Added Focus
    • Deals 50% more damage to primary attacks
    • Increases the delay between attacks by 50% (slows rate of attacks)
  • Crag Hive - Crush
    • Increased extra damage to player to 7% for each shell (21% with 3 shells)
  • Heal/Regeneration:
    • If an alien gets healed by 20% of its total health in 2 seconds every further heal is reduced to 20%
  • Hallucination Cloud:
    • Spawns now 2 skulk hallucinations if no players were targeted.
  • Revised nutrient mist cinematic to be less obscuring
  • Revised mucous membrane cinematic to be less obscuring
  • Rupture parasite time reduced to 10 seconds ( was 44 seconds )
  • Gorge Build Menu:
    • Swapped position of Webs and Babbler Egg. Webs are now in slot 3
  • Babblers now cling to their owner when they hatch from their egg
• Other:
  • Increased the damage number animation speed
  • Increased the health bars animation speed
  • Disabled the consistency check for local servers
  • Removed heavy damage effects
  • The local player gets highlighted in the scoreboard

Fixes

• Fixed that the reserved slot count could be negative ending up with server having more slots in the server browser than they really have
• Fixed that the marine weapon icons were not displayed correctly in spectator view
• Fixed that the health bars were wrongly colored in spectator
• The give cheat command will no longer cause script errors with invalid command arguments
• Fixed that the Onos stomp sound repeated itself in spectator view
• Fixed that the Alien Commander did not re-cyst to ressource points correctly
• Fixed that in case a server reported a negative amount of reserved slots the server browser displayed more slots than available.
• Fixed that the Alien Vision wasn’t working on Linux (thanks rkfg)

Translations

• Swedish translations are at 88%, just a little more love!

SDK

• Added Shared.GetAnimationLength() callback. Accepts model name (with filepath) and animation name. Returns length of time for an animation (as a float).
• Added Client.GetClientUpdated which returns true if the client got updated before the last client start, otherwise it returns false.

Maps

• Derelict
  • Improved FPS inside Nursery (specifically when entering from flooded biosphere) and Turbines.
  • Several duplicated lights have been removed in Turbines.
  • Added additional occlusion geometry around Heat Xfer and Geothermal.

[ 2016-05-27 13:01:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Natural Selection 2 pits alien against human in an action-packed struggle for survival. Wield devastating weaponry as a Frontiesman marine, or become the xenomorph as a deadly. Kharaa life-form.

Strategy Meets Shooter

Natural Selection 2 is a First Person Shooter and Real Time Stategy game rolled into one! Each team, alien and human, has a Commander. The Commander looks down on the battlefield and issues orders, places structures, collects resources, researches technology, and deploys abilities.



Here are some gameplay examples: A human Commander could drop health packs and ammunition to a trapped marine squad, and deploy sentry guns to help them defend their position. Or an alien Commander could grow a new Hive to spread infestation throughout newly captured territory, allowing more alien eggs to spawn...

Two Unique Sides

Aliens players choose to evolve into one of five lifeforms: The fast, fearsome Skulk can run on walls and deliver massive damage with is jaws. Lerks fly and deploy gasses to support their teammates in battle. Gorges heal other lifeforms and build tunnels, hydra turrets, walls, and other tactical structures. Fades blink in and out of battle, picking off marines with giant scythes. Finally, the giant Onos is so massive and so tough, that even entire marine squads can't take it down.



Marines wield rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, pistols, and other weapons. Cluster grenades can clear ventilation shafts of sneaky Skulks, flamethrowers make short work of alien structures and infestation, and boosts dropped by the Commander increase combat effectiveness.

When attacking on foot doesn't cut it, marines can construct hulking Exosuits wielding miniguns and railguns, and equip jetpacks for high speed assaults on alien Hives.

Long Term Development

Natural Selection 2 receives constant updates. This year, 2016, Unknown Worlds continues to develop new features, content, and improvements.

Mod Tools Come Standard

Natural Selection 2 comes with all the tools we used to make the game. All game code is open source. That means you can create, and play, an endless variety of mods. Publish, share, and download mods from the Steam Workshop, and automatically download mods when you join modded games.

Digital Deluxe Edition

Digital Deluxe Edition includes:

• Official Soundtrack - 1 hour of tribal, industrial music composed by David John and Simon Chylinski
  
• Digital Art Book - 40+ pages of art by Cory Strader, including environments, creatures, weapons and more
  
• Exclusive in-game marine model - Exclusive in-game marine model - A new marine model with custom visor and armor plating
  
• Exclusive Wallpapers and Avatars - Unique views of the NS2 universe by Amanda Diaz