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

• New Pre-Game mode added: Warm-Up
  • Active until 12 or more players joined the teams or each team has a commander
  • All abilities, weapons and upgrades are available for free while Warm-Up mode is active (except for commanders)
  • Bots will work in Warm-Up Mode
• Marines
  • Flamethrower
    • Increased base damage to 9 (was 8)
    • Increased on-fire damage bonus to 2x when directly damaging structures (was 0.5x)
    • Increased damage range to 9.5 (was 9)
  • Marine maximum Sprint speed reduced by 0.25, now 6 (was 6.25 max)
• Aliens
  • Lerk Spores
    • Energy cost increased to 27 (was 15)
    • Increased range to 17 (was 12)
    • Increased Spore-Cloud radius to 4 (was 2.5)
    • Changed rate of fire to match attack animation, results in slower rate of fire for Spores.
    • Updated cinematic effects for Spores (Thanks Ironhorse!)
    • Marines see the same Spore effects as Aliens now, which obscure less.
    • Added world sound when Spores impact something
• Bots
  • Alien Bot Commander now researches Metabolize and Advanced Metabolize
  • Improved the movement routine of Fades, Lerks and Oni. They will now use Blink and Metabolize, their wings or Sprint.
  • More bots will now save up for Onus and Fades.
  • Bots are more afraid of human players and will retreat faster with higher lifeforms.

• Updated several Commander tooltips
• Updated the fastload shader achieve to make sure loading time stays short even with the recent updates

• Fixed Lerk Spores and Umbra having inconsistent trajectories compared to where a player is aiming.
• Fixed Umbra cinematic cut-off due to length mismatch (Thanks Ironhorse!)
• Fixed GetRandomPointsWithinRadius server log spam
• Fixed Scoreboard not displaying number of connecting players when number of bots was at or above 12
• Fixed that Cysts did not update their cyst chain parent correctly sometimes leading to various script errors. (Thanks Brute)

• Refinery (Thanks Zavaro!)
  • Fixed holes in ready room enabling players to escape into oblivion
• Summit (Thanks Zavaro!)
  • Beautified Atrium, Flight Control, and Glass Hallway with actual glass and reflection probes instead of greasy-glass prop
• Tram (Thanks Zavaro!)
  • Fixed occlusion issue in main tramway facing Platform
• Derelict (Thanks Loki!)
  • Updated occlusion-geo in Biome
  • Reduced some lights and cinematics in Biome
• Caged (Thanks Flaterectomy!)
  • Added Low-Lights support
  • Fixed z-fighting DAT-1 vent
  • Fixed greybox between Ventilation and Airshaft on ground
  • Fixed holes at top of Airshaft
  • Fixed holes under catwalk Airvent (part of the catwalk geo)
  • Made the catwalk in Airshaft be supported
  • Fixed players getting under the Airshaft stairs leading into Ventilation
  • Fixed players getting behind diagonal ceiling pipe in Ventilation
  • Fixed stuck spot on the pipes in the corner opposite the northwest exit of Ventilation
  • Fixed players jumping behind crate near vent entrance under catwalk in Ventilation
  • Fixed players getting under stairs near RT in Ventilation
  • Fixed greybox textures behind the fans in Vent (at TP and Shipping exit)
  • Fixed z-fighting on pipes prop in Access -> Shipping vent
  • Fixed occlusion issues in Vent -> Life Support vent
  • Fixed small hole ceiling above TP in Ventilation
  • Fixed small hole middle of ceiling just under the 45 degree angle near TP on other side of airshaft
  • Deleted old red mockup geo that stuck through floor of elevator platform under diagonal Airshaft pipes in Vent
  • Fixed floating pipe west of TP on south wall in Ventilation
  • Fixed holes next to wall props in Vent -> Shipping vent
  • Added missing light prop east of Central
  • Fixed greybox bottom of pillar on higher floor near Marine entrance in Ready Room

• New “Disable Hidden Lights” option in the Viewport menu allows mappers to completely hide the effects of lights that are in hidden layers.  Useful for when making low-lights.