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.

CHANGELOG

GAMEPLAY

• Adrenaline: No longer increases maximum energy pool. Increased energy regeneration rate remains the same.
• Gorges now have 50 armor (down from 75) (-16% eHP)
• Gorge Webs are now always 1 hit with the axe. Additionally, the hitbox has been adjusted so that axes can now hit them more consistently.
• MAC cost is now 3 from 5
• MAC supply cost is now 15 from 5
• Robotics Factory Cost is now 5 from 10
• ARC Factory Upgrade cost is now 10 from 5
• ARC Factory Upgrade no longer requires an Armory.
• Pulse Grenade Damage and Energy Damage radius is now 4 from 3 and 10, respectively.
• Pulse Grenade no longer tapers damage based on distance.
• Cluster Grenade now only gives 20% of its damage to players, from 50%.
• New Cinematics for pulse grenade explosion added.
• Grenade launcher grenade damage decreased to 74. However, damage now scales with Marine weapon upgrades, so normal damage will be achieved with weapons 3. (this means on weapons zero the GL will do 82% of its previous damage, gaining 7% damage per weapons level)
• Flamethrower damage decreased to 10. However, damage now scales with Marine weapon upgrades, so normal damage will be achieved with weapons 3. (this means on weapons zero the FT will do 82% of its previous damage, gaining 7% damage per weapons level)
• Things on fire will take damage that is scaled with Marine weapon upgrades. 7% per upgrade.
• Fire puddles spawned from flamethrower will now also scale with Marine weapon upgrades. 7% bonus per upgrade.
• Fade Initial Blink speeds are now 15.5, and 16 for celerity (up from 15 and 15.5). Speed clamp for rapid turns has been increased to 16, up from 15.

OPTIMIZATIONS

• The bulk of all cosmetic skins now use our material hot-swapping system. This reduces the amount of data each client must cache, and prevents the server from having to swap models. This also eliminates the need for clients to precache all the various models that were previously used.

TWEAKS / IMPROVEMENTS

• The popular server mod known as NS2+ is now officially integrated into the game as the Advanced options menu.
• Scan range will be shown now before you click on the ground as a Marine commander, so you know the affected region beforehand. (Thanks Katzen!)
• All previously existing skin set DLCs for Marines and Aliens are now updated to include all missing lifeforms, weapons or equipment.
• For instance, this means if you already owned the Kodiak DLC you previously only had the Rifle as a Marine weapon skin but now you automatically will have all weapons and even a new Kodiak Command Station skin. We feel this brings more value to the existing DLC sets. However, like the rare Skull and Crossbones Rifle skin, we also included 3 new premium Rifle skins that are not in any bundle. All of the new items for the various sets will only be freely awarded if you own their associated DLC; the sets will not automatically be completed if each item in it was bought individually.
• Added a popup when you launch the game that will warn users if they are running the game on a HDD instead of an SSD or equivalent.
• Its not hardware shaming if its helpful, right?
• Added new Pulse grenade fx to match the new consistent damage and effect radius.
• Renamed Force Even Teams to Balance Teams to better communicate the change in behavior for the feature.
• The Top Bar (shows team resources, players in spawn queue, etc) will now toggle on or off automatically when showing the Scoreboard in order to better show the server name and round time.
• Improved the in game chat with a subtle drop shadow for readability.

FIXES

• Fixed that Commander skills were not being computed correctly due to an error in tracking the amount of time a player was actually a Commander. Note: All Commander skills will be reset as a result of this bug. Due to the invalid data generated by this issue, it created widely incorrect skill values. All players will have half of their average skill applied to their Commander skill upon reset, in order to increase the speed in which Commander skill is accurately determined. This does not apply to any other player-skill, only Commander.
• Fixed Refraction graphics option defaulting to High even if Low was selected and shown, causing some FPS loss in certain situations.
• Fixed the occasional issue of research notifications showing up twice on screen at the same time.
• Fixed that the research notification feature could possibly cause tech tree desync issues that may have prevented aliens from evolving during a round with certain server modifications or plugins. (Like shuffle on round start)
• Fixed that the parasite status icon did not show for Exos when using Low HUD Detail.
• Fixed a Green Checkmark indicator for tooltips auto completing on spawn for new players.
• Fixed the Gorge Belly Slide tooltip angrily spamming until it consumed the entirety of your screen. We want to teach players, not bewilder them.
• Fixed tier one BMAC skins (Friendly Yellow and Military Green) were not visible in the Customize Screen if they were not owned already.
• Fixed damaging multiple targets at the same time with the Grenade Launcher would clump together the damage numbers on screen making them unreadable.
• Fixed build rates being unintentionally nerfed for Marines. (fixed in extension mod)
• Fixed Gorge Bile Mines being unintentionally nerfed in damage. (fixed in extension mod)
• Fixed that Bot names were not updated to include new Playtester names.
• Fixed Alien Tunnel tooltip typos. Their shouldnt bee anymoire.
• Fixed Alien Tunnels Collapse binding being inconsistently on the wrong key compared to any other structure. Its now on the V key.
• Fixed Crags always playing its healing (passive or active) animation and the associated effects once built. It will now only play them when actually healing.

SOUNDS

• All map ambient sounds now have a volume slider adjustment (global setting).
• MAPS
• Merged in NS2+ lights as Minimal lights into the following maps (Thanks pSyk):
• Biodome, Descent, Eclipse, Summit, Tram and Veil
• Biodome (Thanks pSyk)
• Smoothed out collision around the vent entrance in Alley to help Aliens not getting stuck.
• Fixed Marine stuck spot in vent entrance in CO2 Scrubbers.
• Fixed structure placement exploits in the tubes in Hydroponics.
• Descent (Thanks pSyk)
• Fixed preplaced IP being out of CC range in Drone Bay and thus randomly placed.
• Fixed being able to arc Drone Bay Harvester from Hydro.
• Fixed being able to arc Launch Control Harvester from Club.
• Docking
• Commander Invisible overhauled from scratch (Thanks The Salty Sea Captain)
• Redone Pathing from scratch (Thanks Kash)
• Tweaked collision on problematic props throughout the map (Thanks Kash)
• Cafeteria (Thanks pSyk)
• Moved one of the pillars to make room for commander structures and also block a line of sight from the Bar entrance to the tech point.
• Central Access
• Broken down some of the railings to allow for more fluid movement through the room. (Thanks pSyk)
• Relocated the exit to the north of the room. (Thanks Mephilles)
• Courtyard
• Removed a trick jump that allowed marines to climb up near the Locker Room entrance much faster than intended. (The forklift trick jump is still possible)
• Ballcourt (Thanks to Mephilles, pSyk and Kash)
• Added floor panels and general clutter to the room.
• Reduced length of the room by approximately 20%
• Back Alley (Thanks Mephilles)
• The whole hallway area has had its width almost doubled and extra cover added.
• East Wing (Thanks Mephilles)
• Reduced the height variation by 48 units (around the height of a 4 step staircase).
• Stability Monitoring (Thanks Mephilles and Kash)
• Introduced a small height variation to the room and added extra cover.
• Terminal (Thanks Mephilles)
• Rerouted the exit leading to Courtyard.
• Landing Pad (Thanks Kash)
• Added blockers to prevent players getting underneath the Landing Pad.
• Metro (Thanks Mephilles)
• Winter Seasonal decorations added to the ready room.
• Origin (Thanks pSyk)
• Added Minimal Lights support.
• Replaced waterfalls in Maint, Bio and RR with new, shorter ones from Summit (Thanks IronHorse).
• Fixed unpowered spot in Power Core (Thanks Euphie and Salty).
• Refinery (Thanks Zavaro and Psyk!)

General

• Cleaned up layers in editor
• Moved map several hundred units away from the origin to prevent weird cinematic bug
• Significantly cleaned up CommanderInvisible group
• Improved the Refinery main menu
• Containment
• Added additional line of sight blocks
• Moved tech point slightly
• Removed bullet collision for ceiling geo
• Included some bits to protect aliens on ceiling geo
• Moved Chasm-Containment door up slightly for players to more easily fit through
• Moved Heatsink-Containment big crate more into Containment to removed significant line of sight problems
• Minor cosmetic changes
• Chasm
• Moved resource nozzle (Thanks, Psyk!)
• Removed some ceiling cover
• Moved Chasm-Lava Falls connector to Turbine entrance
• Added path for Marines to jump into Containment-Chasm vent
• Removed ceiling Chasm vent
• Added some cover to Turbine-Chasm hallway
• Added path for Marines to jump into Chasm-Conduit-Routing vent
• Added CollisionGeometry to Containment-Chasm corner to prevent players from getting both stuck and in places they are not supposed to be
• Added new damage trigger under the Chasms chasm pipes to prevent players from thinking going to the bottom is a good idea
• Fixed some Lava Falls-Chasm vent layer shenanigans
• Fixed getting stuck on the walls in the Lava Falls-Chasm vent
• Some minor cosmetic changes including missing grating backface
• Turbine
• Increase the size of Turbine platform
• Added Turbine-Chasm vent
• Added additional bisecting pipe for cover
• Fixed stuck spot in corner behind pipe
• Added considerable contrast to the scene
• Minor cosmetic changes including all new electric cinematics under the floor (Thanks, Ironhorse!)
• Conduit
• Added additional pipes for cover and flanking
• Updated CollisionGeo near ceiling
• Fixed floor collision
• Minor cosmetic changes
• Routing
• Added new resource nozzle (Thanks, Psyk!)
• Added small nooks in the hallway to remove narrowness
• Added significantly more cover (Thanks, Psyk!)
• Moved Smelting-Routing vent exit
• Added Chasm-Conduit-Routing vent
• Minor cosmetic changes and fog!
• Smelting
• Added big pillars to the middle of the room
• Replaced bucket cinematics with static props for cover and visuals
• Added more cover to Routing-Smelting platform
• Minor cosmetic changes
• Transit
• Replaced bucket cinematics with static props for cover and visuals
• Added pillar to Transit resource nozzle room-dark hallway
• Added more cover to resource nozzle room
• Moved Smelting-Routing-Extraction vent from Extraction to Transit
• Fixed an area with duplicate geometry
• Extraction
• Moved Smelting-Routing-Extraction vent from Extraction to Transit
• Added quick jump ramp from Extraction to Flow Control
• Moved big ceiling platform upward to prevent Exos and Onos from getting stuck
• Added yellow lines to the Flow Control window to help players to more easily visualize the area
• Flow Control
• Heavily modified Extraction-side entrance to prevent incredible long lines of sight for Grenade Launchers to siege the tech point (Still possible, may fix)
• Added yellow lines to the Flow Control window to help players to more easily visualize the area
• Removed invincibility spot in the ceiling
• Exchange
• Added yellow lines to Exchange window to help players more easily visualize the area
• Removed invulnerability spot on the ceiling
• Fixed pipe prop abruptly ending
• Empty Space
• Fixed some collision geometry by Pipeworks entrance to prevent players from getting stuck
• Onos can now fit behind the resource tower
• Non-Onos/Exo players can now move around Pipeworks-Exchange pipe in the small connector room
• Pipeworks
• Moved large pillar westward to shrink space for players attacking the tech point
• Minor visual changes
• Heatsink
• Heavily modified Pipeworks-Heatsink exit to provide a better player experience with different cover, a different style of turn and more open floorspace for better fights
• Moved Heatsink-Containment big crate more into Containment to removed significant line of sight problems
• Fixed top of Heatsink support structure piping
• Removed invincibility spot on Heatsink chasm
• Added CollisionGeometry to keep players from getting stuck behind cargo crates
• Added CollisionGeometry to east wall to prevent players from getting caught on it
• Added skirt underneath lift to keep players from thinking they can get under it
• Changed mid-room vent entrance to wall for easier access for skulks
• Added CollisionGeometry to wall to make it harder to get stuck on in combat
• Lava Falls
• Removed southern Lava Fall resource nozzle
• Replaced large multi-tiered tower with single level pillar
• Moved resource nozzle
• Added significant amount of cover around resource nozzle platform
• Added jump from southern Lava Falls to room bisecting pipe
• Repurposed ceiling platform cover as hanging cover for southern Lava Falls bisecting pipe
• Added big electric thing from southern Lava Falls to northern Lava Falls
• Added pillars near Containment-Lava Falls entrance for more cover
• Added much more cover to southern Lava Falls
• Added more pipes for cover to account for multi-tiered tower being removed for flying/blinking lifeforms
• Added pillars to eastern Lava Falls-Chasm connector
• Added pipe underneath platform to prevent players from thinking they can get underneath it
• Removed collision on lava fall prop, so you better be absolutely sure you want to jump into it
• Fixed collision with CollisionGeometry for each lava fall
• Major cosmetic changes including new Lava Falls cinematics, decals, and fog!
• Summit (Thanks pSyk)
• Fixed wall climbing issues with the pillars in Crossroads.
• Fixed stuck spot in corridor ceiling between Comp Lab and Flight.
• Reduced occluders and cinematics to improve performance.
• Shortened waterfall cinematics to improve performance (Thanks IronHorse).
• Replaced majority of water splash cinematics with another version that gets removed by ns2+ particles option.
• Moved one starting IP in Atrium more to the left outside onto the catwalk to create more space for base building.
• Veil (Thanks pSyk)
• Fixed Fade stuck spot in Topo between the pipes.
• Removed shadow casting on several lights (high & low) in C12.

TOOLS

• Added console command version to be able to determine internal incremental build ID for testing purposes.

SDK

• Added Minimal Lights group to the editor. This allows mappers to more efficiently create minimal lights (previously ns2+ high performance lights) to maps.
• Added Client.GetReadyForOverrideMaterials() to indicate a render model can have any of its materials overridden.

KNOWN ISSUES

• If you pick up a weapon skin you do not own and attempt to change *any* weapon skin even a different one than what you have equipped it will revert the unowned skin you are holding to the default normal skin. We ideally want this only to happen if you change the skin of the weapon youre holding.
• If you look very closely you might notice your military BMAC skin change to the default yellow for exactly 1 frame while weapon swapping.
• Selecting the Colorblind mode in Advanced options can be difficult due to the drop down menus positioning.