Natural Selection 2 News

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; they’ve 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. They’ve 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][/previewyoutube]

[h2]
Gameplay[/h2]
Marines:

• Armslab t-res cost increased to 20 (up from 15)
  
• Armor 1 and Weapons 1 research times now take 75 seconds each (up from 60 seconds)
  
• Power node build time is now 12 seconds (up from 8)
  
• Shotgun scaling received from the Armslab weapons upgrades is now 5.9% (down from 10%) [Damage per shot is now 170/180/190/200 down from 170/187/204/221]
  
• The Shotgun now has falloff once again from 5-15m, 50% maximum penalty, linear
  
• Pistol damage is now 20 normal damage (down from 25 light)
  
• Decreased the maximum number of mines per marine from 2 to 1, reduced the cost from 10 to 5 p-res
  

Aliens:

• Skulk bitecone reduction has been reverted to 1.2x1.2 (up from 0.8x1.2)
  
• Skulk sneak speed is now 4.3 (up from 4.0)
  
• Skulks now receive 50% speed boost on the initial jump
  
• Advanced Metabolize now requires Biomass 5 to research. (up from 4)
  
• Vampirism: Each shell now adds 0.5 seconds of shield duration before the shield starts to decay. (3 shells will now give 1.5 seconds of shield duration before decay begins) [Up from a flat 0.5 second duration]
  

[h2]Tweaks / Improvements[/h2]

• Added the new map, METRO
• Removed Exo Railgun target highlighting, as it could introduce severe frame-rate drops in some cases. We may revisit this at a later date, but for now it was worth removing.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed that Marines could see consumed Tunnels in the kill feed.
  
• Fixed the Retry or Reconnect console commands not being usable when already connected to a server.
  
• Fixed that the client would not receive a popup warning them that mods have been disabled when updating to a newer version of the game.
  
• Fixed Railguns being unable to deal damage to an alien when the skybox was behind them.
  
• Fixed wrong damage numbers showing from corrosive damage. For example, using Bile Bomb on a 90 armor marine would show 146 damage instead of 180.
  
• Fixed damage numbers showing too much damage done to Exos upon death.
  
• Fixed the killing shot done to an empty Exosuit showing separate damage numbers.
  
• Fixed Main Menu background sound effects would continue playing when loading into a server or local mod.
  
• Fixed that Drifters could not patrol between more than two points.
  
• Fixed warm up mode showing the default Armory model instead of the Advanced Armory.
  
• Fixed the Arc Factory research progress would not actually show on the Tech Tree menu.
  
• Fixed the typo in the Commander Prototype menu that said “Jetpack, Jetpack”.
  
• Fixed a crash when disconnecting from a server.
  

[h2]Sounds[/h2]

• New atmospheric cityscape sound added for Metro (Thanks MasterG!)
  

[h2]Maps[/h2]
METRO (new map) Special thank you to the following people and all of our Map and Play Testers:

• Kash - Project lead, 2d/3d signs, some in-editor work
  
• Mephilles - Lots of in editor detailing and bug fixing.
  
• pSyk - Performance master, in editor detailing and final lighting.
  
• Shrimm - Lots of in editor detailing, Bug fixing and NAMT leading.
  
• Loki - Map’s godfather and visionary.
  
• Zavaro - Reskinning assets and tweaking trim textures
  
• Samoose - Extra textures, loading screens
  
• Paul Wolfe - Stalls and holograms
  
• Runestorm - A metric ton of new textures, decals and models
  
• Vlaad - Many awesome 3d models (lamps, streetlights, the truck, ac units etc)
  
• MasterG - City Soundscape.
  

Unearthed (Thanks Kash!)

• Lighting Tweaks mapwide, unearthed in general should perform better, especially with shadows enabled on high quality lights.
  
• Altered collision issues map wide to make for a smoother experience.
  
• Fixed stuck spots in Transfer, a lot of stuck spots indeed.
  
• Holes fixed in multiple spots throughout the map.
  
• Occlusion alterations in Toxic Pool, Transfer, Regulation and Furnace to address performance concerns in those areas.
  
• Added a sheet of cover to Toxic Pool.
  

[h2]Tools[/h2]

• Editor - Fixed that box selection could be a little bit too sensitive, resulting in the mapper sometimes unknowingly selecting a large amount of stuff behind a wall when they only wanted to select the wall.
  

[h2]SDK[/h2]
Added "wetmaps" to the game. This allows mappers to specify regions that should appear "wet" or "damp" without having to modify materials to create wet variations of them. Similar to fog volumes, mappers can specify "wetmap volumes" -- areas bounded by an arbitrary mesh volume and give it a "wetness" value. Then, the sharp edges can be smoothed over by placing wetmap decals.
[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• Reflections do not initialize in the main menu on first launch.
  

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 it’s been a while since the B.M.A.C. production came online through the Trans-Gov Federation, we’ve 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 we’ve made things go faster. We’ve oiled up some rusty parts. And we’ve reprogrammed the nanites to not be so painful upon injection. We think we’ve 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 don’t 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. There’s 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. He’ll 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

• Removed one frame of mouse input delay that was always present in the game! You felt it, we felt it, it was only a matter of finding and destroying it after all these years of looking. Here is an example in 30 fps of the degree of impact this had on aiming before it was fixed, where the green ball represents the amount of the delay that was present compared to the pink crosshair.
  
• Optimized worker thread load to prevent blocking other threads from running (which could cause a timeout during connection and other issues)
  
• New and faster file hash algorithm for consistency checking. This provides faster consistency checking and therefore slightly reduced loading times.
  
• Reduced frame time maximums by preventing the steam friends list from updating every 15 seconds regardless of whether it was visible or not.
  
• Resolved performance issues and conflicts from build 331 in relation to SDL changes that affected some clients (Thanks Terence!)
  
• Optimized frame times by preventing weapon displays from rendering every frame, even for weapons you are not carrying.
  
• Drastically improved the average frame time of Spectator health bar update routine
  
• Greatly optimized the Mini-map update routine. The run time was rather long at 50+% of the total world update time and thrashed the Garbage Collector. It has been entirely refactored to be more efficient and JIT’d.
  
• Refactored scoreboard to use the new map container which makes things more efficient 
  
• Optimized the Garbage Collection. Made sure the Lua GC doesn’t run during world update routine, reducing frame time spikes. Adjusted the run time of the GC dynamically based on the production. Increase the GC timer resolution to overall decrease the time the main thread waits for the GC job to finish.
  

Tweaks / Improvements

Added new Elite tier B.M.A.C. skins!

• You can now view and purchase most of the skins that are sold directly in the Customize Player menu! (We may add more over time) Requires Steam Overlay to be enabled, and the prices should automatically reflect your local currency.
  
• Added the fabled and long requested Fog feature to maps! It’s sparingly used mostly in non playable areas of maps, and costs almost nothing in regards to performance. However it can be toggled on or off in the graphics option menu.
  
• Options will now save locally on your hard drive in addition to the Steam cloud save option (by default). This means that if Steam cloud fails for whatever reason, your settings will now be loaded from disk.
  
• New Powernode visual effect improvements to better match the balance changes (no more blueprints!) and state. For example: The color of the powernode material, the light on top, and the cinematic fx all change based on its health. The pulsating area lighting that occurs after destruction no longer occurs until the 15 second requirement has passed that allows rebuilding it - meaning there is actual uninterrupted pitch darkness right after the power is destroyed, and there is a visual cue for when the node is able to be rebuilt again.
  
• Disabling Voice Volume will now prevent the user from transmitting their voice data to the server as well. This means if you mute everyone by setting Voice Volume to 0, you cannot speak to them either.
  
• Back by popular demand: Parasited status icon for Marines show once again regardless of your HUD detail setting
  
• Made it easier to cancel a primed Grenade in your hands by switching weapons
  
• Bots have been generally improved in many many ways. From randomized individual personality traits that dictate things like how supportive or aggressive they are, to reactions being revised to feel more human-like, to movement routines such as sneaking, dodging etc. Their accuracy even scales automatically with the server’s average skill level to ensure they remain challenging for players without being overpowered. There will be many more improvements to come in the future as well. Give them a shot and tell us what you think! 
  

Fixes

• Fixed timeouts that would occur for players when attempting to connect to a server.
  
• Fixed structures being detected but not visible if scanned (Thanks Katzen!)
  
• Fixed commanders forced to repress the grid key for dual action items (Thanks Katzen!)
  
• Fixed that the scrollbars in the News / Changelog main menu area did not actually scroll. 
  
• Fixed that the NS2 process would often remain running in the background after closing the client, preventing you from relaunching it as Steam would see it as still running
  
• All Marine models now utilize the same hitboxes. Previously only the default normal armor was using an updated and more performant version.
  
• TBB library binaries updated to include VC 2013 redistributables to prevent some cases where the game would not load for some users.
  
• Fixed double and triple buffering Vsync options not correctly applying at startup.
  
• Fixed that returning players who had an old and removed feature called Camera Animations left over in their options file, could cause issues such as crosshair misalignment.
  
• Fixed the round start countdown camera animation not smoothly transitioning to the player’s final view. Note that the server mod “Shine” may prevent this animation from occurring at all in some cases.
  
• Fixed Shade Hive passive upgrades overriding the Shade structure when it came to cloaking behavior. For instance, cysts should not decloak unless touched when a Shade structure is nearby, but should decloak within range when there is no structure but they are instead cloaked by the hive type’s passive ability.
  
• Fixed an issue where occasionally some players would be missing from the Vote Kick menu in game.
  
• Fixed “Previous Weapon” binding not working correctly if rebound to anything but the default mousewheel binding. 
  
• Fixed the last Cyst in a chain often dying when placing a long chain (Thanks Katzen!)
  
• Fixed that a Cyst chain does not reconnect properly when replacing one Cyst in a long chain.
  
• Fixed that Crush upgrade did not increase damage against unpiloted Exos
  
• Fixed Crush not affecting Gorge Spit weapon
  
• Fixed spawn angle bug for the final time (we think), where the player would not be aiming at where they were previously during the respawn animation. May you slay many a Skulk who dares to bite your infantry portal.
  
• Fixed Tunnel Exit button being selectable for the commander for a brief time frame after collapsing a Tunnel, which would show a placement model to place a new one, but would not actually allow you to do so.
  
• Fixed Tunnels occasionally not connecting to one another after upgrading to Infested and then collapsing one.
  
• Fixed Alien heal / regen soft cap that was previously implemented but was not working correctly.
  
• Fixed recently killed Gorges still spawning Babblers, which could cause Gorge ragdolls to do amazingly silly things.
  
• Fixed the missing Join Team bindings in the menu. We don’t know where they went or why. But we had a nice long talk with them and they’ve agreed to stay in the menu for the time being so long as you don’t spam them further.
  
• Fixed BMAC taunts playing default marine taunts when in an Exo
  
• Fixed an exploit of being able to create unlimited Babblers in the world by utilizing two coordinated and highly mischievous Gorges that were hell bent on dominating the galaxy through repopulation efforts. 
  
• Fixed random client crashes that occurred when multiple files were missing during loading into a game.
  
• Fixed Voice chat HUD feature showing names of talking players, even players from the enemy team, when voice volume is set to 0.
  
• Fixed Voice chat playing back actual voices all at once after changing the voice volume slider from 0. Sure we all hear voices from time to time, but we’re never supposed to hear 10 other people barking orders at us once, that’s too far, right bob? Yea see, bob agrees.
  
• Fixed Hallucinated Drifters having stuttering movement.
  
• Fixed a bug with players getting omitted from the scoreboard in some cases. 
  
• Fixed decals projecting onto Mine placement models
  
• Fixed Bots being removed when a Commander Bot was replaced by a player. 
  
• Fixed Fade old description and typos in the evolve menu 
  
• Fixed many Steam Achievement wording issues
  
• Fixed client crash when exiting Skulk race challenge
  
• Fixed some crashes when using Profile command and using Exos
  
• Fixed crashing when utilizing Cr4zy’s alien vision
  
• Fixed the Crusher on Mineshaft to ensure it actually kills players once again. This seemingly innocuous fix led us down a deep dark rabbit hole that exposed some potentially fundamental issues in networking that have huge ramifications and that we may one day be able to expand on after fixing. Stay tuned Marine.
  
• Fixed material swapping crashes. This could occur from a player swapping BMAC skins or even seeing someone else do it. It applies to all material swapping uses however (this patch uses the system for the new powernode fx)
  
• Fixed that Alien bots do not return to the Hive for health
  
• Fixed that Marine bots would often build structures by spamming the use key, making a sound so annoying you wanted to throw them off the deepest cliff in mordor into a fiery pit of doom from which they can never be heard from again.
  
• Fixed that destroying a dropped Machine Gun with Bilebomb awarded no score points.
  
• Fixed that Marine bots did not buy Grenade Launchers or Flamethrowers
  
• Fixed that Marine bots ignored dropped Machine Guns
  
• Fixed Grenade quickthrow (aka Tertiary) animation bugs that could cause your HUD to disappear and some other wonky behavior.
  
• Fixed Babblers not respawning on a Gorge if they spammed the Bait Ball. This should allow new players who often fall for this trap to still get some use of it.
  
• Fixed Gorge Bile Mines not cloaking when near a Shade.
  
• Fixed that Medpacks would not drop when bound to mouse wheel during tutorials
  
• Fixed case where having a coded mod active on the client would prevent tutorials from loading.
  
• Fixed some cases of client crashing upon start up
  
• Fixed that the friends list would update even when the menu was closed, which could cause a hitch.
  
• Fixed client crash with Skulk Race challenge when viewing leaderboards
  
• Fixed the Credits screen background blending incorrectly in some cases
  
• Fixed script error when a marine died on top of an ammo pack
  
• Fixed script error from a race condition when a player with a Machine Gun died
  
• Fixed script error that could occur if an Onos died during using Stomp
  
• Fixed script error when dying as a Skulk when Leap is researched and you have the tooltip on screen to leap.
  
• Fixed potential read-access violation crash on shutdown
  
• Fixed many memory leaks
  

Sounds

• Fixed that your own sounds such as footsteps, would often be offset from the player, sounding as if you were walking or strafing ahead of yourself somehow. This was most notable on virtualized 7.1 sound setups. The paranoia from hearing footsteps outside of your own body is gone!
  

Maps

• Added fog to various maps. (Thanks BeigeAlert, pSyk, RuneStorm)
  
• Derelict (Thanks pSyk):
  
• -Fixed tunnel placement exploit.
  
• Docking (Thanks RuneStorm):
  
• Various bugfixes and tweaks to visuals.
  
• Tram (Thanks pSyk):
  
• Improved collision on pipes and geo near the ET-Mezz vent.
  
• Fixed upgrade structure placement exploit in Server.
  
• Added a ladder into the vent from Shipping to Logistics.
  
• Unearthed (Thanks pSyk):
  
• Fixed structure placement exploit in Marine Start.
  

Tools

• Integrated new slick and robust profiler named Tracy. It’s a separate executable you have to run and connect to the game executable. You can find the profiler binaries and a manual pdf in the utils\Tracy folder. 
  
• The Tracy capture tool uses a lot of memory due to capturing a lot of data points by default. So you can only have it running for a few minutes before it will start thrashing your swap file.
  
• If you run NS2 as administrator Tracy will capture your complete cpu context. Which means that if you decide to share such a capture with others they will be able to see all applications that did run on your system during the capture!
  
• Engine console commands: 
  
• tracy_start - Starts Tracy's listening thread allowing profilers to connect.
  
• tracy_stop - Requests the connected Tracy profiler\capture tool to disconnect itself.
  
• Command line options:
  
•  -tracywait  - Will start up Tracy very early on in engine initialization and block loading until a Tracy profiler or capture tool connects. Great for finding slow loading problems
  
•  -tracyip  will set the ip address Tracy client embedded in the engine will bind to, by default its loopback\127.0.0.1. This allows you to run profiler\capture tool on another computer.
  
• -tracystart  is like -tracywait but doesn't wait for profiler to connect
  
• Added latest version of the .Net Performance Analyzer. Used to open in-game profiler captures.
  
• The profile command tool’s pause feature can be rebound through the in game bindings screen now.
  
• Fixed TechSupport.exe not working at all and updated tech support email.
  

SDK

• The Steamworks library for the game is upgraded to the latest version (v1.46)
  
• [Map Editor] can use two new entity types: fog_mesh_volume and fog_sphere_volume.
  
• [Map Editor] Added a “Crack-finder” feature in the menu that will use an edge finding shader in the editor to highlight small cracks in the map, similar to what alien vision can provide in game.
  
• In game Profile console command’s pause binding is no longer hardcoded to spacebar. You can rebind it in the Misc section in your bindings menu.
  
• Improved Crash Handler full dump generation to prevent silently exiting.
  
• Added a console command "lag_fix " which enables/disables the mouse input delay fix so you can compare (the fix is enabled by default).
  
• Fixed Launchpad being frozen after publishing a mod
  
• Fixed a crash in Viewer when loading between different models and viewing collision
  

Known Issues

• Bots still have many issues which are known and are being actively worked on, from improvements to actual bugs.
  
• There’s currently no form of communication to the player when their applied healing is not 100% effective due to the healing cap. We plan on changing this in the future.
  
• There are numerous parasite visualization bugs related to the shader, status icon, or outline. We’re aware of all of them and their importance but boy oh boy are we not excited about the amount of work involved here.
  
• BMAC taunts in exos do not update if your skin is changed while still in an exo.
  
• Babblers can still attack a powernode even if completely destroyed.
  
• The new marine hitboxes have an issue with the shoulders where they flare outward more than they should. We’ll be addressing this next patch.
  
• From commander view while placing a structure, the floating in world powernode health that is shown may be inaccurate. 
  

------------------------------------------------------------
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.


● The health and armor status (hp bar) has been removed from enemy players in combat (We recommend enabling damage numbers)
● Re-drop block times for commanders placing cysts and resource towers is now 1 second (down from 5-7 seconds)
● Fixed cysts sometimes dying when placed (From Katzenfleisch)
● Fixed commanders forced to repress the grid key for dual action items (From Katzenfleisch)
● Fixed scan not having a visual range displayed (From Katzenfleisch)
● Fixed structures being detected but not visible if scanned (From Katzenfleisch)





[h3]SKULK[/h3]
● Model size decreased by 10% (90% original size)
● Bite cone changed to 0.8 wide by 1.2 tall (from 1.2×1.2)
● Skulk sneak speed changed to 4.0 (from 4.785)
● Skulks now only receive a speed boost from a consecutive jump.

[h3]GORGE[/h3]
Heal Spray
● Now also adds maturity to alien structures and speeds up player evolutions while they are embryos.
Web

Web
● placement ghosts will now stay visible and turn red if you stretch them past their limit instead of despawning
● Webs are now only placeable on the ground from one endpoint (to fix “duct tape” floor strip webs)
● Gorges can finish placing webs from much further away. Starting placement range is unchanged.
● Web Snare now reduces movement speed by 66% and tapers off gradually over 5 seconds (up from 2.5 seconds)
● Webs now turn invisible, only fading into view at 5 meters or closer, with a distortion effect at longer range
● No longer parasites marines
● No longer appears in the kill-feed
● Now have a “hardening” mechanic: Webs will gain “charges”, which will allow them to web enemies multiple times.
—○ When charges run out, the web will die.
—○ Each charge gives the web 10 hp.
—○ Webs start with 1 cahrge.
—○ Max 3 charges.

Babblers
● No longer gains biomass HP scaling (previously 1.5 hp per biomass)

[h3]LERK[/h3]
Spike
● Projectile size increased to 60mm (up from 45mm)
● Now penetrates soft targets (MACs, Drifters, Hydras) (From Twiliteblue)
● Now deals double damage to Mines (Damage: 5 -> 10)

[h3]FADE[/h3]
Blink (From Golden)
● Increased friction when moving faster than base blink speed
—○ Will lose velocity more quickly when moving faster than 16.25
—○ Rate at which you lose velocity is reduced when using celerity

Metabolize
● Advanced Metabolize now heals effective HP (treats armor as 2 hitpoints)

Stab
● Damage decreased to 120 (from 160)
● Damage type changed to structural (2x to structures)
● Fades can now blink, jump and move freely while performing stab.


[h3]UPGRADES[/h3]
Vampirism
● Primary attacks now generate an HP shield instead of healing.
● The shield begins decaying after 0.5 seconds of your last hit and will taper off over the next 4.5 seconds.
● The maximum shield amount is 1.5 times the value of the charge of a single hit with 3 shells.
● The shield does stack with mucous and babblers
● Skulks only charge 14% health per bite (decreased from 20%)
● Vampirism no longer has any effect when used against Exosuits

Drifter Abilities
● All abilities have now a cool down of 12 seconds (instead of only 1 second for mucous and hallucinations)

Ink Cloud
● Decreased cooldown to 15 seconds (from 16)


[h3]Maturity and Gestation[/h3]
● Implemented a softcap for maturity and gestation (evolving rate)
—○ Both maturity and gestation have a 1.5x threshold, and a 0.25 capped efficiency. This means that no softcap will be applied for 1.5x of the added amount’s rate, but leftovers will be subjected to a -75% penalty.

[h3]Healing[/h3]
● The Healing softcap now correctly clamps overhealing.
—○ If an Alien structure or player is healed by more than 14%/sec of their total effective hit points any additional healing is reduced by 66% .
MISC
● Maturity information is now visible in the nameplate for alien structures
● Crag, Shade, and Shift supply cost changed to 20 (down from 25)
● Destroying an HMG with Bile Bomb now awards score points
● Onos taunt now uses the charge sound (instead of the stomp sound)

Originally posted by author

Comments:
The removal of health bars is quite the boon to aliens, so to accomodate that we’ve made some changes to the Fade & Skulk movement to accommodate that. The skulk has also been shrunk slightly while having it’s bite cone narrowed. This is to help align the skill curve of the Skulk with that of the basic marine… be mindful of where you are biting! Aside from these, there are some other notable items: The gorge has gotten a few new tricks as Webs have received a significant rework to orient their play style more toward their original intended purpose of “trapping” and significantly slowing careless marines. Vampirism has received a major rework which maintains it’s combat prowess but tones down the sustain it provided after combat.

● Marine dropped weapon decay timer is now 16 seconds (down from 25)

[h3]SHOTGUN[/h3]
● Reverted to build 326-behavior
—○ 17 pellets, each deal 10 damage
—○ Divided into 4 rings of 4 pellets each, +1 pellet in the middle
—○ Pellet sizes are all 16mm
—○ No Damage Falloff

[h3]HEAVY MACHINE GUN[/h3]
● Reload time is now 3.5 seconds (from 5 seconds)
● Decreased drum ammo size to 100 (from 125)
● Now awards 5 score points when destroyed by bilebomb

[h3]FLAMETHROWER[/h3]
● Removed energy damage (1 energy per hit)

[h3]MINES[/h3]
● Damage changed to 130 (from 150)
● Mines can now be properly killed during their arming period when first deployed. In this case, they do not explode or deal damage.
● Marines now keep unused mines when they die and receive them back when they respawn (like hand grenades).
● HP changed to 30 health and 9 armor (from 40 health and 5 armor). Tip: With crush it takes only 4 parasites (instead of 5) to destroy a mine
● Lerk spikes now deal double damage to mines (Damage: 5 -> 10)
● Mines now award 5 score points when killed by an alien
● Mines now display on the minimap for all marines, and for aliens when damaged or parasited
● Weight reduced to 0 (from 0.1)

[h3]HAND GRENADES[/h3]
● Removed lengthy deploy animation so grenades are now thrown much faster. (quickthrow and regular throw)
● Pulse grenade
—○ “Electrified” effect now also nullifies and prevents targets from benefiting from drifter Enzyme and Mucous abilities
● Decreased weight to 0 (from 0.1)


[h3]GENERAL[/h3]
● Reduced opacity of “scanlines” UI texture to be less obstructive (25% of original value)
● Exos are now free to fire their weapons while thrusters are being used
● Thrusters can now be toggled on and off freely without waiting for maximum charge between use.
—○ Thruster fuel now has a 0.75 second cooldown before recharging after last use
● Exosuits now “self-repair” when out of combat at a rate of 8 armor/second
● Alien Vampirism no longer has any effect when used against exos

[h3]MINIGUN[/h3]
● Damage type is now “heavy” (double damage to armor)
● Damage changed to 6 (down from 10)
● Overheat animation sped up such that the time out of combat now matches up exactly with the heat meter for that weapon (before, the overheat animation would finish well-after the heat meter was empty)


● Powernode Blueprints have been removed
● All Powernodes now start socketed but unbuilt. The Powernodes in the Marine Base start built and Alien Hive start destroyed upon round start
● Powernodes that have no health are not highlighted for either team and can’t be damaged
● Powernodes that haven’t been built yet do not affect the location’s light state
● The construction progress of a Powernode is synchronized with their hit points. This means when an enemy damages an unbuilt Powernode by 1% hp it also looses 1% construction progress
● Marines no longer receive automated orders to construct a Powernode unless there is a structure or blueprint inside the given location that requires power

● Fixed cluster grenade burn damage numbers being displayed to the target

Originally posted by author

Comments:
It wouldn’t be a balance patch if the Shotgun didn’t receive some tweaks! This time we’ve reverted it to its original pre-shotgun-pocalypse state. The HeavyMachineGun has also received a slight rework. We’ve acknowledged mines can be a bit of an issue lately, so they’ve received several adjustments to bring them back in line while still keeping them useful. Exosuits have also received a slew of new changes* and can now auto-repair themselves when out of combat (*The Railgun rework from the beta still requires more polish, and did not make it into this patch). One of the most significant changes in this patch can be seen in the powernode rework! These changes are primarily visual in nature but greatly improves the clarity of the health state, and the usability with the removal of powernode blueprints.

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.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

Since December our Balance Team has been busy cooking up the latest set of tweaks and shake ups for gameplay.

We said a bittersweet goodbye to BeigeAlert during this time as he pursues an exciting new opportunity. However this caused a bit of a delay for the development of gameplay changes.

Enter Katzenfleisch joining the team! He has been working together with Ghoul since February to get us back on track. Trucking along and implementing the balance changes requested by the balance team (led by Rantology).

To have a look at what is cooking in the stove join a server running the UWE Balance Beta mod. Look for servers with “UWE Beta Balance” in the title.

[h2]Engineering[/h2]

The last update decreased the connection timeout to 5 ms from 5 minutes to get rid of ghost player entities. Those blocked players from reconnecting to a server. However this resulted in some players being unable to connect to servers without timing out while loading.

Looking into the issue we discovered multiple critical issues. The engine currently doesn't handle file assets as well as it should. It doesn't schedule some tasks properly onto the cpu. And it fails to manage some callbacks properly. All of that slows down loading on some systems drastically. Making the client unresponsive to incoming network messages, causing the server to assume the client timed out.

But it also has some very negative effects on the stability of the frame time for all systems.

So fsfod and Ghoul integrated some new debug tools to better diagnose these kind issues. And are currently resolving them one issue at a time.

If you are affected by client timeout issues please join our discord server where we regularly publish new experimental builds with the latest iteration of those fixes. (Often found in pinned messages in the NS2 chat channel)

[h2]New Map: METRO[/h2]

Loki, Kash, Zavaro, Runestorm, Rantology, Ironhorse, Shrimm, Psyk, Mephilles, Samoose, Vlaad, and the Map Testing team have been busy working on an epic new map called METRO for quite some time.

Right now the art team is busy detailing and optimizing the final stages of the map. METRO will make its debut in the upcoming patch. For now, here is a teaser image as an appetizer for you:


[h2]Darwin’s Thunderdome[/h2]

Does it also take you too long to find a good match? Are you tired of waiting to get a slot on a server? Or ending up with players of a totally different skill tier? Or having to play with a way too high ping because there are no servers in your region?

Darwin’s Thunderdome aims to answer those questions. Essentially it’s a system that groups players based on their geographical region and hive skill. Then spins up a dedicated server as close as possible to the players.

Additionally you will be able to create private lobbies. So you can play with your friends without having to worry about finding a server or setting up your own.

Currently Thunderdome lobbies are limited to 12 players and only support the vanilla NS2 game mode with some essential mods. Additionally we may add support for alternate game modes, and potentially have playing while queuing on special skirmish servers.

Existing community servers will still provide a different kind of social experience. Thunderdome is not meant to replace them. But as a way to play a good match of Natural Selection 2 as quickly as possible.

[h2]Bug fixes and QoL changes[/h2]

As usual we and the community developers also fixed reported bugs and various QoL changes. For more details we can only recommend to have a look at our bug tracker trello board. Most of the fixes that will likely make it in are usually in the Fixed and Tested column.

[h2]Thank you[/h2]

We would like to thank all Natural Selection 2 players for their ongoing support. And can’t wait to hear your feedback in the comments. If you would like to directly get in touch with us just join our discord server.