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:

• 
  Resources:
  
• 
  Player p-res income rate is now 0.1 per tick (down from 0.125)
  
• 
  Alien starting p-res is now 15 (up from 12)
  
• 
  Fade Cost reduced to 35 (down from 37)
  
• 
  Onos Cost reduced to 55 (down from 62)
  
• 
  Increase Marine starting pres to 20 from 15
  
• 
  Healing Softcap:
  
• 
  Softcap is now 12% eHP/s with an 80% penalty for excess healing (from 14% / 66%)
  

Kharaa:

• 
  Commander
  
• 
  Removed the ability to research Onos Charge as the onos now always has charge
  
• 
  Lerk:
  
• 
  Movement
  
• 
  Strafe force changed to 8.3 (from 7)
  
• 
  Lerk glide makes a sound if a Lerk is gliding above 4.5 speed
  
• 
  Added an air brake functionality to the Movement Modifier key (default is Shift key) that will slow glide speed down to 4.5 speed for silent gliding. Lerks will maintain a 4.5 speed glide while the key is pressed.  
  
• 
  Increased glide minimum speed clamp to 4.5 (up from 4)
  

• 
  Spikes
  
• 
  Reduce Spread to 3.3 (down from 3.8)
  
• 
  Projectile size reduced to 45mm (from 60mm)
  
• 
  Spores
  
• 
  Move research to Biomass 6 (up from Biomass 5)
  
• 
  Umbra
  
• 
  Increase research cost to 30 (up from 20)
  
• 
  Increase research time to 75 seconds (up from 45 seconds)
  

• 
  Fade
  
• 
  Blink energy cost changed to 12 (down from 14)
  
• 
  Metabolize 
  
• 
  Cost changed to 10 (down from 25)
  
• 
  Now restores 20 energy (down from 35)
  
• 
  Tunnels:
  
• 
  Removed "Infested Tunnel" upgrade
  
• 
  Tunnels now become Infested Tunnels automatically upon reaching full maturity
  
• 
  Mature health changed to 1400/250 (up from 1250/200)
  
• 
  Time to Mature changed to 75 seconds (down from 120)
  
• 
  Tunnel resource cost changed to 8 tres (up from 6)
  

• 
  BoneWall
  
• 
  No longer flammable
  
• 
  Shade/Shift/Crag
  
• 
  Structure movement speed increased by 15%
  
• 
  Contamination:
  
• 
  Cooldown changed to 3 seconds (down from 6)
  
• 
  Health changed to 1500 (up from 1000)
  
• 
  No longer flammable 
  
• 
  Biomass Requirement changed to 12 (up from 10)
  
• 
  Can no longer be targeted by ARCs
  
• 
  Eggs
  
• 
  Lerk Egg Drop biomass requirement changed to 4 (from 2)
  
• 
  Lerk Egg Drop cost changed to 40 (from 30)
  
• 
  Gorge Egg Drop cost changed to 20 (from 15)
  
• 
  Fade Egg Drop biomass requirement changed to 8 (from 9)
  
• 
  Fade Egg Drop cost changed to 80 (down from 100)
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where players can spawn out of a Lifeform Egg and delete it as a result
  
• 
  Clamped number of Lifeform Egg drops to 2 per Hive
  
• 
  Drifters:
  
• 
  Hover height to the ground was lowered
  
• 
  Drifters cloaked by the Shade hive upgrade will now un-cloak from further away (3m up from 1.5)
  
• 
  Turn rate is instant on the first move command, but will return to the normal turn before moving behavior on subsequent move orders (this effect has a 4 second cooldown)
  
• 
  Abilities:
  
• 
  Enzyme
  
• 
  Cooldown changed to 3 seconds (from 12 seconds)
  
• 
  Hallucinations
  
• 
  No longer affected by mucous
  
• 
  Can no longer have babblers attached
  
• 
  Hallucination Onos now has 100 HP
  
• 
  Mucous
  
• 
  Cooldown changed to 3 second (from 12 seconds)
  
• 
  Cloud radius changed to 5 (from 8)
  
• 
  Shield values now match babbler shield values (except Skulk - remains at 15 HP)
  
• 
  Gorge
  
• 
  Babblers:
  
• 
  Are now Flammable
  
• 
  Bile Bomb:
  
• 
  Biomass requirement for research changed to Biomass 2 (down from 3)
  
• 
  Web:
  
• 
  Webs become visible from slightly farther away ( +1 meter)
  
• 
  Webs have only 1 charge (down from 3) (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Health
  
• 
  Gorge health changed to 190 (from 160) (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Spit
  
• 
  Gorge spit projectile speed changed to 45 (from 35)
  
• 
  Skulk
  
• 
  Leap energy cost changed to 55 (up from 45)
  
• 
  Adrenaline upgrade now grants 60% increased energy regeneration (up from 50%) 
  
• 
  Cysts
  
• 
  Build time changed to 4.5 Seconds (up from 3.33) (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Shade hive cyst reveal range changed to 8 (from 6)
  
• 
  Cyst health changed to 400 near the hive and 200 far away (up from 300 / 200)
  
• 
  Health falloff range from the hive room decreased slightly
  
• 
  Damage bonus from welders changed to 5x from 7x
  
• 
  Shift:
  
• 
  Echo upgrades cost changed to 2 (from 1)
  
• 
  Echo Egg cost changed to 1 (from 2)
  
• 
  Crag player healing:
  
• 
  Fixed issue where Heal Wave was not correctly increasing crag healing by 30%
  
• 
  Changed Crag to heal eHP instead of a flat value
  
• 
  Crags now heal players with lifeform specific healing values instead of a percentage:
  
• 
  Skulk: 10 (previously 7)
  
• 
  Gorge: 15 (previously 11)
  
• 
  Lerk: 16 (previously 10)
  
• 
  Fade: 25 (previously 17)
  
• 
  Onos: 80 (previously 42)
  
• 
  Carapace:
  
• 
  Base armor bonus reduced
  
• 
  Now Grants a small armor bonus for each biomass:
  <Base Armor value> [Biomass Armor Bonus]:
  
• 
  Skulk: 5 [1]
  
• 
  Gorge: 12 [2]
  
• 
  Lerk: 12 [2]
  
• 
  Fade: 20 [2.5]
  
• 
  Onos: 50 [20]
  
• 
  Regeneration:
  
• 
  Healing amount changed to 6% (from 8%)
  
• 
  Aura:
  
• 
  No longer reveals health (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Now has a unique UI element for the non-health revealing version (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Vampirism
  
• 
  Lerk
  
• 
  Vampirism percentage changed to 6% (from 8%)
  
• 
  Onos
  
• 
  Charge is now a baseline ability and does not require research from the commander.
  
• 
  Boneshield has been reworked: 
  
• 
  No longer uses “fuel”
  
• 
  BoneShield now has 1000 hitpoints and prevents all damage
  
• 
  Boneshield now encompasses the entire onos (not just the front half)
  
• 
  While the shield is active, energy regeneration is reduced by 50% (this includes all sources)
  
• 
  BoneShield recharge occurs immediately while out of combat, or 3 seconds after BoneShield is deactivated while in combat. Recharge rate is 130 shield hitpoints per second.
  
• 
  When BoneShield is broken, a unique sound will play and shield recharge penalty is increased to 6 seconds, visualized by a "broken" shield ui bar.
  

Marine:

• 
  Medpacks
  
• 
  Heal over time effect no longer expires when a marine hits full HP
  
• 
  ARCs
  
• 
  Health changed to 2000/500 (from 2600/400) (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Commanders can now only create a maximum of 4 ARCs (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Add tooltip to robotics / arc factory regarding cap (MATCHED PLAY CHANGE ONLY)
  
• 
  Pulse Grenade:
  
• 
  LOS blocking removed
  
• 
  Can be used to hit aliens behind RTs
  
• 
  Heavy Machinegun
  
• 
  Spread changed to 3.2 (from 4)
  
• 
  Shotgun
  
• 
  Shotgun damage per weapon upgrade changed to ~13.33 (from ~10)
  
• 
  Gas Grenade
  
• 
  Made much less bouncy
  
• 
  Observatory:
  
• 
  Build time changed to 12 seconds (down from 17)
  
• 
  Prototype Lab
  
• 
  Cost changed to 25 (from 35)
  
• 
  Sentries
  
• 
  Battery cost changed to 15 (from 10)
  
• 
  Confusion from spores 
  
• 
  Duration changed to 8 seconds (from 4)
  
• 
  Time until next attack effect changed to 4 seconds (from 2)
  

• 
  Supply:
  
• 
  Sentry supply cost changed to 15 (from 10)
  
• 
  Sentry Battery supply cost changed to 25 (from 15)
  
• 
  Robotics Factory supply cost increased to 10 (from 5)
  

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

• Improved how the server calculates physics collisions by reducing the overzealous distance it checks. This should be a general improvement to server performance. (Thanks Steelcap!)
  
• Improved client loading routines when connecting to servers, so it is a smoother transition and a tiny bit faster.

Tweaks / Improvements
New map, Tanith!

• Tanith is an off-world chemical plant that has since been abandoned from the events of Natural Selection. Flora and natural shifts in fault lines have started to reclaim what remains of the facility. But an old threat still looms within these walls. Will the TSF take back what is rightfully theirs?
  
• Pictures: https://zavaro.artstation.com/projects/18JbQZ
  
• New Tanith skulk skin! Acquired by winning 30 rounds on Tanith.

Matched Play Beta v2 Update

• Added a ton of new items which can be earned from playing rounds in Matched Play. These include both Field Player and Commander rewards for both time played and wins. Commanders earn everything Field Players do, but not vice versa. You can track your progress by opening the new Matched Play Rewards menu on the right side of the screen at any time, in game or not.
  
• We now require completion of all 4 tutorials (Commander ones included) and the Skulk Challenge mode in order to begin unlocking any rewards, and the Matched Play Rewards menu will state as such.
  
• Added “Calling Cards” that are unlocked through Matched Play, and selected in the Player Profile / Customization menu. They allow you to show an image on screen of your choice to any player whom you kill, utilizing our revamped death screen notification. Once the feature is unlocked, players can choose any of their currently owned Shoulder Patches as a Card or earn new Calling Cards as rewards.
  
• You can now send invitations to your Steam Friends from within Lobbies using the new button or through Steam Friends.
  
• You can no longer be in a lobby while in a community server.
  
• Rounds now have a maximum time limit of 60 minutes. Afterwards, the round will result in a Draw game. There is a 2 minute warning in the game. This number can be adjusted if deemed necessary by the community.
  
• Lowered the time it takes for the match to start once all players have joined the server. (countdown begins immediately).
  
• Capped the time it takes for a match to start to 10 seconds, so that 11 players are not waiting on that one slow loading player.
  
• Matches will now automatically forfeit when the opposing team leaves the game. The remaining team will be counted as winning.
  
• Concede is available at a round time of 1 minute and 30 seconds to accommodate any unforeseen scenarios.
  
• Added support for reconnecting to an active match when recovering from a crash.
  
• Added support for reconnecting to an active match when kicked for being AFK only if the user has responded to the popup prompt at the main menu within 20 seconds, otherwise they will be penalized and not able to rejoin.
  
• Main menu is no longer non-interactable while utilizing Matched Play. However some menu items will be disabled while in a Lobby (i.e. cannot change menu background, mods, or language).
  
• If you are in another menu while waiting in a lobby, you may have the lobby screen forcefully show up when two different steps in the process are reached: Waiting For Commanders, and the Map Vote.
  
• Fixed multiple “dead-lock” scenarios which would prevent a Match from progressing.
  
• Fixed late joining players not being placed onto teams or being stuck in spectate
  
• Fixed several bugs for Matched Play servers which would prevent the match from completing.
  
• Numerous small bug fixes and features based on community feedback, in order to smooth over the entire system.
  
• New Steam UGC Mod system implementation. See the relevant section below for more details.
  
• All cosmetic options can now be set individually. They’re no longer bound by sets. This means if you want your Babbler skin to be different from your Hydra skin, you can.
  
• Added new Commander related cosmetics such as Arcs, Macs, Drifters and even Cysts.
  
• Improved compatibility with Steam’s new authentication method to prevent players from occasionally being unable to join a server.
  
• Improved how Locations in maps respect the power state with regards to lighting. This should make it so when the power goes out, there should never be ceiling lights that remain on.
  
• New death screen to accommodate the new Calling Cards rewards as well as to bring up the fidelity of the mechanic to modern standards and expectations.
  
• Main menu Wiki button now directs to the new wiki (Thanks Kopunga!)
  
• Crashed players can now reconnect after 15 seconds, instead of the prior 5 minutes, due to fixing prior timeout related issues.
  
• Map loading screens once again show in between map changes on a server.
  
• Proton [Linux] players are now able to start listen servers and play the tutorials. (Thanks Axtel!)

Mod System Changes

• Switched over to the Steam UGC backend that will allow for mods larger than 100MB and enable background updating of subscribed mods by steam while the game is not running. UGC can also reduce the amount of data needed to download updates for large mods. Existing legacy mods can still be downloaded and mounted but will switch over to the UGC backend the next time they are updated by mod authors.
  
• Mod dependencies set on the steam workshop are now automatically downloaded on the client and server. The server will also auto mount the dependencies if they are not already specified with something like the map cycle.
  
• Mod authors can now add a change log when pushing an update to a mod that can be viewed on the mods steam workshop page.
  
• Server mods specified on the commands line now stay mounted after a map change.
  
• Mods in the mapcycle.json are updated and mounted on server start without having to be specified on the command line, per map mods are only mounted if the matching map is being loaded.
  
• Mod IDs can now be specified as decimal numbers instead of hex in the map cycle if they are *not* in quoted strings, they can also be passed as plain numbers on the command line using -mods2 option.
  
• The webadmin mod search page now uses Steam UGC API to search for mods instead of a custom web api that is no longer running.
  
• New mods can now be downloaded and installed on the server while it is running and mounted after a map change if they are added to the mapcycle’s mod list.
  
• Added a built-in mod backup web server to the dedicated server that allows connecting clients to download mods from the server if the current version of a mod on steam is newer than the servers or the client failed to download the mod from steam. This fixes the old “Missing required mod” error. The web server can be enabled with the -startmodserver command line option. The default port it binds to is serverport + 2 this can be changed with -modserverport. You can also optionally specify the address or ip the mod server uses with -modserveraddress otherwise its defaults to -ip option.

Fixes

• Fixed numerous Matched Play issues.
  
• Fixed cosmetics selection ordered inconsistently
  
• Fixed Customize player screen not working in resolutions outside of 16:9 aspect ratio.
  
• Fixed “Welcome to the ready room” message that appeared in tutorials
  
• Fixed minimap assets missing in tutorials
  
• Fixed Evolve Menu lifeform counters breaking when using non-English translations, potentially never showing how many lifeforms were on the team. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed Tunnels not being able to grow off receded infestation with a Drifter, like Gorges can.
  
• Fixed bound keys assigning a hotkey value to the first letter of the symbol name. This meant that if you bound Right Bracket to “Taunt” the in-game radial menu would show the hotkey for Taunt as being “R” erroneously.
  
• Fixed Status Effect Icons showing incorrectly sometimes due to damage over time map entities.
  
• Updated credits and bot names to include newer contributions and testers.
  
• Fixed many inaccurate tooltips in the game, as well as typos and grammatical errors. No excuses now, rookie.
  
• Fixed 5 official maps not having their tech point entities set correctly, which would cause the Matched Play map overview colors to lie about who could start where. (Thanks Salty!)
  
• The map command on a client will error instantly instead of trying to load a non-existent map now.
  
• Fix the map cycle getting stuck if a map is missing or fails to mount.
  
• Fixed a common case where the client was failing steam authentication when connecting to a server.
  
• Fix the client sometimes freezing for a few seconds when connecting to a server.
  
• Changed Ambient Occlusion graphics option into a checkbox instead of a pull down menu. Make sure it's actually enabled.
  
• Fixed Alien Commander Tutorial soft lock from occurring due to harvester placement. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed Fog from interfering with certain skybox fx. Silly fog trying to block out my shiny things I spend too much time on. That’ll teach you.
  
• Fixed server AFK kicking, which defaults to 30 seconds and only takes effect once the round is in progress, not warm up mode.

Maps

• Descent (Thanks Salty!)
  
• Collision Pass
  
• Occlusion Improvements and fixes
  
• Railgun exploit fixes in Drafting - Fabrication and Crew Quarters - Launch Control
  
• Moved some props in Plaza

• Refinery (Thanks Salty!)
  
• Made Lava falls basemist cinematic commander invisible
  
• Fixed stuck spot in turbine
  
• Slight Collision adjustments in Heat Sink
  
• Adjusted minimap location names
  
• Improved Commander invisible layer

Tools

• Corrected size of time settings box in Cinematic Editor and implemented looping playback feature with a new button! (Thanks Steelcap!)
  
• Gobo light support is now in the Cinematic editor for a performant light option. (Thanks Steelcap!)
  
• Cinematic Editor now has robust default keyboard shortcuts and a few new features like orbiting! These greatly improve the workflow. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• R - record
  
• Q and E - frame 0 and last frame
  
• Right and Left Arrows - next and previous frame
  
• Shift + (X or Y or Z) - orientate camera to that axis perfectly
  
• F - focus camera on selected object
  
• Shift + F - focus camera on selected object’s origin point
  
• Shift + MMB - orbit the camera around the focus point (default or object) This one is huge for workflow!
  
• C - expand all curve lists of selected object
  
• Double clicking curve category automatically views all child curves
  
• O - focus view on origin (0,0,0)
  
• Ctrl + C or V - Copy and pasta is in!
  
• Del - delete the object
  
• Shift key makes the camera move fast
  
• Increased maximum distance of mapper placed Cysts from starting hive to allow for greater flexibility to the starting Harvester. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Pre-set special groups in Map Editor for new map projects. You no longer need to type in all the special group names needed for a map.

SDK

• Structure Stats were improved to include data to track lifecycle in a robust way for 3rd party visualizations, and now include structure location updates when using Shift. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Per team skill offset value as well as commander skill and skill offset are now in the server stat file (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Added a shared ModServices API usable on both the server and client, that includes support for searching for files in unmounted mods, querying mod dependencies.

Known Issues

• Sometimes your teammates’ names may not show in the Planning Phase step of lobbies. If the chat window does not show them leaving, then they have not left, and it's just this existing UI bug at work.
  
• Ambient occlusion will be turned off for all existing players unfortunately, due to being changed to a checkbox option. You can safely re-enable it and apply it and it will work as expected going forward.

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

• Wiped existing Matched Play penalties for all players
  
• Fixed players getting stuck in the Ready Room due to multiple causes.
  
• Removed the Norway server for the time being from the list of Matched Play regions due to performance issues (We’ll be closely watching performance for servers and can make other adjustments if need be)
  
• Enabled the West Germany server region for Matched Play
  
• Fixed an issue where a full lobby of players would have a server that would not spin up
  
• Fixed multiple script errors that could disrupt a Lobby from proceeding
  
• Shortened the “waiting for connecting players” Ready Room timer down to 60 seconds
  
• Reduced the default Concede vote time down to 90 seconds to deal with unforeseen scenarios during the Beta period.
  
• Changed the Penalized state to begin once waiting for commanders
  
• Matched play rounds will be in “Warm up mode” if either assigned commander is late to join or fails to join, until the round is started with two commanders.
  
• Fixed missing backgrounds for Concede and Eject UI buttons in voice comm menu
  
• Fixed issues arising from assigning late joining commanders to the role where someone was already commanding
  
• Fixed an exploit with ambient sound volume
  
• Fixed an exploit that allowed for short range wallhacks
  
• Added a “Beta” tag to the Matched Play button
  
• Minor optimizations to the Matched Play system
  
• Fixed that Grenade Launcher projectiles did not impact on Babblers
  
• Fixed a small issue with damage over time triggers and status effect icons
  
• Fixed issue that caused players to remain in lobby after server shutdown
  
• Added automatic Matched Play server error reporting

The Development team never stops and although at times some updates don’t 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 HIVE’s 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

• [Has been live since January] Cluster Grenades should no longer set enemies on fire and should no longer cancel abilities (Umbra, Crag heal etc)
  
• Damage is now increased to 72 in order to keep the damage intended by the prior fire values

Tweaks / Improvements

• New ‘Matched Play’ option in the Play menu. It is in a BETA state until the next patch. Feel free to provide any feedback on our discord server!
  
• Focused version of the game for 6v6 only
  
• System automatically groups 12 players based on their geographic location and their Hive Skill. With the aim of normalizing latency among all clients.
  
• Matched Play ranks and skills will use the player's current community rank until that player’s first Matched Play round is finished. Afterwards, the Matched Play skill-ranks will be handled separately.
  
• Map Voting is a priority-choice system, which means your first choice (of max 3) gets the greatest weight.
  
• Each Match is two rounds, one for each faction. Teams are automatically swapped for the second round.
  
• Friends Invitations and Groups Queueing are not implemented for the BETA, but we are looking very closely at adding these features for the Version 1 release of Matched Play.
  
• Players who intentionally leave an ongoing match will be penalized from using the feature, so as to encourage players to not create a detrimental experience for their teammates whom they match with.
  
• 1st penalty is for 1 hour
  
• 2nd penalty within 7 days time is 3 hours
  
• 3rd penalty within 7 days time is 24 hours
  
• 4th penalty within 7 days time is 3 days
  
• 5th penalty within 7 days time is 7 days
  
• If any incident occurs it resets the 7 day clock! So if your 2nd penalty occurs on the 6th day, you have another 7 days you have to complete without incident again, else you get the 3rd penalty.
  
• Penalties are sequential in both directions, earned and lost. So without further incident within that rolling 7 day period your status will revert to the prior penalty step. Meaning if you’ve earned the maximum 7 day ban it would take 4 weeks to essentially “reset” your penalty level to 0, but you would be able to use the system again as soon as the first 7 days passed. But should you have another incident soon after that, it would go right back to a 7 day penalty
  
• For more details, please read the FAQ: https://steamcommunity.com/games/ns2/announcements/detail/2993187041079882627
  
• New Ambient Occlusion
  
• No more input delay or large FPS drops!
  
• No more “moving” pixelated shadows!
  
• Give it a try.. After a while you’ll wonder how you lived without it

New Armory UI

• Replete with stat bars for new players to consider and learn with
  
• Main menu News panel is now at the bottom of the screen and will automatically hide in subsequent game launches.
  
• New Mineshaft and Tram main menu background cinematics to accommodate their changes over the years
  
• The game will automatically select your native desktop resolution by default now. This should prevent some new installs from being unable to interact with the main menu buttons without having to alt + enter
  
• Sound options menu are arranged to be more consistent and intuitive (Thanks MiniMe!)

Fixes

• Fixed fourth Infantry Portal being possible on one Command Station
  
• Fixed the automatic spawning of an infantry portal once there are enough players on the team from occurring with the wrong amount of players
  
• Fixed Marines rarely spawning at random locations on the map at round start
  
• Fixed main menu background sounds not being controlled by the sound volume option
  
• Fixed respawn music not being affected by music slider volume
  
• Fixed “say” console command not working
  
• Fixed the Advanced option “nameplates” set to “numbers” still showing health bars
  
• Fixed that you could not queue a Drifter to patrol an area after a build order. The weekend seminar training for all drifters seems to have gone well as they now fully understand your priorities like creeping in hallways
  
• Fixed Marine HP bar on HUD showing up even when disabled, if getting healed.
  
• Fixed an exploit that could easily allow custom shaders on enemy players.
  
• Fixed Cyst “ghost model” placement ring being too small. Responsible for confusing commanders since 2012. If you pop ‘em now you have only yourself to blame (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed Marine tutorial errors when extractor blueprint is destroyed (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed an inconsistent Hive Skill offset calculation 
  
• Fixed Sound Occlusion geometry not being properly commander invisible
  
• Fixed damage numbers not showing sometimes despite being enabled
  
• Fixed a showstopping bug in Marine tutorial where the powernode could not be built. It now will automatically build after some time if the user is unable to, as a workaround. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed consuming Drifters causing server errors (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed Hive Challenge mode eating itself alive by wave 7, like a galaxy’s worth of stars collapsing in on themselves to form a supermassive black hole containing a billion Marine bots deep beyond the event horizon. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed Infantry Portals not showing in post round stats Tech list (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed that we never had a feature that was so beautiful that it could record structure location information in the post round stats file, allowing the community to create gorgeous heatmaps to share. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed that consumed Harvesters didn’t count as lost in the RT graph in post round stats, along with some other stat reporting oddities (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed flickering lights and repetitive snow fx in Summit main menu cinematic
  
• Fixed Origin main menu cinematic missing all of its sound events. 
  
• Fixed that lights don't immediately turn off when the power node is destroyed (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Fixed that Marine Commanders could issue Defend and Build waypoints on enemy entities
  
• Fixed typo in color-blind mode option. You just didn’t notice it before because you were regular blind as well. The same reason for your KD ratio.
  
• Fixed that the Options menu did not display the default values to the user. They now show an asterisk (*) next to the relevant options.
  
• Fixed the scenario where if a player bound their Map key to an existing commander grid binding, you’d open the map while using commander even though it was a non commander binding.
  
• Fixed that as a commander when you select a player in an Exosuit the Orders menu is empty. Now you can order those murder machines around to your heart’s content. 
  
• Fixed Gorge “toys” (any that have ghost models to place) causing a server error if the Gorge died before actually placing them.
  
• Changed the name of “Advanced Assistance”, the command chair upgrade, to “Advanced Support” to distinguish between the Advanced Armory which was more commonly used when one said “AA”
  
• Fixed that Power Surge could be used on Sentry Batteries. One does not simply plug the power into another power source. That’s how new TSF safety regulations come about.

Sounds

• Fixed Metro menu background sound effects not having client’s sounds setting controlling its volume.

Maps

Descent (Thanks Salty!)

• Fixed Crew Quarters vent stuck spot
  
• Fixed the planet
  
• Fixed low and minimal lighting in silo and drafting 
  
• Rebuilt Occlusion Geo for better performance
  
• Old occlusion is now sound occlusion
  
• Improved commander invisible group
  
• Added no evolve onos, to non onos friendly vents
  
• Moved around some minimap location names
  
• Smoothed out collision in various places
  
• Moved Ready Room to prevent edge cases where it could be seen from the map
  
• Fixed the holo sign in the Ready Room

Docking (Thanks Kash!)

• Fixed unpowered location in Terminal
  
• Altered collision geometry for railings in courtyard to hopefully prevent AI line of sight being blocked for no reason.
  
• Added 2 extra sets of lockers to Locker Room on the eastern wall to provide more cover for upgrades against marines assaulting from Courtyard.

Kodiak (Thanks pSyk!)

• Improved Occlusion Geo and Performance
  
• Removed OP ARC spots for Command and Hanger
  
• Removed some plants for clearer visuals
  
• Added more rocks for cover in the outdoor areas
  
• Added more crates for cover in Tunnel B5
  
• Replaced trees with Origin trees (clearer visuals and better performance)
  
• Fades can now blink through the gap of the crossbeams and ceiling at various places on the map
  
• Added half closed doors to the door frames in the long corridor between Central and Hydro
  
• Re-routed Hanger ceiling vent
  
• Moved Upper Rapids RT closer to Marine Start

Metro (Thanks Mephilles!)

• Added in Minimal Lights
  
• Added collision to all of the ticket booth props. (Located in derelict station, atrium, ticket booths)

Mineshaft (Thanks Kash!)

• Rethemed Cave.
  
• Raised Cave to be closer to the height of the Cavern RT/North Tunnels.
  
• Relocated vent from Cave to North Tunnels, to North Tunnels to Sorting.
  
• Moved Crusher RT to North Tunnels.
  
• Crusher to Cavern vent added under the stairs in Crusher.
  
• Disconnected the Crusher/Cavern and Cave connection, making Cave a 2 entrance TP like all the other TPs in Mineshaft.
  
• Added vent and extra detail to Cart Tunnel.
  
• Disconnected Brew Room from Crusher, now has its own entrance to Central Drilling on the northern wall.
  
• Connected Sorting to Brew Room.
  
• Turned Conveyors into a vent and removed from the power grid.
  
• Added extra vent exit in Deposit overlooking The Gap arc spot.
  
• Made the Gap window above Operations inaccessible to aliens (to prevent exploitation).
  
• Removed the Gap arc spot vs Operations hive.
  
• Rethemed the Gap.
  
• Cleaned up the clutter and cover in the south of Water Pumps to make it less abuse-able by aliens.
  
• Made the Water Pumps to Cart Tunnel vent marine accessible.
  
• Removed the vent above Central Drilling leading into Water Pumps.
  
• Added cover throughout the map.
  
• Added wetmaps and fog to appropriate places throughout the map.
  
• Collision Overhaul throughout the map.
  
• Moved Operations south and altered some cover and detail in the room.
  
• Updated lighting to include all quality settings.

Refinery (Thanks Zavaro!)

• Fixed stuck spot in Routing vent

Summit (Thanks pSyk!)

• Replaced snow cinematics with new ones that cost less performance.
  
• Removed a few snow cinematics and reflection probes to improve performance.

Veil (Thanks pSyk!)

• Fixed several pitch black areas/spots with Minimal Lights
  
• Fixed Fade stuck spots in the vent entrances below System
  
• Fixed Marine/Fade stock spot at vent exit in Dome/Neck corridor

SDK

• Made No Evolve tool much more robust and reliable. Can select specific lifeforms. (Thanks Axtel!)
  
• Added new Occlusion visualizer rendering mode, via ‘r_mode occlusion’ (requires cheats-mode enabled)

Known Issues

• When you are penalized from using Matched Play, it will only show in complete hours sometimes, and cut off the minutes. So if you see 2 hours, it could very well be 2 hours and 50 minutes still. This will get fixed.

Thunderdome has been the fun codename for this project that is now being officially labeled as Matched Play in the main menu. We plan on releasing the Beta phase of this feature in the next few weeks.

To put it simply it is a matchmaking system. It matches players together in a lobby of 12. When it performs a search it sorts by the smallest number of available player slots in order to fill up existing lobbies, and then that is sorted by a median skill level that is closest to the searching player, and then it finally refines that based on geodesic distance. Or said another way: The system attempts to find you a match quickly that is as fair as possible both through skill levels and latency. 

The system always tries to find both the closest skill value to you personally, as well as the nearest lobby to you. Failing this it gradually searches farther in both distance and skill range until it either finds something or you create your own lobby.

Server selection is based on a computed average position of all the members in the lobby. This means no singular person dictates the latency for everyone, but rather the lowest latency possible is achieved for the whole group of players by creating a singular point. It uses longitude and latitude to find the nearest server location from that chosen point.

You will play two rounds, one on each team. If you leave at any point before both rounds are complete, you will be penalized. The lobby system works in stages; first it waits for the lobby to fill with exactly 12 players, it will not proceed without this number being reached. Then it waits for at least two Commander volunteers, but you can volunteer at any time before this! If at least two Commanders have not volunteered, the system will not proceed. If more than two have volunteered the system will choose the two highest ranked Commanders. 

With 12 players and at least two Commander volunteers, all players can now participate in a Map vote where each person can choose up to 3 different maps in order of their preference. After a map is chosen everyone is shuffled to their respective teams in the most balanced configuration, each with their own Commander. At this moment a dedicated server that is not community hosted will be spun up for the games. During this time players have entered the Planning Phase while they wait for the server, where they can strategize in text while using an image of the map on screen. 

After you play the first round a brief intermission of 90 seconds takes place. After this completes the map will not change but the system will automatically swap you to the other team with the same players and the same Commander. Once both rounds are completed the server will automatically shut down and you will return to the main menu.

Here is a list of server hosting regions that are covered:

• East Coast US
  
• West Coast US
  
• Southern UK
  
• Central Europe
  
• Eastern Norway
  
• Southern Brazil
  
• Hong Kong
  
• Eastern Australia

DISCLAIMER: The purpose and scope of the initial Beta phase of Matched Play/TD is to ensure the core functionality of the system works as expected and to allow us to make adjustments on the fly in the background to certain values. It also serves as an observation period for us on how balance, wait times, or social aspects may be impacted. As such many features we have completed or planned for the system are being held back during this specific phase. Once we exit this phase and release “Version 1” of the system these features will be added back in. We tentatively plan on this phase being just over 6 weeks long. That all being said, try it out and provide feedback and or suggestions to us in our discord!


How many friends can you queue into matched play with?
For the initial Beta test, zero. But after it is fully released we tentatively plan on allowing users to invite friends. Obviously this is a highly requested feature and we very much have it as a top priority beyond testing the initial core functionality of the system during the Beta period. But we must also consider the implications of allowing an entire team comprised of friends against 6 other random individuals when it comes to matchmaking times. Because of this we also have the functionality for “Private” lobbies already hooked up but not enabled and once we exit the Beta period we will be testing its viability for scenarios where you want to play 6v6 or 2v2 etc exclusively with friends. 

Will public servers still be ranked after the introduction of TD?
Yes! However there will be two different ranking systems in place. The existing one will continue to apply to public servers only and exist as it does now, while TD will use that value as a starting place to begin recording your “Matched Play Skill” level. We fully recognize that our community run servers are the only reason this game has existed for this long. We appreciate them and do not wish to destroy their communities by preventing balanced matches or removing any incentive to play in the environments they have fostered for so many years.

How does the penalty system work?
Part of the Beta phase is to determine the efficacy and fairness of the starting values and behaviors we have in place. What we have is essentially a Work In Progress when it comes to this experimental system. As such we are not prepared to share the details of this just yet. However we can say that penalties will constitute temporary banning from Matched Play. We can also say that we do not intend for you to be punished if you are able to return to the match. We’ll have more on this at a later date and will publish it very clearly and publicly.

Will I be allowed to play on NA servers even though I’m in the EU?
Yes. The current value in place (that can be changed by us on the fly if needed) is a 9500 km maximum range. This is enough for most West Coast US individuals to play with individuals from Berlin, Germany. 

Will there be region/ping locks?
Somewhat, yes. As mentioned previously the maximum range allowed is 9500 km, if you fail to find anything closer. Although this might seem like a lot, the servers being utilized to run Matched Play provide better latencies compared to typical community servers. For an anecdotal example: as a West Coast US player I experience on average 150 ms of latency to the East Coast US in community owned servers. For comparison: Our servers are allowing me to connect to the East Coast with 70-90 ms. And I can connect to EU within 130-150 ms - which is pretty much the maximum range allowed and therefore hopefully the most amount of latency one should expect.

What about stats? Will they be available to see?
At the end of each round played, yes. The post game stat screen will come up as normal. Outside of that, we have no plans to officially display the data publicly elsewhere. Any websites containing such detailed stats would have to come from 3rd party developers if desired.
Will we be notified if the NS2 window is minimized once the queue completes?
Yes! This was considered and designed from the start. We realize queues can often be a bit boring and therefore you may want to alt-tab to open your aim trainer or listen to music and read your 9,000 unread emails in the interim. As such, there are 3 distinct phases where your minimized window will flash yellow on the windows taskbar: Waiting for commanders to volunteer (once you have 12 players), the Map vote, and joining the server successfully. 

Will 6v6 have balance changes or will it have the same balance changes as 10v10 ?
Yes there will be balance changes to accommodate the different type of experience, but it will not be done until after it has gone through its Beta stage. This is for two reasons : the Beta period is primarily for testing the core functionality of the system and to ensure it operates as expected, and during that time any balance issues we might not have predicted will show themselves in order for us to remedy. So while we have a long list of balance changes that have been in the pipe for months, we need to wait and observe to be sure. Additionally, this does not however imply that we will be maintaining two different games, our goal is to have the same experience. However if need be, we may make selective subtle adjustments and will clearly announce when this occurs. (There may be exceptions made to any of the above)

How will you manage disruptive and/or toxic players? There are a lot of players that are banned by all community servers but there's no centralized UWE ban list?
Great question! This is something that even the largest gaming studios struggle with when they do not have community run servers exclusively. We plan on leaning on a decaying player reporting system that automatically triggers temporary Matched Play bans that can add up to longer ones if they occur within certain timeframes. For an example only (these are not the actual values!) :  if 8 unique players - more than just your own teammates to prevent griefing - report you for toxic behavior in a 24 hour period, the system can temporarily ban you from using Matched Play for 24 hours. If you are reported to the same degree again in the next 7 days, perhaps the system bans you for a week this time. After that time passes and you are playing again, if X amount of days pass with no incident, your status is reset. Essentially a built in decay time to your karma. If we see in our system a particularly bad actor who clearly has no intention of changing, we reserve the right to permanently ban them from the feature manually. We’ll have more info on this as we exit the Beta period.

How will you find matches for high leveled sanjis?
This is a very delicate matter for us. Due to the small number of players who obtain such a skill level, we realize that it can be difficult to pair up with others of similar skill. As explained already, the system tries its best to find the closest skill level and closest distance, but barring this we have ensured that there is a value we are testing (meaning it can be changed!) of a maximum 2,000 hive skill difference allowed. This means that a 5k skill player can match with a 3k skill player. And then due to how the lobby systems work by averaging out skill values based on the players who have joined, the lobby average changes to 4k, and now a 2k player can join. Rinse and repeat. This means that while the system will find you the best match in both ping and fairness, it will still allow a wider degree of skill ranges to play together if there is no other option available at the time. Expect the possibility of these values being changed as needed during the Beta period, as it's one of the major purposes behind this period.

Is Competitive mod enabled or is it standard vanilla? Configurable lobby options?
The servers will be running vanilla NS2 only during the Beta phase, and will not contain any configurable options. After this phase we may consider certain configurations to be voted on while players sit in a lobby. This was a large reason for us fully integrating NS2+ into the vanilla experience of the game. Additionally, the same default server consistency configuration will be in place, so if you wish to run your own crosshair or alien vision mods, you still can.

How are you planning to promote the gamemode for the current or returning playerbase? Rewards etc.?
We have lots of exciting plans for this that are being held back for after the Beta phase… we really want to encourage people to not just try the system but also be rewarded for putting in serious time and or effort with it. We’re looking primarily at cosmetic and vanity routes for rewards, but we’ll announce and show off more about this once we get closer to exiting the Beta phase.

Will you be able to reconnect after you have lost internet or crashed?
Yes, absolutely. It would be pretty hard to justify having “leaver penalties” if we prevented you from rejoining the match.

Will I be able to select lifeforms when queuing?
You will be able to select lifeforms once you have entered the “Planning Phase” in the lobby! Keep in mind this is only to communicate your intentions to your teammates and will not automatically save a lifeform for you or perform any other function. Your commander will have already been selected and displayed, but everyone else will be able to plan out what lifeforms they will play - even if the first round played will be Marines. This should help prevent those “Why do we have 5 Gorges?” scenarios.

What are the expected wait times to get into a match?
This is a really tough thing to predict, as it changes throughout the seasons of the year, sales, and patch updates etc. It is highly variable and ambiguous, largely depending on how many users are actively online and searching at that exact time. So we cannot give you a concrete number as a result. Our hope is that this feature might be preferred over waiting 45 minutes as a spectator in a server just to play - a regular occurrence right now. The primary goal of this system was to reduce the time between starting the game and actually getting in and playing.

What about streaming and spectating? Will they be available?
No, we have no plans for either of these things being available. That can still occur in community ran servers that will continue to have spectator slots. Matched Play is more about those who just want to get in and play.

Can you kick people from the lobby?
No, but you can mute their text or leave the lobby if you find them bothersome. Additionally you can initiate a server wide vote to kick a player once in the server,

How can I ensure if I play two or three games in a row they won't be full of the same exact crew?
One long term planned feature (that will not be in the Beta Phase) is to recall a lobby preference of yours. So if you exit a lobby that is not yet full because you don’t want to play with those same players, there will be a pop up prompt and on it there will be a checkbox for you to click on to prevent rejoining that lobby. Then the system will ignore that lobby on your next search. Keep in mind however that if this feature makes it in, that those players are free to move around to other lobbies just like you. In short, there is no foolproof method here, even if the player base was 20 times its current size.

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!

It’s 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! We’ve 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 don’t 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. A special thank you also the Mendasp, the original creator/maintainer of the NS2+ mod. It is very clear the impact this mod has had on the game since its inception, and we are thankful for the many hours and support they have shown the community over the years.

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.

The following balance changes have been live in the UWE Hotfix Extension for a few weeks, so you have likely already been playing with them!

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.
  
• It’s not hardware shaming if it’s 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.

• 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 shoul’dnt bee anymoire.
  
• Fixed Alien Tunnel’s Collapse binding being inconsistently on the wrong key compared to any other structure. It’s 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.

• All map ambient sounds now have a volume slider adjustment (global setting).

[/list]

• 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 Chasm’s 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.

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

• 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.

• 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 you’re 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 menu’s positioning.

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.

Gameplay

• Maturity and Gestation (Alien egg evolving) both now have a slight softcap in regards to their rate of completion being sped up by Nutrient Mist and/or Gorge Healspray.
• Mines will now only show on the map for enemies if they have been damaged recently or are currently Parasited.
• The Fade has had some movement changes with the goal of making it more visually consistent and predictable. 
  • Air friction has been increased (feels heavier) when achieving high speeds and not currently in Blink. 
  • Blink now has a minimum speed of 13.5
  • Blink now has an initial speed (first Blink) of 15
  • Additional Blink speed gained from each Celerity upgrade chamber is now 0.2 from 0.5. (Total of three chambers = 0.6 from 3)
  • Auto-crouch feature was removed until a better solution can be found. We recommend holding that crouch key at all times like in the old days.

Tweaks / Improvements

• Your Hive Skill will now account for which team you play on or command.
• Added new Research Notifications for field players, to help keep track of researching tech. You might notice that Research Notifications show on the left side of the HUD for both teams and as a result your in use upgrades are shown on the right side for both teams. This feature can be disabled in the NS2+ option “Research Notifications”. 
• We’ve made multiple changes to the Marine flashlight to make it more useful in poor lighting conditions. Most notably a larger cone size, a greater range, and being brighter. It also has had its atmospherics setting brought down to almost nothing, so you won’t have to worry about your teammates blinding you anymore! Lastly it has specular graphics enabled for the first time and the color profile has been tweaked subtly to be friendlier on the eyes.
• Tunnel collapse killfeed icon now has a fitting icon.
• All weapon tracers created from firing weapons (e.g. Marine Rifle, Hydras, Lerk Spikes etc) will now be visible even when their origin point is not visible. This will help telegraph where attacks are coming from, even around corners.
• New Gorge Spit effect and model, which now is highlighted in Alien Vision. This aids in the player’s ability to track the speed of the projectile for accuracy purposes, while also making it more visible for everyone to respond to.

Fixes

• Fixed being able to very slightly shoot farther than what your camera was showing at the extreme angles when looking up or down.
• Fixed being unable to connect to a server while already in a listen server.
• Fixed throwing a grenade right away when a Marine player has no weapon in both primary and secondary slots while also placing a mine. 
• Fixed Consume and Recycle playing the “Research Complete” effect when complete.
• Fixed changing some options not saving correctly to disk unless Apply was used. You should’ve been clicking Apply anyways though, because it was the right thing to do. I bet you don’t even use your blinker in space.
• Fixed “Mines” text being plural since there’s only one Mine in a pack now.
• Fixed progress bar that shows up in the bottom-center of the screen not using the correct team theme whenever you see it correctly, then get forced onto another team, for example with cheats or via some balancing mod.
• Fixed progress bar for Alien Commander UI where consuming something would incorrectly say “Upgrading…”.
• Fixed Tunnel Collapse tip text saying “TIP” because.. well, it wasn’t much help was it?
• Fixed repairs from MAC and Welders repairing too fast due to it ignoring the health-per-armor value.
• Fixed the occasional displaying of the old loading screen concept art.
• All child cinematics triggered by normal Cinematics playback now inherit their parent’s visibility. We encourage proper cinematic rearing around here, ok.
• Hydras will no longer be shown on the killfeed when digested. You can safely eat them in silence, like a fat kid raiding the pantry at 2 am.
• Fix the client crashing when failing to mount a mod when connecting to a server
• Fixed reflections sometimes using the wrong tint. Super shiny infestation in dimly lit rooms are no more.
• Fixed Bile mine not affecting structure health even when armor has been fully depleted.
• Fixed tracers not being deleted rarely, which could cause them to continue to add up in the background and dropping your framerate to extreme lows. 

Maps

• Caged (Thanks pSyk)
  • Removed shadow casting pointlights to improve performance
• Metro (Thanks Shrimm, pSyk, Mephilles)
  • Added Halloween assets in Ready Room
  • Performance improvements to Underpass, Slum and low lights quality
  • Fixes to GL bounce spots in Arrivals and Midtown
  • Added a fuel car in Arrivals to reflect the big crates used in Jambi's Pipeworks
  • Opened the first door leading to Lobby coming from Lane to give Aliens more options to flank Marines in Arrivals without getting chip-damage.
  • Adjusted cover in Underpass, added pillar, rerouted road, moved lightposts and forklift around.
  • Improved lighting of several vent entrances and added details to make them easier to spot
  • Trick jump in Alley vent should be easier now.
  • Added Pre-Placed Infantry Portals for marines.
  • Improved clogability of Underpass->Midtown Connection. You can no longer sidle the walls as a marine
  • Reversed ceiling cover in Underpass->Midtown Connection. You can now use it against enemies coming from midtown.
  • Improved minimap appearance of vents, Should be easier to see some vent entrances from the minimap now.
  • Fixed issues with lobby minimap generation being too bright.
  • Minor visual fixes and QoL fixes here and there.
  • Increased ceiling space above Arrivals techpoint
  • Added minivents in arrivals from techpoint ceiling area to north side of the room
  • Changes to Atrium to help Aliens against ARCs
• Origin (Thanks pSyk)
  • Visual tweaks ( wet decals )
  • Made the connection between Monitoring and Water Treatment slightly more alien friendly
  • Added 2 more small obstacles between Generator and Ventilation to help aliens against ARCs
• Summit (Thanks pSyk)
  • Visual update (More details, better lighting, wet decals, etc.)
  • Added new cinematics (Thanks IronHorse!)
  • Moved res node in Flight Control
  • Removed open (negative) space in Flight Control by adding more rock slides
  • Added a bit of rock cover in the corridor between Flight and Comp
  • Widened the vents in that corridor, so it's easier to drop into them
  • Removed one ceiling grating part in that corridor as well
  •  to give Aliens more vertical options
  • Moved the powernode in Comp Lab (can't ambush a Marine from the vent anymore)
  • Added some elevation to the vent part between Sub and Maintenance so a single Marine can't go to Comp from Ventilation (new vent exit!)
  • Added a medium container in Maintenance
  • Aliens can now use the Crossroad vent carefully to not trigger the Maintenance door
  • Added a new cover and ambush spot between Glass Hallway and Data Core
  • Made the power node chamber in the middle of Data Core more friendly for tunnel placement
  • Added 2 small obstacles near the res node area in Data Core to make it easier to engage Marines shooting res node and tunnel
  • Moved power node in Summit Reception to the pillar and made it thicker
  • Removed/Broke railings in Summit Reception and Crossroads
  • Shrunk the tree in Atrium so one Marine can catch a Skulk
  • Added floor screens/signs in Atrium as cover to make up for the smaller tree
  • You can now get out of the Crevice pit when you fall down onto the rock ledge above death trigger
  • Combined the two ceiling extrusions into one big one above the hallway between Sub and Comp
  • Reduced the length of the Glass Hallway troll vent so Skulks can only use 2 of the 3 gratings to parasite through.
  • Minor visual fixes and QoL fixes here and there.
• Docking (Thanks Runestorm!)
  • Added many wetmaps in various places. (My shower locker rooms immersion is finally complete)

Tools

• Updated Tracy profiler
• In game Profile console command will no longer crash through loading
• LaunchPad now correctly handles updating Mod descriptions and no longer adds blank lines when publishing.

SDK

• Builder options under the “Build” toolbar are now saved.
• Builder will now prompt a confirmation window if you attempt a Rebuild.

Known Issues

• There’s still some typos with tips and the tunnel consume grid position is not consistent with other consume positioning. This is fixed in the next patch.

Eclipse Tower is in ruin after the Kharaa invasion. 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.


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]

• 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.

• 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.

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

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.

• 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.

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.

• 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!