We’ve completely lost our marbles, and are offering a new ‘Natural Selection 2 Mega Pack’ for 90% off. This pack includes NS2 Deluxe Edition, all DLC items, & NS2: Combat by Faultline Games for the low low price of… I’m going to stop right there before I start sounding like a stereotype.

Here’s the short version: Everything NS2 is ridiculously cheap right now. Tell your friends. Tell your mum. Tell your cat.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/54667/

We’ve completely lost our marbles, and are offering a new ‘Natural Selection 2 Mega Pack’ for 90% off. This pack includes NS2 Deluxe Edition, all DLC items, & NS2: Combat by Faultline Games for the low low price of… I’m going to stop right there before I start sounding like a stereotype.

Here’s the short version: Everything NS2 is ridiculously cheap right now. Tell your friends. Tell your mum. Tell your cat.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/54667/

A new update ("Build 270") has been released! It will automatically download to your Steam library. This new update celebrates the two year anniversary of Natural Selection 2's launch!

Along with various changes to the core game, this update adds the "Reaper Pack" DLC item, which gives all alien lifeforms a freaky new look.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/310100/

A full changelog follows below, and you can read more detail on the Natural Selection 2 blog: http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/reaper-build-270-live-steam/

**PATCH NOTE** WE HAVE UPDATED SOME SHADERS, THIS WILL MAKE YOUR INITIAL LOAD TIME FOR EACH MAP MUCH LONGER THAN NORMAL

FIXES
Fixed players having voice communication cut off while entering or exiting commander mode
Lerks will no longer grunt when moving at low speed
Bots will not be counted towards the number of players that are required to pass a vote
Fixed an issue which would result in a second IP being spawned at the start of the game with less than nine players
Fixed conflicting default key-bind between the show map key and the 10th commander grid spot (this will only affect new players, current players need to change their bindings manually)
Fixed fullscreen windowed mode to not minimize when alt+tabbing on Windows
If you have something bound to the same key as VoteYes/VoteNo, it will no longer be triggered when casting a vote
Fixed that it was possible to transfer pres between rounds
Fixed occasional error when attempting to enter the Mods menu
Fixed Commander bindings menu not saving cleared binds
Fixed server crash that could be caused by exos in the readyroom
Fixed small visual glitch while in exo that was causing nameplate borders to show up when they shouldn’t be
Fixed customize menu to ensure the variants always show in the proper order
Fixed customize menu to only show arrows when appropriate
Fix marines losing the parasite outline when switching variants / sex
Fixed Clogs having decals projected onto them

IMPROVEMENTS
In the voice request menu you can now select items by moving the mouse past them (similar to NS1)
Added an option in the sound tab to continue recording after the microphone button has been released for a fraction of a second to help ensure your last word isn’t cut off (defaults to 150ms)
The number of players connecting to the server will now be shown on the scoreboard
Building range circles now use decals instead of models
Votes that cannot pass anymore fail immediately
Made Fade and Onos view models not highlighted in Alien vision
Babbler eggs are now highlighted in Alien vision

SDK
Added Server.GetNumPlayersTotal() which will return the number of players that have an active connection to the server, regardless of if they have passed authentication and are finished loading yet
Allow materials to specify a 0.5 highlight value to not be highlighted in Alien vision and not have decals projected onto them

BALANCE
Raised mature tunnel health by 10% to give aliens a little bit longer to respond to a tunnel that is under attack, and raised its maturity time by 15 seconds to compensate

ENGINE
Upgraded Awesomium library to version 1.7
Upgraded LuaJIT to version 2.0.3

MAPS

Biodome
Fixed stuck spot between Agri Labs and Falls
Fixed stuck spot in West Route

Descent
Fixed exploit in monorail vent

Refinery
Fixed bug / exploit in lava falls

Ready Rooms are now Halloween themed and players can throw candy!

A new update ("Build 270") has been released! It will automatically download to your Steam library. This new update celebrates the two year anniversary of Natural Selection 2's launch!

Along with various changes to the core game, this update adds the "Reaper Pack" DLC item, which gives all alien lifeforms a freaky new look.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/310100/

A full changelog follows below, and you can read more detail on the Natural Selection 2 blog: http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/reaper-build-270-live-steam/

**PATCH NOTE** WE HAVE UPDATED SOME SHADERS, THIS WILL MAKE YOUR INITIAL LOAD TIME FOR EACH MAP MUCH LONGER THAN NORMAL

FIXES
Fixed players having voice communication cut off while entering or exiting commander mode
Lerks will no longer grunt when moving at low speed
Bots will not be counted towards the number of players that are required to pass a vote
Fixed an issue which would result in a second IP being spawned at the start of the game with less than nine players
Fixed conflicting default key-bind between the show map key and the 10th commander grid spot (this will only affect new players, current players need to change their bindings manually)
Fixed fullscreen windowed mode to not minimize when alt+tabbing on Windows
If you have something bound to the same key as VoteYes/VoteNo, it will no longer be triggered when casting a vote
Fixed that it was possible to transfer pres between rounds
Fixed occasional error when attempting to enter the Mods menu
Fixed Commander bindings menu not saving cleared binds
Fixed server crash that could be caused by exos in the readyroom
Fixed small visual glitch while in exo that was causing nameplate borders to show up when they shouldn’t be
Fixed customize menu to ensure the variants always show in the proper order
Fixed customize menu to only show arrows when appropriate
Fix marines losing the parasite outline when switching variants / sex
Fixed Clogs having decals projected onto them

IMPROVEMENTS
In the voice request menu you can now select items by moving the mouse past them (similar to NS1)
Added an option in the sound tab to continue recording after the microphone button has been released for a fraction of a second to help ensure your last word isn’t cut off (defaults to 150ms)
The number of players connecting to the server will now be shown on the scoreboard
Building range circles now use decals instead of models
Votes that cannot pass anymore fail immediately
Made Fade and Onos view models not highlighted in Alien vision
Babbler eggs are now highlighted in Alien vision

SDK
Added Server.GetNumPlayersTotal() which will return the number of players that have an active connection to the server, regardless of if they have passed authentication and are finished loading yet
Allow materials to specify a 0.5 highlight value to not be highlighted in Alien vision and not have decals projected onto them

BALANCE
Raised mature tunnel health by 10% to give aliens a little bit longer to respond to a tunnel that is under attack, and raised its maturity time by 15 seconds to compensate

ENGINE
Upgraded Awesomium library to version 1.7
Upgraded LuaJIT to version 2.0.3

MAPS

Biodome
Fixed stuck spot between Agri Labs and Falls
Fixed stuck spot in West Route

Descent
Fixed exploit in monorail vent

Refinery
Fixed bug / exploit in lava falls

Ready Rooms are now Halloween themed and players can throw candy!

Fear is coming: The Reaper Alien Skin Pack transforms Natural Selection 2’s alien lifeforms into a new, terrifying form. Pale like death’s horse and bones as black as death itself cut through the light and bring darkness to those who oppose. Only the bravest marines stand against these vicious, mutated Kharaa!

The Community Development Team (CDT) announces more customization to NS2 with the release of the REAPER alien skin pack! In the pack you get five new Alien Skins, one for each of the Alien Classes and a special REAPER Shoulder Pad for marine players. Halloween is the best time to dress up in ghoulish costume, now you can wear your REAPER outfit in NS2 to suit your own devilish deeds.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/310100

The Natural Selection 2 Community Development Team has just released update 269! Here is what's inside:

FIXES
Fixed issues of the texture manager which caused the client to crash while loading textures which use rgba compression or include mipmaps
Fixed that using non precached cinematics crash the client
Fixed Quick Join
Fixed long load times with some HDDs caused by overloading the io queue with too many worker threads
Fixed Alien Lifeform Counters in the Alien Buy Menu
Fixed that Jetpacks did not show up correctly at the scoreboard
Fixed triggers and models having incorrect settings in the editor_setup causing things like e.g. ladders not to work at maps
Fixed that client mods which fail the consistency check were not disabled.
Fixed some other issues with cinematics (causing things like client crashes when someone used umbra)
Fixed that echoed structures were not attacked by arcs.
Added draw calls back to r_stats
Fade Blink sound volume was corrected
Fixed Overview.exe crash
Fixed some issues with the linux client

Improvements
“ForceEvenTeams” vote now uses the skill ratings from hive to balance teams. It avoids moving players that have already chosen a team and first tries to balance the teams using the players in the readyroom. If it must swap players that have already chosen a team, it uses the minimum number of them so most people will stay on the same team.
New commands for controlling loading behavior:
res_workers n (n = number of used loading worker threads, default 1 )
res_prelock on/off
res_preload on/off
res_verbose 1-3 ( turns on verbose logging at loading )
Commander Hints are now fully translatable
Polish translation is now 100% done (thanks to Carnage and Acedude)

SDK
Fixed Editor volumes missing the size parameter.

Leave comments here and on the NS2 blog for the CDT to read!

The Natural Selection 2 Community Development Team has just released update 269! Here is what's inside:

FIXES
Fixed issues of the texture manager which caused the client to crash while loading textures which use rgba compression or include mipmaps
Fixed that using non precached cinematics crash the client
Fixed Quick Join
Fixed long load times with some HDDs caused by overloading the io queue with too many worker threads
Fixed Alien Lifeform Counters in the Alien Buy Menu
Fixed that Jetpacks did not show up correctly at the scoreboard
Fixed triggers and models having incorrect settings in the editor_setup causing things like e.g. ladders not to work at maps
Fixed that client mods which fail the consistency check were not disabled.
Fixed some other issues with cinematics (causing things like client crashes when someone used umbra)
Fixed that echoed structures were not attacked by arcs.
Added draw calls back to r_stats
Fade Blink sound volume was corrected
Fixed Overview.exe crash
Fixed some issues with the linux client

Improvements
“ForceEvenTeams” vote now uses the skill ratings from hive to balance teams. It avoids moving players that have already chosen a team and first tries to balance the teams using the players in the readyroom. If it must swap players that have already chosen a team, it uses the minimum number of them so most people will stay on the same team.
New commands for controlling loading behavior:
res_workers n (n = number of used loading worker threads, default 1 )
res_prelock on/off
res_preload on/off
res_verbose 1-3 ( turns on verbose logging at loading )
Commander Hints are now fully translatable
Polish translation is now 100% done (thanks to Carnage and Acedude)

SDK
Fixed Editor volumes missing the size parameter.

Leave comments here and on the NS2 blog for the CDT to read!

The hits just keep on coming - The Community Development Team has just released Build 268, and it is available in your Steam Library right now! Check out this intel update from ItsSuperEffective to find out what's inside:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9xOMHpOhFg

To see the whole list of changes that went into Build 268, head on over to the Natural Selection 2 blog!

Be sure to leave comments for the NS2CDT, so they can hear what you want to see in future updates.

The hits just keep on coming - The Community Development Team has just released Build 268, and it is available in your Steam Library right now! Check out this intel update from ItsSuperEffective to find out what's inside:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9xOMHpOhFg

To see the whole list of changes that went into Build 268, head on over to the Natural Selection 2 blog!

Be sure to leave comments for the NS2CDT, so they can hear what you want to see in future updates.

The evolution continues: Build 267 contains ver 260 individual changes, and represents the culmination of two months of hard work from the NS2 Community Development Team.

Better performance, more modding options, a new skill-tracking system, better matchmaking, more fonts supported, more languages supported, the list goes on and on. Check this Intel Update from ISE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw1Uhu1Ioa4
To read the whole changelog, head on over to the NS2 Blog.



What do you think of 267? What do you want to see in 268? Post your thoughts in the comments below, or head on over to the forums.