This week we have brought you a whole bunch of new alien toys including a new ability for the Shade hive which saps health, a new Crag hive ability which allows players to do extra damage to armor, and a totally revamped bone shield for the Onos!

Aliens didn’t get all the love, though. Marines have also received some new toys and changes to their existing tech. A preliminary version of the Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) has been added. This is a gun that was loved in NS1 and one which many of us have always wanted to see make a return in NS2. The HMG was pioneered successfully in Comp Mod, and now it has made its way into the main game.

We’ve also heard your cries and beacons, and recognize that Contamination tended to be very frustrating for Marines. We’ve made some changes to how it works to give Marine players more time to react to it. It will now do its damage over time rather than immediately when the ability is activated.

All of these gameplay changes are sure to shake up the meta, but that’s not all we’ve been doing. We’ve also been making general improvements to the game, including integrating many features from NS2+ as the defaults that new players will see when they play on any server.

We are excited to see how these changes are received and we want to hear from you, especially about how the new abilities and weapons impact the balance of the game and your own experiences. Please come join us at our Discord server or discuss it in our forums. Although we will be playing games as well, if you think something is completely overpowered, we want to know.


Tweaks / Improvements

• Alien abilities have been shuffled around, and two new abilities have been added!
  
  • Crag Hive - Crush
    
    • Increases armor damage to structures up to 15%, when you have 3 shells
      
    • Increases armor-fraction used on players up to 15% (amount of armor that is used when calculating damage) on players by 15%. Does not affect early game balance
  • Shade Hive - Vampirism (replaces Phantom)
    
    • Provides cloaking and heals your health every time you damage players with a direct attack (no spores / bilebomb)
      
      • Lifeform specific values for life leech (at 3+ veils):
        
        • Skulk: 14hp for bite
          
        • Gorge: 15hp for spit
          
        • Lerk: 2hp for spikes, 10hp for bite
          
        • Fade: 20hp for swipe and stab
          
        • Onos: 40hp for gore
  • Shift Hive - Silence
    
    • This was moved from the Shade Hive to Shift, and split out from Phantom
      
    • Makes all movement and attacks silent
• Biomass scaling has been increased for Lerk and Onos to help their survivability in late game
  
  • Lerk has been increased from 2 to 3hp per biomass
    
  • Onos has been increased from 25 to 30hp per biomass
• Onos Bone Shield has been revamped, and now refills armor!
  
  • Costs 40 energy to trigger, can only be held for at most 4 seconds, and a 10 second cooldown has been added
    
  • Regenerates 100 armor / second while in use
    
  • Will now block 66% of damage from the front instead of 75%
    
  • No longer saps energy while in use
• Cysts no longer die when disconnected from hive
  
  • Cysts instead rapidly lose maturity when the chain is disconnected, making them easier to destroy. When reconnected, maturity is regained rapidly.
    
  • Nutrient mist can be used to prevent the maturity loss.
• Contamination Tweaks
  
  • Increased cooldown to 6 seconds (was 5)
    
  • Bile now sprays every 2 seconds, up to 3 times, and can be stopped by destroying the pustule
• HMG has been added, to help deal with those pesky lifeforms
  
  • Note: Sounds and art assets for HMG are temporary.
• Jetpacks now use more fuel based on a weapon’s weight
  
  • Shotgun and Flamethrower now use 7.6% more fuel
    
  • Grenade Launchers use 15% more fuel
    
  • HMGs uses 130% more fuel
• Mine changes
  
  • eHP changed to 40 (from 100)
    
  • Cost reduced from 15 to 8
    
  • You now get 2 mines instead of 3
• Medpacks can snap to players from a slightly larger radius, snapping already existed but previously was not shown to the commander
  
• Alien vision has been replaced with “Huze’s Minimal”
  
• Alien vision will default to On every time you spawn in
  
• Crosshairs have been updated with new art
  
  • If you prefer the old ones, you can still use them by activating this mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686960508
• Power nodes can now be rebuilt at the same speed with a build tool as with a welder
  
• Wrench damage icons now show how hurt teammates are, and have an outline if you have a welder
  
• Dropped weapons expiration bar will now be colored based on how much time is left before it is destroyed
  
• Range circle indicators have been added for many alien commander abilities, as well as a secondary circle to Shifts to indicate the radius of the energy regeneration passive effect
  
• Mines and Welders will be highlighted and show as pickupable even if you already have one
  
• Dropped weapons will be picked up automatically, if you have an empty slot
  
• Server browser:
  
  • Added the ping filter
    
  • The server details window now has a short delay so users can doubleclick at the server entries wherever they like.
    
  • The server count display is not clickable anymore and has a tooltip
    
  • Favorites and History are now a toggle, clicking again at them while show your previous game selection
• Reduced amount Enzyme particle effects obscure view
  
• Death screen blood splatter effects will disappear immediately when you start respawning

Fixes

• Fixed the issue of ragdolls not getting destroyed
  
• Players will no longer have nutrient mist effects applied to them unless they are an embryo
  
• Server browser Join button should work better
  
• Reduce network cost of the concede cinematics slightly
  
• Fixed an issue where welders would build faster with E than with LMB

• Fixed that medpacks got weirdly offset when hovered over marines. It will now show where the medpack will actually spawn

This week we have brought you a whole bunch of new alien toys including a new ability for the Shade hive which saps health, a new Crag hive ability which allows players to do extra damage to armor, and a totally revamped bone shield for the Onos!

Aliens didn’t get all the love, though. Marines have also received some new toys and changes to their existing tech. A preliminary version of the Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) has been added. This is a gun that was loved in NS1 and one which many of us have always wanted to see make a return in NS2. The HMG was pioneered successfully in Comp Mod, and now it has made its way into the main game.

We’ve also heard your cries and beacons, and recognize that Contamination tended to be very frustrating for Marines. We’ve made some changes to how it works to give Marine players more time to react to it. It will now do its damage over time rather than immediately when the ability is activated.

All of these gameplay changes are sure to shake up the meta, but that’s not all we’ve been doing. We’ve also been making general improvements to the game, including integrating many features from NS2+ as the defaults that new players will see when they play on any server.

We are excited to see how these changes are received and we want to hear from you, especially about how the new abilities and weapons impact the balance of the game and your own experiences. Please come join us at our Discord server or discuss it in our forums. Although we will be playing games as well, if you think something is completely overpowered, we want to know.


Tweaks / Improvements

• Alien abilities have been shuffled around, and two new abilities have been added!
  
  • Crag Hive - Crush
    
    • Increases armor damage to structures up to 15%, when you have 3 shells
      
    • Increases armor-fraction used on players up to 15% (amount of armor that is used when calculating damage) on players by 15%. Does not affect early game balance
  • Shade Hive - Vampirism (replaces Phantom)
    
    • Provides cloaking and heals your health every time you damage players with a direct attack (no spores / bilebomb)
      
      • Lifeform specific values for life leech (at 3+ veils):
        
        • Skulk: 14hp for bite
          
        • Gorge: 15hp for spit
          
        • Lerk: 2hp for spikes, 10hp for bite
          
        • Fade: 20hp for swipe and stab
          
        • Onos: 40hp for gore
  • Shift Hive - Silence
    
    • This was moved from the Shade Hive to Shift, and split out from Phantom
      
    • Makes all movement and attacks silent
• Biomass scaling has been increased for Lerk and Onos to help their survivability in late game
  
  • Lerk has been increased from 2 to 3hp per biomass
    
  • Onos has been increased from 25 to 30hp per biomass
• Onos Bone Shield has been revamped, and now refills armor!
  
  • Costs 40 energy to trigger, can only be held for at most 4 seconds, and a 10 second cooldown has been added
    
  • Regenerates 100 armor / second while in use
    
  • Will now block 66% of damage from the front instead of 75%
    
  • No longer saps energy while in use
• Cysts no longer die when disconnected from hive
  
  • Cysts instead rapidly lose maturity when the chain is disconnected, making them easier to destroy. When reconnected, maturity is regained rapidly.
    
  • Nutrient mist can be used to prevent the maturity loss.
• Contamination Tweaks
  
  • Increased cooldown to 6 seconds (was 5)
    
  • Bile now sprays every 2 seconds, up to 3 times, and can be stopped by destroying the pustule
• HMG has been added, to help deal with those pesky lifeforms
  
  • Note: Sounds and art assets for HMG are temporary.
• Jetpacks now use more fuel based on a weapon’s weight
  
  • Shotgun and Flamethrower now use 7.6% more fuel
    
  • Grenade Launchers use 15% more fuel
    
  • HMGs uses 130% more fuel
• Mine changes
  
  • eHP changed to 40 (from 100)
    
  • Cost reduced from 15 to 8
    
  • You now get 2 mines instead of 3
• Medpacks can snap to players from a slightly larger radius, snapping already existed but previously was not shown to the commander
  
• Alien vision has been replaced with “Huze’s Minimal”
  
• Alien vision will default to On every time you spawn in
  
• Crosshairs have been updated with new art
  
  • If you prefer the old ones, you can still use them by activating this mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686960508
• Power nodes can now be rebuilt at the same speed with a build tool as with a welder
  
• Wrench damage icons now show how hurt teammates are, and have an outline if you have a welder
  
• Dropped weapons expiration bar will now be colored based on how much time is left before it is destroyed
  
• Range circle indicators have been added for many alien commander abilities, as well as a secondary circle to Shifts to indicate the radius of the energy regeneration passive effect
  
• Mines and Welders will be highlighted and show as pickupable even if you already have one
  
• Dropped weapons will be picked up automatically, if you have an empty slot
  
• Server browser:
  
  • Added the ping filter
    
  • The server details window now has a short delay so users can doubleclick at the server entries wherever they like.
    
  • The server count display is not clickable anymore and has a tooltip
    
  • Favorites and History are now a toggle, clicking again at them while show your previous game selection
• Reduced amount Enzyme particle effects obscure view
  
• Death screen blood splatter effects will disappear immediately when you start respawning

Fixes

• Fixed the issue of ragdolls not getting destroyed
  
• Players will no longer have nutrient mist effects applied to them unless they are an embryo
  
• Server browser Join button should work better
  
• Reduce network cost of the concede cinematics slightly
  
• Fixed an issue where welders would build faster with E than with LMB

• Fixed that medpacks got weirdly offset when hovered over marines. It will now show where the medpack will actually spawn

After the response and tracking of a lot of the changes we introduced last week we decided to continue with another update of shakeups. There are some minor adjustments to a few items from the patch after more feedback. Also new this week is a revamped server browser! We have been hard at work to create a better way to filter and sort the list and even provide more information to the user before choosing what server to connect too. Our week to week experiments and changes have been very interesting to watch and see what works and what doesn’t and we aren’t done just yet! Over the next couple weeks there are plans for some additional UI changes, maybe a new weapon? A new map? Additional weapon skins? And if we sell more shadow fades then maybe that Onos will appear (hint: go buy more shadow fades).

Special shout out and thank you to xDragon for allowing us to use his code.

Until next week, happy hunting!

UPDATE NOTES

Tweaks / Improvements

• When a team concedes, everyone is treated to a short sequence showing all the conceding team’s players and structures being destroyed.
• New Server Browser:
  • Highlighting custom gamemodes better by having only two filters, NS2 and Modded
  • Restructured all UI elements for better usability and to better feature the two main filters
  • New fancy color scheme and artistic design
  • No longer showing relative server skill, since it was not very useful
  • Search bar will search for both matching map names as well as server names
• Added an option to disable health bars for those that prefer less visual clutter
• Spectators will be able to see nameplates from further away than players
• Enemy health bar tweaks
  • Changed armor color to be more readable
  • Bile Bomb and spores now also mark enemies
  • Melee attacks now cause enemies to be marked for longer (5s instead of 2s)
  • Fixed that health bars were disappearing semi-randomly as they got close to the edges of the screen
• Added a new achievement for collecting all 15 of the random drop items
• Corrode damage type changed to be more effective vs exos and less effective vs players
  • Damage reduction to player armor changed to 12% (was 23%)
  • Damage reduction to to exo armor changed to 40% (was 30%)
• Phase gates have more of their eHP moved to armor and now has 1500 health and 800 armor (was 2000/550)
• Fade blink movement changes
  • Vertical speed can no longer be converted to horizontal
  • Celerity will have a slightly lessened effect on changing direction
  • Ability to change direction without celerity has been improved
• Marine HUD Parasite icon displays the time left on parasite effect, for Marines
• Gorge:
  • Gorge Webs
    • Now available at biomass 0 and can be placed for Free!
    • Limited to 3 Webs maximum
    • Enemies will be parasites for 10 seconds if they walk through a web
    • Web slowdown effect changed to a 25% reduction (was 85%)
    • Slowdown duration now lasts for 1.5 seconds (was 2)
  • Gorge Babblers
    • You can now only place one egg, but it will spawn 6 babblers
    • Babbler movement speed increased to 7.5 (was 7)
    • Babbler damage type changed to Structural (double vs structures)
    • Babbler damage reduced to 8 (was 10)
  • Gorge Tunnel:
    • Costs reduced to 3 (was 4)
• Increased the amount of personal resources each resource tower grants per player from 1 to 1.25 per minute (by 25%):
  • Reduced Alien starting personal resources to 12 (from 15)
  • Lowered Marine starting personal resources to 15 (from 20)
  • Reduced Lerk personal resource costs to 18 (from 20)
• Onos Gore:
  • Damage lowered to 90 (from 100)
  • Energy cost reduced to 10 (from 13)
• Nutrient mist now prevents structures off infestation from taking damage, and prevents disconnected cysts from taking damage.  Also heals cysts at half crag efficiency.  It no longer requires infestation to be placed.
• Improved damaged exosuit effects as well as minigun and ricochets, to be less vision obscuring (Thanks IronHorse!)
• Umbra changes
  • Duration of umbra cloud reduced to 4 seconds (was 5)
  • Radius of umbra cloud reduced to 4 units (was 6)
  • Flat damage reduction vs all weapons changed to 25% (was 33% vs shotguns, 30% vs Minigun, and 32% vs Railgun)
• Improved fade blink effects to be less vision obscuring (Thanks IronHorse!)
• Reduced the damage Power Surge’s overcharge deals to 25

Fixes

• Fixed that certain commanders abilities e.g. Power Surge did not cost anything.
• Health bars show when a marine is being healed over time by medpacks, again
• Insight health bars are far less colorful (will no longer show parasite and poison status)
• Fixed issue with nameplates allowing players to see where enemies were through walls, if in close proximity
• Fixed issue with fade blink sound sometimes getting stuck looping (Thanks xDragon!)
• Fixed that the crosshair will blink red when players respawn
• Fixed that the nav mesh initialized incorrectly causing issues at some maps (Thanks ZycaR!)
• Fixed that directional damage feedback was only updating at 25hz

Translations

• Completed Finnish translations (Thanks MisterOizo!)

SDK

• Improved camera movement in Cinematic Editor

Maps

• ns2_refinery
  • Changed dimensions of Ready Room join entity to prevent players from being stuck
• ns2_summit
  • Added missing lights in Ready Room
• ns2_veil
  • Fixed various floating props throughout Cargo and Dome
  • Lowered the infamous head-height trashcan. RIP.

After the response and tracking of a lot of the changes we introduced last week we decided to continue with another update of shakeups. There are some minor adjustments to a few items from the patch after more feedback. Also new this week is a revamped server browser! We have been hard at work to create a better way to filter and sort the list and even provide more information to the user before choosing what server to connect too. Our week to week experiments and changes have been very interesting to watch and see what works and what doesn’t and we aren’t done just yet! Over the next couple weeks there are plans for some additional UI changes, maybe a new weapon? A new map? Additional weapon skins? And if we sell more shadow fades then maybe that Onos will appear (hint: go buy more shadow fades).

Special shout out and thank you to xDragon for allowing us to use his code.

Until next week, happy hunting!

UPDATE NOTES

Tweaks / Improvements

• When a team concedes, everyone is treated to a short sequence showing all the conceding team’s players and structures being destroyed.
• New Server Browser:
  • Highlighting custom gamemodes better by having only two filters, NS2 and Modded
  • Restructured all UI elements for better usability and to better feature the two main filters
  • New fancy color scheme and artistic design
  • No longer showing relative server skill, since it was not very useful
  • Search bar will search for both matching map names as well as server names
• Added an option to disable health bars for those that prefer less visual clutter
• Spectators will be able to see nameplates from further away than players
• Enemy health bar tweaks
  • Changed armor color to be more readable
  • Bile Bomb and spores now also mark enemies
  • Melee attacks now cause enemies to be marked for longer (5s instead of 2s)
  • Fixed that health bars were disappearing semi-randomly as they got close to the edges of the screen
• Added a new achievement for collecting all 15 of the random drop items
• Corrode damage type changed to be more effective vs exos and less effective vs players
  • Damage reduction to player armor changed to 12% (was 23%)
  • Damage reduction to to exo armor changed to 40% (was 30%)
• Phase gates have more of their eHP moved to armor and now has 1500 health and 800 armor (was 2000/550)
• Fade blink movement changes
  • Vertical speed can no longer be converted to horizontal
  • Celerity will have a slightly lessened effect on changing direction
  • Ability to change direction without celerity has been improved
• Marine HUD Parasite icon displays the time left on parasite effect, for Marines
• Gorge:
  • Gorge Webs
    • Now available at biomass 0 and can be placed for Free!
    • Limited to 3 Webs maximum
    • Enemies will be parasites for 10 seconds if they walk through a web
    • Web slowdown effect changed to a 25% reduction (was 85%)
    • Slowdown duration now lasts for 1.5 seconds (was 2)
  • Gorge Babblers
    • You can now only place one egg, but it will spawn 6 babblers
    • Babbler movement speed increased to 7.5 (was 7)
    • Babbler damage type changed to Structural (double vs structures)
    • Babbler damage reduced to 8 (was 10)
  • Gorge Tunnel:
    • Costs reduced to 3 (was 4)
• Increased the amount of personal resources each resource tower grants per player from 1 to 1.25 per minute (by 25%):
  • Reduced Alien starting personal resources to 12 (from 15)
  • Lowered Marine starting personal resources to 15 (from 20)
  • Reduced Lerk personal resource costs to 18 (from 20)
• Onos Gore:
  • Damage lowered to 90 (from 100)
  • Energy cost reduced to 10 (from 13)
• Nutrient mist now prevents structures off infestation from taking damage, and prevents disconnected cysts from taking damage.  Also heals cysts at half crag efficiency.  It no longer requires infestation to be placed.
• Improved damaged exosuit effects as well as minigun and ricochets, to be less vision obscuring (Thanks IronHorse!)
• Umbra changes
  • Duration of umbra cloud reduced to 4 seconds (was 5)
  • Radius of umbra cloud reduced to 4 units (was 6)
  • Flat damage reduction vs all weapons changed to 25% (was 33% vs shotguns, 30% vs Minigun, and 32% vs Railgun)
• Improved fade blink effects to be less vision obscuring (Thanks IronHorse!)
• Reduced the damage Power Surge’s overcharge deals to 25

Fixes

• Fixed that certain commanders abilities e.g. Power Surge did not cost anything.
• Health bars show when a marine is being healed over time by medpacks, again
• Insight health bars are far less colorful (will no longer show parasite and poison status)
• Fixed issue with nameplates allowing players to see where enemies were through walls, if in close proximity
• Fixed issue with fade blink sound sometimes getting stuck looping (Thanks xDragon!)
• Fixed that the crosshair will blink red when players respawn
• Fixed that the nav mesh initialized incorrectly causing issues at some maps (Thanks ZycaR!)
• Fixed that directional damage feedback was only updating at 25hz

Translations

• Completed Finnish translations (Thanks MisterOizo!)

SDK

• Improved camera movement in Cinematic Editor

Maps

• ns2_refinery
  • Changed dimensions of Ready Room join entity to prevent players from being stuck
• ns2_summit
  • Added missing lights in Ready Room
• ns2_veil
  • Fixed various floating props throughout Cargo and Dome
  • Lowered the infamous head-height trashcan. RIP.

The Shadow Fade is now available in the NS2 Item Store!

The room was eerily silent, even the normal white noise of the industrial facility seemed to vanish. I proceeded forward as ordered but something felt uneasy and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand up. I continue to tell myself that I am a trained soldier and that I’ve encountered enough alien scum that nothing should surprise me, but still the unease raced across my body and the fear set in even more than before.

Suddenly I hear an all too familiar sound, one that can only be described as vacuumous vortex that death so quickly follows. I stand at the ready, shotgun in hand as I prepare for the Fade that I know is quickly approaching. The sweat rolls over my brow and begins to drip over my eye… I blink and in that instant I feel the presence of the beast in front of me. As my eyes open what stands before me is the creature I know but something is different, this fade evolved, more sinister and more deadly. He quickly swipes at my head and sway to the left to avoid his bony blade like arms. I swing my shotgun back around and fire, but I seem to miss as the fade quickly moves and disappears into the shadows of the room.

I begin to trace the room looking for the beast and fire I hope will be the fatal blow. I approach the darkness slowly in anticipation of an attack and in the black I can just make out the two blood thirsty eyes of the fade. I fire my shotgun and the blood from the beast paints the floor below me, but then it lunges forward both weapon-like arms at the ready to stab me, I try to fire again but feel the bone rip through the skin on my shoulder. My body falls to floor like a rock as the blood flows from my wound like a creek after the storm. As my vision begins to blur and I can feel the life leaving my body, I hear the fade chuckle and watch it drift back into the shadows…



Update 297 is packed full of exciting new changes to existing weapons. We have been looking and talking about ways to shake things up, and our first thoughts were adjust the items that aren’t that fun or aren’t used that much now. There is obviously more than what you see below, but with our weekly release window we can only test so much at a time. If you hadn’t got the hint from above the Shadow Fade is now available in game. If you purchased the Shadow Tier as part of the Reinforced program you will get the fade free of charge when you launch the game. For those of you that didn’t, you can purchase it in the Item Store. If the fade is successful we will quickly be working to introduce the final member of the shadow lifeforms, the Onos. Expect more changes and exciting new thoughts and ideas over the coming weeks and spread the word to your friends that now is the best time to be playing NS2 and it’s only going to get better!


New Additions

• Shadow Fade model/skin has been released to all Shadow Tier players and is available in the NS2 Item Store

Tweaks / Improvements

• Exosuit changes - Dualies for All!
  
  • Base Exo research now unlocks dual gun exos, and does not require two Command Stations to purchase
    
  • Dual exo personal resources cost reduced from 60 to 45, and Claw exos have been removed (used to be 40 res)
    
  • Dualies now move faster (same speed as claw Exos of the same type)
    
  • Exos now only gain 30 extra armor per armor upgrade, instead of 45
    
  • Minigun ROF doubled, but damage reduced by 55% (per bullet) and changed to Normal damage type
    
  • Railgun damage changed to normal type
    
  • Ejecting from an exo when you have a jetpack will now grant you a quarter tank to fly away with
• Alien Commander ability changes
  
  • Contamination now spews Bile briefly when initially placed (equal to two bile bombs)
    
  • Rupture now Parasites anything in its effect radius
    
    • Reduced the view-blocking visuals by 40%
      
    • Rupture charge time decreased by 42% (was 3s now 1.25s)
      
    • Increased Team Resources cost to 3 (was 2)
      
    • Increased cooldown time to 4 seconds (was 2 seconds)
• Grenade Changes - Guaranteed Explosions!
  
  • It now costs 2 personal resources to buy 1 grenade (previously it was 3 for 2)
    
  • If you die after pulling the pin or while attempting to throw a grenade, it will fall at your feet and explode
    
  • If you die with a non-primed grenade, it will respawn with you
    
  • Cluster grenades’ secondary explosion is now fire type
    
  • Grenade deploy animation is now affected by catpacks as well as the pin pull and throw animations
• Power Surge Changes - “Overcharge“:
  
  • Power Surge is now researchable at the Command Station for 15 team resources and needs 45 seconds to be researched.
    
  • Power Surge costs 5 team resources and has a cooldown of 20 seconds
    
  • Does not work at Command Stations and Power Nodes
    
  • Applying power surge is now easier as it auto selects a building close to where you clicked (similar to Nanoshield)
• New Effects:
  
  • On powered structures:
    
    • Deals 50 healthpoint damage to nearby aliens
      
    • Lowers the energy regeneration rate of nearby aliens for 5 seconds
  • On un-powered structures:
    
    • Restores power for 20 seconds.
  • Health bars will now show for enemies you attack
    
    • Only visible in short range and with clear line of sight onto the target
      
    • Better visual damage feedback about time to kill than damage numbers
      
    • Engagements are less binary for new players
      
    • Helps to focus on a target
  • Damage numbers are now off by default for new players, since they are redundant when viewed in conjunction with health bars.
    
  • Slowed down the dead lifeform dissolve length from 1.5s to 2.25s so players have a little more time to enjoy their kill
    
  • Replaced the Gorge with a Drifter status at the Alien tech tree overview.
    
  • Improved hit feedback on the crosshair to appear and disappear faster and coincide more closely with the damage you are doing.
    
  • Reduced name flickering when aiming at an enemy
  
  Fixes
  
  
• Increased the player slot limit for Linux to 99
  
• Cluster grenades and mines will no longer shake the commander’s view
  
• Fixed that the bootcamp menu message was not working.
  
• Fixed Cluster Grenade fragment explosions not applying correct damage type. Was Normal, now Fire damage type.
  
• Fixed that some of the serverbrowser filter did not work
  
• Removed a one pixel offset in the killfeed icon texture that caused issues in the past
  
• Fixed issue causing crosshair hit feedback to be updating too slowly
  
• Fixed that completing the tutorial granted a few achievements too many
  
• Fixed that the average skill value of servers wasn’t being calculated correctly
  
  Translations
  
  
• Added the achievement title and descriptions to the translation system, so they can be translated via http://translate.naturalselection2.com/
  
• Added Czech, French and German translations for the new tutorials (Thanks navaska, Pelargir and ChrisStark!)
  
  Maps
  
  Docking (Thanks Zavaro!)
  
• Fixed missing Location entity for area adjacent to Locker Rooms
  
  Tram (Thanks Flaterectomy!)
  
• Fixed various texture misalignments and smoothing issues around the map
  
• Removed erroneous light props hidden behind a wall that were visible from commander view in shipping
  
• Removed the large door at the southern end of the room in Shipping from commander view
  
• Fixed a cable prop ending in mid-air in Repair
  
• Made it easier to move over the pipe behind the powernode in Platform
  
• Visual improvements below the floor and around the pillars and benches in the center of the ready room
  
• Put unsorted entities, props and geometry in the appropriate layers
  
• Fixed lights staying on in Hub when the power goes out (but made the tram's headlights stay on instead)
  
• Fixed lights staying on when the power goes out in Hub and Repair due to being outside of the location entities
  
  SDK
  
  
• CompileModel utility updates
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause bones to scaled up if the source units weren't in centimeters, resulting in invalid physics collision reps.
  
• Fixed bug where collision solids were improperly aligned
  
• Fixed an issue that meant cameras from 3dsmax would not have the correct field of view
  
• The FBX workflow now allows for bones to be declared as attach_points in the model_compile file
  
• Added a feature to help with compiling new FBX assets and using "animation_model" from old DAE assets. Users can now use the "bone_order_override" directive to specify the sorting order of bones to match up to an existing model. Note: It safety checks the indices given -- they cannot contain duplicates, they must be sequential, they must start at zero and count up, and they cannot arrange the bones such that any parent has a higher index than the children

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4920

The Shadow Fade is now available in the NS2 Item Store!

The room was eerily silent, even the normal white noise of the industrial facility seemed to vanish. I proceeded forward as ordered but something felt uneasy and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand up. I continue to tell myself that I am a trained soldier and that I’ve encountered enough alien scum that nothing should surprise me, but still the unease raced across my body and the fear set in even more than before.

Suddenly I hear an all too familiar sound, one that can only be described as vacuumous vortex that death so quickly follows. I stand at the ready, shotgun in hand as I prepare for the Fade that I know is quickly approaching. The sweat rolls over my brow and begins to drip over my eye… I blink and in that instant I feel the presence of the beast in front of me. As my eyes open what stands before me is the creature I know but something is different, this fade evolved, more sinister and more deadly. He quickly swipes at my head and sway to the left to avoid his bony blade like arms. I swing my shotgun back around and fire, but I seem to miss as the fade quickly moves and disappears into the shadows of the room.

I begin to trace the room looking for the beast and fire I hope will be the fatal blow. I approach the darkness slowly in anticipation of an attack and in the black I can just make out the two blood thirsty eyes of the fade. I fire my shotgun and the blood from the beast paints the floor below me, but then it lunges forward both weapon-like arms at the ready to stab me, I try to fire again but feel the bone rip through the skin on my shoulder. My body falls to floor like a rock as the blood flows from my wound like a creek after the storm. As my vision begins to blur and I can feel the life leaving my body, I hear the fade chuckle and watch it drift back into the shadows…



Update 297 is packed full of exciting new changes to existing weapons. We have been looking and talking about ways to shake things up, and our first thoughts were adjust the items that aren’t that fun or aren’t used that much now. There is obviously more than what you see below, but with our weekly release window we can only test so much at a time. If you hadn’t got the hint from above the Shadow Fade is now available in game. If you purchased the Shadow Tier as part of the Reinforced program you will get the fade free of charge when you launch the game. For those of you that didn’t, you can purchase it in the Item Store. If the fade is successful we will quickly be working to introduce the final member of the shadow lifeforms, the Onos. Expect more changes and exciting new thoughts and ideas over the coming weeks and spread the word to your friends that now is the best time to be playing NS2 and it’s only going to get better!


New Additions

• Shadow Fade model/skin has been released to all Shadow Tier players and is available in the NS2 Item Store

Tweaks / Improvements

• Exosuit changes - Dualies for All!
  
  • Base Exo research now unlocks dual gun exos, and does not require two Command Stations to purchase
    
  • Dual exo personal resources cost reduced from 60 to 45, and Claw exos have been removed (used to be 40 res)
    
  • Dualies now move faster (same speed as claw Exos of the same type)
    
  • Exos now only gain 30 extra armor per armor upgrade, instead of 45
    
  • Minigun ROF doubled, but damage reduced by 55% (per bullet) and changed to Normal damage type
    
  • Railgun damage changed to normal type
    
  • Ejecting from an exo when you have a jetpack will now grant you a quarter tank to fly away with
• Alien Commander ability changes
  
  • Contamination now spews Bile briefly when initially placed (equal to two bile bombs)
    
  • Rupture now Parasites anything in its effect radius
    
    • Reduced the view-blocking visuals by 40%
      
    • Rupture charge time decreased by 42% (was 3s now 1.25s)
      
    • Increased Team Resources cost to 3 (was 2)
      
    • Increased cooldown time to 4 seconds (was 2 seconds)
• Grenade Changes - Guaranteed Explosions!
  
  • It now costs 2 personal resources to buy 1 grenade (previously it was 3 for 2)
    
  • If you die after pulling the pin or while attempting to throw a grenade, it will fall at your feet and explode
    
  • If you die with a non-primed grenade, it will respawn with you
    
  • Cluster grenades’ secondary explosion is now fire type
    
  • Grenade deploy animation is now affected by catpacks as well as the pin pull and throw animations
• Power Surge Changes - “Overcharge“:
  
  • Power Surge is now researchable at the Command Station for 15 team resources and needs 45 seconds to be researched.
    
  • Power Surge costs 5 team resources and has a cooldown of 20 seconds
    
  • Does not work at Command Stations and Power Nodes
    
  • Applying power surge is now easier as it auto selects a building close to where you clicked (similar to Nanoshield)
• New Effects:
  
  • On powered structures:
    
    • Deals 50 healthpoint damage to nearby aliens
      
    • Lowers the energy regeneration rate of nearby aliens for 5 seconds
  • On un-powered structures:
    
    • Restores power for 20 seconds.
  • Health bars will now show for enemies you attack
    
    • Only visible in short range and with clear line of sight onto the target
      
    • Better visual damage feedback about time to kill than damage numbers
      
    • Engagements are less binary for new players
      
    • Helps to focus on a target
  • Damage numbers are now off by default for new players, since they are redundant when viewed in conjunction with health bars.
    
  • Slowed down the dead lifeform dissolve length from 1.5s to 2.25s so players have a little more time to enjoy their kill
    
  • Replaced the Gorge with a Drifter status at the Alien tech tree overview.
    
  • Improved hit feedback on the crosshair to appear and disappear faster and coincide more closely with the damage you are doing.
    
  • Reduced name flickering when aiming at an enemy
  
  Fixes
  
  
• Increased the player slot limit for Linux to 99
  
• Cluster grenades and mines will no longer shake the commander’s view
  
• Fixed that the bootcamp menu message was not working.
  
• Fixed Cluster Grenade fragment explosions not applying correct damage type. Was Normal, now Fire damage type.
  
• Fixed that some of the serverbrowser filter did not work
  
• Removed a one pixel offset in the killfeed icon texture that caused issues in the past
  
• Fixed issue causing crosshair hit feedback to be updating too slowly
  
• Fixed that completing the tutorial granted a few achievements too many
  
• Fixed that the average skill value of servers wasn’t being calculated correctly
  
  Translations
  
  
• Added the achievement title and descriptions to the translation system, so they can be translated via http://translate.naturalselection2.com/
  
• Added Czech, French and German translations for the new tutorials (Thanks navaska, Pelargir and ChrisStark!)
  
  Maps
  
  Docking (Thanks Zavaro!)
  
• Fixed missing Location entity for area adjacent to Locker Rooms
  
  Tram (Thanks Flaterectomy!)
  
• Fixed various texture misalignments and smoothing issues around the map
  
• Removed erroneous light props hidden behind a wall that were visible from commander view in shipping
  
• Removed the large door at the southern end of the room in Shipping from commander view
  
• Fixed a cable prop ending in mid-air in Repair
  
• Made it easier to move over the pipe behind the powernode in Platform
  
• Visual improvements below the floor and around the pillars and benches in the center of the ready room
  
• Put unsorted entities, props and geometry in the appropriate layers
  
• Fixed lights staying on in Hub when the power goes out (but made the tram's headlights stay on instead)
  
• Fixed lights staying on when the power goes out in Hub and Repair due to being outside of the location entities
  
  SDK
  
  
• CompileModel utility updates
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause bones to scaled up if the source units weren't in centimeters, resulting in invalid physics collision reps.
  
• Fixed bug where collision solids were improperly aligned
  
• Fixed an issue that meant cameras from 3dsmax would not have the correct field of view
  
• The FBX workflow now allows for bones to be declared as attach_points in the model_compile file
  
• Added a feature to help with compiling new FBX assets and using "animation_model" from old DAE assets. Users can now use the "bone_order_override" directive to specify the sorting order of bones to match up to an existing model. Note: It safety checks the indices given -- they cannot contain duplicates, they must be sequential, they must start at zero and count up, and they cannot arrange the bones such that any parent has a higher index than the children

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4920

Wake up Marine! Time to get into action and learn your objectives. Trevor and many team and community members have been hard at work on our tutorial system and it’s time to release it into the wild. This new tutorial offers a better way of progression through the basics of NS2 for both marines and aliens and also helps new players understand the many complexities that the game offers. We couldn’t be more excited to see how this turns out and we’ve even hidden some fun Easter eggs throughout both tutorials, see if you can find them all :)

There is still more to come and next week we look at our continued efforts to spice things up a bit, so stay tuned 😉

UPDATE INFO

Tweaks / Improvements
Replaced the old tutorial with two brand new tutorials.
-One for each team
-Each takes place at a different map
-Designed to be interactive and less linear
-New script/story
-New UI
-New animations
-Two sets of Voiceovers
-Include two new secret achievements
New Hive Status UI added which displays the following details:
-Type of each Hive
-Health point of the each Hives
-Location of each Hive
-Number of eggs located at each Hive
-Displays which Hive is occupied by the commander
-Only shows Locations that contain a TechPoint
-Shows if Eggs and Hive are taking damage
-Can be toggled via the HUD detail setting
Moved Team Resources UI screen position for Aliens to accommodate new Hive UI
Moved Personal Upgrades UI screen position to accommodate new Hive UI
Removed Biomass UI fade in/out animation. It now instantly shows and disappears
Steam Personas will no longer be changed by the game without player intent
Added contextual on-click events to new player checklist in the Main Menu
Normal achievements can’t be received at a listen server any longer

Fixes
Fixed black-screen on load issue for Windows 7 and some Linux clients could encounter when running a listen server, which was caused by incorrectly sized UDP packets.
Fixed net_log debugging command not being applied to Listen Servers.
Fixed script error that occured when killing a Command Station

Maps
Map fixes from Loki and Zavaro. Thanks guys!

Biodome
Fixed OcclusionGeometry in Atmospheric which was mistakenly added as CommanderInvisible

Derelict
Fixed stuck spot in Turbine

Docking
Fixed layers to contain appropriate geometry, assets, and lights
Fixed leftover geo from previous builds including extra faces and vertices
Fixed pathing mesh in Courtyard

Eclipse
Fixed CollisionGeometry in Generator Monitors vent to prevent people from accidentally falling through

Kodiak
Marine Start holo table is now flush with the floor
Fixed some holes in the Biodomes

Refinery
Fixed pathing mesh in Chasm to stop AI from getting stuck

Wake up Marine! Time to get into action and learn your objectives. Trevor and many team and community members have been hard at work on our tutorial system and it’s time to release it into the wild. This new tutorial offers a better way of progression through the basics of NS2 for both marines and aliens and also helps new players understand the many complexities that the game offers. We couldn’t be more excited to see how this turns out and we’ve even hidden some fun Easter eggs throughout both tutorials, see if you can find them all :)

There is still more to come and next week we look at our continued efforts to spice things up a bit, so stay tuned 😉

UPDATE INFO

Tweaks / Improvements
Replaced the old tutorial with two brand new tutorials.
-One for each team
-Each takes place at a different map
-Designed to be interactive and less linear
-New script/story
-New UI
-New animations
-Two sets of Voiceovers
-Include two new secret achievements
New Hive Status UI added which displays the following details:
-Type of each Hive
-Health point of the each Hives
-Location of each Hive
-Number of eggs located at each Hive
-Displays which Hive is occupied by the commander
-Only shows Locations that contain a TechPoint
-Shows if Eggs and Hive are taking damage
-Can be toggled via the HUD detail setting
Moved Team Resources UI screen position for Aliens to accommodate new Hive UI
Moved Personal Upgrades UI screen position to accommodate new Hive UI
Removed Biomass UI fade in/out animation. It now instantly shows and disappears
Steam Personas will no longer be changed by the game without player intent
Added contextual on-click events to new player checklist in the Main Menu
Normal achievements can’t be received at a listen server any longer

Fixes
Fixed black-screen on load issue for Windows 7 and some Linux clients could encounter when running a listen server, which was caused by incorrectly sized UDP packets.
Fixed net_log debugging command not being applied to Listen Servers.
Fixed script error that occured when killing a Command Station

Maps
Map fixes from Loki and Zavaro. Thanks guys!

Biodome
Fixed OcclusionGeometry in Atmospheric which was mistakenly added as CommanderInvisible

Derelict
Fixed stuck spot in Turbine

Docking
Fixed layers to contain appropriate geometry, assets, and lights
Fixed leftover geo from previous builds including extra faces and vertices
Fixed pathing mesh in Courtyard

Eclipse
Fixed CollisionGeometry in Generator Monitors vent to prevent people from accidentally falling through

Kodiak
Marine Start holo table is now flush with the floor
Fixed some holes in the Biodomes

Refinery
Fixed pathing mesh in Chasm to stop AI from getting stuck

Keeping in tune with our weekly releases is key to our continued work on NS2. What’s great about this schedule is that we can make tweaks and improvements across all aspects of the game, get real world feedback on gameplay and then just a few days later release more fine tuning and even more changes. Throughout these last few months, some of our experiments and changes have worked out better than we’d ever thought…and sometimes they don’t. However, what’s true is that we continue to push forward and try new exciting things.

Update 295 begins our movement towards a continued shakeup from the norm of NS2 gameplay. We are always looking for ways to simplify and also spice up gameplay throughout the game. Another great improvement comes from our good friend Matso in the way of some additional network updates that will hopefully improve the experience for those of you having redplug issues.

Lastly, thank you again to our awesome community. We recently re-launched the NS2 Translation site and have already gotten a lot of great submissions from people from all over the world. You can help the cause by visiting translate.naturalselection2.com! Our community is so rich with talent and it does not go unnoticed. We have some exciting things to come over the next few weeks and can’t wait for you to get your hands onto it, plus remember you can access the beta branch any time you want to see what’s going on behind the scenes of the next update.

UPDATE NOTES

Tweaks / Improvements

Ragdolls will dissolve faster and be colorized faster to give more feedback that they are dead already and you can stop shooting
Hitsounds will be enabled by default for new players so marines get better feedback when shooting aliens
New item pop-ups will no longer show for duplicates
Updated the in-game fonts to better support Latin Extended A chars (Thanks navazka)
NS2 now remembers the last selected server browser tab and will reselect it as soon as the server list has been fetched.
Gamemode server browser tabs now display the amount of players of the given mode.
Removed unique popup warning about gameplay issues on large servers
Warning popup for operating outside recommended settings changed
Will show if server exceeds 24 player slots as well as if network settings have been changed from default
Warning message will not show for servers you have favorited
“Never Show Again” option removed for rookies
Your nickname in NS2 will now automatically update with changes to your Steam name (this can be disabled from the options menu, under General -> Keep Same As Steam)
When failing to connect to a server due to reserved slots or because of having been banned, you will now be told so more explicitly
Added disconnect reasons for wrong build numbers, to make patch day less confusing for players
Default server moverate reduced from 30 to 26. This restores it to approximately what it was prior to build 279, and should help server performance
Servers will report now the sum of the median and standard deviation of all player skill rating as average player skill. This should make the skill row of the server browser more reliable.
Removed over 200 no longer used game strings to help our community translators. Feel free to help us localizing the game at http://translate.naturalselection2.com/

Fixes

Fixed issue where moverate was being improperly calculated, potentially causing a client to send an excessive number of moves after returning from being alt+tabbed, or if their framerate stuttered (Thanks Matso!)
Rookie only server alert message will now be hidden forever when you tell it to be so
Fixed weird behavior with popups when trying to join servers with reserved slots where the same popup would appear more than once

SDK

Raised engine hard limit for max players to 99. It is still recommended to stay under 24
Servers can now supply a refuse reason in the CheckConnectionAllowed callback

Keeping in tune with our weekly releases is key to our continued work on NS2. What’s great about this schedule is that we can make tweaks and improvements across all aspects of the game, get real world feedback on gameplay and then just a few days later release more fine tuning and even more changes. Throughout these last few months, some of our experiments and changes have worked out better than we’d ever thought…and sometimes they don’t. However, what’s true is that we continue to push forward and try new exciting things.

Update 295 begins our movement towards a continued shakeup from the norm of NS2 gameplay. We are always looking for ways to simplify and also spice up gameplay throughout the game. Another great improvement comes from our good friend Matso in the way of some additional network updates that will hopefully improve the experience for those of you having redplug issues.

Lastly, thank you again to our awesome community. We recently re-launched the NS2 Translation site and have already gotten a lot of great submissions from people from all over the world. You can help the cause by visiting translate.naturalselection2.com! Our community is so rich with talent and it does not go unnoticed. We have some exciting things to come over the next few weeks and can’t wait for you to get your hands onto it, plus remember you can access the beta branch any time you want to see what’s going on behind the scenes of the next update.

UPDATE NOTES

Tweaks / Improvements

Ragdolls will dissolve faster and be colorized faster to give more feedback that they are dead already and you can stop shooting
Hitsounds will be enabled by default for new players so marines get better feedback when shooting aliens
New item pop-ups will no longer show for duplicates
Updated the in-game fonts to better support Latin Extended A chars (Thanks navazka)
NS2 now remembers the last selected server browser tab and will reselect it as soon as the server list has been fetched.
Gamemode server browser tabs now display the amount of players of the given mode.
Removed unique popup warning about gameplay issues on large servers
Warning popup for operating outside recommended settings changed
Will show if server exceeds 24 player slots as well as if network settings have been changed from default
Warning message will not show for servers you have favorited
“Never Show Again” option removed for rookies
Your nickname in NS2 will now automatically update with changes to your Steam name (this can be disabled from the options menu, under General -> Keep Same As Steam)
When failing to connect to a server due to reserved slots or because of having been banned, you will now be told so more explicitly
Added disconnect reasons for wrong build numbers, to make patch day less confusing for players
Default server moverate reduced from 30 to 26. This restores it to approximately what it was prior to build 279, and should help server performance
Servers will report now the sum of the median and standard deviation of all player skill rating as average player skill. This should make the skill row of the server browser more reliable.
Removed over 200 no longer used game strings to help our community translators. Feel free to help us localizing the game at http://translate.naturalselection2.com/

Fixes

Fixed issue where moverate was being improperly calculated, potentially causing a client to send an excessive number of moves after returning from being alt+tabbed, or if their framerate stuttered (Thanks Matso!)
Rookie only server alert message will now be hidden forever when you tell it to be so
Fixed weird behavior with popups when trying to join servers with reserved slots where the same popup would appear more than once

SDK

Raised engine hard limit for max players to 99. It is still recommended to stay under 24
Servers can now supply a refuse reason in the CheckConnectionAllowed callback