Natural Selection 2 has received a new update, just in time for the holidays! There's fun holiday stuff throughout ready rooms, and a change log as long as a Hydra tentacle.

Here are all the details: http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/build-272-live-steam/.


This is the raw changelog. Be sure to head over to the NS2 blog for more information about the update!

Seasonal
The main menu is now festive!
All ready rooms have also got into the spirit of the season! (except tram :( not sure what happened)
Snowballs!

Improvements
NS2 servers now also show up in the steam server list.
Minimal infestation is now more visually representative of the range it should be, Improved how minimal infestation looks.
You can now swap alien upgrades without first deselecting the previous one (it will do so automatically)
Added new option to the sound page to let sounds continue to play while the game is minimized
Meds, ammo, and catpacks can now be picked up from any height difference
Made the scoreboard usable at low resolutions no matter the player count. The teams will be displayed vertically in low resolution and you are able to scroll through the scoreboard with the slider on the right side, or pressing Home/End, Page Up/Down, or using your mouse wheel.
The scoreboard now displays the Commander background as yellow. This makes it easier to identify rookie commanders as their name will still display green even while commanding.
Changed to only allow reset game votes in the first 3 minutes of a game to discourage using it as an alternative to concede
Changed to allow conceding after 7 minutes instead of 10, and made it easier for mods to override
The taskbar icon will flash when alt+tabbed when a game is starting or when it is time to pick a team (after map loads or after the previous game ends)
Previous turns logfiles now saved as .old.txt on game start
Output from p_logall now goes to the same directory as logs
If steam is down, servers and clients will use already downloaded mods – if the client has the same version of a mod as the server, the client will be able to connect and play even when steam is down.
Added customization menu to the main menu
Added “Acknowledged” voiceover
Combined “Let’s Move” voiceover with “Follow Me”
The background of the commander button in the voiceover menu will scale to the commander’s name
Pressing movement modifier key while commander will now toggle a movement override while press that allows the WASD keys (or whatever they are mapped to) to be used to move the camera (like arrow keys do)
Faster grenade sprinting animation
Made Babbler eggs highlighted in Alien vision
Updated dkjson, so you can now use advanced json syntax in json config files (e.g. javascript comments)
Resource loading can be configured. May increase loading speed for SSD users (sorry, will only slow down HDD users).

Fixes
Fixed issues with dropping catpacks on exos not feeling as responsive as dropping stuff for marines
Fixed server crash related to picking up a jetpack and weapon at the same time
Fixed kill feed being obscured by the death screen fade to black
Fixed voting to concede with only one player on the team requiring more votes than there were players
Fixed sound explosion caused by being alt+tabbed for a while and then coming back into the game
Fixed echoing harvesters into locations with multiple resource nozzles not always working
net_blackout now requires cheats
Fixed linux client crash when shooting a shotgun (thanks CERIBIK)
Fixed child entity positions when placed in an a non-moving parent entity.
Fixed that some attacks would be silenced for aliens with phantom even though no veils were built
Fixed that a single catpack could be used by multiple marines
Fixed alignment of server entry names
Fixed artifacts on the Exo and Jetpack textures caused by the marine outlines
Fixed mapper placed team-related props being highlighted in Alien vision.
Fixed fans having decals projected onto them

Performance
(Thanks to Wooza/ATFhome for running some test code)
Server now spreads out player updates better, avoiding updating them all at once (source of late joining player getting extra lag)
Server now uses more threads to compute network updates to avoid blocking main thread
Server now uses a faster way of calculating what entities should be sent to each client
LuaJIT will dynamically adjust parameters to avoid resets in the middle of the game (a reset means that the game runs without LuaJIT for a little bit while it recompiles, which could cause a hitch and is now avoided)
Server no longer runs updates for tunnels with no players in them
Fixed relevancy for tunnel contents; don’t send contents of all tunnels to all players
Client no longer runs updates for all props in all tunnels all the time – it no longer knows they exist unless the player is actually inside a tunnel
Client: skip setting bones for entities not in FOV, except for dynamic props if shadows are on (cause otherwise the shadow of a fan stops rotating when you are not looking at the fan).
Significantly improved performance of the marine colored outlines by removing several render cameras and optimizing the shader
Improved performance of alien parasite outlines by optimizing the shader
Reduced amount of http-requests used to get player data from the hive

SDK
Added Client.WindowNeedsAttention() which will cause the taskbar icon to flash when called if the user is alt+tabbed
Improved performance of Editor
Added circle entity indicators for ARC range, IP attach range, and relevancy range in the editor to more easily visualize the the game relevant ranges from within Editor
Added console command removeoption to remove the specified option from your config.
e.g. “removeoption graphics/infestationQuality”
Added BaseModelMixin:GetIsHighlightEnabled() to specify if an entity should be highlighted in alien vision
Fixed collision on biodome_outdoor_rock_03
Fixed path issues with some files
New global function GetHiveDataBySteamId( int steamid ) to get hive data for the given users

Maps

Kodiak
Hangar Bay performance has been improved
Altered vent route from Hangar to Observation to make it easier to traverse
Added new rock formation near Falls RT to help marines get to the “top” level of the rocks
Added occlusion geo to the ice pillar in water production to improve FPS
fixed .model. error in water production (had been causing fps drops)

Eclipse
Moved Access Alpha RT to the top of the ramp
Closed off Conduit exit vent (it still is open from Generator Monitors to Power Sub Junction)
Improved Occlusion geo in Access Alpha in order to improve FPS

Mineshaft
Fixed missing wall in Cart Tunnel

Refinery
The vent in Containment has been changed to not overlook the room to prevent gorges from spit-harassing Command Chairs
Fixed stuck spot in Turbine
Lava under the walkway has been changed to a very high DoT instead of an instant death trigger

Tram
Power node in Mezzanine is now connected to the wall
It should no longer be possible to hide cysts under the tram in Repair Room

Biodome
Removed random pipe props from the RR

Natural Selection 2 has received a new update, just in time for the holidays! There's fun holiday stuff throughout ready rooms, and a change log as long as a Hydra tentacle.

Here are all the details: http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/build-272-live-steam/.


This is the raw changelog. Be sure to head over to the NS2 blog for more information about the update!

Seasonal
The main menu is now festive!
All ready rooms have also got into the spirit of the season! (except tram :( not sure what happened)
Snowballs!

Improvements
NS2 servers now also show up in the steam server list.
Minimal infestation is now more visually representative of the range it should be, Improved how minimal infestation looks.
You can now swap alien upgrades without first deselecting the previous one (it will do so automatically)
Added new option to the sound page to let sounds continue to play while the game is minimized
Meds, ammo, and catpacks can now be picked up from any height difference
Made the scoreboard usable at low resolutions no matter the player count. The teams will be displayed vertically in low resolution and you are able to scroll through the scoreboard with the slider on the right side, or pressing Home/End, Page Up/Down, or using your mouse wheel.
The scoreboard now displays the Commander background as yellow. This makes it easier to identify rookie commanders as their name will still display green even while commanding.
Changed to only allow reset game votes in the first 3 minutes of a game to discourage using it as an alternative to concede
Changed to allow conceding after 7 minutes instead of 10, and made it easier for mods to override
The taskbar icon will flash when alt+tabbed when a game is starting or when it is time to pick a team (after map loads or after the previous game ends)
Previous turns logfiles now saved as .old.txt on game start
Output from p_logall now goes to the same directory as logs
If steam is down, servers and clients will use already downloaded mods – if the client has the same version of a mod as the server, the client will be able to connect and play even when steam is down.
Added customization menu to the main menu
Added “Acknowledged” voiceover
Combined “Let’s Move” voiceover with “Follow Me”
The background of the commander button in the voiceover menu will scale to the commander’s name
Pressing movement modifier key while commander will now toggle a movement override while press that allows the WASD keys (or whatever they are mapped to) to be used to move the camera (like arrow keys do)
Faster grenade sprinting animation
Made Babbler eggs highlighted in Alien vision
Updated dkjson, so you can now use advanced json syntax in json config files (e.g. javascript comments)
Resource loading can be configured. May increase loading speed for SSD users (sorry, will only slow down HDD users).

Fixes
Fixed issues with dropping catpacks on exos not feeling as responsive as dropping stuff for marines
Fixed server crash related to picking up a jetpack and weapon at the same time
Fixed kill feed being obscured by the death screen fade to black
Fixed voting to concede with only one player on the team requiring more votes than there were players
Fixed sound explosion caused by being alt+tabbed for a while and then coming back into the game
Fixed echoing harvesters into locations with multiple resource nozzles not always working
net_blackout now requires cheats
Fixed linux client crash when shooting a shotgun (thanks CERIBIK)
Fixed child entity positions when placed in an a non-moving parent entity.
Fixed that some attacks would be silenced for aliens with phantom even though no veils were built
Fixed that a single catpack could be used by multiple marines
Fixed alignment of server entry names
Fixed artifacts on the Exo and Jetpack textures caused by the marine outlines
Fixed mapper placed team-related props being highlighted in Alien vision.
Fixed fans having decals projected onto them

Performance
(Thanks to Wooza/ATFhome for running some test code)
Server now spreads out player updates better, avoiding updating them all at once (source of late joining player getting extra lag)
Server now uses more threads to compute network updates to avoid blocking main thread
Server now uses a faster way of calculating what entities should be sent to each client
LuaJIT will dynamically adjust parameters to avoid resets in the middle of the game (a reset means that the game runs without LuaJIT for a little bit while it recompiles, which could cause a hitch and is now avoided)
Server no longer runs updates for tunnels with no players in them
Fixed relevancy for tunnel contents; don’t send contents of all tunnels to all players
Client no longer runs updates for all props in all tunnels all the time – it no longer knows they exist unless the player is actually inside a tunnel
Client: skip setting bones for entities not in FOV, except for dynamic props if shadows are on (cause otherwise the shadow of a fan stops rotating when you are not looking at the fan).
Significantly improved performance of the marine colored outlines by removing several render cameras and optimizing the shader
Improved performance of alien parasite outlines by optimizing the shader
Reduced amount of http-requests used to get player data from the hive

SDK
Added Client.WindowNeedsAttention() which will cause the taskbar icon to flash when called if the user is alt+tabbed
Improved performance of Editor
Added circle entity indicators for ARC range, IP attach range, and relevancy range in the editor to more easily visualize the the game relevant ranges from within Editor
Added console command removeoption to remove the specified option from your config.
e.g. “removeoption graphics/infestationQuality”
Added BaseModelMixin:GetIsHighlightEnabled() to specify if an entity should be highlighted in alien vision
Fixed collision on biodome_outdoor_rock_03
Fixed path issues with some files
New global function GetHiveDataBySteamId( int steamid ) to get hive data for the given users

Maps

Kodiak
Hangar Bay performance has been improved
Altered vent route from Hangar to Observation to make it easier to traverse
Added new rock formation near Falls RT to help marines get to the “top” level of the rocks
Added occlusion geo to the ice pillar in water production to improve FPS
fixed .model. error in water production (had been causing fps drops)

Eclipse
Moved Access Alpha RT to the top of the ramp
Closed off Conduit exit vent (it still is open from Generator Monitors to Power Sub Junction)
Improved Occlusion geo in Access Alpha in order to improve FPS

Mineshaft
Fixed missing wall in Cart Tunnel

Refinery
The vent in Containment has been changed to not overlook the room to prevent gorges from spit-harassing Command Chairs
Fixed stuck spot in Turbine
Lava under the walkway has been changed to a very high DoT instead of an instant death trigger

Tram
Power node in Mezzanine is now connected to the wall
It should no longer be possible to hide cysts under the tram in Repair Room

Biodome
Removed random pipe props from the RR

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.