Natural Selection 3.0 to be released on...

[Kouler]

Saturday. Thats right , I can't wait.

The following are the major changes IIRC:

- New medpacks
- Weapon redout bug fixed (bou't damn time too )
- Gestation model works (without crashing the entire server *cough*)
- New maps
- New viable sensory chamber and cloaking system that makes sensory first extremely viable
- Alien flashlight
- A whole lot more...
- 3rd person reload animations

 

[ship]

*dances* :E :bounce:

 

[Asuka]

NS sucks! Sry but its a great idea. Dont like how they exec it.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

for me personally, NS went downhill after version 1.04...granted 1.04 was not perfect, but most pple i have played and talked with, agree that 1.04 only needed tweaking.

instead they completely change it...turning off some pple who had supported the mod from the start.

1.04 was about gameplay and strategy.. the newer versions never felt like that for me.

 

[Kouler]

for me personally, NS went downhill after version 1.04...granted 1.04 was not perfect, but most pple i have played and talked with, agree that 1.04 only needed tweaking.

instead they completely change it...turning off some pple who had supported the mod from the start.

1.04 was about gameplay and strategy.. the newer versions never felt like that for me.

Join a clan

 

[Kouler]

UPDATE: Heres the full changelog

NS v3.0 changelog (final)

March 3rd, 2005


Gameplay changes
O Aliens have innate regeneration at a rate of 2% per second, this regeneration will always heal at least 1 point of health or armor and adds to healing from Defense Chambers or Hives, but doesn't 'stack' with Regeneration.
O Alien upgrades no longer cost resources.
O Gestating to skulk cost no resource points anymore.
O Sieges no longer damage players (damage against structures has been adjusted to stay consistent with previous versions).
O Turrets now priorise players over structures.
O Offense Chambers now priorise players over structures.
O Parasite now takes precedence over Scent of Fear on Hive Sight (allows players to see that their Parasite hit when using SOF to help teammates track enemies).
O Bile Bomb's range has been increased by 15%.
O Cat-pack cost has been reduced from 4 to 3 resource points.
O Marines near Sensory chambers show up as if detected by Scent of Fear.
O Acid rocket now does double damage to armor.
O Fades can now blink off ladders.

O Major changes to the alien cloaking upgrade:
- Players moving faster than walking pace will gradually become more visible the faster they move, but only to a max visibility of 30%.
- Players using Cloaking upgrade will no longer be fully visible at any time unless attacking or being attacked.
- You have to wait 3 seconds after uncloaking before you begin to cloak again.
- Turrets will not fire at slow moving aliens (-> players with less than 10% visibility).
- Increased visibility for aliens moving at greater than normal moving speed (bunnyhopping, gliding, etc.).

O Changed Scan cost from 25 to 20 energy units.
O Changed default combat game time to 15 minutes.
O Combat scan is now triggered by partially cloaked aliens. Note: Scan 'fires' every 3 seconds, so there is a window in which a fast alien can still close the distance.
O Combat scan deploy time halved to 0.25 seconds.
O Alien flashlight tweaks: marines in the alien's field of view are now lit up just like friendly structures and players.
O Shotgun range begins to fall off at 500 units, and is then reduced by 1% for every 2 further units, resulting in no damage after 700 units, to stop shotgun sniping.
O Alien respawn time reduced for teams larger than 6. As the number of hives increase, this time is increased, so at 3 hives there is no difference from respawn rate at 6 players.
O Combat wavespawn now takes a 5 seconds plus 2 seconds for every dead player, up to a maximum of 13 seconds.


Game mechanics
O Fixed a bug that would lead to valid weapons being 'redded out' (showing up as disabled).

O Waypoint system changes:
- Group waypoints will now act like personal waypoints for each player (so when you reach the waypoint, it disappears for you, while remaining for all other players).
- Reduced the size of the waypoint icons slightly.
- Added 'weld target at waypoint' support for players and structures.
- Added 'defend target' support for players and structures.

O If you are within 600 units of a marine spawn location, you will not be transported in by Distress Beacon.
O Added 'notready' command to reverse ready status in tournament mode.
O Equipment, med-packs, ammo-packs, etc. can again be dropped directly on players.
O Allowed item placement near resource towers.
O Made scanner sweeps deployable everywhere.
O Added a build restriction radius of 16,50 units around marines.
O Fixed a bug where a hive could not be dropped over a chamber.
O Changed player minimum build distance to the structure from 20 to 30 units.
O Knife knockback has been removed.
O Knockback from attacks reduced to 1/3 for ducking players on the ground.
O Tweaked xenocide/gore pushback behavior to eliminate weird flying marines and deaths by worldspawn.
O Limited how fast a player can re-join a team from readyroom. 3 seconds must pass before re-joining the game.
O Players no longer join a team in the 'dead' state.
O Recycling IP now triggers change of marine status in queue.
O A Phase Gate bug that allowed for the fast transportation of numerous marines has been fixed.
O Each Phase Gate now throttles the rate at which marines depart from it - One marine every 0.8 seconds.
O 'Pancake' prevention code. Limit on vertical component of lerk flight velocity to maximally 1000 units per tick upwards and 1200 down.
O Mines now do damage when the player who planted them leaves the team.
O You can no longer scan for free using hotgroups on observatories.
O Fixed bug where resupply wasn't effective for HMG or pistol. A resupplied weapon will never reload to less than a full clip.
O Changed the health bar around structures to more acurately reflect its health. Full bar is now exactly 100% health, empty bar is 0%.
O Reset room_type to 0 after being digested to avoid sound issue.
O Fixed bug that makes dead marines show up with a red health segment in the healthbar.
O Commander hints will not play if cl_autohelp is set to 0.
O Recycling observatories will no longer uncloak aliens.
O Set minimum time for alien gestations to one second to avoid instant gestation in combat.
O Fixed the 'research transfer' exploit.
O Fixed the 'late join timer' exploit.
O Fixed exploit where structures could be dropped near marines in water to avoid building restrictions.
O Hive Sight no longer draws the player we are spectating.


Cosmetic changes:
O New medpack (thanks Brigadierwolf!).
O New ammo clips (thanks Brigadierwolf!).
O New hand grenade (thanks Brigadierwolf!).
O Added Heavy Armor falling sound.
O Gave each alien a unique landing sound.
O Updated Jetpack sound.
O Updated LMG clip out and clip in sounds.
O Updated Pistol reload sounds.
O Reverted LMG firing sound back to sound from beta 4.
O Updated welder idle sound to be more obvious when not welding anything.
O Replaced raindrop sprites.
O Added a "player joined team" messages to HUD.
O Team join sounds now only play for the team joined.
O Increased volume of welder hiss when target is not being welded.
O Updated cat-pack commander menu icons to provide a consistent interface.
O Friendly parasited players no longer show up in hive sight, and are no longer notified that they are parasited (Parasite still does FF damage though).
O Added a separate sprite for parasited enemy structures (thanks gazz0zz!).
O Hive locations now always appears on Hive Sight.
O Unbuilt hives use a different sprite for easy detection.
O Commander Station always shows as closed in combat maps.
O Changed Hive Sight sprites to be better discernable for color-blind players (thanks JazzX!).
O Implemented third person reload animations.
O Added slightly tweaked xenocide charge and explosion sounds.
O Animations for the egg model now play, they were broken.
O New medpack skin and icons (thanks Supernorn!)
O Added all-new hivehealth indicators for the alien HUD.
O alien_hivedying2.wav now plays.
O Recycling Phase Gates are no longer visually active.
O Phase Gates don't light up until they have a valid destination.
O Included cool colored minimaps (thanks JazzX!).
O Updated tooltips.
O Jetpacked marines now show up as 'JETPACK' on the scoreboard.
O Unavailable alien upgrades are now grayed out in the pop-up menu.
O Voice comms can now be used during game start.
O Added a new, sanely-sized bilebomb model.


Map changes:
O Added co_niveus by drath

O Added ns_eon by Olmy

O co_angst
- Completely reworked center area of map
- Increased brightness in landing gear zone
- Fixed several onos stuck issues
- Various other changes around the map

O co_core (updates by Merkaba)
- New ready room
- New light in hive
- New vent between hive area and upper marine start exit

O co_daimos
- Full visual rework

O co_faceoff
- Widened vents near marine start
- Changed geometry behind comm chair to be more accessible
- Hive can no longer be shot by jetpackers sitting in the side vents
- Fixed performance issues

O co_pulse
- Added a ramp to the hive room

O co_sava
- Increased brightness level
- Added cover in most rooms
- Added more vents
- Reworked the hive room
- Tweaked some areas to allow easier Onos movement

O ns_altair
- Added vent from Omega to Zeta with two exits into Phi
- Massive Optimizations
- New Surface Umbilical
- Redid Upper MS
- New Monitor Textures by Samejima
- Covered up pit in Omega
- Custom minimap with vents marked in red
- Removed Diving Tanks
- Connected Nanite Regulation to Settling Tanks
- Connected Settling Tanks to Communications
- Retextured Vents to be easier to distinguish
- Removed door weldable
- Added new vent weldables
- Moved Parts Room rt to Sigma Test Site
- Added new info_locations to help with navigation
- Played with HLRAD settings to increase brightness
- Added more light into sewer
- Combined Station Monitoring and Sub Bay nodes into one
- Divided sub bay into two rooms, Sub Bay and Sub Refueling
- Removed upper hallway between Life Support and Parts Room
- Reopened route between Lower Sub Bay and Parts room

O ns_bast
- The broken door in MS is now closed
- Marines have to go through Main Aft again to get to Engine
- Added infestation in Refinery to block the line of sight to the hive from the ramp entrance
- Added some cover in Refinery
- Reworked and renamed Docking Storage (it's called Reactor Core Regulation now)
- Removed one node from Atmospheric Processing
- Moved column in Atmospheric Processing more to the center
- Added vent from Engine to Water Treatment
- Added vent between Feedwater and Steam Generation
- Widened the corridor outside feedwater

O ns_eclipse
- Redesigned marine spawn to a 1.0 / 3.0 mix
- Moved horseshoe RT to T-junction
- Added new vents to KeyHole
- Moved maintenance RT
- Added pillars to eclipse hive to prevent spawn camping
- Made it easier to get on top of eclipse hive
- Added vent from eclipse -> triad
- Redesigned power sub junction

O ns_hera
- Moved data core delta node into hive room
- General bug fixes/cosmetic improvements
- Onos can now leave through back door of delta hive (oops!).
- Outside now has proper light level
- Restricted movement outside even more so gorges can't build on tube
- Skulks cannot climb the cliff walls or sky anymore. (might be slightly unaccurate - skulks are still able to stick to the ceiling but only if they manage to get through a trigger_push pushing them away with a force of 2000 units.)
- Hanger bay doors now openable/closable (again). Added a twist whereby for a short moment (3 secs) when opening/closing, onoses aren't able to pass through.
- A few general clipnode improvements
- Minimap Sprite updated (sorry for not including that before)
- Removed Systems and Fog Corridor nodes.
- Fog Corridor now has a weld to turn on lights
- Made the CC area more open/acessible to help alien attacks.
- Minor bug fixes
- Lighting returned to previous states
- Fixed marine start door

O ns_metal
- General updates

O ns_nothing
- Sped up and fixed all elevators
- Elevators can no longer be permanently blocked by players or structures
- Widened most vents
- Fixed several ladders to improve Onos navigability
- Fixed railings in Ominous Kismet and improved general navigability of the area
- Several trivial bug fixes

O ns_tanith
- Fixed ramp in Central Access tunnels
- Added structures to Waste and Satcom hives to reduce spawncamping
- Added a vent between Satcom and Acidic Solution resource node
- Fixed bugs with ceiling architecture in Fusion Reactor hive

O ns_veil
- Fixed cargo -> double res vent
- Added cover to outside of cargo
- Changes to vent from dome/pipeline -> cargo
- Redesigned pipeline hive
- c12 connections changed
- Redesigned areas directly surrounding pipeline
- Visual changes to marine spawn
- Vent from pipeline -> c12

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

Good good.... :cheers: :thumbs:

 

[StardogChampion]

for me personally, NS went downhill after version 1.04...granted 1.04 was not perfect, but most pple i have played and talked with, agree that 1.04 only needed tweaking.

instead they completely change it...turning off some pple who had supported the mod from the start.

1.04 was about gameplay and strategy.. the newer versions never felt like that for me.

You're totally right, but the NS team seem to think they're taking the game forward, but they're not. They're just making it worse.

The moment they introduced 1 hive onos/fade it was totally ruined for me. In under 8 minutes the aliens can have an onos. Also, the games are much faster, which isn't as fun.

It's a chore to play NS now.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

I still love NS. But yeah.... I do agree with you guys. Liked 1.04 one hell of alot more to be honest.

 

[ray_MAN]

I've never played it, I might give it a try...

 

[Zeus]

Final? This mean they moving onto the HL2 engine now?

 

[Ames]

Final? This mean they moving onto the HL2 engine now?

No, they still have 3.1 and other versions to go.

By final, they mean not beta.

 

[Burn]

Hm, stoped playing awhile age, but I'll get this new verson. Hope to see some of you around.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Yea I'll get the new version (I gotta download the damn Half-Life Engine.GCF file again too....)

I totally agree with you guys... They seriously f*cked it up a while ago.... 1.04 just needed some tweaking like said above, mostly to the chambers (in 1.04 it ALWAYS went defense > movement > sensory... No matter what if you wanted to win thats pretty much the only way).. If they would have taken some things in 2.0 then put them in 1.04 (making sensory more viable as well as movement.... so then basically no matter which order you went in, you could play your strengths instead of fighting against the game)

Oh and combat is neat and all, except it teaches you horrible tactics that are not viable in normal NS games!!! I mean if noobs play that, and think that is the true NS they got another thing coming to them..... Oh and also with each release the games seemed to go longer and longer (like now matches are like consistently 2-3 hours I think?) I like a one hour at max... 30 minute game would be fine because then you can just play the game in a small time period, whereas in a pub game you get so many joins/disconnects due to the length that you can't learn everybodys tactics as a commander and thus can't play their strengths

Hopefully the NS2 they make will be better..... Though it will be retail, it should be better

 

[Arrowhead]

well I'd say compared to other FPS/RTS games there are out there(*edit*), NS is definately leading the pack. I find this HL mod to be absolutely brilliant. no other mods come close to its level of sophistication.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

No other FPS/RTS games?

You need to google my friend..... To start you off search for "Savage"

 

[Arrowhead]

alright, whatever. my point still stands. also considering this is a free HL mod.

 

[Kouler]

The patch is out. Go get it! :cheers:

 

[Locust]

how is it?

 

[Zeus]

No, they still have 3.1 and other versions to go.

By final, they mean not beta.

Are you joking? No one cares about HL1 anymore! They need to make it for hl2

 

[Ames]

Are you joking? No one cares about HL1 anymore! They need to make it for hl2

They're supposedly creating a division of the team to work on NS2 along side with NS. Don't know about NS:S.

That's three games one mod team is working on at once.

 

[StardogChampion]

I just had a quick go as aliens, and it doesn't seem to play much different. Longer bile is pretty good and so are the yellow triangles on parasited structures. It seems to take an age to cloak when standing next to a sens, or maybe that's just in my mind. You can stand behind an OC as gorge and not get hit by bullets.

 

[Computer5k]

An interview said they would start working on NS:S soon after 3.0/3.1 release \/

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Yea I'll get the new version (I gotta download the damn Half-Life Engine.GCF file again too....)

I totally agree with you guys... They seriously f*cked it up a while ago.... 1.04 just needed some tweaking like said above, mostly to the chambers (in 1.04 it ALWAYS went defense > movement > sensory... No matter what if you wanted to win thats pretty much the only way).. If they would have taken some things in 2.0 then put them in 1.04 (making sensory more viable as well as movement.... so then basically no matter which order you went in, you could play your strengths instead of fighting against the game)

Oh and combat is neat and all, except it teaches you horrible tactics that are not viable in normal NS games!!! I mean if noobs play that, and think that is the true NS they got another thing coming to them..... Oh and also with each release the games seemed to go longer and longer (like now matches are like consistently 2-3 hours I think?) I like a one hour at max... 30 minute game would be fine because then you can just play the game in a small time period, whereas in a pub game you get so many joins/disconnects due to the length that you can't learn everybodys tactics as a commander and thus can't play their strengths

actually in the 1.04 days of NS (the glory days of NS if u will ) the server i used to play on, we took chances with the movement and even the sensory chambers as first choice, and granted, it didn't work all the time, but it did some of the time (it depends on how smart the team plays together ) and thats why i believe 1.04 only needed a tweaking as opposed to that overhaul the NS team did...which IMHO ruined the special gameplay NS offered.

i do agree with StardogChampion on the point about games being faster in the tactics sense (fade/onos at first hive etc..) that really turned me off in 2.0/3.0 and yeah.. NS games do last longer too.. last time i played i was in one game for 2.5 hours.. :|

its my belief that the NS team from 2.0 and onwards started catering to the leagues/clans and forgot about the average player (the ones who initially made NS popular/successfull) and somehow i get the feeling nothing has changed in this new version. :|

 

[ray_MAN]

I just played a round with gh0st, and it was awsome. You guys really have to give this a try. It's kind of like StarCraft, but you are the soldiers, and you have the opportunity to be the commander. Simply amazing. The teamwork is excellent too.

 

[Loke]

Played a long game right now as a marine. Very fun.

I like that they added a new icon for the structures when you parasite it, and glad they removed that ridiculous knife knockback.

 

[Edcrab]

I gave in and started downloading it- should be able to try it out tomorrow night. Well, tonight actually, when I consider it's past 12.

I always adored stalking the corridors while invisible and pouncing on people- it was so atmospheric and downright enjoyable.

But that's enough about my old office job

 

[StardogChampion]

I just played a round with gh0st, and it was awsome. You guys really have to give this a try. It's kind of like StarCraft, but you are the soldiers, and you have the opportunity to be the commander. Simply amazing. The teamwork is excellent too.

Start your NS career by saying no to co_

Filter your maps by ns_

Thank you.

 

[Loke]

Start your NS career by saying no to co_

Agreed.