Games Video

Natural Selection 2’s Gorgeous Update

Unknown Worlds is releasing their biggest post-launch update yet for Natural Selection 2 today. The new update, titled “Gorgeous”, includes a number of new abilities for the Gorge, railguns for the Exo, and new map titled “Descent”. Also included are a number of engine optimizations and new rendering features such as bullet decals and reflections. There is also a new video tutorial system to help get new players into the game and first person spectating.

To celebrate, the game is also going to be 50% off on steam.

Changelog below:

Added

  • Railgun Exosuit now available at Prototype Lab. Explodes things.
  • Gorges may now spawn Babbler eggs, which hatch into Babblers!
  • Gorges may now create Gorge Tunnels
  • Bait Balls – Direct babblers by flinging it at enemies of friendlies
  • New map: Descent
  • New contextual help system, ‘TipVids.’
  • Insight Spectator System Mk 2 – Redesign and interface overhaul.
  • First Person Spectating
  • Damage decals
  • Reflections
  • Refraction effects
  • New alien cloaking effects
  • New main menu background scene

Change

  • Disabled wall walking on Command Stations.
  • Added one second cool-down between Gorge structure drops
  • Claw damage increased to 75.
  • Claw range increased by 10%
  • Rifles will now get destroyed when purchasing a new weapon at the armory to prevent a pile of Weapons in big games (manually dropping or picking weapons up is unchanged)
  • Removed foresight from Alien Commander.
  • Increased frequency of alert message when a base power node is under attack.
  • Whips no longer hit multiple targets with their melee attack.
  • Doors are no longer usable.
  • Removed exo backwards speed scalar.
  • Updated personal resource icon in Alien buy menu.
  • Reduced phase gate rate from 0.5 to 0.2 seconds.
  • Exosuit movement speed depends now on weapons weight (minigun heaviest, railgun lightest)
  • Slightly increased Axe range to prevent situations where you could not hit an enemy below you even when crouching.
  • Skulk movement adjustments – Movement code now makes them slightly less erratic when dancing in your sights.
  • Cloaking system is now analog rather than binary – Allows for more nuanced use of cloaking trait
  • Decreased the amount of time it takes for the game to start once both teams have a Commander.
  • Doubled the rate that the “Game will not start until both teams have a Commander” banner message appears on the screen.
  • Enemy players are now damaged while near the enemy Command Structure before the game starts.
  • Bile bomb can now destroy dropped weapons.

Editor

  • Added the ability for death triggers to do damage over time instead of instantly killing the entity.
  • Max distance that initial Cyst spawn points can be from the Hive increased by 50%
  • Changed the texture list in the Editor to “and” all of the search terms together by default (old “or” behavior can be reproduced by using ? in front of a search term)
  • Changed the texture list box to allow selection of materials in any directory (not just the materials directory)

Feature

  • Added ‘-logdir <path>’ command line option to let server admins override the location of log.txt.
  • Added pagination to the mod browser in the dedicated server web admin.
  • Added search capability to the mod page of the dedicated server web admin.
  • Added resource graph in Insight (Press Q)
  • Added commander research bars in Insight, replaces monolithic research block
  • Added player energy/ammunition indicators in Insight

Fix

  • Fixed bug causing Skulk hitbox and worldmodel to be misaligned on some vertical surfaces (Makes the buggers easier to hit).
  • Fixed bug where emissive only surfaces would not be properly bloomed (caused cloaked Alien structures to be somewhat visible)
  • Fixed issue where enabling double or triple buffering while in fullscreen windowed mode would cause the display to not update
  • Fixed swipe not triggering effects / draining energy when quickly tapping primary attack button.
  • Fixed script error when firing a Rifle that had been previously fired and dropped on the ground.
  • Fixed holo Marine model being visible for a few frames for the already respawned Marine.
  • The unban button now works in the server web interface.
  • Fixed health bars showing up in ready room.
  • Fixed bug where caps lock couldn’t be bound in the input settings.
  • Fixed bug where tapping primary attack key with Skulk bite selected wont deduct energy / trigger sound.
  • Fixed clogs appearing for one frame at world origin.
  • Fixed bug where Marine Commander could select cloaked Alien units.
  • Fixed bug where the “retry” console command would not attempt to reconnect to the last server joined using the “connect” console command.
  • Fixed health/armor not being properly predicted for growing Alien structures.
  • Fixed bug where tech point remains smashed after the Hive got replaced by a Command Station.
  • Fixed camera hitch when crouch jumping as Onos.
  • Fixed sentry battery destruction effects.
  • Fixed unsocketed power nodes not considering LOS properly.
  • Fixed bug where units recloak when Marine who touched them is still in close proximity.
  • Text chat now displays above the “Fade to black” death screen.
  • Fixed Alien structures playing metallic sound when attacked by Skulks.
  • Ghost structures disappear now immediately when killed.
  • Commander no longer triggers a ping during entering a chat message.
  • Fixed Aliens losing abilities when a Hive gets destroyed and they evolve an upgrade without changing life form.
  • Fixed issue where chat text would sometimes be displayed escaped in the web server admin console.
  • Players can now damage each other after the round ends.
  • Changed behavior of Gorge build menu: You no longer need to re-select things to build more of them.
  • Fixed bug where hitting alt-enter would not cause the options menu to be updated based on the current windowed/fullscreen status.
  • Fixed bug where the microphone would be stuck on if the server changed maps while a player was recording.
  • Fixed infestation decal not showing up for Hydras.
  • Fixed bilebomb effect not showing up on MAC model.
  • When a team surrenders, everyone will be notified.
  • Fixed prediction error when jumping in rapid succession.
  • Fixed clogs blocking phase gates.
  • Fixed bug where Aliens could barely see cloaked units when dark vision is enabled.
  • Fixed welder ignoring the deploy animation.
  • Fixed bug where Commanders could drop structures when help mode is enabled.
  • Fixed Marine structures showing Alien blood when hit by flame throwers.
  • Fixed adrenaline / camouflage banner not being displayed.
  • All team members will be notified when someone votes to concede or to eject the Commander.
  • Robotics Factory can’t cancel research.
  • Fixed bug which gave Aliens abilities which are not researched.
  • Fixed Editor bug that would occasionally cause a vertex to be created a large distance away from its intended location.
  • Fixed issue where a change to a shader template file would not necessarily trigger shaders to be rebuilt.
  • Fixed hitch when first encountering Infestation after the shaders have been updated.
  • Fixed issue where dynamic props wouldn’t be animated on the dedicated server due to missing animation graphs.
  • Spectator Mouse Hover no longer misses.
  • Recycled/Refunded structures are no longer added to total team resource gathered.
  • Fixed exploit in server web admin (Thanks confused!)
  • Fixed issue where mods that specified a specific version build was required would not mount the file system in the proper order.
  • Fixed bug causing pre-placed Cysts to sometimes die at the start of the round.
  • Fixed bug where HTTP requests did not follow 301 redirects (fixes the mods list in the web admin)
  • Fixed bug where Aliens were able to evolve both upgrades from one Hive type.
  • Fixed exploit where selecting multiple shifts allowed it to bypass the global cool down for hatch ability.

Improvement

  • Exos display now the thruster duration / cooldown in their HUD.
  • Added smoke effect for Spike attacks.
  • Added missing minimap icons for shift, shell, spur, veil.
  • Insight text now much more legible

Optimization

  • Reduced the number of bits used for network fields.
  • Optimized determination of  whether or not Orders should be relevant to a client (improves server performance)
  • Optimized querying the world for entities.
  • Infestation blob coordinates are now saved after being generated once (Thanks Mats!)
  • Sped up the compiling shaders process.
  • Reduced memory usage by compressing animations – also reduces load times.
  • Tweaked texture streaming – reduces load times.

Docking

  • Cafe is now now a random marine spawn again
  • Lockers is now a random spawn for both aliens and marines
  • Redesigned how Cafe connects to Bar
  • Redesigned Central Access so it now connects to cafe
  • Redesigned Back Alley
  • Moved Bar further west to prevent sieging of Lockers
  • Moved Cafe RT to the lower level to prevent LOS issues
  • Some changes to courtyard to fit the Central Access changes
  • Some cosmetic changes to Ball Court
  • Some cosmetic changes to Bar
  • Reflection Probes added

Refinery

  • Made Smelting a marine spawn.
  • Removed route from Smelting to Conduit.
  • Added new route from Smelting to Routing.
  • Bug fixes including building placement and power grid issues.

Summit

  • Improved Atrium RT location (less claustrophobic)
  • Added more cover and flanking options for aliens in Flight Control
  • Added missing lights in Crevice vent

SDK

  • Moved all processing of input into script.
  • Fixed visualization of the emissive map in the Viewer.
  • Added the ability to make an external cinematic loop in the Cinematic Editor.
  • Improved error reporting when a material as assigned in a model with an absolute path.
  • Increased the timeout for HTTP requests.
  • Fixed issue where defining a class on the server but not on the client would cause crashes and other bugs.
  • Added the ability to materials layered on models to inherit parameter values from the underlying material.
  • Fixed bug where the Ok/Cancel buttons in “Create Mod” window of Launch Pad would not be visible if the Window’s font size was set to large.
  • Added animatable shader parameters for objects in the Cinematic Editor.
  • Added support for vertex colors in .model files.
  • Fixed bug where specifying a float2, float3 or float4 value for a surface shader input would corrupt the value.
  • Added the ability specify float2, float3 and float4 parameters in a .material file.
  • Added support for optional commas in SJSON files.
  • Added “LocalPlayerChanged” engine event when the local player on the Client changes.
  • Added ServerClient:GetSpectatingPlayer() and ServerClient:GetPlayer() methods.
  • Added Client.VoiceRecordStart and Client.VoiceRecordStop functions.