Natural Selection 2:

[=C=]

Who's getting it and who will be playing in the Alpha tomorrow?

Those that don't know what NS2 is check out some links below:

http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/

More info about the game:
http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/about/

Main site:
http://www.naturalselection2.com/

Some videos from main site:
http://www.naturalselection2.com/videos/

Video's from dev diaries:
http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/videos/


It's going to be awesome!

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Looks cool, will give it a go.

Never played the first one, so it's like an co-op FPS, but with one dude the commander telling people what to do from a top down view? sounds pretty fun.

[=C=]

To get in to the Alpha release you have to purchase the Special Edition. The Standard Edition will allow Beta and full game.

Do note the SE price is only available for roughly 1 more day~. There is a count down timer on the main site. After that the SE will no longer be available and the Standard price will be what the current SE price is.

The game it self is very much like a co-op team based RTS/FPS. The RTS part (Marines) the commander drops structures and marines build, attach aliens, push far into the map to stop the aliens from expanding and getting a total of 3 hives. For Aliens there are build classes that run around and can place offensive/defensive structures, build hives etc...

It's a great game I just can't wait to play the new one

I am surprised there is no thread on GetSome talking about it. There is one however on GP forums.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Cool, how much is it?

Also, probably shouldn't use the abbreviation SE for special edition where standard edition is also SE, bit confusing, lol.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Had a look at the prices, tbh the Special edition is pretty expensive ($40), Twice the price and all you get is Alpha access and Special armor.

If I get it, it will be the standard edition.

[=C=]

Yea $40 will be the Standard edition price after this promotion ends. ie. timer countdown 0.

I wanted to get the standard but the special black armor is nice. Also the extra $20 supports the dev team and gives that big of extra support for the PC community and any free future updates down the track.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

I see.

I went ahead and got the Standard edition, looking forward to it.

[.osiRiS]

What put me off was that it has taken so long for things to progress. Pre sales happened last year I'm pretty sure.

[=C=]

^^ Yea. It's been what 6+ years in production.... Found a quick video footage of the alpha.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=416011234193&ref=mf

It looks great for an Alpha release. Can't wait to play it tomorrow

[toofast]

I will be there

I can't wait for game play, after waiting so long for the game to release. I hope they fixed up marine movement from the engine test, where you could strafe sideways whilst in the air. Though that could be an attempted to nerf marine bhop/double jumping.

Also gorge belly slide should be fun. Will kinda be like playing tf2, when they release the class updates, and half your team is too busy playing with the new weapons, to play the actual game

On the double the price for SE, i reckon its worth it, because difference is like the cost of a constellation (donation system in ns), so it is effectively buying the game, plus donating to the developers. Only annoying thing was when i got it, it was 64 NZD. Now its 55NZD. Thats $9 dollars i will never get back

[=C=]

The amount of hours and hours I spent playing NS.
Monies well spent. Yea roughly 54 NZD.

Those that miss out on the Special Edition if later you find your self wanting to buy it you will miss out on the black armor

Who else will I see playing this tomorrow?

[toofast]

The game itself isn't too bad. Biggest problem seems to be its quite laggy. Esp with marines, you shoot, and get bullet shots hitting target a second later. Hopefully that will be fixed, once more dedicated servers come up. It would be cool if GetSome hosted one.

[=C=]

GetSome are in process of setting one up! :001_wub:  :thumbup:


Yea there seems to be a lot of discussion about the rego issue "which they couldn't fix before releasing the alpha", and in-general server/lag issues.

Maybe problems with netcode?

I wonder if they only tested stuff using lan.

[toofast]

GetSome are in process of setting one up! :001_wub:  :thumbup:


Yea there seems to be a lot of discussion about the rego issue "which they couldn't fix before releasing the alpha", and in-general server/lag issues.

Maybe problems with netcode?

I wonder if they only tested stuff using lan.

How are GetSome setting up one. I thought you needed the actual alpha to use dedicated server. If they do, will be pretty sweet tho. Lag is a big issue on an unoptimized game like this.

I don't know too much about the rego issue, but there is a real netcode issue, which i hope is fixed over the next few days, because thats the only thing which will stop a proper game being played. Though it is funny to see your gun fire, then the sound plays, then the bullets appear (but dont leave any marks). Like watching lightening strike.

The other issues is the fact most people are struggling to run it. I have seen people with i7s still having issues. Even my modest system (e8400 8800GT 512mb 6gb ram), can only find 20fps when i am running around. So i think that might be another barrier toward preventing good gameplay.

[.osiRiS]

People with the game ended up giving me their account to use. It's a pain from a hosting perspective as well because it requires Steam to be running in the backround and the exe to run in a window. 16 player server uses between 110 to 555Mb (!). Constant console flooding reporting connections and disconnections.

[=C=]

Yea toofast my i7 struggles. Lowering the res to 1024 x 768 and detail to awful gives me constant smooth gameplay. At these settings NS2 feels like old NS1 but slightly better textures and diff models.

I tried this on lan with a friend and my movement to him was normal. His movement to me was laggy and jumpy, exactly like on his screen. So there are several factors causing the jumping.

1. Unoptimized graphics/textures/engine = users with low end rigs to skip, jump, lag out.
2. Bandwidth usage per player is ridiculous. On dedicated server people jump and lag out regardless. Possibly too much traffic for client/server/client.
3. Net code is really bad. However this could be a result of the above 2.
If A player is moving slowly and standing still. Shots hit and register without any problems.

They plan to do updates once a week.

Thanks to oriRiS for his help and effort to setup an NS2 Alpha server for us. Really appreciate it.

PS. Check your msn, left you a msg on some possible improvements.

Would be interested to know who else from GetSome is playing NS2 Alpha other than me and TooFast.
I know there are several GP users that do but anyone else from GetSome?

[toofast]

We're testing the first alpha patch right now. Hopefully we'll release it today.

Sweet. Hopefully that will fix some of the unplayability. I feel like playing a proper game. Hopefully they update server browser as well. So its easier to see what server to join.

[=C=]

That will be in the next patch / release.

[toofast]

http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/progress

In the spirit of our open approach to game development, we thought we'd share with you our internal NS2 project tracker (we use Pivotal Tracker).

Below is a our current of tasks we are working on in our current "sprint" (typically a one week period). This page is updated in real-time so you will see frequent changes. The number and "size" of our tasks listed is estimated by Pivotal Tracker based on our past performance. Star icons are features, gears are chores and you can probably guess what the ladybug icons indicate.

Because these are estimates, everything on the list may not be completed during the sprint. Likewise, it's possible that additional tasks will be completed before our next update.

This is a nice feature. Gives you a look at what changes are coming up in new builds, and what issues they are working on.

Of the current list, only big change is:
*Allow marines to build

Pretty nice to see they listened to community feedback.

Also:
Started - currently being worked on
Delivered - finished, but not tested
Accepted - tested

[=C=]

Definitely like the "In Progress" section. I am dissapointed in their progress on patching. They said one per week however I don't think a lot of development is being done to warrant a download per week.



Once they sort out the performance issues it will be more playable and worth testing further. It's great that they have listened to the community and marines can once again build

I personally DO NOT like what they've done with the alien side... Alien commander.... and Georges can no longer build DC/MC/Hive... It's messing with the original game mechanics too much... What made NS great was the two sides were different. Marines had the commander and the aliens had none but would work more closely together as a team with several Georges pushing up, etc...

I think the alien teamwork will be lost if there is an alien commander. I can't see who would bother going George then...
It's too slow, can't climb walls, can't setup little hijack nests of OC's and DC's, etc...

[toofast]

Definitely like the "In Progress" section. I am dissapointed in their progress on patching. They said one per week however I don't think a lot of development is being done to warrant a download per week.



Once they sort out the performance issues it will be more playable and worth testing further. It's great that they have listened to the community and marines can once again build

I personally DO NOT like what they've done with the alien side... Alien commander.... and Georges can no longer build DC/MC/Hive... It's messing with the original game mechanics too much... What made NS great was the two sides were different. Marines had the commander and the aliens had none but would work more closely together as a team with several Georges pushing up, etc...

I think the alien teamwork will be lost if there is an alien commander. I can't see who would bother going George then...
It's too slow, can't climb walls, can't setup little hijack nests of OC's and DC's, etc...

While i don't like the addition of alien commander, it does make sense. Now you won't get people whoring res in pubs, and going fade rather than dropping the hive the team needs.

Not to mention the balance issues when you play outside 6v6 games, due to res flow model.

Theres still alot of asymmetry in the game. I mean aliens will still play the divide and conquer style, while marines will still be about sticking together, and moving in squads. But I agree gorges seem less useful. But i think they will be getting babblers again, plus gorge slide, which will make them a bigger attacking threat.

Also on patches:

We're not planning on releasing a patch until we have all of the networking issues sorted out, and I'm still working on that.

We are very focused on getting the server lag issues sorted so that the game can be in a playable state, as soon as humanly possible. Max is busy setting up separate testing conditions so that he can adequately ascertain what exactly is causing the biggest lag issues. In programming, it seems often that the mos time consuming part can be tracking down, collecting data, testing and figuring out exactly why something is not working the way it should, and once that information has been figured out the fixes can be relatively quick. Or, there's the possibility that you can find out that there is an issue deep in the engine framework that means a bunch of stuff needs to get ripped up and reworked and put back together again.

So, all I'm saying is that it just makes it very hard to give a precise ETA on when the issues will be fixed and when the next patch will be out. I can say that we are hoping there are some fairly easy and quick things that can be fixed that make a big difference, and that we can get this next patch out next week sometime.

In the meantime, while Max is hard at work on fixing the lag, the rest of us are able to continue to crank on getting the rest of the game in shape and adding lots of new gameplay items, art, and bug fixes.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Any new on when the beta will be out?

[toofast]

Any new on when the beta will be out?

I would say 2 months+ atleast, assuming beta will be for balancing, so they would need to release all the aliens (including the fade which still hasn't been completed), plus all the marine commander stuff. Plus optimising the engine.

I think they will never put out any dates on anything, longer than a week away, after learning the hard way not to put optimistic dates, after announcing a third quarter 2009 beta release

[R3DM@N]

LOVE THIS GAME

[=C=]

Disappointed with the lack of patches but I've been told they're still working on the major issues ie FPS lag / server lag / optimizations and server side traffic etc... It's been a month or two now from the last patch I'm sure there will be one "soon". At least once they fix the above mentioned they will release alpha patches more frequently and the game will become playable

Can't wait.