Natural Selection 2 News Update - Build 171 released

FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Please post comments on the topic Natural Selection 2 News Update - Build 171 released here
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  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    Can't wait to see the positive impact the new code will have.
  • PapayasPapayas Join Date: 2010-07-01 Member: 72219Members
    Awesome!

    Can't wait to try it out, alien armour upgrades work!?


    God bless you peoples.
  • MoombaMoomba Join Date: 2005-01-08 Member: 33836Members
    amazing, cant wait to try it out.
  • DelphicDelphic Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58262Members
    edited April 2011
    Ooo yay! I was waiting for this one... *boots up steam and crosses fingers*.

    Very much Improved performance for me on my first game and locally. However I'm having difficultly loading any server running tram (just sit on a black screen).
  • QuovatisQuovatis Team Inversion Join Date: 2010-01-26 Member: 70321Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited April 2011
    Well, I can't connect to any server. It loads, then just sits at a black screen forever. I did, however, run my own local server and could connect.

    One major bug I saw was the lighting didn't go out or change at all when a power node is destroyed.

    Secondly, MAC/Drifters still get stuck on static map props. The most obvious is the door at marine start on tram. When a MAC is ordered through the door, it tries to cut a corner and ends up stuck on the side of the door and won't go through. Drifters routinely get stuck on one another or res nodes. It's still quite frustrating. MACs/Drifters need to recalculate their path if they get stuck, not just sit there.

    Finally, the alien armor upgrades function, but as we discussed, it makes pretty much zero difference. A fade with level 0 armor had 60% health left from a point-blank shotgun blast. A level 3 armor fade has 61% health after one shotgun blast. In short, it makes no difference whatsoever to alien survivability. There's a whole thread about that, though, and I hope UWE reads it. 75 team resources and a hive colony to increase fade armor by 1% isn't worth it, and the rest of the lifeforms are far less than 1% improvement.

    So besides the black screen bug which means I can't play at all, it works great. lol
  • trinity.nstrinity.ns Join Date: 2008-12-07 Member: 65688Members, Reinforced - Shadow
  • w0dk4w0dk4 Join Date: 2008-04-22 Member: 64129Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited April 2011
    Only port 27015 seems to work for servers.

    Oh and the rifle sound bug is _still_ there.
  • fsfodfsfod uk Join Date: 2004-04-09 Member: 27810Members, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    I like how the notes say nothing about switching away from LuaJIT. The LuaJIT vm is still faster than the normal lua vm at running non jit'ed code and using LuaJITs ffi/cdata system would easily put any gains from max's new bindings system to shame
  • rmarxrmarx Join Date: 2010-03-20 Member: 71020Members
    I for one would be incredibly interested in a technical post about the LUA binding and the rationale between the choices made and the possible alternatives (either here or on Max's blog).

    Keep up the good work guys!
  • Jason WhoreJason Whore Join Date: 2011-04-11 Member: 92514Members
    this patch brought nothing good for me..
    servers seem to be unstable and the light bug .. yeah well
    the game does not feel smoother for me at all.. i dont know :/
    but i hope this patch will, as you said be the start for better patches wich will
    actually work.

    i dont know anything about programming but said it has to translate the
    code from lua to c++ when playing online or so? WHY ! why not just use one code? :S
  • OPIEOPIE Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8343Members
    Was playing earlier. Game is definately a lot smoother. Didn't notice any lag at all.
  • ZekZek Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 7962Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    I played for a bit today and it ran pretty well. Very glad to see this finally go in, and even if it's not enough by itself I'm looking forward to Max's work actually making it into the biweekly builds again.

    I don't know if Skulk wallwalk has been changed, but it was really getting on my nerves this time. There's a lot of getting stuck on little things like stairs, and it still isn't really sticky enough for navigating complex geometry at high speeds(especially when trying to move up an overhang from below). Also I was constantly getting caught when trying to run around resource nodes.

    As a side note, no matter how wallwalking is done I think mappers should be careful never to clutter up the area around a vent with complex geometry. It makes them much more difficult to see without referencing the map and makes it needlessly difficult to get in. Just put a hole in the wall and be done with it, you can pretty it up with little details that don't actually have collision.
  • lunsluns Join Date: 2010-12-05 Member: 75502Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1840869:date=Apr 13 2011, 08:51 PM:name=Quovatis)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Quovatis @ Apr 13 2011, 08:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1840869"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Well, I can't connect to any server. It loads, then just sits at a black screen forever. I did, however, run my own local server and could connect.

    One major bug I saw was the lighting didn't go out or change at all when a power node is destroyed.

    Secondly, MAC/Drifters still get stuck on static map props. The most obvious is the door at marine start on tram. When a MAC is ordered through the door, it tries to cut a corner and ends up stuck on the side of the door and won't go through. Drifters routinely get stuck on one another or res nodes. It's still quite frustrating. MACs/Drifters need to recalculate their path if they get stuck, not just sit there.

    Finally, the alien armor upgrades function, but as we discussed, it makes pretty much zero difference. A fade with level 0 armor had 60% health left from a point-blank shotgun blast. A level 3 armor fade has 61% health after one shotgun blast. In short, it makes no difference whatsoever to alien survivability. There's a whole thread about that, though, and I hope UWE reads it. 75 team resources and a hive colony to increase fade armor by 1% isn't worth it, and the rest of the lifeforms are far less than 1% improvement.

    So besides the black screen bug which means I can't play at all, it works great. lol<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    pretty much summed up everything I wanted to say.

    I can't connect to any servers, I just get the black screen, and I've already waited longer than usual amount.

    as for alien armor, you said it pretty well. Either redesign how armor works or reduce the damage from the shotgun, its pretty clear it makes only slight difference, splitting hairs pretty much.
  • extolloextollo Ping Blip Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72457Members
    edited April 2011
    <!--quoteo(post=1840872:date=Apr 13 2011, 04:07 PM:name=fsfod)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fsfod @ Apr 13 2011, 04:07 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1840872"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I like how the notes say nothing about switching away from LuaJIT. The LuaJIT vm is still faster than the normal lua vm at running non jit'ed code and using LuaJITs ffi/cdata system would easily put any gains from max's new bindings system to shame<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    i thought max's deal was to replace luabind not luajit. ffi looks cool, but its in beta & would need to integrate with what uwe already has. the c++ obj on the stack feature should give much of the perf advantage of ffi. ffi would be nice to have for making efficient mods. maybe we can get both.
  • w0dk4w0dk4 Join Date: 2008-04-22 Member: 64129Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    I think Max is well aware of LuaJIT:

    <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=112484&st=20" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...12484&st=20</a>
  • PapayasPapayas Join Date: 2010-07-01 Member: 72219Members
    Well, I just tried it out.

    And UWE, you just turned NS2 from a <b>Playable</b> game to an <b>unplayable</b> game.



    It is so laggy and choppy. I seem to run uber speed as well. I was hoping to try out the alien armour upgrades and so on and so forth but I came across something worse.

    Please fix this UWE
    You make me cry :'(
  • TheLordTheLord Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16258Members
    Laggy? Well I could not try tram due to black-screen-forever-loading but on rockdown the game was smoother than ever, constant 60 fps in areas without flash elements, limited to 30 fps in areas with flash elements (such as the command station login screen...).




    I can see a huge improvement 170->171.
  • DJPenguinDJPenguin Useless Join Date: 2003-07-29 Member: 18538Members
    unplayable for me.

    first attempt, game hangs at the black screen with the "press f1 for blah blah" red text in the corner before entering the ready room.

    second attempt, can't get to the main menu.

    third attempt, same as first.
  • KuBaNKuBaN Join Date: 2002-11-16 Member: 8979Members, Constellation
    edited April 2011
    Having trouble connecting to most servers as well. Keep getting hung at the black screen. I tried with multiple servers to reconnect until something changed.
    [IAMCLAN] The Gorge's House: Client crashed on the fourth attempt.
    Unkown Worlds: Crashed on the second attempt.
    The Lunixmonster: Crashed on the third attempt.
    Armory Chamber #2: Connected successfully (on the first attempt). After the game ended, I got hung up on the black screen right before the Ready Room. Console kept spitting this out:
    <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->IDirect3DVertexBuffer::Lock failed (Ran out of memory).<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

    The server I play on almost exclusively (#156 West) is still down, so I don't have an unbiased frame of reference to base the difference in performance on, but in the two servers I did manage to play on (Tram), performance was considerably worse. The game seems to run smoothly whilst absolutely nothing is happening, and then altogether freezes for seconds at a time when you really need it not to; like the server/client has to catch up. Never got any "Connection Problems..." message during these times.

    When I did attempt to host a listen server and (using "cheats 1" to allow me to play alone) jumped in the Command Chair:
    - None of the resources were displayed properly.
    - I couldn't move the view with the mouse
    - Using W,A,S,D moved the view in that direction indefinitely (doesn't stop when you release the key)
    - Selecting a structure to be built drops the structure immediately (behind the build GUI). I was unable to indicate my desired location.
    - The minimap showed nothing but static.
    - The console was filled with some message about the HeightMapXY being nil (I didn't write it down, sorry).
    Commanding was veritably impossible.
  • PapayasPapayas Join Date: 2010-07-01 Member: 72219Members
    <!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->I think my FPS has officially been halved by the update of Build 171!<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

    and I keep on getting the "Report Error" things, where it doesn't minimize NS2 but your mouse comes up and nothing happens.
  • Dash-ElDash-El Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 72925Members
    I'm glad to hear you are putting feature additions on hold while you work on making the core playable. Maybe a 'mulch' style map would be a good place to start. Not to be critical but I think you overestimate how far along the basic engine/netcode is. It's currently a toddler you have dressed up with a suit and briefcase.
  • LorianLorian Join Date: 2011-01-05 Member: 76290Members
    "Well, I can't connect to any server. It loads, then just sits at a black screen forever. I did, however, run my own local server and could connect.

    One major bug I saw was the lighting didn't go out or change at all when a power node is destroyed.

    Secondly, MAC/Drifters still get stuck on static map props. The most obvious is the door at marine start on tram. When a MAC is ordered through the door, it tries to cut a corner and ends up stuck on the side of the door and won't go through. Drifters routinely get stuck on one another or res nodes. It's still quite frustrating. MACs/Drifters need to recalculate their path if they get stuck, not just sit there.

    Finally, the alien armor upgrades function, but as we discussed, it makes pretty much zero difference. A fade with level 0 armor had 60% health left from a point-blank shotgun blast. A level 3 armor fade has 61% health after one shotgun blast. In short, it makes no difference whatsoever to alien survivability. There's a whole thread about that, though, and I hope UWE reads it. 75 team resources and a hive colony to increase fade armor by 1% isn't worth it, and the rest of the lifeforms are far less than 1% improvement.

    So besides the black screen bug which means I can't play at all, it works great. lol"

    - Quovatis @ Apr 13 2011, 08:51 PM
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    I cant play too... First time i startet 171 there was the menu on black screen. I tried to join a server nothing happend. Now i dont even see the menu...total blackscreen when i start the game... 171 broke my game.... ;(
  • wackoisgodwackoisgod Join Date: 2011-04-08 Member: 91478Members, Retired Developer
    What do your logs say Lorian? Anything ?
  • LorianLorian Join Date: 2011-01-05 Member: 76290Members
    edited April 2011
    this is all i get. I am sorry, but i dont understand this so much to know where the problem actually is. But there are many "not-found-things".

    Thanks!
  • lame-olame-o Join Date: 2010-04-24 Member: 71517Members
    edited April 2011
    Well, I have to say it plays a lot more smoothly when there are fewer people on a server. After a while though things start freezing a lot and the screen goes black, makes it look like you're noclipping through a wall, etc. Also my FPS has gone up to nearly 30 despite the new bugs (or at least new to me).

    And omg, the comm view is starting to show this really nice sleekness and ease of use through the lag and such - and skulk climbing feels similar but better than AvP climbing (especially in vents).

    The potential this game has is unbelievable. I'm already fantasizing about the kinds of awesome maps that will hopefully come out after beta (because I don't like the beta maps, they're too gray and black, and lack any really interesting areas).

    Cheers UW!
  • wackoisgodwackoisgod Join Date: 2011-04-08 Member: 91478Members, Retired Developer
    <!--quoteo(post=1840898:date=Apr 14 2011, 12:06 AM:name=Lorian)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lorian @ Apr 14 2011, 12:06 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1840898"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><img src="https://rapidshare.com/files/457288404/Foto0040.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <img src="https://rapidshare.com/files/457288405/Foto0041.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    this is all i get. I am sorry, but i dont understand this so much to know where the problem actually is. But there are many "not-found-things".

    Thanks!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    I do not see any images :(
  • HanneslolHanneslol Join Date: 2011-03-21 Member: 87724Members
    I played some and I noticed some obvious improvements and now I can finally eat marines with pleasure. Before they just teleported away every second :) I don't understand how some people say the performance was decreased severely but I say big thumbs up! Thanks!
  • LorianLorian Join Date: 2011-01-05 Member: 76290Members
    edited April 2011
    Thanks kuBaN! There are the Links:

    <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/457288404/Foto0040.jpg" target="_blank">1. Pic</a>

    <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/457288405/Foto0041.jpg" target="_blank">2. Pic</a>
  • KuBaNKuBaN Join Date: 2002-11-16 Member: 8979Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1840904:date=Apr 13 2011, 07:23 PM:name=Lorian)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lorian @ Apr 13 2011, 07:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1840904"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I edited the post again. Hopefully you see 2 pics now. ;)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    No, we won't, because you're using rapidshare. As a general rule, don't directly post images from rapidshare, or you're going to burn through what little bandwidth they provide you with. Post links to images instead, so that only those who actually click the link take up the bandwidth.
  • kuruptkurupt Join Date: 2005-03-24 Member: 46347Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold
    Build 171 fail........ buggs!!!!!!!
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