Best Of
No Bath or Shower? What`s wrong with this idea?
The question I ask is a serious one. We need cleaning facilities .The Human body wont stay healthy if it is in saltwater all the time. All that salt will have an adverse effect on our skin weaking us. If you reply that the diving suits protect the body from the saltwater then you have a human body that is never getting clean and is living in it`s own dirt ,sweat,dead skin,etc. not a recipit for good health. Oh btw the stillsuit is not a good answer. At lease in this player opion
GAME WON'T SAVE MY PROGRESS (3 in 1 update)
I had saved multiple times and my game crashed. I loaded back in and all of my progress was gone. It happens on all saves. Now i'm reinstalling my game to see if it helps 
Re: RuneStorm's Mapping Resources
This shader is now officially part of the game, you do not require to include the .surface_shader anymore!
The shader is now located here:
Natural Selection 2\ns2\cinematics\vfx_materials\RS_Monitorscreen.surface_shader
Natural Selection 2\ns2\cinematics\vfx_materials\RS_Monitorscreen_animated.surface_shader
Natural Selection 2\ns2\cinematics\vfx_materials\RS_Monitorscreen_broken.surface_shader
This shader adds a slight pseudorandom distortion happening at irregular intervalls along with a distance blend to a LCD pixel raster. Gives those lifeless screens a bit more oomph.
Includes a variant of the Flipbook shader in addition to the static one.
Looking for in-game examples? I got you covered! just load up ns2_veil or ns2_unearthed with this mod enabled
Installation instructions: Place the contents of propermonitor_v2b.zip in your mods source folder (Open launchpad, select your mod and then click on source, place it there)
Parameter explanation
RS_Monitorscreen.surface_shader
noisetex = "cinematics/vfx_materials/t_distort.dds" Do not touch, Red and Green channels are used for the noise, and Blue is used for the distortion mask
lcdtex ="cinematics/vfx_materials/t_lcdpixels.dds" Leave as is unless you want to replace it with a different pixel pattern
albedoMap = "materials/veil/veil_screen_c12_01.dds" Input your diffuse texture here
normalMap = "materials/dev/dev_normal.dds" Your normal normal map.
specularMap = "materials/dev/black.dds" It's a specular, works like any other spec map
RS_Monitorscreen_animated.surface_shader
lcdtex ="cinematics/vfx_materials/t_lcdpixels.dds" Leave as is unless you want to replace it with a different pixel pattern
albedoMap = "materials/veil/veil_screen_c12_01.dds" Input your diffuse texture here
normalMap = "materials/dev/dev_normal.dds" Your normal normal map.
specularMap = "materials/dev/black.dds" It's a specular, works like any other spec map
noisetex = "cinematics/vfx_materials/t_distort.dds" Do not touch, Red and Green channels are used for the noise, and Blue is used for the distortion mask
lcdtex ="cinematics/vfx_materials/t_lcdpixels.dds" Leave as is unless you want to replace it with a different pixel pattern
albedoMap = "materials/RS/VFX/SubUV_Anim_diffuse.dds" Input your flipbook texture here
normalMap = "materials/dev/dev_normal.dds" You can use any normalmap just fine, it won't be animated so it's useful for cracked screens.
specularMap = "materials/dev/dev_white.dds" static specular/gloss texture, just like every other surface uses
horizontalFrames = 8 set this to exactly the same amount of horizontal images in your texture
verticalFrames = 8 needs to match the amount of vertical images
animationspeed = 6 how fast the texture should animate, higher numbers = faster
emissiveStrength = 0 increase this to add some emissive (based on flipbook) to the material, for lights or screens y'know
smoothBlending = 1 settings this to 0 changes to hard cuts between frames instead of smooth interpolation
showDecals = 0 leave as is unless you know what this does
lcdtex ="cinematics/vfx_materials/t_lcdpixels.dds" Leave as is unless you want to replace it with a different pixel pattern
albedoMap = "materials/RS/VFX/SubUV_Anim_diffuse.dds" Input your flipbook texture here
normalMap = "materials/dev/dev_normal.dds" You can use any normalmap just fine, it won't be animated so it's useful for cracked screens.
specularMap = "materials/dev/dev_white.dds" static specular/gloss texture, just like every other surface uses
horizontalFrames = 8 set this to exactly the same amount of horizontal images in your texture
verticalFrames = 8 needs to match the amount of vertical images
animationspeed = 6 how fast the texture should animate, higher numbers = faster
emissiveStrength = 0 increase this to add some emissive (based on flipbook) to the material, for lights or screens y'know
smoothBlending = 1 settings this to 0 changes to hard cuts between frames instead of smooth interpolation
showDecals = 0 leave as is unless you know what this does
v2 includes some minor changes to the distortion frequency, a procedurally generated scanline effect and an additional noise texture for heavy distortions
Re: HMG
Yup, because the person who was building it took a break to go to university so it was never finished, after university was over, they came back and finished it so now it can be used! \o/
Well not really.. Uneversity was done long time ago.
Started model for fun and passed it on freely to be used by anyone who requested it. It was just static model was not animated/rigged since getting source files and learning new engine can be excercise in frustration (looking at you cryengine).
Later down the line one of devs/contibutors showed some interest so I redone/reworked the model to be a bit more interesting and rigged/animated the thing. Props to Sweets, Bege and Iron Horse whos help put model on the table for community.
Re: Subnautica Xbox One Update 1.0.0.34 Released - Subnautica
Renewed faith in gaming!
Re: Build 327 - UNEARTHED - Natural Selection 2
Incorrect. The tragedy of the commons phenomenon created by large servers makes it unrealistic to run 8v8 servers unless every server is 8v8.Nothing was stopping these lower player count servers from being run.
Re: Build 327 Balance Patch Notes - Natural Selection 2
I think it went through the extensions mod yes
Does anyone else find the start of Below Zero kinda corny?
The first Subnautica intro was so powerfull to me. The alarms as the screen fades in, the sight of the exploding ship, waking up to a fire. Then opening up your escape pod and realizing youre all alone with nothing but the ocean and the Aurora wreck in the distance. This all happens in less than a minute and after it you get a clear signal youre all alone trying to survive. Youre a silent protagonist with no face and its easy to get immersed into your character. There are no "quests" or handholding, specialy at the start and it feels like a open world thats too grand to care about you.
In Below Zero I actualy dont like the little tour before your escape pod drops, especialy since its above water. I can buy 7000 other games with good looking science buildings and above water landscapes. I bought Subnautica expecting a impressive underwater intro. When you walk around your base, encounter a alien waygate in the first 30 seconds and have small talk with your sister, it feels like a generic shooter intro. There is less sense of dread.
My first reaction was "what kind of profesional builds a base near a avalanche and can I dig it up" and my second was "I want my sister to send me more stuff".
Also, I dont mind the protagonist being a black female LGBT if thats woke or sells better. But I do think talking ruins the immersion and reminds me I am playing a computer character in a video game.
I dont think I would had been nearly as terrified of my first reaper attack if Riley said "oh golly jeezs its a monster" and his sidekick over the phone said "Riley watch out!".
My sugestions would be:
Have a intro where you start with just a escape pod or something simmilar right away. Nobody complained that in Subnautica you dont first walk around the Aurora for 5 minutes before it crashes.
Wait a few days and do a repair mission to make the alien tech talk to you. "This waygate was always silent but decided to talk English in the first 20 sec of the game" feels like a scenario out of Scooby Doo.
Be unable to reply to your sister. So she can still send information and a few supplies from the sky, but you still feel genuinley alone and cut off. And not "why didnt my asshole sister put 700 food rations in the launch pod she sent me".
I know the developers are probably excited about their vision and hiring more voice acting with a bigger budget, so this isnt very probable to make it into the game. But I just wanted to vent a bit.
The intro sets the tone that is less opressive survival game and more disney cartoon.
In Below Zero I actualy dont like the little tour before your escape pod drops, especialy since its above water. I can buy 7000 other games with good looking science buildings and above water landscapes. I bought Subnautica expecting a impressive underwater intro. When you walk around your base, encounter a alien waygate in the first 30 seconds and have small talk with your sister, it feels like a generic shooter intro. There is less sense of dread.
My first reaction was "what kind of profesional builds a base near a avalanche and can I dig it up" and my second was "I want my sister to send me more stuff".
Also, I dont mind the protagonist being a black female LGBT if thats woke or sells better. But I do think talking ruins the immersion and reminds me I am playing a computer character in a video game.
I dont think I would had been nearly as terrified of my first reaper attack if Riley said "oh golly jeezs its a monster" and his sidekick over the phone said "Riley watch out!".
My sugestions would be:
Have a intro where you start with just a escape pod or something simmilar right away. Nobody complained that in Subnautica you dont first walk around the Aurora for 5 minutes before it crashes.
Wait a few days and do a repair mission to make the alien tech talk to you. "This waygate was always silent but decided to talk English in the first 20 sec of the game" feels like a scenario out of Scooby Doo.
Be unable to reply to your sister. So she can still send information and a few supplies from the sky, but you still feel genuinley alone and cut off. And not "why didnt my asshole sister put 700 food rations in the launch pod she sent me".
I know the developers are probably excited about their vision and hiring more voice acting with a bigger budget, so this isnt very probable to make it into the game. But I just wanted to vent a bit.
The intro sets the tone that is less opressive survival game and more disney cartoon.
Re: Would you rather?..
Apologies for not honoring the format. I vote "other". This is what I'd like to see:
When Joining Full Servers:
When attempting to join a full server, I should be added to a position-sorted queue for that server. I want to see my position in the queue, and I want to see that position count down as players join the server or leave the queue.
While waiting to join, I should be able to do virtually anything else: spectate another server, join a non-ranked arcade game (e.g. combat), browse the internet via steam, etc. I should not be removed from the queue while doing these things.
---
When Spectating:
I should be able to join a server's spectator view directly via the server browser. If I've already joined the server and am currently taking up a player slot instead, I should be able to convert my player slot into a spectator slot by joining the "Spectator" team via the ready room option, or a keybind. Within the in-game world of the ready room, the holographic text for the "spectate" option should be colored red (so that it feels like an 'exit') and include additional text informing me that I will have to re-queue for a player slot after becoming a spectator. This should be a one-way ticket; I should not be able to spam F4 to grab the first available player slot once I become a spectator.
However, I should be able to rejoin the player slot queue directly via the spectator view. Upon doing so, I would be given my position in the queue, just as I would if I attempted to join via the server browser.
Spectators should not be able to communicate with the player population unless designated by the server operator.
---
Thunderdome / Lobbies:
My understanding is that the system is going to be an in-game gather/pug lobby where you can designate your desired playercount and skill range, privacy level (e.g. public or invite only), and then spin up two rounds after everyone is present. One recommendation: allow these games to be spectated by the public. Another recommendation: do the following -
Public 'Seeding Availability' Flag:
Give me a profile checkbox which I can check to indicate my availability for seeding. You can do whatever you want with the population of users who flag themselves in this fashion. For example: send them quickjoin notifications to help populate high performing servers when adequate numbers are reached. In addition, this flag should be used to help populate public Thunderdome / lobby games. In this latter case, only send the notifications to players matching the lobby requirements (e.g. if there's a skill minimum, ensure that the notification only goes to players above that threshold).
---
Quickplay:
Most new players use quickplay. Most older players do not. To improve quickplay, I recommend the addition of a 'Bridge' checkbox to the Quickplay option. With this option checked, quickplay would limit its consideration of available servers to servers flagged as being a part of the 'Bridge' system.
Advantages of Bridge:
- This would serve as an immediately accessible player retention mechanism because it would ensure that players are placed among competition appropriate to their skill level.
- You can't do matchmaking yet. There aren't enough players. You can do this. It's like the scalable, baby-version of matchmaking that's appropriate for NS2's current playerbase. This is a good alternative because it's the kind of feature that encourages developing players to stick around. When developing players stick around, you eventually collect enough of them to implement actual matchmaking. And since it also helps players on the high end, it'll keep more of the game's passionate superfans engaged. Why? Because they'll be getting hot injections of "this round didn't totally suck" more often than they currently are, thus feeding the addiction without having to rely on a third-party gather system. Bonus.
- Easy to deploy. Each 'tier' of the bridge is defined by a server configuration and rule set (e.g. playercount, accepted skill range, etc.). UWE or existing server operators can deploy servers matching these configurations, which gives UWE leeway in how they approach its implementation.
- The skill ranges (aka 'tiers') can be periodically adjusted to scale with NS2's current player count.
- Servers can be removed or added to the system as needed. You could run the system with a minimum of three servers at launch, or tens of servers in some hypothetical future where NS2 becomes very popular again.
- This system dovetails with the community server browser. These servers could be populated directly via the Bridge-Quickplay button, or via the server browser (because they're traditional servers in every other respect; the player joining from the browser would just need to be in the appropriate skill range).
- All new players want to feel a progression in their skills without being annihilated by opponents with vastly more experience and time invested. There needs to be enough player skill diversity to present a challenge and foster the growth of compensatory skills, but not so great a challenge that these skills are never realized or explored.
- For experienced players, there needs to be a quick and convenient in-game option to group with other players of moderate to high skill levels. This method should not require the manual filling of a lobby, and so the appropriation of the existing Quickplay feature is a great, convenient alternative. This is a casual-competitive game, and anything that helps those competitive players conveniently compete is going to indirectly benefit the remainder of the community.
When Joining Full Servers:
When attempting to join a full server, I should be added to a position-sorted queue for that server. I want to see my position in the queue, and I want to see that position count down as players join the server or leave the queue.
While waiting to join, I should be able to do virtually anything else: spectate another server, join a non-ranked arcade game (e.g. combat), browse the internet via steam, etc. I should not be removed from the queue while doing these things.
---
When Spectating:
I should be able to join a server's spectator view directly via the server browser. If I've already joined the server and am currently taking up a player slot instead, I should be able to convert my player slot into a spectator slot by joining the "Spectator" team via the ready room option, or a keybind. Within the in-game world of the ready room, the holographic text for the "spectate" option should be colored red (so that it feels like an 'exit') and include additional text informing me that I will have to re-queue for a player slot after becoming a spectator. This should be a one-way ticket; I should not be able to spam F4 to grab the first available player slot once I become a spectator.
However, I should be able to rejoin the player slot queue directly via the spectator view. Upon doing so, I would be given my position in the queue, just as I would if I attempted to join via the server browser.
Spectators should not be able to communicate with the player population unless designated by the server operator.
---
Thunderdome / Lobbies:
My understanding is that the system is going to be an in-game gather/pug lobby where you can designate your desired playercount and skill range, privacy level (e.g. public or invite only), and then spin up two rounds after everyone is present. One recommendation: allow these games to be spectated by the public. Another recommendation: do the following -
Public 'Seeding Availability' Flag:
Give me a profile checkbox which I can check to indicate my availability for seeding. You can do whatever you want with the population of users who flag themselves in this fashion. For example: send them quickjoin notifications to help populate high performing servers when adequate numbers are reached. In addition, this flag should be used to help populate public Thunderdome / lobby games. In this latter case, only send the notifications to players matching the lobby requirements (e.g. if there's a skill minimum, ensure that the notification only goes to players above that threshold).
---
Quickplay:
Most new players use quickplay. Most older players do not. To improve quickplay, I recommend the addition of a 'Bridge' checkbox to the Quickplay option. With this option checked, quickplay would limit its consideration of available servers to servers flagged as being a part of the 'Bridge' system.
Advantages of Bridge:
- This would serve as an immediately accessible player retention mechanism because it would ensure that players are placed among competition appropriate to their skill level.
- You can't do matchmaking yet. There aren't enough players. You can do this. It's like the scalable, baby-version of matchmaking that's appropriate for NS2's current playerbase. This is a good alternative because it's the kind of feature that encourages developing players to stick around. When developing players stick around, you eventually collect enough of them to implement actual matchmaking. And since it also helps players on the high end, it'll keep more of the game's passionate superfans engaged. Why? Because they'll be getting hot injections of "this round didn't totally suck" more often than they currently are, thus feeding the addiction without having to rely on a third-party gather system. Bonus.
- Easy to deploy. Each 'tier' of the bridge is defined by a server configuration and rule set (e.g. playercount, accepted skill range, etc.). UWE or existing server operators can deploy servers matching these configurations, which gives UWE leeway in how they approach its implementation.
- The skill ranges (aka 'tiers') can be periodically adjusted to scale with NS2's current player count.
- Servers can be removed or added to the system as needed. You could run the system with a minimum of three servers at launch, or tens of servers in some hypothetical future where NS2 becomes very popular again.
- This system dovetails with the community server browser. These servers could be populated directly via the Bridge-Quickplay button, or via the server browser (because they're traditional servers in every other respect; the player joining from the browser would just need to be in the appropriate skill range).
- All new players want to feel a progression in their skills without being annihilated by opponents with vastly more experience and time invested. There needs to be enough player skill diversity to present a challenge and foster the growth of compensatory skills, but not so great a challenge that these skills are never realized or explored.
- For experienced players, there needs to be a quick and convenient in-game option to group with other players of moderate to high skill levels. This method should not require the manual filling of a lobby, and so the appropriation of the existing Quickplay feature is a great, convenient alternative. This is a casual-competitive game, and anything that helps those competitive players conveniently compete is going to indirectly benefit the remainder of the community.
Re: Subnautica creature ideas by onatfb
If there's a predator in the void, then there must be prey...
