Natural Selection 2 News Update - NS2 Build 216 changelog
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
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New layout test, Moved almost everything...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Don´t see any layout changes in mineshaft. :?
The wonderful new menus. Specifically the options menu.
The added energy costs applied to aliens.
Support for "fullscreen windowed" mode.
The optimizations are helping.
<b>The Bad</b>
Red hives and command stations everywhere. Way too obstructive and gives the new player the wrong priorities as he is going to be focusing on the hive.
The hive health bar, it looks like a fighting game. It would be cooler if the hive had different levels of screams as it gets closer to dying. Perhaps some warning beeps or alarm for the command station as well.
The progress bar, it does not fit with the game. The builder/welder tool displayed the information better without covering your screen with a bar.
Why is hivesight gone?
Armories heal armor.
<b>The Not sure.</b>
Armories now take "energy" to heal (1 energy = 1 heal = 1 second). Armories can have a max of 10 energy. So if an Armory isn't drained too much, it will heal everything full speed, but if a lot of marines start leeching, it will slow down. Armories start with 0 energy (so will be full after 10 seconds).
I posted this idea a while back.
I was actually hoping for this one!
Thanks!
Only question I really have is why remove hive sight?
As far as marines go, it's nice that they aren't so overwhelmed by higher alien lifeforms now :)
<a href="http://www.twitch.tv/rwryne#" target="_blank">http://www.twitch.tv/rwryne#</a>
Actually i hope its a bug because it *****.
The old-school simple circle markers always worked well and were never disorienting because it wasn't fully rendering the object, just a circle.
Red hives and command stations everywhere. Way too obstructive and gives the new player the wrong priorities as he is going to be focusing on the hive.
The hive health bar, it looks like a fighting game. It would be cooler if the hive had different levels of screams as it gets closer to dying. Perhaps some warning beeps or alarm for the command station as well.
The progress bar, it does not fit with the game. The builder/welder tool displayed the information better without covering your screen with a bar.
Why is hivesight gone?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This. There is no reason for the hp bars/hives/% complete bar. I much rather have the "Dead Space" style than the "Halo" style.
Now that Robots auto heal your armor I'm not sure if the armory Armor heal is needed (although I do like it).
<b></b>NERF CARAPACE<i></i>
I also envision this requiring the aliens to use a lot more teamwork and coordination with the commander in order to achieve victory, because they will be less self sufficient. They will require crags at forward positions to sustain hit and run assaults on marine positions, or gorge support.
I still don't see shifts being useful at forward locations though.
Armories don't need to heal armor. It was working fairly well without it. Especially now that regen and evolutions have been nerfed, it will be less necessary.
I actually like that welders are everywhere now, with players supporting each other on the frontlines.
It's an interesting build, the UI... We'll have to see where the devs are going with this, some valid points are being made on the forums imho :)
The "progress bar" when welding/building is horrid. The old system was very clear to me, and less intrusive. The new method really kills immersion and just seems so out of place. I don't think players had any problems understanding when something was being repaired, the % on crosshair and the tool itself made it quite obvious.
Tone down the CC/hive icons from bright red to something less obtrusive, an outline perhaps. I know some are complaining but I think if the graphic is tweaked they will be fine.
Like the new "damage bar" for your hive/cc if under attack/attacking. The graphic itself could be less intrusive. Once again similar to the progress bar when welding it just looks cheap while the rest of the game looks so nice.
FPS is definitely better. Graphics seem better too, were there some changes there? Things are looking great UWE, I am really excited about NS2 and have been spreading the word. Keep up the fantastic work. Games like NS2 just don't get made anymore and I respect the hell out of you for what you guys are doing.
Armory heals armor again. Why? Besides the first few days I literally haven't see one person complain. And besides the games where you'd have a full team of ..., where you'd only get welded once or twice the entire game, it was good. The energy thing is complete nonsense and only affects you if you have 4 marines humping the armory, and even then you just wait a few more seconds.
Red comm station and hive, very annoying and extremely unnecessary.
Comm Station/Hive health bars. Unnecessary when you already know the %.
MINI-MAP. WHY???? Shuts everything out now, can't really see whats going on with it open now, which sucks because I have it open allll the time.
Building progress bars, really ugly. Even if placeholder, why? The %construction was extremely easy and unintruding to see.
Green parasite. It's a placeholder, sure. Even with a new graphic it'd be annoying to see for 30 whole seconds every single time. I'd like to know what exactly was the motive to implement it? It's completely useless with alien vision around.
Keeping 2nd/3rd hive upgrades if you don't die. Why lesson the punish for losing something so crucial to your team?
Hydras still free. Fixed in 217, but after the tweet expected it this build.
Alot of these things seem like dumbing things down to appeal to the auto-save every 20 second COD generation.
Same here. I haven't seen that option before (but i haven't looked for it either). Could someone explain what it does? (Maybe in terms of API functions and algorithms.)
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/news/2012/8/ns2_build_216_changelog" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/news/2012...d_216_changelog</a>
I think we need to have a look at linking the first post to the related new article...
Seriously... I expected this to be an obvious fix... :\
Really wish Carapace wasn't such a required first upgrade, it's making alien comm rather dull.
That was a typo in the change log. Mineshaft was not changed. I'll fix the log.
<!--quoteo(post=1960137:date=Aug 9 2012, 06:36 PM:name=DeadlyTissues)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DeadlyTissues @ Aug 9 2012, 06:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1960137"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Only question I really have is why remove hive sight?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is because we are making some changes to Alien vision mode and adding "Pheromones" in 217. These changes were not ready for 216 but we had already removed hive sight and adjusted parasite.
<!--quoteo(post=1960159:date=Aug 9 2012, 06:58 PM:name=spaceturtle)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spaceturtle @ Aug 9 2012, 06:58 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1960159"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The "progress bar" when welding/building is horrid.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
More changes coming next patch. This stuff was half done but we needed to get 216 shipped. We are trying to simplify all of the UIs and having a lot of duplicated information is not simple.
<!--quoteo(post=1960170:date=Aug 9 2012, 07:12 PM:name={GGs} Chicken)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ({GGs} Chicken @ Aug 9 2012, 07:12 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1960170"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Skulk Cara still 50 armor. Cmon. Really? REERY?
...
MINI-MAP. WHY???? Shuts everything out now, can't really see whats going on with it open now, which sucks because I have it open allll the time.
Green parasite. It's a placeholder, sure. Even with a new graphic it'd be annoying to see for 30 whole seconds every single time. I'd like to know what exactly was the motive to implement it? It's completely useless with alien vision around.
Keeping 2nd/3rd hive upgrades if you don't die. Why lesson the punish for losing something so crucial to your team?
Alot of these things seem like dumbing things down to appeal to the auto-save every 20 second COD generation.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Skulk cara armor is reduced in 217 I believe.
"which sucks because I have it open allll the time." <- Having to have it open all the time is what sucks. We want you to be able to play the game without a map open at all. But when you do want to open the map, we want it to be easy to read. Like much of what we do, this is a change that will take a few more patches to appreciate.
The motive to implement Parasite like that was that new players do not understand what Parasite does. This makes it more obvious. More changes are coming to parasite very soon that will clean it up.
"Keeping 2nd/3rd hive upgrades if you don't die. Why lesson the punish for losing something so crucial to your team?"
Because it is not fun to suddenly lose a weapon/ability that you think you have. We like fun things. Also, it is now a lot more important to keep a Fade that has Blink when you have lost your second Hive. This happened in a game yesterday and it was really neat.
And finally, making a game better does not automatically mean we are dumbing it down.
What does raw mouse input do??
- One key feature of natural selection was to explore the map and now you are showing where the CCs/hives are. I have no fun if I see the hives and CCs and I don't think that you should make it like that, now its only about rush the base.
- To force alien to choose a specific upgrade its totally wrong. Example; once upgraded crag hive you can only choose regen or carapace. You can't have both. A horrible change that will conflict the chance of staying alive as an alien.
Also, why no mention that parasite was nerfed and no longer works on buildings??