A list of lost features, abilities and content from earlier builds..

deathshrouddeathshroud Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
edited January 2015 in NS2 General Discussion
Thought we could put together a long list of all the features, abilities and changes that are no longer in ns2. Just for nostalgia.

. Cysting through gorge tunnels - at 1 point in time alien commanders could cyst from a tunnel just like a hive.
. free gorge tunnel placement - gorge tunnels could be placed anywhere you like, gorge tunnels in vents etc
. no gorge tunnels - for quite a long time the game had no gorge tunnels at all.
. whips would whack grenades, whips would bat away marine grenades preventing grenade spam and often killing the marine.
. drifters used to be evolved into structures - no structures could be placed without a drifter turning into it.
. infestation acted like parasite - when marines walked on infestation they would show up on the minimap to aliens
. gorge boneshield - gorges once had the ability to curl into a ball increasing their armor similar to boneshield.
. crag stacking - there was no limit on the number of crags that could heal 1 player or structure, often hives had 8 crags in them.
. Lerk bilebomb - before umbra lerks had bilebombs and not gorges.
. marine auxiliary grenade launcher - marines could purchase an under slung grenade launcher for their rifles.
. battery free sentries - at one time sentries did not require batteries only a a room with power.
. welders researched - at one time welders had to be researched.
. armory repairs armor - armories used to also repair armor.
. drifter attack - commanders could order a drifter to attack a marine, the damage was low but with 20+ drifters you could do significant damage to the marine team.
. rifle knockback - marines could hit a skulk with their rifle butt causing it to be knocked back and stunned for a second.
. Fade step - fades had shadow step only and the commander had to research blink.
. broken lerks - lerk hitboxes didnt match their models making them extremely difficult to hit.
. flamesabers - flamers had no collision and would burn through walls etc and look really weird.
. MAC spam - there was no limit to the number of macs that could weld something and MACs even welded each other.
. fade evolution - the fade proved difficult to get right for UWE and he evolved a lot over the course of the game with different abilities etc.
. Invisible aliens - the stealth ability for aliens made them completely invisible even when moving making it impossible to spot them without a beacon.
. armory research - unlocking the advanced armory did not unlock the gl and flamer, the gl had to be researched ontop of the av research.
. EXO no eject - marines for a long time could not eject from an exo.
. EXO beacon - exos would be beaconed with marines.
. ONOS eggs - the alien com could drop eggs for pres at any point in the game resulting in an onos in 6 minutes
. multiple commanders - either team could have multiple commanders if someone jumped in an empty hive/chair whilst a com was active.
. wall walk CCs - skulks could wall walk up and around a marine CC.
. gorge infestation - gorges could place infestation.
. No cyst infestation - infestation did not have cysts.
. fade double jump - fades could double jump giving them great momentum.
. skulk feign death - upon death with this ability researched the skulk would go invisible for about 1 second before reappearing with a low amount of health (really weird)
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Comments

  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2015
    This list will be too long.

    My favorite was having drifters able to attack marines and their structures. Back then if you had 4 drifters, you could have them defend an RT against a lone marine. 50 drifters could take a marine base.

    How I used it, I would get a hive built as quick as possible. This was before drifters were needed to build hives. Drifter also spawned from the hive itself so you needed more hives to build more drifters faster. So I would forgo upgrades and just built RT's, a hive, and lots of drifters. I would just make drifters until the marines teched up enough where my upgradeless skulks couldn't compete. By this time I would usually have what I estimate to be 300 drifters. I would do a big triangle and select them all, and then click on the marine chair.

    The marines knew what was coming, because when 300 drifters move the server lags down to like 2 tick rate. Marines couldn't kill drifters because the server was lagging. Marines couldn't kill drifters because they couldn't focus one down, because they always shuffled. Sometimes if I felt really troll I would kill all the marines in base with drifters before I went for the chair. Marines would try to run, but drifters were always faster.

    Good times.

    This did have a counter. If had an advanced armory and filled their base with 12+ sentries, because sentries weren't room limited back then, they might survive the drifter lag onslought. Grenades and flamethrowers put out enough AOE damage along with the sentry spam could sometimes handle the drifters. If you survived my mass drifter attack, you basically won because I had no upgrades and all my res went to drifters.
  • BlrgBlrg Join Date: 2013-09-01 Member: 187580Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Shadow
    I remember when you couldn't build marine structures on infestation. Building a sneaky pg in their main hive was way more epic then, especially when the sneaky marine managed to destroy a couple cysts in order to do it

    But the funniest thing I remember was when you couldn't get out of an Exo. I saw a few times the whole marine team going Exo, then no one could build anything. So they lost the IPs and they were not able to rebuild them

    The trains of Macs (able to weld each other) following an Exo were pretty insane

    Other classics are the thousand old fade abilities: Old shadowstep, old vortex, shadowstep, vortex. And I guess that a few more in alpha/beta days, like blink shield and blink teleport

    Invisible drifters for map awareness, feign death, camouflage with total invisibility, etc...
    2 chairs required to research jetpacks or exos

    Also, alien abilities used to be bound to the hive were you researched them, so if you lost that hive you also lost the upgrades

    ah... nostalgia... I've played so many different games all of them called Natural Selection 2... :)
  • cooliticcoolitic Right behind you Join Date: 2013-04-02 Member: 184609Members
    edited January 2015
    I remember the times when everyone would go exo, and because exos could not be beaconed, a few aliens would just and take the enemy main while the rest stalled the exos.

    Funny times.
  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited January 2015
    Alright I'll think up some as well...

    • Alien speeds (flappity flap/jumpity jump) able to exceed 30
    • Commander able to interact with doors
    • Gorge able to place infestation patches
    • Door buttons
    • Helicopter rifle (the first incarnation of the rifle)
    • Khammander able to place infestation anywhere (oops)
    • Khammander tickling marine locations, seeing if there was marine activity in those areas shown by black mist around your "hand of evil"
    • Lightsaber NoClip flamethrowers
    • Multiple commanders
    • Onos momentum
    • Pistol RoF not being limited...
    • Skulks on my damn roof? Squad five shoot them of the damn CC!!!
    • Weldable door test
  • develdevel Join Date: 2014-09-13 Member: 198444Members
    These features look so imbalanced if taken out of context.
  • sotanahtsotanaht Join Date: 2013-01-12 Member: 179215Members
    edited January 2015
    How can you be forgetting about fades?

    Shadowstep-Jumping, blink had to be researched but shadowstep was the main movement method anyway.
    Double jump.
    Then you had to research shadowstep and it lost the shadowstep-jump ability, now even that is gone
    The many incarnations of Vortex
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Rifle butt froze enemies in place, often making it a one hit kill and making the alien players pull out their hair.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    IronHorse wrote: »
    Rifle butt froze enemies in place, often making it a one hit kill and making the alien players pull out their hair.

    Bug or designed feature?
  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited January 2015
    Nordic wrote: »
    IronHorse wrote: »
    Rifle butt froze enemies in place, often making it a one hit kill and making the alien players pull out their hair.

    Bug or designed feature?

    tested feature and nuked, like stopping power bullets

    -- and there was a bug where you could knock Skulks into walls and they get stuck longer than intended
  • dragonmithdragonmith Join Date: 2013-02-04 Member: 182817Members, Reinforced - Diamond
    You couldn't drop items on a low resolution as Com or Karm, especially on Refinery around the bottom of the map.

    Mac had emp, which always surprised people when I used it (not that it did anything useful however...)

    If you count map content I bet everyone can mention their favorite version of Docking :))
  • BensonBenson Join Date: 2012-03-07 Member: 148303Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    I miss the GL attachment....it may have been very strong (for 25 pres it better have been), but at least there were 75% less grenades!

    (if EVERYONE on a 12 man team bought a GL, that would be the same as 3 GLs today)
  • MaxAmusMaxAmus UK Join Date: 2003-12-26 Member: 24779Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
  • deathshrouddeathshroud Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
    i remember a bug, if you had the res for an onos but then disconnected from the game only to rejoin just after new game start you could start the round keeping your res from the previous game and going onos at the start of the match. seen it happen a handful of times.


    looking at the list its pretty crazy what the game was like, imagine adding all those features together into a mod it would just be insane and probably completely broken.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    There was a time when 50 second leap was the go to starting strategy.
  • ZavaroZavaro Tucson, Arizona Join Date: 2005-02-14 Member: 41174Members, Super Administrators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    Swarm and Frenzy. Two alien traits which were brutal.

    Still makes me wish we had three traits for each upgrade chamber, though.
  • deathshrouddeathshroud Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
    edited January 2015
    i remember frenzy i think, it made you attack much faster. i think swarm was a com ability that hatched all dead players right at that moment.

    if you did go with 3 traits per upgrade chamber then frenzy would have to be a spur upgrade ability
  • deathshrouddeathshroud Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
    yea i remember hypermutation it made your evolves cheaper or something
  • AurOn2AurOn2 COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS! Australia Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
    It made the cust you payed to get a lifeform, transfer over to the next lifeform you pick.
    EG: as d0pesird0g pointed out, if you were onos, and evolved into skulk, you would get.. wait for it.. ALL YOUR RES BACK.

    Man i remember how hard it was pinning lifeforms and finishing them off in those days...
    *shudder*
  • BensonBenson Join Date: 2012-03-07 Member: 148303Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    I remember hypermutation restoring all your HP on evolve!

    almost dead as an onos?

    go skulk, then onos again and be at full HP! gorges were so outclassed!
  • AurOn2AurOn2 COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS! Australia Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
    Zavaro wrote: »
    Swarm and Frenzy. Two alien traits which were brutal.

    Still makes me wish we had three traits for each upgrade chamber, though.

    You forgot feign death. i actually MISS that.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2015
    Am I the only one who was an unskilled pleb who could never pull of the onos hypermutate skulk back to onos move. I remember it being at thing, and people would use it against me but I could never ever do it myself. I always died.
  • sotanahtsotanaht Join Date: 2013-01-12 Member: 179215Members
    edited January 2015
    Nordic wrote: »
    Am I the only one who was an unskilled pleb who could never pull of the onos hypermutate skulk back to onos move. I remember it being at thing, and people would use it against me but I could never ever do it myself. I always died.
    Benson wrote: »
    I remember hypermutation restoring all your HP on evolve!

    almost dead as an onos?

    go skulk, then onos again and be at full HP! gorges were so outclassed!

    I never got to try Hypermutation myself but the trait description sounds like it would have made for a lot of fun gameplay. Ignoring any OP bits like instantly healing an onos or refunding to skulk just before dying.

    Just the idea of not being locked into a lifeform when something else is needed for the team, which I think was probably the core idea that never really managed to get ironed out in the mechanics.
  • SnXSnX Join Date: 2013-01-17 Member: 180145Members, Reinforced - Gold
    I would like to have multiple commanders back so there are more people to blame when you lose!
  • MuckyMcFlyMuckyMcFly Join Date: 2012-03-19 Member: 148982Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
    Unlimited turrets, mineshaft marine spawn endgame - the laggiest thing ever :))
  • SquishpokePOOPFACESquishpokePOOPFACE -21,248 posts (ignore below) Join Date: 2012-10-31 Member: 165262Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2015
    I loved the drifter attacks. For awhile it was popular on the oldf server. Nothing like being with a group of Marines who have never seen a drifter attack before. First, confusion. Then general hilarity as one of them died. Then the sheer terror kicked in as each one eventually realized that it was going to be a massacre. Me? I always ran away to the nearest box, where the drifters couldn't get me. :D

    At some point some people wised up and we had to fight over the boxes.

    I also really liked total invisibility on the aliens. I loved that tingle in my balls when I knew that there was one in the room. After spraying the corners, I usually found one. I was a jedi, man! Now cloak is pretty lame. No challenge at all.

    Also I remember the good old days of 2 minute Onos. Even as a marine player I argued that it was balanced because we usually were able to win. But that was because people were terrible players back then and didn't play alien right, hahahha
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    I loved the drifter attacks. For awhile it was popular on the oldf server. Nothing like being with a group of Marines who have never seen a drifter attack before. First, confusion. Then general hilarity as one of them died. Then the sheer terror kicked in as each one eventually realized that it was going to be a massacre. Me? I always ran away to the nearest box, where the drifters couldn't get me. :D

    At some point some people wised up and we had to fight over the boxes.

    I also really liked total invisibility on the aliens. I loved that tingle in my balls when I knew that there was one in the room. After spraying the corners, I usually found one. I was a jedi, man! Now cloak is pretty lame. No challenge at all.

    Also I remember the good old days of 2 minute Onos. Even as a marine player I argued that it was balanced because we usually were able to win. But that was because people were terrible players back then and didn't play alien right, hahahha
    It was best when you would kill an unsuspecting marine with 3 drifters. 3 was few enough where they didnt see it as a threat so they would ignore it. After taking some damage they realized it was a threat so they would fight, but it was already too late.

  • MoFo1MoFo1 United States Join Date: 2014-07-25 Member: 197612Members
    edited January 2015
    Some of those sound like they would make the game a LOT more fun to play.

    Total invisibility on Aliens is something I wish I had been there for. Hell I'd just be happy enough if a stationary alien with cloak was totally invisible, it's annoying how certain players are able to see cloaked aliens as if they're covered with lights.

    I miss how Gorge tunnels used to be before they added the stupid restrictions that keep them on ground level and out in the open. So many times a one sided game could be turned around with a sneaky tunnel the Marines couldn't see (like under the stairs outside flow control on Refinery) Now they're so restricted that there are TONS of places right out in the open you can't place them.... I really wish they would have just fixed the "exploit" spots (like in the vents, or up on the roof at landing pad on Docking)
  • NarfwakNarfwak Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 5258Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica PT Lead, NS2 Community Developer
    MoFo1 wrote: »
    Total invisibility on Aliens is something I wish I had been there for.
    It was really, really dumb. Why? Onos.
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