Update 289 Now Live! - Natural Selection 2

SystemSystem Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
edited March 2016 in NS2 General Discussion

imageUpdate 289 Now Live! - Natural Selection 2

Hi everyone! It seems like only yesterday that we released update 288, wait a minute?!? It was (almost). Hot off the heels of one update comes yet another. This time...

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  • GhoulofGSG9GhoulofGSG9 Join Date: 2013-03-31 Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
    Bump! Let the talk begin!
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”
    Revamped the scoring numbers:

    Each entity gives now about half of its resource costs as points
    Primary game objectives like Command-, Resource Structure and Power Nodes give a bonus of 10 points
    Secondary game objectives like Gorge Tunnels, Observatories, Phase Gates, Infantry Portal and Alien Upgrade Structures give a bonus of 5 points.
    Player give a bonus of half the points they have collected in their current life.
    I can already tell that these two changes are going to feel weird for a while :D

    What's the base score you get for killing a player with various loadouts? Is it still the same?
  • ZEROibisZEROibis Join Date: 2009-10-30 Member: 69176Members, Constellation
    Thanks for the update!
  • GhoulofGSG9GhoulofGSG9 Join Date: 2013-03-31 Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
    edited March 2016
    Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”
    Revamped the scoring numbers:

    Each entity gives now about half of its resource costs as points
    Primary game objectives like Command-, Resource Structure and Power Nodes give a bonus of 10 points
    Secondary game objectives like Gorge Tunnels, Observatories, Phase Gates, Infantry Portal and Alien Upgrade Structures give a bonus of 5 points.
    Player give a bonus of half the points they have collected in their current life.
    I can already tell that these two changes are going to feel weird for a while :D

    What's the base score you get for killing a player with various loadouts? Is it still the same?

    Weapons and Upgrades cost pres ;) So no the points will differ based on the loadouts from now on.
  • 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
    I see more work going on for rapid iteration so I thought this would be a good time to bring it up.

    I don't know how it works currently(so pardon my ignorance), but would it be possible for the devs to make the main gamemode run as a "mod" off a base in which this foundation for all gamemodes to run off of be relatively untouched so other gamemode devs don't have to worry about it breaking as often?

    Mods of mods would still have their issue, but for things like Last Stand, Assault, Faded, and potentially even Combat could have longer operational times without having to be updated as frequently.

    (Also I think the twitter feed on the website is broken.)
  • GhoulofGSG9GhoulofGSG9 Join Date: 2013-03-31 Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
    edited March 2016
    I see more work going on for rapid iteration so I thought this would be a good time to bring it up.

    I don't know how it works currently(so pardon my ignorance), but would it be possible for the devs to make the main gamemode run as a "mod" off a base in which this foundation for all gamemodes to run off of be relatively untouched so other gamemode devs don't have to worry about it breaking as often?

    Mods of mods would still have their issue, but for things like Last Stand, Assault, Faded, and potentially even Combat could have longer operational times without having to be updated as frequently.

    (Also I think the twitter feed on the website is broken.)

    That's already how it works!

    Have a look into your NS2 install folder and you'll notice that there is a "core" folder, a "ns2" folder and folders like "tutorial".

    The real issue comes down to that the engine API was changed drastically in the past without giving a damn about backward compatibility (we try to avoid running into similar issues).

    Or that mods just depend too much onto the NS2 code base (but that's something modders can avoid).
  • 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
    That's already how it works!

    Have a look into your NS2 install folder and you'll notice that there is a "core" folder, a "ns2" folder and folders like "tutorial".

    The real issue comes down to that the engine API was changed drastically in the past without giving a damn about backward compatibility (we try to avoid running into similar issues).

    Or that mods just depend too much onto the NS2 code base (but that's something modders can avoid).

    Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification.
  • GrissiGrissi Join Date: 2003-08-28 Member: 20314Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    edited March 2016
    Calego wrote: »
    Grissi wrote: »
    *"Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”"

    The Gorge is superior lifeform to skulk, there is no question about it. It's just not a raw combat unit. This change will probably force players to get used to a new menu with little to no gain.

    I think there's more to the perceived progression in the menu than most of us realize. Skulk is what I start as, and then there's all those other things that cost progressively more, they have to be "better"!

    Moving the Gorge to the side breaks this flow at will at least make rookies ask before everyone goes gorge only to realize that they're now a support class.

    If Gorges were better by definition, having an entire team of them wouldn't be a bad thing. Thing is that every lifeform is better than something else at some things, but not others. Ideally the menu will turn into a radial menu, removing it's implications of progression. This is a step in the right direction though.


    A more efficient way of doing this would be adding clear markings on the gorge icon so you would see it's a more supportive type unit. Even with the gorge on the far left that kind of icon should be added, it's way more intuitive.
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    edited March 2016
    Calego wrote: »
    Grissi wrote: »
    *"Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”"

    The Gorge is superior lifeform to skulk, there is no question about it. It's just not a raw combat unit. This change will probably force players to get used to a new menu with little to no gain.

    I think there's more to the perceived progression in the menu than most of us realize. Skulk is what I start as, and then there's all those other things that cost progressively more, they have to be "better"!

    Moving the Gorge to the side breaks this flow at will at least make rookies ask before everyone goes gorge only to realize that they're now a support class.

    If Gorges were better by definition, having an entire team of them wouldn't be a bad thing. Thing is that every lifeform is better than something else at some things, but not others. Ideally the menu will turn into a radial menu, removing it's implications of progression. This is a step in the right direction though.

    Skulk in the middle, everything else around it. (Maybe with the Onos at the top. It kinda is the ultimate alien lifeform, after all, or at least presented as such. Yes, fades, yadda yadda, let's not argue)

  • CalegoCalego Join Date: 2013-01-24 Member: 181848Members, NS2 Map Tester
    Grissi wrote: »
    Calego wrote: »
    Grissi wrote: »
    *"Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”"

    The Gorge is superior lifeform to skulk, there is no question about it. It's just not a raw combat unit. This change will probably force players to get used to a new menu with little to no gain.

    I think there's more to the perceived progression in the menu than most of us realize. Skulk is what I start as, and then there's all those other things that cost progressively more, they have to be "better"!

    Moving the Gorge to the side breaks this flow at will at least make rookies ask before everyone goes gorge only to realize that they're now a support class.

    If Gorges were better by definition, having an entire team of them wouldn't be a bad thing. Thing is that every lifeform is better than something else at some things, but not others. Ideally the menu will turn into a radial menu, removing it's implications of progression. This is a step in the right direction though.


    A more efficient way of doing this would be adding clear markings on the gorge icon so you would see it's a more supportive type unit. Even with the gorge on the far left that kind of icon should be added, it's way more intuitive.

    I could definitely see this helping a lot.

    Gorge could be a "Red Cross" Medic type thing.
    Lerks could be something more generic "assault" type (not sure how to best represent somethinga s diverse as a lerk).
    Fades are spikey/assasiny.
    Onos could be a tank type thing, Shield.
  • 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
    In NS1 they had the Gorge Evolution branched off to the side so people didn't think it was an advanced lifeform.

    So I think something like this.(As in how the lifeforms would go around the evolve menu) would be better.

    w2FQ6Py.png
  • Cr4zyb4st4rdCr4zyb4st4rd United Kingdom Join Date: 2012-08-09 Member: 155200Members, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    Only seeing 1 point rewarded for RT's and power nodes.
  • 2cough2cough Rocky Mountain High Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183952Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Or keep it how it was?
  • 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
    Calego wrote: »
    Ideally the menu will turn into a radial menu, removing it's implications of progression. This is a step in the right direction though.
    This is not a step in the right direction imo, It's just pushing the dirt under the rug.

    If you want to resolve the issue of rookies assuming higher lifeforms are better then their roles need to be clearly and concisely explained - possibly along with a radial menu.
    Swapping one lifeform placement does none of this, it keeps the same degree of lack of information in the descriptions regarding the roles, and if anything upsets the rest of the menu for little to no gain, further confusing the issue.

    Out of all the changes lately this one makes the least amount of sense to me.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    "Swapped Gorge and Skulk positions in the evolve menu so new players are less likely to think the Gorge is “better”
    This is something I suggested a long time ago now on the userreports website. It is nice to see they do take ideas from there.

    I initially thought of this change while trying out the game called Unvanquished, which is free. They have lifeforms with similar roles to ns2. In that game the gorge equivalent is behind the skulk equivalent in the menu. I thought this was extremely intuitive. They had it in a clockwise radial menu similar to what some are suggesting here.

    The Polaris videos had many players go gorge, a lot, which was comical to us veterans. We see this in game fairly often. You will be in a server with rookies, and all the sudden you have 9 gorges.

    A gorge costs 10 pres. To a rookie it seems like the gorge is an upgrade. This lifeform cost money, therefor it must be an upgrade. It is not just pres, but the order of the menu. In the upgrade menu, the lifeforms are shown Skulk, Gorge, Lerk, Fade, Onos. This order shows progression in a sense. This again shows that the gorge > skulk. In reality the gorge is a support unit side grade of sorts. That is not communicated well though.

    If the alien upgrade menu is changed the alien upgrade menu order to Gorge, Skulk, Lerk, Fade, Onos it would visually look like a downgrade. Rookies would then not mistake gorges for an upgrade. This suggestion is only a visual change.

    I like what @IeptBarakat has shown with the picture. That does not look like as simple as a change as just swapping skulk and gorge on the current menu. I suggested that because I thought it would have the least development time with similar if not the same results. Either way, the gorges role is better communicated.
  • SquishpokePOOPFACESquishpokePOOPFACE -21,248 posts (ignore below) Join Date: 2012-10-31 Member: 165262Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    You only make that mistake once anyways.
  • 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
    edited March 2016
    Nordic wrote: »
    Either way, the gorges role is better communicated.
    No it's not.. not in any way?

    All it's doing is intentionally confusing a rookie in hopes that it makes them question the whole menu layout??
    Much rather have seen clearly defined roles and information instead (considering re doing the whole buy menu is probably out of the question at this point)



    To illustrate the innate lack of role communication, the current in game description is :
    "A Gorge can build offensive Hydras and defensive Clogs. Can evolve ranged bile bomb for attacking armor and structures."

    Nothing about being support, healer, builder, tunnels etc.
  • 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
    IronHorse wrote: »
    Nordic wrote: »
    Either way, the gorges role is better communicated.
    No it's not.. not in any way?

    All it's doing is intentionally confusing a rookie in hopes that it makes them question the whole menu layout.
    Much rather have seen clearly defined roles and information instead (considering re doing the whole buy menu is probably out of the question at this point)



    To illustrate the innate lack of role communication, the current in game description is :

    "A Gorge can build offensive Hydras and defensive Clogs. Can evolve ranged bile bomb for attacking armor and structures."

    Nothing about being support, healer, builder, tunnels etc.

    We could always have something like this.
    pSsV1Mnl.png
    Not that I'm biased or anything. :wink:
  • 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 March 2016
    You only make that mistake once anyways.

    They made that mistake more than once in the polaris video.
  • WasabiOneWasabiOne Co-Lead NS2 CDT Join Date: 2011-06-15 Member: 104623Members, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    as always the comments about changes are appreciated. moving the gorge was an experiment, I and many others out there would like to see a better evolve menu that makes it clearer about what role each lifeform fulfills without also creating too much clutter and info for a player to have to read through. There will be more and if this truly "breaks" something then we can always change it back with the next patch.
  • 2cough2cough Rocky Mountain High Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183952Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    The evolve menu shouldn't aim to teach anybody anything about the lifeforms, the tutorials should. The evolve menu should only be functional. I want to be a lerk, I hit b, click lerk, click upgrades, done.

    At this point it seems like a pointless change that was not needed, will simply complicate things for those of us who have been playing for 3 years while not actually adding any benefit for new players.
  • SquishpokePOOPFACESquishpokePOOPFACE -21,248 posts (ignore below) Join Date: 2012-10-31 Member: 165262Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    It's really no different than the "snipers and spies" problem in TF2. My point is, rookies should (and do) know what a Gorge is and what kind of class it is once they play it. It's fairly obvious after a quick test run.

    Tactical errors, such as the entire team of rookies becoming Gorge, is not a problem of confusion, but apathy and lack of gamesense. Again, I'll point to TF2 as a prime example. Low skill players are either playing for fun or to experiment. I did the same thing when I was a rookie. It's not until they are ready to make the mental switch from "l2p" to "l2win" that we will see an improvement of gameplay.

    That said, a quick blurb over George's evolve icon certainly won't hurt anything. Worth a shot.
  • Cr4zyb4st4rdCr4zyb4st4rd United Kingdom Join Date: 2012-08-09 Member: 155200Members, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    Only seeing 1 point rewarded for RT's and power nodes.

    So I realised the changes in the log are for killing things. However it makes no sense you would "revamp" the scoring system to make it more obvious that doing these things is better and more rewarding.

    While at the same time completely changing the building points for structures, every structure is +1 for building, that's a step backwards, this tells marines that building is not helpful before powernodes, rt's etc awarded +5 points for a full solo build, now it's 1, why?

    They should earn you more score, maybe a flat +5 across the board on all structures built (similar to before?). +1 just seems counter intuitive to the entire plan of redoing the scoring system for rookies.
  • CalegoCalego Join Date: 2013-01-24 Member: 181848Members, NS2 Map Tester
    moultano wrote: »
    A very important thing to learn about UI is that no one reads anything. For a UI to function, it has to communicate without words, so that the user stumbles in to the right thing to do as a byproduct of resolving their confusion. More text on the screen will not help. It will go totally ignored.

    This is why something as small as the organization of options and categorization makes a huge difference in understanding things quickly. This is why there are entire companies devoted to such pursuits.

    Showing people a wall of text anytime they want to click on something isn't going to help anything (How many of you have remember what the Armory says about a Shotgun for instance? There's text there, i think.). Iconography or a very basic statistics breakdown are most useful.

    Perhaps showing some basic "stats" for each lifeform is a good idea (something like how racing games show you bars that indicate how well a certain car performs in different areas).
    Mobility, PvP, PvE, Survivability Might be four good bars to have.

    Skulks would run with basically mediocre stats on all of those (survivability would be down).
    Gorges would take a major hit to Mobility and PvP, but would stay about the same (or puls a little) to PvE, and a small buff to Survivability.
    Lerks would take a jump on the Mobility bar and a bit of a plus on PvP, with a minor hit to PvE, but suvivability would stay about the same.
    Fades spike on the PvP and Mobility with a slight increase to survivability, but lose a lot on PvE.
    Onos Take a big hit on Mobility but get a plus to all three of PvP, PvE (more PvE than PvP) and survivability.

    Thinking about this more, a simple display of something like this would go a long way to clarifying the roles for each lifeform right off the bat.
  • xDragonxDragon Join Date: 2012-04-04 Member: 149948Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited March 2016
    So given the sudden ability to patch quite quickly, I am not sure I fully understand the entire 'extensions' system now nor why it was required....

    Because as I said previously, it ruins every single 'standalone' mod that hasn't taken to explicitly looking for it and blocking it... And anytime something new is published you need to update that check.....

    I mean I could simply block the address on my server, but that is hardly a good solution....
  • HEllrunner2kHEllrunner2k Join Date: 2013-07-05 Member: 185945Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Repeat from 288 post: can I dissable the atmospheric territories mod, serverside? or even client side... PLS make it optional
  • WyzcrakWyzcrak Pot Pie Aficionado Join Date: 2002-12-04 Member: 10447Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    I understand the extensions system and why it was required. This faster patch cycle is exactly the dialog this title needs to mature at a competitive pace.
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