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[Natural Selection 2] Halloween sale, 75% off! Eclipse remake teaser!
Zek
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Steam Group
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/pans2
What is Natural Selection?
Natural Selection was a highly popular FPS/RTS total conversion mod for Half-Life that was released on Halloween 2002. Its distinguishing feature was the asymmetric gameplay between a marine team led by a commander in the RTS perspective, and an alien team that must evolve into increasingly more terrifying lifeforms to kill them. Both teams fought for control over resource points across the map that allowed them to fund their distinct tech trees in the fight to destroy eachother's base(s). The game went through numerous major updates and at its peak NS was second only to Counter-Strike for the highest number of active players in a Half-Life mod. The fan support for this mod eventually prompted the developers to found a new studio called Unknown Worlds and begin development on the sequel:
What is Natural Selection 2?
Natural Selection 2 is the stand-alone followup to NS1. The premise remains the same, but NS2 is a completely new game built in a custom engine called Spark, and many fundamental additions and changes have been made to the original formula. The largest gameplay changes include:
Additional Resources
http://www.naturalselection2.com (PR Site)
http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/ (Developer Blog, has juicy information)
http://www.play4dead.com/ns2/ (Development update tracker)
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/pans2
What is Natural Selection?
Natural Selection was a highly popular FPS/RTS total conversion mod for Half-Life that was released on Halloween 2002. Its distinguishing feature was the asymmetric gameplay between a marine team led by a commander in the RTS perspective, and an alien team that must evolve into increasingly more terrifying lifeforms to kill them. Both teams fought for control over resource points across the map that allowed them to fund their distinct tech trees in the fight to destroy eachother's base(s). The game went through numerous major updates and at its peak NS was second only to Counter-Strike for the highest number of active players in a Half-Life mod. The fan support for this mod eventually prompted the developers to found a new studio called Unknown Worlds and begin development on the sequel:
What is Natural Selection 2?
Natural Selection 2 is the stand-alone followup to NS1. The premise remains the same, but NS2 is a completely new game built in a custom engine called Spark, and many fundamental additions and changes have been made to the original formula. The largest gameplay changes include:
- The addition of an alien commander, who is responsible for the structure building and tech research of the alien team
- Marines can buy their own equipment from the armory using personal resources
- Alien infestation that spreads dynamically across the map much like creep in SC2, and marks the boundaries of their territory
- New marine toys like the flamethrower and the exosuit, and heavily redesigned alien abilities
- All new structures and tech trees for both teams
- And tons of other changes
Additional Resources
http://www.naturalselection2.com (PR Site)
http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/ (Developer Blog, has juicy information)
http://www.play4dead.com/ns2/ (Development update tracker)
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I just regret that NS2 will probably herald the return of NS 'Combat' maps. Hated those.
I was that obnoxious guy who spent all game making Defense Chambers inside an OC fort just so I could delay marine victory.
I STILL MISS NS_NANCY DAMN YOU!
edit: And combat mode was the WORST IDEA EVER!
The switch from heavy armor to exosuits was a good one. You still have badass heavy trains, but since exos can't weld each other they are at the same time more deadly and more brittle. If a lerk gas cloud kills all the lights welding you, its goodbye heavy train. Exos also can't build anything, or be beaconed, basically all they can do is punch aliens in the face with a power fist or shoot them with a minigun that sounds like the bwwaah sound from Inception (or alternatively the alien walkers from War of the Worlds, it's a subject of debate among the beta testers).
Edit: If you are worried about your favorite map not making it, don't. Veil is a fanmde addition to the beta, and i've heard that eclipse and tanith are in the works. Its pretty much guaranteed that NS1 maps (yes even siege maps) will be ported by someone.
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
I bought NS2 day one and have played it off and on since and I'm really liking the direction it's taken, but I just hope it gets a decent playerbase here...
I don't have a ton to say about NS2. I've been a Natural Selection fan since many months before the first one came out. I figured the mod would crash and burn because half the shit they said they were doing was impossible and the other half was impossible to do well. Then NS came out and it was amazing. NS2 is more "mainstream" its sensibilities (I'd say it's more of a Battlefield 3 than a Battlefield 1942 or a Battlefield 2) and for that reason I haven't been enjoying it as much as the original, but to be fair, I can count on one hand the number of games I've enjoyed more than the original. NS2 is still a stupendous achievement and a pretty great game, although it's going to be a lot of work to get it polished and ready for release in October.
And presumably that's going to be October 31st when it comes out, because that's the 10 year anniversary of the release of NS.
Edit: I know the theory was that people would play combat mode until the server was populated enough then switch to ns classic, but in practice that almost never happened. People who wanted to play combat mode played on the 24/7 co servers, of which there were many. At times more than servers playing classic ns maps, which is one more reason co gets some hate.
I loved the fact that games could go on for hours, especially when each team reached advanced upgrade and you had Fades fighting Jetpackers for control of resource nodes and Onos munching on Heavy Trains one guy at a time with skulks zipping in and out against light marines armed with shotguns.
It was freakin' awesome and made victory all the sweeter.
I remember one time we'd lost our entire freaking marine HQ to a rush and were down to like 3 marines, who managed to re-build the entire base elsewhere and we went on to win the freaking game.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
edit:
Also how does this run? I'd be playing on a laptop, 2.2GHz core i7, 6GB RAM, onboard graphics but the processor is beefy enough to handle other source things pretty well.
I really want to buy this and climb some walls and munch some kneecaps but I need to be sure I can run the thing well and still have it look nice. Skyrim runs on medium-high settings.
It will have the most decent playerbase.
I really ought to compile every silly thing I recorded during the beta.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/pans2
It's public but I'll kick people who aren't in the PA steam group - I figure that's easier than sending invites.
Good deal Zek. Joined.
I'm going to have to scrape up some funds soon...
Also, fucking belly sliding alien pigs. Sold. Though I have to say alot of the servers I go on for europe seem to give me really trashy ping. Anyone know a good EU server (from UK preferably)
I used to just sit around eating lunch and spectating games.
Server admins were bitches about it though. "Join or GTFO".
I understand, but still.
I agree. And this goes to the 4 people I gave this to at Christmas, and the people they gift their extra to.
And especially you Crash. Most especially you.
I am very interested.
Roland for best Roland 2012.
edit: I will admit I kind of wish this game was in Source again, just so I had the option of mapping for it.
*Because I am a bad person and there was a huuuge stack.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Roland, I gave you one, what did it say?