Lots of things are happening with NS right now. NS v1.04 is still in testing, and will include the changes listed below, plus linux optimizations, better logging for Psychostats support and more exploits fixes. Please don’t e-mail anyone on the team about becoming a beta server, as no more are needed. Testing continues, and it will be released as soon as it’s ready, probably within the next few days.
The marine and alien screenshots sections of the website have been updated, though more work still needs to be done here. If you have a flattering screenshot, feel free to send it along to the team (800×600, .jpg only) and it could be posted on the site.
Finally, NS v1.1 has finally been announced. This will be the first client patch for NS, and will be a huge update. Here are some general details, though these certainly aren’t all the changes you can expect:
– A couple new maps. Fixes and improvements to existing maps
– HLTV support (to enable HLTV demos for competitive play, and to allow large-scale spectating of high-profile games)
– VALVe Anti-Cheat (VAC) support
– Improved demo playback functionality
– Commander mode improvements (hotgroups, next-marine, select-all, order giving to minimap, etc.)
– Tournament mode changes for CAL support
– Gameplay changes to alien upgrades, to make them all equally viable in the early game
– Alien resource model changes to speed up the early game and allow multiple gorges to be viable
– Bug fixes and exploit fixes (bunny-hopping, ex_ variables, r_draw variables, more)
There is no ETA on v1.1 yet, but the team is actively working on it. NS is about to get a whole lot better…