The latest patch for the Natural Selection 2 Beta is now available on Steam. If you have pre-ordered the game it should automatically update on Steam. If you would like to pre-order and get instant access to the beta, you can still do so here.

As you can see from the change log, this patch has a number of contributions from two of our play testers, Matso and Enceladus. All of the source code for the game ships with these patches, so if you are a talented programmer and would like to contribute, we'd love to see what you can do. Also, our new game programmer Andrew started this week and has already helped out with a number of fixes; we're still looking to hire another programmer to work on the engine.

Build 174 changes

• Increased recycle payback % from 50% x health percentage to 75% to encourage marine relocations (was 80%/50% for unbuilt/built in NS1)
• Removed different IP recycle percentage
• Changed alien armor absorption to be more clear and to have similar values as NS1 (but tied to defense upgrade level)
• Fixed bug where structures that don't require power weren't considered "active"
• Added power node back in to Elevator Transfer room in ns2_tram
• Added work around for network hardware that doesn't properly deal with packets of less than 11 bytes
• Fixed bug where the rifle looping sound would not be canceled in some cases (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where the selection was not cleared after recycling a structure (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where Hydras would continue to attack power nodes after they were destroyed (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where MACs and drifters would go into the ground (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed drifters not resetting after failed build (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed handling of double quoted arguments on the command line
• Improved the accuracy of the trace to determine if Skulk bite hit a target (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where a Sentry gun couldn't hit a target that was inside it's field of view (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed an issue where the thumbnails in the Create Props listbox were rendering as black
• Fixed scanner sweep not functioning properly
• Fixed bug where the scanner sweep effect didn't appear at the correct location (thanks Enceladus!)
• Added setsoundvolume, setmusicvolume and setsensitivity console commands (thanks Enceladus!)
• Fixed F1 not bringing up the Get Satisfaction web page in-game
• Fixed bug where a player would not fall if they were standing on top of a MAC or structure that was destroyed
• Enabled auto-building when a file changes in the Builder

You can always keep up to date with what we're working on for the next patch with our real-time progress tracker and don't forget to follow our Twitter account.