It’s crazy to think it has been four years since NS2 was launched and even more so to think that many of us were playing Natural Selection 14 years ago. Things have come a long way since then and to allude to the perfect pun, they continue to evolve. The dev team has been hard at work as usual, but we wanted to do something special for you to celebrate this anniversary... So say hello to The Infested - an entirely new game-mode which we will be releasing on the Steam Workshop this Friday (October 28th)!

You have been dispatched to deal with a dangerous pathogen which has been detected within a remote TSF outpost. Race to repair the air filtration system before the pathogen corrodes it too severely and the air becomes overwhelmed by infectious spores. But watch out, one of your teammates has already been infected! Work is also continuing on our conversion to 64-bit, FSFOD is hard at work chipping away at the pieces of this large puzzle and we get closer everyday to unlocking more potential for the future of Natural Selection. Signs of life are appearing, so stay tuned ‘cause there is plenty more to come over the next few months! We can’t wait for you to see what’s in store for NS2. Additionally this patch includes some spooky/fun enhancements to the official maps and yes, you can throw candy in the ready room again! Happy Anniversary and Happy Halloween! Update 311 Changelog Gameplay

• Players can now see who the enemy commander is during pre-game, to help get games started faster
• Made lights more spooky

Tweaks / Improvements

• Revamped Training menu to be more orderly and useful for new players
• Added the beginnings of a new Progression System to Hive
  • Just a first step to pave the way for many future enhancements
• Moved player’s badge customization from old Hive website to be in-game via the Customize player menu
• Play now window restyled to fit new themes and look nicer
• Made some changes to prepare for Infested’s launch
• Added new Halloween effects to various parts of the game, which will automatically change per a server’s seasonal setting. (Thanks IronHorse!)
• You can now throw candy during warmup mode

Fixes

• Fixed several edge-case issues with Hive’s skill calculations
• Fixed edge-case issue that prevented Hive from updating round data when submitted
• Fixed conflicts with Hive changes within Hive Challenge and Tutorials

Maps

• All map readyrooms have been made more spooky (Thanks Zavaro, Flatrectomy, and Samus!)

SDK

• Fixed Overview.exe to not render seasonal groups
• Fixed Decoda update.dll load error
• Added more non colliding and commander invisible seasonal groups for use by mappers
• Fixed that Modloader.SetupFileHook returned an error message even on success
• Fixed that Filehook entry files could not be used as filehook
• Added “Badges+” API to manage in-game badges