The Exosuit is finally here. Along with his powerful and punchy chassis, we have tons of other goodies in this build for you. Here are the details:

Features

• Added new marine Exosuit! Purchase at the Prototype Lab (requires 2 Command Stations). Comes with a Claw and Minigun. Dual miniguns researchable.
• Added new map: ns2_veil (thanks FMPONE!)
• Added Alien "Pheromones".
• Added ambient occlusion option.
• Added an effect showing the Marine commander that an area is powered.
• Added new Hive Sight for Aliens.
• Added dynamic music when attacking Hives and Command Stations. Also added round start music.
• Added "pick up game" feature to the Join game menu (an simple "gather" system, more to come)
• Cleaned up general UI by adding new "nametags" that show you what all structures are and their health.
• Added "show hints" option to the UI so red objective markers and informative text won't display.
• Added glow effect for Commander for all commander structures, tech points and resource nozzles (so they "pop" from environment).
• All new marine commander UI
• All new alien commander UI

Balance

• Nano shield now requires 2 Command Stations.
• Aliens with regeneration get 3x passive/innate regeneration also (thanks Bitey!).
• Building a Robotics Factory now grants you a free MAC (to preserve the apparent size/cost of structure while incentivizing its use early-game).
• Changed hydra spikes to Normal damage (from Light damage) so they will remain effective throughout the game (esp. vs late game high-armor JP marines). Effectiveness vs. early marines is unchanged.
• Decreased Cyst build time from 5 to 1.
• Decreased Harvester build time from 60 to 45.
• Increased Drifter health to 300 (from 100).
• Increased Drifter turn speed.
• Increased Extractor build time from 10 to 12.
• Increased jetpack fuel use amount by 25%.
• Lowered Skulk carapace from 50 to 30.
• Reduced spike and spore energy costs somewhat (thanks Saba!).
• Rupture reduced from 2 to 1 resources (more to come).
• Shifted more of ARC hp into armor (which goes away when deployed).
• When Armory is used a lot, it takes longer for it to recover it's maximum resupply rate.

Changes

• Smoothed out blink movement.
• Builder can now repair power nodes (half of the rate of welder).
• Changed commander ping to use Alt+click (was previously shift+click which will interfere with selection).
• Commander ping can now be triggered with middle mouse button.
• Commanders no longer earn personal resources.
• Gorge structures are now permanent again (they won't die if their owner is no longer a gorge).
• Made health bar smaller and moved more down. it displays the same info as the crosshair text did, shows also gestate %.
• Only mature whips are able to whack grenades away.
• Pre-evolving eggs and dropping equipment cost now team resources.
• Removed "+1 resource" displayed for extractors and harvesters (interfering with hint-nametags and shouldn't need any more).
• Removed crosshair text.
• Removed health circles.
• Removed hive info display.
• Rupture no longer destroys the cyst, instead it will blow up the top part of the cyst and reset the maturity. Once re-matured rupture can be triggered again.
• Scan is no longer destroyed when an ink cloud is nearby, it's now simply non functional.
• Swapped Lerk spikes and spores
• New grenade launcher view model
• New Lerk view model

Fixes

• 3203 Onos sliding (increase velocity prec, increase min velocity).
• AI units (MAC, Drifter, etc) now respect line of sight/fog of war when they are assigned an attack order (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• Adjusted on damage knockback force to consider slow down effects (jump spam as marine), and reduced maximum possible knockback force by 30%.
• Also report penetration normal for sphere vs tri mesh.
• Another attempt to prevent prop penetration.
• Definitely the last fix for prop penetration ever.
• Don't allow player to easily penetrate props. Make the movement not work in subtly different ways.
• Enabled doublesided tris for collision meshes (fixes many stuck issues).
• Evolving Eggs are now facing the same direction that the player was previously facing (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• Fix for failing unit test (depenetration from box primitive).
• Fixed "Error: Couldn't open file ''" log message when alt-tabbing.
• Fixed Alien commander eject voting (Thanks Dragon).
• Fixed a bug where vertical friction was not applied properly when wall walking as a skulk.
• Fixed ammo request / health request not reaching the commander most of the time.
• Fixed animation hitches when jump as skulk.
• Fixed blink 2d sound continues playing after blink is over.
• Fixed bug allowing some structures to be stacked.
• Fixed bug causing 3rd person weapon muzzle flashes to not be attached to the gun.
• Fixed bug causing the "Hive Death Imminent" message to sometimes not appear before the Hive was killed.
• Fixed bug causing the camera to go into the ground when an Alien begins gestating when the player was using the inverted mouse option.
• Fixed bug causing the end game message to display incorrectly for players waiting to spawn.
• Fixed bug sometimes causing the "Commander Needed" banner message to appear too soon.
• Fixed bug that prevented upgrading of multiple structures at once.
• Fixed bug where particle systems would not animate smoothly in spectator mode.
• Fixed bug where scoreboard seemed to always rounds up pres.
• Fixed bug where server -game command line is parsed incorrectly if it is a quoted string and ends with a backslash.
• Fixed bug where setting an invalid key name to a key in the options file would cause a crash.
• Fixed bug where the camera would be behind the player in some cases.
• Fixed bug where the game would freeze when loading an incorreclty formatted language translation file.
• Fixed bug where vents would not be properly colored on the minimap if any layers had been deleted from the file.
• Fixed construction percentage not being shown in the selection panel.
• Fixed crash when transitioning from in-game to the menu while music was playing.
• Fixed death message icon for welders.
• Fixed flame thrower energy penalty (should have been -20% regeneration instead of -80%).
• Fixed graphical corruption error.
• Fixed inaccuracy in lighting and shadow calculations.
• Fixed issue where the dedicated server would exit if an invalid command line was specified (now it reports an error message and continues).
• Fixed problem with blink where you could avoid the min blink delay by switching abilities.
• Fixed recycling a command station did not update the tech tree properly.
• Fixed script error caused by attempting to kick an invalid player from the server.
• Fixed unit status not updating properly (wrench icon on moving targets).
• Fixed unlocked ability notifications not showing the correct icons.
• For 218: Draw non-command structures and tech points a bit smaller on the marine minimap.
• Hotloading works again!.
• MAC welder effects will no longer continue to play after it is killed.
• PhysX tweak - return the penetration normal for convex mesh vs capsule/tri mesh tests (fixes Lerks / Skulks getting stuck in convex meshes).
• Proper fix of insight overhead minimap script errors.
• Props such as the Generator will no longer display the "E" key when you are nearby.
• Re-enabled double sided triangles, fixed commander selection to work with it. This should significantly reduce chances of getting stuck in geometry.
• Script can now specify which collision rep to use for triggers/triggering objects (fixes triggers).
• Sentries will target Fades again.
• Separated the sweeping of object vs triggers from sweeping vs collision. It was unnecessary work and in some edge cases it did the wrong thing.
• Skulks are allowed to depenetrate again.
• Spectator mode will no longer cycle through players in the ready room (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• Stop stepAmount spamming.
• Super cheesy workaround for the environment stuck issues.
• The "Commander Needed" banner message will no longer appear after the last Hive/CC has been destroyed.
• The "Go To Ready Room" button (F4) now works in Commander and overhead spectator mode.
• The "Hive Death Imminent" message will no longer display after a Hive is killed in some cases.
• The "X Hive Grown" banner message will no longer display right before a game starts.
• Triangle winding fixed when baking convex mesh as a trimesh. (Fixes issue 3198).
• Update physics bounding box properly.
• Voice commands are disabled when the player is dead (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• When sliding, add a little bit of normal to the slide direction to help prevent penetration.
• Changed Fade blink to have a little upwards momentum and tuned energy costs, both to be more like NS1

Improvements

• Remove player-resources from the commander UI. Now the Commander can only spend team-resources and in fact gets no player-resources during the game. Weapon-dropping and egg-evolving now costs team-resources.
• Switched player movement from Havok to PhysX (performance improvement, less memory usage, less bugs)
• Switched player movement from cylinders to capsules for less "snagging" (more rounded, less catchy)
• Changed player movement logic to make stepping up and over things more predictable and reliable
• ARC hit registration is now more reliable.
• Added 3D arrows that draw around a Command Station/Hive if there is no Commander logged in after some time.
• Added Alien vision mode help widget.
• Added Buy Shotgun help widget.
• Added Flashlight help widget for new players.
• Added Gorge Belly Slide help widget for new players.
• Added Gorge Heal Spray help widget for new players.
• Added Jetpack help widget for new players.
• Added NS2 YouTube video links to the tutorial menu.
• Added Skulk Parasite help widget for new players.
• Added Welder help widget for new players.
• Added field-profiling to the plog data, updated the PerfAnalyser.
• Added health bars above structures (health circles have been removed).
• Added help widget for requesting medpack when hurt.
• Added inventory display for aliens (same as on marine side, icons are displayed at the bottom center of the screen).
• Added inventory key binds.
• Added short hints to unit name plates.
• Allow experienced users to turn off hints: red objective markers, help widgets (default-on).
• Better field stats collection (+-1 delta bit effect shown).
• Enabled auto-weld orders for Marines with a Welder.
• Gorges lean left/right/up/down when drifting.
• Harvesters and hives start glowing once they are fully build.
• Hive / command station health has no distance limit anymore for their own team.
• Improved cloak effect.
• Improved close up melee hit registration.
• Improved model turn smoothing for players.
• Initially socketed power nodes use now the ghost structure effect.
• Lerk model turns now in a more natural way when flying.
• Marine commander can now drop jetpacks and exosuits.
• Monkey now randomize moves to better mimic actual players.
• Most weapon attack effects are now triggered client side only to reduce traffic.
• Moved the indicator of the # of aliens on your team down in the alien buy menu to make more clear.
• Pickupable equipment is now outlined for marines.
• Power status is now visible to the marine commander.
• Refactored common code from ClientModelMixin and ModelMixin into BaseModelMixin.
• Refactored to support Time using delta compression.
• Removed unnecessary construct icons on structures.
• The game now ends immediately upon the last Hive/CC being killed (instead of waiting until the structure has disappeared).
• Updated gorge build menu design.
• Vectors now allow delta compression parameters.
• Zoomed out marine minimap a bit more to reduce big map usage. Shrunk other icons a bit to fit new zoom level. Made zooming arrow representing yourself on map more obvious.

ns2_docking

• Fixed glass roof bile bomb exploit in Terminal.
• Fixed hole in Locker rooms vent.
• Fixed siege spot in Terminal.

ns2_mineshaft

• Ore Extraction & Crushing room swapped places.
• Removed tech point from crushing room.
• Added route from Central Drilling/Brew Room to new Crushing Machine Location with overhead access.
• Added simple collision surfaces to problem areas.
• Added some Reflection Points.
• Alterations to Path Settings Node.
• Fixed Ore Extraction Location coverage.
• Moved Resource Point in Crushing room to make way for new route.
• Removed machinery on top of Ore Machine at the back.
• Added vent access from crushing room to Ore Extraction.
• Detail & Lighting Pass on Ore Extraction.

ns2_summit

• Added support for colored vents in the minimap.
• Added support for explore mode.
• Blocked Glass Hallway vent going into Data Core.
• Blocked Summit Reception vent going into Crevice/Atrium.
• Expanded Data Core.
• Fixed Sub Access RT not being connected when aliens spawn here.
• Fixed navigation mesh in Pipe Junction.
• Fixed some Commander building exploits (Thanks rantology!).
• Fixed stuck issue in Crossroads.
• Fixed stuck issue in Sub Access.
• Flattened and expanded Atrium. Allowed both teams to spawn here.
• Marines can now spawn in Atrium.
• Partially retracted the wall in the middle between Atrium and Reactor Core.
• Reopened closed vent in Atrium.
• Smoothed player movement for the new stairs collisions.

ns2_tram

• Added cover in front of Warehouse tech point.
• Added vent between North Tunnels and Server Room and other new vents as part of the layout rework.
• Fixed cyst infestation bridging across Warehouse to the North Tunnels rt.
• Fixed various issues where you could build in undesirable places.
• Increased spacing of Repair Room and Ore Processing from rest of map.
• Removed some of the under floor vents in North Tunnels.
• Repair Room is no longer a starting spawn.
• Reworked Hub and Elevator Transfer area with new layout.
• Reworked Repair Room -> Logistics corridor.

Optimizations

• Added default delta compression on all fixed fields.
• Added the ability to customize the quality of loaded textures based on pattern matching rules.
• Avoid detour through Lua to update the physics bounding box on Synchronized.
• Better default delta compression for small fields, allow turning off delta compression.
• Changed Player 'use' collision check to use simplified model geometry.
• Don't call OnUpdatePhysics/OnSynchronized on holstered weapons.
• Don't update bounding boxes for holstered weapons.
• Fixed issue where decals with the same material file name were not sharing a material object.
• Marginally faster BitReader.
• Moved integer fields to use delta compression.
• Only update controllers close to you during OnProcessMove.
• Optimized GUI notifications.
• Optimized dissolve on death effect.
• Optimized network fields, mostly Jetpack marine.
• Optimized updating Infestation on the client.
• Reduced garbage generation in map blip code.
• Reduced the overhead in accessing a network variable from script.
• Remove ControllerMixin::OnSynchronized(), replace with radius check at start of UpdateMove.
• Removed redundant and unnecessary operations from model updating.
• Removed unnecessary network fields in Player.
• Rifle attack sounds are now handled client side.
• Server CPU now idles in select() when no work to be done.
• Server CPU spreads out work better to increase load resistance.
• Simplified the collision model for Players when performing ray traces against the movement representation.
• Support zero-bit delta compression (m_angles pitch/roll for non skulk/lerks).
• Use parent bounding box and origin if attached using an attachPoint (which are invalid anyhow).
• Generic field configuration allowing for easy configurable delta compression.

SDK

• Added error message to console when skipping a translation because we already have one for that Locale.
• Fixed an edge case in the Pathing.FindRandomPointAroundCircle() function causing an infinite loop if there were no polygons within the area provided (Thanks Doublehex!).
• Fixed bug where lights would be set to an invalid state in the Cinematic Editor.
• Improved network stats collection.
• Mark detail-windows on their parent windows.
• PerfAnalyser now shows idle time per frame, minor bugfixes.
• Profiling now supports > 4096 names.