Hit Targets Harder

Weapons are now much more likely to register hits when your aim is on target.

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Better modding tools, less disconnections, smarter physics, more...

The hit detection you've always wanted



You are a space marine, fighting vicious aliens in close quarters. There are only moments between seeing a Skulk, and feeling its jaws wrapped around your leg. This is a tough job. You don't need networking code making it tougher.

The Aim to Please Update has revamped that networking code. Mats, better known as GrimJack, has analysed the Spark Engine's hit detection from the ground up, identified weak points, and implemented new methods.

In several key areas, you will notice better registration of shots on target, and a general feeling that your weapons have more oomph. The aliens are not going to like it. But they have had a unfair advantage for too long!

The five hit-reg big-hits
Eliminated differences between entity animations & server calculations
Falling entity positions now synced on client and server
Server now accounts for crouching transition in calculating shot origin
Client and server now calculate hits with matching decimal precision
Server no longer assumes client has received all information about world


Less scroll-scroll, more pew-pew


Let's face it, the 'Play Now' button has never worked very well. Clicking it was an optimistic gesture, to say the least. Thanks to Ryan 'Moultano' Moulton and our very own Sebastian, that's changed.

Natural Selection 2 is fortunate to have a very clever, devoted community of players. Some of these players have enormous brains. Ryan has one of the biggest brains of the lot, and has designed a super-clever new quick-join system for Natural Selection 2. Sebastian has put it into the game for your game-joining pleasure.

You can read all the gory mathematical details on Ryan's blog. Then, go click the Play Now button. Let us know if you think it is working better!



A swag-bag of goodies, just in time for the holidays


There's more to 'Aim to Please' than better hit-detection and faster game joins. Under the hood, this update is 'Build 279,' and is packed with assorted goodies.

For example, long text messages will no longer cause Natural Selection 2 to crash (woops...). It's now much less likely that you will spawn in facing a wall. First-person spectating mode no longer pummels servers with wasted network packets.

To find out about all the nitty-gritty details, head over to the Natural Selection 2 blog. There, Dillon has written up a post detailing the contents of the Aim to Please update. You can also visit the blog forums to discuss the update and tell us what you think!


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