Happy Summer Marines! We are ushering in the sunshine with update 303. This is a lighter patch focused on some bug fixes and a couple tweaks and additions to the game. With this update we are introducing a new post-round feedback system, this will help provide us with more details about your games and comparing round data to support future changes.

The last six months has seen a lot of changes and experimentation to the game and we aren’t done yet. We are working on developing plans over the next week to continue to build on the new foundation that we’ve created over these last few months. Be on the lookout for some exciting new opportunities and changes to come.…

After the successful construction of a new mining station on asteroid codename: Kodiak, the crew of the Industrial Construction Vessel “Caged” sent out a distress signal. ALTERRA Corp quickly dispatched a private military unit to investigate the source of the distress, what they found was an empty vessel and no signs of human life…

Welcome to Caged, the newest official map in the NS2 universe. A throwback to the original NS1 Map by Nelson ‘manah’ Ferryman, Flaterectomy and other community contributors and testers have worked to honor the original but also offer a new take for the current state of play. Caged offers players a fun four techpoint map with plenty of res and unique rooms and corridors for …

Aliens didn’t get all the love, though. Marines have also received some new toys and changes to their existing tech. A preliminary version of the Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) has been added. This is a gun that was loved in NS1 and one which many of us have always wanted to see make a return in NS2. The HMG was pioneered successfully in Comp Mod, and now it has made its way into the main game.

We’ve also heard your cries and beacons, and recognize that Contamination tended to be very frustrating for Marines. We’ve made some changes to how it works to give Marine players more time to react to it. It will now do its damage over time …

Fellow Chompers and Frontiersmen,

Today we introduce a new (small) gameplay change! One of our goals is to ‘shake up’ certain elements of gameplay- be it long standing balance issues, tech that has become obsolete, or barriers that cause excessive hardship to newer players. In update 294, we’re making what will be hopefully the first of several new gameplay tweaks.

We’re changing medpacks from 50 instant healing to 25 instant healing and 25 healing-over-time (the course of one second). Medpacks will still cost 1 res. What’s the point of splitting the healing like this, you ask?

The target of this change is excessive combat med spam. Currently it’s fairly common to med spam marines through engagements and one of the …

Hi everyone!

It seems like only yesterday that we released update 288, wait a minute?!? It was 🙂 (almost). Hot off the heels of one update comes yet another. This time there is even more under the hood adjustments and tools for us to make the deployment of new features easier. The team has been discussing and debating many suggestions by the community on ways to adjust lifeforms and new player traps. We will continue to discuss and evaluate these over the next couple weeks. For now there are some minor adjustments you will see listed in the changelog, plus a handful of fixes and map repairs. See you all on the servers!

CHANGELOG

Tweaks / Improvements

• Added the ability

The world of game development is diverse and full of studios big and small. It turns out that Torn Banner Studios, the creators of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, are about the same size. They are also an awesome bunch of people. So we thought it might be fun to throw a little joint party…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV2g13wutmE

This weekend, you can get both NS2 and Chivalry for 66% off on Steam, by visiting this page: http://store.steampowered.com/sale/ns2_chivalry_weekend

Cory commissioned a fantastic piece of art to represent this coming together, and you can download high-resolution, text free, wall-paper ready versions of it right here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/or0z035o8a9k9jk/7rJFYzStgN

But wait, there’s more! Our studios paid visits to each other this week, and there are not a …

The Natural Selection 2 competitive scene is remarkable. It is player run, player driven, player focused. And it makes a bang that belies the fact that Natural Selection 2 is not the size of DoTA2, CoD, SC2, or TF2. It’s time for the next big bang. ENSL.org and Unknown Worlds, in association with Multiplay, are pleased to announce the 2013 European Open!

This tournament is open to all European Union teams, and will begin on the 29th of June. There is space for sixteen teams. Four of those spaces will be taken by teams invited by ENSL.org. The grand final will be played live on stage at Insomnia49, the biggest gaming festival in the United Kingdom.

Unknown …

There are a few video games out there. Every genre has acres of titles to choose from, built up over the 51 years since Spacewar. Taking any of those genres and trying to name the best invariably involves sifting through thousands of games.

So imagine the surprise, elation, and excitement in the UWE office at the front page of PC Gamer. A double take confirmed that there is in fact an Onos and TSF marine tucked underneath the letters ‘PC.’

Inside, NS2 scores an entire page for the most recognisable piece of Khaara v Frontiersmen art.

These lists are of course a bit arbitrary. People will argue until the cows come home about who should and should not …

Following on from the March and April entries, it is time to update Planet Earth on what is going on with Natural Selection 2. This is a retrospective look at development in May. To keep the length under control, (April’s entry was a bit overboard!) this post will stick to three topics: Environments, Technical, and Game. Let’s start with Biodome!

Environments

Michael, (‘Olmy’) has been cranking on Biodome. The map is striking, thanks to its new art set and ‘flora’ focus. The accompanying images show some of the stages environments go through, from idea (1, above), to rough 3d layouts (2, below), to texturing, lighting, detailing and prop placement (3, two below).

Biodome will be an absolute blast, but …