Natural Selection 2

[Samwise]

In a nutshell the big thing I loved about NS was the fact that it worked as both a strategy game and a shooter despite being ridiculously asymmetric. 

First and foremost was the decentralized/emergent "command structure" that the aliens had and its contrast with the more centralized structure of the marines (which is why the top-down "alien commander" thing is a real kick in the teeth).  That is actually one place where later NS versions improved IMO; changing the resource distribution model around to no longer favor a single dedicated gorge.

There was also the general "hit and run" playstyle of the aliens contrasted with the marines' low mobility and powerful armaments.  I felt like this eroded steadily over the course of NS1's development; lerks changed from a sneaky lone saboteur role (which I loved) to a support role where they'd "buff" the more powerful aliens in a coordinated assault.  Fades lost their bitchin' cool teleport and had it replaced with a lame flying power (although I do love the new Blink implementation in NS2, I will give them that).  Onos became available at hive 1 rather than serving in their original role as an endgame finisher once the aliens had their third hive (which was essentially the "win condition").  From the little amount of NS2 I've played so far I haven't even gotten the same feeling from the skulk gameplay; it feels like there are fewer good places to hide for ambushes, and the damage/health balance seems to have changed such that even when you do get the initial drop on a marine (or vice versa) it has a much smaller impact on the outcome of the fight.

[Malakili]

From the little amount of NS2 I've played so far I haven't even gotten the same feeling from the skulk gameplay; it feels like there are fewer good places to hide for ambushes, and the damage/health balance seems to have changed such that even when you do get the initial drop on a marine (or vice versa) it has a much smaller impact on the outcome of the fight.

I highly suggest you play the game some more, because I find that this isn't even close to the experience I've had.   The maps are riddled with places to hide for ambushes for aliens, and the infrared vision thing they get allows them to hide in really dark areas while still seeing really well.

[Samwise]

The alien commander thing all on its own is enough to kill the game for me.  Really, the decentralized "hive mind" that came out of the aliens' information-rich HUD combined with the ability of any alien to invest their resources in building for the team was NS1's best feature.

[Mrbloodworth]

Natural Selection 2 Coverage - Marines

Natural Selection 2 Coverage - Aliens

Natural Selection 2 Coverage - The Commander

[Malakili]

This game is actually really fun, I fire it up every once in a while and the amount of progress it has made since I started playing it is really impressive. (Granted, I've been in beta for nearly 2 years  ).  My biggest worry is that it is a fairly niche game that isn't going to have a very big population of players, which in turn is going to make it tough to play casually, since it is going to probably settle into a pretty dedicated community.  If it catches on, though, it'll be really fantastic.

[Fabricated]

1. TotalBiscuit is a douchebag.
2. They're still making this fucking thing? Hope they got a deal with Valve or something to get this thing on Steam for publicity or a F2P model or something because the F2P shooters are all hitting Steam now and at least one of them (blacklight) is pretty good.

[Malakili]

1. TotalBiscuit is a douchebag.
2. They're still making this fucking thing? Hope they got a deal with Valve or something to get this thing on Steam for publicity or a F2P model or something because the F2P shooters are all hitting Steam now and at least one of them (blacklight) is pretty good.

It is already on Steam, although you can't buy into the beta through steam at present.  If I understand correctly it is a holdover from when it was a Source powered game, but when they decided to write their own engine from scratch they stayed on Steam.

In any event, it isn't free to play, you can already buy the game through their site.  Like I said though, this is going to be a niche title.  It feels very much old school when compared to most modern shooters.  That is one of the reasons I am so excited about it really. 

[Malakili]

Alright! Natural Selection 2 has launched! The game is very slick and a lot of fun now that is is complete.  Having beta in the beta since VERY early days, it is awesome to see how far this thing came.  It is really a lot of fun now, and there seem to be a lot of servers/players up and running, which is exciting.

Also: They gave those of us who bought into the beta early on an extra free copy on Steam - so I've got one free copy of NS 2 to give away to a lucky F13er!  If you want it, post in this thread me know, and I'll pick a random winner out of a hat in a couple of days.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/4920/

Also, fancy launch trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp-4iaKXP68

[Mrbloodworth]

Would love a copy.

NVM.

[bhodi]

I loved NS1. Maybe i'll pick this up!

[Megrim]

Was really looking forward to playing this, having waited years. A mate generously gifted a copy, so I was quite excited to fire it up today. Turns out that after ten years of development they've managed to release a game that runs at 15 fps on this year's hardware. Woo.

I'll update more once I figure out how to make this piece of shit run smoothly.

[Strazos]

I wish I could make good use of this game, but...

Well, Africa. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Was really looking forward to playing this, having waited years. A mate generously gifted a copy, so I was quite excited to fire it up today. Turns out that after ten years of development they've managed to release a game that runs at 15 fps on this year's hardware. Woo.

I'll update more once I figure out how to make this piece of shit run smoothly.

I get 95+ in most situations.

[Mrbloodworth]

Perhaps you are a victim of this:

Natural Selection 2 ‏@NS2

The patch containing the 'pre-cache' crash fix is currently in internal testing. Expect it within the next six hours.

[Megrim]

Nope, but I started to get an inkling of the problem around the same time that a solution presented itself. Apparently, the game was by default trying to run on the integrated graphics chip, instead of the actual nvidia card. Had to manually set ns2.exe to be recognised by it in config, and it now appears to run at near 100fps. The downside is that I now have to spend a day at work before I can play it.

[Malakili]

So, if I am reading this right, it looks like Bhodi is the only one who expressed interest in owning the game, but didn't already get a copy.  Do you still want one Bhodi? 

[Mrbloodworth]

Nope, but I started to get an inkling of the problem around the same time that a solution presented itself. Apparently, the game was by default trying to run on the integrated graphics chip, instead of the actual nvidia card. Had to manually set ns2.exe to be recognised by it in config, and it now appears to run at near 100fps. The downside is that I now have to spend a day at work before I can play it.

Odd. Can you disable the integrated, or is it one of the new ones on the CPU that works in tandem with discrete?

So, if I am reading this right, it looks like Bhodi is the only one who expressed interest in owning the game, but didn't already get a copy.  Do you still want one Bhodi? 

I had an angle gift it to me, so I'm good. Ready to play though!

[bhodi]

Yes, please!

[Mrbloodworth]

This game is awesome.

[Malakili]

NS2 Postmortem.  http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/187299/postmortem_unknown_worlds_.php?page=4

Pretty interesting stuff.  They were apparently quite close to going under a number of times and just barely stayed afloat.  I think there are some interesting things here for indy devs.

[bhodi]

There's a new patch in 2 days that includes new weapons for both aliens and marines and also a new tunnel/teleport type ability for the aliens. So excited!