From:
http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/in...showtopic=79481Unknown Worlds (
http://www.unknownworlds.com/) and the Natural Selection (
http://www.natural-selection.org) team are pleased to announce the imminent release of Natural Selection 3.0 Beta Version 5 (full version name: 3.0b5). We are anticipating the release to occur this coming weekend (Sept. 3rd through 5th). Please check
http://www.natural-selection.org/downloads for download instructions/mirror locations.
Beta 5 has many important bug fixes which will help facilitate new features coming in future builds. This build marks the correction of some long-standing bugs as well as some bugs which were reported by the community. There are also some significant balance changes in regards to combat
Beta 5 Changelog:
Gameplay changes:
O Players who issue the 'kill' command in console cannot restart the timer by issuing 'kill' again
O Commander can now click on switches to activate a door or elevator.
O "slowresearch" cheat now slows down recycling of buildings.
O Alien attacks apply a reduced knock-back effect. If a player is in the air and receives knockback damage the effect is 50% of what it was in beta 4a, if the player is in Heavy Armor (HA) the knockback is reduced an additional 50%.
O Changed knockback of Skulk Bite from 300 to 225.
O Increased jetpack maneuverability, jetpackers are now immune to stomp, and carried items/ammo affect lift less
O Knockback never affects friendly players.
O Parasite and Xenocide now get damage boosts from primal scream.
O Weapons reload exploit fixed.
O Marines are prevented from putting anything but Resource Towers on Resource nozzles.
O Reduced time it takes to throw hand-grenades (thanks BrigadierWolf!)
O Changed hand grenade so it is thrown gently when crouched.
O Movement chamber range increased from 400 to 500.
O Alien resource nodes don't play gurgling sounds until a minute into the game. (prevents commander from listening for starting hive)
O Movement chamber energy bonus increased from 10% to 25%.
O Changed healing spray effectiveness vs. players: changed from 16 to 13 + 4% of target max health. (both for healing friendly players and attacking enemy players)
O Increased Gorge armor from 40 to 50.
O Increased Onos carapace armor bonus from 150 to 350. (makes it closer 50% like all the other aliens)
O Changed hand grenade physics to make them more effective at attacking indirectly.
O Increased redemption chance from 35% per second to 45% per second. (still happens when at or below 40% health)
O Increased spit damage from 25 to 30.
O Grenade launcher cost lowered from 20 to 15.
O Ammo packs now drop when a weapons is dropped (intentionally or upon death)
Combat Specific Gameplay changes:
O Aliens always respawn as skulk, even if they were previously a higher lifeform.
O Dying with a larger lifeform gives you back the points spent on it.
O Unchained alien lifeforms, like regular NS:
- Gorge costs 1 level
- Lerk costs 2 levels
- Fade costs 3 levels
- Onos costs 4 levels
O Lifeform evolution times set to a smaller percentage of those in regular NS.
O Aliens can now only choose a lifeform once per life in Combat.
O Players spawn in waves, with a maximum wave size of 5 players
O A wave starts when there is no wave in progress and a player dies
O The wave finishes when 5 seconds + (number of dead players - 1)*4.5 seconds have elapsed.
Game mechanics changes:
O In NS:Combat, all weapon and armor upgrades will now be correctly assigned to the user who upgraded for them.
O When devolving from a higher alien lifeform to a lower lifeform it was possible to have 0 health but still be "alive". This has been corrected so you start with the correct health/armor for that class .
O Aliens no longer take negative damage (gain the damage back as health) when they have 4 or more hives.
O Parasite flag is now removed from players when they die instead of when they spawn.
O Aliens who are healing while evolving will emerge healed to the correct percentage. (Also goes for damage while evolving)
O Fixed flashlight so it’s no longer possible to run out of energy.
O Players can no longer enter a Comm Chair while it's recycling.
O Aliens can now evolve on slopes without having to jump.
O Fixed problem with alien regeneration, where aliens could sometimes get more health than they were supposed to.
O Alien players should now be able to always evolve provided there is enough room.
O Blast effect from Onos gore and Xenocide no longer affect teammates.
O Build circle restrictions no longer remain for mapper placed buildings that are destroyed.
O Fixed the bug with the ‘startbuilt’ flag for mapper placed offense chambers, they will now be fully functional when the round starts.
O Motion tracking blips no longer show on minimap when there are no more observatories.
O Fixed bug where players dropping straight into water are invulnerable.
O Turrets now track and fire at underwater aliens.
O OCs will no longer fire at digesting players.
O Walking aliens no longer uncloak while strafing or if they have upgraded to celerity.
O Resolved issues with the Phase Gate headroom checking routine.
O Multiple buildings can no longer be placed on the same physical ground-level location.
O All non-standard weapons (including LMG) dropped upon death.
O Tweaked the way gestation space checking works.
O Improved the way deployment of Phase Gates is handled (code-side).
O Issue with grenades being selected when you drop your other weapons resolved.
Cosmetic changes:
O The sound when an alien building is placed only plays if the building is successfully placed.
O Visual reference of a parasite will now be removed when a mapper placed building is destroyed.
O Known issue resolved where 'needs health' message was being spammed due to variable inconsistencies.
O Added new shotshell.mdl for shotgun ejection
O Aliens will no longer show up on motion tracking if they are dead.
O Use key has been disabled for commanders. (prevents phantom use sounds playing)
o Added new jetpack sounds
O Fixed bug where the hive take-damage animation interrupted itself
O Added new NSGuide icon (from amarc)
O lastinv no longer plays sound when used.
O Welder redone, its now possible to tell when you're not welding, welding or finished welding, just by listening to the sound.
O Alerts now play when a 'friendly' gorge attacks a building with FF on.
O Silence upgrade now prevents the primal scream response from players if they have silence.
O Added an offset shotgun crosshair, which correctly represents the center of the damage field for the current shotgun.
O Digesting sounds are now affected by the silence upgrades.
O It is no longer possible to place/keep a waypoint on a cloaked alien.
O Fixed a bug that stopped the sound that normally plays when an aliens spends points from playing.
O Hand Grenade no longer plays the same sound for different actions.
O Tweaked hand grenade sounds from MaDMaXX.
O New hand grenade model from BrigadierWolf.
O Motion tracking blips no longer appear on aliens that you can directly see.
O Digesting players no longer show up on SoF or Parasite.
O Digesting a jetpacker removes their ability to “fly” so trails won’t be seen.
O Phantom Phase Gate sounds will no longer play.
O Long server names will be truncated gracefully as opposed to abruptly on the scoreboard.
O Correct arm models will now be displayed when exiting the command chair as HA.
O Improved animation for hand grenade, including synching up grenade creation with throw.
O Aliens now display the correct amount of res they actually have. It was being shown (24/99) even though you had 25/100.
O Score is now calculated correctly for weighted kills.
O Lowered chat text visually on-screen.
O New ammo pack models
Server Changes:
O Game directory changed from "nsp" back to "ns", now that nearly everyone has moved to the beta
O STEAMIDs now appear on all applicable log messages.
O Updated method of locking cvars to be more efficient.
O Added missing newline character in log message.
O Fixed log messages for "Game reset started" and "Game reset complete" from sometimes having weird characters.
O Locked r_detailedtextures to 0 to prevent exploits.
O Changed mp_limitteams default from 2 to 1 (in server.cfg and listenserver.cfg)
O Added some sprites to mp_consistency precache.
O Numents and entityinfo commands now work with sv_cheats set to 1.
o Changed Linux development platform to gcc-3.2.
Client Changes (non-gameplay related):
O Removed ex_interp from cvar locks.
O Added lightgamma to locked cvars. Value cannot be set below 2.0.
Changes for those who Mod NS:
O Code for Chat box now sends strings as a single argument rather than multiple arguments.
Spectator changes:
O Spectators should be able to see cloaked alien buildings when spectating in first person.
Map Changes:
O Added ns_altair by KungFuDiscoMonkey
O Added co_sava by Mendasp
O Updated ns_nancy from Lazer
- New route to Mother Interface. It's experimental right now and will probably changed around later.
- Some corridor spacing issues resolved (example: Onos can not leave Mother without ducking)
- Double door bug FIXED
O Updated ns_metal
- More infestation/Tweaks
- Optimized surface access
- Fixed 3 build exploits
- Removed weldable pipe (shortcut)
- Added bulges in vents to allow passing
- Lowered cieling in MS
- Ladder weldable moved to Storage D promenade
- Added resource node to Surface Access
- Moved heating room resource to north end of room
O Updated ns_agora
- Added two missing sounds
O Updated ns_bast
- Reduced size of the vent on top of feedwater so marines have to crouch
- Fixed button on the Engine Door
- Fixed a lot of areas where the comm shouldn't build (this includes all the weird feedwater spots)
- Raised Feedwater hive to avoid exploits and making the access to the vent easier
- Moved the Feedwater resource a bit so you can get behind it
- Moved engine and added a second exit to the hive
- Moved the res outside of Refinery to Water treatment
- Made the revolving door unusable (like the one on the other side)
- Lowered Marine Spawn closer to the cargo level and removed the elevator
- Added new area between the Marine Spawn and the Engine corridor
- Moved the new res on the bottom of the main aft lift closer to Tram Tunnel.
- Reduced excessive brightness in some areas (lights over the nodes, feedwater, marine spawn)
- Added vent between Feedwater and Tram Tunnel
- Tweaked the Tram so the Onos can fit without crouching
- Fixed strange clipping holes and errors (this includes some stuck issues too)
- Added lights to the underwater tunnel
- Added vent in Refinery
O Updated ns_hera
- Added missing titles
- Added a resource node in north-west corner of the map, by the weld to the rock cavity.
- Removed a node from Holoroom
- Removed ground path from Cargo to Holoroom
- Added in a balcony overlooking the Holoroom, accessible from the upper level of Cargo.
- Moved the node in Cargo back to it's original place - down in the pit beneath the door.
- Re-routed Maintenance Access' Cargo exit to beside the cargo life next to MS. (Just so the exit doesn't come out at the resource node)
- Enlarged the general area around the CC, as well as fixed the getting stuck problem around it.
- Fixed being able to see into the vent hive as commander with no marines around.
- Added a vent between Archiving hive and North Corridor (heralocation_ncorridor).
- Added a vent from broken security door to Cargo lift.
O Updated co_core
- Enlarged marine start
- Fixed small clipping\clipnode errors
- Decreased water in hive room
- Reduced overall elevation changes
- Broke up line of sight in south hive exit
- Enlarged hive room slightly
- Decreased line-of-sight to hive from northeast hallway
- Several minor geometry changes and fixes
O Updated co_ulysses
- Fixed bug in Hive ramp
- Changed and added detail at Cargo Bay, Marine Spawn and Hive.
- Added a new window to space at Cargo Hive.
- Modified some lights along the map to make it more atmospheric
O Updated co_daimos
- fixed stuck issue in Lower Sewer (bug #0000590)
- grates can now be shot through (bug #0000692)
- added a vent from Hive Area to Upper Tram to allow Alien to fall into the Marines' back there.
- added a vent from Hive Area to Exactly above the PG welding point.
O Updated ns_lost
- Fixed crashing problems
- Marine start redesigned to eliminate the CC pit
- "Closet" resource node removed
- Several weldable vents added
- Window to siege room in Equilibrium now breakable
- Los Paranoias resource node removed
- Added a resource node on Beta Deck
- Reworked weldable into Alpha Continuum hive
- Fixed anomalous flooring outside Eternal Requiem
- Fixed several exploit build areas
As always, please remember that this is a beta version of Natural Selection. Things are subject to revision at the development team's discretion.
Topic: New Changelog, Release Immenent (Read 8705 times)
