Ns 3.0 Beta To Be Released

[Lito]

We have made great progress on 3.0, and are close to release. Many people thought that when we announced we were releasing "this holiday season", that mean before New Year's Eve. We apologize if that was misleading. We take our release dates very seriously and don't want to mislead people. It's been changed to "this winter", to avoid any more confusion. We had a January release in mind, and we hope to be able to stick to that...

In order to facilitate communication with the community, we've set up a few NS mailing lists. We have one for mappers to learn about late-breaking news and get their questions answered, one for file mirrors, and (soon) one to keep up to date with community events. These lists will soon be integrated more directly with the site and the forums, but they are functional now. Click the "mailing lists" link above to join. Of course, we will never ever spam you or give out your information to anyone. The lists are just getting going, but they're functional, so go sign up for any you are interested in.

After many months of productive playtesting and balance work with around 2000 Constellation members and Veterans, we feel like we are ready for the next step. We just can't get the kind of balance and compatibility testing we need by running all the playtest servers ourselves, and we want to give back to the ever-patient greater NS community. So instead of waiting until v3.0 is totally complete before release, we're going to release the beta to the public. We don't have the exact date yet, but we expect that the v3.0g beta is the build we're going to release to everyone, just as soon as we get everything in order.

The NS dev team wants to personally thank everyone that helped test, and especially to the Constellation members that have donated to further NS development. If you see any Constellation members on a server, be sure to thank them for their contributions. Without their contributions, you probably wouldn't even be playing v2.01 right now...

I, for one, welcome this release, but it might annoy some consties: "OMG I PAID $5.00 TO GET TEH ICON AND DIS IS HOW DEY REPAY ME"

Discuss.

[BOZO]

Dont get to excited about Combat cuz it suck major monkey balls

[Malevolent]

I'm happy I finally get my taste of 3.0.

[Fewlio]

I, for one, welcome this release, but it might annoy some consties: "OMG I PAID $5.00 TO GET TEH ICON AND DIS IS HOW DEY REPAY ME"
 

You mean $20? BTW I don't see them complaining, they all went "OMG I DONATE AND NOW I CAN PLAY BETA!", because all the ones who donated beforehand did it for the greater good, which wasnt a very large number of people. So many donated for *only* the beta testing of thine 3.0!

I don't know if I shall enjoy combat or not, because I used to enjoy counter-suck myself, even when it was going downhill and every patch made it less fun, I still enjoyed it. Now I am never going to play CS ever again, but CS:CZ I may play. So if NS:C is like ns made into CS gameplay, I will probably enjoy it, my main beef is if it will be balanced well enough to enjoy it on both teams.

*edit* oh yes, hitboxes fixed makes me . Before I truly judge any of it, I shall have to play eet first hafaf :p

[Uranium - 235]

All I can say is: ITS ABOUT ****ING TIME.


Everything I hear says 'Oh yeah it's ready, but combat isn't balanced yet.' As far as I'm concerned, screw combat.

[Path]

I tend to agree with Uranium, as much as Combat may be needed, I am not willing to compromise classic NS for it. You know what I mean, the "The onos/fade was too powerful in Combat, so we made it into a large, moving, bag of goo in Classic." Bah.

But now I can play the beta myself! And pay Flay some money too! EVERYBODY WINS!  :p

[Nuketheplace]

As a vet who has played 3.0 all is can say is oh crap.  From what I've played so far 3.0 is no where near as balanced or as fun as 2.01.  I can't wait to see the hordes of newbies posting on the forums about how 3.0 is unbalanced.   :help:

If you would like me to expand on this feel free to ask.

[Uranium - 235]

Please expand Getting information about 3.0 has been like trying to get LB to stop torturing me in-game. Just when you think it's going to happen, SURPRISE! You're wrong!

[Nuketheplace]

Hrm looks like I spoke to soon.  I'm going to play 3.0g a little more then I'll give you the review.  Until then you will just have to go back to asking lb.

[Fewlio]

Hrm looks like I spoke to soon.  I'm going to play 3.0g a little more then I'll give you the review.  Until then you will just have to go back to asking lb.

RAWR U-235 is right, and I doubt lb is gonna tell much, because we can play it ourselves soon enough :p.

[BobTheJanitor]

ARGH I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG. GIVE ME INFO NOW!!!!111!!11!uno!1

Just when I was about to send in my twenny bux... Mostly hoping that I could get in on the beta, because I ar te llama and can't justify a 20 dollar donation unless I'm at church. Mostly I wanted in through some foolish idea that maybe as a beta tester I could have some impact on the way the game ended up, as everything I've heard about balancing the game with the same stats for both classic and combat sounds really bad.

[Temm]

since im new to ns n all that....The new version is not gonna be focused anymore on teamwork? I liked this version...

[Path]

Actually Temjin, Its just a new game type. The NS you love and know now will still be here, there will just be another game type to play as well. Much like cs_ maps compared to de_ maps in CS.

[Edit for clarity]

[Nuketheplace]

Ok please keep in mind that after playing about 2 games of the buggy 3.0f and screwing around in a 3.0g game and then playing 2 combat games I'm not the most qualified person to tell you about this, but here goes.

I'll take this problem after problem, starting with oni and fades getting ripped up.  To be honest I can't really tell you whether this is fixed or not.  I can tell you that oni and fades die at good times in combat, but still are combat effective.

On to combat balance.  The two games of combat I played in 3.0g were some of the most fun games of combat I've ever played.  I had to watch out for skulk ambushes, while trying to get kills as fast as I could.  Grenades have finally been made useful and after getting them both games I can finally say that they are good not only for flushing out vents, but for killing skulks.  Think of em as a one shot shotty with super high damage.  Sadly the marines won both combat games with out breaking a sweat, so I don't know if the aliens can win at all.  However as of now I declare combat balanced enough to play.  

As for the subject of regular ns I can't really tell you much.  Res flow looks good, and the onos dies slowly enough vs one hmg/lmg.  I think I managed to kill em at least 3 times each before they finally got me( we were screwing around so I don't know exactly how it will work).  The armor absorption factors are a huge improvement to survival as oni and fades and I think they should reduce the problem of end games for aliens greatly.

With the grenade luncher just fixed and not havening a chance to play a real game of regular ns, I can't comment on actual balance.  However after all that I think that ns is getting to a version that is playable and should be out as a official release soon if it doesn't come out as a public bata.

If you have anymore questions pm me, post them here or log on #nsquestions (that channel isn't used nearly enough)

[Jefe]

The main problem with 3.0 is that the alien classes in health/armor have to be the same in both classic and combat.  This is a huge problem.  If something is too powerful in combat, it gets nerfed, and then it gets torn to shreds in classic.  Flayra did reduce the res count of high level aliens (back to 50 for fade and 75 for Onos) but this doesn't mean they don't get torn up.  The onos needs to be a powerhouse and this is not the way to do it...

Edit: Best part about combat: get focus, cloaking, and silence, and sit on top of the armory.

Urk urk urk....

[Fewlio]

Just when I was about to send in my twenny bux... Mostly hoping that I could get in on the beta, because I ar te llama and can't justify a 20 dollar donation unless I'm at church.

So, you'll help pay for the ministers/ministers living, but not Flayras? You know, Flayras job is working on NS, and ministers/priests jobs are Preaching on Sundays and Saturdays at your church, and giving religious advice. So what justifies not helping out a Dev whom we all love but helping out a religious figure whom all who know loves? Both are doing what they do for a good cause, ones for making thousands happy with virtual entertainment, the other is for helping people live their lives better.

(woah, I forgot to hit enter, should have made this post like an hour ago lololol)

[@gentOrange]

I'm glad it's being released to public because now I can donate my money without having that feeling that I did it "just for the beta" :p.

Looking forward to it.

[Malevolent]

ARGH I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG. GIVE ME INFO NOW!!!!111!!11!uno!1

Just when I was about to send in my twenny bux... Mostly hoping that I could get in on the beta, because I ar te llama and can't justify a 20 dollar donation unless I'm at church. Mostly I wanted in through some foolish idea that maybe as a beta tester I could have some impact on the way the game ended up, as everything I've heard about balancing the game with the same stats for both classic and combat sounds really bad.

It's not that far away. If it is truly realeased before the end of Jan., then it'll be hear nice and quick (just how being digested should be).

[Leaderz0rz]

lets see... whats wrong with 3.0


1. The Lerk is more effective then the Fade,

2. The Lerk dies like skulks in a vent full of HA when not in the hands of a good player

3. Onos gets ripped by LMGS

4. Marines still have no reason to leave their spawn in Combat and just camp till they get HA or JP

5. There is still no counter to JPs

6. Eletric RTs own all, expecialy with the new regen system.

7. ns_nancy still has bugs that I don't know that will be fixed for release

thats all i'm typing for now, its not balanced, and its not fun atleast for me, maybe it will be if i can play with the LM peeps /shrug
Note: Word from on high is that Lunixmonster will not be 3.0 until the final version is released. -JHunz

[Satanic Monkey]

6. Eletric RTs own all, expecialy with the new regen system.

New regen system?