Hey everyone,
We're glad to see the servers are full and that Gorilla went over well! We got some great coverage around the web which made us quite happy.
We want to the patches coming frequently, instead of doing bigger less frequent patches. With that in mind, we wanted to release this follow-up patch to address some of the issues that came with last week's release.
Feature
- Onos Stomp moved to alt fire and now it knocks down marines
- Moved Onos smash to separate HUD slot.
- Onos will not collide with medium sized structures anymore.
- Added a stoop animation for Onos, which triggers when you move through low corridors/doorways. This will trigger most of the time instead of auto crouch and does not slow the Onos down.
- Increased Onos hide armor.
- Adjusted Onos movement collision model.
- Increased Onos acceleration.
- Added a bitmap based font rendering system.
- Added Lerk "roosting", fly into a wall or ceiling and hold the movement modifier button to latch on (Thanks Matso!)
- The Commander can now drop weapons anywhere, not only in range of Armory. Weapons always cost player resources.
Fix
- [li]Fixed bug causing some Hydras placed on walls or ceilings to take damage even though they are on Infestation.
- Marines with a Jetpack now display on the minimap.
- Fixed script error caused by a bot switching to a different player class.
- Improved melee attack collision detection (Rifle alt, Axe, Fade, Skulk, Onos, etc) (Thanks Matso!)
- Fixed script error caused by upgrading Shade to Mature Shade.
- "DEFEND" order text is now displayed as "Defend" as intended.
- Pistol laser is pointing in the correct direction when viewing another player with a pistol.
- Player will now rotate more smoothly.
- Fixed script error when using the web admin interface.
- Fixed bug where sometimes the Alien hatch text would say "-2 more Aliens will hatch before you"
- Scenario Handler now handles unconnected cysts properly (Thanks Matso!)
- AI units will now go to the direct spot commanded instead of nearby (Thanks Matso!)
- The Sentry laser will only appear once the Sentry is fully deployed.
- Scoreboard reloads now correctly when you change the screen resolution.
- Fixed a bug where Whip bombs could sometimes damage health from Marines.
- Added Onos death message icons.
- Fixed the minimap generator not working properly.
- Fixed crash when a vertex buffer couldn't be created due to the system being out of memory.
- Fixed infinite loop when an open space can't be found for a Drifter.
- Fixed script error caused by the Marine Commander giving a Marine an order to defend an Entity that hadn't been damaged yet.
- Changed the field of view to remain constant vertically regardless of the aspect ratio of the game.
- Give dropped weapons a little bit of initial angular velocity.
- Increased the size of the minimap.
- Marine Commander can now drop weapons everywhere on the map (no armory nearby required anymore)
- Aliens can choose same number of upgrades as they have Hives.
- Better targeting system for Sentry, Hydra, Whip, etc (Thanks Matso!)
- Whip Grenade whack improved (Thanks Matso!)
- 'autobuild' option will work with powerpoints now (thanks matso!)
- Updated Alien ability icons.
- Sentries and pistols in alt fire mode have now a red laser attached to them.
- Added "killall" console command to kill all of one type of Entity, "killall Hive" for example, cheats must be enabled.
Balance
- Increased Onos Stomp energy cost from 10 to 40.
- Reduced bile bomb damage by 10%.
Mineshaft
- Moved Powernode in Central Drilling to other corner.
- Opened up brew room into small room next door and moved the black door.
- Raised the Left Operations exit slightly
- Rebuilt Operations right exit to Drill Repair
- Extended rock division wall in The Gap
- Moved Drill Repair RT Closer to Operations
- Replaced all Location Volumes
- Renamed "Ore Transfer" to "Refinery Transfer"
- Included "Refinery Transfer" Tech point into Marine Random Spawn.
- Renamed "Belt Room" to "Belt Transfer"
- Renamed "Ore Extraction North" to "North Tunnel"
Tram
- Replaced dev textures in corridor outside Server room.
- Removed some deformed geometry from Alien Tram.
- Fix for drifter stuck issue in Shipping.
SDK
- Added the ability to make static and dynamic props as not collidable in the Editor.
- Added SetAngularVelocity to CollisionObject.
See you online!
Gorilla. Has. Arrived.
NS2 Gorilla Gameplay Trailer
Features
- You can now evolve to Onos when your team has three hives.
- The Onos can toss marines with his Gore attack, smash structures and Stomp on the ground, sending a shockwave that disables marine structures for 5 seconds. Upgrades are no longer available, sentries stop firing, Infantry Portals stop spawning, etc.
- Added Prototype Lab and the ability to research and buy Jetpacks
- Added new map: ns2_mineshaft
- Added camera animation and display during count down phase.
- Name tags now appear over the head of nearby teammates.
- Added lines for rally points.
- Mines detonate when hit by Stomp.
- Added an option to enable mouse acceleration (off by default)
- Infestation is now displayed on minimap (dying infestation is indicated red)
- Added some missing Marine structure icons.
Balance
- Reduced Rifle butt range from 1.5 meters to 1 meter (now same as Skulk bite)
- Shotgun damage changed to Light (armor is twice as effective against it). Made it lighter to carry and increased the damage to compensate (# of shots vs. base Skulks, Lerks and Fades should unchanged, 1 extra pellet vs. Gorges). So Shotguns should become less effective against heavily armored targets. (thanks Schimmel!)
- Bile bomb range and splash increased a lot, damage decreased somewhat and energy cost decreased a little (trying to make Gorge less vulnerable on front lines and also more able to do at least some damage to entrenched Marines). He is NASTY now, watch out.
- Increased Hydra health from 500 to 600 and armor from 0 to 75.
- Increased Lerk Spike cost from 1.5 to 2.5. Changed distribution of Command Station health and armor so it's more resistent vs. Light damage (ie, Lerk Spikes).
- Disabled res for kills to simplify the game, remove confusion about what happens when you make a kill, reduce end-game stalemates with 1 tower and to increase the strategic aspects of the game.
- Armory no longer required to drop med packs (unnecessarily restrictive during rushes)
- Lowered bile bomb damage from 300 to 225.
- Increased repair rate for Marines repairing each others' armor from 18 to 35 (to make it less annoying and to allow Marines to sustain attacks better).
- Reverted Fade carapace armor buff from 50 to 30.
- Removed Lerk "hide" armor.
- Reduced Shotgun research time from 40 to 20 (it was 0 in NS1). Helps Marines get a foothold with early aggression.
- Increased minimum egg spawn time from 8 to 10 seconds to less that early Alien assault (now it's the same as Marines)
- Lowered infantry portal build time from 10 seconds to 7, and Armory from 15 to 12 (to try to lessen effectiveness of Skulk rush)
ns2_tram
- Moved warehouse north.
- Removed north-east Warehouse entrance.
- Opened tram tunnel between Server and Warehouse.
- Reworked connecting corridors into Warehouse.
- Fixed drifter pathing issues between Server and Control.
ns2_summit
- Reworked Flight Control and nearby vents
- Reworked Sub Access
- Added vent between Comp Lab, Sub Access and Maintenance Access
Fixes
- Fixed bug where the Gorge Bile Bomb ability used the Spit ability icon.
- Fixed bug where the Gorge Mini Cyst ability used the Hydra ability icon.
- Fixed script error if a Hive was destroyed while the Gorge that built it as Commander was a rag doll.
- Cleaned up some Client console spam when a Fade blinks.
- Fixed script error caused by a spectating player receiving points by getting a kill with a structure placed when they were not a spectator.
- Added placeholder icons for the Shell and Veil.
- Fixed bug where the game would randomly lockup while placing a Cyst.
- Drifter spawn sound effect will no longer play at world origin.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Skulks from leaping at maximum speed.
- Fixed bug where the physics representations for the Armory and Infantry Portal did not match up with the visual model.
- Weapon secondary attacks can no longer occur at the same time as primary attacks while coming out of a sprint in some cases.
- Armory buy menu will not instantly appear once construction is completed.
- Adjusted Skulk wall walking smoothing rates so that that the 3rd person model rotates more quickly to match the 1st person model (especially while jumping)
- Health and Ammo packs can now be dropped directly on top of a Marine player.
- Restored reloading of script files when they change on disk.
- Fixed Whip 'grenade whack'
- Bombard projectiles will not collide with the Whip and nearby friendly structures anymore and is created at the correct attach point.
- Alien player names for Hydra kills will no longer appear in blue text in the death message.
- Fixed a bug causing Mini Cysts placed by the Gorge to be disconnected when created even in cases where the ghost model indicated the connection was valid.
- Fixed bug causing dropped weapons to disappear too quickly if they were picked up and dropped again after initially being dropped.
- AI units cannot attack friendly players anymore unless FF is enabled.
- Fixed bug causing script error when a Cyst died due to not being connected to a Hive.
- Fixed crash when too many objects are visible.
- PhysX scene now supports mirrored geometry.
- Initial team starting locations chosen with a more random method.
- Mine will detect enemies more accurately.
- Slime effect during sprinting will not show up in thirdperson anymore.
- The ARC will prioritize other structures before Eggs and Cysts.
- Player turn poses (arms moving with feet planted on the ground) reset once the player starts moving.
- Fixed multi-threading crash when using the o_stats console command.
- The "getting ready to spawn" blue spin effect now disappears immediately upon the Infantry Portal being destroyed.
- Fixed bug where the Spore cloud would be created improperly when a Lerk was not moving.
- Fixed bug where connecting to the localhost would cause the game to go into an infinite loop.
- Fixed bug where Marines would spawn above the Infantry Portal platform.
Improvement
- Added "warp" console command to teleport to a position in space when cheats are on, "warp 0 0 0" for example.
- Improved Skulk wall walking (sticks better to surfaces, thanks matso!)
- Skulks can now leap from mid-air, ala NS1.
- The "locate" Client console command will constantly display the local player's location on the screen if "true" is given as a parameter.
- Added Mine icon for death messages (Thanks Saba!)
- Reformatted Scoreboard so more player names can fit on the screen at the same time.
- Server name is now displayed at the top of the Scoreboard.
- Improved ScenarioHandler (Thanks Matso!)
Sound
- Removed Bile Bomb hit sound when Gorge creates a structure.
Optimizations
- Optimized network fields in Structure, CloakableMixin, ScriptActor and PowerPoint (thanks Matso!)
- Reserve memory for faceSets (prevents excessive allocation)
- Reduced networked bandwidth for Camoflauge by eliminating an unnecessary network field (thanks Matso!)
- Reduced networked bandwidth for Skulks by eliminating wall walking network variables (thanks Matso!)
- Optimized Door auto-opening.
- Reduced number of cells CollisionGrid queries look through.
- Reduced network bandwidth required to send which fields of an Entity changed (uses indexing scheme when only a few fields changed and a bitmask when many changed)
- Reduced network bandwidth usage for entities that have energy.
- Reduced bandwidth for transmitting attachment points for entities by 26 bits.
- Reduced bandwidth for transmitting angles.
- Eliminated lastTimePlayerMoved networked field in Player.
- Mines require less processing time to check for nearby enemies.
- Reduced bandwidth by 20 bytes per second for each Entity sent to the client.
- Changed particle effects to only update if they were visible last frame.
- Slightly more aggressive compiler optimization options.
SDK
- Added Vector:Add method.
- Added Shared.SortEntitiesByDistance.
- Removed ProximityGrid.
- Added sphere query to CollisionGrid.
- Added EntityQueryManager (fast queries for entities within range, uses CollisionGrid)
- Exposed EntityQueryManager to Lua, started converting script to use new API.
- Added support to ObjectTagQueryManager for testing whether entity has a specific tag.
- Entities get tagged with their class name (and base class names). Tag is prefixed with 'class:'.
- Added time network variable type.
- Added "private" network fields which are only sent to the client controlling the Entity.
- Added support for networking floating point values as fixed point (specified as float (<min> to <max> by <step>)
- Added Client.GetServerName() function to return the name of the server the client is connected to.
- Added Server.GetName() function to return the name of the server.
- Added Server.GetFrameRate() function to return the current tick rate of the server.
- Added Mersenne twister Randomizer class to Lua, same API as Lua random functions but better generator.
We hope you enjoy this mega-build with us!
