If you haven't already, make sure to check out the "World" section of the website. Lost footnotes documenting flavorful aspects of the TSA institution have been recently found and put on-line.
This Friday, our playtesters will hammer on a sleeker and more stable build of NS. Watch this space for developments.
After quite a few sad and/or frustrated e-mails, it became clear that something must be said about last week's "news" update. This was an April Fool's joke. We are in NO WAY removing the aliens from the Natural Selection. Some people got the joke, but it probably should've been a bit more outrageously-written. Don't worry, the aliens are here to stay.
The LAN playtesting at Iron Lore Entertainment went quite well. Well enough that the team decided that it was time to start wider-scale playtesting. About 20 forum-goers were selected as playtesters, the playtest build was created (sounds so easy when described like that) and servers were configured and prepped. The playtesters and members of the NS team played from Friday, April 5th at 10pm EST, through Sunday the 7th, until about midnight. At one point, there were three servers running, each with between six and ten players. All together, there were probably about 50 games played throughout the weekend, with a few games lasting upwards of two hours.
Alien kingdoms rose and fell, and many a marine lost their lives, often alone and in the dark.
As we work out bugs and make improvements, more playtesters will be added. When the game is stable and fun, and the remaining artwork and sound has been completed, the first version of Natural Selection will be released.
For screenshots of the playtest, check the General forum.
In a somewhat surprising move, the Natural Selection team has announced today that they are removing the aliens from their upcoming "humans vs. aliens" mod, Natural Selection.
"We've decided to drop the aliens and focus more on the realistic, squad-based tactics of the marines. People want realism. No one wants aliens. Just look at how many people are playing Counter-strike. Now look at how many people are playing Aliens vs. Predator. Honestly, I don't know what we were thinking." "This is a team decision, and everyone on the team feels like it's the right thing to do. They were really delaying the release date, and frankly, they're a huge pain in the ass. I think I speak for the community when I say, I never want to see another xenoform, slime-mound or hive-thingie ever again."
But what will fans think of this?
"I think they'll understand. Most people didn't want to play aliens anyways, they complained that the marines were going to be too powerful with their rifles and phase gates, so I don't think anyone will really mind. By the way, have you seen the recent numbers for Day of Defeat?"
News update: April Fool's!