It's official: at 8pm EST this past Friday, the NS Veterans got to play NS v1.1 for the first time. These guys are picked from a popular vote of the 10 top NS clans, and who have one purpose: to make NS the best competitive game in existence. In addition to these clan members, various tournament organizers were chosen to help give feedback on competitive play in general, to make sure NS is primed for play in the CAL, the UGL and one day, the CPL and the WCG. The team has complete confidence in their abilities to analyze, exploit and otherwise break the game mechanics before release.
NS Radio is now back online. There was some confusion about ownership and responsibility here, but hopefully everyone is just going to try to move forward and keep NS Radio alive. Listen to music and occasional NS commentary and interviews on NS Radio. If you want to commit to DJing, drop them a note and get more information. Any other questions about NS Radio should be directed to the hard-working and multi-faceted Prodigy.
Thanks again to all all the Constellation members, whose contributions have helped get NS v1.1 to this stage and have ensured a timely release.
It's an exciting time for the team, and for fans too. After a few weeks of bug-fixing and balancing, NS should be ready for public release. With the massively improved server performance, the fresh and diverse new gameplay, new maps, improved visuals, and support for HLTV and anti-cheat software, this NS should be ready to explode...
The [file=Mapping_Guidelines.html]NS mapping guidelines[/file] have been totally reworked and updated. Much of the overall content is the same, but the many of the entities have been updated with the changes in 1.01 through 1.04 and it's much easier to read now. Many thanks to the hard-working and competent XP-Cagey for taking the initiative on this.
Playtesting on v1.1 has begun. The playtesters had two marathon sessions, Friday night and Sunday afternoon and evening. Sensories cloaked, factories electrified, servers purred, commanders organized a new battle plan, and Oni raged and devoured. NS has shown us a new, better, side.
Please be patient as the bugs are fixed and the game balance is thoroughly analyzed and tested. In the meantime, check the General forums for updates and screenshots.
For those of you that were confused or angered by the last news update...APRIL FOOL'S! It's a joke. NS is not becoming a FPS/RTS/RPG. Kidding. Not real. Please, make the e-mails stop!
In other news, NS v1.1 goes into testing for the first time this week. The playtesters will get their hands on it first, and will give all the initial high-level feedback on the new features, the new resource model, etc. Once all the huge problems are out of the way, it will begin playtesting with the newly-formed "veterans" group. This group is made up of the most skilled competitive NS players in the community, along with tournament and ladder organizers, and a few game theorists. Then it will move on to the beta server operators, who will make sure this new version has improved performance, compatibility and is server-friendly.
Together, the playtesters, the veterans, server ops and the NS team will make sure that NS v1.1 plays great in public play, organized play, and everywhere in between.
In an attempt to leverage the current "RPG craze", the NS team announces today that can ignore this trend no longer. Team leader "Flayra" had this to say.
"After ripping Devour and Stomp from Warcraft III, I realized that the more 'RPG-goodness' I can put into NS, the bigger it will get. Neverwinter Nights, Everquest and Warcraft III all sold better then NS did, so this decision is totally justified."
RPG genre addition notes - New creep-based resource model. No more boring resource towers that churn away unrealistically. Players wander around the map and battle computer-controlled colonists and insect life. The more they kill, the more cash they get. - Alien players no longer choose when to morph to new lifeforms. Instead, as they battle the NPCs on the ship, they gain levels! I stole that cool "levelling-up" effect from Warcraft also. - There is now "upkeep" when too many players join the server. - Players that don't "role-play" their character (Olde English really helps) will be banned for rogue behavior. - To switch maps, players must now successfully complete "quests". These include: finding seven "power crystals" that have scattered about ns_hera, saving a local colony from unprecedented evil that's attacking relentlessly from nearby mountainous structures and protecting a baby lerk until it can be used as a "familiar". - The Onos has been renamed "Tauren Chieftain". - New "Dungeon Master Mode" where players can choose to run a server with their own house rules, print messages on the screen, modify game rules, kick players at will and generally act like a "Dungeon Master" in their own domain. - Players now have attributes that dictate their running speed, attack damage, encumberance, hit points and charisma. These are assigned randomly when joining a server and they all affect gameplay except charisma. - A third playable race has been added! Orcs are a must in every RPG, and Space Orks are already familiar to players so now it's now Marines vs. Aliens vs. Orkz! The Orkz have Gunz (33% chance of malfunction), War Wagonz (vehicles in Half-life!), Wyvern companions (lerk code reuse) and helmets with spikes (+2 charisma).
The NS team is really really excited to change the direction of NS. We're unsure whether 1.1 can be further bloated to incorporate these changes, but we're going to try our best. Viva la Orkz!
Blizzard Entertainment senior designer Rob Pardo had this to say regarding the announcement:
"I really respect the Natural Selection team. Never under-estimate the purchasing power of the orc."
Yes, it's that time of year again...