Natural Selection 2 News Update - Friday Update - The Harvester and Spark Q&A Options

[Max]

Please post comments on the topic Natural Selection 2 News Update - Friday Update - The Harvester and Spark Q&A here

[Atone]

While the new resource tower is actually a lot better looking than I thought from the pre-alpha video, I still much prefer the old design. Something about this doesn't feel right. Maybe I'll like it more when it's in game surrounded by aliens and infestation and whatnot.

[Popenator]

Oooh, possibilities for the skybox cinematic just made me get really excited..

[Quovatis]

No water? I guess that means no sludge or lava either. That's too bad, as it really added to the atmosphere in NS1.

[heWantedMeToChan...]

This new tower is an improvement in my opinion. It seems much more lively and has more of a feel that it has grappled the node instead of just sit on it.

It'd be cool (And quite creepy) if it moved upon contact with a marine, like the hive does in Ns.

[WatchMaker]

Oooh, possibilities for the skybox cinematic just made me get really excited..

Too many possibilities!

No water? I guess that means no sludge or lava either. That's too bad, as it really added to the atmosphere in NS1.

No water means no water. IE, swimming, underwater vision, and all that fun stuff. If you want lava or sludge, make an animated texture scrolling. Done and done. You won't be swimming in either of those, I don't think.

[Pipi]

If no glass, isn't it possible to make a material without diffuse map?

I don't know much about a 3D engine, but you know, the material would have a subtle bump map and specular map and act like a glass maybe.



Btw, happy birthday Charlie ;)

[aeroripper]

The harvester looks like a parasite feeding off the res node, cool. This game also has great music so far.

With the cinematic editor, it sounds like you could put in all kinds of things. I'm imagining dropships coming in for bombing runs, dust storms, and pitched battles in the distance.

[Triggerman]

Wow, the cinematic skybox.
Although I'm curious how you guys are going to optimize all this to work on regular computers, sounds rendering the world that you play in that by the looks of it in the video had some difficulties and also taking care of a 3D-scene that can be animated and whatnot sounds like a huge undertaking to me at least. Glad you got the extra money from the pre-orders, seems like you're taking many bold steps with the engine to say the least.

And the new Harvester... it's quite hard to tell but do they have eyes? I think I can see something similiar to it on the conceptart and for a brief moment on the video. For me it would change my outlook on it at least to actually being something living; it's just a bit too gross being a huge tentacle with a suction-cup for my taste.

[Mr. Epic]

Cinematic skybox sounds AWESOME. I can completely see animated ships moving past or that sort of thing. Great idea.

The harvester is interesting- in game it looked great but now with this video a few things are bugging me about it. The real problem with it are the tentacles around the glowing area... they seem completely for show, they don't really add to it. I could completely see them being veins or something like in the original, but them flailing around was pretty funky. We will have to see it in-game, again in the video it seemed to fit in just fine and perhaps it will, but on its own it looked like one of those sculptures in beatlejuice that crawl around.

Pity about water, but thats a later consideration!

[Me9a]

first thing i got in mind by watching the video of the new Harvester was

"omg gtfo here this thing is gonna blow"

maybe let it blow instead off fall down when it dies that realy look much better as dead animation ;)

and dont let it pump that much on size on gathering resources.. it might be good to see if the harvester is builded complete or not

but its enough with a litte less pumping ;)

hope my comment helps

Mega

[perfectheat]

Really like the new look. I'll always think of Hand of NOD though. Wonder if NOD might catch on, hmm...

Cheers guys!

[yimmasabi]

Owwww i like that new tower and cinema maker

But where is Marilyn Monroe ? :)

Also I agre Me9a with;
"maybe let it blow instead off fall down when it dies that realy look much better as dead animation ;)"

This post has been edited by yimmasabi: Feb 13 2010, 03:15 AM

[slayer20]

My god that resource to- I mean, Harvester, reminds me so much of Dead Space. The way it feels so...alive!

I'm pretty sure that the skybox question was the one I sent. You spelt my name wrong. It's one T, not two. :P

-Mathew

[echs]

Damn. No water or glass effect at initial release. Going to be strange playing the older maps without water or glass corridors once you do introduce them to Spark.

As for the Harvester, it's a great design, and it looks alot better and seems more alive than its NS counterpart. Nice name change too. But I think it would look MUCH better if it was to sway from side to side a little more, it looks too stiff for a living thing.

[slayer20]

But I think it would look MUCH better if it was to sway from side to side a little more, it looks too stiff for a living thing.

Agreed.

[Dauntl3ss]

Harvester: Like it :)

Glass: Hope to see this soon, I think it adds a lot to the atmosphere to have a few windows where you can view the outside of the station/ship or wherever you are. :)

Water: Doh, I'll have to rethink one of my rooms :\ I wanted to have boiling water in the bottom of a cave, so if you fell into it, you'd die pretty much instantly. Will it be possible to have "bottomless pits" you can fall down and die in? :p

Cinematic Skybox and Editor: Sounds really nice :)

[rammaj]

interesting info good job MAX.
I allso love the new "RT" model, superb animation and it is so life like compared to the one in NS1

This post has been edited by rammaj: Feb 13 2010, 04:47 AM

[glimmerman]

I like the new one, but i think I'm going to miss our old RT :(

I see a potential issue here:

What will will call this for sure? RT was perfect, what do we say here "can someone drop an H"???

Maybe it should have been called a resource harvester or something so we can use something other than "harvester" all the time.

This post has been edited by glimmerman: Feb 13 2010, 03:30 AM

[Renegade.]

I like the girth and presence of the old model - this one feels as if I could pass it by and give it no more attention than some prop.
Nonetheless Max is the man and he delivers.