What's new from NS1

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Aliens

Dynamic Infestation now surrounds the Hive automatically.
Alien structures must now be built on Dynamic Infestation, which are spread by Cysts, and die if taken off infestation. This is excluding the Whip
Alien Commanders, who are aliens who enter Hives to gain an overview of the map similar to Marine Commanders. Research upgrades and builds structures.
Alien structures are now built by Drifters, which are spawned at the Hive by the Alien Commander
Defense Chamber is now referred to as the Crag. Is now responsible for activating Umbra which is activated by the Alien Commander.
Sensory Chamber is now referred to as the Shade. Upon activation from the Alien commander, gives a brief cloak to all nearby aliens that allows them to sneak into enemy bases.
Movement Chamber is now referred to as the Shift. Is yet to be added into the game.
Offense Chambers have been removed from the game, but their role is fulfilled by Whips placed by the Alien commander and Hydras placed by Gorges
The potency of Alien upgrades is now determined by the number of Veils, Spurs, and Shells. 3 of each maximizes an Upgrade's effectiveness.
Alien vision now renders the world a green misty color, and highlights all players and structures in a bright opaque orange tone, augmenting the Alien's combat awareness.
Lerk loses bite and gets spikes. No longer has Umbra, which is now activated at Crags.
Skulk can no longer bunnyhop, instead has Wall Jumping as an alternate skill-based movement system.
Gorge No longer builds Hives or Harvesters, but only Hydras and Cysts for the cost of Personal Resources. Can now bellyside, for increased movement speed but no directional change.
Fade uses a new Blink model, allowing temporary invisibility and invincibility. Also no longer has Metabolize or Acid Rocket.
Onos no longer has Devour or Charge, but now stuns marines using Gore, and builds up momentum to travel at faster speeds.
Aliens now spawn inside Eggs that spawn around the hive, which can be killed by marines, prolonging alien spawn time.
Now build Hives on Tech Points, points that can be occupied by marine Command Stations.
All abilities have an alt-fire (Podcast #5 at 15:52).

Marines

Structures now rely of the Power Grid. Structures in a room without a Power Node will not function.
Former Command Consoles, now referred to as the Command Station, can only be built on a Tech Point, which can also be occupied by an Alien Hive.
Light Machine gun now referred to as the Assault Rifle.
NS1 Grenade Launcher is now a mounted Grenade Launcher Attachment.
New Weapon: The Flamethrower.
Weapons not brought over: HMG, Grenades.
Heavy Armor changed to some sort of Exoskeleton, will be capable of using the Minigun.
- Can upgrade to dual wield Miniguns (found in game code and Twitter post by Flayra).
- Ability to "lockdown". Lower recoil for limited firing arc (game code and Twitter post by Flayra).
- boombox... (Tweet by Flayra)
Sieges are mobile, moved by the commander.
Welder/Builder bots.
Squads form automatically when players are close in proximity.
Commanders can drop weapons for players, but players on the ground can buy their own weapons at an armory (Forum post by Charlie).
Marines can sprint/book it, which lowers your weapon and will probably have some other negative effects (Forum post by Max).
All weapons have an alt-fire (Forum post by Max).
Can only relo to Tech Points on the Power Grid.
Melee attack on some weapons including the LMG which shoves aliens away (NSPlayer interview).
Female Marine Model (Blog Post (scroll down)).
TheSentry Turret now has a limited field of view, but has greater firepower.
Commander view will be variable height, allowing it to move up and down depending on the height of the map. (Forum post by Max)

General Gameplay

No official combat game mode will ship with NS2.
Maps are smaller: instead of a sprawling network of halls and non-rooms, maps are made up of 6-10 rooms, each with a "landmark" (lighting, custom props, theme) to help players characterize it easily (Forum post by Charlie).
Unified resource model to balance the teams for team sizes from small to large (NSPlayer interview).
There is not random map generation built into NS2 (Forum post by Max).

Misc

Seperate tabs for vanilla and modded servers in server browser (Forum post by Charlie).
Waypoints use AI pathfinding to give you directions rather than just a destination (Forum post by Charlie).
The HUD is minimal and context-aware.
Built on DirectX9 (Forum Post by Max)
Eventual post-release content (Forum Post by Cory)
"Some of the tools have been moved over to Mac, we will support linux ultimately but not sure when. Probably before 1.0, will support dedicated servers." (Charlie @ Bashandslash.com around 40:27+ mark)

Comparison between NS1 and NS2 Models

NS1 Skulk	Skulk
NS1 Gorge	Gorge
NS1 Lerk	Lerk
NS1 Fade	Fade
NS1 Onos	Onos
NS1 Hive	Hive
NS1 Siege Cannon	Siege Cannon
NS1 Marine Resource Tower	Marine Resource Tower
NS1 Armory	Armory
NS1 Infantry Portal	Infantry Portal
NS1 Marine	Marine