Natural Selection Manual

Natural Selection is a multiplayer action/strategy game that requires Half-Life to play (see "Getting Started", below). In it, players join one of two very different teams:

The Frontiersmen--elite marines using advanced technology and weaponry to take back human ships and bases. Victory requires intense teamwork and excellent tactics.

The Kharaa--alien creatures with powerful evolutionary and biological abilities, who hunt and destroy all intruders to their new territory. Victory requires skillful adaptation and deadly combat proficiency.

Getting Started

Game Modes

There are two game modes for Natural Selection--Combat and NS. Combat game mode sections in the Guide will be marked with a "(CO)". NS sections in this guide will be marked with an "(NS)". If a section is not marked, its information applies to both game modes.

Combat Game Mode (CO)

Combat is a fast and furious alternate gameplay mode, where waves of marines and aliens fight each other in short, intense games. It forgoes the strategy elements (most notably the Commander, resources, and tech tree) of the NS game mode. Players are rewarded for kills by gaining access to better weapons and equipment (marines), or abilities and lifeforms (aliens). The marines win by killing the alien hive; the aliens win by killing the marine command console.

This gameplay mode is well suited for small numbers of players, and players who are unfamiliar with the (more complex) NS game mode. If you're a new player, give Combat a try first.

You can find servers running the Combat mode by looking for maps with the "co" prefix. Example: co_core, co_faceoff, etc.

NS Game Mode (NS)

The NS game mode combines first person action with unique strategy elements. The Frontiersmen must work with their commander and each other to secure resources and defeat the enemy--the commander provides them with equipment and researches new technology on the tech tree. The Kharaa must secure resources to build new hives, which increase their power and abilities, all while hunting Frontiersmen. To achieve victory, each team must destroy their enemy's ability to respawn. There is no time limit on NS games. This mode is well suited for medium-to-large numbers of players.

Servers running the NS mode will be using maps with the "ns" prefix. Example: ns_eclipse, ns_nothing, etc.

The HUD

Marine HUD

Marine Waypoints (NS)

The Frontiersmen commander (NS game mode only) uses waypoints to gather troops together, help them get around the map, and send lone marines or entire squads to important objectives. Waypoints appear on your HUD like this:

Waypoints give their distance, the name of their location (note: some map locations don't have names) and any orders associated with it. Waypoints also appear on your minimap.

If you're lost, or your Commander asks you to go somewhere you're unfamiliar with, try asking for a waypoint.

Alien HUD

Alien Hive Sight

Where the marines have a commander (NS game mode) and upgrades like motion tracking, the Kharaa have hive sight. When playing a Kharaa, try turning slowly in a 360º circle. You'll see ghostly rings, of different colors and sizes, many with descriptive text beneath them. Some will be your fellow Kharaa, on the other side of the wall, or the other side of the map. Others may be hives. You'll be able to see these rings move, and they will get larger or smaller with distance. The color code for hive sight is as follows:

The Pop-up Menu

Hive Sight Icons
	Friendly hive
	Friendly gorge
	Friendly player
	Friendly player under attack
	Parasited enemy player or structure
	Player detected by scent of fear

In either game mode, activate your pop-up menu by holding your right mouse button (default setting). Releasing the button over an icon chooses that option. You can bind all commands on the pop-up menu to keys in the control menu. The pop-up menus for both game modes look a little different:

Pop-up Menu (CO)

In Combat game mode, the pop-up menu is where you can increase your level and purchase upgrades. It also allows quick communication with your teammates.

Pop-up Menu (NS)

In NS mode, the marines use the pop-up menu for quick and efficient communication between squads and their commander--asking for orders, urgent equipment requests, or reporting combat conditions. When you use the pop-up menu for these purposes, the message (like "need health!" or "enemy spotted!") appears on the commander's interface, with an icon at your location. He knows who it's from, and exactly where you are.

The Kharaa also use their pop-up menu to communicate with teammates (see "Hive Sight"); but it's mainly used to spend resources--to build, evolve new abilities, and change species (see the Kharaa sections below for more info.).

The Minimap (NS)

The minimap shows the entire game map, from above. For marines, it is always displayed in the upper right hand corner of the HUD. Both aliens and marines can activate the larger version by pressing the "C" or "M" key (default). The minimap is invaluable for keeping track of your teammates, and navigating around an unfamiliar map. You can also use the minimap to see where your team is building, where your marine waypoint is, and more. The minimap is not available in Combat mode.

You: green, with a yellow cone indicating direction.
Marine in Your Squad: green (w/no yellow cone).
Allies: gray.
Allied Structures: blue.
Enemies: red.
Enemy Structures: red.
Neutral Structures: gray.
Potential hive and resource node locations: gray*
Weldable Points: Spark and grate icon (yellow and gray)

* You can only see an enemy structure on the minimap if an ally can (see the "Siege Cannon" entry for parallels). You can always see your team's structures.

Respawning

Respawning ("spawning" back into the game after dying) works differently depending on whether you're playing in Combat or NS game mode.

Respawning (CO)

Marines and aliens spawn at the same rate in Combat, according to how many players are on their team, and their rank.

Respawning (NS)

In NS mode, marines need an infantry portal to spawn. Each infantry portal will spawn a player every 10 seconds.

Experience (CO)

In Combat mode you get experience for kills, and you spend it to improve yourself. There are no team points, or resources to gather.

Acquiring Experience -- Ranks and Levels (CO)

You get experience for killing the enemy, or attacking their base. As your experience increases, you gain levels – which can be spent on upgrades (see the next section), and determine your rank. Your rank reflects your overall experience score. You can see the rank of everyone on both teams by hitting the TAB key (default). Your current experience is also drawn at the bottom of the your HUD, along with your current level and rank.

This table shows the amount of experience required to gain new levels, along with rank names:

Combat Experience Ranks
LEVEL NUMBER	EXPERIENCE REQUIRED	MARINE NAME	ALIEN NAME
1	--	Private	Hatchling
2	100	Private First Class	Xenoform
3	250	Corporal	Minion
4	450	Sergeant	Ambusher
5	700	Lieutenant	Attacker
6	1000	Captain	Rampager
7	1350	Commander	Slaughterer
8	1750	Major	Eliminator
9	2200	Field Marshal	Nightmare
10	2700	General	Behemoth

Experience per kill
ENEMY'S LEVEL	POINTS GAINED		ENEMY'S LEVEL	POINTS GAINED
Level 1	60	Level 6	110
Level 2	70	Level 7	120
Level 3	80	Level 8	130
Level 4	90	Level 9	140
Level 5	100	Level 10	150

Extra cumulative experience is awarded when friendly players are nearby. For each friend that's nearby when a kill is made, the experience awarded is increased by 10. The total experience is then split among all the players. For example, if a marine kills a level 3 alien, and there are four friendly marines nearby at the time, the experience given is
(80 [Level 3 kill] + 40 [4 x crowd award]) / 5 [number of players] = 24 for each marine regardless of who killed the alien.

Another way to look at it: a group of five players making five level 1 kills (one per person), would have 100 experience apiece, whereas one player making one level 1 kill would have 60 experience.

Besides killing enemy players, there is one other way to get experience: attacking objectives. As a player inflicts damage on the enemy hive or command station, that player gains experience. This experience is not shared with nearby players.

Spending Experience -- Upgrades (CO)

In Combat mode, every time you gain a level you can purchase a new upgrade. As your rank increases (see above), you'll have access to more and more powerful upgrades. Unlike NS game mode, upgrades are permanent -- they are not lost when you die and respawn. Levels can be spent at any time, and unspent levels are also not lost when dying and respawning.

Upgrades are purchased using the Pop-Up Menu (see above). The following are the upgrade paths for marines and aliens:

Change Species -- you begin play as a skulk, and can choose to change into four different and unique species. See "Alien Species" for descriptions.

Unlock Hive Ability -- there are four levels of abilities: Hive 0, Hive 1, Hive 2, and Hive 3. In Combat mode, you always have Hive 0 and Hive 1 abilities. The upgrade gives you access to Hive 2, and Hive 3 abilities, regardless of your species. See "Alien abilities" for more info.

Evolve Ability -- gain enough experience, and you can evolve all these abilities. See "Alien Evolutions."

Resources (NS)

In NS game mode, marines and aliens need team points -- called resources -- to build anything, or upgrade their capabilities. This makes securing and protecting resources the key to victory in all but the quickest of games. As explained below, the marines and aliens manage and spend resources very differently.

Acquiring Resources (NS)

There are two methods of acquiring resources: killing enemy players and building on top of resource nodes.

Natural Selection Resource Inputs
GAME ACTION	MARINE REWARD	ALIEN REWARD
Killing an enemy player	1-3 random resources to your team	1-3 random resources to you
Resource tower	1 resource per 4 seconds to your team	1 resource per 4 seconds split evenly among all players on your team

Spending Resources -- The Marine Commander (NS)

At the heart of the marine deployment is the commander. His role, and perspective, is different from all other players. From inside the command console he has a bird's eye view of the action -- deciding what to build and where to place it; equipping and healing your team; and guiding the marines to victory. The commander controls team resources, and chooses a path through the tech tree (see below). Every weapon and health pack he drops, costs. Keep the resources flowing to him, and you'll see the rewards.

Any marine can become commander by stepping into the command console. There can only be one commander at a time. See the "Commander Interface" section below for more information.

Note: The Frontiersmen are at their best working together to carry out the commander's orders (see also: "Waypoints"). Following orders doesn't just lead to victory -- it usually puts you where the action is, in the spots where the game is won or lost. A team without a commander, or that doesn't work very closely with one, is toast.

Spending Resources -- Alien Hives and the Gorge (NS)

Resources are evenly distributed, automatically, among all Kharaa. Individuals can save them up and use them to build (as a gorge), purchase evolutions, or change their species (see sections below for more details).

While the Kharaa do not have a commander, the hive and the gorge species serve a similar role. Gorges can build chambers, and start new hives (in NS game mode only). Hives are large, hanging organisms that respawn dead aliens and heal any aliens standing nearby. Each map has three potential hive locations. With every new active hive, all Kharaa species become more powerful, and gain access to new evolutionary abilities (see: "Kharaa Evolutions").

Hives are also the single most expensive thing to build -- so someone better save up their resource points to get one going, or the Kharaa will be outpaced by marine technology … and doom and destruction will soon follow.

Ammo and Health

Marine Ammo and Health (CO)

See "Marine Upgrades", above, to learn how marines resupply in Combat game mode.

Marine Ammo and Health (NS)

Frontiersmen can get health and ammo two ways -- from an armory (see Marine Structures), or from health or ammo packs.

The armory replenishes the ammo and health of anyone "using" it ("use" key's default setting: "e").

Health and ammo packs can be dropped by the commander anywhere, anytime. A skilled commander can keep his soldiers alive and fighting in the fiercest of battles.

Ammo and Health Items
	HEALTH PACK :: Adds up to 50 health to a wounded marine; won't cause the marine's health to exceed the starting value of 100. Health packs do not repair armor -- only a welder can do that. Cost: 2 resources per pack.
	AMMO PACK :: Adds one clip worth of ammunition to the marine's inventory. Automatically transforms itself into the appropriate ammunition type for the currently selected weapon. Only picked up if the marine can hold more and the weapon requires ammunition for use. Cost: 1 resource per pack.
	CATALYST PACK :: Boosts the metabolism of a marine. The marine gains a 25% bonus to speed and fires his weapons 25% faster. Cost: 4 resources Duration: 8 seconds

Alien Health and Energy (CO)

Since the Kharaa's weapons are biological, they don't have to worry about ammo. They do have to watch their energy bar, however (see "HUD") -- when it's depleted they are too tired to attack (though they can still run). Standing still replenishes energy. The adrenaline evolution, or standing next to a movement chamber increases how quickly energy replenishes.

Kharaa are healed by standing next to a hive, or if a gorge gives them a hit of healing spray. Also, the defensive evolution regeneration allows an alien to heal itself. Finally, the fade's metabolize ability can heal its wounds. Healing restores health first, then armor.

Alien Health and Energy (NS)

Kharaa are healed by standing next to a hive or defense chamber, or if a gorge gives them a hit of healing spray. Also, the defensive evolution regeneration allows an alien to heal itself. Finally, the fade's metabolize ability can heal its wounds. Healing restores health first, then armor.

Marine Weapons & Equipment

Marines begin play with an LMG (Light Machine Gun), pistol, and knife; and standard armor.

Slot 1: Your primary weapon. You can only have one Slot 1 weapon at a time.
Slots 2 & 3: Your trusty pistol and knife. Don't underestimate their usefulness.
Slot 4: You can potentially have all three Slot 4 weapons at the same time.

Buying Weapons & Equipment (CO)

The following list describes the weapons and equipment available to marines. See the "Marine Pop-Up Menu (CO)" and "Experience (CO)" sections for more information on acquiring experience points and spending levels in Combat mode. All weapons, armor, and equipment are permanent when purchased. They are not lost when dying and respawning. Note that the "Cost" and "Requires" fields do not apply to Combat mode.

Researching Weapons (NS)

Your commander can equip you with new weapons and gear by researching the appropriate tech (which costs resource points) and then dropping a new weapon for you (which also costs). See the "Tech Tree" section for more info on researching. When you are killed, any weapons you've been given are dropped -- and if a marine doesn't pick them up, they vanish. In NS game mode, all equipment and armor is lost when respawning.

List of Weapons and Equipment (CO/NS)

Marine Technology & Upgrades

Purchasing Upgrades (CO)

An "upgrade" is the catch-all name for anything marines can purchase with levels they gain through experience. See the "Experience (CO)" section to learn more. The "Marine Upgrade Path" (above) describes the order in which upgrades can be purchased.

Note on "Auto-Commander": these upgrades are unique to Combat game mode, and act like an automated version of the NS game mode commander.

COMBAT MODE MARINE UPGRADES
	DAMAGE UPGRADES :: Three levels of upgrade that provide 10%, 20%, and 30% increases to the standard damage of your weapons and mines.
	ARMOR UPGRADES :: Three levels of upgrade that give a 20%, 40%, and 60% boost to your maximum armor.
	MOTION TRACKING :: This upgrade reveals all enemy movement, anywhere on the battlefield, as "blips" automatically displayed on your HUD.
	WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT :: In Combat mode, new weapons and gear are purchased as upgrades, and become permanent additions to your arsenal. See "Marine Weapons and Equipment," above, for descriptions and details. All items in the "List of Weapons and Equipment" are available. The "Experience (CO)" section explains the order in which these upgrades can be purchased.
AUTO-COMMANDER UPGRADES
	RESUPPLY :: When you have less than 100% of your health, or less than 20% of the max ammo you can carry for your current weapon, there's a chance you will be resupplied automatically. Each resupply is the equivalent of a health or ammo pack (see "Health and Ammo" above). Note that resupply doesn't repair armor -- only a welder can do that.
	SCANNER SWEEP :: If there is a cloaked enemy nearby, there's a chance that the Auto-Commander will scan the area around you, forcing any hidden players to uncloak.
	CATALYST PACKS :: If, after making a kill, the Auto-Commander decides you are a competent fighter, it may drop a catalyst pack on you as a reward -- temporarily increasing your speed and rate-of-fire (see "Ammo and Health", above).

Researching Upgrades (NS)

In NS game mode, the commander can research the following upgrades that automatically affect all marines, or that allow for new structures and weapons (see also "Tech Tree").

Marine Structures (NS)

Researching new weapons and upgrades requires the building of structures. Structures also serve other functions -- see below. Structures are unique to the NS game mode, with the exception of the command console.

Building Structures (NS)

Your commander will place structures, but until you and your teammates build them, they won't do anything. To build, get within touching distance of the structure and hold down your "use" key ("e" default setting). You'll see a status bar around the structure, filling in as it is built (note: multiple marines can speed construction). When built, the structure will deploy -- usually with a particular sound and movement.

The Marine Tech Tree (NS)

Marines begin play with an LMG (light machine gun), pistol, and knife; and standard armor. In NS mode, their commander can spend resources to unlock more powerful weapons and abilities, and build strategic structures. But limited resources force tough choices -- the commander must set priorities, and pick a path through the tech tree. For descriptions of structures, weapons, equipment and upgrades see above.

Alien Species

The Kharaa match human weapons and upgrades with 5 powerful alien species, and amazing evolutionary abilities.

Changing Species

There are five species of Kharaa -- and each has distinct abilities, strengths and limitations. In NS game mode you can change to any species you can afford, as often as you like. In Combat mode you must evolve according to the Alien Upgrade Path (see "Alien Upgrades (CO)" above).

While changing to a new lifeform you are encased in a gestation sac, and are totally defenseless for a number of seconds (see the "Gestation Egg" under "Alien Species". Higher lifeforms require a longer gestation. If you're found while gestating, you are an easy target, so find a place to hide or be sure you have friendly aliens to protect you. Your resources (NS) or level (CO) are spent as soon as you start gestating, so if you're killed before you complete, your investment is lost. The following table shows gestation times in seconds:

When you change species, you keep the same percentage of health and armor (so if you're at half health before, you'll at half health after, etc.).

Abilities

Gestation Times
TARGET SPECIES	NS MODE TIME	COMBAT MODE TIME
Skulk	7	1.4
Gorge	17	3.4
Lerk	28	5.6
Fade	23	4.6
Onos	38	7.6

Hive abilities include alien attacks (like the skulk's bite), and other combat affects (like the fade's blink, or the lerk's primal scream). There are four levels of alien abilities: Hive 0, Hive 1, Hive 2, and Hive 3.

In Combat mode, you always have access to Hive 0 and Hive 1 abilities. You can spend levels to unlock access to Hive 2 and Hive 3 abilities (see the "Experience (CO)" section).

In NS game mode, Hive 0 abilities are always available. To access Hive 1, Hive 2, and Hive 3 abilities, your team needs to have that number of hives active. For example: Xenocide is the skulk's Hive 3 ability. Until the aliens get all three hives up, skulks won't be able to use it. Note: aliens start play with one hive, but they can lose it, and have zero. In those cases, they lose all but their Hive 0 abilities, and start taking damage. If they can't get one built fast, the game is over.

Alien Chambers (NS)

Chambers are alien growths that gorges build for offense, defense, and tactical purposes. With the exception of the hive, they are unique to the NS game mode.

Hives and Chambers (NS)

In NS mode, every active hive allows one kind of chamber to be built (with the exception of offensive chambers and resource chambers, which can always be built). Chambers are required to evolve (see section below). Only gorges can build them.

Alien Evolutions

Evolutions are advanced adaptive abilities that, when combined with different species, encourage a wide variety of play-styles. There are three categories of evolution: Defensive, Movement, and Sensory. Evolving a new ability requires gestation time -- during which you can see around you, but are helpless. Evolutions are purchased through your pop-up menu.

Purchasing Evolutions (CO)

In Combat mode, you can spend a level to purchase any of the nine evolutions. A highly ranked alien could potentially evolve them all. See the "Experience (CO)" and "Levels (CO)" sections for more on spending levels.

Evolutions are all gained at maximum power. They persist when you change species, or even when you die and respawn.

Purchasing Evolutions (NS)

In NS game mode, aliens must build chambers to get evolutions (see "Chambers," above). Each hive allows for one kind of chamber (Defense, Movement, or Sensory). Once a chamber is built, the corresponding evolutions become available to all players. Players can choose one evolution from each category. The number of chambers built determines the level of the evolutions -- up to a max of three. Evolutions cost 2 resource points. Evolutions persist when you change species. If you die, all evolutions are lost and must be re-purchased.

Example of evolutions and chambers (NS): at the start of the game, the Kharaa decide to go with Movement as their first type of evolution. A gorge builds a movement chamber, and the movement icon flashes on each player's screen. For 2 resource points, all players can now use their pop-up menus to choose either the celerity, adrenaline, or redeem ability. Whichever they choose, it will only be at level 1 until someone builds another chamber. Movement chambers can now be built anywhere, giving nearby aliens an adrenaline boost, and allowing them to teleport to active or threatened hives. When a second hive goes up, the team will then choose whether to go for Defense or Sensory chambers (and evolutions).

List of Evolutions

Scoreboard

RANKING (CO)

POINTS (NS)

In NS mode, players are scored based on their contributions to the team. Players get points for advancing their team's cause: including building structures, destroying enemy structures, and killing enemy players.

Killing a structure is worth the same amount of points as building it.
Points are given to the gorge that placed the structure, regardless of who helped.
The commander gets all points for building, not marines (keeps them at the top of the scoreboard).

Icons

Icons reflect a player's special status in the Natural Selection community, and on a server. To toggle any scoreboard icons that apply to you on and off, type "auth" in the game options screen. Icons appear before your name on the scoreboard. Here are a list of icons, and what they represent:

Controls

If a control performs some other function (than is obvious from its name) it is specified in the "Notes" column. (Example: the "jump" key has a different function in spectator mode.)

Commander Controls

These controls are unique to the commander. They are mapped to the corresponding marine controls (see above) - so whichever key you have assigned to "Jump" becomes your "Go-To-Last-Alert" key when you become commander. Also note that controls from the above list not specified as "Marine," "Alien," "Spectator," or "Other" function the same when you are commander (i.e.: Team Chat is still the "U" key).

Special pop-up commands

Eject Commander (NS): choosing this option begins a vote among all marines that, if successful, ejects a commander from the command console. They are barred them from further use for the duration of their stay on that server. Intended for use only when a commander is abusing their power.

Gestating: Aliens can evolve to a new lifeform by spending their resources (NS) or levels (CO), and choosing a new lifeform off the pop-up menu. In NS game mode the cost of evolving to a lifeform is displayed on the menu. In Combat mode, the menu will show the next species available. See the "Alien Species" section for more info.

Commander Interface

Hotgroups and Squads (NS)

As in traditional Real-Time Strategy games, the commander can create "hotgroups". Hotgroups allow the commander to quickly and easily access players or structures. They also allow the Commander to see when hotgrouped players or structures are under attack. Marines in a hotgroup are referred to as a "Squad." Grouped players know which squad they are in, and often have increased morale.

To create a Hotgroup or Squad, select the marines or structure, then hold duck (default [CONTROL]) and press a Menu Item Key (1-5 by default). Any players in this squad are immediately informed they are part of this squad, and an icon representing the hotgroup will be displayed at the top of the Commander HUD. This icon will blink red when the group is under attack.

To select a hotgroup, left-click their icon or press the hotgroup key (1-5 by default). To jump to the group's location, click again or press the key again and your view will center on them. Pressing it one last time will return you to your previous position in case you made a mistake.

Game Options Screen

Console commands (includes multiplayer server options)

Server options and variables

Set to 1 to enable "Tournament mode", set to 0 to enable "Casual mode". Tournament is like Casual mode with a few differences:

Casual mode is strongly recommended for public play, and Tournament mode is recommend for scrims and clan matches.

For testing only. Speeds build and research time, always lets players spawn immediately when joining a team, lets all players hear all other players when using voice communication, and more.

When enabled, shows a floating numeric indicator whenever a player or structure takes damage.

NS has a handicapping system, so uneven teams can still have fun together. It's primarily used in a competitive (tournament mode) setting. This system was designed to not affect build orders adversely, so strategies used with handicapping are still useful, and so handicapping is a viable and efficient way to practice.

Set a team's handicap level to less then 100% to give them a disadvantage, in order to have even teams. This value lessens damage done to enemy players and structures. For instance, if Team 1 is better then Team 2, and they want to a fun even scrim, mp_team1handicap could be set to 80, which means that Team 1 will only do 80% damage. When either team has a handicap not equal to 100, the HUD will display the current handicap values are (in order to prevent abuse).

Setting the timelimit sets the number of minutes after which, the map will automatically switch to the next map in the map cycle. The map will NEVER change in the middle of the game, only after a game has ended and players have returned to the ready room. Set to -1 to disable automatic map rotation.

Other Console Commands

Usage: endgame 1 or endgame 2. The game ends, with victory by the team specified.

Version history

v1.0 - October 31st, 2002

Initial release

v1.01 - November 6th, 2002

Improved server performance by 20-30% (should result in slightly less lag, more changes still to come in this area)
Moved all gameplay constants into server code, so economy and balance will be identical on all servers
Added auto team-balance: you are not allowed to join a team if joining it would give that team more then 2 players more then the other team.
Dropped health and ammo packs now expire after 30 seconds
Sentry cost increased from 16 to 19
Sentries and siege turrets now need a functioning factory to stay operational. They will power down and become inactive there are no factories nearby. If a new factory is built nearby, they will power back up.
Offensive chamber health increased from 1100 to 1200
Lessened siege damage from 350 to 330
Acid rocket rate of fire increased from .66 to 1.0 (shots per second)
Increased fade armor from to 90/125 to 125/150
Increased acid rocket damage from 50 to 60
Increased base speed of fade from 210 to 240
Changed regeneration upgrade from fixed number to percentage of alien max health. Alien also emits regen sound when healing.
Grenade damage reduced from 200 to 180 (still does blast damage), clip size reduced to 4, rate of fire decreased slightly
Increased research time for heavy armor from 80 to 100
Increased HMG cost from 23 to 25
Increased grenade launcher cost from 27 to 33
Increased cost of heavy armor from 20 to 25
Lower cost for offensive chambers from 16 to 14, and build time from 40 to 30
Friendly fire now does 33% damage instead of full damage (tournament mode only)
Lessened HMG damage from 20 to 18
Numeric indicator at resource towers now shows how many actual resources were contributed to your team (minimum 1)

v1.02 - November 16th, 2002

Improved server performance by around 50%. You'll see lower pings, and servers with more players.
Rename avhplayer to player (potentially better compatibility with Adminmod and other 3rd party programs).
Change default vote percent from 30% to 40% and minvotes from 2 to 3.
Fixed bug where parasite could hurt own team.
Fixed bug which allowed players to damage their own structures with gunfire.
Updated code to be more compatible with Adminmod under win32 (dynamic cast issues). It may still not work under some configurations and work continues on it.
Enhanced hive sight changed so it's useful at upgrade levels 1 and 2.
Updated NS to use the HL standard logging specification for server ops and for PsychoStats compatibility (http://www.hlstats.org/logs). More work may be needed for better Psychostats compatibility.
Removed draw numeric damage events.
Sighted buildings no longer show in hive sight (still show up with parasite, but prevents flood when alien views heavily populated area).
Fixed exploit where +using a building could speed up research of a technology.
Preserve health and armor percentages when evolving.
Don't allow gorge to heal buildings before they are built.
Reduced chance of server overflow (crash) when large games (24+ players) end.
Fixed marine armor upgrades (previously, researching armor upgrades wouldn't give you that armor unless you were welded first).
Added mp_logdetail (0-3).
Changed the alien ability anti-exploit code to try to co-exist with scripters.
Turned off team-balance when in tourny mode.
Renamed ns_authicons to mp_authicons, renamed ns_eastereggchance to mp_eastereggchance for consistency.
Defensive chambers now only heal up to three nearby buildings or players per tick (prevents undestructible Walls of Lame). Targets are chosen randomly.
Cleanup babblers on game reset.
Built with compiler optimizations (linux).
Spectators now hear spectators, their observer target and teammates of their observer target.
Networking changes that could result in CPU performance improvements (instead of tracking, storing and queuing network messages, they are sent immediately).
All players can all hear all other players talking before countdown starts.
Tournament mode start changes to make it easier to coordinate and start a game. It will only start when players are on both teams, when the teams are equal, and when both teams have said they are ready. A team is ready when one member of their team cheats "ready" (case important). All players can hear all other players before the countdown starts, so spectators and players and coordinate. Once the countdown starts, the map resets, and enemies can't talk to each other, like usual.
Spectators get end-game victory sound and message.

v1.03 -November 27th, 2002

Fixed Adminmod compatibility problems. It should work great now under all configurations.
Aliens now lose health when they no longer have any active or growing hives (damages every 2 seconds, all players hear countdown, ignores armor). This is done to speed up the end game and prevent llamas from hiding in vents to prolong game.
Fixed readyroom bug/exploit while spectating (hitting F4 while REIN made you an invulnerable "ghost" player that could confuse others).
Changed team join to not allow teams to have more then 1 player difference. Affects casual model only.
Fixed armor bug where carapace protected aliens even after all armor was gone.
Fixed explosion bug where siege cannons, bilebombs, grenades and xenocide weren't doing damage properly (this broke in v1.02).
Added support for model and sound consistency checking. If you run your server with mp_consistency 1, it will require that all NS models and sounds are unchanged from the distribution. This allows servers to disable custom models or sounds, and exploits that can result from them. This is currently disabled by default. If you have problems connecting to a server with an error like "server is enforcing file consistency on file X", then delete your custom models or try connecting to a different server.
Fixed infinite cloaking bug (occured when last sensory chamber lost while player was cloaked).
Addressed alien leave/join resource exploit (joining a team you've already been on makes the player wait to respawn, as if he had been killed).
Addressed early team-switch exploit to find hive (you can no longer switch teams after playing or observing, so choose carefully).
Fixed various problems when building turrets, mines, offensive chambers, etc. then team-switching.
Moved mp_drawinvisibleentities to debug builds only.
Added mp_version variable for better filtering with All-Seeing Eye and other third-party programs and scripts.
Fixed Onos charging crash bug.
Reduced knife range from 50 to 35 (not balance, this was a bug).
Changed siege cost from 15 to 25 (this was a typo, not meant to be a balance change).
Fixed melee weapon problems in vents.
Fixed lastinv command. Players can now bind a key to this (even though their menu will still say it's not implemented).
Fixed bug where players did friendly fire damage to some world objects (ie, doing 33% instead of 100% to doors and switches).
Fixed turret factory abuse, where turrets became active after recycling the nearby turret factory before turret was fully contructed.
Fixed bug where siege turrets became re-activated after building a regular turret factory nearby.
Default mp_timelimit is now 60 (even for listen server).
Fixed bug where a vote could affect a commander that logged in after a vote had been started.
Fixed bug where gorges evolving upgrades (usually temporarily) lost resources above the hive maximum. It will still count down to 33, but will immediately count back up to your resource count (this is just a visual problem on the client).
Make sure current health and armor percentages are preserved when evolving.
If a team has 5 or more players than another team, the team automatically wins. This lessens long periods of lop-sided teams but still gives victory when a losing team starts leaving.

v1.04 - January 24th, 2003

Fixed exploit that allowed aliens to look like marines and fire marine weaponry
Changed max machine gun ammo to 250 (used to be 300, though it would only display 250)
Fixed various commander mode exploits
3rd party entities are never propagated to client (ie, adminmod_ entities). This could fix an occasional crash (thanks Alfred)
Moved auto-concession on unfair teams into server variable (mp_autoconcede: if set to greater then 0, then if teams are ever different by this many players, that smaller team loses immediately)
Dead players can now talk to their teammates in both casual and tourny mode (needed to prevent team from getting an advantage by using external voice program in CAL)
Fixed problem where ammo could be picked up while holding mines
Aliens without any hives no longer take damage when the server is in tournament mode
Added more triggers (for Psychostats and 3rd party program support)
Fixed visual problem where advanced armory had weird build circle
Reduced radius of acid rocket splash from 200 to 165
Alien respawn time reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
Reduced shotgun cost from 20 to 16
Reduced welder damage from 10 to 7
Armory can now give out ammo while upgrading to advanced armory
Increased cost of infantry portal from 15 to 22
Increased cost of phase gate from 20 to 25
Decreased health of phase gate from 3500 to 2000
Increased scan cost from 1 to 3
Increased grenade launcher damage back to 200 (back to v1.0 value)
Umbra now blocks 5 out of 6 bullets instead of 6 out of 7
Arms lab reduced from 50 to 45 points
Reduced siege cannon range from 1250 to 1100
Siege cannon targets now must be sighted to be hit (in view of friendly player or scanned by commander)
NOTES:
- The green circle that appears when the siege cannon is selected by the commander is using the old range, but this will be fixed in v1.1.
- This is the value siege range was for most of our internal playtesting (hence the bast and hera issues that suddenly arrived with v1.0)
- Initial hive now spawns with full health instead of having to heal up to full health on spawn
- Fixed bug where advanced turret factories don't have full health
- The advanced armory now has 2400 health instead of 1500 (same as regular armory, this is a fixed bug, not a balance change)
- Fixed bug where tournament mode caused some damage to be reduced more then it should be (acid rocket vs. any alien structures)
- Fixed bug where hive would sometimes play wound sound/animation when it got hit but didn't take damage
- Removed lingering "organic" damage type for acid rocket and spore cloud (fixes bug where acid rocket wasn't doing damage properly to organic structures)
- Aliens lose all their points when they leave the team, and the team doesn't get them either (this will be revisited in v1.1)
- Fixed non-visible motion sensor and proximity "blips" (linux only)
- Defense chambers no longer heal themselves
- Removed gibbing of corpses (off by default, but some servers had enabled it). This means death animations always play, so no more disappearing models when using high-powered weapons.
- Alien health circles seen by gorge now take armor into account (so gorge knows when player is fully healed)
- Morphing resets your health again (preserves percentage of armor when evolving carapace too)
- Fixed logging bug where model name was reported instead of team name for say and and say_team
- When hive is constructed, have it check to see if technology should be supported automatically (exploit for getting extra upgrades after a hive is killed and rebuilt)
- Observers can hear other observers and players on the screen, and can chat with each other
- Fixed various problems with holding mines while building or using command station
- Changed cloaking so it deactivates when a player moves faster then a certain speed, fixing an exploit. Moving very slowly should still allow an alien to remain cloaked.
- Added "highdamage" cheat for testing (sv_cheats must be 1, all damage is x100 vs. buildings, x10 vs. players)
- Added "slowresearch" cheat for testing (sv_cheats must be 1, research takes full time instead of normal 2 seconds when cheats are on)
- Phase gates now must be +used instead of just touched (less frustrating when trying to attack them or fight nearby)
- Don't play "select your troops, and give them orders" commander hint if you have no other players on your team
- Grenades and mines are now enhanced by arms lab damage upgrades
- Fixed exploit where multiple upgrades from the same category could be purchased by jamming hotkeys (thanks localhost)
- Fixed bug where trying to exploit alien abilities could crash the server
- Fixed bug server name wasn't displayed on scoreboard
- Reduced "intermission" time after game ends before mp_timelimit is checked. Disabled mp_timelimit map-switching for tournament mode.
- Phase gates now only play their effects (particles, sound, light) when there another active phase gate (so a player can look at a phase gate and know if he can go through it)
- Fixed end-game server crash for large games
- Fixed rounding errors for level 3 arms lab upgrades for marine weaponry (thanks Kitsune and Comprox)
- Fixed bug where babbler and xenocide damage wasn't being applied properly (babbler damage was halved, xenocide wasn't doing blast damage)
- Fixed bug where laser-style mines sometimes wouldn't go off when touching the base
- Turret factory cost reduced from 25 to 20
- Siege turret cost reduced from 25 to 20
- Lerk spike damage increased from 16 to 18 (big lerk changes coming in v1.1, this is a hold-over)
- Fixed problem where mines sometimes blow up on their own for no apparent reason after they are placed
- Added "detectall" cheat for testing motion-tracking and marine blips
- All entities can hurt themselves (allows 1-hive alien team to battle siege, figure it out...)
- Allow siege cannons to see targets themselves (no spotter needed if target is in sight of the cannon)
- Tweaked armories to refill your primary ammo supply before your clip
- Changes for PsychoStats support (thanks Stormtrooper, get well soon). Visit www.psychostats.com to download Psychostats v1.9.1 which now supports NS
- Fade cost increased from 44 to 54
- Movement chambers now teleport to aliens to a hive that's under attack, or the farthest active hive if none are under attack.
- Carapace now slowly gives out extra armor points with upgrade level, instead of giving it out all at once. For example, a skulk with 0/1/2/3 carapaces has armor of 10/16/22/30. All other properties of carapace remain the same.
- Regeneration upgrade now heals approximately twice as fast
- Redemption increased in effectiveness slightly
- Hive now heals nearby players faster in effort to allow aliens better chance to hold off early marine rush (20 points per second instead of 8)
- Added ability for Guides to send hint tooltips to individual players. More information on the Guide program is coming.
- Cloaking changed so higher levels make it faster to cloak instead of harder to see. All levels now make the alien equally invisible (not quite invisible, but very close)
- Fixed various bugs and exploits which enabled players to use weapons while commanding
- Fixed bug where players trying to execute alien abilities manually crashed the server
- Fixed bug where hive death animation kept looping after hive was dead
Linux improvements
- Ported code to updated version of GCC
- Compiled NS with optimizations, which should bring the linux server up to speed with the win32 server (CPU optimizations)
- Fixed all motion-tracking and visibility problems
- Important: there are problems when NS v1.04 Redhat and Adminmod are used together. If the server crashes when players join, temporarily disable Adminmod or revert back to v1.03. This is a standard-library problem and the NS team is currently working on a solution.

v2.0 - July 31st, 2003 (previously referred to as v1.1)

More diversity of tactics, along with more play-time at the 2 and 3 hive stages
Simpler resource model (multiple gorges will be viable)
Faster and more intense gameplay (average game time in v1.04 is 22 minutes, v1.1 target is around half that, though epic games still possible)
Commander improvements
Hotgroups for soldiers and structures (soldiers are notified, "You are squad four"). Hotgroup icons blink when under attack.
Warcraft III style "idle peon" messages
Always draw player names for commander
Much better hotkey support (fully customizable)
Select all players button/bind
Alien upgrade improvements (all paths viable)
Sensory chambers are now automatically cloaked, and they cloak other alien structures in range (including hives, resource towers, offensive chambers, etc.)
Movement chambers now give aliens energy, like defensive chambers give health. Unsure if teleport ability will stay.
Silence upgrade now silences movement and attacks (it's incredibly eerie)
HLTV support (including first-person view while waiting to respawn)
Changes to tournament mode to support CAL
Collision improvements (no "jittering" when crouching on structures, structure hitboxes much more accurate, etc.)
Skulk bite and machine gun muzzle flash obscure view less
Improved demo record/playback functionality (particles, scoreboard, etc.). Demos recorded before v1.1 will still work in v1.1.
Improved alien pop-up menu is simpler and more intuitive, context-sensitive cursor
All known exploits fixed (frame-rate advantage, etc.)
Fewer "stuck" issues with Onos and blink
New Onos abilities allow him to stomp the ground to stun nearby enemies, then devour enemies whole (they are slowly digested, during which time they can be saved by killing the creature)
Skulk model orients properly when running on wall! Possible option for transforming first-person view
Lerk physics changes to make him easier to control
Huge server performance improvements (should be around half the CPU usage)
New marine technology: electrified turret factory upgrade, does damage to enemies touching factory
New effects: sentries smoke when they fire, alien structures splatter goo when destroyed
Updated existing maps for balance, performance and flow, and new maps (at least three)

v2.01 - September 19th, 2003

Lowered marine damage/armor upgrade costs from 30/40/50 to 20/30/40
Increased grenade damage from 110 to 125
Fixed problem where specs can be heard talking before game start in tourny mode
Fixed problem where dead players could sometimes be heard
Voice comm can no longer be heard for anyone during countdown (to allow safe demo recording)
Fixed "Contacting www.natural-selection.org..." timeout problems when natural-selection.org is down
Hide opposing team score in tournament mode so you can't see how many resources towers they have
New collision code to lessens chances of players getting stuck in structures
Fixed problem where hera holoroom double node couldn't be built properly
Fixed bug where being webbed and then devoured pulls out your weapon while inside the Onos
Each level of celerity now increases speed by 25, down from 35 (back to the 1.04 level)
Electricity research time reduced from 60 to 30
Electricity range increased from 90 to 120 (to prevent exploiting)
Offense chamber health reduced from 1150 to 1000
If an Onos redeems while digesting a player, the player is left behind
Parasites and gorge spit can operate switches and buttons that take damage again
Marine resource tower cost lowered from 20 to 15
Healing spray is 16 (same as 2.0)
Removed frame-rate dependence from leap and charge damage (Leap is 40 damage per second, Charge is 160 damage per second.)
Increased hive cost from 35 to 40
Reduced command station cost from 25 to 20
Reduced command station build time from 20 to 15
Umbra blocks 2 out of 3 bullets (down from 3 out of 4 in 2.0)
Improved "lastinv" command so that your last weapno is preserved between gestations
Shotgun clip and reserve reduced from 10/50 to 8/40
Removed cloaking and uncloaking sounds via cloaking upgrade
The cloaking upgrade now fades smoothly instead of becoming instantly invisible. The higher level of your cloaking upgrade, the faster you'll cloak.
Aliens should be able to walk slowly cloaked via the cloaking upgrade.
Each level of cloaking decreases time needed to cloak more.
Sentries and offense chambers now do "light" damage. Light damage does half damage to heavy armor and Oni.
Only allow resource towers and turret factories to be electrified (fix for exploit timing/selection exploit)
Resupplying at armory can only go into reserve (addresses end-game grenade spam at marine start). It also now rounds up (so odd-sized clips like the HMG load intuitively)
Made offense chambers less accurate against fast-moving targets (jetpackers)
Fixed "super-hive" bug which allowed an invincible hive to be built
Fixed alien resource exploit involving late-joining
Fixed spawning exploit involving late-joining
If you get disconnected while playing aliens, and you rejoin, your resources will be preserved
Players can only become spectators from the ready room (fixes devour exploit)
Building hives can now be healed
Unbuilt marine structures can now be repaired with the welder
Lowered armory cost from 20 to 15
Electricity can now attack two targets at a time instead of one
Lowered gorge armor from 75 to 50 (shouldn't affect gorge lifespan, as they usually have extra armor when they die)
HMG cost reduced from 20 to 15 (marines should be able to attack at tier 2 without it being a make-or-break effort)
Fixed bug where turrets could fire before they were built by recycling and building turret factories
When you use a phase gate, it checks to see if there are any structures blocking the phase gate. If there are, it blocks the phase. It then checks to see if there are any players blocking the phase gate. If there are teammates that have phased within the last 2 seconds, it blocks the phase. If the phase succeeds, it kills any players that are on the phase gate. So teammates have a 2 second window to get off the phase gate; enemies are telefragged instantly. Structures however can still block a phase gate, though this will likely change in a future version.
Removed frame-rate dependence when building structures (and fixed flashlight exploit when building structures)
Fixed bilebomb exploit that could sometimes allow it to damage through walls
Handicap can now be set in non-tourny mode. Message displays like active resource nodes message, every 20 seconds.
Reduced siege cannon build time from 15 to 10
Reduced siege upgrade time from 22 to 15
Reduced heavy armor cost from 20 to 15

v3.0 -(previously referred to as v2.1)

New gameplay mode: NS Combat
Removed XXX and XXX. Added XXX, XXX, XXX, etc.
New upgrades : New Combat-specific upgrades like "resupply" and personal scanner sweep give you help when you need it.
New look : Over 150 new textures and new NS maps give the game a whole new look. Fight in the claustrophic halls of ns_ayumi, catching a glimpse of snow falling outside a catwalk, or take control of the awe-inspiring and incredible ns_agora.
Catalyst-packs : New "catalyst-packs" allow Commander to speed rate of fire and movement of marines for a short duration.
New lerk : New flight model for the "Lerk", allowing smooth and precise flapping and gliding (he also has his bite back!).
New spectator interface : All-new spectator mode is easier to use and ideal for match commentators.
New manual : The manual has been totally re-written to include a "quick start" guide, and detailed information on every weapon, ability and structure.
New chat and font system, the ability for mappers to pre-place structures in maps, 'votemap' command, new scoreboard, new alien "focus" upgrade, and much more.
Native Steam support
VALVe Anti-Cheat (VAC) and Cheating Death (CD) support
Massive improvements : Over 200 bugs and exploits have been fixed in this version, along with dozens of other improvements. These include "sinking" structures, better hitboxes for players and structures (even for wall-walking skulks!), skulk prediction fixes, and hundreds more.

THE NATURAL SELECTION SCORING SYSTEM
MARINE ACTION	REWARD	ALIEN ACTION	REWARD
Killing Skulk	1	Killing Marine	1
Killing Gorge	2	Killing Jetpack Marine	3
Killing Lerk	3	Killing Heavy Armor Marine	4
Killing Fade	4	Killing Sentry Turret	2
Killing Onos	5	Killing Automated Siege Cannon	3
Building Command Chair	5	Building Hive	8
Building Resource Tower	3	Building Resource Chamber	3
Building Other Marine Structure	2	Building Other Alien Structure	2

Function	Default key mapping	Notes
Fire	Mouse button one	Marine: Fire weapon. Alien: Use current alien ability. Spectator: cycles to next spectator target. Other: There is no alternate fire.
Pop-up menu	Mouse button two	Marine/Alien: Hold or click button to open menu. Select item to purchase, or action to be performed and let go of button or click again. (See section, above, for more info.)
Move forward	W
Move backward	S
Move left (strafe)	A
Move right (strafe)	D
Jump	Space	Marine/Alien: Jump. Spectator: Cycles through spectator modes.
Game menu	ESC	Opens out of game menu. Under Steam, this also allows you to go to the Ready Room, and to access your Friends list.
Reload weapon	R	Marine only.
Drop weapon	G	NS game mode only. Marine only.
Use	E	Marine/Alien: Open doors, flip switches, etc. This is also how marines or gorges build structures.
Walk	SHIFT	Move slower, but silently.
Duck	CONTROL	Marine/Alien: Duck. Alien: Disables skulk wall-walking.
Flashlight	F	Marine: toggles your flashlight on and off. Alien: toggles your alternate vision mode on and off (makes your teammates and team structures glow).
Spray logo	T	Spraypaints your logo (set in Customize Menu).
Menu Item 1	1	Marine: selects primary weapon (machine gun, shotgun, heavy machine gun, or grenade launcher). Alien: selects universal (hive-0) ability.
Menu Item 2	2	Marine: selects secondary weapon (pistol). Alien: selects hive-1 ability.
Menu Item 3	3	Marine: selects knife. Alien: selects hive-2 ability.
Menu Item 4	4	Marine: selects tertiary ability (mines, welder, hand grenade). Alien: selects hive-3 ability.
Next weapon/ability	MOUSE WHEEL DOWN
Previous weapon/ability	MOUSE WHEEL UP
Display scores	TAB	Shows scores, teams, kills, game time, map name, etc. See "Scoreboard" section.
Chat message	Y	Chat message to all. Shows teammates the name of the location you're in.
Team chat message	U	Chat message to team. Shows teammates the name of the location you're in.
Take screen shot	F5
Voice	ALT	Hold this key and talk into your microphone to talk to your teammates.
Hotgroups (Menu Items 1-5, Commander only)	1-5	1-5 See Hotgroups section in Commander Interface (below).
Request order	Z	Marine: ask Commander for an order.
Acknowledged	X	Marine: indicates to Commander you are carrying out order.
Need Medpack	NONE	Marine: request a medpack from Commander.
Need Ammo	NONE	Marine: request an ammo pack from Commander.

Function	Default key mapping	Notes
Fire	Mouse button one	Select.
Move forward	W	Scroll view up.
Move backward	S	Scroll view down.
Move left (strafe)	A	Scroll view left.
Move right (strafe)	D	Scroll view right.
Jump	Space	Go to the last alert played.
Duck	CONTROL	Your voice will only be heard by selected marines.
Hotgroups (Menu Items 1-5, Commander only)	1-5	See "Hotgroups and Squads" section below.

Function name	Console var	Notes
Auto help	cl_autohelp (0/1)	Disable to turn off hints to help new players.
Center player names	cl_centerplayerid (0/1)	When looking at a player, you see their name and if they're friendly, their health and armor percentage. Normally this is displayed in the lower left of the screen, but when this is enabled, it shows in the center of your screen.
High-detail particles	cl_highdetail (0/1)	Disable on slow computers or video cards, to skip non-essential particle systems.
Music enabled	cl_musicenabled (0/1)	Turn off game and custom music. Takes affect once current song is done.
Music volume	cl_musicvolume (0-255)	Adjust volume of music by setting to a value between 0 and 255 (eg, 0 is silent, 128 is half volume and 255 is full volume).
Force default FOV	cl_forcedefaultfov (0/1)	Some alien lifeforms change the field of view, for atmospheric effect. Set this to 1 to force a default 90 degree field of view at all times. Turn on if you get motion-sick easily.
Show build messages	cl_buildmessages (0/1)	Setting to 0 turns off build icons, which tell you what structures your Commander or gorges are building. These icons normally appear in the upper left portion of the screen and disabling them means you'll never see them.
Dynamic lights	cl_dynamiclights (0/1)	Certain older video cards suffer noticeable performance problems with dynamic lights. If your frame-rate suffers whenever the Commander drops something, near phase gates or near welding, try turning this off. Epileptic players or players that are prone to seizures will want to disable this as well.
Commander hotkeys	cl_cmhotkeys	Sets default Commander hotkeys. These hotkeys are the 4x3 button grid that corresponds with the grid of buttons in the lower-right of the Commander interface. Pressing the hotkey is identical to clicking that button in the grid. To change these keys, enter the keys to use starting at the top left of the grid, reading left to right and top to bottom. For instance, to shift the default keys one key to the right, you would enter "wertsdfgxcvb".
Decal limit	r_decals (0-496)	Indicates how many decals (bullet holes, blood splatters, etc.) can be drawn at once. Increase this value to see the signs of battle long after it happens, decrease to improve your frame-rate.
Weapon fast-switch	hud_fastswitch (0/1)	When enabled, weapon icons aren't drawn, and weapons are switched to instantly. This is faster for experienced players who always know exactly what weapons or abilities they have available.
Music directory	cl_musicdirectory	To shuffle your own custom music while playing NS, type in the drive and directory of your music folder here. Any .mp3s in that directory are chosen randomly when choosing a new song to play as background music. Examples: "c:\music" "d:\Music files".
Music delay	cl_musicdelay (0-1000)	Maximum time to wait before playing next song, in seconds. After a song plays, NS waits a random time between 0 and this value before choosing the next song to play. Changing to 0 means you'll always have music playing, increasing the value will mean more silence.

Introduction

Overview