Build 217 (Titanium) - Exosuit Revealed & Released news - Natural Selection 2

Read on below for important stuff!

It's 4.30am here in the office at the time of posting, and since midnight we've been watching the web take hold of the Exosuit. Hugh has not slept a single minute since 6am Monday.

We hit the YouTube '301' barrier in 10 minutes. We are trending to the top on r/gaming, the comments and likes are exploding on youtube, we have more shares on Facebook than ever before in NS2 history, and all over the web forums are starting to feature Exosuit trailer posts.

This is your chance to part of NS2 history. This stuff matters. The more these bubbles grow, the more people that get to see and experience the game we have all come to know and love.

Right now, at your PC, you can make a choice that can change the future of this game. You can help vote it to the top on reddit; you can join the discussion of Mendasp's .gif contributions on Youtube; you can join Exo discussions on your favourite forums; you can share the original post ("Ladies and Gentlemen, The Exosuit" on Facebook; you can do something completely wacky and different.

If you do, we're with you, and we thank you.

NS2 Build 217 ("Titanium") changelog

Features

• Added new marine Exosuit! Purchase at the Prototype Lab (requires 2 Command Stations). Comes with a Claw and Minigun. Dual miniguns researchable.
• Added new map: ns2_veil (thanks FMPONE!)
• Added Alien "Pheromones".
• Added ambient occlusion option.
• Added an effect showing the Marine commander that an area is powered.
• Added new Hive Sight for Aliens.
• Added dynamic music when attacking Hives and Command Stations. Also added round start music.
• Added "pick up game" feature to the Join game menu (an simple "gather" system, more to come)
• Cleaned up general UI by adding new "nametags" that show you what all structures are and their health.
• Added "show hints" option to the UI so red objective markers and informative text won't display.
• Added glow effect for Commander for all commander structures, tech points and resource nozzles (so they "pop" from environment).
• All new marine commander UI
• All new alien commander UI

Balance

• Nano shield now requires 2 Command Stations.
• Aliens with regeneration get 3x passive/innate regeneration also (thanks Bitey!).
• Building a Robotics Factory now grants you a free MAC (to preserve the apparent size/cost of structure while incentivizing its use early-game).
• Changed hydra spikes to Normal damage (from Light damage) so they will remain effective throughout the game (esp. vs late game high-armor JP marines). Effectiveness vs. early marines is unchanged.
• Decreased Cyst build time from 5 to 1.
• Decreased Harvester build time from 60 to 45.
• Increased Drifter health to 300 (from 100).
• Increased Drifter turn speed.
• Increased Extractor build time from 10 to 12.
• Increased jetpack fuel use amount by 25%.
• Lowered Skulk carapace from 50 to 30.
• Reduced spike and spore energy costs somewhat (thanks Saba!).
• Rupture reduced from 2 to 1 resources (more to come).
• Shifted more of ARC hp into armor (which goes away when deployed).
• When Armory is used a lot, it takes longer for it to recover it's maximum resupply rate.

Changes

• Smoothed out blink movement.
• Builder can now repair power nodes (half of the rate of welder).
• Changed commander ping to use Alt+click (was previously shift+click which will interfere with selection).
• Clicking on the ground will now clear the commanders selection.
• Commander ping can now be triggered with middle mouse button.
• Commanders no longer earn personal resources.
• Gorge structures are now permanent again (they won't die if their owner is no longer a gorge).
• Made health bar smaller and moved more down. it displays the same info as the crosshair text did, shows also gestate %.
• Only mature whips are able to whack grenades away.
• Pre-evolving eggs and dropping equipment cost now team resources.
• Removed "+1 resource" displayed for extractors and harvesters (interfering with hint-nametags and shouldn't need any more).
• Removed crosshair text.
• Removed health circles.
• Removed hive info display.
• Rupture no longer destroys the cyst, instead it will blow up the top part of the cyst and reset the maturity. Once re-matured rupture can be triggered again.
• Scan is no longer destroyed when an ink cloud is nearby, it's now simply non functional.

Fixes

• 3203 Onos sliding (increase velocity prec, increase min velocity).
• AI units (MAC, Drifter, etc) now respect line of sight/fog of war when they are assigned an attack order (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• Adjusted on damage knockback force to consider slow down effects (jump spam as marine), and reduced maximum possible knockback force by 30%.
• Also report penetration normal for sphere vs tri mesh.
• Another attempt to prevent prop penetration.
• Definitely the last fix for prop penetration ever.
• Don't allow player to easily penetrate props. Make the movement not work in subtly different ways.
• Enabled doublesided tris for collision meshes (fixes many stuck issues).
• Evolving Eggs are now facing the same direction that the player was previously facing (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• Fix for failing unit test (depenetration from box primitive).
• Fixed "Error: Couldn't open file ''" log message when alt-tabbing.
• Fixed Alien commander eject voting (Thanks Dragon).
• Fixed a bug where vertical friction was not applied properly when wall walking as a skulk.
• Fixed ammo request / health request not reaching the commander most of the time.
• Fixed animation hitches when jump as skulk.
• Fixed blink 2d sound continues playing after blink is over.
• Fixed bug allowing some structures to be stacked.
• Fixed bug causing 3rd person weapon muzzle flashes to not be attached to the gun.
• Fixed bug causing the "Hive Death Imminent" message to sometimes not appear before the Hive was killed.
• Fixed bug causing the camera to go into the ground when an Alien begins gestating when the player was using the inverted mouse option.
• Fixed bug causing the end game message to display incorrectly for players waiting to spawn.
• Fixed bug sometimes causing the "Commander Needed" banner message to appear too soon.
• Fixed bug that prevented upgrading of multiple structures at once.
• Fixed bug where particle systems would not animate smoothly in spectator mode.
• Fixed bug where scoreboard seemed to always rounds up pres.
• Fixed bug where server -game command line is parsed incorrectly if it is a quoted string and ends with a backslash.
• Fixed bug where setting an invalid key name to a key in the options file would cause a crash.
• Fixed bug where the camera would be behind the player in some cases.
• Fixed bug where the game would freeze when loading an incorreclty formatted language translation file.
• Fixed bug where vents would not be properly colored on the minimap if any layers had been deleted from the file.
• Fixed construction percentage not being shown in the selection panel.
• Fixed crash when transitioning from in-game to the menu while music was playing.
• Fixed death message icon for welders.
• Fixed flame thrower energy penalty (should have been -20% regeneration instead of -80%).
• Fixed graphical corruption error.
• Fixed inaccuracy in lighting and shadow calculations.
• Fixed issue where the dedicated server would exit if an invalid command line was specified (now it reports an error message and continues).
• Fixed problem with blink where you could avoid the min blink delay by switching abilities.
• Fixed recycling a command station did not update the tech tree properly.
• Fixed script error caused by attempting to kick an invalid player from the server.
• Fixed unit status not updating properly (wrench icon on moving targets).
• Fixed unlocked ability notifications not showing the correct icons.
• For 218: Draw non-command structures and tech points a bit smaller on the marine minimap.
• Hotloading works again!.
• MAC welder effects will no longer continue to play after it is killed.
• PhysX tweak - return the penetration normal for convex mesh vs capsule/tri mesh tests (fixes Lerks / Skulks getting stuck in convex meshes).
• Proper fix of insight overhead minimap script errors.
• Props such as the Generator will no longer display the "E" key when you are nearby.
• Re-enabled double sided triangles, fixed commander selection to work with it. This should significantly reduce chances of getting stuck in geometry.
• Script can now specify which collision rep to use for triggers/triggering objects (fixes triggers).
• Sentries will target Fades again.
• Separated the sweeping of object vs triggers from sweeping vs collision. It was unnecessary work and in some edge cases it did the wrong thing.
• Skulks are allowed to depenetrate again.
• Spectator mode will no longer cycle through players in the ready room (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• Stop stepAmount spamming.
• Super cheesy workaround for the environment stuck issues.
• The "Commander Needed" banner message will no longer appear after the last Hive/CC has been destroyed.
• The "Go To Ready Room" button (F4) now works in Commander and overhead spectator mode.
• The "Hive Death Imminent" message will no longer display after a Hive is killed in some cases.
• The "X Hive Grown" banner message will no longer display right before a game starts.
• Triangle winding fixed when baking convex mesh as a trimesh. (Fixes issue 3198).
• Update physics bounding box properly.
• Voice commands are disabled when the player is dead (Thanks McGlaspie!).
• When sliding, add a little bit of normal to the slide direction to help prevent penetration.

Improvements

• Remove player-resources from the commander UI. Now the Commander can only spend team-resources and in fact gets no player-resources during the game. Weapon-dropping and egg-evolving now costs team-resources.
• Switched player movement from Havok to PhysX (performance improvement, less memory usage, less bugs)
• Switched player movement from cylinders to capsules for less "snagging" (more rounded, less catchy)
• Changed player movement logic to make stepping up and over things more predictable and reliable
• ARC hit registration is now more reliable.
• Added 3D arrows that draw around a Command Station/Hive if there is no Commander logged in after some time.
• Added Alien vision mode help widget.
• Added Buy Shotgun help widget.
• Added Flashlight help widget for new players.
• Added Gorge Belly Slide help widget for new players.
• Added Gorge Heal Spray help widget for new players.
• Added Jetpack help widget for new players.
• Added NS2 YouTube video links to the tutorial menu.
• Added Skulk Parasite help widget for new players.
• Added Welder help widget for new players.
• Added field-profiling to the plog data, updated the PerfAnalyser.
• Added health bars above structures (health circles have been removed).
• Added help widget for requesting medpack when hurt.
• Added inventory display for aliens (same as on marine side, icons are displayed at the bottom center of the screen).
• Added inventory key binds.
• Added short hints to unit name plates.
• Allow experienced users to turn off hints: red objective markers, help widgets (default-on).
• Better field stats collection (+-1 delta bit effect shown).
• Enabled auto-weld orders for Marines with a Welder.
• Gorges lean left/right/up/down when drifting.
• Harvesters and hives start glowing once they are fully build.
• Hive / command station health has no distance limit anymore for their own team.
• Improved cloak effect.
• Improved close up melee hit registration.
• Improved model turn smoothing for players.
• Initially socketed power nodes use now the ghost structure effect.
• Lerk model turns now in a more natural way when flying.
• Marine commander can now drop jetpacks and exosuits.
• Monkey now randomize moves to better mimic actual players.
• Most weapon attack effects are now triggered client side only to reduce traffic.
• Moved the indicator of the # of aliens on your team down in the alien buy menu to make more clear.
• Pickupable equipment is now outlined for marines.
• Power status is now visible to the marine commander.
• Refactored common code from ClientModelMixin and ModelMixin into BaseModelMixin.
• Refactored to support Time using delta compression.
• Removed unnecessary construct icons on structures.
• The game now ends immediately upon the last Hive/CC being killed (instead of waiting until the structure has disappeared).
• Updated gorge build menu design.
• Vectors now allow delta compression parameters.
• Zoomed out marine minimap a bit more to reduce big map usage. Shrunk other icons a bit to fit new zoom level. Made zooming arrow representing yourself on map more obvious.

ns2_docking

• Fixed glass roof bile bomb exploit in Terminal.
• Fixed hole in Locker rooms vent.
• Fixed siege spot in Terminal.

ns2_mineshaft

• Ore Extraction & Crushing room swapped places.
• Removed tech point from crushing room.
• Added route from Central Drilling/Brew Room to new Crushing Machine Location with overhead access.
• Added simple collision surfaces to problem areas.
• Added some Reflection Points.
• Alterations to Path Settings Node.
• Fixed Ore Extraction Location coverage.
• Moved Resource Point in Crushing room to make way for new route.
• Removed machinery on top of Ore Machine at the back.
• Added vent access from crushing room to Ore Extraction.
• Detail & Lighting Pass on Ore Extraction.

ns2_summit

• Added support for colored vents in the minimap.
• Added support for explore mode.
• Blocked Glass Hallway vent going into Data Core.
• Blocked Summit Reception vent going into Crevice/Atrium.
• Expanded Data Core.
• Fixed Sub Access RT not being connected when aliens spawn here.
• Fixed navigation mesh in Pipe Junction.
• Fixed some Commander building exploits (Thanks rantology!).
• Fixed stuck issue in Crossroads.
• Fixed stuck issue in Sub Access.
• Flattened and expanded Atrium. Allowed both teams to spawn here.
• Marines can now spawn in Atrium.
• Partially retracted the wall in the middle between Atrium and Reactor Core.
• Reopened closed vent in Atrium.
• Smoothed player movement for the new stairs collisions.

ns2_tram

• Added cover in front of Warehouse tech point.
• Added vent between North Tunnels and Server Room and other new vents as part of the layout rework.
• Fixed cyst infestation bridging across Warehouse to the North Tunnels rt.
• Fixed various issues where you could build in undesirable places.
• Increased spacing of Repair Room and Ore Processing from rest of map.
• Removed some of the under floor vents in North Tunnels.
• Repair Room is no longer a starting spawn.
• Reworked Hub and Elevator Transfer area with new layout.
• Reworked Repair Room -> Logistics corridor.

Optimizations

• Added default delta compression on all fixed fields.
• Added the ability to customize the quality of loaded textures based on pattern matching rules.
• Avoid detour through Lua to update the physics bounding box on Synchronized.
• Better default delta compression for small fields, allow turning off delta compression.
• Changed Player 'use' collision check to use simplified model geometry.
• Don't call OnUpdatePhysics/OnSynchronized on holstered weapons.
• Don't update bounding boxes for holstered weapons.
• Fixed issue where decals with the same material file name were not sharing a material object.
• Marginally faster BitReader.
• Moved integer fields to use delta compression.
• Only update controllers close to you during OnProcessMove.
• Optimized GUI notifications.
• Optimized dissolve on death effect.
• Optimized network fields, mostly Jetpack marine.
• Optimized updating Infestation on the client.
• Reduced garbage generation in map blip code.
• Reduced the overhead in accessing a network variable from script.
• Remove ControllerMixin::OnSynchronized(), replace with radius check at start of UpdateMove.
• Removed redundant and unnecessary operations from model updating.
• Removed unnecessary network fields in Player.
• Rifle attack sounds are now handled client side.
• Server CPU now idles in select() when no work to be done.
• Server CPU spreads out work better to increase load resistance.
• Simplified the collision model for Players when performing ray traces against the movement representation.
• Support zero-bit delta compression (m_angles pitch/roll for non skulk/lerks).
• Use parent bounding box and origin if attached using an attachPoint (which are invalid anyhow).
• Generic field configuration allowing for easy configurable delta compression.

SDK

• Added error message to console when skipping a translation because we already have one for that Locale.
• Fixed an edge case in the Pathing.FindRandomPointAroundCircle() function causing an infinite loop if there were no polygons within the area provided (Thanks Doublehex!).
• Fixed bug where lights would be set to an invalid state in the Cinematic Editor.
• Improved network stats collection.
• Mark detail-windows on their parent windows.
• PerfAnalyser now shows idle time per frame, minor bugfixes.
• Profiling now supports > 4096 names.