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Natural Selection 2 is the sequel to the popular Half-Life mod Natural Selection. It is built on our own engine and will be distributed through Valve's Steam platform.

Report RSS Return to Eclipse in Natural Selection 2

Something must be in the air at Unknown Worlds. Not only are we announcing new games, we’ve also started hitting deadlines! We promised you Eclipse at the end of 2013, and with 11 days to spare we are proud to announce that is has been released!

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Computer Core

Something must be in the air at Unknown Worlds. Not only are we announcing new games, we’ve also started hitting deadlines! We promised you Eclipse at the end of 2013, and with 11 days to spare we are proud to announce that is has been released!

Eleven years ago, Eclipse was one of the original Natural Selection battlefields. Tight corridors, multiple Hive spawns, iconic rooms, Eclipse was one of the greatest maps ever made for the original Half-Life mod.


Marine Start

Now, we can all return to Eclipse. Painstakingly recreated, the map is faithful to the original while allowing for the evolution of Natural Selection 2 gameplay. By taking advantage of Spark’s modern rendering techniques and UWE’s art resources, the mapping team has been able to remake every corner of Eclipse in exquisite detail.

Triad

The team that built Eclipse was led by Jake ‘Jonacrab’ Smith. Under the artistic direction of Cory, Jake drew together work from mappers Oliver ‘Dux’ Hobbs, Michael ‘Olmy’ Schouten, Andrew ‘Insane’ Jones, Marc ‘Sgt Barlow’ Newton, and art from Sergey, Dmitry, Yuri and others from Fox3D.


Looking towards East Foyer

Eclipse is included as part of Build 262, which was just released on Steam. Build 262 is free for all existing players of Natural Selection 2, and includes a bunch of other improvements to the game. Here is the full change log:

Fixes

  • Fixed players sometimes being stuck in command station at round start
  • Fixed Infestation blobs blocking commander view
  • Server Browser now highlights player count yellow if the server is semi-full due to reserved slots.
  • Removed texture streaming option from main menu since it wasn’t doing anything
  • Fixed all structures being outlined blue when on overhead mode as spectator
  • Fixed projectiles colliding with invisible movement collision group
  • Fixed ECHO_HARVESTER tooltip missing when echoing an Harvester
  • Fixed accidental use of voice order keys while ESC menu is open
  • Fixed bug where marine buy menu did not close when player was Stomped
  • Fixed Stab not having a custom icon
  • Fixed round start music not playing due to incorrect path
  • Fixed WhipBomb showing killed with BileBomb in console
  • Fixed loading screens using the wrong art sometimes
  • Fixed commander bindings reverting to default if a player joins a server before opening the options menu

Features

  • Added new map: Eclipse
  • Added new main menu background
  • Added egg counter for Alien Commander in the top of the commander interface
  • Added Hive skill and level stats under name in main menu
  • Added support for new structures in ScenarioHandler. Added one other check path that works.
  • Added link to forums by clicking logo
  • Added remixed NS1/NS2 main menu theme

Balance

  • Ammo packs now refill all weapons instead of only the active one

Optimizations

  • Limit hit effect messages to 100 per second
  • Correctly limit max resources network field to 100 per player
  • Reduced network traffic generated by static structures
  • Implemented extra precaching to reduce incidence of hitching at the start of rounds
  • Optimized network traffic produced by Insight spectator system
  • Minor optimizations for skulk movement (optimized wall traces and removed predict wall walking)

Improvements

  • Insight spectator system now outlines players in overhead view by default
  • Replaced “request enzyme” with “request drifter” in the Alien ‘commo-rose’
  • Servers with cheats enabled no longer send data to the Hive stat tracking system

SDK

  • Revert auto-generation of overviews by Builder due to Overview.exe crashes
  • Fixed crash in editor related to file type properties
  • Allow mappers to define custom round start music in ns2_gamerules entity
  • Added console command playmusic. Usage: sound/NS2.fev/pathtosound

Refinery (Thanks SamusDroid)

  • Fixed pathing in Lava Falls
  • Fixed some textures and gaps
  • Fixed some stuck spots
  • Adjusted some death trigger scales
Post comment Comments
Milanium
Milanium

If only there would be a low-poly (or slightly less demanding) version of the game so I could actually play it. Great work on Eclipse and good luck for Subnautica!

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Gzegzolka
Gzegzolka

Awesome design :)
I cry because it's only multi game - I wish there was some single player content :)

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