Rock, Paper, Shotgun

27/05/2009 at 21:42 Petethegoat says:

That trailer looks amazing, I can’t believe that’s entirely in engine. Hype has shot from zero to hero very high indeed in very little time at all!

27/05/2009 at 21:46 Rich_P says:

Must. Stop. Hyperventilating.

NS2 could be complete shit, but I’m still buying it at release as a sort of thank you for NS1, which is one of my favorite games.

How many old-timey NS players actually ended up liking Combat more than Classic? *timidly raises hand*

Also: $20 for the game is a steal. Wow.

27/05/2009 at 21:55 Meatloaf says:

Considering that the original NS was one of my favorite HL1 mods, and is still one of my most revered games to date, I am all manner of excited.

I like the redesigned Onos, too.

27/05/2009 at 22:09 Serondal says:

Zounds! I was just asking about this the other day. I couldn’t be happier that this game is finally coming out! It looks freaking awesome. I wonder what the specs will be.

27/05/2009 at 22:12 Skittles the Pirate says:

Holy goddamned rocketships filled with yogurt.

I only played a little bit of NS, but I loved the hell out of it — totally stoked for this.

27/05/2009 at 22:18 Kurgol says:

@Rich_P: Totally agree, have already pre-paid for the $40 edition. I don’t care if NS2 sucks, it’s worth paying that in thanks for NS.

27/05/2009 at 22:26 Theory says:

I think Natural Selection was the first game I ever played online. It has a special place in my heart. :-)

27/05/2009 at 22:30 Tom says:

I don’t know much about all this animatery-trickery, but isn’t this pre-rendered rather than in game…? Because the environment is shaking and it breaks, which would be extremely difficult to actually implement in game (in this way)… but mainly because the Onos ducks its head under the door, which just wouldn’t happen in a real engine…

27/05/2009 at 22:34 Serondal says:

There is no reason the Onos couldn’t duck its head under the door if it is being controlled by a player, maybe he just hit Crouch at the right time ever time of that ? :P

Man NS was one of the scarest games I’ve played online. Hearing the little aliens scritting along in the darkness and being alone in a hall way knowing that if they attack you from behind you’re screwed so you keep spinning around waiting for death to come is intense :P also being gobbled up by a freaking Onos only to have your mates blow it apart so you can escape is priceless.

Still it may be pre-rendered ect and still be in-engine just not in game itself. Ya never know though. they have been working on it a long time, maybe they spent all that time figuring out a way to make the onus lower its head when it goes through doors ;)

27/05/2009 at 22:39 Serondal says:

I think the worst thing about NS wasn’t the engine or the graphics ect, it was how easy it was to screw up the entire match if the commander was horrible or one person worked against the rest of the team. I wonder if they’ve found a way to counter this at all? Vote kicks are always nice but sometimes people just don’t care enough to type in the command to vote kick someone :P

27/05/2009 at 22:46 koam says:

oh my! this makes me ridiculously happy.
i haven’t thought about Natural Selection in a incredibly long time. probably not since i turned in the final build for arguably the worst NS map ever (ns_caged)…

pre-order imminent.

27/05/2009 at 23:00 TychoCelchuuu says:

Collector’s edition preordered. $40 is worth it for the first Natural Selection; getting NS2 is just a bonus.

27/05/2009 at 23:10 Tworak says:

“I remember when this trailer was originally for Doom 3″

Yeah it does look like Doom 3 doesn’t it.

27/05/2009 at 23:13 negativedge says:

not only does it look like Doom 3, but the whole “monster banging through a metal blast door” was the first trailer for that game as well, if I recall

27/05/2009 at 23:28 A Dead Eldar Farseer says:

I wonder who helped them stay afloat…I’d say VALVe but that seems incredibly unlikely, maybe if NS2 was still on Source.

28/05/2009 at 00:03 Sunjammer says:

It’s not terribly difficult to make an AI duck under something. It happens all the time, FEAR for instance. Hell, even i can set up IK animation blending for that kind of environment response in Unity3d without too much sweat. The kicker of course is to make it look natural.

That said. In-engine != gameplay. Definitely a cutscene :-P

NS was one of those games i wanted desperately to be excited about but the gameplay learning curve was just utterly vertical, and the games tended to revolve heavily around the skill of the commanding player. I won’t hold my breath, but i’m glad it’s happening. Wonder if they’ve got Jeremy Soule helping out this time too.

28/05/2009 at 00:12 Stupoider says:

Don’t forget that even the Infected in Left 4 Dead manage to navigate different terrain, such as ducking and climbing!

28/05/2009 at 00:46 eq2 plat says:

I must say that the trailer captured me, I’ve tried Half-Life 1 mod before I eventually played Everquest. It seems like they’ve done a lot of innovation here and the atmosphere is fantastic. Will the alien players vs human players remain intact? If it will, I’ll definitely pre-order now! :P

28/05/2009 at 00:52 Scott says:

I would imagine that it’s in-engine the same way that Meet The Spy is in-engine; clearly the game isn’t going to behave anywhere near as realistically, but everything is animated using the in-game skeletons and textures.

28/05/2009 at 01:16 unique_identifier says:

ONNNNOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

i hope they can still climb ladders with their horn.

i have the fondest memories of playing lan NS1 with friends when none of us knew how to play.

28/05/2009 at 01:27 Pygmy Shrew says:

Those saying there are no screenshots etc haven’t (and can’t, right now as of time of posting this comment) seen the extensive insights the team have posted on their unknown worlds site. The demos of their engine, the lighting, the maps, the models…it’s beyond impressive how they’ve gone about trying to make this dream a reality.

I stumped up the $40, same reason most others have, because even if the game sucks NS was amazing and even the paltry amount given for constellation isn’t enough to reward these guys.

28/05/2009 at 01:28 GibbZ says:

Amazing game. Best FPS I’ve ever played. No jokes. I spent 6 years playing this game constantly and competetively. Very fun and incredibly original.

http://digg.com/pc_games/Natural_Selection_2_Promo_Site

28/05/2009 at 01:38 omni says:

there are some old videos of their engine for all who doubt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH-SH1Iw6TY&feature=channel_page

28/05/2009 at 01:46 PewPew says:

Special Edition pre-ordered. I hope they enjoy my contribution to one of the most amazing FPS games I have ever had the privilege of playing.

28/05/2009 at 02:13 Narcil says:

They have developed a cinematic tool which will ship with the game, This teaser most likely came from that with a few touchups with some more powerful software

28/05/2009 at 02:56 Griffinheart says:

While I could see the appeal, I could never really get into NS. It’s going to take several of my friends absolutely loving it to get me to buy this one.

28/05/2009 at 03:19 Stabby says:

check out the dynamic lighting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH-SH1Iw6TY#t=0m56s

28/05/2009 at 03:26 Rich_P says:

Also, shame on those who say combat is better

My favorite FPS scenario is losing as a Marine on a Combat map. (I make a distinction between properly losing and getting steamrolled in 20 seconds.) You’d have 10-12 minutes of crazy desperation: guys humping the command chair with welders, jetpackers nade spamming the Onos rampaging inside the base, heavies getting sliced to death by Fades, a group of guys with shotguns holding off a corridor against all odds. You know all is lost, but you keep on fighting, thinking of what crazy shit you’ll try and pull after you respawn and before the nearby Onos eats you. Sometimes you’d even hold off the attack and manage to bring the fight to the aliens.

I don’t know if it’s sadistic to enjoy that type of round, and it certainly tosses Classic NS out the window and then pisses on it, but it was just so insane and fun.

28/05/2009 at 03:36 IronFist says:

This was my first time to order a game the day that pre-order is available. Like many have said, putting down $40 is nothing if you consider the many hours of fun NS 1 gave us. I can’t adequately describe why I like it so much, but it’s a unique style of gameplay that gives both twitching FPS gamers and thinking-man players something to do.

The size of UWE and their effective outsourcing of game media creation is really inspiring, and I owe them this much for letting us see the process of taking a unique idea and capitalizing on it!

side note: Worried about lighting? I’d link you to some dev blog posts where they show how serious they are, but there’s a solid example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH-SH1Iw6TY&fmt=18

28/05/2009 at 09:01 Paxeh says:

I successfully ordered the special edition.

I can die a happy man now. :3

28/05/2009 at 09:51 Catastrophe says:

Wow, the Onos finally looks like more of a predator – in the original it always confused me to why a Herbivore would be attacking AND eating humans… It was essentially a spacecow… it had cow like teeth… but ate humans?!

Lerk all the way <3

28/05/2009 at 11:18 CMaster says:

“ONOS!” “ONOS!” “Comm, Jet Packs and HMGS!”

NS1 was something I sunk a vast amount of time into before I got into my first MMO. The tactics, atmosphere and challenge of it was great, although I did feel that they worked a bit too hard on preventing stalemates – by NS 3 it was rare to see rounds longer than 30 minutes and I really enjoyed some of the old 2-3 hour long rounds. Also, they never made playing Aliens quite as fun as marines.

This trailer is a bit well, meh though. Some gameplay footage would indeed be nice.

28/05/2009 at 11:46 Hajimete no Paso Kon says:

So they’ve been working on this game for how long? They just get the lighting down a few months ago, and now they say the whole game is gonna be done in six months?

I’m not thinking it’s gonna happen.

28/05/2009 at 13:09 Crispy says:

I don’t know much about all this animatery-trickery, but isn’t this pre-rendered rather than in game…? Because the environment is shaking and it breaks, which would be extremely difficult to actually implement in game (in this way)… but mainly because the Onos ducks its head under the door, which just wouldn’t happen in a real engine…

It’s not difficult to achieve in-game, the big difference is that this is a 100% scripted event which gives them control over everything.

In-game the animations on the Onos are unlikely to be as detailed for performance and perhaps gameplay reasons (it would look silly if the Onos did this animation somewhere it might look out of place).

The physics on the vents could be possible, but they would have to be tied into the door deformation animation as a set scripted sequence, and this would force level designers to use identical end-of-corridor setups to benefit from the effect, which is a bit of a constriction in terms of level design.

The doors could deform in exactly the same way using an identical animation that would play the same every time (the engine uses dynamic lighting, so realtime shadows would be achievable). The team has hinted that doors in NS2 can be welded shut and so perhaps they can also be broken via the Onos. But unless permanant, I can’t see a neat method of refabricating doorways the way this one was destroyed. The ‘gibs’ (or debris) from the animation would have to disappear after animating if the door could be replaced by the Marines somehow, which would undermine the realistic effect slightly. If the animation was one-way, there’s no reason machanically speaking why it couldn’t play out just like this, with any player on the other side of the door getting concussed and hit for massive damage.

I quite like the idea, since traditionally the Onos is supposed to be the mother of all tanks but in NS(1) it was reduced to a paltry hit-and-run and support unit. Giving the Onos the ability to undo the Marines’ most steadfast attempts at suring up their territory would go some way to restoring the ‘shock and awe’ factor the Onos is supposed to boast.

Incidentally, the ‘F4′ on the door is an easter egg, this being the button you press to return to the ReadyRoom (the physical in-game lobby area players gather at when selecting teams or post-game). In NS(1), if the other side had reached an unassailable position but was taking its time to finish you off, all members of the losing team could ‘F4′ as a sort of surrender/protest, although most servers have banned the use of F4 at key times during the match and ban abusers because of early-game exploits and the fact that it denies the other team their moment of triumph.

—

Incidentally the team has confirmed they have no plans to make an official ‘Combat’ game mode for NS2, although the Lua coding makes a Combat mod very easily achievable. Considering how popular Combat is, in spite of the problems it caused for NS in general (having to balance shared assets and features for two entirely different game modes, stifling the Classic mapmaking community, to give but two examples), and considering the early exposure of the community to the toolset via pre-orders, I would be very surprised if there weren’t a playable Combat mod for NS2 either complete or in the early stages by the time the game releases.

If I’d never played NS(1) before then I might wait for release before buying this to see if the team can deliver with ‘the tricky second album’. But as I have been playing NS for almost 7 years now, I’ll probably get the bumper pack pre-order as soon as the recession stops kicking me while I’m down.

I’m slightly wary of the gameplay versus NS(1). By all accounts it looks like it’s going to have some significant alterations and there’s scarce information on how those changes may affect the genotype that worked so well in NS(1).

Confirmed changes are:
- the Aliens now have a Commander
- the Aliens can create dynamic infestation to morph the environment as they see fit
- Marines have flamethrowers
- Aliens have more than 3 places to drop the Hive
- A Power Grid system, whereby resource nodes must be linked to a power source to produce resources and structures also must be linked to function
- Room ambience is defined by whether there is an activated power source nearby
- Set locations for the Marine Command Chair (similar to how Hives work)
- Dynamic lighting
- A female player model for the Marines
- No ‘Combat’ game mode

Hinted changes are:
- There may be another Alien class in addition to the Alien Commander
- There may not be any of the official maps from NS(1) seeing a comeback, although if any are revisited, Eclipse seems the most likely.
- Gameplay will have stronger emphasis on attacking/defending well-defined ‘hub’ locations of the map, as opposed to the less static strategic targets in NS(1).

28/05/2009 at 13:54 LionsPhil says:

Oh wow, a corridor and an indistinct grey lump! And motion blur! That’s almost as impressive as the last Duke Nukem Forever trailer.

28/05/2009 at 14:25 Tei says:

In Tremulouse theres no need for commanders:

Theres a ‘engineer’ class, that is a mix of the “TF2 engineer” plus “Desktop Turret Defense MMO” :-)

Multiple specialized engineers make also really strong and well designed defenses. On a Turret Defense game you fight against dumb hordes of mobs that follow a path. On Tremulous you fight humans, that know the map like his backyard. A poorly places turret will be destroyed, and a good one will be enormeously effective.

28/05/2009 at 15:01 ilves says:

Judging by the comments, apparently a lot of people loved the original… which somehow i’ve never heard of. Could someone give a quick run-down of what the game is actually about? From the reading the comments sounds like sort of a AVP and BF1942 hybrid with one side with a commander trying to defend against an alien horde…

28/05/2009 at 15:16 CMaster says:

@ilves
It’s a RTS/FPS hybrid, focusing on squad level combat (game is balanced for 6 vs 6 matches). Two very different sides humans and aliens battle over resource gathering and domination of the map. Like most RTSes you tech up and have to decide where best to spend resources – at the same time, you are actually an individual unit on the ground, taking part on the fight (unless you play marine commander, but that is an experience player’s job).

Thematically the game borrows heavily from Space Hulk and Starcraft (a lot of gameplay elements come from SC too). There is a bit of Aliens in there too mind.

28/05/2009 at 15:50 qrter says:

Looks great. The Onos actually looks kind of scary, now.

I hope they’ve made the whole “be a commander”-thing a lot less daunting – the biggest problem I used to run into with NS1 was that no one was willing to be the commander.

There is a bit of Aliens in there too mind.

Just a bit, yes…

28/05/2009 at 16:09 Tei says:

@ilves: Natural Selection is a Half-Life mod based on the gameplay of a Quake2 mod: http://www.planetgloom.com/

Gloom (Q2 engine) screenshot:
http://www.planetgloom.com/screenshots/shot05.jpg

Tremulous (Q3 engine) screenshot:
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8067/tremulous2nt5.jpg

Natural Selection (HL1 engine) screenshot:
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/3474/nsolagesiegeb100049xt.jpg

Here is a description of the gameplay:
http://www.warp2search.net/forums/modified-q2-gloom-mod-t333.html
———Mar 2002———-
Gloom an old addictive teamplay deathmatch game with Alien Spiders vs Human Marines with a little RTS thrown in where the Alien Spiders get a Breeder Spider to build a HIVE lair anywhere on a map or the Human Engineer can build a Base anywhere on the map with defenses. The other players can ugrade their classes by getting frags and buying a higher class with more lethal/different combat abilities. The first team to destroy the other teams vulnerable spawns (eggs/telespawns) so the other team can no longer spawn and frag your ass…. wins.
——————

28/05/2009 at 16:28 Linfosoma says:

Anybody knows if this game can be activated on steam?
If it can I’ll get the 40 dollar version, if not I’ll get the 20 one.
Thank you.

28/05/2009 at 16:52 Linfosoma says:

I see thanks, I think I better wait for the steam release then.
I like having all my games on the same place.

28/05/2009 at 18:09 qrter says:

I don’t think it’s a ridiculous bargain really, just realistic pricing – chances are only the diehard fans of the first will easily fork over $40.

Twenty bucks, on the other hand, is a very attractive price to newcomers and doubters.

But I agree – it is very smart to offer both deals.

28/05/2009 at 20:13 Ergates says:

I don’t think theres anything so hilariously funny as playing as a skulk*, standing on the ceiling and dropping, silently, onto the head of a lone nervous marine, biting just as you land. I’m sure I must have triggered at least one real-life heart attack by doing that.

28/05/2009 at 21:19 phoenixbbs says:

@Ergates

You have the odd days when you rock, and others (mainly) when you play like crap (hang on, that’s just me :-} ) but the best game I had was similar to the scenario you’re describing – a skulk with celerity, silence, and focus – I took out so many ‘rines by dropping on, or creeping behind them and taking them out it was unreal :-)

If anyone hasn’t played the original (100% free) version of this game before, it’s highly recommended – but you need to have the original Half-Life as it utilises their graphics engine.

There are, as others have said, two game modes – a “combat” mode, where you respawn with the goodies you had before you died, and it’s just all-out-war. It’s great for a quick adrenaline fix :-)

The “classic” version is far more cerebral, and it helps if you can work with your team-mates to build / protect / explore / assault – it can be just as intense (if not moreso) than the “combat” mode, it just takes longer to get the hang of – especially if you want to play the “commander” role, who directs the other team-members around the maps, and controls the way the technology is researched.

Stop reading, go install and play the original !

28/05/2009 at 22:33 Skyforger says:

I am checking NS news every day and there was some moth ore more with no Updates but this last one is awsome so i didn’t spend a second and pre ordered NS2 special edition.

29/05/2009 at 03:13 linfosoma says:

I never played the mood but I just got the special edition.
I couldn´t resist it.

29/05/2009 at 06:09 starclaws says:

Combat can and may possibly still be made by others … But the NS2 core will still be all I will play. I just hope a lot of map makers consider this game.

29/05/2009 at 09:26 Crispy says:

If anyone is interested in playing Natural Selection there are still a handful of regularly populated servers still playing the mod. I’ll post a few of the Euro ones here.

VH2.nl :: 217.163.25.167:27015 (Dutch/Euro server)
NS TALENT :: 212.187.246.188:27015 (Euro server)
Able :: 217.163.31.208:27015 (Irish/Euro server)

Needless to say, all of those servers are primarily Classic only, although I think Able does have Combat maps (prefixed with “co_”) on the mapvote.

There are also quite a few less populated servers that supplement a lack of players with (usually only Alien) bots. The bots are very hard to kill once they get within striking range (competitive players have been known to train their aiming skills on the bots), but it does provide a less pressurised environment if you wanted to try out the Commander mode, for example. Often you’ll get random people joining on the Marine team who came there for the same reason.

If you’re Commanding, just remember the following golden rules:
1. Build an Infantry Portal. Without it, nobody in your team can respawn.
2. Build an Armory followed by an Observatory. The Observatory is a fairly crucial structure (as described below) and the Armory is required to dish out advanced weapons, and can supply ammo and health autonomously.
3. Never leave the Command chair to kill an Alien. Instead wait for a Marine to spawn to deal with the problem, or if the Alien threat is more immediate, click on the Observatory and use the Beacon feature to bring your entire team back to base.
4. Turrets are generally a waste of time. Unless you’re playing against bots, don’t invest any amount of resources in them.

Oh and if you get criticised, just explain that you’re new. The NS Community can respond badly to ‘newbs ruining their game’ but most are happy to help out newcomers who are upfront about this and don’t try to assert themselves in crucial positions, such as Commanding. Newbs can easily learn the ropes without any hassle just playing as a grunt Marine, sticking with teammates and following the Commander’s orders. That might sound a bit dry but a lot of the interest in NS to begin with is soaking up the atmosphere of walking through deserted ore refineries and empty spaceships and getting jumped (or eaten) by aliens. :)

For anyone that didn’t like NS or found it hard to get into, all signs seem to point towards the devs trying to make NS2 a more accessible game.

29/05/2009 at 13:10 Ergates says:

@phoenixbbs: Yeah, I have to admit that probably 60% of the time I’d misjudge it and drop from the ceiling right in front of the marine and get horribly shot to death in about 1.3 seconds.

29/05/2009 at 14:48 ArSeY says:

! ns!!!!!!!! omg i want it.