NS2HD[362] - Gather on Turtle - Natural Selection 2 Beta

http://www.ns2hd.com

Natural Selection 2 is a first person shooter cross real time strategy game being developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, a small ~6 person team in California. It is a stand alone sequel to the popular Half-Life modification Natural Selection.

The game is currently in beta, and is available to purchase for US$35. Purchasing the game gives access to the beta and the full release when the game is finished. The beta is patched regularly, at a minimum every two weeks.

NS2 pits the human marine Frontiersmen against the varied alien Kharaa. The two teams, of up to 16 players each, vie for control of strategic points of large and small maps, with the goal of wiping each other out.

Each team has a commander, who views the game from a real time strategy perspective. The rest of the team plays from a first person shooter perspective. Players may seamlessly enter and exit commander mode throughout the game. Teams may build a large variety of structures to aid them in controlling territory, upgrading equipment, and unlocking new lifeforms, weapons, abilities, and support units.

The game is built on a brand new, UWE proprietry engine called Spark. Spark features fully dynamically lit environments (There is no static lighting at all), dynamic occlusion culling, and extreme modability. All game code is written in accessible Lua, and stands apart from the C++ engine.

A full suite of Spark tools, including level editor, lua debugger, cinematic editor, model viewer, and more is included with the purchase of the game.

The game may be purchased at http://www.naturalselection2.com/buy.

The development team maintains an active blog at http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2, including forums where developers post and converse with community members regularly.

The development team draws on the contributions of community members. Bug fixes submitted by the community are often included in beta patches.

Beta progress is tracked by 'build numbers,' which are visible in the NS2HD in-video titles, and in the top left corner of the game (red text).

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Natural Selection 2
• Gaming
• indie game
• indie
• indy
• independent game
• Unknown Worlds Entertainment
• UWE
• Spark
• Spark Engine
• First Person Shooter
• FPS
• RTS
• Real Time Strategy
• NS2
• NS
• Natural Selection
• Commentary
• livecast
• gamecast
• game commentary
• Natural Selection 2 commentary
• NS2 Gameplay
• Natural Selection 2 Gameplay
• 1080p
• 720p
• HD
• High Definition
• 1080 Gameplay
• HD Gameplay
• High Definition Gameplay
• NS2HD
• Unknown Worlds

[kaffesahne]

i love the light on this map, high lit areas and dark corners. Haven't seen that the marines needed to use their flashlight yet

[BBFNTL]

Looks like a classic NS map but NS2-ified. Me likey.

[TheNetau]

@Zeikk0 I'm a level designer and game developer. This game seems interesting but level design is not the best one out here. Also a tip: never use same textures on the ground and ceiling, it looks weird, trust me. Use different ambient light in different map sectors, like in the base use more sepia light, in system rooms use the blue one etc. and ofcourse by changing light change brightness too! Also good work, keep it up! gonna buy it today

[ThiercelinBen]

@Regnareb Creator here. I know what you mean but it is irrelevant in this project. Just because you can't see the order doesn't mean there isn't one. There is order in the deepest jungles. Coherency can happen at a larger scale, consistency of what the map is and what it offers. Realism is an illusion, a fashion. This is a video game to have fun and I did not focus on making this look "real" but to imitate the beauty of nature. This map is the inside of a turtle portrayed in a ship :p

[Zeikk0]

@Regnareb I haven't paid much attention to the atmosphere or coherence but I see what you mean now. I am not offended. I have nothing to do with the map really. It is all done by Evil Bob himself. I hope he gets to see your feedback.

[Regnareb]

@Zeikk0 I was just talking about the coherence of the universe, having some "computers" on the door at 2:39 for example is really weird, or the textures on the floor who seems weird and placed randomly, or the textures on the floor that doesn't look like to be in the same theme as the other elements or textures. Each rooms should have at least a common theme, atmosphere and be constant, coherent about it.

I hope that doesnt offend you and that it will help you. Continue the good work ;)

[Regnareb]

@Zeikk0 Well I can't really talk about the gameplay without playing it so I won't judge it and it can't be great, no doubt about it. The gameplay is the main thing to work on, I agree, but it has to be realistic and to do not break the immersion of the player by putting weird elements together. I know it is still a WIP, this is why I prefer to say it now than after ;)

[Vriess123]

And it really favors the aliens because biting/swiping is so much easier than trying to shoot an alien at this point in the development

[Vriess123]

The shotgun seems so hard to use effectively, partially its client performance but it seems like theres some lag between pushing the button and firing too

[Zeikk0]

@Regnareb The gameplay is not at its best currently because the doors are not lockable. Before when the doors were lockable the ideas behind the gameplay really worked out and it was a pleasure to play. Evil Bob is already working on the next version to provide better gameplay. He has done a lot of work to get the layout and gameplay right and it has really improved a lot along the way.

[Regnareb]

I really don't like that map. The dark atmosphere is really great, but it's really crappy on the way it is designed, nothing has been thinking before going in the software, everything in it seems taken from the editor and placed randomly to fill the walls and rooms without any coherence :/