NS2HD[367] - Competitive Turtle Play - 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

[Runteh]

You need better judgement as an 'attacking' Gorge - if 2 skulks go into a room to take out a marine or two, they are going to be firing at skulks first (most of the time).

Gorge can be a lot more effective keeping team mates alive in a more attacking role rather than backing off straight away and leave them to die.

Seen a few vids where you need more confidence on the attack, as you back out too early and leave yourself open.

Remember, heal spray will heal the skulks and hurt marines!

[massampage]

11:37 NS2HD cracks a high?

[Ranakastrasz]

@rtv05 Bug I believe, sometimes they dont connect properly.

[Runteh]

@rtv05 I don't know what the damage is like in the latest build, but I'm not wrong.

Wrong would be judging it badly by running in with the skulks whilst you still have a lot of distance between yourself and the marines.

When Skulks are right up close and engaged with marines, you don't want to be firing at a Gorge. I only do that if I know I'm going to die.

As a Gorge I stay half way between the action and cover, and then time it right. As soon as you feel the outcome is good, jump in.

[ThiercelinBen]

@DirtJuice Thats the plan. It favors marines in their base but not much across the map. So the action happens more on the map than in marine base. At the moment you can see how marines have a hard time getting out of their base and even aren't very secure in it.

[DirtJuice]

@ThiercelinBen

Fair enough, thinking about it, the map would work a lot better if the doors could still be permanently locked. Although then wouldn't the only access to marine main be through the vent in gate and the open door through generator?

That seems like it would overshift the balance drastically into the marine favour creating its own issues. Though I've never played the map in that state so can't speak from experience.

[rtv05]

@swalken TY

[rtv05]

@Runteh wrong, they always (including me) hunt the gorge first, because its bad for aliens, a skulk is for free, a gorge cost 10 res.

on the other side, gorges place hydras, which can destroyed quick, which means they waste more res.

but ns2hd place good hydras, so my first mind is right.

first killing the gorge, or the alien which cost res.

you never kill 2 skulks and a gorge, but a gorge is a easy target.

[rtv05]

10:35 is it a bug or did they just don't allow hydras on high walls anymore?

[Freelancerk1bbles]

@Runteh thumps up... *slaps myself for typing thumps*... thumbs up, anyway... yeah, you healspray marines and skulks tend to be chomping on marins so they tend to get healed... it's a tripple effect on marine: marine gets bitten, cannot do as much damage to skulk(skulk getting healed), and is taking damage from the gorge... add another skulk in there, and it's a penta effect.

[swalken]

@ThiercelinBen +1

[phoenixbbs]

good game :-)