New features
O Skulk wallwalk has been improved:
– Skulks can now vault from walls. When attached to a wall, pressing jump will make the skulk jump in the direction the player is facing.
– Precision wallwalking: While holding +speed (aka walk) the skulk will stick to walls much more rigorously then before. This makes it possible to navigate difficult architecture.
– Wallwalk is now disabled when walking on the floor.
O Implemented teammate query icons:
– Invoking a query from the popupmenu („Follow me“, „Covering you“, „Weld/Heal me“) displays an icon over the player issuing the query. This lasts for 6 seconds.
– The invoking player may look at another player to issue that order directly to their target. The query will pop up in the upper middle of the target player’s HUD.
O Added new map: ns_shiva (Thanks Moultano!)
O Added Fade eye icon next to NS in the Steam games list
Gameplay changes
O Hand Grenades significantly reworked:
– Reduced their research cost: 20 res -> 10 res (Classic Mode only)
– Reduced the time between throw and detonation: 2.0s -> 0.75s
– Hand Grenades can now be thrown before the prime grenade animation has finished, allowing faster throws.
– Number of Hand Grenades equipped upon spawn has been increased: 1 -> 2
O Changed Alien gestation times (times are given for Classic Mode and are in seconds, they are scaled down in Combat):
– Skulk 7 -> 3
– Gorge 17 -> 10
– Lerk 20 -> 15
– Fade 23 -> 25
– Onos 38 -> 35
O Shotgun pellets now spread randomly: five pellets in an outside 20 degree cone, and five pellets within a 7 degree cone
O Duck toggle implemented:
– Bind „toggleduck“ to a key to use
– While duck is toggled, pressing +duck will unduck and releasing will revert the player to a ducked state
– This also allows reverse wallwalk; where pressing duck enables wallwalk and releasing it drops you from the wall
O Set Alien base Cloaking opacity from 10 to 0 (aka 100% Cloaking)
O Armory now consistently supplies 10 health with every use (once per 0.9 seconds)
O Added some client-side consistency checks for sprites (e.g. muzzleflash)
O Mines can no longer be placed on players or structures
O Mines can’t be placed within 15 units of each other (to avoid exploits)
O Commander created structures now dropped from 4 units above the floor (should help with some sinking structure issues)
Game mechanics
O Added support for labelled minimaps:
– Added new setting to advanced multiplayer options: „Draw Location Names“
– cvar is cl_labelmaps
– default value is ‚on‘ (1)
– Map dynamically switches in both HUD and map view
– When turned on, the game displays ns_“map“_labelled.spr in place of ns_“map“.spr, if no labelled minimap exists the default one is displayed.
O Added the ability to toggle off NS’s gamma ramp:
– Added setting to the advanced options menu: „Enable gamma ramp“
– cvar is cl_gammaramp
– default is ‚on‘ (1)
– Turning this to off will disable the forced gamma ramp. This should allow players on 64-bit systems and others who recieve „downloadable gamma not supported“ errors to bypass the problem and set their gamma and color options via their video drivers.
O The commander can now see the health for all buildings and marines, even when not selected, as transparent health circles. Health circles for selected buildings and marines are rendered as normal.
O Mines and Hand Grenades moved to weapon slot 5
O All sayings from the popupmenu now have a cool down time of 3 seconds, to prevent them from being spammed.
O Changed the popupmenu to better reflect the new teammate orders.
O Commander waypoints and orders now pop up in the receiving player’s HUD.
O Placing a structure does no longer automatically give selected marines a waypoint to it.
O Structure health is now always visible to maintenance players (players having a welder or healspray set as their active weapon).
O Hive sight range increased: 1500 -> 3000 units
O Players now have to press f4 twice within two seconds to go to the readyroom as a safety measure.
Cosmetic changes:
O Weapon upgrade level is now ignored when determining how much to shake the screen while firing – it is now constant for Pistol, LMG, HMG, and Shotgun.
O Heavy Armor Player model fixed; now stands on floor correctly
O Buildings produce less smoke and more sparks when recycled
O Updated light and heavy HMG model with new sound calls, including new reload sounds (thanks CoolCookieCooks!)
O Cleanup of titles.txt
O Slight change to the LMG draw sound timing
O End game notifications now display in the center of the screen for 10 seconds with a 2 second fadeout.
O Moved alien resource label down
O Moved the chat text panel down so long lines of text won’t conceal the crosshair
O Moved left side help text a bit up to prevent overlapping with the chat panel
Map changes:
O Updated co_sava: (Thanks Mendasp!)
– The vents in the hive are now covered (can’t shoot the hive unless you’re inside the room)
– Add a broken resource tower in Cargo room in order to provide a line of sight block (thanks CoolCookieCooks!)
– Reworked vent system (Lerks can fly in them, shorter travel times, new entrances/exits)
– Removed railings from the Auxiliar monitoring room
– Added more clip brushes to help with the skulk wallwalk in some areas
– Blocked line of sight from the lower entrance to the hive
O Updated ns_altair: (Thanks KungFuDiscoMonkey!)
– Rebuilt Omega Hive
– Rebuilt Consistency Hive
– Rebuilt Marine Start
– Rebuilt Station Monitoring Main
– New Life Support Hive
– New Sub Bay
– Modified the layout of the center of the map
– Changed the P-Corridor to Station Monitoring Main path into a vent
– Added a new path to connect Access Corridor Zeta to Station Monitoring Annex
– Moved the Station Monitoring Stabilty res node to Station Monitoring Annex
– New Readyroom
– Reworked much of the lighting on the map
O Updated ns_bast: (Thanks Mendasp!)
– Fixed Onos spawn issues (redemption / movement chamber) in Feedwater
– Added vent from Feedwater to Atmospheric processing
– Extended path between Engine and Water Treatment
– Fixed stuck point behind the Observe match ladder in the ReadyRoom
– Fixed invisible wall in Refinery Hive above copper pipes
– Lowered ceiling in the corridor between the Marine Spawn and Main Aft Junction
O Updated ns_eon: (Thanks Olmy!)
– Significantly reworked the Node Layout
– Extended Core Monitoring closer towards Core, so that the joining corridor is shorter, and so sieging is easier
– Renamed Coolant Maintenance to Coolant Transfer
– Shifted Coolant Transfer south, to put it closer to core, so that the joining corridor is shorter, and so that sieging is easier
– Widened Cooland Transfer
– Fixed all vis errors
– Opened up the Repair Bay/Maintenance Corridors area a bit
– Opened up Sleeping Area considerably (no more dead ends), and made navigation easier (flat ceiling etc)
– Improved Sleeping Area visually slightly
– Rerouted Life Support vent from Sleeping Area to N-Turn
– Added a new room (with vent access) on the Eastern end of Engine Walkway to house a res node
– Sbend reworked visually
– Vent exit in Sbend changed to exit out of a small room off of Sbend
– Added alot more infestation in the hives
– Added crate at East exit of Marine Start, and moved MS RT slightly East
– Fixed all the sinking structures problems associated with metal grates (apart from the ones in The Hub, as the structures are easily accessible anyway)
– Fixed the bug where you could build structures on the antenae (spikes) outside the Communications window
– Removed the water in Engineering Hall hive, and raised the broken floor so that you can step up it easily
– Added a shielded area on the central structure in Core hive, and also lowered the hive
– Widened the North and South corridor coming off of Core Monitoring
– Made the ‚donut‘ east of Gunpods more spacious (the central structure is considerably smaller now)
– Deleted the Core Power -> Core Monitoring vent
– Made the corridor entering Living Area from Life Support less convoluted and deleted the door so it is less confusing
– Some minor r_speed optimisations here and there
O Updated ns_hera: (Thanks Merkaba!)
– More MS tweaks – the glass walkway is now wider, and the entrance into the MS from this direction is now wide open.
– Added a small window overlooking the corridor from Cargo, allowing marines to attack incoming aliens without fear of melee attacks. This has potential to make it hell for aliens, or just mildly annoying.
– Extremely bright light in Northern Corridor is now a lot easier on the eyes.
– Hopefully fixed the problem with wallwalking through the vent into Data Core hive.
– Sticky light fixtures from MS -> Fog Corridor fixed.
– Redesigned MS -> Cargo route to remove the marine-sized door bottleneck.
– Added a weldable underneath the lift between MS-Cargo – welding brings the lift up and seals off that entrance.
– Put in hint brushes in MS in an attempt (read: attempt!) to bring r-speeds down. It’s better in general now, but still goes over 700 in spots.
– Hopefully fixed the stuck-problems in ventilation. All the tunnels now have smooth surfaces allowing for Sasier skulk movement too.
– Tweaked Ventilation Hive, main change being that skulks/lerks/gorges can walk across the area under the hive without having to jump over the…er…struts, or whatever they are.
– Added a hole in the weldable grate in northern corridor, allowing skulks/lerks/jetpackers/fades through, and gorges + marines from one side only.
– Extended vent from Archiving Hive to Northern Corridor so it has another exit above the RT in same corridor
– Fixed the most minor of graphical artifacts in Reception (this was my fault and nothing to do with the wires texture or anything else)
– Fixed HOM in Northern Corridor (Like I need to say that…)
– Added a ladder in Holoroom leading up onto the balcony to cargo
– Retextured Ventilation to an extent
– Modified RT room in Processing so the RT is no longer blocked from view until you run around the centre computer console
– More minor changes
O Updated ns_metal: (Thanks Quazilin!)
– Made Marine start smaller
– Fixed 2 location names
– Added cover in the hallways near Storage D
Bugfixes:
O Players can now climb up ladders without having to face up or jump on to them (thanks Soylent Green!)
O Fixed loss of lastweapon information when user makes a redundant weapon selection
O Updated Light marine model, removes phantom shotgun cocking sound present in the models‘ sound calls
O Fixed a bug where a crouching player on an IP would not be killed
O Structures can no longer be dropped in vents in which they would sink
O Fixed bug where the Onos would not properly uncloak while charging
O Fixed bug where some items in the marine popupmenu („Start“, „Weapon“, „Orders“, „Comms“, etc) would be disabled after exiting the command chair
O The shotgun now properly fires an empty click sound when under water and emptied
O Fixed bug where a dead player would not respawn while a key bound to a +command was depressed
O Releasing duck quickly after pressing it will no longer make the player bounce
O Improved client side alien attack animations.
O The installer no longer checks whether Steam is running or not, as it does no real harm if it is.