Natural Selection 2 DLC Adds Gorge Tunnels, Railguns

[Steven Bogos]

Natural Selection 2 DLC Adds Gorge Tunnels, Railguns

The first DLC for Unknown World's RTS/FPS hybrid should be out in late February, and will be completely free.

Natural Selection 2 is indie gaming's "little engine that could." With a development team the size of your average basketball team, Unknown Worlds produced a game that looks and plays as well as any triple A blockbuster. There have been 13 maintenance and balance updates since its October 2012 launch, and during that time the team have been putting together the game's first major content patch: The Gorgeous Update. Named after the game's "Gorge" class, the update adds new units, new weapons and a new map. Best of all, the update won't cost you a cent.

The main focus of the update is on the Gorge class itself. The Gorge is the support lifeform for Natural Selection 2's Alien team. He's a chubby little wombat-like creature who can heal his teammates and build base defenses. This patch will see him receive two new abilities. The first is the "Gorge Tunnel," which allows the Gorge to place tunnel entrances and exits around the map. Alien players can then use these tunnels to quickly traverse the map, much akin to the Marine's phase gates. The downside is that your enemies can use them as well, meaning that fights can break out in the fully animated tunnels.

"Babblers" are the second new ability for the Gorge. Babblers are these little creatures that the Gorge can summon and command - think Half Life 2's antlions. Gorges can summon up to 9 of the creatures and use them to attack buildings, distract enemies, or even as meat-shields for allies.

While the update does mainly focus on the Gorge's new abilities, the Marines are getting a new toy to play with. Players will be able to upgrade Exosuits with that good ol' long-range pinpoint-accurate FPS standard: the railgun. What's particularly cool about the railgun is that enemies killed by it will disintegrate, utilizing a brand new particle effect.

Lastly, a new map is included in the update. While the modding scene for this game has been pumping out new maps at a steady pace since launch, this will be the first official new map from the Unknown Worlds team. The map is called Descent, and is set in a space station orbiting the planet where all of the other official maps are set.

The update also includes numerous improvements to the SDK and modding tools, as well as adding some brand new particle and lighting effects. This will be the first of many free content updates for Natural Selection 2, and should be released near the end of February.

Source & Image: Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/the-first-dlc-for-natural-selection-ii-is-gorgeous-245927.phtml]

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[Froggy Slayer]

Ah, the game that is what Aliens: Colonial Marines should have been? And instead of day-one DLC, this DLC is actually an add-on...and it's free? Why have I not bought this yet?

 

[Combustion Kevin]

ah, it appears I'm called back into arms.

here's to hoping they rebalanced the Onos.

 

[Abomination]

Ah, I have sunk many an hour into this game. It was a day one purchase for me and I have not regret it in the slightest.

Really, if you're into FPS games this is a must-have for your collection.

I am wondering how an exo suit will work the railgun though. Against skulks they're hardly ever standing still and an upgrade just to pop gorges seems like a waste. I was hoping for HMGs to make a come back, weldable vents or some kind of anti-onos weapon with very poor alternative functionality.

 

[karloss01]

Confused me by calling it DLC in the title but then calling it a Update. otherwise hurrah for animated tunnels.

 

[Marik2]

Been thinking of buying this game cuz it looks fun, but the aliens look really overpowered from what I saw.

Is it fairly balanced?

 

[Covarr]

This game is fantastic, but they really don't need to be beefing up aliens. If anything, they should be beefing up marines. Don't get me wrong, it's not so unbalanced as to make the aliens always win, but they do have enough of an advantage as to make the game occasionally frustrating.

Also, more visual effects? I'd much rather performance improvements. I know my GTS 250 isn't exactly the most modern card, but I'd really love to play at my monitor's native resolution without losing too many frames.

P.S. Thanks

 

[UltraXan]

This game is fantastic, but they really don't need to be beefing up aliens. If anything, they should be beefing up marines. Don't get me wrong, it's not so unbalanced as to make the aliens always win, but they do have enough of an advantage as to make the game occasionally frustrating.

I've led a couple of comeback games as a marine commander before. Really odd, now that I think about them, though I attribute it to the hard-headedness and determination of the guys on my team at the time. Awesome bunch of guys who never gave up, even in the face of defeat. We had our main base overrun once and we had to retreat to our only backup (and I forgot that I was in the falling base, so I was rudely awoken when I got booted from the CS when it got blown up. Still managed to survive, though). We eventually got it back and slowly started beating the aliens back to an eventual (and hard earned) victory. The game took a little under two hours, and was stressful in spots, but fuck, I've never been so happy to achieve victory before.

 

[SwimmingRock]

I am so happy this made it.

Really no excuse for not having this game if you are into FPS.

Except that nobody's ever on . I occasionally read on the internet it's doing okay, but apparently that's the US player base. I'm in EU and whenever I start the game up, I sort the servers by number of players. Usually, there will be one server with about 10-20 people. That's it. Rest are empty. Makes me sad, because I genuinely liked the gameplay, but I've only ever gotten to play 3 matches fully and all of them as aliens. Please tell me it's doing better in US. I want the game to do well and get more players, so I can actually enjoy it.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Confused me by calling it DLC in the title but then calling it a Update. otherwise hurrah for animated tunnels.

Well, technically DLC does stand for "downloadable content" which it is. It's unfortunate that we have come to associate "DLC" with "paid-for content"

Hey guys! I'm excited about NS2, but I realise it is a very complex game. I want new players to enjoy it, not get frustrated, so I have written several newbie guides:

Marine Commander Guide and Build Order [http://stevesgameblog.blogspot.jp/2013/01/guide-natural-selection-2-marine.html]

Alien Lifeform Guide [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-fGRHOqxDOQ]

 

[Steven Bogos]

This game is fantastic, but they really don't need to be beefing up aliens. If anything, they should be beefing up marines. Don't get me wrong, it's not so unbalanced as to make the aliens always win, but they do have enough of an advantage as to make the game occasionally frustrating.

Also, more visual effects? I'd much rather performance improvements. I know my GTS 250 isn't exactly the most modern card, but I'd really love to play at my monitor's native resolution without losing too many frames.

P.S. Thanks

I believe this attributes itself to the fact that the marine commander relies more on his team than the alien commander. The alien commander is kind of autonomous, while the marine commander needs his troops to go out and build his buildings/repair power nodes.

Simply put, if both teams have a skilled commander, and the alien team is even slightly more organized than the marine team, they have the advantage. That said, a marine team working together can absolutely steamroll even the best aliens. Teamwork is MUCH more important for marines than for aliens.

 

[Stuntcrab]

ah, it appears I'm called back into arms.

here's to hoping they rebalanced the Onos.

Someone other than me thinks the Onos is still overpowered? Holy crepe I thought I was alone on that opinion.

I'm looking forward to fighting everyone in these tunnels.

 

[karloss01]

Confused me by calling it DLC in the title but then calling it a Update. otherwise hurrah for animated tunnels.

Well, technically DLC does stand for "downloadable content" which it is. It's unfortunate that we have come to associate "DLC" with "paid-for content"

well for me this is what the terms mean to me.

Patch: bug fixes and stat re-balancing

Update: like a patch but also with new content like items, maps, skins, characters etc

Expansion Pack: an extension of the original product, several gigs worth of data. usually contained an added campaign, a host of new maps, weapons, items, skins. some were stand-alone games.

DLC: Downloadable Content focusing only on new content, usually to be paid for. replaced Expansion packs by splitting them into smaller purchases.

though i've been playing since 1992 when "DLC" didn't exist and new content came on expansion discs.

 

[Easton Dark]

ah, it appears I'm called back into arms.

here's to hoping they rebalanced the Onos.

ah, it appears I'm called back into arms.

here's to hoping they rebalanced the Onos.

Someone other than me thinks the Onos is still overpowered? Holy crepe I thought I was alone on that opinion.

I'm looking forward to fighting everyone in these tunnels.

The Onos is still going to be the same sack of shit bullet sponge/2 hit wonder he always has been.

Onos and Gorge, attack the power. Always a winning strategy.

Been thinking of buying this game cuz it looks fun, but the aliens look really overpowered from what I saw.

Is it fairly balanced?

Not particularly. While marines have a lot of stuff to do and do it slowly, all aliens have to do is keep attacking the marines, and they're fast.

Eventually they can morph into different aliens and there's really no reason for aliens not to go onos. Think of it like this: It takes a couple (let's say 4, but normally more) marines focusing on the onos to even take down his armor. The entire alien team can go onos.

That's assuming of course that the marines don't cut them off resource wise, in which case games usually turn into marines one-shotting the base alien life-forms.

Occasionally there's even and nail-biting games, I'll give it that. Very rare, because the games aren't balanced. It's hard to balance assymetric gameplay I guess.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

Not particularly. While marines have a lot of stuff to do and do it slowly, all aliens have to do is keep attacking the marines, and they're fast.

Eventually they can morph into different aliens and there's really no reason for aliens not to go onos. Think of it like this: It takes a couple (let's say 4, but normally more) marines focusing on the onos to even take down his armor. The entire alien team can go onos.

That's assuming of course that the marines don't cut them off resource wise, in which case games usually turn into marines one-shotting the base alien life-forms.

Occasionally there's even and nail-biting games, I'll give it that. Very rare, because the games aren't balanced. It's hard to balance assymetric gameplay I guess.

I agree, but I think they had all these cool ideas that they didn't think about how they'd fit together to form the team dynamic that it does, the aliens have some incredible defensive structures besides the turret tentacles, like the invisibility spores or the healing grub and whatnot, combinw this with the fact that aliens have a higher dps output all across the board and marines stand barely any chance of breaking a fortified position.

the Onos is a great example of this, they are big targets, but still incredibly quick and soak up twelve aliens worth of damage, but because of their speed, they can get away easily before they go down, stand around the invisibility spores and healing stuff for a few seconds, and run right back before the marines are done whittling down the other aliens.

marines don't have anything like this, they are incredibly fragile even when wearing exo suits, basic aliens can take down their expensive equipment they have to save up for again for several minutes, marines can't do the same.

I get the feeling the devs liked the alien faction a bit too much.

 

[Easton Dark]

the Onos is a great example of this, they are big targets, but still incredibly quick and soak up twelve aliens worth of damage, but because of their speed, they can get away easily before they go down, stand around the invisibility spores and healing stuff for a few seconds, and run right back before the marines are done whittling down the other aliens.

I think the onos should take extra damage from being shot in the butt, so that when I'm chasing it after a base assault, and lay into it with all the shotgun rounds in the world, it wont be able to run away faster than the lerk can fly and be ready to come back and do it again in 5 seconds.

That way it'd take more strategy to play onos because you'd have to consider positioning, and if he runs into the danger zone, he'd have to retreat while facing the marines to avoid the extra damage, taking away his speed advantage, and requiring some back-up to cover his retreat. As it is now, he can run in, kill half, then run away.

 

[baarserik]

the Onos is a great example of this, they are big targets, but still incredibly quick and soak up twelve aliens worth of damage, but because of their speed, they can get away easily before they go down, stand around the invisibility spores and healing stuff for a few seconds, and run right back before the marines are done whittling down the other aliens.

I think the onos should take extra damage from being shot in the butt, so that when I'm chasing it after a base assault, and lay into it with all the shotgun rounds in the world, it wont be able to run away faster than the lerk can fly and be ready to come back and do it again in 5 seconds.

I disagree. All the marines needs is good usage of ARC's to break any fortified position. They dont even need to be in the same room as the stuff they're targeting, and a group of 4 or 5 ARC's can take down a hive in under a minute.

The same applies for the Onos. Yeah, its powerful 1 vs 1, but in pure DPS, the dual EXO is more powerful. And Oni go down quickly if they have concentrated fire on them. And if you cant take them down directly, you can go for their upgrades. Or get a jetpack, and hun them down while they retreat. There is nothing the aliens have that doesnt have a counter. And nothing the marines can do, that cant be countered by the aliens. The trick is knowing what to do in what situation, and working together. And mainly on the "working together" part, some teams fall flat on their face.