Hello everyone!
As you may have noticed by now, the NS2 closed beta has been released! We have been working our butts off to get the game ready for this milestone and, well, we're actually quite tired. But besides that, we're very excited!
This update reveals the new NS2 Fade and his new blink ability (see mayhem below). It was always the goal to have the Fade truly teleport properly, but the old Half-life engine never seemed up to the task, so he just moved really fast. Not any more! He can disappear and reappear behind marines, on top of structures and pretty much anywhere else his little black heart desires. We've also released the alien "Whip" structure, an all new hive sight (which any of my co-workers can attest, I keep talking about) and tons of other fixes and improvements.
The other big change you'll probably notice from our previous versions is improved performance on both the client and the server. With the last few updates we've been putting a lot of effort into this and we're going to continue to work on it until it's perfect.
Next up - we're reworking and optimizing the commander interfaces to make them more useable and MUCH faster. We're also going to be adding in the Onos, new flamethrower effects, pathing fixes, new maps (mineshaft is on its way) and incorporating the feedback we get from all of you. Instead of waxing rhapsodical about these details, let me take a moment to explain why we're releasing this beta when the alpha has been so rocky.
In a perfect world, we would have a big pile of money, a big team and some gleaming technology that works perfectly for our dream game. We would know exactly what we're building, how long it would take and we would create everything once. Anyone that's worked on a game or written any piece of software of any size or interest knows this never happens. So the amount of money we thought we needed wasn't enough. Not even close. The technology we started with wasn't working for our features. Not even close. Our team wasn't big enough and everything took way. Way. Longer.
But all was not lost. From the day we released NS v1.0 when it "wasn't ready" (remember the pings on that Halloween anyone?), we learned that there is tremendous value to shipping. Anyone can imagine what a great game is like, but shipping makes it all real. It answers all sorts of questions, cuts through the crap and raises many more. You find out what works and what doesn't. And during that time, when you have everyone sending you e-mail about what you need to fix RIGHT NOW, you are incredibly focused on what is most important. It's crystal clear, because it's not in your mind, you've played it. This doesn't happen when you're in R&D mode or when you're testing with a small group of players. WIthout shipping, you change the wrong things and try to build the best solution, not the right one.
So when we released the alpha, when our funds were running low and we were wondering how we could possibly get to the finish line, we decided to ship. There were more technical and other problems than we realized and that's always painful, but the pressure and attention and real-world testing made it very real and helped us get it working faster than if we kept it to ourselves. Now, short on resources and needing more input, we knew that we had to release beta. Having a deadline set in stone (today) made us work even harder and fix so many things (surprise!) right in the nick of time. It's kind of magical how it works. So in a perfect world, none of this pressure would be necessary. But we don't live in total financial abundance and we are forced to work with what we have. So far so good.
It has been an extremely long and difficult journey for us, but we're rounding the bend in the last leg of our journey. We had no idea how much work we were in for when scoping out this game (which later also became an engine, a map editor, lua debugger and more more more). Speaking for myself, if I knew how much work this was going to be, I may not have done it. Yet here we are and here you are.
I want you all to know that, unlike most developers, every dollar of pre-orders has gone into making the game better. We are co-creating this game together and none of this would have been possible without your financial and other support. Now we simply ask that you play, give gentle, honest feedback and know that we reading, listening and working - to make this game great.
Thanks to all of you - players, Constellation members and pre-orderers. We wouldn't be here today without you.
in all honesty i want to buy it now just to support your game developers.
You already can.
At a price 2x the usual price of a Indie game. :P
You know, Valve is an indie developer too they sell at full price too sometimes ;D same for ID-software until they joined Bethesda.
Valve is no longer Indie, they have publishers. Once you have a publisher, and you're not publishing the game yourself, it's no longer Indie.
Actually, Valve doesn't have publishers at all bro. The company comprises of 2 bodies, a self-publishing establishment, and the Development team. So really, Valve publishes there own stuff legitly.
Valve is not a Indie studio in the way i see indie studios, yes they are independent and yes that's what indie means but the word indie studio is for the most part used to classify small teams even if they have publishers, Valve is BIG and a AAA game maker developer, for example the Penumbra developers add publishers for their first 3 games and were still considered a indie studio.
EA published the retail version of l4d.
Valve is Independently Owned. not Indie.
Terminology means everything.
EA published Left 4 Dead...so yeah.
Dude... didn't happen :p
So...it's going to actually have SP now, or was that video just you guys being jerks and making tears come to my eyes from awesomeness?
Also, remember, Valve was pressured to release Half-Life on a certain date, they fought and tried to get more time, but couldn't, had to cut stuff, and the version of Half-Life we all love was released. So, sometimes it can benefit.
ALso, remember after this, Valve no longer had to meet release dates, because of their success.
Having your initial fame being built off a mod for such a game, I think it only fitting you also release an amazing game in a time of constraint.
Though your reasons for having to push it out by a certain date is different, the spirit remains the same.
But EVERYONE, doesn't matter who you are, you HATE Valve time. HATE!
Meh. It is annoying, but with hit after hit, it shows they're using that time for good things.
COOL looks like AVP
Well, the sequel to Alien, Aliens was alot of inspiration for this mod, or so they say, but it's become kinda defacto that some human installation will go dark / cut off communication, Aliens of some sort will invade, Marines of questionable quality are sent in, with the majority of the Marines dying first, but eventually mounting effective combat versus the Aliens, then they blow up some reactor, and escape the planet.
Been used alot, but who cares? It's great.
I didn't really like the animations, 3,6/5
Nothing else to complain :P
Epic, couldn't hold screaming of awesomeness.
I am still not able to connect to any server -.-
Unknownworlds.com
Proud to have pre-ordered. Would do so again in a heartbeat.
Visually impressive, and informative article. However, the teleporting aspect is a little much for my tastes, I liked the fast moving, agile human-like alien.
I'd totally buy this if I knew what the map line up would be, or at least an idea. Don't want another DOD:S (ie 1/4 the maps, all pretty much the same save for the snow and night-snow maps).
Yeah, games have been coming with less and less maps these days.
But never fear, Vcc2cc, the devs of this project are from humble modding beginnings, hence, you will be able to mod the CRAP OUT OF NS2, obviously that means Custom Maps also.
Congrats guys on making it to beta. I hope this game becomes a huge success for you guys.
So, I was peaking at the system requirements, what's the secret? Is it just that every other company hasn't bothered optimizing at all, or are you guys some kind of savants when it comes to that?