NS2 Build 185 released news

NS2 Build 185 is now live on Steam! There have been a lot of
bug and balance fixes in this version. Notably, the Lerk and Fade have
been re-balanced quite a bit, with the Lerk's abilities changing
fundamentally. Now he has high-damage hitscan spikes, along with a
"cropduster" type spore trail.Player movement and networking have been smoothed out quite a bit, resulting from some big improvements Max made.

Build 185 changes
Features

• Lerk v2.0: Removed sniper ability and projectile spore cloud. Added
  spore "trail", which keeps the Lerk in combat and is much more
  powerful.
• Lerk spikes no longer shoot spike projectiles, but are hit-scan.
  They now do Heavy damage (treat armor like health) and do between 14 and
  17 damage, depending on range (closer is better, but medium/long still
  strong). Also, alt-fire on spikes now fires a cluster of 5 spikes.
• Improved Lerk flight to allow staying in air and shooting
  downwards. You can now also "airbrake" with shift for more control.
  (thanks twiliteblue!).
• Added the ability to create Proximity grids from Lua (All yours Matso)
• Updated the code to use the new TargetCache 2.0 (Thanks Matso)
• Added the ability to check if a pathing flag is set for a given point and radius
• Added support to set the output volume for voice chat
• Added the ability to disable specular highlights for a light

Balance

• Improved Crag's umbra to last 12 seconds (up from 8) and increased radius from 5 to 10
• Bile bombs now damage MACs.
• Reduced distress beacon time from 4 to 3 seconds
• Reduced extractor health/armor from 4,200/900 to 4,400/550 (this is
  the same total HP as the original NS1 level, but I entered it
  incorrectly...represents -500 less health)
• Lerk is back to his NS1 health/armor levels (125/30, instead of
  200/25). I think he had creeped up due to his maneuverability not being
  good enough and his spikes being slow.
• Increased ARC health/armor by 50% because they are so fragile and can't currently be repaired
• Gorge self-heal is now only 50% effective (ala NS1). Sorry battle Gorge!

Fixes

• Fixed various networking issues related to prediction (this turned out to be a lot of work)
• Fixed erratic movement when players collide with each other
• Changed Shade disorientation to use a scalar value instead of boolean (for shader effect and DSP effects)
• Fixed bug where the amount of the Disorient effect was not proportional do your distance to a Shade
• Fixed an issue where after moving a whip it would no longer block
  pathing along with leaving a stale obstacle in its old location.
• Fixed an issue where you could be standing next to a structure or a
  player and if you were not looking at them they would not get sighted.
• Fixed an issue where if you scanned cloaked or camouflaged units they still would not be sighted.
• Fixed an issue where when computing LOS stale entities would be checked for LOS
• Removed noxious desiredPitch/desiredRoll code that was being
  executed when it shouldn't have been (possibly resulting in mouselook
  errors)
• Fixed an issue where voice chat would be distorted by shade DSP
• Players can no longer +use things while attacking (fixes problems with looping sounds while opening armory, etc.)
• Lerk spore effects now created client-side (optimization).
• Don't play flinch sounds, particles, sounds etc. more than every
  second to reduce message spam and improve aesthetics (esp. for rifles
  vs. structures)
• Added commander-specific res_received sounds
• Fixed bug where specifying that a prop does not casts shadows would not disabled shadows in the Editor
• Fixed bug where cinematics created on level load were not deleted when the level was changed
• Show model of last alien you were when you were dead on game end (also while commanding, evolving, etc.)
• Fixed problem with Embryo not initializing some variables when going to ready room after being killed as an egg
• Added new team-specific distress beacon sounds so respawning
  marines always hear it positionally when far away. Also added new "mega
  spawn" sound.
• Removed Shade DSP effects and replaced with looping 2D soundscape to see if that works better.
• Added local looping 2D sound when cloaked or camouflaged
• Fixed an issue where you could not recycle buildings until they had been built
• Fixed an issue with teleporting drifters
• Fixed bug where the first person Skulk bite animation would not play under some circumstances
• Fixed bug causing player to instantly die if they spawned while their spectator camera was in a death trigger
• Fixed case where parts of the alien armor circle GUI were being rendered when they shouldn't while animating
• Fixed bug where prop_dynamic objects would have their physics
  objects simulated differently on the client and server (caused movement
  problems in Ventilation on ns2_summit)
• New structures can now be built after recycling a structure without selecting a different structure first (Thanks Matso!)
• Fixed an issue where unbuilt shades would cause the disorient effect to marines
• Fixed an issue where it was possible for unbuilt shades to possible cloak things
• Fixed the teleporting drifters!
• Moved death messages over a bit to the left when player is a commander so they can see them entirely (Thanks twiliteblue!)
• Fixed an issue where the shade would go crazy and try cloaking
  everything even if something had recently been attacked or uncloaked.
• Fixed bug where going through the "back" of a Phase Gate would make you come out the back of the connected Phase Gate
• Fixed bug causing the Whip to play it's idle sound before being fully built
• Fixed bug causing some death messages to show "#nil" as the killer
• Fixed bug causing the Fade to go into an invalid blink state when switching weapons while blinking
• Fixed an issue where weapons were giving LOS to all players. Players will now set the relevancy of their weapons.
• Spores now do damage to players if their eyes are in the cloud instead of the middle of their body
• Reduced Fade stab (secondary attack) range to be the same as primary (it was way too long at 3 meters).
• Fixed bug that killed just-finished ARC if you tried to build another ARC or MAC before it drove out of the Robotics Factory.

Changes

• Build Collision checking no longer uses tracing unless the structure can be built on a wall, instead it checks the pathing mesh
• Structures now apply a no build flag to the pathing mesh when created.
• Left clicking on the minimap just moves the commander view; before
  it allowed placing of structures and doing other weird stuff but it was
  confusing and inconsistent with other RTS games.
• Added the ability to make bots passive (Thanks Matso)
• Spectator camera no longer collides and other improvements
• All alien structures, players, and other creatures now auto-heal
• Disabled the marine/common/hit sound when the flamethrower is giving damage as it is too repetitive
• The Gorge will now rotate up and down while belly sliding according to the angle of the ground

Sounds

• added shade cloak sounds
• New flash-light sound
• Better countdown sound
• Nicer marine footstep sounds for infestation
• Better sounds for joining aliens or marines from ready room
• More sci-fi for armoury open and close sounds
• More snarls and aggression for skulk bite, leap, pain and death sounds
• Simon is awesome
• More of an echolocation feel to the alien vision sounds
• Mixing, including being able to hear when u register a hit from a distance as a marine
• sounds for new lerk abilities
• Shade disorientate now using a sound rather than DSP
• Mixed cloak mode sound and beacon sounds
• Battles now sound more epic: EQ and dynamics adjustments for both sides
• Marines now have a flatline heart monitor sound when they die
• Better sound for entering the hive , receiving res and regenerating as an alien

ns2_summit

• Visual changes to Crevice
• Increased space around Crossroads tech point
• Set Dynamic:False for dynamic props in Ventilation
• Replaced the Tech Point in Marine Expansion (Holoroom) with a res node.
• Extended corridors on marine side.
• Changed lighting in repair room.
• Visual changes to Crevice
• Increased space around Crossroads tech point
• Fixed power point powering Crossroads instead of noname hallway
• Adjusted collision geometry at Marine Start ceiling
• Shortened route to Observation from Marine Start.
• Replaced Marine tunnel section adjacent to Marine Start with
  offloading area, moved main entrance (route to AS is somewhat longer
  now).
• Reduced memory footprint by reducing unique number of props.
• Added Simons's optimised and updated sounds.
• Set many props to ignore pathing, should improve loading times.

ns2_tram

• Extended corridors on marine side to create space between rooms.
• Changed lighting theme in repair room.

As always, if you want to get in on the beta, you can pre-order Natural Selection 2 from here. Now it's back to work!