NS2 Build 174 & 175 Double Patch Week news

As you can see from the change log, this patch has a number of contributions from two of our play testers, Matso and Enceladus. All of the source code for the game ships with these patches, so if you are a talented programmer and would like to contribute, we'd love to see what you can do. Also, our new game programmer Andrew started this week and has already helped out with a number of fixes; we're still looking to hire another programmer to work on the engine.

After the release of Build 174 we learned of some performance problems on the server when a MAC or Drifter moved far outside of the level. Build 175 should fix this problem and we've added some additional checks to help catch this type of bug in the future. We managed to get in a few other changes as well; the complete change log is below.

Build 175 changes

• Fixed bug where flying units exiting the world would cause the server to perform poorly
• Fixed sky boxes not rendering
• Fixed bug where Skulks would not properly walk up stairs or be attracted to walls
• Added ability for marines to repair power points by using them
• Added the ability for marines to temporarily open locked doors
• Fixed recycling costs to take into account upgraded versions of structures
• Fixed Rifle shoot effects not triggering if the Rifle had a Grenade Launcher
• Fixed bug where the Advanced Armory and Weapons Module attachments didn't appear on the Armory
• Updated tooltips
• Added a check that the computer supports SSE2 (for PhysX)
• Fixed bug where tech buttons now are properly disabled when the structure is building
• Fixed an issue where you could give an invalid command to a Drifter/MAC
• Fixed bug where the grow animations for Alien structures did not appear smooth
• Changed the rifle sound effects
• Fixed bug where ignoring an error in the script error dialog didn't work
• Added -debug command line parameter to enable script error dialogs in the ship build
• Fixed teamNumber is -1 error message
• Added a check to make sure the origin for an entity isn't set to a value outside a 10,000m box
• Eliminated the temporary garbage Vectors created by Actor:SetPhysicsDirty
• Changed how the server sleeps so that it sleeps for as little as possible when clients are connected and more often when there are no clients
• Fixed bug where you could not infest from a built Hive while another Hive was building
• Fixed view model animation errors in the console
• Fixed issue where the Drifter would play an animation even if the build location was not legal
• Fixed error when creating a unit from a Command Structure that had a rally point set
• Added additional robustness when computing the rotation of the third person Skulk

Build 174 changes

• Increased recycle payback % from 50% x health percentage to 75% to encourage marine relocations (was 80%/50% for unbuilt/built in NS1)
• Removed different IP recycle percentage
• Changed alien armor absorption to be more clear and to have similar values as NS1 (but tied to defense upgrade level)
• Fixed bug where structures that don't require power weren't considered "active"
• Added power node back in to Elevator Transfer room in ns2_tram
• Added work around for network hardware that doesn't properly deal with packets of less than 11 bytes
• Fixed bug where the rifle looping sound would not be canceled in some cases (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where the selection was not cleared after recycling a structure (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where Hydras would continue to attack power nodes after they were destroyed (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where MACs and drifters would go into the ground (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed drifters not resetting after failed build (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed handling of double quoted arguments on the command line
• Improved the accuracy of the trace to determine if Skulk bite hit a target (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed bug where a Sentry gun couldn't hit a target that was inside it's field of view (thanks Matso!)
• Fixed an issue where the thumbnails in the Create Props listbox were rendering as black
• Fixed scanner sweep not functioning properly
• Fixed bug where the scanner sweep effect didn't appear at the correct location (thanks Enceladus!)
• Added setsoundvolume, setmusicvolume and setsensitivity console commands (thanks Enceladus!)
• Fixed F1 not bringing up the Get Satisfaction web page in-game
• Fixed bug where a player would not fall if they were standing on top of a MAC or structure that was destroyed
• Enabled auto-building when a file changes in the Builder

You can always keep up to date with what we're working on for the next patch with our real-time progress tracker and don't forget to follow our Twitter account.