http://www.natural-selection.org/manual_version_2/Natural_Selection_Manual_Framed.html
Version history
v1.0 - October 31st, 2002
Initial release
v1.01 - November 6th, 2002
Improved server performance by 20-30% (should result in slightly less lag, more changes still to come in this area)
Moved all gameplay constants into server code, so economy and balance will be identical on all servers
Added auto team-balance: you are not allowed to join a team if joining it would give that team more then 2 players more then the other team.
Dropped health and ammo packs now expire after 30 seconds
Sentry cost increased from 16 to 19
Sentries and siege turrets now need a functioning factory to stay operational. They will power down and become inactive there are no factories nearby. If a new factory is built nearby, they will power back up.
Offensive chamber health increased from 1100 to 1200
Lessened siege damage from 350 to 330
Acid rocket rate of fire increased from .66 to 1.0 (shots per second)
Increased fade armor from to 90/125 to 125/150
Increased acid rocket damage from 50 to 60
Increased base speed of fade from 210 to 240
Changed regeneration upgrade from fixed number to percentage of alien max health. Alien also emits regen sound when healing.
Grenade damage reduced from 200 to 180 (still does blast damage), clip size reduced to 4, rate of fire decreased slightly
Increased research time for heavy armor from 80 to 100
Increased HMG cost from 23 to 25
Increased grenade launcher cost from 27 to 33
Increased cost of heavy armor from 20 to 25
Lower cost for offensive chambers from 16 to 14, and build time from 40 to 30
Friendly fire now does 33% damage instead of full damage (tournament mode only)
Lessened HMG damage from 20 to 18
Numeric indicator at resource towers now shows how many actual resources were contributed to your team (minimum 1)
v1.02 - November 16th, 2002
Improved server performance by around 50%. You'll see lower pings, and servers with more players.
Rename avhplayer to player (potentially better compatibility with Adminmod and other 3rd party programs).
Change default vote percent from 30% to 40% and minvotes from 2 to 3.
Fixed bug where parasite could hurt own team.
Fixed bug which allowed players to damage their own structures with gunfire.
Updated code to be more compatible with Adminmod under win32 (dynamic cast issues). It may still not work under some configurations and work continues on it.
Enhanced hive sight changed so it's useful at upgrade levels 1 and 2.
Updated NS to use the HL standard logging specification for server ops and for PsychoStats compatibility (http://www.hlstats.org/logs). More work may be needed for better Psychostats compatibility.
Removed draw numeric damage events.
Sighted buildings no longer show in hive sight (still show up with parasite, but prevents flood when alien views heavily populated area).
Fixed exploit where +using a building could speed up research of a technology.
Preserve health and armor percentages when evolving.
Don't allow gorge to heal buildings before they are built.
Reduced chance of server overflow (crash) when large games (24+ players) end.
Fixed marine armor upgrades (previously, researching armor upgrades wouldn't give you that armor unless you were welded first).
Added mp_logdetail (0-3).
Changed the alien ability anti-exploit code to try to co-exist with scripters.
Turned off team-balance when in tourny mode.
Renamed ns_authicons to mp_authicons, renamed ns_eastereggchance to mp_eastereggchance for consistency.
Defensive chambers now only heal up to three nearby buildings or players per tick (prevents undestructible Walls of Lame). Targets are chosen randomly.
Cleanup babblers on game reset.
Built with compiler optimizations (linux).
Spectators now hear spectators, their observer target and teammates of their observer target.
Networking changes that could result in CPU performance improvements (instead of tracking, storing and queuing network messages, they are sent immediately).
All players can all hear all other players talking before countdown starts.
Tournament mode start changes to make it easier to coordinate and start a game. It will only start when players are on both teams, when the teams are equal, and when both teams have said they are ready. A team is ready when one member of their team cheats “ready” (case important). All players can hear all other players before the countdown starts, so spectators and players and coordinate. Once the countdown starts, the map resets, and enemies can't talk to each other, like usual.
Spectators get end-game victory sound and message.
v1.03 -November 27th, 2002
Fixed Adminmod compatibility problems. It should work great now under all configurations.
Aliens now lose health when they no longer have any active or growing hives (damages every 2 seconds, all players hear countdown, ignores armor). This is done to speed up the end game and prevent llamas from hiding in vents to prolong game.
Fixed readyroom bug/exploit while spectating (hitting F4 while REIN made you an invulnerable “ghost” player that could confuse others).
Changed team join to not allow teams to have more then 1 player difference. Affects casual model only.
Fixed armor bug where carapace protected aliens even after all armor was gone.
Fixed explosion bug where siege cannons, bilebombs, grenades and xenocide weren't doing damage properly (this broke in v1.02).
Added support for model and sound consistency checking. If you run your server with mp_consistency 1, it will require that all NS models and sounds are unchanged from the distribution. This allows servers to disable custom models or sounds, and exploits that can result from them. This is currently disabled by default. If you have problems connecting to a server with an error like “server is enforcing file consistency on file X”, then delete your custom models or try connecting to a different server.
Fixed infinite cloaking bug (occured when last sensory chamber lost while player was cloaked).
Addressed alien leave/join resource exploit (joining a team you've already been on makes the player wait to respawn, as if he had been killed).
Addressed early team-switch exploit to find hive (you can no longer switch teams after playing or observing, so choose carefully).
Fixed various problems when building turrets, mines, offensive chambers, etc. then team-switching.
Moved mp_drawinvisibleentities to debug builds only.
Added mp_version variable for better filtering with All-Seeing Eye and other third-party programs and scripts.
Fixed Onos charging crash bug.
Reduced knife range from 50 to 35 (not balance, this was a bug).
Changed siege cost from 15 to 25 (this was a typo, not meant to be a balance change).
Fixed melee weapon problems in vents.
Fixed lastinv command. Players can now bind a key to this (even though their menu will still say it's not implemented).
Fixed bug where players did friendly fire damage to some world objects (ie, doing 33% instead of 100% to doors and switches).
Fixed turret factory abuse, where turrets became active after recycling the nearby turret factory before turret was fully contructed.
Fixed bug where siege turrets became re-activated after building a regular turret factory nearby.
Default mp_timelimit is now 60 (even for listen server).
Fixed bug where a vote could affect a commander that logged in after a vote had been started.
Fixed bug where gorges evolving upgrades (usually temporarily) lost resources above the hive maximum. It will still count down to 33, but will immediately count back up to your resource count (this is just a visual problem on the client).
Make sure current health and armor percentages are preserved when evolving.
If a team has 5 or more players than another team, the team automatically wins. This lessens long periods of lop-sided teams but still gives victory when a losing team starts leaving.
v1.04 - January 24th, 2003
Fixed exploit that allowed aliens to look like marines and fire marine weaponry
Changed max machine gun ammo to 250 (used to be 300, though it would only display 250)
Fixed various commander mode exploits
3rd party entities are never propagated to client (ie, adminmod_ entities). This could fix an occasional crash (thanks Alfred)
Moved auto-concession on unfair teams into server variable (mp_autoconcede: if set to greater then 0, then if teams are ever different by this many players, that smaller team loses immediately)
Dead players can now talk to their teammates in both casual and tourny mode (needed to prevent team from getting an advantage by using external voice program in CAL)
Fixed problem where ammo could be picked up while holding mines
Aliens without any hives no longer take damage when the server is in tournament mode
Added more triggers (for Psychostats and 3rd party program support)
Fixed visual problem where advanced armory had weird build circle
Reduced radius of acid rocket splash from 200 to 165
Alien respawn time reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
Reduced shotgun cost from 20 to 16
Reduced welder damage from 10 to 7
Armory can now give out ammo while upgrading to advanced armory
Increased cost of infantry portal from 15 to 22
Increased cost of phase gate from 20 to 25
Decreased health of phase gate from 3500 to 2000
Increased scan cost from 1 to 3
Increased grenade launcher damage back to 200 (back to v1.0 value)
Umbra now blocks 5 out of 6 bullets instead of 6 out of 7
Arms lab reduced from 50 to 45 points
Reduced siege cannon range from 1250 to 1100
Siege cannon targets now must be sighted to be hit (in view of friendly player or scanned by commander)
NOTES:
The green circle that appears when the siege cannon is selected by the commander is using the old range, but this will be fixed in v1.1.
This is the value siege range was for most of our internal playtesting (hence the bast and hera issues that suddenly arrived with v1.0)
Initial hive now spawns with full health instead of having to heal up to full health on spawn
Fixed bug where advanced turret factories don't have full health
The advanced armory now has 2400 health instead of 1500 (same as regular armory, this is a fixed bug, not a balance change)
Fixed bug where tournament mode caused some damage to be reduced more then it should be (acid rocket vs. any alien structures)
Fixed bug where hive would sometimes play wound sound/animation when it got hit but didn't take damage
Removed lingering “organic” damage type for acid rocket and spore cloud (fixes bug where acid rocket wasn't doing damage properly to organic structures)
Aliens lose all their points when they leave the team, and the team doesn't get them either (this will be revisited in v1.1)
Fixed non-visible motion sensor and proximity “blips” (linux only)
Defense chambers no longer heal themselves
Removed gibbing of corpses (off by default, but some servers had enabled it). This means death animations always play, so no more disappearing models when using high-powered weapons.
Alien health circles seen by gorge now take armor into account (so gorge knows when player is fully healed)
Morphing resets your health again (preserves percentage of armor when evolving carapace too)
Fixed logging bug where model name was reported instead of team name for say and and say_team
When hive is constructed, have it check to see if technology should be supported automatically (exploit for getting extra upgrades after a hive is killed and rebuilt)
Observers can hear other observers and players on the screen, and can chat with each other
Fixed various problems with holding mines while building or using command station
Changed cloaking so it deactivates when a player moves faster then a certain speed, fixing an exploit. Moving very slowly should still allow an alien to remain cloaked.
Added “highdamage” cheat for testing (sv_cheats must be 1, all damage is x100 vs. buildings, x10 vs. players)
Added “slowresearch” cheat for testing (sv_cheats must be 1, research takes full time instead of normal 2 seconds when cheats are on)
Phase gates now must be +used instead of just touched (less frustrating when trying to attack them or fight nearby)
Don't play “select your troops, and give them orders” commander hint if you have no other players on your team
Grenades and mines are now enhanced by arms lab damage upgrades
Fixed exploit where multiple upgrades from the same category could be purchased by jamming hotkeys (thanks localhost)
Fixed bug where trying to exploit alien abilities could crash the server
Fixed bug server name wasn't displayed on scoreboard
Reduced “intermission” time after game ends before mp_timelimit is checked. Disabled mp_timelimit map-switching for tournament mode.
Phase gates now only play their effects (particles, sound, light) when there another active phase gate (so a player can look at a phase gate and know if he can go through it)
Fixed end-game server crash for large games
Fixed rounding errors for level 3 arms lab upgrades for marine weaponry (thanks Kitsune and Comprox)
Fixed bug where babbler and xenocide damage wasn't being applied properly (babbler damage was halved, xenocide wasn't doing blast damage)
Fixed bug where laser-style mines sometimes wouldn't go off when touching the base
Turret factory cost reduced from 25 to 20
Siege turret cost reduced from 25 to 20
Lerk spike damage increased from 16 to 18 (big lerk changes coming in v1.1, this is a hold-over)
Fixed problem where mines sometimes blow up on their own for no apparent reason after they are placed
Added “detectall” cheat for testing motion-tracking and marine blips
All entities can hurt themselves (allows 1-hive alien team to battle siege, figure it out…)
Allow siege cannons to see targets themselves (no spotter needed if target is in sight of the cannon)
Tweaked armories to refill your primary ammo supply before your clip
Changes for PsychoStats support (thanks Stormtrooper, get well soon). Visit www.psychostats.com to download Psychostats v1.9.1 which now supports NS
Fade cost increased from 44 to 54
Movement chambers now teleport to aliens to a hive that's under attack, or the farthest active hive if none are under attack.
Carapace now slowly gives out extra armor points with upgrade level, instead of giving it out all at once. For example, a skulk with 0/1/2/3 carapaces has armor of 10/16/22/30. All other properties of carapace remain the same.
Regeneration upgrade now heals approximately twice as fast
Redemption increased in effectiveness slightly
Hive now heals nearby players faster in effort to allow aliens better chance to hold off early marine rush (20 points per second instead of 8)
Added ability for Guides to send hint tooltips to individual players. More information on the Guide program is coming.
Cloaking changed so higher levels make it faster to cloak instead of harder to see. All levels now make the alien equally invisible (not quite invisible, but very close)
Fixed various bugs and exploits which enabled players to use weapons while commanding
Fixed bug where players trying to execute alien abilities manually crashed the server
Fixed bug where hive death animation kept looping after hive was dead
Linux improvements
Ported code to updated version of GCC
Compiled NS with optimizations, which should bring the linux server up to speed with the win32 server (CPU optimizations)
Fixed all motion-tracking and visibility problems
Important: there are problems when NS v1.04 Redhat and Adminmod are used together. If the server crashes when players join, temporarily disable Adminmod or revert back to v1.03. This is a standard-library problem and the NS team is currently working on a solution.
v2.0 - July 31st, 2003 (previously referred to as v1.1)
More diversity of tactics, along with more play-time at the 2 and 3 hive stages
Simpler resource model (multiple gorges will be viable)
Faster and more intense gameplay (average game time in v1.04 is 22 minutes, v1.1 target is around half that, though epic games still possible)
Commander improvements
Hotgroups for soldiers and structures (soldiers are notified, “You are squad four”). Hotgroup icons blink when under attack.
Warcraft III style “idle peon” messages
Always draw player names for commander
Much better hotkey support (fully customizable)
Select all players button/bind
Alien upgrade improvements (all paths viable)
Sensory chambers are now automatically cloaked, and they cloak other alien structures in range (including hives, resource towers, offensive chambers, etc.)
Movement chambers now give aliens energy, like defensive chambers give health. Unsure if teleport ability will stay.
Silence upgrade now silences movement and attacks (it's incredibly eerie)
HLTV support (including first-person view while waiting to respawn)
Changes to tournament mode to support CAL
Collision improvements (no “jittering” when crouching on structures, structure hitboxes much more accurate, etc.)
Skulk bite and machine gun muzzle flash obscure view less
Improved demo record/playback functionality (particles, scoreboard, etc.). Demos recorded before v1.1 will still work in v1.1.
Improved alien pop-up menu is simpler and more intuitive, context-sensitive cursor
All known exploits fixed (frame-rate advantage, etc.)
Fewer “stuck” issues with Onos and blink
New Onos abilities allow him to stomp the ground to stun nearby enemies, then devour enemies whole (they are slowly digested, during which time they can be saved by killing the creature)
Skulk model orients properly when running on wall! Possible option for transforming first-person view
Lerk physics changes to make him easier to control
Huge server performance improvements (should be around half the CPU usage)
New marine technology: electrified turret factory upgrade, does damage to enemies touching factory
New effects: sentries smoke when they fire, alien structures splatter goo when destroyed
Updated existing maps for balance, performance and flow, and new maps (at least three)
v2.01 - September 19th, 2003
Lowered marine damage/armor upgrade costs from 30/40/50 to 20/30/40
Increased grenade damage from 110 to 125
Fixed problem where specs can be heard talking before game start in tourny mode
Fixed problem where dead players could sometimes be heard
Voice comm can no longer be heard for anyone during countdown (to allow safe demo recording)
Fixed “Contacting www.natural-selection.org…” timeout problems when natural-selection.org is down
Hide opposing team score in tournament mode so you can't see how many resources towers they have
New collision code to lessens chances of players getting stuck in structures
Fixed problem where hera holoroom double node couldn't be built properly
Fixed bug where being webbed and then devoured pulls out your weapon while inside the Onos
Each level of celerity now increases speed by 25, down from 35 (back to the 1.04 level)
Electricity research time reduced from 60 to 30
Electricity range increased from 90 to 120 (to prevent exploiting)
Offense chamber health reduced from 1150 to 1000
If an Onos redeems while digesting a player, the player is left behind
Parasites and gorge spit can operate switches and buttons that take damage again
Marine resource tower cost lowered from 20 to 15
Healing spray is 16 (same as 2.0)
Removed frame-rate dependence from leap and charge damage (Leap is 40 damage per second, Charge is 160 damage per second.)
Increased hive cost from 35 to 40
Reduced command station cost from 25 to 20
Reduced command station build time from 20 to 15
Umbra blocks 2 out of 3 bullets (down from 3 out of 4 in 2.0)
Improved “lastinv” command so that your last weapno is preserved between gestations
Shotgun clip and reserve reduced from 10/50 to 8/40
Removed cloaking and uncloaking sounds via cloaking upgrade
The cloaking upgrade now fades smoothly instead of becoming instantly invisible. The higher level of your cloaking upgrade, the faster you'll cloak.
Aliens should be able to walk slowly cloaked via the cloaking upgrade.
Each level of cloaking decreases time needed to cloak more.
Sentries and offense chambers now do “light” damage. Light damage does half damage to heavy armor and Oni.
Only allow resource towers and turret factories to be electrified (fix for exploit timing/selection exploit)
Resupplying at armory can only go into reserve (addresses end-game grenade spam at marine start). It also now rounds up (so odd-sized clips like the HMG load intuitively)
Made offense chambers less accurate against fast-moving targets (jetpackers)
Fixed “super-hive” bug which allowed an invincible hive to be built
Fixed alien resource exploit involving late-joining
Fixed spawning exploit involving late-joining
If you get disconnected while playing aliens, and you rejoin, your resources will be preserved
Players can only become spectators from the ready room (fixes devour exploit)
Building hives can now be healed
Unbuilt marine structures can now be repaired with the welder
Lowered armory cost from 20 to 15
Electricity can now attack two targets at a time instead of one
Lowered gorge armor from 75 to 50 (shouldn't affect gorge lifespan, as they usually have extra armor when they die)
HMG cost reduced from 20 to 15 (marines should be able to attack at tier 2 without it being a make-or-break effort)
Fixed bug where turrets could fire before they were built by recycling and building turret factories
When you use a phase gate, it checks to see if there are any structures blocking the phase gate. If there are, it blocks the phase. It then checks to see if there are any players blocking the phase gate. If there are teammates that have phased within the last 2 seconds, it blocks the phase. If the phase succeeds, it kills any players that are on the phase gate. So teammates have a 2 second window to get off the phase gate; enemies are telefragged instantly. Structures however can still block a phase gate, though this will likely change in a future version.
Removed frame-rate dependence when building structures (and fixed flashlight exploit when building structures)
Fixed bilebomb exploit that could sometimes allow it to damage through walls
Handicap can now be set in non-tourny mode. Message displays like active resource nodes message, every 20 seconds.
Reduced siege cannon build time from 15 to 10
Reduced siege upgrade time from 22 to 15
Reduced heavy armor cost from 20 to 15
v3.0 -(previously referred to as v2.1)
New gameplay mode: NS Combat
Removed XXX and XXX. Added XXX, XXX, XXX, etc.
New upgrades : New Combat-specific upgrades like “resupply” and personal scanner sweep give you help when you need it.
New look : Over 150 new textures and new NS maps give the game a whole new look. Fight in the claustrophic halls of ns_ayumi, catching a glimpse of snow falling outside a catwalk, or take control of the awe-inspiring and incredible ns_agora.
Catalyst-packs : New “catalyst-packs” allow Commander to speed rate of fire and movement of marines for a short duration.
New lerk : New flight model for the “Lerk”, allowing smooth and precise flapping and gliding (he also has his bite back!).
New spectator interface : All-new spectator mode is easier to use and ideal for match commentators.
New manual : The manual has been totally re-written to include a “quick start” guide, and detailed information on every weapon, ability and structure.
New chat and font system, the ability for mappers to pre-place structures in maps, ‘votemap’ command, new scoreboard, new alien “focus” upgrade, and much more.
Native Steam support
VALVe Anti-Cheat (VAC) and Cheating Death (CD) support
Massive improvements : Over 200 bugs and exploits have been fixed in this version, along with dozens of other improvements. These include “sinking” structures, better hitboxes for players and structures (even for wall-walking skulks!), skulk prediction fixes, and hundreds more.
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DoD: Slayer
NS: [XorD]Slaye
#mod.is