Natural Selection 2 News Update - NS2 Build 175 Released

Chris0132

<!--quoteo(post=1843576:date=May 2 2011, 05:31 AM:name=crae)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (crae @ May 2 2011, 05:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1843576"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->>within 30 seconds of being in-game I can tell its still a jittery game.

Your focus determines your reality. Have you tried not focusing on what's wrong with the game and instead focusing on what's right with the game. I only get 10 FPS in 'r_mode specular'. I can only command use GL's or perma-gorge and my kill ratio is 1:100, but I'm having a blast playing NS2. Specular mode doesn't render DI, so I have to gorge with weapon 3 active all the time so I can tell where DI is and is not. I don't let little frustrations get in the way of my enjoyment. There will ALWAYS be some aspects of the game you are unhappy with. Change your attitude and learn to let them go. Or not. I would never want to deny anyone the choice of feeling disappointed and frustrated.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Hmm I have to say you're rather easily pleased.

NS2 has more than 'little frustrations' wrong with it at the moment, much of it literally doesn't work or isn't in the game yet.

Depending on the user it can range from 'potential is visible' to 'basically unplayable'. Personally it jumps between the two, I can tell it's going to be interesting right up until it grinds to a halt and crashes halfway through the game.

Plasma

@crae: I've already played a lot of the game when it was first released (alpha) and so I've already had some good games and positive experiences with the game.

I'm busy with other things now; so when I fire up the game to see if I can play smoothly and without jitter for 30/60 mins once in a while I just leave when I can tell its still having problems.

My tolerance for it has gone; I'd rather be doing something else instead if I keep having that problem *shrug*

I'm not much of a gamer anymore, but I think others could relate to me.

KuBaN

<!--quoteo(post=1843575:date=May 2 2011, 12:29 AM:name=Chris0132)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chris0132 @ May 2 2011, 12:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1843575"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I have to say I generally agree, 175 is miles better than earlier builds, not too long ago tram was physically impossible for anybody to play tram, now we've got regular games on it. FPS is generally good although there are plenty of stutters, and every build generally adds a couple of new visible features, like the doors, the doors are awesome by the way.

I think the major gripe I have, if you can call it that because I don't imagine it's intentional, is that it's kind of hard to know whether you guys know what's wrong. Like the major issue for me in this and other recent builds is crashing, which I didn't in earlier builds, it came in about the time of the lua reimplementation so I assume it's got something to do with that, but it's hard to know whether you guys are thinking 'hmm lots of people are crashing, since the past few builds, we should do something about that'.

I realise you probably do, as there are threads about it on the forums, but it is tempting to apply general forum logic to the issue, which is that no matter how many threads there are on a given subject, most people don't seem to know/care about it.

Also you seem to be kind of slow to react to things, I assume this is because you're all working off a schedule of things to do, so when you release 175 you already have 176 kinda planned out, but this can result in things like the game having a bunch of new bugs, and the next patch having things like 'fixed the sound looping bug' in the changelog, I imagine a lot of people are kind of thinking 'who cares about the sound bug <xyz> broke in the last patch why aren't they fixing that'. I know you do fix really big bugs that patches introduce quickly, but it often feels sporadic, like 'ok they fixed bug X but bug Y is pretty important and I've had it for a couple of versions and it doesn't seem to be getting fixed'. Although admittedly just because I have bug Y doesn't mean other people do.

I suppose the major issue is that open development shows all of the problems and very few of the solutions, you kinda just have to have a lot of faith in the devs ability to fix everything eventually, and like a lot of faith, it's harder to have when reality keeps poking huge holes in it. Still, Charlie managed NS1, I'm sure UWE can manage NS2.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well said. It feels like many of us here share this sentiment.

Which must suck for the devs. They opened their doors, offered us exactly what we wanted, and we came right in, took it, and proceeded to bite them in the ass.

LOLdoc

So, I didn't see this anywhere in the change logs, but I was playing tonight on aliens and it seems like skulks now decelerate when they jump, similar to how marines used to decelerate during a jump in NS1 (and NS2 I suppose). I don't recall it being this way a few patches ago. Was this an intentional change that I missed somewhere? Has anyone else brought this issue up?

I know there wasn't any planned bunny hopping in this game, but this felt a little awkward to me.

Asraniel

this is probably the bug that jumping as a skulk pulls you back to the wall where you where last wallwalking on.

Quovatis

I still crash a lot, most often while using the Armory. I also still get artifacts (e.g. fade model doesn't show) that only started showing up in build 172 or 173.

KuBaN

<!--quoteo(post=1843781:date=May 3 2011, 07:27 AM:name=Asraniel)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Asraniel @ May 3 2011, 07:27 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1843781"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->this is probably the bug that jumping as a skulk pulls you back to the wall where you where last wallwalking on.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This might also explain why Leap feels to fall a little short now, although it still happens when holding down Crouch.

Yotopia

Have also totally agree to previous posts of chris.
Had some really good 5on5 games on tram with patch 175.The game got now a bit from the good old NS1 feeling for me.
Yes its choppy and yes its sometimes laggy and far beyond tuned and optimized in fact of performance (i can take that because i had also fun playing hl1 in the year 1998 on a p1 133) but its really playable for me now beside from the crashes i got now and never had since "alpha" state.i have the feeling the crashed accured with the sound bug you fixed.i get them mostly when i have infights against aliens as marine and reload my weapon and one time using armory.but they happend in the most time when i play as marine on ns2_tram.
i love this engine you created.its fits perfect to ns2.cant wait when its fully optimized.
and the people who say they cant start the game or get black sreen all the time...i dont trust them.i cant imagine that someone with decent hardware and the most people got similiar hardware have so much problems with this engine.the loading time in 175 on my machine which isnt that bad are 3 times longer then before and i also get sometimes a black screen where i have to wait up to 1-3 minutes when the game is fully loaded.but then it runs very smooth.
<!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>
so if you get a black screen wait some minutes to fully load the game.</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

this game will kick ass when its finished !!!
i hope you people stay patient enough to wait....

sorry for my bad english.cant really explain overall what i want lol :)

PS:the new programmer "Andrew" was involved in starcraft 2 ? is this true ?
how you get him then to ns2 :) ?

gamester_5

<!--quoteo(post=1843808:date=May 3 2011, 11:21 AM:name=Quovatis)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Quovatis @ May 3 2011, 11:21 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1843808"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I still crash a lot, most often while using the Armory. I also still get artifacts (e.g. fade model doesn't show) that only started showing up in build 172 or 173.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Q, is it on Tram map only or both? I have the same problem on Tram only. Now the server is on Rockdown I get no artifacting and no crashes.

Playa_2b

Majin

I joined NS2 in Build 175 and as side from the following bugs:
DI not being placeable (Now have a workaround by placing a new hive)
Comm Chair not being able to get into due to invisible walls
Extensive DI placement will cause the server to lag to hell
Grenades sometimes fire wildly and kill you
The Server dying for no clear reason at times

I have really enjoyed this game a lot! I can accept that its a BETA and when I am playing am great game and its ruined due to a black screen crash, I can get over it.
I know some people can't even play this game, thankfully I am not one of them.
I look forward to 176 to fix some of the bugs above and I look forward to the day that the game is finished and has as much content as NS1.

ScardyBob

I've noticed that there are essentially two types of NS2 lag that seem to dominate patches; rubberbanding and stuttering. When UWE reduces one, the other becomes noticeable again and vice versa. B175 seems to have reduced the rubberbanding enough where the stuttering has become serious once again.

Quovatis

<!--quoteo(post=1843839:date=May 3 2011, 02:22 PM:name=gamester_5)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gamester_5 @ May 3 2011, 02:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1843839"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Q, is it on Tram map only or both? I have the same problem on Tram only. Now the server is on Rockdown I get no artifacting and no crashes.

Playa_2b<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

You're right. I played a long time on Rockdown and never crashed nor had any artifacts.