I think the game would've brought a whole lot more people to play it, if the game was better optimized than Crysis 1... and i think everybody remembers the horror to even gain 60 fps on it with a high "end" PC back then xD
I think the game would've brought a whole lot more people to play it, if the game was better optimized than Crysis 1... and i think everybody remembers the horror to even gain 60 fps on it with a high "end" PC back then xD
Not a good example, Crysis was not bad optimized, it was just a very heavy game on High settings also for high-end PCs. It also goes for Doom 3. But Deus Ex 2 had a horrible optimization.
I think the game would've brought a whole lot more people to play it, if the game was better optimized than Crysis 1... and i think everybody remembers the horror to even gain 60 fps on it with a high "end" PC back then xD
The CDT is still working on ns2. Check out their trello board to see upcoming optimizations to the game. I haven't updated my old computer since the alpha was out (given, I had 1-2 fps then. Now, I get 70-40 fps, and I can play the game pretty well). That may be unacceptable by some players, which is understandable. But hell, at this point the CDT has to work with what uwe left behind, so the game isn't going to magically get a 100% improvement in the optimization department (could, and gladly would be, incorrect).
The CDT knows more than me, obviously. So, I'd talk to them if you have anything to say to improve performance other than telling them it isn't good.
Not a good example, Crysis was not bad optimized, it was just a very heavy game on High settings also for high-end PCs. It also goes for Doom 3. But Deus Ex 2 had a horrible optimization.
[offtopic] Crysis was badly optimized and also very demanding game (main thing was to stress future high-end pcs) + VERY BUGGY. Ofc patching helped a lot. Crysis warhead was better optimized. Spark just need +5.0ghz haswell/Ivy/sandy bridge processor and for both server/client
Can someone explain what is r_stats "ms waiting world update"? Is it just server performance or client (or both like server cant handle and client need to do rest) ...[/offtopic]
Not a good example, Crysis was not bad optimized, it was just a very heavy game on High settings also for high-end PCs. It also goes for Doom 3. But Deus Ex 2 had a horrible optimization.
[offtopic] Crysis was badly optimized and also very demanding game (main thing was to stress future high-end pcs) + VERY BUGGY. Ofc patching helped a lot. Spark just need +5.0ghz haswell/Ivy/sandy bridge processor and for both server/client
Can someone explain what is r_stats "ms waiting world update"? Is it just server performance or client (or both like server cant handle and client need to do rest) ...[/offtopic]
The world update thread in r_stats is about your cpu usage.
As is, NS2 can't successfully sustain a F2P model. It needs a proper infrastructure and eco model. This will take some time to build, and I think the CDT still considers this option. Sadly, the priority isn't F2P for the next patch. It' s mostly foccused on content that could make f2p work in the future. So be patient.
This is mostly speculation here, as I don't exactly know what CDT wants, but I think they still consider it and the work they're doing right now won't hurt (mostly even will make things better) once a F2P option is considered and agreed upon by both the CDT and UWE
As is, NS2 can't successfully sustain a F2P model. It needs a proper infrastructure and eco model. This will take some time to build, and I think the CDT still considers this option. Sadly, the priority isn't F2P for the next patch. It' s mostly foccused on content that could make f2p work in the future. So be patient.
This is mostly speculation here, as I don't exactly know what CDT wants, but I think they still consider it and the work they're doing right now won't hurt (mostly even will make things better) once a F2P option is considered and agreed upon by both the CDT and UWE
So by that it means that the CDT and UWE are actually reconsidering of a F2P model of the game? Sounds nice! Hope it just wont be too late, cause right now the Div.1 seems quite dead (regarding from 1 month backwards)
I think it never went down the toilets. I think they're working on making the game better (perf, balance) and bigger (content) first, see how it goes, and then consider other options. In any case, what is going to be brought by the new updates won't be for nothing, it could really build good bases for new players to come and enjoy the game in multiple ways.
The CDT don't say much, but they hinted several times that they were focusing on new content for the future and once everything is in place, I honestly think F2P would be viable option (with a decent eco-model, items, skins and shit).
You're def right though on the fact that everything might come out too late. That's the biggest fear.
Cannon_FodderAUSBrisbane, AUJoin Date: 2013-06-23Member: 185664Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
edited May 2015
Its amazing the gongs this game gets (was no. 18 on best FPS of all time from Rock Paper Shotgun), it is so unique and has depth, but it is so complex and hard to learn, it drives people away. Oh well, another day another rookie thrown on the scrap heap :-(
Just for clarification, we're not working on NS2 to be F2P right now. Our focus is on performance improvements, load-time improvements, more maps (3+ in development) and much more content (not just DLC items). However, never say never. All options are available to us and we will always try to do what's best for the game.
Just for clarification, we're not working on NS2 to be F2P right now. Our focus is on performance improvements, load-time improvements, more maps (3+ in development) and much more content (not just DLC items). However, never say never. All options are available to us and we will always try to do what's best for the game.
Is there any news regarding an update or what so ever? I mean there was a petition cause we never heard anything about regarding the CDT, any news, or what's going on behind the curtains. And updates came from nowhere and suddenly we had to adapt the games (pcws) for the new patches.
How long time is the focus on for example performance, load-time improvements and more maps going be? Is there any kind of talk regarding for a F2P?
Just wondering of how much can you improve on an engine that was poorly optimized from the beginning? But developed into something good at this stage.
The only improvement right now i would like to see, is the hitreg, and a few more maps (tried the new Dockingv2 made by Meph, it's a viable map for competitive or like 8v8 servers.
And these days people got quite good computers to sustain a +120 fps. And a computer like that doesnt cost much of a fortune, 2nd hand I7-2600k and a 7970 + a motherboard costs like 300 $ i think? Or even less if im right.
Is there really a need for DLC items? And if so, who's pocket are the DLCs gonna go to? If im correct it's only the CDT who's working right now? Or is there any members from Subnautica crew lending a hand?
Just for clarification, we're not working on NS2 to be F2P right now. Our focus is on performance improvements, load-time improvements, more maps (3+ in development) and much more content (not just DLC items). However, never say never. All options are available to us and we will always try to do what's best for the game.
Is there any news regarding an update or what so ever? I mean there was a petition cause we never heard anything about regarding the CDT, any news, or what's going on behind the curtains. And updates came from nowhere and suddenly we had to adapt the games (pcws) for the new patches.
How long time is the focus on for example performance, load-time improvements and more maps going be? Is there any kind of talk regarding for a F2P?
Just wondering of how much can you improve on an engine that was poorly optimized from the beginning? But developed into something good at this stage.
The only improvement right now i would like to see, is the hitreg, and a few more maps (tried the new Dockingv2 made by Meph, it's a viable map for competitive or like 8v8 servers.
And these days people got quite good computers to sustain a +120 fps. And a computer like that doesnt cost much of a fortune, 2nd hand I7-2600k and a 7970 + a motherboard costs like 300 $ i think? Or even less if im right.
Is there really a need for DLC items? And if so, who's pocket are the DLCs gonna go to? If im correct it's only the CDT who's working right now? Or is there any members from Subnautica crew lending a hand?
Captain.. over n out
You might be right that the CDT is not that active communication-wise.
But we are a team of volunteers with no "developing help" from side of UWE (ofc we are free to ask them questions if needed) and all of us have full time jobs otherwise.
So often nobody really has the time to sit down and write a blog entry (beside blog entries still have to be confirmed by UWE afaik). Because most of us actually prefer to work on new features etc. as much as possible in our spare free time.
That's why we mainly communicate via twitter, trello, forum and email.
Due to our nature of being a volunteer team we just can't really tell you any dates for certain features, fixes etc., if stuff is ready to be published we will tell you so in time.
Atm we are basically on hold due to the fact that we don't have a build machine (details can be found in this post of mendasp). Without a build machine we are unable to test or ship new features to the PTs and can't release a new build to Steam. So we have some features fully coded "lying around" but not tested at all.
Your criticism about that we don't inform you in time about patches/updates is just "unfair". So far we used the admin mail list every time giving admins at least 2-5 days to prepare for them.
This might be a bit short but it's the best time frame we can offer due to the nature of the CDT being a volunteer team.
Often patches had to be rescheduled because of certain issues or some features not getting ready in time.
E.g. the reason we didn't pushed out the last patch was exactly because we were aware that we wouldn't be able to publish any hot-fix because of not having a build machine available to us anymore. That's basically the reason why there wasn't a patch 3 month ago as "planned".
About the engine: Spark itself is not that bad at all. Yes there are some features missing because UWE didn't had the time to implement them themselves, like "null movement injections". But the core code itself is pretty high quality.
The issue with ns2 performance wise is and was always that we are limited to one core due to the nature of having 90% of the game logic code in Lua. Also the Lua code is often not optimized at all and quiet messy. All of that can be explained by that the UWE devs just didn't had the time to work on a small single features for days like we can do it.
The reason you haven't seen any large new feature yet by us is just because those take a lot time to create , test and polish. E.g. a new map alone takes almost a year to create.
This is due to the reason that we can't and don't want to add anything to vanilla not being high quality as you would expect them to be.
Okay last but not least about DLC and what happens with the income those generate:
We are kinda working on new skin DLCs because ppl ask for them (e.g. shadow onos and fade).
The money of DLC goes partly to Valve and UWE. The rest gets spitted between CDT and the person the DLC was made for (in the past Loki and Rantology).
The money that goes to the CDT is directly used to pay our infrastructure (build machine server bill etc) and paying for professionals like e.g. artists in case we need textures for the new maps, player skins. Nothing goes to any member of the CDT.
Just for clarification, we're not working on NS2 to be F2P right now. Our focus is on performance improvements, load-time improvements, more maps (3+ in development) and much more content (not just DLC items). However, never say never. All options are available to us and we will always try to do what's best for the game.
Is there any news regarding an update or what so ever? I mean there was a petition cause we never heard anything about regarding the CDT, any news, or what's going on behind the curtains. And updates came from nowhere and suddenly we had to adapt the games (pcws) for the new patches.
How long time is the focus on for example performance, load-time improvements and more maps going be? Is there any kind of talk regarding for a F2P?
Just wondering of how much can you improve on an engine that was poorly optimized from the beginning? But developed into something good at this stage.
The only improvement right now i would like to see, is the hitreg, and a few more maps (tried the new Dockingv2 made by Meph, it's a viable map for competitive or like 8v8 servers.
And these days people got quite good computers to sustain a +120 fps. And a computer like that doesnt cost much of a fortune, 2nd hand I7-2600k and a 7970 + a motherboard costs like 300 $ i think? Or even less if im right.
Is there really a need for DLC items? And if so, who's pocket are the DLCs gonna go to? If im correct it's only the CDT who's working right now? Or is there any members from Subnautica crew lending a hand?
Captain.. over n out
You might be right that the CDT is not that active communication-wise.
But we are a team of volunteers with no "developing help" from side of UWE (ofc we are free to ask them questions if needed) and all of us have full time jobs otherwise.
So often nobody really has the time to sit down and write a blog entry (beside blog entries still have to be confirmed by UWE afaik). Because most of us actually prefer to work on new features etc. as much as possible in our spare free time.
That's why we mainly communicate via twitter, trello, forum and email.
Due to our nature of being a volunteer team we just can't really tell you any dates for certain features, fixes etc., if stuff is ready to be published we will tell you so in time.
Atm we are basically on hold due to the fact that we don't have a build machine (details can be found in this post of mendasp). Without a build machine we are unable to test or ship new features to the PTs and can't release a new build to Steam. So we have some features fully coded "lying around" but not tested at all.
Your criticism about that we don't inform you in time about patches/updates is just "unfair". So far we used the admin mail list every time giving admins at least 2-5 days to prepare for them.
This might be a bit short but it's the best time frame we can offer due to the nature of the CDT being a volunteer team.
Often patches had to be rescheduled because of certain issues or some features not getting ready in time.
E.g. the reason we didn't pushed out the last patch was exactly because we were aware that we wouldn't be able to publish any hot-fix because of not having a build machine available to us anymore. That's basically the reason why there wasn't a patch 3 month ago as "planned".
About the engine: Spark itself is not that bad at all. Yes there are some features missing because UWE didn't had the time to implement them themselves, like "null movement injections". But the core code itself is pretty high quality.
The issue with ns2 performance wise is and was always that we are limited to one core due to the nature of having 90% of the game logic code in Lua. Also the Lua code is often not optimized at all and quiet messy. All of that can be explained by that the UWE devs just didn't had the time to work on a small single features for days like we can do it.
The reason you haven't seen any large new feature yet by us is just because those take a lot time to create , test and polish. E.g. a new map alone takes almost a year to create.
This is due to the reason that we can't and don't want to add anything to vanilla not being high quality as you would expect them to be.
Okay last but not least about DLC and what happens with the income those generate:
We are kinda working on new skin DLCs because ppl ask for them (e.g. shadow onos and fade).
The money of DLC goes partly to Valve and UWE. The rest gets spitted between CDT and the person the DLC was made for (in the past Loki and Rantology).
The money that goes to the CDT is directly used to pay our infrastructure (build machine server bill etc) and paying for professionals like e.g. artists in case we need textures for the new maps, player skins. Nothing goes to any member of the CDT.
This is actually quite good information that you give, cause it's been quite hard to read between the lines between each post now and then!
I am aware of that the CDT does this volunteerly (spelling?) and i dont criticise any of that work that's been done or is being done right now as we speak, it's just that for not so long time ago there was a petition regarding the NS2 community, and what's going and yada yada.. and some more yada! With alot of names. And Wasabi got the info about it and posted a long post because of it.
Regarding the Build machine ( or machines as in plural?, dont know how many you need or how strong the machine needs to be?) shouldnt be a problem to get a fund raising from the NS2 community. If you look at ENSL alot of people contribute with both skins,servers and the funding for the NS2WC. Just a little effort, with a good post where you explain like you've done with the previous post, and some contribute from the rest of us shouldnt be a problem at all! (Atleast what i think and seen from the previous contributes)
So basicly if the CDT works with the DLC, then UWE gets a certain % of it? Why? I mean without you guys, the game would've been dead already, or dead-ISH. Valve i understand cause of the market thingy.. but UWE?
So basicly, just start some kind of kickstarter project, or some other fundraising or start a paypal where we can contribute for some money, to keep the work alive or atleast make things easier for the crew.
MephillesGermanyJoin Date: 2013-08-07Member: 186634Members, NS2 Map Tester, NS2 Community Developer
I think the build machine is more software than hardware even though it implies the name machine. And this kickstarter thing can help. It worked with the gorge plushies and maybe the contributers get a little something in return (a kodiak skinned shotgun or something like that)
So basicly if the CDT works with the DLC, then UWE gets a certain % of it? Why? I mean without you guys, the game would've been dead already, or dead-ISH. Valve i understand cause of the market thingy.. but UWE?
Because UWE made the game, didn't they? A volunteer crew cannot use all the official stuff at its disposal and keep updating a game without the original devs' agreement. Game is not dead and I'm sure UWE still receives incomes from NS2. They designed it after all.
So basicly if the CDT works with the DLC, then UWE gets a certain % of it? Why? I mean without you guys, the game would've been dead already, or dead-ISH. Valve i understand cause of the market thingy.. but UWE?
Because UWE made the game, didn't they? A volunteer crew cannot use all the official stuff at its disposal and keep updating a game without the original devs' agreement. Game is not dead and I'm sure UWE still receives incomes from NS2. They designed it after all.
And it makes a lot of sense that UWE still has the final word on what is, in the end, still their own product.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
I will say, as a ns2 server admin, I am quite pleased with the CDTs communication in regards to patches, with the mailing list.
So far they gave plenty of time on each patch with pretty accurate dates and timeframes.
I have nothing but good words on the matter for them.
IIRC, there's a bit of a technical limitation to adding that much more content into the game...
Doesn't ns2 have the one model/one texture issue? Since it 'shouldn't' be too costly having texture call-ins as opposed to loading 40 different models per weapon.
If the cdt could work around that to maybe split the textures from models it could theoretically open an avenue for greater customization and dlc/market opportunities.
Basically if you can get the Kodiak rifle to work like a cs:go/warframe skin of the base rifle then you could allow 'countless' variations.
I'm probably talking out of my gorge hole on this
Then on top of that split up the armor so we can play marine dress-up. Using the same system could let players give their purchased camos to other models.
Modding never really took off because the whole modding system was never fully implemented/supported.
Granted, _fully_ implementing/supporting a mod system (in which I include great tools, great documentation and great version control) would have been several man-years worth of work... and with Unity/UE4 engines maturing, I guess the idea of licensing the Spark Engine (and thus having a monetary incentive to actually get tools/docs in place) kinda died - hard to make money competing against basically free stuff.
And Unity/UE4 may also have drained the market for the kind of modders that could have used Spark to make more advanced mods. After all, if you did not already have a relationship with NS, why would you choose to work with Spark over UE/Unity?
That said, the Spark engine actually does a lot of really cool stuff that I suspect other engines don't.
Also, the engine code (C++) is very high quality and rather enjoyable to work with .
It would be great if UWE will relaunch the Natural Selection (even under Natural Selection 3 name) with UE4/Unity engine, cuz the new license rules make it much easier for devs. It can be a F2P from the start (or not). But they have to finish Subnautica & FF first.
IeptBarakatThe most difficult name to speak ingame.Join Date: 2009-07-10Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
There would probably be better returns on easing some of the lua reliance the game has rather than changing to a whole new engine. Not to mention all the maps would have to be recreated again.
Given the performance bottleneck from most of the game logic being coded in lua, slowly converting the game logic to a code with actual multi-core support should provide a night and day difference in performance with most systems. Leaving lua as an option for legacy mod support of course.
Recreated no. Ported yes. It's not the same work and not the same load (given you have the proper tools). Especially in the unity case (automatic imports and stuff).
Comments
Not a good example, Crysis was not bad optimized, it was just a very heavy game on High settings also for high-end PCs. It also goes for Doom 3. But Deus Ex 2 had a horrible optimization.
The CDT is still working on ns2. Check out their trello board to see upcoming optimizations to the game. I haven't updated my old computer since the alpha was out (given, I had 1-2 fps then. Now, I get 70-40 fps, and I can play the game pretty well). That may be unacceptable by some players, which is understandable. But hell, at this point the CDT has to work with what uwe left behind, so the game isn't going to magically get a 100% improvement in the optimization department (could, and gladly would be, incorrect).
The CDT knows more than me, obviously. So, I'd talk to them if you have anything to say to improve performance other than telling them it isn't good.
[offtopic] Crysis was badly optimized and also very demanding game (main thing was to stress future high-end pcs) + VERY BUGGY. Ofc patching helped a lot. Crysis warhead was better optimized. Spark just need +5.0ghz haswell/Ivy/sandy bridge processor and for both server/client
Can someone explain what is r_stats "ms waiting world update"? Is it just server performance or client (or both like server cant handle and client need to do rest) ...[/offtopic]
Who knows?
This is mostly speculation here, as I don't exactly know what CDT wants, but I think they still consider it and the work they're doing right now won't hurt (mostly even will make things better) once a F2P option is considered and agreed upon by both the CDT and UWE
So by that it means that the CDT and UWE are actually reconsidering of a F2P model of the game? Sounds nice! Hope it just wont be too late, cause right now the Div.1 seems quite dead (regarding from 1 month backwards)
The CDT don't say much, but they hinted several times that they were focusing on new content for the future and once everything is in place, I honestly think F2P would be viable option (with a decent eco-model, items, skins and shit).
You're def right though on the fact that everything might come out too late. That's the biggest fear.
Is there any news regarding an update or what so ever? I mean there was a petition cause we never heard anything about regarding the CDT, any news, or what's going on behind the curtains. And updates came from nowhere and suddenly we had to adapt the games (pcws) for the new patches.
How long time is the focus on for example performance, load-time improvements and more maps going be? Is there any kind of talk regarding for a F2P?
Just wondering of how much can you improve on an engine that was poorly optimized from the beginning? But developed into something good at this stage.
The only improvement right now i would like to see, is the hitreg, and a few more maps (tried the new Dockingv2 made by Meph, it's a viable map for competitive or like 8v8 servers.
And these days people got quite good computers to sustain a +120 fps. And a computer like that doesnt cost much of a fortune, 2nd hand I7-2600k and a 7970 + a motherboard costs like 300 $ i think? Or even less if im right.
Is there really a need for DLC items? And if so, who's pocket are the DLCs gonna go to? If im correct it's only the CDT who's working right now? Or is there any members from Subnautica crew lending a hand?
Captain.. over n out
You might be right that the CDT is not that active communication-wise.
But we are a team of volunteers with no "developing help" from side of UWE (ofc we are free to ask them questions if needed) and all of us have full time jobs otherwise.
So often nobody really has the time to sit down and write a blog entry (beside blog entries still have to be confirmed by UWE afaik). Because most of us actually prefer to work on new features etc. as much as possible in our spare free time.
That's why we mainly communicate via twitter, trello, forum and email.
Due to our nature of being a volunteer team we just can't really tell you any dates for certain features, fixes etc., if stuff is ready to be published we will tell you so in time.
Atm we are basically on hold due to the fact that we don't have a build machine (details can be found in this post of mendasp). Without a build machine we are unable to test or ship new features to the PTs and can't release a new build to Steam. So we have some features fully coded "lying around" but not tested at all.
Your criticism about that we don't inform you in time about patches/updates is just "unfair". So far we used the admin mail list every time giving admins at least 2-5 days to prepare for them.
This might be a bit short but it's the best time frame we can offer due to the nature of the CDT being a volunteer team.
Often patches had to be rescheduled because of certain issues or some features not getting ready in time.
E.g. the reason we didn't pushed out the last patch was exactly because we were aware that we wouldn't be able to publish any hot-fix because of not having a build machine available to us anymore. That's basically the reason why there wasn't a patch 3 month ago as "planned".
About the engine: Spark itself is not that bad at all. Yes there are some features missing because UWE didn't had the time to implement them themselves, like "null movement injections". But the core code itself is pretty high quality.
The issue with ns2 performance wise is and was always that we are limited to one core due to the nature of having 90% of the game logic code in Lua. Also the Lua code is often not optimized at all and quiet messy. All of that can be explained by that the UWE devs just didn't had the time to work on a small single features for days like we can do it.
The reason you haven't seen any large new feature yet by us is just because those take a lot time to create , test and polish. E.g. a new map alone takes almost a year to create.
This is due to the reason that we can't and don't want to add anything to vanilla not being high quality as you would expect them to be.
Okay last but not least about DLC and what happens with the income those generate:
We are kinda working on new skin DLCs because ppl ask for them (e.g. shadow onos and fade).
The money of DLC goes partly to Valve and UWE. The rest gets spitted between CDT and the person the DLC was made for (in the past Loki and Rantology).
The money that goes to the CDT is directly used to pay our infrastructure (build machine server bill etc) and paying for professionals like e.g. artists in case we need textures for the new maps, player skins. Nothing goes to any member of the CDT.
#shamelessadvertsiment
This is actually quite good information that you give, cause it's been quite hard to read between the lines between each post now and then!
I am aware of that the CDT does this volunteerly (spelling?) and i dont criticise any of that work that's been done or is being done right now as we speak, it's just that for not so long time ago there was a petition regarding the NS2 community, and what's going and yada yada.. and some more yada! With alot of names. And Wasabi got the info about it and posted a long post because of it.
Regarding the Build machine ( or machines as in plural?, dont know how many you need or how strong the machine needs to be?) shouldnt be a problem to get a fund raising from the NS2 community. If you look at ENSL alot of people contribute with both skins,servers and the funding for the NS2WC. Just a little effort, with a good post where you explain like you've done with the previous post, and some contribute from the rest of us shouldnt be a problem at all! (Atleast what i think and seen from the previous contributes)
So basicly if the CDT works with the DLC, then UWE gets a certain % of it? Why? I mean without you guys, the game would've been dead already, or dead-ISH. Valve i understand cause of the market thingy.. but UWE?
So basicly, just start some kind of kickstarter project, or some other fundraising or start a paypal where we can contribute for some money, to keep the work alive or atleast make things easier for the crew.
Because UWE made the game, didn't they? A volunteer crew cannot use all the official stuff at its disposal and keep updating a game without the original devs' agreement. Game is not dead and I'm sure UWE still receives incomes from NS2. They designed it after all.
tfw laid off
Also, to those worried about new content in the future, we wouldn't have restarted map testing if there weren't big things already in the works.
So far they gave plenty of time on each patch with pretty accurate dates and timeframes.
I have nothing but good words on the matter for them.
Doesn't ns2 have the one model/one texture issue? Since it 'shouldn't' be too costly having texture call-ins as opposed to loading 40 different models per weapon.
If the cdt could work around that to maybe split the textures from models it could theoretically open an avenue for greater customization and dlc/market opportunities.
Basically if you can get the Kodiak rifle to work like a cs:go/warframe skin of the base rifle then you could allow 'countless' variations.
Then on top of that split up the armor so we can play marine dress-up. Using the same system could let players give their purchased camos to other models.
It would be great if UWE will relaunch the Natural Selection (even under Natural Selection 3 name) with UE4/Unity engine, cuz the new license rules make it much easier for devs. It can be a F2P from the start (or not). But they have to finish Subnautica & FF first.
Given the performance bottleneck from most of the game logic being coded in lua, slowly converting the game logic to a code with actual multi-core support should provide a night and day difference in performance with most systems. Leaving lua as an option for legacy mod support of course.