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[Seraphim342]

Was browsing through the Steam store and saw that Natural Selection 2 is out.  Has anyone played it?  Natural Selection was one of my favorite Half-Life mods in the early oughts, so seeing a new sequel out is pretty exciting.  Also, is it basically the original with new maps and graphics, or does it expand on the original?  That was my main disappointment when I bought CS-Source, it basically being a graphics pack...

For people not familiar with the orginial, it was basically a Starcraft/Alien-inspired FPS/RTS hybrid, with aliens versus space marines.  The space marines get a command chair in which a player sits and places buildings like turrets, infantry terminals, upgrade terminals, resource node harvesters, etc. which are built by the marines.  The aliens get a constructor class that "grows" their equivalents.  You use this to progress up a tech tree of sorts, getting access to better weapons as the marines, and higher "evolutionary forms" for the aliens.  For example, Marines start off with assault rifles and can get HMGs, grenade launchers, jetpacks, heavy armor, mines, flamethrowers, etc.  Also, now apparently mecha.  Aliens start off as a zergling analogue, but can get a flyer form that shoots acid spikes, a more advanced melee form that can teleport, or a big, heavily armored ultralisk analogue that does a ton of damage but has limited mobility, and to me always looked like a giant mutant space cow.  But awesome. 

[Ivefan]

No, its a bit different. At first glance you might feel it is the same but the game is rebalanced with some things cut out and others implemented. I recommend watching a lets play video but if you enjoyed the first one you'll probably like this one too

[javierpwn]

The weapons are kinda the same, except for the exo-suit which has a minigun/dual miniguns

Aliens have the:
Skulk:Basic unit crawls
Lurk: Flying unit with regular spikes, and poison bit( also can leave behind spores and Umbra buff)
Gorge: Builder/healer
Fade: Teleporter w/ ability to render enemies useless
Onos(Oh Noes!): Rhino-like alien with horn and stomp(can no longer eat people)



Aliens have a commander now,who choose "evolutions" for the alien side, and spread cyst chain, which spread the infestation
Infestation: Alien Turf, heal aliens slightly(more with regen upgrade), Marines cannot build on it.

Marines have to turn on power to build structures; can also build a Robotic Facility, which allows teh ability to create MAC's and ARC's

MAC: Repair drone
Arc: siege tank which can shoot through walls

[javierpwn]

Also the Aliens' hive can now be upgraded and allows for special Alien tech routes

Shade tech: invisibility/stealth
Crag tech: Health/healing
Shift Tech: Speed/energy

[Seraphim342]

So the ARCs are basically a mobile version of the siege turrets from NS1?  Do the xenos get a counter for that in NS2?  I remember most games around the end of my NS1 career basically devolved into Marines  basically turtling and creeping forward with siege guns and grenade launchers until they got to the hive.  If the xenos didn't win early they never won at all.  Has this been addressed? 

Also, no more Onos digestion?  Awww... IIRC, didn't it used to give a heal-over-time buff while the poor, luckless Marine sloshed around in there?

[Cthulhu]

From what I've heard the new setup means turtling is suicide for marines.  Eventually the aliens siege with onos and the humans won't have enough resources to fight them off.

[javierpwn]

ARCs are decently weak on their own,having low armor, but marines make a "train" of ARCs; they move until going into siege mode, then deal an AoE explosion to anything in their attack radius(and in sight)

Still skulk bites hurt arcs alot, gorge's bile-bomb shreds Armor,and the Onos' basic strike hurts alot,

[SalmonGod]

So... I've played a few rounds of this now... do marines ever win?  This game feels insanely unbalanced.

I've played two rounds as marine and one as alien. 

As marines I couldn't hit anything because the aliens hop around at light speed, and even when I could... well... I had a fade stand directly in front of me not even trying to dodge.  I shot it in the face point blank with a shotgun three times, and it didn't die.  Both games my score was incredibly negative, and marines got absolutely stomped.

My one round as an alien, I lept recklessly into groups of marines as a skulk and just hopped around like a super-flea on meth while holding down the attack button.  I had no idea what was going on during fights, yet I came out of it with a positive score.

I'm really disappointed.  I loved the original NS.  Played the hell out of it.  I think this one needs some time to mature.  Right now it's miserable.

[ConscriptFive]

So... I've played a few rounds of this now... do marines ever win?  This game feels insanely unbalanced.

About a month ago, they were rebalancing on a weekly basis.  I haven't played in abit, but if you wait a week, its a safe bet something will be retweaked.

Overall, its mainly about how good your commanders are.  If your commander can't keep up a timely and sensical build order, and support/command offensives, you're going to lose.  I've seen commanders totally own as one side, they switch sides the next match and still dominate.

NS2 is completely a team game.  Work on your basic skills, learn the absurdly complex maps (there are more skulk shortcuts than you can possibly imagine), pray for a good commander, and do what he says.  If you have a lazy/non-talker commander, just start following the guy next to you and consider it a "practice" match.

[werty892]

So... I've played a few rounds of this now... do marines ever win?  This game feels insanely unbalanced.

About a month ago, they were rebalancing on a weekly basis.  I haven't played in abit, but if you wait a week, its a safe bet something will be retweaked.

Overall, its mainly about how good your commanders are.  If your commander can't keep up a timely and sensical build order, and support/command offensives, you're going to lose.  I've seen commanders totally own as one side, they switch sides the next match and still dominate.

NS2 is completely a team game.  Work on your basic skills, learn the absurdly complex maps (there are more skulk shortcuts than you can possibly imagine), pray for a good commander, and do what he says.  If you have a lazy/non-talker commander, just start following the guy next to you and consider it a "practice" match.

Yeah, As marine, NEVER, NEVER, go anywhere outside your controlled areas alone. 1v1, skulks beat marines 90% of the time, but make that a 2v1, then you will 90% of the time get the skulk. And don't be surprised that your first couple of games you get owned. It has a real learning curve, unlike most FPS's You have to learn how to aim, how to track moving skulks, and yeah, fades are annoying. They have about 250 HP and with carapace they get 100 armor, so they are hard to kill, but if you focus fire you will kill them in no time flat. Also if you can catch them in a awkward position, that makes it a pretty much guaranteed kill. Also, people snowball reaaaaaly hard in this game. Usually, once a team starts winning, it doesn't stop, because res(resources) is everything. You got res? You can get anything you want. You have no res? You are fucked. The first 10 min of the game are the most important. Marines win late game if they can get dual exo's. But aliens win early and mid game because they can base rush since they are so fast. And because a skulk at the start of the game is way stronger than a marine at the same time. Just play. Also, veil is stacked for aliens now, anyone else thing that?

[Ivefan]

1v1, skulks beat marines 90% of the time, but make that a 2v1, then you will 90% of the time get the skulk.

I'd like to refute that.
It's primarily a matter of how the skulk attack the marines and secondarily skill difference . Drop down from the roof behind one or two marines and you might get them unless they dont miss at all.
run at them though a corridor and you generally die.

[werty892]

1v1, skulks beat marines 90% of the time, but make that a 2v1, then you will 90% of the time get the skulk.

I'd like to refute that.
It's primarily a matter of how the skulk attack the marines and secondarily skill difference . Drop down from the roof behind one or two marines and you might get them unless they dont miss at all.
run at them though a corridor and you generally die.

Well, yeah. But the point stands, skulks have the advantage over marines 1v1.

[SalmonGod]

Played two more rounds, for a total of 5.  Finally saw a marine win, and it was close.  I was alien for that one.  Heavies seem a ton stronger than they were in the original.  Once marines had them, we couldn't really do anything.

[Ivefan]

Once marines had them, we couldn't really do anything.

If the Suit goes alone then he generally dies. if an onos jumps it around the corner and starts circling it, the onos will win.
Theres a lot of things to consider with the suits because the majority of the playerbase just waste their resources with it.

[Jar of Jam]

If we have any European NS2 players here, we would love to have you at our daily gatherings over at http://steamcommunity.com/groups/NS2redditEU