Natural Selection (computer game)
From Free net encyclopedia
| Natural Selection {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Unknown Worlds Entertainment {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | October 31, 2002 (1.0) July 31, 2003 (2.0) March 5, 2005 (3.0) November 11, 2005 (3.1) |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | Windows {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
Natural Selection (NS, NaSe) is a modification for the computer game Half-Life. Its concept is a mixture of the first-person shooter (FPS) and real-time strategy (RTS) game genres.
The game was created by Charlie 'Flayra' Cleveland. Natural Selection v1 was first publicly released on Halloween 2002, and is as of November 2005 at version 3.1. Future releases are planned, including a port to the Half-Life 2 engine, but information on this and future updates has been scarce, leading some to believe that the mod has been abandoned. The official website has also been having problems for months now. Recently, the updates have resumed and current news updates were added.
The game features two teams: Kharaa (alien species) and Frontiersmen (human space marines). The alien vs. human conflict is a common science fiction theme, notable examples being the StarCraft game and the 1986 film Aliens. It should be considered that the visible Kharaa "units" are actually simply the spawn of the real Kharaa (aliens) which are microscopic life-forms according to the NS story line.
Contents |
Gameplay
The game is played via a first-person perspective. The Frontiersmen also have a single "Commander" or "Comm" player who may place buildings, issue movement orders, and grant upgrades from an overhead perspective (as in RTS games). The Kharaa have no commander, but instead have "Hive Sight" which allows them to see teammates anywhere on the map. Both teams are able to access a map screen which shows them the location of teammates and friendly structures during play. The commander mode is somewhat similar to the 'intelligence officer' in Global Operations in that they have an overview of the map- however the ability to place objects and control is much more extensive. A similar 'commander' mode would also be seen in Battlefield 2.
Frontiersmen tend to be the more popular choice, especially amongst less experienced players (or newbies) as it is generally regarded as easier to play. In many cases, this can result in much of the match having 1 extra Frontiersmen player. In extreme cases, multiple players may hang around the Ready Room waiting for someone to join the Kharaa or for a Frontiersman player to leave.
The game takes place on sprawling, complex maps which mostly represent spaceships or space stations built by the marines and invaded by the aliens.
A typical game can last anywhere from 10 minutes to more than an hour (for Combat mode this is often not the case for reasons discussed below), with both sides vying for control over strategically important Hive Rooms and Resource Nodes.
The game ends when one side has achieved the victory condition. For the Frontiersmen (marine) side, this usually entails destroying all alien hives (currently it is only possible for the alien side to control 3 hives), thus ensuring no further alien players may respawn and then hunting the rest down. For the Kharaa (alien) side, winning means destroying all marine "Infantry Portal", thus ensuring that they do not respawn and then eliminating the rest of the marine team.
The game can also automatically end due to stacking, if the game server has the relevant settings enabled. This feature also gives each team the ability to end the game automatically in a forfeit by exiting to the ready room (more commonly known as "F4-ing", due to the default button pressed to enter the ready room) if the other side is unnecessarily prolonging the game. One common example is when either side hides and refuses to come out when it is clear they can no longer win. However most of the time, "F4-ing" is frowned upon and is even a bannable offence in some servers (although in these servers, many of the problems which can result in a team wanting to "F4" are also bannable).
It is generally agreed amongst players and admitted by its creators that Natural Selection is not perfectly balanced, and that game balance tends to fluctuate with the total number of players. It is alleged that the game's resource distribution system is at its most even in a 6v6 match-up and this is indeed the way most clan matches are played. Most public games however have more players, with 8v8 or more. Certain servers even have up to 16v16 (the normal Half-Life limit). In public servers, 6v6 matches are frequently unbalanced anyway due the skill difference of players. The higher number of players tends to balance player skill out more evenly, although it is not perfect due to the preference for Frontiersmen. There is also the problem of "skill stacks", where a group of highly skilled individuals (such as a clan) stick together in one team.
There are two game modes in Natural Selection: Classic and Combat.
Classic
The Frontiersmen have a command chair through which one marine (the commander) plays the game like an RTS, with an overhead view. He is responsible for directing his team's orders, upgrades, buildings, and technology. He can not directly attack anyone and is immune to direct attack while in the command chair (although the command chair can be attacked). The rest of the team play through a FPS view, generally following the commander's orders. All new structures must be placed by the commander and completed by the marines in the field. The team has one common pool of resources, which is distributed solely by the commander. When a structure or marine is under attack, the command chair sends a message to the commander alerting him of the attack. It is then up to him to notify the marines and tell them how to respond.
The Kharaa do not have a commander but function more independently. Each alien plays through a FPS view, and generally manages his own roles and immediate objectives. Alien structures are created by players while in the "gorge" form. The aliens start with one active hive, randomly chosen from the 3 hive spots of the map. Active hives heal damaged aliens and respawn dead players. Without a hive, the aliens continuously take damage. When a structure or life form is under attack, the Kharaa Hivemind sends a message to all alien players, alerting them of the attack.
The general strategy of the Frontiersmen is to "lock down" key strategic points on the map i.e. hive rooms and double resource nodes locations. "Locking down" generally consists of sending a detachment of men to the desired area, dropping a resource tower in the area, placing a phase gate, and quickly following it with a turret factory and turrets. The Kharaa's main goal is to attempt to keep these areas clear from Frontiersmen incursions and defend their hives.
Either team may engage in "rushing", which is the rapid advance of one team onto a specific location of strategic value. At the very beginning of the game, the Frontiersmen (referred to as "marines") may try to "shotty rush" (rush with shotguns) the alien's hive for a quick victory, though such execution requires a lot of teamwork and individual skill of the players, and the failure of a shotty rush will almost always end in defeat. The aliens may try to "base rush" the marines before they have adequate time to properly establish their base.
Classic mode is balanced (or attempted to) so that marines with full upgrades, one hive locked down, and a portion of the resource nodes are equal in strength to aliens with the remaining map features under their control. This usually lends itself to long games anywhere from 45 minutes to over 2 hours. Some maps are even specifically designed with this stalemate in mind. Though if marines lose control of the third hive, they sometimes will play "defend to alamo" in which they will turret farm their main base with as many turrets as physically possible, equip every marine with heavy equipment, and camp in their base for as long as possible. This serves only to drag the game out longer, though usually marines are able to claim ultimate victory if they have a "ninja" (a jetpacker or light marine who sneaks past the alien's front to a hive location and builds a phase gate) who is successful. Though, in rare cases, this may restart the stalemate.
Siege maps
While not an extra game mode as such, "siege" maps have vastly different gameplay compared to standard ns_ (sometimes referred to as "classic") maps, requiring new strategies for both the Kharaa and Frontiersmen. The general idea of a siege map is for the Frontiersmen to hold back a Kharaa advance long enough for the siege room to open. Apart from the various scripted events and differing layout of the map, classic ns_ and siege maps are the same game mode.
Generally, a siege map has a Frontiersmen area (normally consisting of many rooms and corridors), linked to the Kharaa area by a door which opens at a time dictated by the map creator (contained inside the "door room"). Both areas have their own (often plentiful) resource nodes to allow instant expansion and research. The maps are named after an important feature; namely the siege room. This room borders onto the Kharaa's "hive room" (the room which generally contains all 3 alien hives), allowing a properly organised marine team to construct numerous siege cannons within range of the alien hives. The door to this room also opens at a specified time after the main door. This door may be located at numerous places; some maps have it at the marine's spawn location, at the main door room, and some have two entrances to allow alien players to access it at a different location. Siege maps are also infamous for their turret spamming, or "turret farming", when the marine team is defending. A tactic commonly used by the Kharaa on siege maps is to build a "siege wall", a row of defense chambers and movement chambers adjacent to the wall separating the siege room from the hive room. Then rushing as many advanced lifeforms as possible into the siege room without compromising the front. The result is kharaa in the siege room near the wall regain energy and health constantly making them considerably harder to kill. If the Kharaa successfully rush the siege room and destroy the structures within, a Kharaa victory is almost guaranteed. "Heavy Walls" are a direct counter to "Siege Rushes", relatively new to the game, they comprise of a large group of Heavy Armors standing on each others' shoulders, usually anchored onto an armory. When properly equipped with welders and heavy weapons it functions essentially like a stationary "heavy train". The wall is usually placed in a narrow corridor or at the siege door behind a turret farm preventing most advanced life forms from getting through. The tactic unfortunately requires a disciplined team and an experienced commander, limiting its usage on public servers.
The time of the opening of the doors is roughly 5 minutes for the main door and 15 minutes for the siege door(s). It is important to note that siege maps vary greatly in setup and door times differ, have no times, or in some cases doors are nonexistent. Due to the nature of siege maps the door room is usually held stubbornly by the Frontiersmen while the Kharaa rely mainly on hit and run tactics coupled with continuous bombardment of ranged attacks to wear down the marine defense. "The front", or the main area the Frontiersmen or Kharaa teams are engaged, is notable for the viciousness of the fighting that occurs over it. The Frontiersmen often build multiple "fronts" which they retreat to when the current "front" is overrun, in a mimicry of trench warfare. Multiple fronts serve two purposes the most obvious is to have a fall back point to continue to stall the Kharaa; the second is that they keep fast moving Kharaa out of the Frontiersmen base. Often fades or lerks will bypass the first defensive line in order to destroy Frontiersmen infrastructure such as phase gates and resource towers. In more extreme cases Fades will rush the Advanced Armory forcing the Commander to recall his team and give the Kharaa a few seconds to rush more lifeforms past or knock down important structures at the front.
Combat
The combat mode is more of a team deathmatch game than a strategy oriented one. It was introduced in NS 3.0.
Neither team can build buildings, the marines do not have a commander, and aliens can only have one hive. Each player purchases their own upgrades which they earn by the level they are on. To gain experience points, players either must deal damage to the enemy hive or command chair, heal their hive or command chair, or kill opposing team players. In the first four levels, if they are nearby a group who are killing players, they can also gain field experience for being in that area. If a player is level 2, and nearby players are level 8 or level 9, they can stay nearby and let the higher level players hit the front lines while they gain some experience. This is commonly called 'leeching'.
There have been various changes to the spawn system in the various betas to try and make matched more interesting and more winnable but also without making it such that a team that suffers a major loss of players can still come back. An admin configurable time limit (default 15 minutes) was introduced in beta 5 which remains in the final version. With the time limit, Marines are usually on the attacking side and Kharaa are on the defending site. Failure of the attacking side to win within the time limit results in a victory for the defending side. This has somewhat reduced the phenomena of both sides "camping" in their respective bases, unwilling to attack the other side.
It should be noted that even without the time limit, combat matches tend to be shorter.
It is occasionally criticized by diehard NS fans for abandoning the ideals of NS and bringing in too many "leet" CS type players. However it is still very popular, arguably more popular than classic amongst the general NS playing populace.
Frontiersmen
The commander can issue weapons, equipment and upgrades for the Frontiersmen.
Weapons
- Knife: used for melee attacks, doing 30 damage per swipe. It is a starting weapon held in the 3rd slot. It is generally used as a last resort (when other weapons are out of ammo) or for attacking alien structures without using up ammo. Sometimes when the hive counter has activated (all alien hives have been destroyed), it is custom to slay the last few aliens with this weapon, for a 'humiliation kill'.
- Pistol: a long range weapon that does 20 damage per shot. It is a starting weapon held in the 2nd slot. Highly accurate and quite powerful, with no shot spread. It is the weapon of choice when fighting in vents and over long distances when advanced weapons are not available.
- Light Machine Gun ("LMG"): the default starting weapon, held in the primary weapon slot. Deals 10 damage per bullet. It has a good rate of fire and is quite accurate.
- Shotgun ("shottie" or "SG"): fires 10 pellets at once, 5 in a 7 degree cone and 5 in a 15 degree cone, each dealing 17 damage. especially effective in close-quarter combat.
- Grenade Launcher ("nade launcher" or "GL"): a heavy assault weapon with high damage, a large blast radius, a low rate of fire and long reload time. It is useful against grouped aliens, webs and is especially destructive against alien structures. A common tactic is nade spamming, the practice of excessive launching of grenades to discourage alien attack or presence.
- Heavy Machine Gun ("HMG"): a heavy-duty version of the LMG, especially useful for sustained fire against alien life forms. It deals 20 damage per bullet (10 damage against structures), with a magazine size of 125 bullets, has an increased rate of fire (RoF), and has a long reload time.
- Welder: a support tool used to repair marine structures, marine armor, and to destroy webs. On many maps there are also specific points which can be welded to activate a particular action (such as closing vents or opening doors). Does 4 damage/second to enemies. This weapon is also used for a 'humiliation kill', but is more degrading due to its random firing and overly low damage.
- Mines: small explosive devices placed on the ground or walls. They detonate for large amounts of area damage whenever an alien comes in contact with them. They are most effective against lower life forms or retreating higher life forms and come 4 in a pack (or 1 per life in Combat).
- Hand Grenade ("Hot Dogs", "Hand nades", or simply "nades"): a hand-thrown explosive. Deals 80 damage at the point of the explosion and come 2 in a pack. Can only be obtained once at time of spawning.
Upgrades
- Armor Upgrade: has three levels, which progressively increase the effectiveness of armor and also increases starting armor points.
- Weapon Damage Upgrade: has three levels, each offering a 10% increase to damage inflicted.
- Motion Tracking Upgrade: allows Marines to visually track the Kharaa even through walls. Moving aliens are shown in-game as blue circles.
- Hand Grenade Upgrade: provides Marines with 2 grenades per life. You can not get more from the armory. Hand grenades are sometimes jokingly referred to as "hot dogs".
Equipment
- Med pack: dropped by the commander to restore the health of marines in the field.
- Ammo pack: dropped by the commander to provide additional ammo to marines in the field.
- Catalyst pack ("Cat pack" or "Crack Pack"): dropped by the commander to give a boost of firing speed to a marine for a short time. In combat mode, after getting that upgrade, you receive a cat pack whenever you kill an enemy, and it lasts for a short time.
- Jetpack ("JP"): allows a marine to fly. Thrust power is dependant on a limited energy reserve which recharges gradually. Also, actual thrust is calculated using the mass of the weapons and ammo he is carrying (more equipment = slower speed).
- Heavy Armor ("HA" or "Heavy"): an advanced piece of equipment that gives a marine a large boost in armor points, increased armor effectiveness, immunity to lerk spore attacks, and slowed movement speed. A common tactic is the "heavy train", a large group of HA-equipped Marines carrying welders and heavy weapons such as heavy machine guns or grenade launchers. Able to repair each other's armor and wielding massive firepower, only a well-coordinated alien team has a chance to stop them.
Structures
- Command Chair ("CC") (20 res): Used to provide a marine with the commander interface.
- Infantry Portal ("IP") (20 res): Teleports in new marines (essentially a respawn for dead players).
- Resource Tower ("RT") (15 res): Continually captures resources from a resource nozzle and adds it to the Marine pool. Can be electrified (30 res).
- Armory (10 res): Provides ammo/health and enables placement of nearby shotguns, mines, welders and the grenade upgrade.
- Advanced Armory ("AA") (30 res): An upgrade of the armory that also enables the building of heavy weaponry (HMGs and grenade launchers).
- Observatory ("OBS") (15 res): Gathers and provides extra intelligence, sends out a distress beacon which allows the commander to respawn or recall all players back to marine start instantly, and enables research of phase tech. Has the ability to scan an area in which it shows any lifeforms or buildings (even cloaked ones) at the cost of 20 energy. Has an 100 energy capacity.
- Arms Lab (20 res): Researches armor upgrades, weapon damage upgrades, and the catalyst pack upgrade.
- Prototype Lab ("Proto") (40 res): Enables advanced technology (specifically, heavy armor and jetpacks).
- Phase Gate ("PG") (15 res): A teleportation access point. A marine can use a phase gate to teleport to another phase gate.
- Turret Factory ("TF") (10 res): Enables placement and operation of nearby turrets. Can be electrified (30 res). Can be advanced (15 res).
- Turret (10 res): A stationary auto-firing gun that tracks and attacks enemies in its line of sight. A common tactic is "turret farming" where large amounts of turrets are placed in a small area to maximize their effect. A "turret plantation" is excessive turret farming with 6 or more turret factories.
- Siege Turret ("Siege") (15 res): A stationary auto-firing gun that attacks nearby enemy structures. It requires that the turret factory has been advanced. It can also fire through walls if the enemy structure is visible to the marine team via line of sight from a player or from an observatory scan.
Kharaa
Kharaa units may upgrade/evolve to other forms during play, which costs both resources and a short time delay spent gestating in egg form. Each form has a unique assortment of potential abilities, arranged in 4 slots (listed in order below). In Classic Mode (See Below), every hive enables a new ability slot. The slot 1 ability is always active; one hive provides slot 2, two hives provide slot 3 and three hives provide slot 4. In Combat Mode, access to slots 3 and 4 each require separate personal upgrades. All aliens also enjoy an innate regeneration of 2% health per second (will always heal at least 1 point of health or armor). Kharaa actually comes from the mongolian phrase 'look out!'
- The skulk form is a wall-walking light-combat class, effective at basic combat, stealth ambushes, and providing intelligence. All aliens spawn as skulks.
- Bite: a close-ranged bite that deals 75 damage.
- Parasite: attaches a parasite to a target at long range. A parasited target shows up on hive sight, revealing its position to all aliens through walls. Parasited buildings appear as a yellow shield, while parasited marines appear as a yellow circle. The attack also does 10 damage to marines (none to structures).
- Leap: the skulk jumps forward while thrashing its claws. Often used to quickly rush marines or transverse the map faster. The damage dealt by the leap is dependent on how long you stay in contact with the target during a leap. Maximum damage is 80 per leap.
- Xenocide: the skulk self-detonates, causing 200 damage from epicenter to nearby marines and structures, and pushing the marines away from the explosion.
- The gorge form is a vulnerable builder class, essential for constructing new structures and static defenses. Affectionately nicknamed the "fatty" gorges are usually targeted first even in the presence of more advanced life forms. Costs 10 Resources (or 1 point in Combat mode)
- Spit: a ranged attack which deals 30 damage to a single target. Can also be used to detonate mines.
- Healing Spray: a medium-range multiple attack which heals the gorge, other aliens and friendly structures for 13 + 2% of maximum hp hp. Also does 13 damage to marines (but no damage to marine structures).
- Bile Bomb: an arched, medium-range splash attack which deals 200 damage to marine structures (but does not damage marines)
- Web: targets a web marker point. A web line is automatically constructed between successive web marker points. Marines contacting a web get caught for a short while, during which they cannot fire their weapon and moving speed is greatly reduced. Webs can be destroyed by the welder or grenades.
- The lerk form is a flying support class, effective at disrupting enemies and enhancing teammates. The lerk can fly by tapping the jump button repeatedly or glide by holding the jump button. When gliding a lerk consumes no energy. Costs 30 Resources (or 2 points in Combat mode)
- Bite: a close-ranged bite that deals 60 damage
- Spore: creates a poisonous gas cloud which slowly damages marines, doing 7 damage every half second (unless they are protected by Heavy Armor).
- Umbra: creates a gas cloud which prevents 1 out of every 2 bullets from damaging anything within
- Primal Scream: gives nearby aliens, including the lerk, temporarily increased attack rate (30%), damage (30%), and energy recharge rate (60%).
- The fade form is a strong hit-and-run warrior class, very effective and versatile in general combat. Its health is quite limited, but it is very quick and a massive threat, according to the skill of the fade-player. Costs 50 Resources (or 3 points in Combat mode)
- Swipe: a close-ranged claw swipe that deals 80 damage
- Blink: the fade flies forward at an extremely fast speed (fastest way to travel in the game, aside from teleportation effects)
- Metabolize: heals self for 20 hitpoints and restores ~20% energy
- Acid Rocket: fires a rocket that deals 25 splash damage at the point of impact (does double damage against marine's armor)
- The onos form is a huge heavy-assault class, effective at absorbing damage and disabling enemies. Costs 75 Resources (or 4 points in Combat mode)
- Gore: a close-ranged horn attack that deals 90 damage (180 against structures).
- Devour: swallows a marine whole. The devoured marine is rendered helpless and slowly digested (until dead), while the onos gains additional regeneration(+3 health a second). The time spent digesting and health regenerated is proportionate to the amount of health the marine has at the time of being eaten. If the onos is killed or redeems before the devour process is complete then the marine is ejected, damaged but alive. Each onos can devour/digest only one marine at a time.
- Stomp: stuns all marines standing in front of the onos for one second. Marines with a jetpack are not affected.
- Charge: doubles the speed of the onos and damages everything it touches, while continuously draining energy. The effect does not end until the onos is out of energy.
A gorge may build offensive chambers which attack nearby enemies. A gorge may also build a hive. The hive is a respawn point and can only be built in certain locations predetermined by the map maker; also, each hive built allows the alien team to build one type of upgrade chamber. Kharaa upgrades become available for selection to the entire team when a gorge builds an upgrade chamber. Typically a poll is taken at the start of the game to choose the first chamber, then another poll is taken when a second hive is built. Kharaa players are allowed a total of three upgrades, with one type of upgrade for a specific upgrade chamber.
Defense chamber
Heals nearby Kharaa players and structures. Provides one of the following upgrades:
- Redemption: With each level, the hive will have a greater chance of pulling the player back when near death (i.e., the health display is in red.)
- Carapace: Each level provides more armor, increasing the amount of damage the player can take before dying. In the case of the skulk, the upgrade also slightly decreases the run speed.
- Regeneration: Each level forms a 3% life regeneration, based off the base health of the unit. The upgrade regenerates life every two seconds, and replaces innate regen.
Movement chamber
Replenishes the energy of nearby Kharaa units and teleports them to an active hive when used. Can also teleport to a building hive, if the hive is under attack. A widely used tactic is "movement rushing" where a hive is dropped by a gorge at a hive location that has been "locked down" allowing the team to teleport in and reclaim the area. Provides one of the following upgrades:
- Adrenaline: Each level will give an alien a 33% greater gain of energy regeneration, allowing an alien to use their abilities more.
- Celerity: With each level, the player will gain a boost in run/fly/blink speed. This speed boost lets the unit move around the map more quickly and makes it harder to hit in combat.
- Silence: Each level of this upgrade will drop the volume of noise made by the player by a third, up to complete silence when level 3, offering considerable ambush advantages.
Sensory chamber
Renders nearby Kharaa players and structures invisible, nearby Marines show up on scent of fear. Provides one of the following upgrades:
- Cloaking: Players moving faster than walking pace will gradually become more visible the faster they move, but only to a max visibility of 30%. Players using Cloaking upgrade will no longer be fully visible at any time unless attacking or being attacked. You have to wait 3 seconds after uncloaking before you begin to cloak again. Turrets will not fire at slow moving aliens (-> players with less than 10% visibility). Increased visibility for aliens moving at greater than normal moving speed (bunny hopping, gliding, etc.). They can walk very slowly and remain cloaked, however this is countered by an Observatory in NS mode, or Scan Area in Combat (CO).
- Focus: An alien's slot 1 attack will do more damage with each level, but RoF (rate of fire) will greatly decrease with each level. At level 3 the damage an alien's attack will inflict is doubled, but the RoF is halved. This is arguably one of the best upgrades available for skilled players, eliminating marines with a few well-timed attacks.
- Scent Of Fear (SoF): Marines will show up on hive sight, as red circles. Each level will increase the range that a marine will be seen from 600 units, to 1200 units, to 1800 units away.
- Pheromones (only in old versions): Provides vision of yellow spores left behind by any Marine movement.
- Enhanced Hive Sight (only in 1.0x): When alien flashlight is enabled, marine structures and players are illuminated.
Evolving
The Kharaa improve themselves with new evolutions, either different upgrades or new life forms. The upgrade system works differently depending on the game mode.
Classic NS
Players spawn as un-upgraded skulks. Upgrade evolutions do not cost resources. Evolutions are not retained after death or changing life forms; they must be upgraded again. There are a total of 9 upgrades, 3 from each of the strategic chamber structures: Defensive, Movement and Sensory. However, a player may only have a maximum of 3 upgrades, one of each type. This allows specialised strategies involving certain combinations of upgrades.
Evolving into advanced life forms cost resource points, and the cost to do so ranges with the life form to be evolved. Evolving from an advanced life form back into a skulk does not cost resources.
Combat Mode
All evolutions cost skill points. These skill points can be used to evolve life forms or upgrades. When a player has acquired the requisite amount of points for a specific life form, they may choose to spend on that life form. However, when a player dies, they will spawn as a skulk and any points they used for life forms are refunded. The player will then have to re-evolve to the life form of their choice, assuming they have sufficient skill points. A player may not evolve from one higher life form to another.
Evolving upgrades costs 1 skill point per upgrade (with exception of focus, which costs 2) and are retained after death. A player can evolve any of the 9 upgrades as many as they like as long as they have the skill points to do so. In combat, players can also evolve (or unlock) hive abilities, thereby receiving the corresponding third or fourth slot attacks. The third slot costs one skill point to unlock, while the fourth slot costs 2.
Combat mode servers often use two server-side additions- one which ads extra levels, and the other which allows structures to be built in Combat mode (Using points). Xtra Levels for the Marines includes for example- Cybernetics (Speed upgrade), Advanced Ammo Pack (higher capacity), Uranium ammo (damage increase for bullets). For the aliens things like thickened skin (more health), blood lust (more adrenaline), hunger (bonuses for getting kills), sense of the ancients (special upgrades depending on creature). Upgrades can sometimes be locked until a certain level is reached, or require another upgrade. For example, uranium ammo is often locked until level ten.
Buildings usually require a point. For aliens you must be gorge, and for marines, a welder, though not all servers require this. Marine structures usually includes just the phase gate, observatory, and turret factory and turrets- but not sieges or other upgrade structures. For aliens, the four main chambers, but not hives are usually used.
Modifications
Natural Selection is the most popular mod for Half-Life besides Counter-Strike. Several communities modified the mod with plug-ins. Most notably was the Voogru community, which has an entire modification/admin system [NSAdmin], coded by Spencer 'Voogru' MacDonald. Voogru was the first to implement a Shared Resource Pool for the aliens, a health-giving-armoury (medarmoury), night vision, Fireworks, Signs, recycling of alien structures, manual siege, Phase Select and Chat variables. Many people mistakenly believe some of his other plug-ins included LerkLift and MvMfix, which is incorrect. Later Voogru became part of the official Natural Selection mod team, introducing features such as the inate health regeneration.
modNS.org was a large collection of plugins and modifications for NS in existence, with close to 1800 registered users and 40 developers staffed. Server ops can find anything they need for either Metamod, AMX, AMX Mod X, AdminMod, or ClanMod, in addition to custom models and server side modifications. Though the site is now down as of 2006.
NS Language & Culture
NS has, like many game subcultures, spawned a large set up unique language and terms to describe and define events in the game and things related to it. In addition, it has also resulted in many song adaptations, usually paradodies of existing songs. For example, Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) was changed to Gorges just want to have fun. If I had a million res nodes is another. Such songs usually protected under parody laws. For example, a parody of Barbie Girl using Gorgy (i.e I'm a gorgie girl, in a gorgie world...) was made- a song that itself was protected by parody laws from Mattel suing about use of Barbie.
Some selected unique NS terms include:
- Double or dbl - a room on many maps with two res nodes, that usually gets called double regardless of other map names.
- F4ing - Leaving the game early. If there is an unbalance of 4 players, the game ends early, so this is generally frowned upon as poor sportsmanship, and many servers have rules against this practice.
- rage quit - When players (usually on a losing side) exit out of anger.
- eject spam - trying to eject all commanders or convincing others to eject the commanders regardless of how well they are doing in order to make the Frontiermen lose - Again, a practice which servers often have rules against.
- Knife/Flashlight of Peace - when a Marine is surrendering to the opposing team it is customary to drop all weapons, announce the surrender and run towards the Kharaa turning on and off his or her flashlight and brandishing his or her knife. Generally the surrender is honoured until all other Frontiersmen have been killed.
- HA and JP - heavy armor or jet pack upgrades from the prototype lab.
- HMG and SG - Heavy Machine Gun and Shot Gun, respectively.
- CC - Commander's chair (or in some maps, CC refers to computer core - a specific hive location)
- SC, DC, MC - Sensory, Defense, and Movement alien upgrade chambers
- BL - Bloodlust (a common combat mod that increases the strength of adrenaline)
- RR - Ready Room
- RT - Resource tower (classic only)
- HP - hit points
- Lork - A corruption of Lerk stemming from the phrase "Lork on the Clorf"
- MEDS - Med pack
- PG - Phase Gate
- SOF - Scent of Fear upgrade
- Portmanteaus using Onos and various slang. For example Pwnos and Ownos. Also combinations of Onos and upgrade names describing certain specializations or play styles. Cloaknos an Onos with cloak and silence that sneaks close to it's target. Stompnos or Spamnos for Onos that use the Adrenaline upgrade to stomp continuously to freeze players while teammates attack the helpless Marines. Eat and Runos for Onos that devour players then run away to heal and hide so the devoured player cannot be saved. Lerknos for certain mods that allow a Lerk with Adrenaline to pick up a Lerk thus using the onos as a meatshield for the Lerk.
- Heavy use of abbreviations and word shortening. For example res (usually pronounced 'rez') for resources. Maint for maintenance (location). Regen for Regeneration upgrade. Comm for commander and many similar shortenings. In fact, it is considered strange to actually call parts of the map by their full names (i.e ec instead of Eclipse Command, or Via West instead of Viaduct West Entrance).
Skin packs
There are a number of skin packs that are used with NS that can be used. These packs can be client side and normally do not interfere with anti-cheat things or normal game dynamics, but can offer a very different feel to the game. Since they are client side, people can all have different one- or they can be from the server. Some of the more famous ones include ones that make the mod look like the film Aliens or the anime Jin Roh. Many are just for certain parts, such as new sprites, or structures. A popular area is replacment firearms- for example a mode might make the light machine gun look like the MAC-10.
One famous skin pack was the Special Ops pack by SushiFX, which converted the marines to black clad- special ops type warriors- as well as re-skin and remodeling of many structures. The pack was quite popular because of its professional quality skins and models. A planned SpecOps 2 was planned, that was even more ambitious but was cancelled in 2004. The exact reasons are controversial, but it stemmed from a community fued and flame over various reasons, such as who would host specops 2 (NSarms lab, or another now defunct community site).
1.04
A minority of players hold the belief that the 1.04 version of Natural Selection was the best and that later versions made too many drastic changes to core gameplay mechanics. They contend that current versions focus less on strategy and team work and more on first-person shooter skills. They have been unsuccessful in convincing the development team of this. Though a 1.04 remake version of NS was released (not by the developers but by a third party), and is supported on steam. However, it is used only in LAN parties, due to the difficulty of its use.
See also
External links
- Official Natural-Selection website
- NSRadio, NS Community Net-Radio Station
- Mr|Community
- I AM Clan : Multigaming Clan (New NS servers)
- The Guns4Back2School Community
- The Voogru community
- Natural Selection Armslab Community
- 187 Combat Community
- The Lunixmonster NS community
- VPhoenix.net
- Tactical Gamer
- NSmod.org (formally modNS.org) - Mods and Plugins
- Mods Maps & Models for NS
- AusNS, The Australian Natural Selection Community
- Specialists Army Community
- megamuh.de - German Mirror for Client/Server Version
- Natural Selection: Territory Mod
- PfffNS, a UK-based community of NS players
- NS4ALL, the french Natural-Selection community
- Mark's Servers Community
- YO-Clan gaming communityde:Natural Selection
fr:Natural Selection no:Natural Selection pt:Natural Selection fi:Natural Selection sv:Natural Selection