Update 341 Released! — Natural Selection 2 News

Update 341 is now available on steam and includes multiple updates to maps and a bunch of bug fixes and tweaks to both the game and matched play. There are also additional updates to the balance which you can find in the in-game menu.

Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.

Changelog

Tweaks / Improvements

Death screen has been made smaller in overall size, hides when the map is opened, the fade to black lasts only 2 seconds, and the killfeed is no longer hidden. This should be more in line with the previous deathscreen experience over the years. Thanks everyone for your feedback on this feature!
Re-added text drop shadows to the in-game chat text elements.
Changed the text drop shadow rendering feature to fix severe FPS losses on certain graphics driver and hardware configurations. (Thanks, Axtel!)
Added Drop shadow text to damage numbers

Matchmaking Fixes and Changes

Individual players are automatically kicked from a lobby after 1 hour has elapsed without progressing the lobby state beyond Waiting for Players. This prevents long term AFK individuals propping up a potentially bugged lobby that acts as a trap for everyone else matching.
Fixed Steam Authentication potentially failing when waiting in a lobby for more than 30 minutes.
Fixed multiple players ending up being on an unassigned team and therefore being kicked from the server.
Fixed rare occurrence of a client not progressing through the lobby stages with everyone else.
Fixed a lobby failing when a server request returned error 500.
Fixed the Matchmaking Rewards menu’s Queue button being active all the time
Fixed Steam Offline status triggering too easily. It now counts down over multiple seconds before considering you having lost connection and can roll backward to a reset state over the same time frame if the offline status did not get reached. This ensures that a momentary loss of internet does not trigger kicking you from the game or lobby.
Fixed client script errors during certain lobby stages.
Fixed skill offset miscalculation between the teams [Drey]

Mod System Changes

Added an option to the create local server page to enable mounting UWE hotfix mods when creating a server.
Maps from non-active mods are now included in the Listen Server map list and are automatically mounted on the server when it is created.
Hotfix mods are no longer hidden in the menu mod list.
Duplicate Mod ID entries in a server’s map cycle are now handled properly.

Fixes

Fixed being able to receive Matchmaking invites while playing in a public server already.
Fixed Auric Clog not being able to be selected or used once unlocked.
Fixed Chroma Resource Tower not being able to be selected or used once unlocked.
Fixed when earning the Battle Gorge calling card, it's not available. And instead two items of Turbo drifter are granted.
Fixed a potential server crash when fetching hotfix mods fails.
Fix -game command line option not handling absolute paths for the Linux dedicated server.

Sounds

Client hitsounds files are no longer constrained by our file validation rules.

Maps

Biodome: (Thanks psyk!)
- Moved Agri RT to the north of Agri (New room, thanks Kash!)
- Increased height of small connection between Atmospherics and Scrubbers to nerf Armory blocks while arcing.
- Disabled Bridge-Agri jump (still possible with boosting or dropped structures).
- Reduced Cysts needed to Filtration from 5 to 4.
- Fixed LoS issue which enabled Railguns to shoot Atmospherics Hive from CO2 Scrubbers.
- Fixed structure placement exploits in Hydro.

Caged: (Thanks psyk!)
- Added a vent below the stairs between the Purification and Ventilation connection.
- Smoothed out movement below the walkway leading from Ventilation to Purification.
- Closed off the door a bit more coming into Ventilation from Purification and moved Pillars/Walls at that entrance (less space at sides) to make it harder for Marines to attack Ventilation from Purification PG.
- Added a Pipe/Crate combo so you can jump up on the higher level of Ventilation from the south side.
- Moved the Powernode in Ventilation to be less vulnerable.
- Created space between the scanner and container in Shipping.
- Added a glass hole at the northern entrance of Generator for building ARCs.
- Smoothed movement around that area below Generator.
- Added some obstacles into Monitoring.
- Marines can now get into the Lower Wasteflow ceiling vent using the barrels and doorframe to climb up.
- Added a ladder into the DAT-1 vent.
- Slightly scaled out the doorframe near the DAT-1 vent to make it easier to trick jump into the vent.
- Marines can now trick jump into the Sewer-Puri vent from Sewer.
- Removed collision from tons of tiny props.

Derelict: (Thanks psyk!)
- Added 5th techpoint in the middle of the map in Admin.
- Moved res node in Admin.
- More cover, thicker trees and other improvements to Plaza (smaller room).
- Added a few more cover spots here and there.
- Added vent between Flooded and Botany.
- Added additional route between Garage and Turbine.
- Added additional route between Geothermal and Flooded.
- Re-arranged the Truck/Container setup in the entrance of Garage / Alley. Can go through the right side of the truck, jump up the small crates; also broke the right yellow railing at the right entrance for more fluid gameplay.
- Added kinda vent between Glass Hallway and Biome.
- Added ladder at the pipe tower in Plaza.
- Changes to Administration to help Aliens against ARCs coming from Overlook:
  - Another window hole to bile or attack.
  - Lowered the vent on floor level to help (retreating) Gorges.
  - Put more crates into that ARC spot hallway to the right to remove some space for ARCs and to the left to give Gorges some cover to bile from range.
  - Smoothed out movement in those offices by rearranging/scaling the desks, etc. and using collision geo.
- Moved the entire Atmospheric Seeding location higher to reduce/remove elevation at both exits, which led to frustrating uphill combat for Aliens and made the long corridor even worse.
- Increased the height of the floor around the broken tree container prop and the RT in Nursery to remove awkward movement and collision due to height differences.
- Geothermal fixes:
  - Moved up the entire floor plane to reduce issues with height differences and techpoint being in a kinda pit.
  - Shrunk pipes above techpoint.
  - Blocked off the space above the ceiling pipes leading away from Geothermal and used for bile bomb abuse.
  - Removed ladders, you can use the rocks to jump up now.
  - Moved power node around the corner to be more protected from bile.
- Shrunk Western Entrance by 33%. Less negative space, less clutter needed to fill it, more fps.
- Changed the entrance between Western Entrance and Infested Corridor to be more interesting for gameplay and less of a long, straight line abused by well positioned Marines.
- Widened Infested Corridor and improved movement/combat.
- Removed vent from Western/Biome to Plaza.

Origin: (Thanks psyk!)
- Moved Ore RT into Generator; easier to defend from Ventilation and a good tunnel location for Biodome start. Also denies an RT to Marines, if they hold Furnace side, similar to how Maintenance is denied, if they hold Biodome side.
- Added more starting Cysts to Biodome Alien Start.
Tanith:(Thanks, Zavaro!)
- Increased height of Acidic-Access vent to make boosting more difficult
- Lowered floor of Fusion Core resource node to make cyst sniping harder
- Pipes in Computer Control-SatCom hallway have been broken so that players may more easily use them as an escape
- Chemical Transport’s south side now allows structures to be placed
- Ladder added to south side of Chemical Transport platform
- Western Entrance modified slightly to smooth out travel between Old Wing and Reactor Room
- Some fixes to areas where structures should not have been able to be placed
- Several stuck spots removed
Docking: (Thanks, Thesaltyseacaptain)
- Fixed exploit where marines could escape the map
- Fixed power issue in Locker Room

This announcement was written and published by the developers/publisher of Natural Selection 2 on Steam; it is mirrored here unedited for readability, with full credit and a link to the original above. © the respective rights holders. Rights holder and want it removed? Email us — we take it down promptly.