NS - Natural Selection (HL Mod)

[eesx]

Just wondering if anyone plays? Its a free beta (pretty stable, good version now, and NS2 is apparently on the books) for Half Life (HL1, the original) so I think anyone with Silver/Gold HL2 package can play it, or just HL.

Its a team based game, aliens v marines, with two gameplay types.

COMBAT
Basically head to head fps killfest, with upgradeable equipment and little/no teamwork required. 15 minute matches and a decent variety of maps make it a good quick fix. Anyone looking to play classic should maybe start with combat.

CLASSIC
Way more strategic, this game is about resource control and holding areas.
The original mode, either side starts with limited resources, and must contest for a map's resource points, choke points and special locations (aliens can build an additional 2 hives (spawn points) once they have resources to do so, allowing them to obtain further upgrades)
in order to win.

The main feature of classic is the 'Commander' position. The commander voluntarily gives up his FPS view for a top down, RTS (real time strategy) view where he can place structures and issue orders to the marine team.

Other marines (and this is where pub servers can suck) need to follow orders and have confidence in their leader for long periods - games can be over 2 hours in my experience - as the commander is the only person who can place structures, upgrade marine equipment, and give out armour and weapons.


Aliens begin as the lowest creature form, a skulk, able to move on walls and ceilings, biting marines. As the game progresses, skulks (and the more advanced forms) can be upgraded by the building choices of other players.
Aliens have, from start, the option to morph into a builder creature (Gorge) who can place resource nodes and all other structures independently. Again, pub can suck when you have a team full/empty of Gorges.

Without going into too much detail - and the game really isnt as complex as it sounds here; you can spend all your time munching marines or splattering the little buggers with shells - its a fun game, even on pub.

The idea that we could possibly field a team for regular play, or muck around on the pub servers, sounds good to me :P

Again - free download if you have HL1, or the retroactive HL2 Silver/Gold package.

Gamearena peoples
[web:c0d93c960f]http://www.gamearena.com.au/files/details/html/13578[/web:c0d93c960f]

Non-Gamearena peoples, Australia
[web:c0d93c960f]http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/13578[/web:c0d93c960f]

Official website
[web:c0d93c960f]http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/[/web:c0d93c960f]

Apologies if this has been posted before - the file date is Sept. of last year, but I checked the official website, and its still the latest ver. Did a couple of searches. 'natural selection' and 'NS' and couldnt find anything.

PS Anyone interested, please, feel free to PM or post here.

[Sloffe]

Yeah I play this a fair bit through steam, there's still plenty of servers around running it. A good game though I struggle with the aliens as they're a bit too quick-paced for me. If you want something different try the Sven Coop or Rat mods for HL.