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Natural Selection is a popular modification for the award-winning game Half-Life. Its innovative 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 now at version 3.0beta5
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 movie Aliens.
Gameplay
The game is played via a first-person perspective. The Frontiersmen also have a single "Commander" player who may place buildings, issue movement orders, and grant upgrades from an overhead perspective (as in RTS game). 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 game takes place on sprawling, complex maps most of which are supposed to be 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, with both sides vying for control over strategically important map areas 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" structures, 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.
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.
There are two game modes in Natural Selection.
Classic
The Frontiersmen has a commander chair which the commander plays the game like an RTS. He is the one responsible for upgrades, buildings, technology, etc. although he can not directly attack anyone and is immune to direct attack while in the command chair. The rest of the team generally follows the commanders orders, and acts as they see fit. The marines spawn from an "infantry portal" which must be placed by the commander and built by the team. The team shares the resources, but only the commander can distribute them. 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 can chose their role. The aliens start with one hive which is their respawn area. The total amount of hives aliens can have in a map is three. Not each alien can build structures. Only the gorge lifeform can create more structures and upgrade buildings. Without a hive, the aliens continuously take damage. When a structure or lifeform is under attack, the Kharaa Hivemind sends a message to all alien players, alerting them of the attack.
Combat
The combat mode is more of a team deathmach game than a strategy oriented one. Neither team can build buildings, the marines do not have a commander, and aliens can only have one hive. Each player buys themself skills which they earn by the level they are on. To gain experience points, the players either must deal damage to the enemy hive or command chair, heal their hive or command chair, or kill the opposing team players. However in the first four levels, if they are nearby a group who are killing players, they gain field experience for being in that area. So 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 sometimes called 'leeching'.
Frontiersmen
The commander can issue weapons, equipment and upgrades for the Frontiersmen.
Weapons
- The pistol is a starting weapon and, perhaps suprisingly, a long range weapon. Highly accurate, with no spread to the shots.
- The light machine gun ("LMG") is the primary starting weapon, ideal for medium-range combat.
- The shotgun ("shottie" or "SG") is a powerful close-quarters weapon with a medium rate of fire which fires a large number of projectiles at once in a wide cone.
- The grenade launcher ("nade launcher" or "GL") has a high damage and large blast radius and a low rate of fire and long reload time. It is useful against grouped aliens and very good against alien structures. Another common tactic is nade spamming, the practice of unaimed launching of grenades to discourage alien attack.
- The heavy machine gun ("HMG") is useful for sustained fire against advanced Kharaa lifeforms, but has a penalty against structures.
- The welder is a support tool, used to repair marine structures, marine armor, and to destroy webs. On many maps there are also specific points which require welding to activate a particular action (such as opening a door). It does very low damage against enemy units.
- Mines are small devices placed on the ground or walls to deter Kharaa lifeforms. They detonate and do large amounts of damage when an alien comes in contact with them. They are most effective against lower lifeforms and come 4 in a pack (or 1 per life in Combat).
- Each Marine can carry one Grenade with him. It's like a single grenade of the grenade laucher, but with a lower range.
Upgrades
- The armor upgrade has three levels, which progressively increase the effectiveness of armor and also increases starting armor points.
- The weapon damage upgrade has three levels, each offering a 10% increase to damage inflicted.
- The motion tracking upgrade allows the Marines to track the Kharaa. Moving aliens are shown in-game as blue circles.
- The hand grenade upgrade provides marines with a single hand-thrown grenade per life.
Equipment
- Med packs can be dropped by the commander to restore the health of marines in the field.
- Ammo packs can be dropped by the commander to provide additional ammo to marines in the field.
- Catalyst packs ("Cat packs") can be dropped by the commander to give a boost of 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.
- The jetpack ("JP") is an advanced piece of equipment that gives a marine the ability to fly for short periods of time.
- The heavy armor ("HA" or "Heavy") is an advanced piece of equipment that gives a marine a large boost in armor rating but makes the wearer slower and gives a distinctive sound when walking. A popular tactic of public servers 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.
Kharaa
Kharaa units may upgrade/evolve to other forms during play. All Kharaa units except the gorge have melee attack attack as their primary weapon. In Classic Mode (See Below) at every hive after the first each species of Kharaa gets a new ability. Thus at 1 hive they have their slot 1 attack and their slot 2 attack. At the 2nd hive they gain their slot 3 ability and at the 3rd, and final, hive they gain their slot 4 ability. In Combat Mode, gaining access to slots 3 and 4 each require separate personal upgrades.
- The skulk is the starting unit, able to climb walls and parasite enemy units, revealing their locations to teammates. Slot1: Bite, Slot2: Parasite, Slot3: Leap, Slot4: Xenocide.
- The gorge is a basic unit, key in that it is the only one that can build new buildings for the Kharaa team. Slot1: Spit, Slot2: Heal Spray, Slot3: Bile Bomb, Slot4: Web.
- The lerk evolution is a fast but fragile flying unit with a gas cloud attack that damages enemies. Slot1: Bite, Slot2: Spore, Slot3: Umbra, Slot4: Primal Scream.
- The fade evolution is a tough warrior unit which can blink from one point to another, moving extremely quickly. Slot1: Slash, Slot2: Blink, Slot3: Metabolize, Slot4: Acid Rocket.
- The onos evolution is a large alien which does double damage against structures and has the devour ability, which "eats" a Marine, taking him out of play for a time as well as healing the onos. Slot1: Gore, Slot2: Devour, Slot3: Stomp, Slot4: Charge.
A gorge may build offensive chambers which damage nearby enemies and can eventually kill them. A gorge may also build a hive. The hive is a respawn point and can only be built in certain locations; 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.
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: Every two seconds, the player will regain a certain amount of health/armour that has been lost, depending on the level of upgrade.
Movement chamber
Replenishes the energy of nearby Kharaa units. 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 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. Provides one of the following upgrades:
- Cloaking: Any kharaa will become nearly invisible (95%). A very observant marine can still spot one moving about. Each level also decreases the amount of time needed to cloak, from 3 seconds, to 1.5 seconds, to 1 second. 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. The downside is the RoF (rate of fire) will also greatly decrease with each level. At level 3 the damage an alien's attack will inflict is doubled, but the RoF is more than 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.
Evolving
The Kharaa improve themselves with new evolutions, either different upgrades or new lifeforms. The upgrade system works differently depending on the game mode.
Classic NS
Players spawn as un-upgraded skulks. All evolutions cost resources (obtained by building resource towers on resource nodes). Evolutions are not retained after death; they must be upgraded again.
Players may evolve upgrades by spending a small amount of resource points. 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 lifeforms also cost resource points, and the cost to do so ranges with the lifeform to be evolved.
Combat
All evolutions cost skill points. These skill points can be used to evolve lifeforms or upgrades. When a player has aquired the requisite amout of points for a specific lifeform, they may choose to spend on that lifeform. However, when a player dies, they will spawn as a skulk and any points they used for lifeforms are refunded. The player will then have to re-evolve to the lifeform of their choice, assuming they have sufficient skill points. A player may not evolve from one higher lifeform 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 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.
Modifications
Natural Selection is a very popular mod for Half-Life. Several communities modified the mod, with plugins, most notably was the Voogru community, which has an entire modification/admin system, coded by Spencer 'Voogru' MacDonald. Voogru was the first to implement a Shared Resource Pool for the aliens, a health-giving-armoury (medarmoury), nightvision, Fireworks, Signs, recycling of alien structures, manual siege, Phase Select and Chat variables.
Other plugins were LerkLift, MvMfix, besides the many voogru plugins whose concept was used for similar plugins.
See Also
External links
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