Natural Selection

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Natural Selection is a half life mod. It combines real time strategy and FPS games in an awesome world of aliens vs space marines. I played it basically non-stop for two years before taking a yearlong hiatus. Now I am playing again, so I thought I would tell you guys about it.http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ a fantastic game, with exceptionally good art and graphics(puts all other HL engine mods to shame). If you play, I go by the name.....(you guessed it) MajesticTreeFrog.Try it, I promise you will be hooked.

[kurt18th 0]

I agree. NS has to be one of the best mods ever made for HL. If Valve was still situated on HL instead of HL2 they would probably buy the rights to NS just like they did with Day of Defeat.

[redsox58 0]

I tryed playing it for awhile but I just could not figure out what the hell I was doing what so ever. That was a huge turn off for me. It wasn't all bad though because I must've liked it suffeciently enough, because I played it alot wanting to know what was going on.

[Killer008r 0]

I agree. NS has to be one of the best mods ever made for HL. If Valve was still situated on HL instead of HL2 they would probably buy the rights to NS just like they did with Day of Defeat.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sorry to say but they didn't do that with DoD, They did it with CS, DoD was an idea that one of the devlopers came up with. Ns is a really fun game they took their style from a custom map made from probaly the best HL mod out there (Except for HL itself and CS) The mods name is none other than Sven Co-op which is what it says it is (Cooperative) Sven is currently working their wonders on HL2 and it look Wonderful. True you can look on my Xfire and say I have played all of thoes mods SO SO MUCH (the link is : http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) Download Xfire wile your at it it is a good program for gamers. My account is obvisouly Killer008r.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

I tryed playing it for awhile but I just could not figure out what the hell I was doing what so ever. That was a huge turn off for me. It wasn't all bad though because I must've liked it suffeciently enough, because I played it alot wanting to know what was going on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Its true that NS is very non-friendly to new people, mainly because it is so complex.

 

If you are marines, you kill aliens, build structures, and eventually try and kill the alien hive(when you can). To do this, you work together and follow the orders of one of the players called the commander, who sits in the command chair and has a tactical overhead view of the entire map.

 

 

 

If you are an alien, you start as a skulk. A small, doglike creature that bites things(marines). Your job is to kill marines and try not to die. You can also mutate into other aliens such as the gorge(builder), Lerk(flying alien), Fade(broken badass class that needs fixing), and Onos(giant rhino type alien, also broken, but less so than the fade).

 

Aliens have hives. There are three on each map. You start at one of them randomly, and will want to colonize the other two(getting more hives means you can build more upgrades for the aliens).

 

Aliens have chambers, of which there are three types: Defense, Movement, and Sensory. Each Chamber unlocks 3 abilities, of which you may choose ONE per life. You may choose one power from each of chambers you have built. Finally, each chamber has 3 levels, which is determined by the number of chambers built anywhere on the map(level 1 for one chamber, level 2 for two chambers...etc. More than 3 do not add levels). In addition, each chamber has some effect on the surrounding area. Defense chambers regenerate health, Movement regenerate energy(sorta like ammo) and can teleport you to the farthest hive or, if one is under attack, to the attacked hive, and Sensory cloak any nearby aliens(making them invisible).

 

 

Marines build structures. Infantry portals spawn Marines. When you die, you will respawn wherever an infantry portal exists. Marines will spawn as many at a time as there are infantry portals, up to 3. The next relevant structure is the armory. The armory can be used to get ammo for weapons and may be upgraded by the commander to allow better weapons such as grenade launchers and Heavy Machine guns. There is also the Observatory. The observatory gives the marines access to a number of upgrades: motion tracking (allows you to see aliens anywhere on the map if they move by a blip on your screen), Distress beacon (immediately either spawns or teleports all marines to the marine base), and Ping (used to guide seige cannons).

The next important structure is the arms lab. The arms lab allows the marine commander to purchase upgrades to armor and weapons. These are permanant upgrades to existing weapons, not new weapons (unlike the armory). Thus, your bullets do more damage and it takes more alien bites to kill you. Finally, there is the prototype lab. The prototype lab gives the marines the best technology they have available: Heavy Armor and Jetpacks. Heavy Armor is a thick exoskeleton of armor with self contained breathing aparatus(thus making you immune to spore clouds when wearing it). Wearing HA, you are VERY hard to kill. The jetpack allows limited flight with a recharging jet booster on your back. This allows a marine wearing one to move very quickly and agily provided he can control the jetpack. You can either wear a jetpack or the HA, but not both.

 

Victory is achieved when all of the members of one of the teams are permanently dead. That means everyone is dead and there are no spawning structures in existence (infantry portals or hives).

 

 

Hope that helps

[zorlen 0]

Trust me. Natural Selection is one of the better HL mods out there. I like to think of it as almost a first person Starcraft. Here, stratagy is key. I won't go into detail because Magestic frog already did so, at least on the NS maps. With version 3.0 there's combat maps now. These maps, which have the co_ prefix, are much faster paced than the classic mode and also more accesible to new people. In combat maps there are only a few structures and no more can be built. The maries start with their Command chair and an armory or two, while the Aliens, known as the Kharaa only get a single hive. As you kill things and/or damage the hive or Command chair, you get experience. When you "level up" you will get a skill point to invest in the upgrades from the classic mode, such as stronger weapons, better equipment, jetpacks and constant resupply for the marines and new evolutions and abilities for the Kharaa. In most servers, the level cap is 10, so you can't get everything, and some upgrades coist more than one skill point, ie heavy armor, jetpacks, focus, the ability in your 4th slot and the race evolutions. Some servers have server mods that can raise the level cap and and extra abilities for more diversity. There are even marine vrs marine combat maps, though I'm not sure about kharaa vrs kharaa.All in all, Combat mode is fun for a quick fix while classic mode is for the depth of stratagy and rewarding experience. Well, that was my two cents, I hope this helps.

[kurt18th 0]

I'm sorry to say but they didn't do that with DoD, They did it with CS, DoD was an idea that one of the devlopers came up with. Ns is a really fun game they took their style from a custom map made from probaly the best HL mod out there (Except for HL itself and CS) The mods name is none other than Sven Co-op which is what it says it is (Cooperative) Sven is currently working their wonders on HL2 and it look Wonderful. True you can look on my Xfire and say I have played all of thoes mods SO SO MUCH (the link is : http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) Download Xfire wile your at it it is a good program for gamers. My account is obvisouly Killer008r.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh sorry. I did not know this. I knew they had done it with CS but I thought it had been the same thing with DoD. I never really play DoD much anymore. Maybe if I did I would have known, or maybe if I just payed more attention.

[Glockmeister1405241492 0]

Oh sorry. I did not know this. I knew they had done it with CS but I thought it had been the same thing with DoD. I never really play DoD much anymore. Maybe if I did I would have known, or maybe if I just payed more attention. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First of all, NS would always remain free. Flayra's already said that. It a mad game, but a very steep learning curve. For newbies, I'd recomend people download [url=http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

NS:Source, I'm definately looking forward to that too.

[Solus 0]

Natural-Selection is a VERY addictive game. I started to lose interest in this game about a month ago, after having played the game for around 2 years. I moved onto a game called Planetside. But, recently I have had my interest rekindled by the final's match I am in for Natural-Selection.While I was in the finals, I wasn't interested as I was no longer finding it fun. But with the extremely competitive level that the opposing team (FeX) is putting up, I am starting to get back into this game.For those perhaps interested in playing this game, the second half of the finals I am in (Found at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) will be played 15th May.I would also recommend that website for anyone within Australia who may be interested in playing. It is currently the largest Australian community for Natural-Selection.My final point. When I first played this game, I became quickly addicted. I had just finished a game of CS which I was sorely disappointed in. Deciding to figure out what this game called "NS" was, which appeared on Server Query (An old Server-Browser), I quickly downloaded it and joined a server. The teamwork was amazing. Everyone was communicating and using microphones in a non-spamming way. The commander was directing his marines around and being totally unaware of my surroundings in NS, I started wandering off only to quickly die. This repeated a few times before I decided to follow another marine. Sure enough, we lasted longer and actually made ground. This teamwork was a first for me, where you could not single handedly make or break a game as you could in counter-strike.So as a tip, don't be put off by a few bad games if you stumble across them. I definetely recommend playing marines first (Avoid commanding and aliens to start off with as these are unfortunetely have a steep learning curve) and after a few games move onto aliens or try something else. Just remember to listen to the commander and stick with a team