Natural Selection (computer game)

For the biological process, see natural selection.

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 May 2006 at version 3.1.3. Future releases are planned up to 3.2, including a port to the Source (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 Natural Selection website forums and the constellation money donation system has been disabled months now due to hacking. In the mean while, sporadic news updates have are added as well as updates to Natural Selection.

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.

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. Instead any player can morph into a builder alien, and coordination is facilitated with the "Hive Sight" feature, which allows 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.

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 Portals", 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", as this is 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, "F4-ing" is occasionally 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 to 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 game mode

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.

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 the 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.

Strategies

In organized play, the current incarnation of Natural Selection primarily revolves around the second Alien hive. If the Aliens can successfully defend their second hive, then they gain access to a second chamber, in addition to 2nd hive abilities, which provide a large advantage. Thus, Frontiersmen typically attempt a hive assault while the second hive is in construction. Often, they will attack the hive in construction, since aliens are unable to spawn from that hive until it is completed (Although movement chambers can partially negate that disadvantage). Prior to the construction of the second hive, Frontiersmen typically send off "pressure teams" to limit alien resource income and technology and attempt to capture resource nodes for a resource advantage. Likewise, the Khaara juggle their time between defending against marine incursions and destroying Frontiersmen resource towers. Sometimes the Frontiersmen will "lockdown" an important location (Such as a hive room or double resource nodes), most often by dropping a phase gate followed by mines, electrification, and/or a turret factory to fortify the area.

Frontiersmen gain ground through either sieging, rushing, or a combination of both. Sieging consists of using siege cannnons to remove alien presence by destroying the structures. In its most basic form, Frontiersmen attempt to hold a location where they can build siege cannons within range of the alien structures until the siege cannons can remove the alien infestation. Siege cannons do not need a line of sight, but it can only fire at any known alien structures within range. Usually, the structures are revealed by a sonar ping from the commander, or in some cases, by a marine player's direct line of sight. Rushing is directly advancing into enemy territory and destroying their structures and lifeforms. Often, a commander will recall and reorganize his/her team with an emergency beacon, and drop equipment before attempting either. A particularly cunning commander might even set-up a siege at one location as a diversion, order rush on another location, then return to the sieging site.

Barring special circumstances and/or highly uneven distribution of skill, if the second hive construction fails, the Khaara are in a bad position and will most often lose the game. If it succeeds, their higher lifeforms are usually adequate to defend their territory and push the Frontiersmen back.

Public servers typically see more variation in strategy than private ones. Some of these strategies involve early game Shotgun rushes, where the Frontiersmen team is all equipped with shotguns and attempt to destroy the alien hive in an all-or-nothing attack. Another common alien counterpart is gorge rushing, where gorges drop Offense Chambers and other structures near or inside the marine base. This has particularly increased in effectiveness since NS v. 3.1.2, where gorges gained the ability to heal themselves with healspray. To make this even more effective 3 movement chambers are usually built prior to the rush and the adrenaline upgrade researched.

An important part of Natural Selection is the "technology race", as better technology allows more effective map control, which translate to a higher resource flow, which once again lends to more technology. Alien technology is limited by the amount of hives the team possesses, while Marine technology is provided by their structures. Movement chambers are widely considered to be the best chamber for the first hive, while for Marines, Armor 1 serves as one of the first upgrades. However, these can vary wildly due to team and player preferences. Each technology has a counter to it - for example, Weapons upgrades counter the Defense Chamber tree of Alien upgrades, while Jetpacks would be countered by a Gorge's 3rd hive ability, web.

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 factory 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 game mode

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. 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" Counter-Strike type players (meaning, players that can usually aim and kill well, but are incapable of the strategy required for "classic"' games.) However it is still very popular, arguably more popular than classic amongst the general NS playing populace.

Tactics

Bunnyhopping: Bunnyhopping is an advanced skill that takes advanage of the small acceleration provided by turning in the Half-Life engine. While considered by many to be an exploit in many other games, Bunnyhopping is considered a part of the game by most Natural Selection players. It allows players to reach speeds higher than those that can be normally obtained. Alien lifeforms can bunnyhop on nearly all surfaces, while Marines are more limited in their movements. In it's most basic form, bunnyhopping is done by jumping, holding the strafe key towards a direction while simultaneously turning in that direction, then right before landing, changing the strafe direction, jumping immediately upon contact, and turning in the new strafing direction. Skilled bunnyhoppers can obtain speeds just over 1.7 times those of a player who does not. Due to the difficulty in timing jumps, some players use jumping scripts (Which attempt to jump multiple times with the press of one button), while others rely on mousewheels. Bunnyhopping can be incorporated with other techniques, such as crouch-jumping.

Pancaking: This is when Lerks rapidly change their velocity in the vertical axis. Because many players are not accustomed to their targets moving in three directions so freely and hitbox lag associated with the Half-Life netcode, "pancaking" Lerks can prove very difficult to hit, even to veteran players. This too is often aided by scripts.

Blocking: This is when objects are interposed between an opponent and their destination in an attempt to halt or delay their opponent; it is most often done by the Frontiersmen against higher Khaara lifeforms to prevent or delay their escape, either with players or structures. It should be noted that Commander Chair blocking is against the rules in many servers.

Hiding: This is a common response to players realising their team has almost lost the game. For the aliens this means evolving to gorge and finding an out of the way place (e.g in ventilation shafts) in which to build the defense chambers that will keep them alive after the hives have been destroyed. Stillness is also essential to prevent detection by motion tracking. The marines may try to build a new command centre and infantry portal unless there are no resources remaining (in which case 'one man missions' are the preferred option). In unusual cases aliens or marines have been known to be adopted as pets by the other team once they have been 'found', rather than instantly killed. Ultimately, although hiding never achieves anything other than prolonging the game, it is amusing for both teams and usually seen as showing the right game spirit. Some maps are even designed with this tactic in mind.

Recycling: This is the practice of recyclying marine structures (resulting in a 70% return of resources for a successful recycle), and is usually used during gameplay in an attempt to recoup resources or get rid of structures that are no longer needed. Many commanders also use the recycle ability to speed up the endgame process, although this is frowned upon in many servers and may result in a ban.

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 base damage per bullet, with 10 bullets per clip and a maximum of 30 bullets in reserve. 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 base damage per bullet, with 50 bullets per clip and a maximum of 250 bullets in reserve. 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 base damage. The shotgun holds 8 shells per "clip", with a maximum of 40 shells in reserve. 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. The grenade launcher deals 125 base damage (double against structures), holds 4 grenades per clip and has a maximum reserve of 30 grenades. 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 base damage per bullet (half against structures) and has a clip size of 125 bullets with a maximum reserve of 250 bullets.
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 very little damage to enemies. This weapon is also used for a 'humiliation kill', and it is even more degrading than the knife due to its overly low damage.
Mines: small explosive devices placed on the ground or walls. A mine detonates for 125 damage, with area effect, when an alien comes in contact or the mine is attacked. Mines 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", "pocket rockets", "tampons", or simply "nades"): a hand-thrown explosive. A hand grenade deals 80 damage at the point of the explosion (double to structures). Once hand grenades are researched, each marine spawns with two, but they cannot be replenished once used.

Upgrades

Armor Upgrade: has three levels, which progressively increase the 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 cannot 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). The JP also gives a player the ability to fly backwards quickly while firing, which is not normally possible for marines.
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). Each IP spawns a marine every 10 seconds, so multiple IPs lead to a faster marine spawn rate.
Resource Tower ("RT") (15 res): Continually captures resources from a resource nozzle and adds it to the Marine pool. Can be electrified (30 res). Captures 15 res per minute.
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). Unlocks prototype lab, upgrade lost if armoury destroyed.
Observatory ("OBS" or 'Bacon Machine") (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 and motion tracking. 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 cannon 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 life forms

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!'

Kharaa skulk

The skulk form is a wall-walking light-combat class, effective at basic combat, stealth ambushes, and providing intelligence. All aliens spawn as skulks.
1. Bite: a close-ranged bite that deals 75 damage.
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. Xenocide: the skulk self-detonates, causing 200 damage from epicenter to nearby marines and structures, and pushing the marines away from the explosion.

Kharaa gorge

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. They are often associated by players as "cute and cuddly" due to their often innocent and defenseless nature. Costs 10 Resources (or 1 point in Combat mode)
1. Spit: a ranged attack which deals 30 damage to a single target. Can also be used to detonate mines and activate switches.
2. 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).
3. Bile Bomb: an arched, medium-range splash attack which deals 200 damage to marine structures (but does not damage marines)
4. 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.
5. Babblers (Only in 1.0x versions): Releases a lesser version of the skulk that is computer controlled. It will bite any enemy that is nearby and use a weaker version of Xenocide on death or after a certain duration. A Gorge can release many Babblers in a short amount of time.

Kharaa lerk

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)
1. Bite: a close-ranged bite that deals 60 damage
2. Spore: creates a poisonous gas cloud which slowly damages marines, lasting 6 seconds and doing 7 damage every half second (unless they are protected by Heavy Armor).
3. Umbra: creates a gas cloud which prevents 1 out of every 2 bullets from damaging anything within.
4. Primal Scream: gives nearby aliens, including the lerk, temporarily increased attack rate (30%), damage (30%), and energy recharge rate (60%).
5. Spikes (Currently unused): Launches two spikes that deal 16 damage on impact. The rate of fire is fast and the projectiles hit instantaneously. Firing spikes does not reveal the position of the lerk, but instead makes a spooky tic-tic-tic sound at the target.

Kharaa fade

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)
1. Swipe: a close-ranged claw swipe that deals 80 damage
2. Blink: the fade flies forward at an extremely fast speed while consuming energy
3. Metabolize: heals self for 20 hitpoints and restores ~20% energy
4. Acid Rocket: fires a rocket that deals 25 splash damage at the point of impact (does double damage against marine's armor)

Kharaa onos

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)
1. Gore: a close-ranged horn attack that deals 90 damage (180 against structures).
2. 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.
3. Stomp: stuns all marines standing in front of the onos for one second. Marines with a jetpack (and are in the air) are not affected.
4. 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.
5. Paralyze (Only in 1.0x versions): Paralyzes a single target marine within range. The paralyzed marine can shoot but cannot move for a duration, was useful against jetpacking marines.

Kharaa organic upgrades

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. Sometimes a poll is taken (unofficially) 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 reduce the volume of noise made by the player progressively up to complete silence with 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: Offers complete invisibility for players moving at walking speed or slower, with progressively increasing opacity as speed increases beyond this. Any attack by or on a cloaked player decloaks him completely, and each level of the upgrade decreases the amount of time the user must wait after such an action before he begins to cloak again, down to a minimum of 3 seconds at level 3. Observatories and scanner sweeps will also decloak all aliens within their radii. Turrets will not fire at aliens with less than 10% opacity.
Focus: An alien's slot 1 attack will do 33% more damage with each level, but the delay between attacks will increase by 50% per level. Thus, at level 3 the damage an alien's attack will inflict is doubled, but the rate of fire is dropped to two fifths. 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 outside the user's line of sight will show up on his hive sight as red circles. Each level increases the range inside which marines are detected by 600 units, starting at 600 units at level 1.
Pheromones (only in 2.0x versions): Provides vision of yellow markers left behind by any Marine movement.
Enhanced Hive Sight (only in 1.0x): When alien flashlight is enabled, marine structures and players are also illuminated.

Kharaa organic structures

The Kharaa structures in addition to the defense, movement, and sensory chambers described above are all organic structures as opposed to the mechanized Frontiersmen structures. Additional Kharaa structures include the hive, resource chamber, and offense chamber. All structures must be built by gorge with enough resource points. Unlike marines structures, all alien structures are self-building, i.e. the structures will deploy. The gorge player is the only player that can also help build and expedite the deployment process.

Kharaa hive

The Kharaa hive allows the aliens to spawn. Each hive respawns an alien every 7 seconds. However, this respawn time is decreased for teams larger than 6. As the more hives are built, this time is increased, so at 3 hives the respawn rate is the same as a 6 player game. The hive has 7000 hitpoints and will heal surrounding damaged structures and restore health and armor of aliens within range of the hive.

Classic mode

Aliens lose if all hives are destroyed and all aliens are killed. Only one hive can be built at a time and only in predefined hive rooms. Hives lock in and allow for only one type of upgrade chamber (defense chamber, movement chamber, or sensory chamber) per hive. A maximum of three hives can be built on typical maps. The location of built and unbuilt hives will show up in the ‘’hive sight’’ for the alien players. When multiple hive are built, a alien player will randomly spawn at any of the built hive locations.

Function: Spawns aliens, heals nearby aliens and structures, unlocks alien abilities

Hitpoints: 7000 Cost: 40 resource points

Combat mode

Aliens lose if hive is destroyed within the time limit. Only alien structure in Combat.

Kharaa resource chamber

The Kharaa resource chamber (a.k.a. resource tower, RT) collects 1 resource point every 4 seconds. Resources are split evenly among the aliens not maxed out (i.e. have 100 resource points). The resource chambers can only be built on open resource nodes by a gorge player with enough resource points.

Function: Harvests 1 resource point every 4 seconds
Hitpoints: 2500
Cost: 15 resource points

Kharaa offense chamber

The offense chamber fires at marines and marine structures within its range with 20 hitpoints of damage. The offense chamber does 10 hitpoints in damage to Heavy Armor marines. Offense chambers will prioritize players over structures.

Function: Fires spikes at marine structures and marines within range
Hitpoint damage dealt: 20
Maximum built in an area: 8
Hitpoints: 1000

Kharaa evolving

The Kharaa player may choose to evolve, either into different upgrades or to new life forms. The upgrade system works differently depending on the game mode (Classic or Combat, more in below subsections). During the evolution stage, the Kharaa player gestates into an immobile insect-like cocoon, more commonly referred to as an egg. The gestation period varies depending on game mode. The evolution period is the most vulnerable stage for the Kharaa during the entire game as the player is unable to fight or flee and only has limited health and armor while gestating. Any Frontiersmen that happens to come across a gestating egg will invariably destroy the egg over anything else. Gestating egg will also emit a distinct sound that can be heard by marines and will cause them to search for the egg. As such, the Kharaa player will choose a safe location to gestate such as inside a vent, on a high ledge, in a dark corner, etc.

Once the evolution cycle is complete the player emerges from the egg as new life form. If the Kharaa player emerges from the gestation period with some damage inflicted to the egg, the newly emerged life form will also have a proportional amount of damage inflicted to it. Note that a player can also devolve from a higher evolved life form to a lower life form.

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. Once chosen, upgrades cannot be changed until the player dies or gestates into another lifeform.

Evolving into advanced life forms costs 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 adds extra levels, and another which allows structures to be built in Combat mode (using points). Extra levels for the Marines include, for example, Cybernetics (Speed upgrade), Advanced Ammo Pack (higher capacity), and Uranium ammo (damage increase for bullets). For the aliens, they include things like thickened skin (more health), blood lust (more adrenaline), hunger (bonuses for getting kills), and 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. Aliens must be a gorge and marines must have 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.

= Customization =

Server-side Customization

Natural Selection is the most popular third-party mod for Half-Life, and several communities have modified the mod with plug-ins. 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), 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 innate health regeneration. In the late 2005, Voogru declared he is no longer associated with the Natural Selection modification.

nsmod.org ^* (formerly modns.org) has 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.

Bot servers

These are generally seen as the training ground for new players. However most bot servers only allow players to join the marine team, so learning the skills for aliens remains a 'throw em in at the deep end' environment. Bot servers do serve an important role in being the only realistic way for a new player to learn 'commanding' since on normal servers 'noobs' are ejected almost instantaneously. Nevertheless the low intelligence of the bots limits the potential of these servers in teaching tactics. The alien bots never usually win unless there are only one or two marines playing.

Player-side Customization

There are a number of models, sounds and sprites floating around the NS community. These customizations are client side only and can provide a very different feel to the game. Aside from models that make use of transparency, they do not interfere with cheat detection programs or normal game dynamics, though the server variable mp_consistency, when enabled, disallows the use of most such customizations.

These customizations can be classified as single releases or "packs". Single releases usually involve changing of the ambient sounds, alien/marine commander HUD, crosshair, minimaps or player, map and weapon models, while the packs are collections of customization files of the same style or theme. The Special Ops pack, Jin-roh pack and AvP pack are some examples of such packs.

= 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 community. In addition, it has also resulted in many song adaptations, usually parodies of existing songs. For example, the song Girls Just Want To Have Fun was changed to Gorges Just Want To Have Fun, If I had a Million Res Nodes is another. Such songs usually protected under fair use laws, a parody of Barbie Girl using Gorgy (i.e I'm a gorgie girl, in a gorgie world...) was created – and subsequentially protected via the fair use laws from Mattel suing about the use of Barbie.

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). Some selected unique NS terms include:

Beacon - The act of activating the distress beacon on the observatory, also commonly Bacon
BL - Bloodlust (a common combat mod that increases the strength of adrenaline)
CC - Commander's Chair (or in some maps, CC refers to computer core - a specific hive location)
Double or dbl - a room on many maps with two res nodes, that usually gets called double regardless of other map names.
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.
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.
HA and JP - heavy armor or jet pack upgrades from the prototype lab.
HMG and SG - Heavy Machine Gun and Shot Gun, respectively.
HP - hit points
Lork - A corruption of Lerk stemming from the phrase "Lork on the Clorf"
MEDS - Med pack
MT - Often said by aliens to inform teammates that they should be careful as they are being tracked by the marine motion tracking upgrade
Noob - Most common ns insult, used to describe anyone either new and/or behaving like a bot; oftentimes they are convinced in their superior knowledge of the game even though they are new to it, also nub or nubcake.
OC - Offense Chamber
PG - Phase Gate
rage quit - When players (usually on a losing side) exit out of anger.
RR - Ready Room
RT - Resource tower (classic only)
Rush, Skulk/SG/JP/HA - When the majority of the team armed with similar equipment attack the enemy simultaneously for devastating effect
SC, DC, MC - Sensory, Defense, and Movement alien upgrade chambers
SOF - Scent of Fear upgrade
TF - Turret factory
TK - Team killing (Some servers turn FF (Friendly Fire) on and make team killing prohibited)
ups - Marine upgrades
WP - Way point
Zerg(ling) Rush - Whenever Alien skulks rush the marines base in hopes of simply overrunning them, originating from Starcraft
Res Whore - Players on the alien team who do not spend their res to help the team.
Mic spam - People who use the mic to play music. Can also describe the time when 3 or more people are talking at the same time.

Frontiersmen tend to be the popular choice 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 an extra Frontiersmen player. In extreme cases, multiple players may idle within the Ready Room waiting for someone to join the Kharaa or for a Frontiersman player to leave, a phenomenon relating directly to stacking.

= Version 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. Some clever people managed to port some of the features of 1.04 to the current Natural Selection version (res for kills off, different start resources, resource limit depending how many hives are up, etc.).

= Notable version gameplay changes = Major version releases of Natural Selection have also resulted in changes in game play mostly in an effort to balance the teams. Most of the changes in subsequent version releases have been performed on the Kharaa team. Despite the continual "tweaks" performed to balance the game play, both the Kharaa and Marines can either decimate the opposing team or be easily decimated. Very rare is for a classic match to extend more than 30 minutes. Below is a brief list of some notable game play changes:

Gorge self-heal does only 50% heal for v3.1.3
Gorges can self-heal using healspray for v3.1.2
Fade acid rocket causes double damage to marine armor for v3.0 Final
Alien cloaking takes 3 seconds to activate for v3.0 beta 6 build 5
Aliens have innate regeneration at a rate of 2% per second for health then armor for v3.0 beta 6 build 1
Siege cannons no longer cause damage to players for v3.0 beta 6 build 1
Jetpackers are immune from onos stomp for v3.0 beta 5
Lerk spikes removed in v3.0 beta 4 (though never announced in official change logs)
Removed energy cost for lerk flight for v3.0 beta 4
Hand grenades do 80 damage in v3.1 from 125 in v3.0 beta 3
Onos and fade armor increased for v3.0 beta 2
Onos resource cost decreased from 100 to 75 for v3.0 beta 1 (a.k.a. v2.1)
Catalyst packs first introduced in v3.0 beta 1 (a.k.a. v2.1)
Map view added in v2.0
Heavy machine gun ammunition capacity decreased from 300 to 250 and clip capacity from 150 to 125 rounds for v1.04
Non-Gorge players allowed only 33 res with 1 hive, 66 with 2 hives removed v1.x
Gorge only players always received 100 resources, got resources faster than other players removed v1.x
Fade unlocked with second hive, Onos unlocked with third removed v1.x
Gorges spawned "Babblers" that were very weak AI controlled skulks. Removed in v1.0x

Natural-Selection was in beta relaese until v3.0 Final, released March 5th, 2005. The entire NS version chronology is as follows:

v3.1.3 - April 10th, 2006 (latest version)
v3.1.2 - December 2nd, 2005
v3.1.1 - November 20th, 2005
v3.1 - November 11th, 2005
v3.05 beta 2 - June 10th, 2005
v3.05 beta 1 - June 5th, 2005
v3.04 - June 1st, 2005
v3.03 - April 27th, 2005
v3.02 - April 4th, 2005
v3.01 - March 11th, 2005
v3.0 Final (otherwise known as beta6) - March 5th, 2005 (first non-beta release)
v3.0 beta 6 build 5 - February 25th, 2005
v3.0 beta 6 build 4 - February 21st, 2005
v3.0 beta 6 build 3 - February 12th, 2005
v3.0 beta 6 build 2 - January 31st, 2005
v3.0 beta 6 build 1 - January 9th, 2005
v3.0 beta 5 - September 4th, 2004
v3.0 beta 4a - May 2nd, 2004
v3.0 beta 4 - April 23rd, 2004
v3.0 beta 3 - February 11th, 2004
v3.0 beta 2 - January 31, 2004
v3.0 (beta 1) - (previously referred to as v2.1)
v2.01 - September 19th, 2003
v2.01e Beta Changes
v2.01d Beta Changes
v2.01c Beta Changes
v2.01b Beta Changes
v2.01a Beta Changes
v2.0 - July 31st, 2003 (previously referred to as v1.1)
v1.04 - January 24th, 2003
v1.03 - November 27th, 2002
v1.02 - November 16th, 2002
v1.01 - November 6th, 2002
v1.0 - October 31st, 2002
Release Candidate 10
Release Candidate 9a
Release Candidate 9
Release Candidate 8
Before... (pre rc 8)

A complete change log for the various NS versions can be seen on Bry's Natural Selection website. Older versions of NS can also be downloaded on Bry's Natural Selection

= See also =

NS Variables a listing of configuration variables for Natural Selection
Half-Life
Tremulous a multi-platform GPL'd open source game
Gloom (game mod) a Quake II mod first released in 1999, and the inspiration for Natural Selection
Steam
List of Half-Life Mods

= External links =

2002 computer and video games | Half-Life mods | Windows games

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