Natural Selection v3.3

An updated build of the game Natural Selection for Windows and Linux focused on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. For a new custom-built bot for NS, go check out Evobot.

Downloads

The Natural Selection Launcher (Windows) can install, update, or repair the game.

Manual installation (Windows / Linux)

As the game is a Half-Life mod, Steam and Half-Life installations are required to play the game. After installing, restart steam.

A fresh install of NS comes with updated config files containing everything you need to get playing on the standard settings most players prefer. Customization options are built into the advanced options menu, like the Nine Legends competitive UI option. For further customization, team and weapon specific config files are also now available.

Game not working? Troubleshooting tips

If the game doesn't load, check the following:

1. Restart steam after installation to be able to play the game.
2. If you recieve a "could not load library" error for the client.dll, please install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package.
3. Make sure you have verified Half-Life's integrity. Click here for detailed instructions.
4. Check if Half-Life works for you.
5. Make sure you have a clean install. Go to the half-life directory (eg. c:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life) and remove or rename the ns folder, then try installing NS.
6. Make sure you don't have any additional command line options for NS.
7. For more help, ask on #help in the community discord

For Linux:

• You may need to remove or rename the libstdc++so.6 and possibly the libgcc.so.1 in the Half-Life directory so the linux distro's can be used instead. The one steam provides is outdated.
• 32 bit C libraries might need to be installed. Try apt-get install libc6-i386 if on debian or ubuntu. The libm.so.6 from it may need to be placed in your half-life folder if you cannot install that package.

Changes

Update highlights:

• Many new audio and visual options, including the "gamma ramp" restored as a post-processing shader
• Integrated bot players
• Widescreen support
• AI upscaled model textures can be turned on with the "Use High Definition models" HL video option
• Many FPS-dependent bugs fixed, including jetpack acceleration, so the game can now be fairly played at 200+ FPS
• Quake-style queued jumping to make bunnyhopping more accessible (server adjustable via sv_jumpmode)
• The shotgun and grenade launcher have been reworked to fix reload bugs and animate better
• The "pistol script" is now a standard feature as a toggleable binary trigger
• Weapon reloads are now predicted on the client
• Player names are now shown on the minimap
• The marine HUD now tracks research progress and the alien HUD tracks hive growth
• Teammate health or armor status rings are now shown to players that can heal or repair them
• New minimal and Nine Legends HUDs are available
• A New crosshair system (Modified from OpenAG)
• Raw input and sensitivity scaling options are now available and non-accelerated mouse input is now default
• The many other improvements, customization options, and bug fixes can be found in the release notes

Hosting a server

How to set up a dedicated Natural Selection server with HLDS:

1. Follow these steps to get steamCMD installed and HLDS updated in it: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD
2. Set the HLDS install directory after opening steamcmd and before logging in. The following steps assume a directory named hlds from doing force_install_dir ./hlds/
3. You'll want to run app_update 90 validate multiple times in steamCMD to install HLDS and fully update it, as it won't completely do it the first time.
4. Copy the ns directory into the hlds directory after installing HLDS from steamcmd
5. For Linux servers:
   • Remove or rename the libstdc++so.6 in the hlds directory so the linux distro's can be used instead. The one steam provides is outdated. You may need to rename the libgcc.so.1 file in the same directory as well.
   • 32 bit C libraries might need to be installed. Try apt-get install libc6-i386 if on debian or ubuntu. The libm.so.6 from it may need to be placed in your HLDS folder if you cannot install that package.
6. Run the game:
   • Linux:

     ./hlds_run -game ns +map ns_eclipse +sv_secure 1 +port 27015 +hostname "Natural Selection" +maxplayers 32
     

   • Windows:

     hlds.exe -console -game ns +map ns_eclipse +sv_secure 1 +port 27015 +hostname "Natural Selection" +maxplayers 32
     

If you are behind a NAT(Router) make sure to open at least those ports:

• 27015 UDP (game transmission, pings)
• 26900 UDP (VAC service) -- automatically increments if used in case of additional server processes

For more information see the HLDS valve wiki.

In order to check if your server is connected to the steam servers copy the following url in your browser and replace <your IP address> with your external ip: http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetServersAtAddress/v0001?addr=<your IP address>&format=json

There is an updated version of metamod called metamod-p.

Bots

Evobot is integrated in NS 3.3 and can be configured in the listen server creation UI or via the following commands in the server.cfg for dedicated servers:

mp_botsenabled (0/1)        Bots are enabled Y/N
mp_botautomode (0-2)        (0 = manually add/remove bots, 1 = Maintain min player counts, 2 = Keep teams balanced only)
mp_botskill (0-3)        Bot skill (0 = Easiest, 3 = Hardest)
mp_botcommandermode (0-2)    (0 = Bot never commands, 1 = Bot commands after mp_botcommanderwait seconds if nobody else does, 2 = Bot only commands if no humans are on the team)
mp_botcommanderwait (0..)    How long the bot should wait before taking command (if allowed to)
mp_botusemapdefaults (0/1)    Use the map min player counts defined in nsbots.ini Y/N
mp_botminplayers (0-32)        If not using map defaults, maintain this player population for all maps
mp_botallowlerk (0/1)        Bot is allowed to evolve lerk Y/N
mp_botallowfade    (0/1)        Bot is allowed to evolve fade Y/N
mp_botallowonos    (0/1)        Bot is allowed to evolve onos Y/N
mp_botlerkcooldown (0..)    After a lerk is killed, how long in seconds should the bot wait to evolve again (default 60s)
mp_botmaxstucktime (0..)    If a bot is stuck longer than this time (in seconds) it will suicide (default 15s)
mp_botdebugmode (0-2)        (0 = Disabled, 1 = Drone Mode, 2 = Test Nav Mode). Use test nav mode to validate your nav files.

sv_botadd <Team>    If mp_botautomode is 0, this will manually add a bot to team 1 or 2. If Team is 0, it will assign randomly
sv_botremove <Team>    If mp_botautomode is 0, this will manually remove a bot from team 1 or 2. If Team is 0, it will remove randomly
sv_botregenini        If your copy of nsbots.ini is lost or corrupted, this will generate a fresh one

bot_cometome        If mp_botdebugmode is 1, this will force the bot to come to you. Helps test your nav file.
bot_drawoffmeshconns    Will draw the off-mesh connections present in the loaded navigation file, color-coded based on connection type
bot_drawtempobstacles    Will draw nearby temporary obstacles affecting the nav mesh

The bot system uses a modified version of the Detour library from recastnavigation.

Other bot plugins:

• RCbot
• Whichbot
• Commander AI

Compiling

For Windows, compilation should be working if you have VS2019 installed.

For Linux:

First you need some libraries. On Ubuntu it is:

apt-get install build-essential git gdb gcc-multilib g++-multilib libc6-dev-i386 mesa-common-dev

Then you will need to get the files:

git clone https://github.com/ENSL/NS.git

Then cd to the linux directory:

cd NS/main/source/linux

Then build

make

or make ns to build the server binary and make cl_dll for the client binary. make clean to clean.

If you get this error when running the app: Fatal Error - could not load library (client.so), With a high chance it is because of some UNDEFINED SYMBOLS in the shared library. But you can check this with this command:

ldd -r -d client.so

Make sure you have vgui.so copied to the cl_dll folder too on Linux.

Debugging

For Windows: Debug builds can be built with the Debug build option. The other debug options are currently broken and are a reference from the original UWE source release. After building the debug version and running it, attach the visual studio debugger to hl.exe.

For Linux: If you want to debug:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=".:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" gdb ./hl_linux r -game ns -dev -steam

Due to the new engine and the nature of Linux a lot of changes were made. You can find them with grep -Ril @Linux.

For MacOS & lldb:

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=".:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH" /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/lldb -- ./hl_osx r -game ns -dev -steam -windowed

Have to use XCode's lldb to get around https://stackoverflow.com/a/33589760 (Lack of environment variables). -windowed as windowed mode makes it easier to deal with crashes on MacOS.

Useful links

• Game manual (some outdated info)

• Useful collections of ns files: server addons, maps and more:

  • Brywright
  • Number-7

Half Life 1 SDK LICENSE

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/blob/master/README.md

You may, free of charge, download and use the SDK to develop a modified Valve game running on the Half-Life engine. You may distribute your modified Valve game in source and object code form, but only for free. Terms of use for Valve games are found in the Steam Subscriber Agreement located here: http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

You may copy, modify, and distribute the SDK and any modifications you make to the SDK in source and object code form, but only for free. Any distribution of this SDK must include this license.txt and third_party_licenses.txt.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. THE SOURCE SDK AND ANY OTHER MATERIAL DOWNLOADED BY LICENSEE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”. VALVE AND ITS SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE SDK, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT SHALL VALVE OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE ENGINE AND/OR THE SDK, EVEN IF VALVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Natural Selection copyright and trademarks

All artwork, sounds, audio, screenshots, text and code in Natural Selection, Zen of Sudoku, Spark engine and Natural Selection 2 are Copyright © 2014 Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Inc (http://www.unknownworlds.com).

The mark Natural Selection was first represented in association with video-game software in June of 2001, and was first used in commerce around January, 2002. Natural Selection is Registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (No. 4,179,393).

Natural Selection license

See COPYING.txt for the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

EXCLUDED CODE: The code described below and contained in the Natural Selection Source Code release is not part of the Program covered by the GPL and is expressly excluded from its terms. You are solely responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder a license for such code and complying with the applicable license terms.

EXCLUDED CODE AND LIBRARIES

• Half Life 1 SDK LICENSE (Copyright(C) Valve Corp.)
• FMOD 3.7.5
• Lua 5.0 (http://lua.org)
• Particle system library by David McAllister (http://www.cs.unc.edu/techreports/00-007.pdf).

Original code and design by Charlie Cleveland (charlie@unknownworlds.com, @flayra).

Many contributions from Karl Patrick (karl.patrick@gmail.com), Petter Rønningen tankefugl@gmail.com, Harry Walsh harry.walsh@gmail.com, and probably lots of people I forgot.