NS2 Balance Beta

SteamWorks Mod ID: 718da717

This mod contains various balance changes based on various ideas of the NS2 balance team.

Join the official ns2 discord server (discord.gg/ns2) to leave feedback!

Full Changelog:

• Added a "changelog" console command to show this webpage.
• Marine
  • Shotgun
    • Reverted to build 326-behavior.
      • 17 pellets, each deal 10 damage.
      • Divided into 4 rings of 4 pellets each, +1 pellet in the middle.
      • Pellet sizes are all 16mm.
      • No Damage Falloff.
  • HMG
    • Reload time is now 3.5 seconds (down from 5 seconds)
  • Mines
    • Mines can now be properly killed during their arming period when first deployed. In this case, they do not explode or deal damage.
    • Marines now keep unused mines when they die and receive them back when they respawn (like hand grenades).
    • Health changed to 40 (up from 30)
    • Lerk spikes deal 2x damage to mines (Damage: 5 -> 10).
    • Mines now award 5 score points when killed by an alien.
  • Hand Grenades
    • Removed lengthy deploy animation so grenades are now thrown much faster. (quickthrow and regular throw)
  • Exosuit
    • Reduced opacity of "scanlines" UI texture to be less obstructive (25% of original value).
    • Exos are now free to fire their weapons while thrusters are being used.
    • Thrusters can now be toggled on and off freely without waiting for maximum charge between use.
      • Thruster fuel now has a 0.75 second cooldown before recharging after last use.
    • Exosuits now "self-repair" when out of combat at a rate of 10 armor/second.
    • Alien Vampirism no longer has any effect when used against exos.
    • Railgun
      • Both railguns can fire simultaneously now.
      • Full-charge duration is now 1 second
      • Cooldown between shots is now 0.3 seconds.
      • Anything short of a full-charge shot no longer penetrates targets.
      • Shots with 75% power and above now convert to "heavy" damage type (double damage to armor), 74% power and below charge shots are regular damage.
      • Distortion tracer effect and steam effects no longer play if the shot didn't deal heavy damage (75% charge).
      • Damage ramps up from 25 to 50 as you charge.
    • Minigun
      • Damage type is now "heavy" (double damage to armor).
      • Damage: 10 -> 6
      • Overheat animation sped up such that the time out of combat now matches up exactly with the heat meter for that weapon (before, the overheat animation would finish well-after the heat meter was empty).
  • Misc
    • Marine dropped weapon decay timer is now 16 seconds (down from 25)
    • Nanoshield duration is now 3 seconds when used on players (down from 5) -Nanoshield used on structures remains unchanged at 5 seconds.
• Alien

  • Glancing hits

    • Skulk bite, lerk bite, fade swipe, fade stab, and onos gore now have an expanded cone around their normal attack-cone which provides a "glancing hit" if the regular hit misses.
    • Glancing hits do reduced damage.
    • Glancing hits play a different damage sound (metal instead of flesh)
    • Glancing hits play a different hit sound (the lower-damage hitsound)

  • Skulk

    • Reduced bite cone to 0.8 x 1.0 (down from 1.2 x 1.2)
    • Model size decreased by 10% (90% original size).
    • Skulk sneak speed reduced to 4.0 (down from 4.785)
    • Skulks now only recieve a speed boost from a consecutive jump.

  • Gorge

    • Heal spray
      • Now also adds maturity to alien structures and speeds up player evolutions while they are embryos.
    • Hydra
      • Hydras are now extremely accurate. Accuracy tapers off starting at 8 meters up to the maximum degredation at 12 meters. Inaccuracy ramps between 0 and 8 degrees.
      • Hydras can now shoot back from the last spot they were hit, so if you can hit them, they can hit you.
      • Damage reduced to 5 (down from 15)
    • Web
      • Gorges can finish placing webs from much further away. Starting placement range is unchanged.
      • Now break on contact.
      • Snare now reduces movement speed by 66% and tapers off gradually over 2.5 seconds (up from 1.5 seconds)
      • Webs now turn invisible, only fading into view at 5 meters or closer.
      • No longer parasite marines.
      • No longer appears in the kill-feed.

  • Lerk

    • Projectile size is now 60mm (up from 45mm)

  • Fade

    • Stab
      • Stab now deals 2x damage to structures (equivilent to skulk structure DPS).
      • Fades can now blink, jump and move freely while performing stab.
    • Fades now only receive speed bonuses from consecutive blinks when using celerity.

  • Vampirism

    • Skulks now recover 14% health per bite (down from 20%)
    • Vampirism no longer has any effect when used against Exosuits.

  • Misc

    • Maturity information is now visible in the nameplate for alien structures.
    • Crag, Shade, and Shift supply cost: 25 -> 20.