Finally, a new patch and a new map for NS2
I haven't had time to play the new map, kodiak, yet, but it looks very different and interesting.

I've also purchased the $5 skins DLC, I like it that way. I would have hated to see a map pack like in BF4 and CoD. It would have split the community in half, and kick a lot of players from the servers whenever it would come up.

Cosmetic DLCs don't hurt anybody, and I love the new player customization menu. That's useful.
I hope they can bring more community made content into the game, the way Valve does with TF2, especally since UWE won't focus their development time into NS2 anymore, at least not as much as before. I'm guessing they'd rather release a new game instead.

Anyway, see you guys in-game!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER!

You guys know we love giveaways. We have weekly Steamgifts.com giveaways, Summer/Winter giveaways, and surprise giveaways like this one thanks to Fernplant. Here goes:

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Fern is giving away a copy of Assassin's Creed 4, the Pirate/Assassin game, which I hear is 1,000 times better than AC3 and its emotionless protagonist Connor. But a good giveaway also needs Tier 2 prizes, right?

Here's the full prize list:

Tier 1: Grand Winner
1). Fern's personal copy of Assassin's Creed 4: Ninja Pirate Thief. You even get to talk to him privately to claim your copy*. Now, that's cool! (*May not actually happen.  )
2). One month of Donor membership! Already a donor? Fear not, it will simply extend your membership!

Tier 2: 3 prizes
1). One month of Donor membership.
2). One Steam game/key.

How to enter the giveaway:
Make sure to read the rules at the end of this thread for more details!
You must have a forum account, a valid email address and include your SteamID in your profile. Then, you must make ONE post in this thread. Only ONE! That's all you need to do!

This thread will remain open until Saturday February, 22nd 11:59PM PST. Winners will be picked at random from the replies below on Sunday February, 23rd. Winners will be notified by PMs and email. Winners must reply to the PM/email to claim their prizes!

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Giveaway Winners:
Tier 2 Prize #1: Pyrelight2112 won 1 month of Donor membership + Zeno Clash 2 **CLAIMED**
Tier 2 Prize #2: YO! Sushi won 1 month of Donor membership + Magicka **CLAIMED**
Tier 2 Prize #3: apple won 1 month of Donor membership + Dead Space **CLAIMED**

Tier 1 Grand Winner:
Coeuragejust won 1 months of Donor membership + Fernplant's Assassin Creed 4. **CLAIMED**

Contest is now officially over! Thank you everybody for participating!
Don't worry if you didn't win anything, our weekly Steamgifts.com giveaways will resume soon!

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We like giveaways, I already said that at the beginning, but above all you guys know we love giveaway rules the most. Please read them carefully, so you can then help me correct all the typos and copy/paste errors!

Giveaway Rules:

1). To participate, you must make ONE post in the giveaway thread using your Forum account (no Guest, no multiple accounts allowed). Post only ONCE!
2). You must be a member of our official steam group and you must have a valid e-mail address and SteamID in your forum profile. We will send you a confirmation email if you win, and we will use the specified SteamID to grant you Donor membership. We will not use another SteamID under any circumstances.
3). Giveaway is open to current Donors, Verified Members and Regular Members. Winners will be picked randomly using a Random Number Generator.
4). One winner per prize.
5). Prizes: 1 month of Donor membership and one steam game. Grand Prize: Assassin's Creed 4 + one month of Donor membership.
6). We reserve the rights to change the rules of this giveaway at any time.
7). Admins are not allowed to participate (sorry guys!)

Questions:
How do I find my SteamID?
I recommend visiting this site: http://steamidfinder.com/
Open Steam while logged in. Then click on Community: you should see a URL that looks like http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/12319230912318238/home on top. Copy this URL and paste it in the website I linked above. Your SteamID will look like this: STEAM_0:1:000000.

How do I enter my SteamID in my forum profile?
Once you have found your SteamID, go to your forum profile on our website (http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?action=profile) Then hover on Modify Profile and select Forum Profile. Scroll to the bottom of the page and find: Donor Steam ID. This is where you must enter your SteamID. Click Change Profile when done. To check if you've properly entered your SteamID, go back to your Profile page: http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?action=profile You should see an entry with Donor Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:999139 You're done!

I'm already a Donor! Am I eligible? If I win, what happens?
Yes, Donors are allowed to enter the Giveaway. If you are a current Donor, and you win a prize, we will simply extend your current membership.

How will you pick the winners?
We will generate a random number using a Random Number Generator. We then associate that number to the Reply number in the Giveaway Thread. If your Reply number matches the Random Number, you won!

How will I know if I've won?
We will send you a confirmation email to the email address specific in your forum profile. We will also send you a Private Message through the forums.

How will I claim my prize?
You must reply either to our confirmation email or our private message. We will give you plenty of time to get back to us, and obviously your Donor membership will only start once you've claimed your prize.

I still have questions!
You may send your questions regarding this giveaway to: admin@hyperiongaming.org or you can send a Private Message to Plasma.

Big thank you to Fernplant for providing the Grand Prize and this giveaway!
From everybody here at HyperionGaming.org, we wish you guys good luck!!

**THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER!**

Giveaway Thread

Welcome to Winter 2013 (late) Giveaway Thread! If you would like to participate, please read the rules very carefully; there are a few requirements you must meet in order to receive your prize! There are two sections in this thread: a simplified version and the detailed complete version.

Giveaway Rules Simplified:
This section is a simplified version of the giveaway rules. However, you must make sure you read the long version carefully as well. You may be disqualified for not meeting all the contest requirements!

1). To participate, you must make ONE post in the giveaway thread using your Forum account (no Guest, no multiple accounts allowed). Post only ONCE!
2). You must be a member of our official steam group and you must have a valid e-mail address and SteamID in your forum profile. We will send you a confirmation email if you win, and we will use the specified SteamID to grant you Donor membership. We will not use another SteamID under any circumstances.
3). Giveaway is open to current Donors, Verified Members and Regular Members. Winners will be picked randomly using a Random Number Generator.
4). One winner per prize. For the Grand Prize, everybody is again eligible.
5). Prizes: 1 month of Donor membership and a small gift. Finally, one Grand Mystery Prize!
6). We reserve the rights to change the rules of this giveaway at any time.
7). Admins are not allowed to participate (sorry guys!)

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Giveaway Rules (Please Read Carefully!)
To be eligible to win a prize during our Winter 2013 (late) Giveaway, each participant must meet these simple yet important requirements.

1). You must be a registered member of http://www.hyperiongaming.org and its forums. Guests will be excluded from the giveaway. If you are not registered already, please head over to: http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?action=register and follow the instructions carefully.
2). You must be a member of our official Steam group. If your name is drawn and you are not a member of our steam group, you will be disqualified and another name will be drawn instead. You may join our steamgroup very easily by simply clicking this link: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/hyperiongaming then click Join group.
3). To participate in the giveaway, you simply need to make ONE post in this same thread. Here is the link to the giveaway thread just in case (you will be back here): http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?topic=632.0 You may post anything you wish, it doesn't matter (it must still adhere to forum rules obviously). This is the way you enter our contest.
4). Post only ONCE. This is very important. You may be disqualified if you post several times in the giveaway thread. Do not try to cheat by posting using multiple accounts. If we catch you, we will disqualify your accounts from entering the current and the following giveaways.
5). Your forum profile must include your SteamID. We will give Donor membership access to the SteamID specified in your forum profile. In order to prevent cheating, we will not accept to give Donor membership to another SteamID.
6). Your forum profile must include a valid e-mail address. We will send you a confirmation email to that address if you have won a prize. We will also send you a Private Message through our forums. You must claim your prize to receive it.
7). You may enter the giveaway at any time until January 25th at midnight Pacific Time. Posts marked after that date will be disqualified.
8 ). HyperionGaming.org admins are not allowed to enter the giveaway.
9). We may change the rules of this giveaway at any time if we deem it necessary.

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Questions:
How do I find my SteamID?
I recommend visiting this site: http://steamidfinder.com/
Open Steam while logged in. Then click on Community: you should see a URL that looks like http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/12319230912318238/home on top. Copy this URL and paste it in the website I linked above. Your SteamID will look like this: STEAM_0:1:000000.

How do I enter my SteamID in my forum profile?
Once you have found your SteamID, go to your forum profile on our website (http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?action=profile) Then hover on Modify Profile and select Forum Profile. Scroll to the bottom of the page and find: Donor Steam ID. This is where you must enter your SteamID. Click Change Profile when done. To check if you've properly entered your SteamID, go back to your Profile page: http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?action=profile You should see an entry with Donor Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:999139 You're done!

I'm already a Donor! Am I eligible? If I win, what happens?
Yes, Donors are allowed to enter the Giveaway. If you are a current Donor, and you win a prize, we will simply extend your current membership.

How will you pick the winners?
We will generate a random number using a Random Number Generator. We then associate that number to the Reply number in the Giveaway Thread. If your Reply number matches the Random Number, you won!

At what time will you pick a winner?
We will pick winners starting Friday January, 17th. One winner will be selected everyday until January 25th. On January 26th, all participants (even those who already won) are again eligible to win the Grand Prize.

How will I know if I've won?
We will send you a confirmation email to the email address specific in your forum profile. We will also send you a Private Message through the forums.

How will I claim my prize?
You must reply either to our confirmation email or our private message. We will give you plenty of time to get back to us, and obviously your Donor membership will only start once you've claimed your prize.

What are the prizes again?
Each winner will receive one month of Donor membership. Donor membership includes access to our TF2 servers reserved slots, special in-game chat tag and special forum access. Verified Membership benefits are also included. In total, 9 months of Donor membership will be given away. Grand prize is a mystery!

I still have questions!
You may send your questions regarding this giveaway to: admin@hyperiongaming.org or you can send a Private Message to Plasma.


From everybody here at HyperionGaming.org, we wish you guys good luck!!

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BONUS: IF we get more than 50 participants by the end of the giveaway (January 25th), we'll add another Grand Mystery Prize for January 26th. Meaning two Grand Winners instead of one. For the Grand Mystery Prize, everybody who entered the giveaway will be eligible to win once again (even those who already won a prize). So make sure you spread the word to other players on the servers!

A year and one month ago, I was writing my first Natural Selection 2 news post on this site. The reason? Ten years after the original mod for Half Life was released, it's completely remade sequel appeared on Steam for sale. We opened a server almost right away, and played a LOT of matches between the Kharaa and the Marines. I still think NS2 is the best multiplayer Aliens game. That server is still online: 66.151.138.182:27085

Unfortunately, NS2 requires a very fast processor and doesn't handle multi-cores very well (yet). This means performance has been pretty poor when more and more entities are spawned on the map, which decreases the server's tick rate dramatically, in turn lagging everyone playing.

The only option was to rent a separate server, dedicated to run Natural Selection 2. This means we had to increase our costs by $50, which is a lot. Fortunately, we've been receiving a lot of donations from you guys to cover our costs (this is reflected in our Donation Center).

Where can you find our new NS2 server?
HyperionGaming.org *NEW* | NS2 | West Coast: IP: 74.91.118.234:27015
[small](Name will most likely change at some point, but not the IP). Make sure to add it to your favorites![/small]

You should notice much better performance. We're still tweaking settings a little, but there should be a big difference between our old NS2 server and this one.

For our NS2 Community:
The plan is to create a donor membership similar to our TF2 Donor program. We haven't decided the actual benefits yet, but you'll receive reserved slot access (we're thinking 18 slots + 2 reserved) and unique in-game badges. We will let you know when the NS2 Donor program is ready to go. Keep an eye on our forums and we'll advertise it in-game as well. If you have any questions or suggestions, please post in the Natural Selection 2 boards: Suggestions.

For our TF2 Community:
Don't worry! We are still primarily a TF2 focused community! We are still considering adding additional TF2 servers (if needed), and while your donations covered the costs of this new server, the goal is to have donations from our NS2 community to pay for this server. If the server cannot be paid by NS2 donations, we will close it.

For everybody:
The goal is to offer the same Donor benefits to everyone. A $5 donation will grant you Donor access to both our TF2 and NS2 servers for a month. [small]Again, things may change in the future.[/small] Finally, to celebrate this new NS2 server, we're giving away 2 copies of NS2 through Steamgifts.com!.

This post will show all the maps currently available the Payload Server. Check this thread often for changes!

* denotes new maps on the server.

MAPCYCLE:

As of 07/08/2016:
Official:
pl_goldrush
pl_badwater
pl_hoodoo_final
pl_upward
pl_barnblitz
pl_frontier_final
pl_thundermountain
pl_cactuscanyon
pl_borneo
pl_snowycoast
*pl_swiftwater_final1

Custom:
pl_badwater_pro_v9
pl_barnblitz_pro7c
pl_halfacre
pl_beerbowl_b6c
pl_cashworks_final1
pl_alpen_rc1
pl_curve
pl_deplane_b6
pl_dustbowl_b4
pl_everest_v5_b2
pl_millstone_rc7
pl_repository_rc3

Not in the mapcycle:
pl_manngrove_rc5
pl_metropolis_b5
pl_pier_b20
pl_rust_b7
pl_deadwood
pl_wintertown_v2
pl_great_heights_b3
pl_pharaoh_rc1
pl_outback_rc4
pl_stroika_b2
pl_happycow_Z4
plr_hightower
plr_pipeline
plr_nightfall_final

[dot][big]**THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER!**[/big][/dot]


Summer is here! Yes, I see it outside my windows, and also because GabeN said it so. You're wondering, "what should I do? what would lord GabeN have me do?" And that giant ball of menacing fire looks so bright and hot. The only possible option is to remain indoors, in front of the soft glow of your LCD screen, playing video games. And Valve has you covered there once again, with plenty of deals and - and %.  Then we though: "Why should Valve be the only ones to have Summer Deals? We can do it too!"

And here's our [dot]master plan[/dot]:
For the next two weeks, we'll be showering our dear community members and players (that's you) with refreshing Donor memberships and delicious games to celebrate the holidays! Make sure to read the rules and tell all your friends about it!

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To participate, please follow this link: http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?topic=533 and make sure you read the giveaway rules carefully. The winners will be picked randomly from the giveaway thread starting on July 22th to July 31st for the Grand Prize. You may register for the giveaway at any time until July 31st at 1:00PM Pacific Time. Enter the giveaway as soon as you can!

[dot]Prizes:[/dot] We will be giving away 9 months of Donor membership, games and a final Grand Mystery Prize on July 31st!

Do not post in this thead! The giveaway thread is here: http://hyperiongaming.org/index.php?topic=533

[dot]Good luck and happy holidays![/dot][/size]

PS: Obviously, our goal is to have you spend as much time as possible playing TF2 on our awesome servers, but don't tell anybody.

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BONUS: IF we get more than 50 participants by the end of the giveaway (July 30th), we'll add another Grand Mystery Prize for July 31st. Meaning two Grand Winners instead of one. For the Grand Mystery Prize, everybody who entered the giveaway will be eligible to win once again (even those who already won a prize). So make sure you spread the word to other players on the servers!

Good news! Bonus Unlocked! There will be 2 Grand Mystery Prizes instead of 1 on July 31st!

Some recent changes you may notice on the server:
- Replaced DAK with Shine Administration plugin.
- Added New Custom map: ns2_jambi
- Added Forced Cross-Spawns on ns2_descent and ns2_summit.

A bunch of other small changes and tweaks made to VoteRandom, IdleKicker, etc...

Let us know what you think!