natural selection 2, how to make it run smoother

Someone is going to come up here and say get a better PC.

Did you look in the hub? Or Google. If it is as badly optimized as you say, there ought to be something to make it smoother.

Get a better PC!

But seriously, post your specs at least. The game runs fine for me on a GTX 770 and i7 3770.

it was running fine on overclocked e5200 and gts250

Cover it in Vaseline.

Play on NASA Computer :3

I tried it during a free weekend and I agree, it is one of the least optimized games I've played. Looks like Unreal Tournament 3 at best, but has the performance of Battlefield 4. My specs meet the recommended requirements, but these requirements are a joke. I could get it to run smoothly (which means 40+ fps during intense fights) when I turned lots of settings off and reduced the resolution, but then it looked like Quake (the first one). Not much else you can do about it other than buying a new PC.

I'll give it another try if people still play it next year by the time I get a new PC, looks like a fun game.

You should play Dota 2, it dethrones NS2 without any problems. So many freezes every time a spell is cast for the first time (what is precaching after all?) or a cosmetic is loaded.

It's a really fun game, but I feel your pain. My old computer topped out around 20 FPS, and with the speed of play when skulks are chewing on your face, it's hard to respond. Unfortunately I never did solve the problem on my old computer. I did, however, but a new one with a GTX 760 in it and it runs fantastic (and my "skill" has considerably improved as a result).